Deeper Learning

We must learn to struggle with our "self" all the time, because without awareness of the way we meet our life, of what meets life for us when we are just "gliding" along... then, in truth, what is it that meets life? The answer is... no one... just a host of habitual thoughts, feelings, prejudicial ideas, beliefs, and mechanical reactions. If we are not aware of ourselves -- right now, and in all..."

As difficult as it may be to see, always strive to remember the following truth: The way you feel about any given moment is because of what you think you know about that moment. In other words, while it may seem that you're frustrated because you want to understand your experience, the truth is, it's your present level of being that's creating your frustration as well as the..."

There are these moments where a person is introduced to a great clarity that the world they have been looking in, in order to find themselves through, is incapable of revealing the worth they are looking for. This first shock (have you had it, by-the-way?) is when a person realizes, "Uh oh. This is a dead-end. Oh no." And when a person has enough of these moments..."

Just as the sun rises each morning to dismiss the twelve hours of darkness that came before, so the appearance of spring signals a similar moment - only in a greater scale of time; for with the dawn of the spring, the many dark months of winter must loose their collective grip, giving way to a gently increased measure of light and warmth that stirs the earth from its slumber..."

The next time that life comes knocking with what you "don't want," instead of allowing yourself to be dragged through the old round-around, make these three new choices, and watch how they dismiss the darkness knocking at your door: Your first choice (always!) is to come wide-awake to yourself. Remember: Your new aim is to not allow old, mechanical reactions..."

Do we not try to escape the stress we have by further imagining ways to relieve ourselves from the circumstances held responsible for it? And the more we do to create for ourselves an enclave in which we will no longer be confronted with the trouble, the more we isolate ourselves, and the greater the problem becomes because we increasingly resist anything not part of what we've..."

The reason we resist virtually all endings in our life--wherein we feel as though something has been wrongfully taken away from us--is because these same unwanted moments leave us feeling terribly empty inside ourselves. In truth, it is this overwhelming sense of emptiness that we detest, and not the changing condition itself that we so habitually protest. So when things..."

"Do you know why you want freedom? To know why you want freedom, you must know what you want freedom from. And most of us do not know that idea of 'freedom from' -- other than when we're in a bad relationship. What you want is freedom from pain. You want freedom from fear. Freedom from self-doubt. Freedom from feeling inadequate. Freedom from being alone...."

Let's say you saw somebody walking up to your front door and they had this big brick of gold. How many wish that was true? Here's a big brick of gold: "Ah! A reward! Now I can go buy that thing. I can do what I always wanted to do!" But as the person got closer, you could see that the brick of gold had a chip on the side and that it was actually lead underneath. How many of you would still say...

Who is the most unwelcome guest that appears at your door? (And it is not your son-in-law!) Again... Who is the most unwelcome guest that ever came 'knock-knock-knocking' at your door? How many of you had some dark thought or feeling knock at your door and wake you up this very morning... unwanted guests such as depression, anxiety... "Hello, anybody home?" How about worry...

"Each of us, as human beings, is created for a specific purpose. And it's impossible for any of us to understand what that purpose is as long as our present condition prohibits it. Our present condition is that we are prisoners of a sort. We remain captives (without knowing it) within the confines of a certain order of our own mind, our own consciousness, in which we were never intended to live..."

Have you ever looked down at a sidewalk or parking lot and marveled at a single blade of grass that had somehow found the will and the way to break through the pavement and out into the fresh air and sunlight? When we think of a titanic struggle, we don't usually think of a little seed of grass buried in the darkness and fighting to get out in the light. And yet, even though we may...