Just as we wouldn't try to pry open a rosebud, interfering with the natural process by which it comes to display its yet-revealed beauty, so must we learn to give every impression planted in the soul the time it needs to grow, develop, and reveal its latent power to free us from whatever we fear.

Part 1

No single substance -- whether physical, mental, or emotional -- creates an addiction, let alone the pain and conflict inherent in its corresponding dependency; rather dependency is the birthplace of all false solutions with which we first become identified, and then become addicted to... in the vain hope that it has the power to release us from a pain we have yet to understand, let alone resolve.

Part 2

Identification is dependency; there is no painful dependency without unconscious identification... they are two sides of the same conflict.

Part 1

Anytime we struggle in the dark of ourselves -- trying to change our nature -- our efforts are misdirected;  our real work is to learn to see by the Light that dwells in that darkness, and to know the truth of ourselves, as (it is) revealed.

Part 2

Just as you wouldn't try to pry open a rosebud, or pull an oak out of an acorn... to interfere with the process of the revelation of their beauty and power... so must we learn to give every impression that is planted in the soul the time it needs to develop, grow and reveal its latent power of reconciliation.

Part 1

The real reason for being impatient with ourselves, or with others, has nothing to do with the condition we blame it on: impatience -- along with its dark twin, frustration -- is born of our refusal to accept the revelation of a present limitation, and to remain conscious of it until it’s transformed.

Part 2

Patient persistence in our labors, coupled with persistent patience throughout each one -- these two powers serve not only to perfect the task at hand, but also work in harmony to perfect the hand that undertakes the task.

Much as a stalking tiger uses woodland shadows to hide its intention from its intended prey, so does (our) weakness hide behind the (momentary) strength of any negative reaction we become identified with... even as it consumes us.

Part 1

Our possibility for spiritual growth can’t be separated from our daily work to question, explore, and illuminate any dark thoughts and feelings that may confront us along the Way. A fearless life awaits anyone who will cast-off from the “shores of the known,” and who will remain set on that celestial course called “self-knowledge.”

Part 2

Real questions seek what reconciles them; Living questions seek Living answers.

The more we anxiously look around for a way to deal with the fear of any moment imagined as yet to come, the more immediate grows the fear we experience in the here and now.

Part 1

When it comes to being in conflict with one another -- at whatever level or scale in which that painful relationship plays itself out -- each of us is responsible for what is happening to both of us.



Part 2

All said and done, war is the negative result of an unconscious weakness that would rather blame others for its pain than to turn round, and realize its unseen source... so as to finally bring an end to the conflict it breeds (within itself) by uselessly resisting its own manifestation.


The ceaseless, anxious search to find our true place in life, including what we should be doing with it, can never lead to a happy ending until we realize -- in real terms -- to “whom” it is our life belongs... and to what end.

It is impossible to know anything about the true nature of immortality as long as we continue to live with the fear of death.

Part 1

The inevitable outcome of all unconscious self-compromise -- within ourselves, but primarily in relationships with others -- is to reach a kind of critical mass of resentment that then spills itself out on others in words and deeds too soon enacted, and too late regretted.



Part 2

The more any part of us doesn't want to see, let alone rejects the experience of some negative "I" that appears in an unwanted moment, the more that "I" pushes back on the experience it doesn't want. What this false sense of "I" can't see -- but that we must, if we ever hope to be free -- is that the more this "I" denies the painful experience (of itself), the more it affirms the suffering it's struggling to avoid.

Part 1

Any time the mind makes a “package” out of some unwanted moment -- wrapping its reaction (to it) in familiar troubled thoughts, and negative feelings -- it does so at the cost of exchanging a priceless gift it’s been given... in favor of giving itself another painful experience (of itself) that it doesn’t know it’s created for itself!

Part 2

Psychological resistance collapses the unlimited field of new possibilities into a single, momentary event that is not only unwanted, but that is seen -- and experienced -- as something separate -- other than -- the unconscious mind that creates what it then resists.