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Guy Finley Selected ArticlesThe opinions expressed in any articles in this publication are those of the individual authors and may not necessarily by shared by the publishers of No Limits. Any financial or health advice given in No Limits may not be right for your particular case and you should seek your own profession opinion before acting on said advice. Copyright © — The publisher, authors and contributors reserve full copyright of their work as featured in No Limits magazine™.No part of this publication may be copied or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. No Limits magazine is protected by trademark.

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No Limits EXTRAis published by No Limits For Me

ContentsNew Freedom from Self-Defeating BehaviorLetting Go a Little Bit at a TimeLove's Secret Hold on the Human HeartEnter Into The Untroubled NowHow to Use the Power of Inner Storms to Live Stress FreeHarness the Transformation Power in Self-RelianceChoose to Remember the LightTen Causes of Needless HeartachesDevelop the Power of Patience that Perfects Your LifeRealize Your True Self in StillnessYou Can Change the World

Best-selling "Letting Go" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues -- relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom -- and lead the way to a higher life.

Finley is the acclaimed author of The Secret of Letting Go and more than 35 other books and audio programs that have sold over a million copies in 18 languages worldwide. In addition, he has presented over 4,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 25 years and has been a guest on over 600 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, NPR, Wisdom Network, and many others. He is a faculty member at the Omega Institute, is featured in the new hit film Beyond the Law of Attraction, and was recently the Keynote Speaker at the 10th International Conference of Science and Consciousness.

Finley is Director of Life of Learning Foundation, the renowned nonprofit Center for Self-Study in Merlin, Oregon, and over 200,000 people in 142 countries read his popular "Key Lesson" emails each week. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations.

Guy's career reached this point through a circuitous path. Born into a successful show business family, he is the son of late-night TV and radio pioneer, Larry Finley. His childhood friends were the sons and daughters of the most famous celebrities in the world. As a young man, Guy enjoyed success in a number of areas including composing award-winning music for many popular recording artists including Diana Ross, The Jackson 5, Billy Preston, and The Four Seasons, as well as writing the scores for several motion pictures and TV shows. From 1970-1979 he wrote and recorded his own albums under the Motown and RCA recording labels.

Throughout his youth, Guy suspected there was more to life than the type of worldly success that led to the emptiness and frustration he saw among his own "successful" friends and colleagues. In 1979, after travels throughout North America, India, and the Far East in search of truth and higher wisdom, Guy voluntarily retired from his flourishing music career in order to simplify his life and to concentrate on deeper self-studies.

In addition to his writing and appearance schedule, Guy presents four inner-life classes each week at Life of Learning Foundation headquarters in Merlin, Oregon. These classes are ongoing and open to the public.

Source: www.guyfinley.org

About Guy Finley Visit Guy Finleyʼs Website

“Guy Finleyʼs books have helped millions live fuller more peaceful lives.” —Barnes & Noble

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New Freedom from Self-Defeating Behaviorby Guy Finley

An angel has two wings. On each of these wings is written one of these two words: YES and NO. As we are about to learn, these two simple words represent special principles that are the wings of spiritual freedom.

For instance, we must learn to say YES to self-study, prayer, meditation and contemplating God’s great restorative powers. Can you think of other places in your days where learning to say YES to life would help you go higher? For just one example, how about saying YES to those parts of you that know nothing good can come out of judging others for their mistakes, let alone jumping all over yourself!

And we must learn to say NO to those unconscious parts of ourselves that want us to believe that the way our lives have gone is the only way they can go. We must say NO to the lies this lower nature throws at us when it tells us we will lose ourselves if we end that destructive relationship we had been deceived to live in. The truth is it won’t be our life that comes to a close as we walk away from what we now see never worked. No! What will begin to die is the dark nature whose will we had done, because it cannot live in the light of our new wish and inner work to be free.

To help you strengthen the spiritual YES in you, learn to put Truth first, last, and always in your life. This grand YES will grow to have greater and greater meaning to you as you put it into practice. To give you one instance, always say YES to being ruthlessly honest with yourself about yourself. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing, you can always come awake to yourself and remember the truth that there is no truth that is bad for you to know. This knowledge, coupled with your active wish to be free, outweighs any fear that may pop up in you as you observe yourself this way. This remembrance is like liquid gold. It enriches the right parts of you each time you can be aware of yourself through this Aim.

But equally important to taking on this task of saying YES is our inner work of recognizing when and where to say NO. We must never allow

ourselves to forget that there are many sleeping parts of ourselves that secretly feel good while they get us to do wrong! Remember: No form of externalized codependent behavior can exist or exhibit itself without some unseen character at work within us providing it the right conditions it needs for its foul life to flourish. With this in mind, here are some common codependent areas where we all ache (often without knowing it) because we fail to stay awake:

1. Making “peace” with people who would punish us: There are parts of us that would rather be punished by unkind people than have to spend one minute being alone by ourselves, because the only way these same parts in us can exist is if they have someone to resent or somehow fear. In this case we remain in these ruinous relationships because the fear or emptiness we feel in even considering leaving them is felt to be too much to bear on our own. Here’s the Key to escaping this captivity: This fear that we experience does feel real, no doubt; but it belongs to an imagined self. Collecting and then consciously cultivating this new knowledge of ourselves points the way out if we will walk with its truth in our hand.

To begin, walk away from anyone who “helps” you to feel that it is necessary to hurt; leave anyone who causes you pain for “your own good”. Here’s the rule to remember: Never make peace outwardly — or inwardly — with anyone or any psychological state that punishes you. Say NO and go! A whole new and independent life awaits you.

2. Blaming others: Whenever we allow angry parts of us to cast blame upon others for the conditions we find ourselves in, we enable the sleeping nature within us to stay in its dream that if it weren’t for others doing us wrong we would never be so upset and angry, defeated or depressed. The truth is there are unconscious parts of us that readily find fault with others in a misguided effort to remain infallible in their own eyes. Each time we blame someone else we agree to remain asleep in this misery-making mistaken identity. Saying NO to this nature is saying goodbye to a host of imagined enemies this false self needs to remain itself, as well as to a war that can never be won.

3. Complaining about your life: The self that looks out at life and complains about what it sees cannot see that if it weren’t for a false

picture it holds of how things should be, connected with the mistaken sense of self created by clinging to this picture, it wouldn’t have anything to be negative about. The more this nature compares what life isn’t to its own idea of imagined happiness, the more it complains, and the more complaints it makes, the more real it feels. Say NO to this codependent negative nature by learning to choose consciousness over resentfulness.

To speed your journey to freedom from all forms of codependent relationships, it is very helpful to make a list of areas in your life where you find yourself aching for one reason or another. To get you started with this special study of yourself, I have made a short list of suspect places where we tend to fall into wrong relationship with those around us, or with our own familiar thoughts and feelings.

