Make Your Pain Disappear by Removing the 'I' From It (Remastered Classic Talk)

Within each discovery of a new level of higher understanding, is a greater understanding of the fleeting nature of what is in time.

"I exist as I am -- that is enough. If no other in the world be aware, I sit content." -- Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

The nature that sits content is enough just being itself, fulfilled and nourished by what it is given in each and every moment.

You will never come upon what is true through affirmation. You will discover what is true only through a process of negation. Then, at that point, you may affirm the revelation that the negation has produced, which is quite a different thing.

Everything that we see and experience on the earth is an expression of higher principles.

"I Am that I Am" in the ancient language connotes "I am the becoming one of all that exists."

Within us exists something -- the "I Am that I Am" -- that is independent of worldly cares and affairs.

Being asleep means that there is a part of us that identifies with one thought after another. Being asleep is a mind that is set against itself even as it tries to save itself, destroying itself as it tries to preserve itself.

You must know that you are more than a sensation, more than a feeling, more than any one thought, even a thought about God. Until you know that, every thought, feeling and sensation will continue to produce a self that thinks it IS the thought, feeling, and sensation.

Being awake and aware is seeing that there are thoughts, feelings and sensations, but they are not 'I'.

There is an unconscious nature in us that is constantly mistaking the part for the whole, and builds a sense of self out of that identification. That little 'I' believes it is the whole world.

Every pain that we have in our life is because we are trying to cling to something that has been created in an imaginary kingdom by an imaginary self.

Why would any relationship be a source of pain, unless something that changes within that relationship is threatening the sense of self that is based in the past?

You cannot be more whole than you are right now. How is it possible for you to be content enough just being yourself when there is a part of you that reverts back to imagination about a better "you" in a time to come.

I have to work with where I am, and with what I am. Why? Because within where I am and what I am is the "I Am that I Am."

The punchline of the story of the Knight who rescued the kidnapped Princess: "If you want to vanquish these dark beasts, you have to take the 'I' out of its name." Erase the 'I' from the great beast: "Be Identified." "Be Identified" is the great beast from out of which all other beasts come. The beast does not exist without the 'I' that you put in it.

No condition has authority over you unless the "you" that meets that moment is deriving its identity from that condition.

By identification you become the servant of the thing you are identified with.

What the darkness calls the light is anything and everything that it believes will strengthen its sense of self.

There is a strong sense of self whenever you are identified, but there is no real awareness of your existence. Awareness of your existence is willingness to be as you are, where you are.