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Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
Short but powerful quotes by Guy Finley will inspire you throughout your day.
Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
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The Life of Learning singers and instrumentalists perform beautiful music that will inspire and uplift you.
Join us for exclusive live broadcasts of select Guy Finley talks.
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Shop eCoursesGF: Welcome everyone. Let me open our meeting with some thoughts about what is required of us to free ourselves of all the dark and discouraging states that seem to follow us around as we work at trying to realize Real Life. We will discuss some of these truths now, and again at the close of our chat.
Most of us are familiar with the idea from Christian scripture that "my Father's kingdom has many mansions." But who understands what those mansions represent, and more important, that these various levels of consciousness themselves sit within something? In this one "place" in us are all of these places connected; this inclusive reality constitutes a kingdom.
The awakened life without the angst, worries, and fears in it that the un-examined life holds, is about our dwelling in one such room of reality and knowing at the same time that besides where we presently are, there is another room. We know that what we are experiencing in any given moment in the room we are in is not the only room that is available to us.
This understanding of scale, of levels in reality, is important because when things go bad, when we run into some kind of a wall, all that exists for us is the pain of running into the wall, what the wall means relative to our hopes to be on the other side of it, and what we need to do to free ourselves of the limitations that this wall has placed on us.
To get past the limitations of our experiences, we first need to understand this incredibly important idea that we live within worlds within worlds within worlds . . . but that this understanding is not conscious to us.
Our present experience of life is dominated by our sensations that separate us from what we see around us. We don't realize that our experience of the whole world that's unfolding out there in front of us is actually an effect of the way that we are thinking towards what we see, so that the perceptions of our own interior world of thoughts and feelings are continually creating the nature of that exterior world we see ourselves as being within.
Within this world in us of thoughts and feelings are active all of the influences, conditions, principles, and ideals behind its manifestation. Haven't you ever noticed when you're having a bad day that usually others are too? There is a sensitivity we all share when certain things occur in the broader world of which we're not conscious, but that we feel nevertheless.
These worlds being described are merely physical representations of invisible principles. When these principles act upon one another, you and I, as a part of a very sensitive web that is inter-connected, experience those movements - pressures and pleasures alike. All these myriad worlds in us are present throughout the universe, and each sits within one another.
We must become conscious investigators of all these worlds that live within us, because all of our inner states - from feeling fear or futility to full of courage and hope - belong within a higher world. We tend to think that the lower exists within the higher. But truth teaches us that the higher also dwells within the lower. Isn't the mighty oak found in the little acorn?
A tree goes through four seasons, and we see the change in the tree incrementally as it moves through its process of birth, life, and death. The tree itself is part of a larger, broader, invisible principle that is behind why the tree changes. Behind the rooms in the house, as a part of what they are, sits a mansion. Behind all changes exists something changeless.
Here is why these ideas are so important to us if we wish to awaken to Real Life: Who can say that he or she is a loving being regardless of what reactions run through them? The fact of the matter is that we act out what dominates us.
If we're thinking about what somebody did to us, we're dominated by revenge or hate. If we're worried about tomorrow in any way whatsoever, we are consumed with that nature. The proof that we're so dominated is that all we do is act out what those states tell us is mandatory for us to do.
Those states of emotional, dark thoughts and feelings simply represent the movement of certain principles, the activity of certain forces that if we understood them for what they were instead of letting them define us as they presently do, we could realize right then, "This isn't the whole house!"
The problem is that when we get negative, when we feel we've run into a wall, we are deceived by our own dark states. We fight with the negativity or with anyone seen as being to blame for our pain. We believe if we struggle with our named opponent, that in that struggle we will eventually overcome the problem and be relieved of its pain. Isn't that about the way it goes?
Whenever we run into these walls of regret, anger, or discouragement, all we know to do is to take the feelings and the thoughts inside of us for being the same as the truth about our condition. But those same thoughts and feelings are the same thing as the wall we've run into, and we listen to them tell us what to do to escape! Here's the truth:
No dark state belongs to you. Period. But being spiritually asleep we don't realize that dark states are merely a part of the whole estate of ourselves. We take each one for the whole of us when we fall into the hole of identifying with it. Then do you know what happens to us?