We are in unconscious codependent relationships with others whenever we find ourselves:

1. Meddling in the lives of others or allowing others to tinker with our troubles.

2. Gossiping about anything, but especially taking part in denigrating others we know and otherwise associate with.

3. Standing around and spreading any form of “gloom and doom” either in a casual conversation or in the confines of our own thoughts.

4. Agreeing with the hatred of anyone else for any other person, group, or condition.

5. Taking part in any form of a dark inner dialogue with ourselves about some imagined enemy or otherwise unwanted circumstance.

6. Allowing others to make their problems our own so that we have to carry the weight of their discontentment.

7. Entertaining any thoughts from any source — be they from within ourselves or coming from those outside of us — telling us that our life is without meaning.

What should be clear now is that we have to do a special kind of inner work if we wish to catch and cancel self-harming codependent behavior. It’s not enough to just talk about achieving a good, contented life. Anyone can talk about that, and most do. Few will really do the interior work it takes to be free, which is why we must be different.

We must learn what it means to put the Truth of ourselves before all things. When we will strive to do this one thing, then little by little we will attract to ourselves a higher strength that has no problem saying NO to what has never cared for us. This new NO then becomes a YES to self-wholeness, the secret source of the happiness we have been seeking in all the wrong places.

(an excerpt from Beyond Dependency, The Death of Addiction an e-book)

Letting Go a Little Bit at a Timeby Guy Finley

A young man decided to visit a certain part of a distant country known for its community of uniquely gifted artists. In truth, he felt compelled to go.

Over the last few years a growing sense of feeling strangely incomplete seemed to stalk him, in spite of his many achievements. He felt blocked in some mysterious way, making him feel more like a captive in his own life than the captain of it. And so…the unspoken hope behind his journey was to find someone, something, to help him release the great, but still latent forces he knew lived in his heart. He longed to free himself from what he sensed was keeping him from being able to express his True Self…

Soon after settling in at a small hostel for budget-minded travelers, he found himself out walking through an expansive outdoor bazaar where hundreds of local artisans displayed their works. However, despite the colorful character of the place and its highly animated people, he couldn’t hide the growing sense of disappointment descending on him. Nothing he saw moved him; everything seemed commonplace; just another dead-end. What now?

He kept on walking without even noticing that the hustle and bustle of the bazaar was now far behind him. And that’s when something happened that would forever change his life, although he couldn’t know it at the moment.

He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts about all the wasted years spent searching for some silly “secret,” it’s a wonder he heard anything at all; but just then his ear caught the slightly ringing sound of someone tapping, rapping lightly on something from just on the other side of an old wooden fence. He tried to look through it, but no luck. A moment later, after turning a corner in the fence that lined the cobbled street, he came upon an open gate; he peered inside, taking care not to be seen by whoever was working there.

He was surprised to see a rather small young woman seated there, in an open courtyard, surrounded by dozens of stones of all shapes and sizes.

Her features were soft, and a faded red scarf was tied around her auburn hair.

Set all around her – some on tables, with others freestanding behind her – were various stone sculptures of wild animals, mostly great birds. And though it was obvious these creations were still in various stages of completion, they already exuded a presence that almost pulled him out of his hiding spot and into the courtyard. “What have I stumbled onto here?” he mused to himself, leaning in a little farther to see what else he could.

Just then the young lady stood up, wiped her hands on her work apron, and walked toward one of the larger, darker stones that was perched on a work pedestal of some kind. She moved slowly around it, studying something, until she pulled a little hammer of some sort from out of her apron pocket. He leaned in still a little farther, not wanting to miss whatever was to happen next.

After a further careful examination of one small area on the face of the dark stone set there before her, she rapped it – just once –with her small hammer. She used so little force, he felt sorry for her timidity. Surely, he thought, she must be a novice of some kind; but his eyes couldn’t believe what happened next.

As soon as her blow was delivered dozens of small pieces of the stone broke away, showering the ground with dark fragments. At first he thought she made a mistake and had cracked the whole stone; a moment later he knew otherwise. She had not ruined the stone; instead, somehow, she had released it secret character.

With that one blow she brought into the light not only a beautiful white marble-like material, but had somehow managed to shape the newly revealed stone to resemble the graceful neck of a great swan. He was stunned. What magic was this? His longing to know swept away any concern that he might be seen as an intruder, and he walked into the courtyard saying, “Hello!”

“Hello to you!” she responded in a bright welcoming voice, seemingly unsurprised by his out-of-the-blue entrance.

“Please forgive me,” he went on, “But I was just outside the gate when I couldn’t help see what just happened here. How in the world did you do that with a single blow from your tiny hammer?” He was pointing toward the sculpture of the emerging swan, but she already knew what he meant.

“Oh,” she said…laughing out loud. “I didn’t see you there, but I’m guessing you only watched me work for a few minutes before I struck that last blow, yes?” “Yes,” he said, “that’s right,” nodding his head in agreement…“But still…that doesn’t really explain…”

She interrupted him, “It does you see, but only once you understand that before you began watching me just now, I had delivered hundreds of similar small blows to the exact same spot on that stone. What you just witnessed was the result of many days of careful work coupled with a special kind of quiet consideration.”

Sensing his disbelief at how she was able to strike such a deft blow with seemingly no effort on her part, she continued: “Yes, that’s right,” her eyes smiled at him, letting him know he was about to be told a great secret:

“That’s how all great things are achieved…consistent attention coupled with persistent effort – a little bit at a time – until the right time comes when that work is rewarded…” She looked at him for a moment to see if he had understood. His quiet smile said yes, so she finished her thought:

“Then nothing can stand in the way of what must be released. The practice of this knowledge, in whatever one intends to do, must produce a subsequent revelation that is the heart of liberation itself.”

They shared one more smile between them in the kind of silence that only close friends enjoy. Then they shook hands, and said goodbye.

With consistent attention and persistent effort you can release whatever now stands between you and the freedom for which your heart seeks.

You can let go. Never mind what’s happened in the past; forget whatever your mind tells you can’t be done. You don’t need strength, or even courage to drop those dark thoughts and feelings that have your heart and mind tied down; all you need to shatter any unwanted situation is the willingness to see what’s true and what’s not about you. The truth is, nothing in the Universe can stop you from breaking out of old patterns and starting life over, once you have the right interior tools and know how to use them.

This book is filled with hundreds of powerful small “hammers” – special insights on exactly when and where to apply the liberating light of higher self-awareness – so that, a little at a time, you’re empowered to strike the gentle interior blows that release the truly free and fearless you.

Now, all that’s left to do – to start a whole new chapter of your life – is to turn the page and welcome the light that first reveals, and then releases you to realize your highest possibilities.

Selected quotes from Letting Go a Little Bit at a Time

• When it comes to letting go and growing beyond who and what we have been up until that time, the deal is non-negotiable: first comes our gradual awakening to what no longer works for us, followed by the inner work to release the same. Then, and only then, dawns the discovery and realization of what is – in all cases – a new and higher order of our self; our life is transformed.

