Special Lessons

In nature, hurricanes occur when walls of thunderstorms are driven up the center, producing a vortex -- an "eye" -- where, while everything else is total turmoil in and around it, there is complete silence and stillness in the center.

Regardless of when in time, or where on earth, a truth bright with promise appears, its effect is always the same. By its deft touch, "the sleeper awakens" and the meaning of our life takes on a whole new magnitude. The Spirit that called inspired seekers who have gone before us -- that awakened their hearts, and quickened their minds -- so that they might have "eyes to see, and ears to hear" -- is the same spirit calling us...

Putting our life in God's hands does not mean that we hand Him our wish list for life, but rather that we make His life our wish. When God's will becomes our sole wish in life, then whatever happens to us not only fulfills our wish, but we realize it has always been our wish right from the start.

What would happen to any of us if we knew, without having to take thought, that the universe was set up to help us succeed with becoming fearless because we understand the right attitude to take... no matter what the moment seems to bring?

When this sensory mind of ours perceives life, it mistakenly sees things as happening to it from the outside in. How does this error in perception affect us? It means that we perceive life as a series of things coming at us. Everything about us is oriented outwardly, and it appears to us that our lives are being determined from the outside in.

Whenever we find ourselves identified with some dark stream of thoughts and feelings, as opposed to being quietly aware of their downward-trending presence, we fall -- in that same moment -- into a world filled with unwanted negative states.

Nearly all of humanity is asleep to itself; six-and-a-half billion "sleep-walkers" who -- even as they move through life -- are all but oblivious to the reality of the invisible worlds within them shaping their lives.

Key to sailing through any crisis is learning to deal first with the fact of fear, instead of what fear says is the fact. What am I looking at when I'm dealing with what fear says is the fact? An event has taken place and fear says, "Oh my God, look at this!" But the event is gone, so what am I looking at? Am I looking at the fact? No.

Before we can experience the truth of a higher state of consciousness, before we can stand on the ground of ourselves that is the secret stuff of Reality, we are asked to quietly be who and what we are in the Now.

There is one essential reason why there is so much constant heartache and war on this earth, and why conflict has continued as it has down through the ages. The answer may surprise you. We do not understand the nature of our own pain -- our suffering. Billions of us live with almost no understanding of how much hurt lies hidden in our hearts and minds; in this case, ignorance is not bliss.

If regret is the act of a divided nature that keeps itself in place by regretting itself, then remorse is pain that nullifies this false sense of self. And that is why remorse is so rare -- and why it is so holy. It is written: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn for the sake of righteousness..."

The first challenge before any person who wants to find a way out of some hurtful codependent relationship is to see that while we do have the awareness required to interact with life -- and even to learn challenging new skills -- this level of awareness is not enough.