One dark thought calls upon another dark thought as though the dark thought it calls upon is somehow going to release us of the darkness we have identified with, and all that this collusion does is produce a third dark thought. And what happens when you put two darknesses together? You get something darker still, don't you? Now we get to the lesson we have been headed for:
What happens when you put darkness and light together? You get light. But when a dark state comes, you and I, in our spiritual sleep, call on darkness to rescue us from darkness. The more we struggle with this pain, worry, and fear, the darker we become. The more attention we pay to any discouragement, the more we give life to the condition we hate in one dark spiral.
Before we close the chat tonight I will pass along five special insights that will act as light for you in any time of dark discouragement.
What would you like to talk about tonight? Have you been working on some special condition within yourself and wish some clarification? Please do keep your questions and comments to real issues. Speculative thinking and other philosophical meanderings are meaningless if self-realization is a sincere desire. What do you want to discuss? What would you like to talk about this evening? Let's get started!
pam: Thank you for pointing out the changes we see in trees as they go through the changing seasons. A tree in winter is just as strong as it was in summer, even though it appears to be barren and dying. Maybe it's even stronger when it appears barren to the human eye because it remains standing even in harsh winter conditions. This proves the point that all is not what it may seem to be, that it's all in our perspective - and whatever it is, it is temporary. What a concept!
GF: Yes, this kind perception is beyond the usual eye.
Bjor: Why is it that any time I start something that seems to give me some light, I become immobilized? I just can't continue with the same enthusiasm that made me start.
GF: One of the lesser initiations along the path to self-awakening is that our first steps are motivated by a certain image we have in ourselves about how different we will be once made new. Shortly thereafter, "the thrill is gone." We find ourselves left without the impulse of our original desire, but with new knowledge of the darkness within us of which our wish to be free started us on the path in the first place. We must now walk ahead, not for what we hope to find, but what for what we are sure must be left behind us.
DanG: I find an attachment problem with leaving my six-year-old granddaughters to come to Oregon. Is this a case of too much identification? It is causing excessive emotions. Please discuss.
GF: You must understand the way in which our present nature keeps us in its circle of influence. As we are now, our nature can only find a sense of itself by considering something that is seen as being exterior to itself. Such a life of dependency upon controlled conditions for a sense of comfort in life is tantamount to slavery. Our past, including our relationships, is one of the most powerful of these attractions that we feel because of the extent of memory with which our mind can effectively define us with. Let go of what was and get on with what is possible for you to be. Otherwise, these attachments can only grow deeper. Sometimes Love is made stronger by letting one level of it come to an end so that another level may reveal itself.
TruthSeeker: How can you look at betrayal and lies from a partner for a place of light up the "spiral" in the mansion?
GF: When the time comes for one to abandon a certain level of their own life produced for them by unconscious desires or even natural longings, then that floor, that level of their life, must be just simply left. What awaits above us within us is always greater than what we leave below us.
TruthStudent: I've known for some time now that my spouse is having an affair, yet I am not dealing with this situation whatsoever. I don't understand my passivity/lack of action. We have children and at times I tell myself I'm keeping quiet "for the kids," but I know through Truth teachings that this isn't the truth I'm telling myself. Can I be that afraid of emptiness if this long term relationship does end? Can I be paralyzed with fear without being aware of fear being in my relationship?
GF: You've answered your own question, haven't you? If you know that you are living with a person who has broken the trust placed with them in your relationship and they have proven that they are without fidelity, let alone any semblance of loyalty, pack their bags for them. Be done with it - get on with what awaits you if you will leave what is presently weighing on you.
TruthStudent: I still hear a voice that says I'm doing the kids more damage than good to leave my spouse. They're young, but I still have apprehensions about the impact to their young minds. I don't want them to be traumatized by this. If I do proceed with what must be done, is there any way to soften the blow for them?
GF: Look, you must of course consider all conditions in such challenging circumstances, but I'll turn your question around on you: What do you teach your children by staying in such a relationship? All children have to go on is what they draw upon from the essence, the character, of the adults around them. Time is and can be a great healer, with powers far beyond one's ability to comprehend. But it only heals when we act True and in accordance with the tenets of Goodness that underlie it.
TruthStudent: I've recently become aware that fear permeates my days, even down to the smallest decision. I seem to have a hard time making any decision when fear is in the picture due to me telling myself that I don't want to make "a rash decision." Please advise.