• Think of letting go as learning to take part in the breath of life itself, something that is as natural to who you truly are as it is for the sun to shine.

• Our greatest strength isn’t our ability to imagine brighter days ahead, it is that we are empowered – in every present moment – to effortlessly dismiss any dark thought or feeling that, left unattended, diminishes our happiness.

• The relationship you long for – the life of real wisdom, grace, strength, courage, compassion, and love – already lives within you. All that remains

is for you to choose to make this discovery.

• The secret of letting go not only holds the keys for ending what is unwanted, but locked within this same supreme secret is the beginning of your new life – the birth of a new nature that never has to hold on to anything because it is already everything.

• Letting go is the natural release that always follows the realization that holding on hurts.

• Somehow we have become separated from the real intelligence within us that knows better than to punish itself.

• The illusion that others are better, stronger, or wiser than you are – with its painful self-doubt and insecurity – is born of the false perception that you are here on earth to be like someone else.

• In spite of how things may appear to us, we are never trapped by where we are. The trap is always who we are.

• Your true nature cannot be carried away. Whether your emotional seas blow furiously or present a picture-perfect horizon, you remain pleased because now your real pleasure is in your awareness that you are what is constant.

Introduction and Excerpts from Guy Finley’s Book of Inspiring Quotations based on his international bestseller, The Secret of Letting Go(Letting Go a Little Bit at a Time, Llewellyn Publications, 2009)

Love's Secret Hold on the Human Heartby Guy Finley

Seated in the center of the heart, as surely as the essence of a tiny seed holds the promise of a towering tree, lives within us the Presence of a Power that can dispel any gathering darkness, and change what is unkind into conscious compassion. What is this great Presence and Power lying latent within us? It is Love.

No matter who we are, all of us have known some kind of love in our lives. Love has as many forms on this earth as there are human hearts to reflect and reveal her countless expressions. There is the love we may feel for objects and places, the love we know through relationships with those closest to us, and there is the love of excellence, of natural beauty, and of all things shining bright with unfulfilled promise.

But as stirring, fine, and noble as these loves may be, they tell but a small part of a much greater story hidden from plain sight, yet evident to those with "eyes to see"; for just as radiant energy from the sun, which is not the sun itself, reaches down into creation to animate all of its myriad forms, so is it true that behind and above the everyday loves we have known there dwells an abiding Love of a far greater magnitude; an unseen and supernal Love whose emanations make all other loves possible.

It is this higher, Divine Love that teaches us about love in all its forms, initiating us into the mysteries of our own heart by gently wiping away the borders that stand between our love and our beloved, so that two become as one. Beethoven, Rembrandt, Curie, and Einstein -- these and other great souls didn't so much master their respective arts, as much as a great love for their art served to master them. Love educates whoever will embrace her. So it can be for us; to become masters of our own lives we need only learn how to let Love master us.

Each heartache, every disappointment, all crowning moments by which we win or lose the object of our desire -- that at the time seem the very summit or valley of our lives -- each such moment is but one small step along the path that Love has prepared for us to learn her Ways. And that all of us share in these kind of everyday experiences -- whose touch deftly

transforms our collective heart -- proves the point: the Divine Love of which we speak is not meant only for elected sages and hallowed saints. If this were true, then we would have nothing within us to recognize the glow of that small ember in our hearts toward whose warmth and faint light we are drawn. So be assured that where there is an ember, there can also be a flame. And that by the light of such a fire burning in each of our hearts, if we so will it, our world can be as the Divine intended it to be: a realm of reality that has realized the promise and the fulfillment of Love itself.

WHENEVER WE LOVE ANYONE (or some natural moment, creature, or thing) we relate to this, our beloved, through something Unseen. In such moments there must be that which allows us to know our lover: an invisible power that somehow first penetrates the obstructing physical form and then permeates it; one that grants us sweet access to the secret regions of this heart we have now entered — even as we revel in the new depths of ourselves delivered there by this same Love.

So, in many ways yet to be discovered, Love is the secret Third Party in any relationship between two people who are in love. She is their common ground — serving to unite them in a “place” neither may know without the other. And Love acts as a catalyst: creating a whole new sense of oneness from what are the two distinct characters now within Her. Let’s express this same idea from a slightly different vantage point, something more familiar to all of us.

Just as we must enter a sheltering harbor right at sunset if we wish to be held rapt by the sea of golden light spreading itself out before us, so we must first enter Love Herself in order to begin to know love with another. And if all this sounds a bit mysterious, that’s because Love is a Grand Mystery! Love works endlessly in Her mysterious ways to conquer the willing heart, and how each and every one of us — realized or not — is an apprentice of the Heart . . . being prepared by Love for Love.

The classical and great historical Lovers of all ages attest to this essential stage of self-discovery with what often turned out to be nothing less than the sacrifice of their own lives. And anyone who has known such a consuming love knows something of the paradoxical relationship it

requires of its lovers. Within it, personal fulfillment comes in finding ways to further lose yourself — in giving yourself over to that one whose life you’ve found to be the wellspring of your own heart. It is here that apprenticeship of the heart begins.

Gradually, in well-defined stages, Love prepares the heart it wants, and the heart it takes is taught Love.

The heart subdued by Love surrenders itself and becomes storehouse, pump-house, and storage line. It stands between perfect fullness and complete emptiness, filling and being filled by what has made it. Such hearts touch and are touched by the unimaginable miracle of Love. Hearts such as these have no need for hope of tomorrow because each has become the willing subject and domain of Forever.

When we first fall in love with someone we hang on to every word he or she speaks. We don’t miss a thing. We notice how they say what is said, the way they move and to what they are drawn; we note all the little things that please them, or that don’t. Nothing escapes our attention. What is this great desire of ours that so drives us to want to delight the one we love? What the eye can’t see, the heart alone perceives:

According to our wish and willingness to give our love to another, there returns to us — in greater measure than given — the love we have given. It is, quite simply, the secret of the ages: Love rewards the lover.

Isn’t it true? The more we love someone, the more love we come upon in our own being; and the more we experience these elevated states in ourselves, the higher we long to go! But as we all know, visiting such heavens has proven itself perilous; for even while we hope that love will lift us up and into the highest regions of our heart, we also fear the invariable “fall” when love departs and drops us back into a world left twice as dark for her withdrawal.

So keen to us are these recurring cycles of love won and lost, and their sense of loss so unwanted, that when love does come calling again our desire to possess that which we love has become all the greater. In some instances this longing can be overwhelming, and past painful experience

prods us on to find some way to “own” this new love of ours. But, even if this feat were possible, we already have good reason to suspect that merely possessing what we love is impossibly incomplete. For what else have we been gradually learning through our relationships of the heart other than this one fact: we are held ever apart from what we love by the very fact that we would clutch it to our breast.

