Go Beyond Solving Painful Problems to a Life Free of Stress and Sorrow

Talk Takeaways

Within us already lives a nature that does not have to resolve problems because it is problem-free to begin with.

True teachings are intended to awaken a new kind of effort in us, and to expose the wrong kind of effort.

Doing is downstream from being, and sorrow is the inevitable result of living from a nature that is out of order, and not in harmony with the broader life.

Nothing keeps away the higher help that we need more than blaming others or blaming life for "our" weakness.

When we turn to our own thoughts and reactions to save ourselves -- as long as those thoughts and reactions rule us -- we have entered into a place that God cannot reach.

The mind's search for solutions begins when some condition in the real world meets an image that the mind is identified with.

We are without knowing it identified with a nature that struggles to protect itself against anything that threatens its identity.

Inwardly speaking, we are not created to resolve our own suffering. How do we know this? Because experience proves that our resolutions have not changed a thing. At best, we achieve a temporary freedom, until conditions change, as they will. What we call the resolution of our pain is merely a postponement of it.

The mind calls its resentment righteousness. It says that there is a good reason for the resentment because of the bad behavior of others.

What we have called "love" can't be real Love because we would not have to keep saying "I'm sorry" after our actions based upon our idea of love hurts others. When are we going to get tired of saying "I'm sorry"? -- because it doesn't change anything.

The mind's idea of the resolution of conflict is not enough. The mind's kind of conflict resolution only serves to postpone war, individually and collectively.

What if we understood that the thought that claims to be our rescue is actually the continuation of the conflict?

The punchline of the story about the group of people deserted on an island was that they were never going to save themselves, but they needed Help.

The true path to solving problems before they begin is not through resolution, but rather through reconciliation. "I am the vine, ye are the branches." The branches are reconciled through the will of the Vine.

Reconciliation restores the harmony that has been lost to the mind that struggles to resolve the pain that it doesn't understand. There is in fact a ceaseless reconciliation between Heaven and earth.

Reconciliation is the renewal of a relationship based on an understanding of the totality of oneself.

The Truth is always sweet. "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies."

"If Thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." Translation: "Not my order of life, but rather my agreement with the higher order of life that reveals the wrong order."

Before you start down the endless, familiar path of trying to resolve your problems (not speaking practically), look within at what you are being shown is true, and then stay there, ask for help, but don't talk to yourself about what that help entails. Stay with the understanding of the need for help.