GF: No one finds the fearless life they long for who won't risk failure.
TruthSeeker: I don't know who I am outside of long-term marriage. How do I contact my strength to go it alone?
GF: Don't look for strength; get weary of weakness masquerading as understanding.
a: With regards to spousal infidelity, when should one forsake their interests for the children. Shouldn't one stay in a relationship for the kids? It seems the better of the other side of leaving your partner and causing the tumultuous upheaval of the children's lives.
GF: Each must decide such things for themselves.
Debbi: I could say that my spouse has an affair with his work. His family seems to be less important to him although he believes that he needs to focus on his high stress work, makes a ridiculous commute, and spends little time with us on weekends to do work around the house. I am working to try to put myself in his shoes, as he grew up in a ghetto. Any comments?
GF: What would you have me say about this? You're obviously unhappy as the conditions are. Either decide to ask for change and then see what happens, or don't. But either way I can tell you one thing for sure: Resentment is a weed that kills everything in the garden.
Gil: I can see how relationships teach us, as you say. However is it unwise for one to commit to fidelity before one desires to for the sake of spiritual growth that comes from relationship? It seems like insincerity, especially since infidelity could have a much more terrible penalty.
GF: I'm afraid most people have very little idea about how sick and degenerate this world has become with regard to sexual relationships. For most, what I have said means nothing because most really want nothing from life other than powerful sensations. But for anyone else wishing any form of relationship with the Divine, sex and the sex center must not only be understood, but learned for what those energies are capable of producing in the human who will make such an exploration.
Gil: Thank you for that encouragement. I know I have gotten something for what I have already sacrificed. That gives me some strength to consciously suffer my temptations more. There's still the question I'm deeply troubled by - is there a dogma in the work that says I should "settle down" even before it feels natural? Isn't this just suppression for the sake of living up to an image? The question I'd like some specific clarity on is, would I be wiser to not commit than to commit infidelity? I sense infidelity has a terrible price spiritually.
GF: One of the first pre-requisites for a Real Life is walking away from the ludicrous but deeply implanted "values" of this sleeping world make money, get married, have children, serve your community until you die. Nothing is wrong with these things in themselves, except that when done just for themselves they lead nowhere except to a meaningless life. Have your own life. Make your own decisions based upon your wish to live above the masses of sleeping souls.
whatsnew: How can I start to understand sex and the sex center and their real purpose so I do not get further led astray?
GF: Whatever it is that one wishes to understand, he must observe. One cannot observe a feature and act from it, in the beginning.
Bert2: There seems to be a strong theme of the cost of infidelity tonight. Can you comment on the spiritual cost of infidelity with a lover? Marital infidelity?
GF: The "cost" of infidelity is never (really) to the betrayed life partner, but to oneself; wherein the belief that having pleasure or pain is placed outside of you to the extent that one becomes willing to compromise his or her integrity to such an extent the possibility of it being developed may be forever lost.
whatsnew: This work has helped me understand that we keep getting recurring problems due to our unconscious nature. I keep running into unfair practices regarding business and employment by people who truly are less knowledgeable than me but seem to have the "in crowd" (or who knows what) to their advantage. How can I see what is repeatedly putting me in this situation? I am aiming for what I know, what I am good at, and simply hope to succeed at the householder level. I have dropped aggressive ambitions and still have severe difficulties just maintaining. Please advise.
GF: One should never allow himself to be made into a bitter cynic by the unconscious actions and the conditions these actions produce in the world around him. Having said that, what do you think makes this world go round? It isn't Love. Greed, ambition, selfishness, gluttony in one form or another - expressed through unrepressed desires - dominate human kind. Why would where you work be an exception to this rule? Human beings are clever because they can smile, but you may be assured that smiling faces sometimes tell lies. Do what you wish to do, as best you know to do it, unimpeded by the kind of punishing thoughts and feelings that would have you believe it takes others around you for you to be a successful human being. This Work is about being not just a good householder, but a conscious human, capable of transcending such troubles as you've described.
whatsnew: I am not focusing on others or ever compare and get envious. I do find it interesting that almost everyone I know does not practice this work but rather lives recklessly with almost every imaginable selfish pleasure and gets to have basic living amenities while I have to get help from relatives and go further into debt (and hope I don't get sick or have a fender bender or any other unexpected bill). What am I missing here?