In our gradual discovery of what love would have us learn, we are gently directed to consider another kind of relationship with love; now we no longer yearn to be its possessor, but rather to be possessed by it. And so emerges, like a newborn infant within us, our first true notion of the idea of a Divine Love. Our earlier inclination to abandon ourselves to Love now becomes our need, for in the light of Love’s revelations we can see, for the first time, how our own hungering identity — once viewed as being essential to our experience of love — is secretly Love’s only impediment… ####

The above is an excerpt from Apprentice of the Heart, by Guy Finley, White Cloud Press, 2004.

Enter Into The Untroubled Nowby Guy Finley

Waking up to ourselves describes a whole new level of being self-aware. We no longer know ourselves simply through the thoughts we have about ourselves, but we can now see these formerly self-defining thoughts as being only one small aspect of who we really are. So it can be said that awakening begins with being able to see that we have been asleep in the state of thought. Looking at this same idea from the other way around, to be spiritually asleep means that we are not conscious of our own thoughts, and are convinced these thoughts and feelings are the same as us. This sleep state has far-reaching implications.

When we don't know we are in thought, then the choices these thoughts make can't be said to be our choices. This discovery explains much about how we often unwittingly choose our own undoing!

Now, add to this insight that our lives move at the speed of our thoughts. Suddenly we can see why we tend to crash as often as we do. There is no real driver aboard! Once this discovery is confirmed in us—through observation of it by a part of us that can see into this thought nature instead of seeing from it—we become interested in making a whole new kind of choice in life. We want to be awake to ourselves more than we want the comfort of the dreams that our thought nature creates. We are willing to invest more of our attention in seeing where we go to sleep to ourselves in ourselves.

When we will come wide awake, bringing ourselves fully into the present moment, thoughts cannot travel into it with us. With even a small willingness on our part to enter the Perfect Present, it is possible for us to experience the consistently new, thought-free, and untroubled Now.

In this higher, timeless realm, we are free not to do what we no longer find worthwhile. For instance, we don't have to relive our past again and again. We don't have to fear the future, because it ceases to exist as a fearful place in the true here and now. With all of this in mind, use the following special lessons and exercises to help you come awake and remain in the untroubled Now.

Whenever you do find you have suddenly come awake to yourself, your first inner task (besides welcoming this awakening) is to work to remain within this self-elevating presence. The difficulty is that this still, small, briefly awake part of you gets quickly overruled and run over by habitually sleeping "I's" effectively returning you back into a state of undetected psychic slumber. This is why, whenever you do find yourself a bit more awake than the moment before— wherever you may be, or whatever you may be doing— deliberately align yourself with this inwardly breaking light. Will yourself over to its will that you be awake. Seek ways to lengthen its stay within you by embracing these moments this awakened-ness has brought you. In other words, do all that you can to stay awake.

One exercise in self-awakening is to begin to see that when certain types of thoughts or feelings pour into you, they bring certain pre-known qualities with them that lull you to sleep in their welcome familiarity. When detecting these agents, voluntarily struggle not to go to sleep. Refuse to recline in the comfort of these habitual states.

Other inner practices may include deliberately speaking with people at an undetected fraction of your normal speed so that while you are conversing, you will start to see and feel inside of yourself a whole host of thoughts never before known by you because of their formerly habitual pace and place within you. Through this now-conscious contrast created by consciously slowing yourself down you will be kept awake and rather than falling to sleep, and into trouble, you will gain new strength and insights into the truth of yourself.

Whenever you can, and as often as you are able (right now for instance,) just come aware of yourself, of that to which you are inwardly connected. This awareness of what you are in relationship with in the moment instantly changes your relationship. Come awake over and over again in this way, and watch how new and higher energies, and their commensurate inner states, make a happy home in you.

Excerpted from Seeker's Guide to Self-Freedom, © by Guy Finley. Published by Llewellyn Publications.

How to Use the Power of Inner Storms to Live Stress Freeby Guy Finley

A Dialogue between Letting Go author Guy Finley and psychologist Dr. Ellen Dickstein

Guy Finley is the founder and director of the non-profit Life of Learning Foundation. He is author of The Essential Laws of Fearless Living and Let Go and Live in the Now plus 30 other books and audio programs in the field of self-transformation. For more information on Guy Finley and to sign up for free weekly email Key Lessons visit www. guyfinley.org

Dr. Ellen Dickstein earned her PhD from Johns Hopkins University and was a tenured professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University. She is a leading authority on stress and anxiety in today’s busy world and is the co-author with Guy Finley of The Intimate Enemy.

ED: Guy, it seems like there are many paradoxes in the spiritual path, and I think there is a lot of confusion because we don't understand our role in the grand universal scheme of Life. One of the paradoxes that you write about quite frequently is that we can learn to use the power concealed within inner storms — negative psychological states, like anger, worry, and fear — to free ourselves from the stress that fills our modern-day lives. To be able to use negativity to end negativity sounds like a skill that would be extremely helpful for most people. Can you explain how a person can use negative states to find the peaceful, successful, stress-free life that we all long for?

GF: We are presently unable to tap the power contained within interior storms for one primary reason: When we are enveloped in an interior storm, we mistakenly believe that there is no difference between ourselves and the negative thoughts and feelings surging inside of us. But the fact is, who we really are — our true Self — sits above the storms that pass through it.Let me ask you a question: if you throw paint into the air, does the air get painted?

ED: Of course not.

GF: Right. Because air and paint have two totally different natures. Another example is light shining from a lighthouse on a dark, stormy night. The higher nature of the light allows it to pass right through rain and wind to ensure the safety of passing ships. In the same way, our true Self cannot be "made" stressful even through stressful thoughts and emotions may be passing through us.

Herein lies a powerful lesson: any time we feel angry, frightened, worried, or stressed, we can realize that we are not the negative thoughts and feelings passing through our minds and hearts. We can awaken to the understanding that our true Self has a different nature and exists in a higher world than those negative energies. And we can use this simple truth to begin to examine exactly how negativity justifies its existence within us.

ED: Can you explain that further?

GF: The first thing we need to understand about interior storms is that they are produced by what I will call "unnatural" opposing forces.

Natural storms are formed on Earth (and in space) when two opposing energies collide with one another. For instance when warm air from the tropics meets a chilly arctic air mass over the North Atlantic, a storm is formed as the two systems exchange hot and cold air and moisture creating wind, waves, clouds and rain. The storm is the evidence of an imbalance that is created as the two systems strive to find equilibrium. In nature, storms are always resolved in a relatively short time because the energies that cause the storm in the first place just plain wear themselves out.

The beauty of natural storms is that they are always positive. Everything that comes out of the natural reconciliation of their forces serves to produce something new — a new form, a new possibility, a new life. Natural storms freshen the air. They nourish trees and polish mountaintops. They wipe clean and renew what was soiled and aged.

ED: So what does all of this have to do with interior storms?

GF: As above, so below.

ED: Can you explain?

GF: Sure. When someone doesn't share our values or ideals related to a particular subject, isn't it our tendency to see that person as being a problem, meaning he or she obviously lacks our level of wisdom, i.e., he's an "idiot", or worse!

