Part 1

An important observation -- giving rise to an equally critical question -- that most people would rather avoid than do the work to realize its liberating answer: have you noticed there's no place on earth where you can hide that some moment you don't want... isn’t still able to find you?

Part 2

Apart from providing simple food, clothing, and shelter for oneself, the entire painful belief that we must struggle to “survive” is a flawed, fallen human idea; it is a creation of a fear-filled, misperception of life born of having forgotten who we are, including the reason for why we are here on this earth.

Part 1

So much depends on our taking the time to listen to that Still Small Voice within -- to willingly enter, embrace, and take our place in its perfect rest -- instead of always talking over it, and telling it what we must have before we can be at peace.

Part 2

Is it better to know, or to not know the truth of oneself in every given moment? To answer this question in the affirmative -- and to then respond accordingly -- is to fling open the doors of perception, welcoming into your heart the Divine Light that alone can make you whole.

Our unconscious resistance to any unwanted moment ensures it’s continuation, and here’s why: there is no lingering resistance that’s not a creation of some form of (unseen) identification with the moment being resisted. To this understanding, add the following insight by whose light we are helped set free: identification is fixation, which means the more we struggle to escape any unwanted moment, the more we make ourselves a captive of it!

Since it is impossible to be unhappy over what you don't have without first having been subjected to some form of unseen painful comparison, this means the true source of one's unhappiness isn’t because of some passing condition, but rather is a creation of an unconscious nature -- punishing itself -- each time it negatively reacts to some imagined happiness lost.

Most of us fear (our own) painful, negative reactions, when the right relationship we’re created to have with them is to see their appearance as both a revelation and invitation... to help us awaken, and remember a Divine spiritual strength yet realized.

The “importance” of any given moment is inseparable from whatever may be the momentary sense of “self” responsible for lending it that significance. If we are to have any hope of realizing what is actually important in this life -- which is to see through the illusion of a separate self -- then we must be honest enough to admit the following truth: What really makes one moment seem more important than any other cannot be separated from how important it makes us feel.

Part 1

The single greatest unseen cause of premature aging, stress-related health issues, and ultimately of death is... the deeply mistaken, agonizing idea that somehow our constant struggle to control the outcome of any moment we fear will one day free us from these moments we fear.

Part 2

If we struggle (with any moment) for the fear of keeping some image of ourselves in place, then it is fear that struggles... and that has taken our place.

Part 3

At some point -- well along the upper, inner path -- there dawns an unthinkable revelation, one that signals the beginning of a new kind of struggle in one's work to awaken to what is Real and Everlasting; in many ways, this is the last, greatest struggle of all: (it is) to finally stop struggling (with life)... once, and for all.

Just as we wouldn't try to pry open a rosebud, interfering with the natural process by which it comes to display its yet-revealed beauty, so must we learn to give every impression planted in the soul the time it needs to grow, develop, and reveal its latent power to free us from whatever we fear.

Part 1

No single substance -- whether physical, mental, or emotional -- creates an addiction, let alone the pain and conflict inherent in its corresponding dependency; rather dependency is the birthplace of all false solutions with which we first become identified, and then become addicted to... in the vain hope that it has the power to release us from a pain we have yet to understand, let alone resolve.

Part 2

Identification is dependency; there is no painful dependency without unconscious identification... they are two sides of the same conflict.

Part 1

Anytime we struggle in the dark of ourselves -- trying to change our nature -- our efforts are misdirected;  our real work is to learn to see by the Light that dwells in that darkness, and to know the truth of ourselves, as (it is) revealed.

Part 2

Just as you wouldn't try to pry open a rosebud, or pull an oak out of an acorn... to interfere with the process of the revelation of their beauty and power... so must we learn to give every impression that is planted in the soul the time it needs to develop, grow and reveal its latent power of reconciliation.

Part 1

The real reason for being impatient with ourselves, or with others, has nothing to do with the condition we blame it on: impatience -- along with its dark twin, frustration -- is born of our refusal to accept the revelation of a present limitation, and to remain conscious of it until it’s transformed.

Part 2

Patient persistence in our labors, coupled with persistent patience throughout each one -- these two powers serve not only to perfect the task at hand, but also work in harmony to perfect the hand that undertakes the task.

Much as a stalking tiger uses woodland shadows to hide its intention from its intended prey, so does (our) weakness hide behind the (momentary) strength of any negative reaction we become identified with... even as it consumes us.