GF: An essential point on each person's path is where he or she finally recognizes that absolute futility of always comparing oneself to anyone or anything in the world around oneself. Your life is your life. Forget theirs, just as they have seemingly done. If you remain connected, you are not only a dependent on the darkness you decry, but you enable those around you as well.
Jilly: In a Nicoll book I have he says, "the personality has been acquired through third force." Does this mean your reactions to life are what form your personality? Or said another way, the way you take what has happened to you - these acquired reactions - are they what you call "you"?
GF: Yes, these acquired reactions, with their immensely sophisticated and unconscious web of associations, are very much what constitutes the sleeping human being by his or her name. Of course our aim is not only to awaken to this mechanical being, but to transcend it for the purpose of becoming an authentically self-determining individual.
TruthStudent: Please explain exactly when the moment of resistance comes up with respect to a fearful reaction one has to a situation perceived as such. I become aware of fear manifesting itself in me but I'm not aware of the instant I begin to resist, ergo "give the fear life" (in me). Please help.
GF: Psychological resistance, in whatever form it manifests in us, is always the instantaneous appearance of a second force born of whatever opposing image appears in the mind that one desires. For instance, say that one wishes to make a bundle on a stock deal. The moment he or she imagines the pleasure and power derived from the image of wealth, born in that moment is both a pleasing sensation and a trailing shadow of the fear it won't happen. This resistance is literally built into what we desire.
Jilly: When my son is upset about something, I begin to feel something in me trying to make me upset. Why?
GF: To be a sleeping human being means, among other things, that our sense of well being can only be maintained for as long as the conditions around us permit this. When we are identified with anyone or anything, our sense of wellness is subject to any change in that person or condition. This makes us a slave or a victim (however you wish to define it) of anything that changes outside of us with which we are so identified. To see the truth of this breaks the circle.
Tracy: Is it good to meditate on creating the space between what comes in below and what flows out?
GF: I'm not sure of your question, but I can tell you something that will prove helpful. Real meditation is not the consideration of an imagined place within us. Real meditation requires that we become, through a conscious act of awareness, awake to all that moves in and out, from below or above, left or right. Only this kind of watchfulness can free us from the illusion that the conditioned observer necessarily produces in its place.
DanG: In one of your talks on "wants," you talk about ridding one of attachments, but also say it is just as bad to be too detached. Please discuss.
GF: You have most likely made a faulty interpretation of what I said. What I most likely said was that when one is filled with the image of being a detached person, even if that person acts out this façade well, nevertheless he or she is fully attached to the sensation they have of being so detached. That's the detachment I discussed. Another pathogenic form of attachment is when a person has become fully apathetic. They act detached, but only because they have been so brutalized that it is not true detachment but a withdrawal from life itself.
TruthSeeker: How do you go from brutalized to empowered?
GF: Here's a great truth: No one who wants power in this world can ever find anything other than a brutal relationship with that world over which they want power.
TruthStudent: Could you please very simply differentiate for me the difference between identification and simple observation?
GF: Two people are at a park, both with dogs. One sees his dog as being Rin-Tin-Tin reincarnated. No one may say anything negative about his pooch. He is identified and suffers for his state. Another man has a dog that runs freely through the park, doing what dogs like to do. He observes the dog run and play. He does not define himself by his dog's actions. Now, substitute "dog" in your mind for any thought or feeling running through you and you'll understand the difference between identification and observation.
Lighthousekeeper: Is working to know ourselves doing enough of the laying of the ground work for when we no longer are in a physical body? I can't help thinking sometimes that we need to do more for a journey that will be a lot longer than the one we are undertaking as a human being.
GF: Of course it would depend upon what you mean by working upon oneself. If you mean casual self-study or occasional interior practices based upon whether it's pleasurable or not at that time to do such things, then the answer is no. Much is asked of the one who wishes to live. Little is asked and little is given by those who mistake this world for being the same as Real Life.
Lighthousekeeper: How does becoming one with Real Life or Eternal Love prepare us for when we are no longer in our physical bodies?