ED: Right.

GF: So the values I hold collide with the values they hold. Do you know these moments, Ellen?

ED: Yes. Quite well.

GF: Right, we call it an argument. But isn’t an argument just a collision of forces? Isn’t an argument a storm? And here’s the amazing part: unlike storms in nature, storms inside of human beings aren’t always positive — and don’t always get reconciled.

Any form of resentment for example (which all of us harbor in some degree) is proof of an unnatural, unreconciled storm that serves nothing but negativity.

Another example would be getting stressed over living up to our own, or someone else’s expectations. All stress does is make us hurt, and steals the creative energy we need to accomplish whatever it is we have set out to do. Yet, especially in today’s world, everyone is stressed out. The inherent power contained in colliding energies — i.e. our wish for excellence and the forces that stand in our way — is wasted by our own minds resisting the storm.

This is where it gets exciting. When we see this action at work inside of ourselves, we begin to ask the question, “Why doesn't that storm inside of me produce exactly the same outcome as does nature when she brings

opposing forces together to produce new clarity, purity, freshness, and perfection?”

ED: So the answer to the question is that in nature, opposing forces aren’t resisted, which allows them to be reconciled so that something positive and new can be created. But the human mind resists the healing energy of storms and continues in a cycle of negativity.

GF: Yes. Exactly. We are subject to these storms because there is a part of us — our lower nature — that defines who we are, and how life should go. This lower nature is the cause of our stress because it creates images, clings to them, and works to protect them in spite of how they cause harm to ourselves or to others.

ED: So the very things that we think are valuable and make life valuable — our dreams of how life should go — are the very things that are preventing us from living a true and valuable life.

GF: Yes and the "paradox" isn't that there is anything wrong with one's wish to achieve, to be excellent, to want to develop his or her mind. There is a natural upwelling inside of a human being to pursue excellence. It is natural to want to understand ourselves, deeply and through as many avenues as possible. But at a certain point in our lives we can start to see that there is an inherent limitation in wanting to know ourselves through the world outside of us. And this limitation begins to become clear when we see that all of the storms in our life are connected to our ideas of how we think life should go.

And then one day it dawns on us that these “storms” we experience aren’t coming to take something from us; they are evidence of Life trying to show us where we are resisting Its infinite intelligence. You see, the storms of life and the immense creative energies contained within them, are always producing forms. After all, what is life but energy producing form after form — in an ever more perfect upward transformation?

ED: So, when we begin to see that we suffer from these storms because of all these ideas we hold of ourselves, and we realize that being in a storm — if we deal with it properly — can actually begin to wash away

these images and give us something new and beautiful, then we can actually begin to welcome storms.

GF: Yes. Most of us have heard the passage attributed to St. Paul: "I live and die daily." This statement speaks to an order of ourselves waiting to be realized that doesn't just "live" moment to moment, but that "uses" each and every event in life to die to what is old so that something new and better can be born. All of these ideas we are discussing point to the possibility of a completely different order of relationship with life — where instead of fighting with storms, we learn to use them to wake ourselves out of the dream that is the cause of our conflict with reality — which is the cause of all useless human suffering.

So, instead of allowing the lower self to justify its stress, to blame others, or to judge itself, all of which only accelerates the effect of the storm, we can do something all together new and different: we can expose the whole of our Self to the whole of the storm, and then let the natural, beautiful Intelligence that actually produces these storms, do what it will with us, which is to lead us through a process of transformation into a new and more perfect creature … and that is quite literal!

ED: You've said that every storm passes, and it's true. Even in the unconscious person, eventually they get worn out and the anger, or worry, or resentment goes away (at least for awhile). The real issue seems to be, what am I doing in the moment of the storm to allow it to do its work of transformation?

GF: Yes, that's the whole thing. If we can learn to be storm watchers instead of storm fighters, we have a chance to let the stress in that storm do in our soul what it was always intended to do, which is to strengthen and renew us, to produce inside each of us a whole new Life. ###

"Unpublished writing exclusive to GuyFinleyNow.org, reprinted with permission from the author."

Harness the Transformation Power in Self-Relianceby Guy Finley

Let us investigate what is required of us — what it takes to become New in mind and heart. This true self-transformation requires a new kind of courage to search out and to "stand" in a new place within ourselves. How do we arrive in this new "place"? Those of us who seek the Truth of ourselves, of God's life within us, must search out a whole new order of self-reliance. In order to make the real interior Changes needed, we must agree to test the ground ourselves in a new fashion, and not to question our brother or life for what befalls us. Here's how it works: Through the purifying tests of higher self-reliance we come, surprisingly, to the end of what we can do of ourselves for ourselves. It is only within this rarefied air that we may learn to call upon the Secret Source of ourselves and be refreshed and empowered in its flow. How do we scale these new heights? When finding our self insufficient to the moment's needs, we must not only stop searching for reasons as to why we are the way we are, but we must dare to remain with this unwanted self-awareness. We must not allow negative states to step in, redefine us, and "save" us from our own perceived weakness with a newly contrived self. The unseen Truth hidden in this order of self-reliance is that we may only truly possess what we need to be strong or wise as we are willing to deliberately reach the end of our imagined strength or wisdom. Here begins the Work. We must stand "there," hands open and empty — in supplication to the Cause that brought us thus far. This petition to the Source of ourselves, raised to awareness by our having reached the bottom of what we call "I," is the first step in realizing our Real "I." This Higher order of Self is what we seek within ourselves. This "I" belongs to a part of us that is unlimited. It is the Self we have always been, but have never seen or known.

This is why — if we're ever to find a true and lasting strength — we must cease to dream of powers and realize our temporary inner poverty instead. Powers imagined create imaginary gods. These are false deities who secretly tremble (within us) before their own deception and its work. Only true self-knowledge, the fruit of self-reliance, can detect and deflect these false forces that would play out our lives and steal from us our rightful heritage of being fearless, God-centered individuals. Refusing the illusion of power begins with realizing the real powers inherent in self-reliance.

We only become fully self-reliant when, at last, we are no longer ourselves, but are willing to take our place, consciously, in the inexorable movement of Life. We need never accept defeat as long as we're willing to learn the Truth, for every truth discerned takes us past the self that was stopped.

"Unpublished writing exclusive to GuyFinleyNow.org, reprinted with permission from the author."

Choose to Remember the Lightby Guy Finley

Have you ever had appear in your mind the image of someone who hurt you, or run a whole mental movie about something that didn't work out, so that in recalling the event you actually relived the sense of loss? How does such a painful image seem to stay in the mind, especially given the fact of how much we struggle to make it go away? We all know how it feels to try and "fix" such visitations, where we dream up a new solution, tell ourselves what we should have said, hope that something we can think of will make it go away. Of course none of these answers work for one very good reason. Here is the key to unlocking this continuing conflict.

