Special Lessons

Around the world today, millions if not billions of individuals are being consumed by negativity. The world and our relationship to the cosmos always run through cycles of increased or decreased activity. Right now we are in a cycle of increased activity where many people are stirred up. In such stirring there exists the possibility of increased conflict, but also of increased consciousness -- although it is conflict that seems more prevalent.

The fact that we always want something from the moment -- even if it's to not want what it offers or has otherwise come to reveal -- blinds us to the fact that every moment is always giving us... showering us... with the Light of a Life that wants for nothing.

One of the gifts of being human is that our individual potential far exceeds the boundaries of our (animal) body, which, like all natural creations, must serve the general laws it's been created to obey. We have the possibility of consciously knowing the existence of another order of body that is in, but not of our physical form. For example, consider the oak tree; it is in the acorn, yet its body is timeless relative to the seed from which it emerges.

There is only one way that any of us will ever know the real meaning of Christ's life, and that is... to share in his death. This means we must give up what he gave up if we would know, from ourselves, what was gained through his deliberate sacrifice.

Why is it that peace of mind is so hard for us to stay in, to keep as our own? Why is being calm in the middle of a storm virtually the last thing that most of us are able to do? What is the source of real composure? And how do we work to develop it within ourselves? This is why we must have new self-knowledge as follows.

To be able to see any life event -- good or bad -- as a vehicle to help transport us from our present level of understanding to a higher one requires that we develop a new relationship with these unwanted events in our lives. Instead of trying to protect ourselves from them, we must become willing to see what they are revealing to us about ourselves in that same moment. The difference between these two paths and their attending possibilities...

Even though we all have our natural preference, no season of the year is greater than any other. Each plays an indispensable role in a cycle of life greater than its individual parts; and each one serves the season that follows on its heels, enabling it to fulfill its purpose in a procession as timeless as the earth itself...

Where is the border between conscience and unconsciousness? The reason the world is beyond repair is because it is populated by a race of beings that now believe that they are conscious. They are not conscious; you are not conscious. The proof that you are not conscious is that you hurt one another, that's the proof of it. And that you hurt yourself, that's the proof of it. Every time you talk to yourself, every time you punish yourself...

It's crucial for us to understand that the thrust of our habitual thinking lives with its attention fixed, not on beginnings, but on the end of things. Don't we always wonder what our lives will be like tomorrow? Aren't we forever dreaming about how different things will be once we win this or achieve that? Don't we, in our mind's eye, perpetually walk towards a brighter moment to come, thinking about how good we'll feel once we're able to resolve some...

The perfectly present moment is both the seed of who you are and of your experience of now. And just as you can't separate who you are from your experience of now, neither can you separate now from the real moment of change. They are the same. You can't end conflict later. You can't stop being sad, or cruel, or angry, or scared, or anxious later. Later does not exist in reality. This self-created, false concept of time allows it to create yet...

Perhaps you've worked hard to be more aware of yourself in the Now, and that for this effort you catch a glimpse of how quick you are to judge others, to criticize them for their "failings." This pain that strains you -- and those you touch with it -- is itself a creation of a false sense of your own perfection. But your awareness of its punishing presence within you is the same as your invitation to transcend the negative nature that is responsible for it.

The easiest thing in the world is to walk around unconsciously feeling superior to everyone we meet. But with what do we measure? A critical spirit? A judgmental mind? What kind of eyes have to look down on another to convince themselves of up?