GF: You probably won't like what comes next, but medicine doesn't always taste good. Forget all this pie-in-the-sky spiritual consideration that you're doing. It means nothing and goes nowhere. Come awake to yourself right now and do your best to remain aware of your own thoughts and feelings even as you sense your own body in the present moment. That work can change what must be changed. Thinking is equivalent to spiritually sinking, when all one dreams about is the "Love Boat."
Jilly: When I make an aim not to do a certain behavior, and then see over and over that I do that behavior and have no control of my life, is this why I have an aim, so that I see I don't have control?
GF: Does one have to have an aim not to want to be cruel? If I know I have cruelty in my heart, it is literally only human to want to be free of such a destructive force. If I see the fact of my cruelty and make an aim to be free of it, what difference does the outcome make? Freedom is the issue. The education of my soul is the outcome of that wish for freedom. Any aim based on an image that one has of oneself, has already missed the mark. I hope you understand.
Diojeneez: When I come awake to myself and see an error of unconsciousness in myself or another, my state of awareness immediately explains that error without thought. But I end up saying, "Am I sure? How do I know?" and anxiously try to justify or prove what I saw to myself. Any advice?
GF: What you've described is quite common. Within each of us there is always a certain state of self that can't wait to jump in and lay claim to something that has been seen within us. It's quite natural at one level for that nature to want to define or describe or discuss something observed. That nature only knows itself by calling on the content of one's own past in order to "explain" what happened. Of course we know better. We must learn to "be" what we are based on seeing and allowing that seeing to explain itself without calling upon thought.
whatsnew: I am being met with resistance from loved ones and family members when I start to talk about higher understandings. I am accused of being unrealistic, controlling, and uneasy. I feel, in my heart, no interest in having people listen or acclaim me as one way or another. I care not about anything other than wishing to share what has helped me so much. It seems they would rather dwell amidst their pain and get offended by the help being offered to them. How can I deal with not having anything to do with these loved ones? I am afraid this may be the only answer when I see how I could help.
GF: It was Christ who said "cast not your pearls amongst the swine." To this I would add that there are certain parts in all of us that feel as though what we have found and feel is real if only confirmed as being such by finding others who will confirm our finding for us. I've also learned that most of the unpleasant things that others tell me about myself are true in some way or another. To this I am indebted, as you should be to those who are merely trying to tell you they would prefer to be left sleeping. It is not your task to awaken them. But if they should ask, tell freely.
whatsnew: Would it be right then to stay amongst sleeping people? It seems wrong to shun them and wrong to accept their misery all of the time.
GF: One must first awaken a bit before one can determine what choices exist in reality. Otherwise the sleeping merely continue the pattern of sleep.
Ruth: If I may, I would like to share with all of you on the East Coast, that probably by mid-October Guy will be on Fairfax Public Access TV, Channel 10. I know that you all rejoice with me in the excellent cooperation received from Guy's co-workers in Merlin, Oregon. We have been working on it for many months! This should include all of Washington, DC and all the "burbs." If you want to let Fairfax Public Access TV, Channel 10 know how much you appreciate Guy on their channel, call (703) 573-1090 and ask for Ann Freud.
steveb: I am in a struggle with my siblings over the fact that I am not to receive my share of inheritance and they are to get everything due to what I see as my father's prejudice against me. I feel that my siblings should make it right and agree to give me a fair share, but they say that would be disrespecting my father's wishes. I see this as a case of getting your ethics on the side of your actions instead of the other way around. This has caused a real disconnect between my siblings and I, and I am asking if there is a way to resolve the conflict I feel for wanting my "share" when I would rather ignore the issue and keep the relationship I had with my siblings before this came up. I cannot accept it as other than greed on their part since I know I would gladly share it if things were reversed. I am presently trying to accept that they are greedy and love them as best I can.
GF: I can understand the degree of disturbance you feel, but would only ask you to see that there is nothing in the universe that is worth harboring something dark and destructive in one's heart and mind. You may feel this, as I suspect you do, but there always comes the point where one must "lay down his life" for what he knows is true, or accept that he is as much a hypocrite as those he casts stones at. Let it go. See what happens. If you fight you lose, even if you win.
whatsnew: I can and have been seeing this about desire: I want a few simple things, that I believe to be more along the lines of necessities for future well-being, yet they keep getting harder to come by. Am I pushing them away? This is really painful and I am not identifying or wishing for materialistic things. Could it be wrong to want safety, health, and well-being or to aim for them?
