Part 1

Without resistance to its appearance... there is no negativity inherent in suffering; to realize the fact of this truth is the first step in proving (to yourself) that all forms of psychological pain are optional.

Part 2

The more we are willing to wade into, and discover about the true nature of our suffering -- all the colors in that strange rainbow, including what waits to be uncovered and revealed at the end of it -- the less it hurts.

Part 1

It is impossible to teach the true nature of mindfulness, but it is possible to see the consequences of living from an unattended mind.

Part 2

All psychological pain is the dark spawn of being identified with some self-generated creation in time. And God did not create time. What is eternal is Timeless; it was never born, and will never die. If this is true -- and it is -- then whenever we find ourselves feeling the torment of any moment long gone by, we must remember to ask ourselves a simple question: who, or what is it that wants to remember some painful moment that no longer exists... let alone agree to relive and suffer its pain.

Thought, along with its incessant activity -- that we commonly consider as “knowledge” -- is a kind of dark Lego block; (it is) constantly building, only to be compelled to repair its own flawed creations. But, what is Divine in nature is not a construction of the mind that imagines a kingdom to come; what is Timeless and True lives now, or never. To seek it elsewhere... is a fool’s errand.

Stop struggling to escape the pain of the past; it can't be done. Why? Because it is the dark creation of an unconscious nature intent on remembering, and then reliving what it always claims it would give anything to forget.

Part 1

The often-painful experience of any personal limitation is our awareness of a difference between some higher ideal we feel drawn to actualize... and our (present) inability to fulfill that possibility; but, to be clear, this pain is not -- though it often seems to be -- proof that we’ve gone as far as we can go! In truth, the revelation of any limitation is a Divine invitation to walk into, and through it. To what end? To make the discovery there is no end to self-realization... to transcending who, and what we have been up until that moment.

Part 2

What we are able to do today -- or not, should that be the case -- does not determine what's possible for us “tomorrow”.  That is to say... unless we unconsciously agree to believe in the authority of “yesterday”.

Reactions are not actions, any more than an echo is the cause of its own sound... which means: we cannot escape moments we resist, any more than it’s possible to outrun our own shadow.

Our suffering isn't because of the unwanted moments we meet along the Way; over such things we have no say. Whereas peace of mind is the realization that all things created have their own time and place and, when allowed to fulfill their given purpose, will move on without any struggle on our part.

No one has freedom of speech who -- for fear of being isolated, cast out, and left alone -- feels unable to speak the truth they would, or to question what they see as false. And how much more so does the above hold true when it comes to the freedom to see oneself as one is... without endless self-judgment, and all of its painful justification. Being free to see is the ground of freedom; in its Light alone grows self-realization.

Part 1

I am only as free as I am unknown, experiencing unfamiliar moments unfolding in an unknowable world.

Part 2

As long as there's a limit to what we're willing to surrender -- to sacrifice of ourselves that we might awaken from the dream we dream -- we’ve given up little, save for a few precious moments of sleep.

Part 3

We can't know what freedom is because freedom is not a “what”. It is the living expression of an intelligent awareness that allows for the appearance of the known... but that understands the “knower” is as conditional as what it imagines it knows in each moment.

The solution to escaping our dissatisfaction with life is unimaginable, because there’s only one way beyond it: we must stop imagining that if we just keep reliving the same old hopes and dreams -- walking the same old lines through time -- then somehow, by some miracle, we’ll step into a new life.

Part 1

Here is the self-evident, but seldom -- if ever -- admitted reason why we must do the difficult inner work needed for real self-transformation: if we don't rise above our present level of consciousness, we gradually come to incarnate the very weakness we claim to despise within us. To see the truth of this provides us with a reason, the will and the courage we will need to succeed in our quest to be in proper command of our heart, mind, and soul.

Part 2

The only authority any negative reaction has over us is because we identify with it, which means it is we who -- in our unawareness of this unconscious relationship -- give it the power it has to punish us!

The past does not give birth to the future, any more than we might think to look for the living in a graveyard.