These unwanted images return again and again as they do because something within us keeps recalling them and drawing them to the forefront of our mind. Perhaps your reaction to this lesson is something like: "Impossible! How can that be true since all I want is to free myself of their painful presence?" The answer is self-evident, even though our present senses dictate otherwise.

Since the truth is we do not have to share a single moment with the memory of anything that we don't want to, this means there is something in our present nature that wants to recall painful past experiences. Such new self-knowledge lends us the light we need to make higher choices for ourselves, based in conscious awareness. Now we can choose to remember what it is that we want to! In other words, rather than allowing ourselves to be drawn into battle with unwanted thoughts or feelings that appear by themselves within our heart and mind, we can do something completely new. We can choose not to focus on what these troubled states want us to; we know that's the road to ruin. Instead we will choose to remember what it is that we want above all else -- the Light of Truth that not only reveals what has been hurting us, but that frees us from these unconscious conditions at the same time.

The Wise Ones have always taught the great gift of remembering the Living Light and the practice of placing ourselves in its presence before we embrace anything else. Of course the elevated nature of this kind of

remembrance in the face of our trials requires our deliberate and conscious willing of it; but, to paraphrase St. Augustine, "My remembrance of thee is really an effect of thee remembering me." Which means that everything about Reality is already set up to help us succeed with our new aim.

So, in that same moment when you realize that something painful from your past has again pressed its way into you, holding you hostage to a hated image or painful regret, here is what to do: right there, right in that Now, instead of capitulating into that familiar state of feeling yourself to be a captive of what this pain tells you that you must remember (along with all of its suggested solutions for ending the suffering), you choose to remember the Light. Here is a quick look at what this new inner action entails.

Instead of being drawn into a struggle with that unwanted sense of conflict, complete with its cast of supporting characters drawn from your past, intentionally withdraw your attention from that stage show. And at the same time as you close the curtain on it, bring all of your reclaimed attention into the Now. Come awake to the sense of your own physical body. Observe what thoughts and feelings are pressing themselves into your awareness and, while working in the Now like this, welcome into you a conscious remembrance of the Light, of God's Life, of the whole truth as best you understand it.

For instance you might work to remember that the Living Light that has no burden, as opposed to identifying with an old bitterness that is itself the burden that it always blames on others. The key, regardless of one's individual approach, is to make interior effort based upon bringing your new self-knowledge into a willing watchfulness. To help get you started, here are a few other suggestions. When an angry thought flashes in your mind, accompanied by the fiery sensations born of recalling some injustice done to you in the past, instead of remembering the resentments this little image stirs in you, turn the tables on it. Bring its little troubled life into your remembrance of that greater presence within you that dwells well beyond its punishing power. Work like this whenever you can and, like a pebble tossed into a deep pond, the ripple effects of that past pain will simply disappear into the healing nature of the Now. Instead of a life

of endless resistance, you will learn the timeless secret of how to replace any form of darkness with the Light you have chosen over it.

Choose to remember the Light. Let it fight for you. Not only will this Living Intelligence lift you above the fray of all that should be forgotten, but it also will guide you back home to a timeless place in yourself where the past no longer dwells. ###

(Excerpted from Let Go and Live in the Now by Guy Finley, Red Wheel/Weiser, 2004)

Ten Causes of Needless Heartachesby Guy Finley

Our lives are meant to be bright, noble, and ever ascending. This promise of our True Potential is made good in us by the fulfillment of our possibilities, and not through the interminable struggle of trying to do what is impossible. Most of our sorrows are the offspring of trying to be something we have no real need to be, in trying to do what cannot - and need not - be done.

The following "10 Causes of Needless Heartaches" reveal how we unknowingly hurt ourselves. Please keep in mind that in each of the ten insights listed below are two key ideas: First, whenever we are goaded into attempting the impossible, we not only suffer defeat but we also strengthen the self that would have us believe it's possible to put out a fire with gasoline.

Second, as we see the fact of these false workings in our mind and heart the only possible solution is to end our participation with their foolish guidance. In other words, our needless heartaches end as we see that the healing we hope for begins with letting go of our unseen relationship with those parts of ourselves responsible for our self-hurting.

Now, let's look at just ten small places in our psychic lives where we are trying to do the impossible and where, as a result of our misunderstanding, we are still sowing and reaping the harvest of frustration and heartache.

1. It is impossible to make others see where they have made a mistake.

2. It is impossible to be carried to a secure and peaceful harbor on a ship crafted by anxiety or fearful feelings.

3. It is impossible to gain real happiness at the expense of the pain of someone else.

4. It is impossible to elevate yourself by pushing another person lower.

5. It is impossible to take advantage of others without living in secret fear of them.

6. It is impossible to realize the God-filled Life as long as we remain filled with ourselves.

7. It is impossible to rise above any fear or worry whose root we have not found to be bur ied somewhere in our own unsuspected misunderstanding.

8. It is impossible to receive forgiveness in life without having learned what it means to freely forgive.

9. It is impossible to wish another person any kind of ill - for any reason - and not be made sick ourselves.

10. It is impossible to hate any condition in life and learn from it at the same time.

See how many ways you can enlarge this list through insights of your own about the ways in which you are being tricked into punishing yourself. This is priceless self-study and it rewards the sincere seeker with a Life free of unnecessary sorrow.

Remember and honor your intention to win Real life by daring to act out the Truths that set you free. This is the challenge and the cost. ###

"Unpublished writing exclusive to GuyFinleyNow.org, reprinted with permission from the author."

Develop the Power of Patience that Perfects Your Lifeby Guy Finley

An essential spiritual force is missing from our lives. We are about to gather ample evidence of this fact, and learn ways to recover this crucial force that we unknowingly give away.

The power we're missing is patience. Real patience is not about waiting for one's expectations to be fulfilled. This is the kind of patience that we have now, and as we will see, it is necessarily filled with impatience; so, it isn't so much that we are actually patient, as it is that we are hanging around, impatiently, waiting for that moment to get what we have hoped for.

This kind of patience is a contrivance. We pretend to have patience while inwardly our own unappeased thoughts and feelings pound on us. What we are about to study are some facts about the true nature of patience, and what it is that we have to acquire ¬– meaning what we have to understand – if there is any chance for any of us to become a different order of human being.

The way our present mind meets life is much like a machine. Most of our lives are spent in automatic reactions to moments where an expectation of ours meets either the fulfillment or the denial of our dreams. We have yet to see that our own conditioned expectations always set us up for a sorrow of some kind or another.

And what a sad state of affairs this is; our hopes are tied to the secret source of our heartaches – not just for our pressing wish to acquire more money, a better house, more respect, another relationship, what have you, but also according to the degree to which we demand that these expectations be met.

What must we do to change our unconscious condition? First, we must get to the point where we see, and admit, our essential powerlessness to provide for ourselves what we believe can make us happy. This is a

necessary stage in our spiritual development: to realize we don't have a clue how to help ourselves become whole. This discovery alone makes it possible for us to learn real patience.