GF: No, there is nothing wrong with wanting natural health and physical well-being. Truth be known, there's nothing in the universe that can keep one from having that, save his own fate should that be set counter to his wish. One great spiritual quality that we all could use more of is patience coupled with persistence. Together they're unstoppable. You might go to the Wisdom Tree on our Web site where I believe there are some special notes on this subject.
steveb: I had what I would call a religious experience when I went to a Steve Winwood concert last week. I experienced such an intense high, dancing with other fans to the music, that it kept me ecstatic for two hours. I wonder if this is an escape from my reality or a valid form of worshiping the divine in myself, the other fans, and Steve Winwood? It did end when the show was over for the most part, but it gave me joy for days to recall the experience. I guess the real question here for me is why is it so much easier to access that energy in myself when I am around others who are sharing the good vibes, and does that mean I am looking outside of myself for liberation?
GF: I have seen horses run and leap with joy. I have seen a dog delirious for hours over a bone. Sensations are not the same as the everlasting and truly exciting stillness that comes into us as we awaken to Real Life. Skyrockets blaze and then fizzle, their depleted bodies cold.
Langston: Please describe what is operating "behind the scenes" when one feels sorry for someone else going through a hardship.
GF: This can be one of any number of conditions. For one, there is and may be a natural empathy, but if you are in a negative state or sorrowful yourself, then this is not natural empathy, but a form of identification that is inherently painful.
AJ: When I "turn my cheek seven times," it feels as if I absorb their energy. Does this happen?
GF: I'm not sure what you mean by "their energy," but when we do conscious work and are willing to suffer consciously the negative manifestations of others, such intense inner work does generate new and self-regenerating energies.
Diojeneez: For those who don't love truth, the Bible says "God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth..." This reminds me of something you said about praying 24 hours a day. How do you see this quote?
GF: It is certainly a powerfully stated and seemingly emotional statement. The truth is there is truth in it, but it is neither emotional nor judgmental. What this passage merely says is that we all, moment-to-moment, reap exactly - no more, no less - what we sow.
AJ: If "all thought is a form of memory," how does someone write fiction stories or songs? They seem to exist in the mind first as an idea. Where do creative ideas come from if not from memory?
GF: Ninety-nine percent of all so-called creativity as seen in our society is merely a form of reconfiguration of various conditioned thoughts and feelings.
AJ: When I'm too mentally fatigued to stay awake, is there any way to increase energy?
GF: Yes, do not listen to the state that describes your fatigue. Instead, choose in favor of testing the limitations such states say are impassable. You will almost always find that what seems to be exhaustion is merely a clever part of yourself looking to please itself at the cost of your possible development.
whatsnew: Is this how people that have had paralyzing accidents, healed themselves by going beyond limitations that were given to them?
GF: This may be a partial explanation.
AJ: Is there one reality and we are either awake to it or not, or does everyone create their own realities?
GF: Both statements are true. There is only one reality, but it's matrix permits multiple configurations and perversions of itself.
Diojeneez: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened." What does that mean?
GF: Nothing rises without a certain mixture in bread; so it is with humans and their possibility of realizing the Higher Life.
Diojeneez: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." I've been wondering for months if you knew what He was talking about finally, I ask!
GF: The Kingdom of Heaven is the light of life. The field is the part of the man in which this light is hidden. First he stumbles upon it, and then something in him hides from him his intuition of its existence. Later, he discovers that all he longs for is that treasure which requires he possess the field it was found in. To possess himself he must lose himself.
AJ: Sometimes "faith" feels like pretense. What is real faith and how do I stop pretending to have it in order to really have it?
GF: It is good to detect this sensational kind of faith and realize it is meaningless, if not destructive in nature. Work on yourself to see more about your life as it is, as others are, what the world loves, and these glimpses plus your willingness to be silent in their suffering will awaken faith.
TruthSeeker: How does one practice faith?
GF: How does one breathe?
AJ: In the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the seagull loved to fly and became "the best" through his love. What is a man supposed to "love" in the same way?GF: Before we can come upon a true love we must see through and expire all false forms of the same. In you lives Love itself, but one only has eyes for the world outside of this abode wherein Love dwells.
