The Narrow Gate that Opens into a World of Living Light

Talk Takeaways

You do not see at all, but you think you see. You are identified with every thought that passes by, and the sense of self that comes with it.

Anything that you imagine, and then identify with, has no life in it at all.

It is impossible to have a lingering negative reaction unless, in the moment of the reaction, you have met a moment like that before.

You are not rejecting the condition; you are rejecting what has appeared in your own consciousness as it doesn't want the experience of itself.

The mind never stops imagining a new condition that it hopes will turn out differently than the same moment it encountered in the past.

The pain of the past is consciousness rejecting the experience of its own reactions.

Nothing is accidental about what your mind attends to. It is not "you" that puts your attention on the past, or on the imagination of a time to come. It directs your attention, generating a distinct sense of self.

You cannot judge someone without experiencing your own negative reaction at the same time.

The mind divides reactions up into the reaction and what is being reacted to. It is a divided consciousness that is set against itself.

The fact that you judge other people for being blind, is proof that you do not see.

The mind goes through the cycle of reaction, followed by identification, followed by the rush to resolve. A big circle that calls itself a straight line.

Anything that is talking to you about the cause of your negative reaction is not aware of the reaction.

The definition of insanity is to try to change a reaction, during or after it has taken place. Not wanting the reaction seems to prove that you are better than the reaction.

Our pain is not being created by the event. It is the divided consciousness set against itself, set against its own reaction to the event.

It is awareness that is able to recognize the familiar that tries to pass itself off as newness.

You can't enter the narrow gate while carrying anything that belongs to the past. The past that you identify with has no authority over presence.

The old way was reaction, identification, and then rush to resolve. The new work is reaction, followed by recover your attention, and then replace. Recover awareness of what your attention is being given to do.

You believe you can outrun the ghosts of your own past. Those so-called ghosts are not intended to be outrun; they are intended to be illuminated by awareness.

You stand at the narrow gate when you see the temptation to again be the same self that identifies and rushes to resolve what disturbs it.

The awareness of what is in time is timeless. The awareness of what creates time is the narrow gate.

What greater art form is there than to be yourself, a new form, an emaculate conception moment to moment to moment... so that there is no residue of self to measure itself against the moment as it is.