There are many references to the nature of real patience throughout all great scriptures the world over, including both New and Old Testaments. From Luke: "In your patience possess ye your souls." From James: "But let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself." And the last one that I'll mention here comes from Romans 8:24: "For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

What these passages would convey to us is that the true spiritual path can't have anything to do with some imagined quality of consciousness that we can give to ourselves because, for one thing, in the very imagining of that quality, whatever its name, we end up becoming impatient to possess it! This is a vital point: Our desires create an extremely powerful second force in us; and gradually, as we struggle to be seen as we hope others will see us – loving, wise, strong, gentle, and patient – we come unglued! Instead of being patient, kind, and compassionate, we become the opposite: a raging volcano of conflicting desires that finally explodes. Clearly this approach doesn't work.

In order to achieve our hope for what is not seen – a new and true patience, a forgiveness of others that sets us free, whatever that spiritual state may be that we know exists but that eludes us – we must learn something altogether new: We must learn what it means to be patient with what we can no longer do and be. There is an immense difference in this idea versus setting out to win a pleasing identity.

At present, our impatience with what we hope to do or become is born out of a series of mental images and expectations that are created in a mind asleep to its own considerations. From these images we take imagined pleasure and power, without ever coming to understand why we remain unable to manifest these self-pleasing images except under certain favorable conditions.

Here is a whole different idea: We must stop pretending. We must learn a new kind of patience – not with regard to getting what we want, but with those pressing, stressed parts of us that insist we must have (or be) what we want when we want it!

Can we see the difference between these two actions? The former patience is an illusion: the idea that if we are just patient and swallow what we must to get our hands on what we want, that patience will prove itself in the end and we will get our reward. This new and conscious patience that we speak of has nothing to do with the love of things, or of sensations, but with the love of what is True, what is good and graceful, spiritual in nature. It embraces the love of that which cannot be owned outright by any human being but that must be permitted to possess us if we are ever to know its peace-giving and perfectly patient presence.

Inside of this new idea of patience we can begin to understand so much of what has been so elusive for us, including freeing ourselves from this terrible sense of emptiness that always follows having expectations either fulfilled or dashed.

Until we understand and develop a patience born of true and higher self-knowledge, we cannot hope for anything approaching the calm contentment of a fully conscious life. Real patience has nothing to do with that familiar opposite of impatience we tolerate while waiting for what we want. Not wanting to show just how impatient we feel is not the same as being patient.Real patience never feels like a punishment or an enforced morality; it is a pleasurable act born of consciously participating in the process of God's life as it unfolds within us moment-to-moment. Such patience is a natural feature of a life awakened to its real place and role in the cosmos; it is both seed and fruit of a faith that cannot be shaken.To help us grow in the new understanding we need to realize this higher order of ourselves, and to give us a practical way to incorporate some of these higher ideas into our everyday lives, I have designed some special spiritual exercises. Following are five ways that we can work to develop real patience within ourselves:

1. We must develop the patience to let disturbances pass by without picking them up: This means we need to see that the reason we painfully resist any moment of life as it unfolds is that it runs contrary to our present notions of what we need to be happy and free. But the fact is, in spite of all our best ideas, we have never found this freedom from what pains us. Why? Each time we are drawn into a struggle with what disturbs us – meaning that we become identified with it – this struggle strengthens our conviction that our expectation is legitimate. How can the source of what sits behind our suffering liberate us from itself? It can't; but to practice the patience of letting disturbances pass by frees us from both our expectations and their pain.

2. We must develop the patience to be concerned with the character of our own consciousness before we attempt to make over the character of another: We are in everybody's life: Nobody walks by us – not even strangers – to whom we don't give a makeover in our minds. We unconsciously sit in judgment of all we meet. What causes this mechanical reaction in us? Our present nature is limited to knowing itself through what amounts to a constant considering of anyone (and everything) that it perceives to be different from itself. So, this false nature necessarily looks, as a rule, upon the manifestations of others as a disturbance, a disturbance that we don't know what to do with, except for trying to straighten out what has offended us. So, we must learn to patiently observe and consciously bear this part of our nature that gets negative when anyone or anything doesn't match its desire. We need to put this judgmental aspect of ourselves behind us, and that takes patiently learning to ignore its demands that others conform to our expectations. New freedom follows.

3. We must develop the patience to be kind to those who do not care for us as we believe they should: This means that we can no longer do and be someone who meets others with the expectation that unless they give us our proper due, we will have nothing to do with them. What kind of human being is that? This level of self-work takes rigorous self-examination, beginning with wondering why we see some people as foes. The answer is simple: They don't give us the deference we deserve. The unconscious nature that runs us through its resentments would prove, by the pain it produces in us, that others are wrong for being the way they are. Now we know that it is what has to go.

4. We must develop the patience to realize that we are not the only one who suffers: When we are suffering, we are sure that absolutely nobody else endures the kind of pain that we do. So, to consider the suffering of another human being almost never enters into our mind, unless it's self-serving in some way. Then we envision ourselves as a rescuing hero. On the other hand, we can learn to realize that whenever someone we know is angry or anxious, whose heart is aching, that he or she is suffering just as we do. This kind of higher self-awareness awakens compassion. And in this awakened state we are willing to be patient towards both that person in pain, as well as towards the pain in us that this same person has stimulated. 5. We must develop the patience to work for what is True until the truth in our work reveals itself to us: If all that a flower needs to bloom is given to it, how much more so must this be true when it comes to the spiritual education of a soul? If we have hope in things unseen, and work patiently for their fruition in us, how could it be that we wouldn't be given all that we need? Our task is to watch and wait; to do the work it takes to come to the end of that false nature within us under whose impatient influence we presently live. This dark nature is the soil out of which grows a level of self that is insatiable; whereas our True Self, and the true patience in which it is rooted, fulfill and perfect each other for all time.

Let us work to realize that long patience within us that we will need for the long run. Remember: 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. ###

"Unpublished writing exclusive to GuyFinleyNow.org, reprinted with permission from the author."

Realize Your True Self in Stillnessby Guy Finley

Key Lesson: “Fearless comes with the birth of this new understanding: the only reason that life changes as it does is to reveal the secret Goodness underlying those changes.”

To see a great mountain is to see the physical expression of a great principle. To see the expressed form of any such greatness is to stir in us the corresponding principle that already lives within us. This means that part of our pleasure as we gaze at a great mountain, or stand rapt watching an eagle in flight, is a momentary realization of our oneness with that great character we see before us. That power, that purity, such beauty had always been there, living within us, only we had been asleep to its indwelling presence. In this way, nature reminds us that we have forgotten ourselves; each time we see and are touched by the expression of some eternal principle, we catch a sweet glimpse of some aspect of our True Self. How nice.

Within each of us live nobility, kindness, gentleness, and the love that gives rise to all things timelessly good and true. The world exists as it does to help us realize that within us live the eternal principles that give rise to all the forms that we see and to remind us of this immeasurable truth: we are the Ground of all that we see.