MMM: Isn't our "Truth seeking" and our attempts to be aware of a self that doesn't exist keeping us from realizing that all is well at this very moment?
GF: It's a paradox for sure; but one must work in spite of the seeming contradiction.
Diojeneez: In Romans, chapter nine, it says "Who indeed are you, a human being, to talk back to God?" Yet Vernon Howard clearly teaches that there is no "you" and a "God." I'm not sure I understand this as well as I think I do. Can you help?
GF: Until one reaches certain higher levels of a mountain set before him, he can only imagine the view of all that these heights includes. Best to just climb than sit and dream about the outcome of these efforts.
MMM: Is there a chooser?
GF: There can be, but this is further down the road. For now just work to align yourself with the Truth within you, as best you understand this, and let it choose for you the Way to proceed.
GF: It's time to give you the closing notes I promised at the start. These lessons concern what we need to know to defeat the discouraging states that would deny us access to a Higher Life.
To refresh your memory, we examined the truths behind the idea of there being - in all kingdoms - mansions within mansions within mansions. And further that we ourselves are always within one world or another within ourselves.
To this idea we added that when we feel negative, isolated, afraid, or otherwise discouraged, that these states of ourselves, apart from themselves being conditions of consciousness generated within us by influences from other "mansions" and "kingdoms" acting upon us, are never the inescapable enclosures certain parts would have us believe that they are.
This interior knowledge of ourselves, once realized as the truth of ourselves, allows us to become "watchers" of what moves through us. It brings with it the awareness that what passes through us need not become the punishment of us. This new understanding is one of the keys to the inner kingdom with all of its treasure houses, its many new "mansions."
We become disheartened and fall captive of dark discouraging states whenever we fail to remember that the only power these conditions have over us is their ability to deceive us. These negative states work in collusion with their counterparts within us to keep the sense of captivity alive and seemingly insurmountable.
Together, acting as one, they would have us believe that there exists no other world besides the dark one we presently stand within. They cunningly convince us by their enclosing darkness that there is no further step we can take.
But such a sense of hopelessness or discouragement is pure deception, nothing more than a dark and fascinating illusion that we can drop once we see it as being such and test our findings. Following are five insights whose light, if embraced, will deliver you from the arms of what has had the power to make your heart ache:
1. Discouragement is the hulking giant of self-doubt and despair that lurks in the shadowy regions between what is true and what is assumed to be, and there is no way around this house of rubble, but none is needed. How can we be sure of this finding - that those dark and discouraging states that seem like terrible Titans are in reality nothing more than ugly tricksters? Remember this next statement and then take its light with you wherever you may go.
2. A candle is more powerful than a cannon in the dark. You can bring a certain order of True Light into any room you are within yourself, be this a tormented place or just the too tight walls around a wish you have to make some real changes in your life that you can't seem to actualize because of limiting thoughts telling you, "Impossible for you!" What is this Light you can call upon to liberate you from that mansion of misery? Come awake to yourself and quietly realize this truth: it is never the condition we find ourselves in that determines the work we can do to free ourselves. This is just what dark states want us to believe. It is the interior work we do on ourselves that actually changes the condition we are in, regardless of what that may be.
3. We must never make the mistake of assuming that we know the whole truth about something, even though every thought and feeling in us would press us to this conclusion. The truth is that there is always something, always another and higher room for us to enter into - if we will only dare to remember the truth of ourselves.
4. To come awake and remember that aching is a mistake we are led to make by parts of us that want us to remain in the lower mansions where their presence prevails, at our expense, is the first step out of and away from these smaller worlds within us.
5. Just as nothing can stop sunlight from its appointed duty, neither can any dark force prevent your work with spiritual light from showing you that who you really are cannot be kept a captive of any conflicted state.
You must test these truths. Start today, right now. Then you will know for yourself the lie of any discouraging state, and the needless suffering it brings with it.
Remember that any time you see something in yourself that seems dark, the answer you must give to it is not to fall into darkness over what you have seen. Choose the Higher Path. The Light never shows us anything in ourselves that it hasn't already started to change for us - if we will only let it! Do persist with your inner work. Remember yourselves! Be sure to join us for our next chat on November 6, and now, good night.
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Keys to Conquering Whatever Discourages You
Posted by Guy Finley in 459 Galice Road, Merlin, OR 97532 on , and updated on .
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