The world we see with our eyes is secondary to the world within us that recognizes what it does, else we couldn’t recognize it--we couldn’t “know” it as we do when seeing it. The truth is, as modern physics now affirms, we never “see” anything--that is, we never have any feeling pass through our body, we never see a form of light, we never know a form of psychological darkness--whose existence isn’t already a part of our consciousness, else we wouldn’t be able to know it as we do in this moment.

This finding speaks of a world beyond anything we can imagine with thought, a higher realm within us that we’re meant to be conscious of, but that we just don’t know anything about. This amounts to a prince, a

princess, living out their lives in the castle dungeon because they “forgot” they’re entitled to live as royalty do.

This kind of forgetfulness is a timeless theme running through all classic spiritual literature. Whether it is the sleeping masses depicted in Eastern traditions, or the wakefulness or the watchfulness asked for by the Christ and Buddha, the case remains the same: perhaps we walk by a beautiful cherry blossom with its delicate fragrance budding on a tree, but we have no awareness of it. Its fleeting sweetness--meant to stir and awaken within us our interior counterpart of an everlasting sweetness--is lost to us. Why? We aren’t there in the moment to receive the message.

We have lost the relationship between what we see with our eyes and the registration of it as an aspect of our own True Nature because we don’t see what we see; instead we think about what we see. And when we think about what we see, what we receive is the content of thought that has stored that experience. We don’t receive what is real, alive, changing, creative, and forceful. Instead, we dine upon ourselves, and it is a fool’s feast.

There is one great principle that underpins a common thread found running through all world religions, because within it we find the secret foundation of all true religious experience. In Psalms 46:10 we are told, “Be still and know that I am God.” Allow me to paraphrase this Divine invitation and ultimate spiritual instruction.

Be still: Cease from thinking about what you see, and know--without thinking about it--that no real distance exists between the seer and the seen. The beauty or ugliness you see, near or far, is none other than Self.

and know: Realize that there is no real distinction between what you perceive about something and what you receive from it in the same moment. Life is a reflection of the consciousness that reveals it. Nothing else exists outside of this.

that I am God: I am not just the life source of all that has been or ever will be seen, but I am the seer as well that dwells within you. Your True Self is seer and seen at once and “that” . . . am I, and more.

What this teaches us is that a direct relationship exists between our potential to be still and what is possible for us to receive and realize about ourselves in that stillness. And there is no limit to these interior discoveries, because the depth and breadth of our True Self is without boundaries of any kind.

Ours is the gift to know that the universe we gaze at--the star-studded sky with its infinite galaxies--lives within us. Its ceaseless creation--still taking place in a continual genesis--is ours to midwife, nourish, and help see to its endless perfection. To be made “in the image of God” isn’t just a sentimental idea; it is a Divine duty.

Whenever we quietly look up at a night sky and love the timeless feeling of it, what we really love is being our timeless Self for that moment. We couldn’t love what was eternal unless something of that eternity was already living within us. We receive the love we give in that moment, and our world is made anew.

When we stand on the ocean shore, silently seeing the expansive waters spread out before us, we enter into their depths. Where is the true deep if not within the consciousness that reflects it? What is timeless, what is unfathomable does not reside outside of us. It dwells in the center of us; it is our True Self. We plumb the unknown worlds within ourselves, and the lands we explore are reclaimed by the Light that reveals them.

Stillness is the path of revelation; no other path to the truth of yourself exists, because the freedom you long to be is found only in one place: within your awareness of the flowering of God’s life endlessly releasing itself through rebirth. True self-realization is the unending revelation of God’s life as your own.

Be still and be free.

(Excerpted from The Essential Laws of Fearless Living by Guy Finley, 2008)

You Can Change the Worldby Guy Finley

A great secret rests inside the heart of every human being:

Each of us is created with the power to change the whole world.

Every human being is born into this world with a nascent interior light. We can think of this light as the power of higher conscience by whose compassionate intelligence we learn to discern what is helpful from what is harmful — to intuitively know the difference between what is good and true, and what is dark and destructive.

When we do our part to make this power active within us, we begin to realize the great truth that nothing on Earth has the power hurt us. After all, how can any negative force prevail if the light of conscience reveals its unsavory character before it begins its punishing action? Just think of the promise in such a power! Fear, stress, worry, anger, regret, and resentment could hold no sway over our hearts and minds. We are liberated to do what is right and loving in any moment we choose — no matter the circumstances life brings our way.

Now, you may ask, “That’s a wonderful idea, but what does my own higher conscience have to do with changing the world?”

In a word, everything! Consider this: Is there any spec speck of light anywhere in the universe that isn’t part of all the light in the universe? The answer is “no.” Our own common sense, ancient wise philosophers, and modern Quantum physicists all agree: Light is timeless and indivisible.Ancient wise philosophers, modern Quantum physicists, and our own common sense all agree : Light is timeless and indivisible.

Building on this truth, let’s ask another important question: Is there any spec speck of darkness anywhere in the universe that isn’t part of darkness everywhere in the universe? Again, the answer is evident. For instance, is the dark hatred or fear that consumes a soul in Britain any different in nature from a similar dark state that consumes someone in Brazil — even though the two are thousands of miles apart? We can clearly see that they are both part of the same darkness.

Now, here’s why this idea is exciting to those of us who truly wish to change the world: If we bring light into any darkness anywhere, is not darkness everywhere made less? Mustn’t even the tiniest bit of light added to even the greatest darkness leave that same darkness not so impenetrable? The answer is a brilliant yes!

Once we agree to actualize the Living Light in our own individual life, everything around us, including those things beyond the sphere of our awareness, is altered in its fundamental makeup. Negating even the smallest negative positively changes the whole of reality. All that’s required to realize this promising fact in our life, is that we first understand the possibility of changing the world, and then make the specialized interior effort to effect this grand transformation of life. . . .

And here’s exactly how we do it: we no longer allow ourselves to identify with any negative state, regardless of why that state tells us we must embrace its painful presence. We must become as ruthless in detecting and rejecting dark thoughts and feelings as they have been ruthless in wrecking our lives.

Each time we say “I” to what is destructive or corruptive in us, we actually incorporate and reinforce that same dark state. For example, when we say, “I am angry,” or “I am stressed out,” we literally give consent for the dark force of anger or stress to live inside of us. We become the embodiment of the negative state, and it strengthens its hold on our heart and mind. I know this may seem like a radical idea, but if we observe this process in action, we find that it’s absolutely true.

Whenever we identify with negative forces, we unknowingly provide them with two conditions they can’t otherwise have: First, we give these chaotic states a place to appear within a plane of reality to which they ordinarily have no other access. And second, at the same time, we lend them the vital life energies they must have to sustain their life-draining presence within our psychic system.

There is great power contained in this new understanding, for when we refuse to supply negative states with the vehicle and the life force they need to survive, they cannot flourish. Withdraw water from where weeds grow, and they will wither; it’s a natural law. So, if we wish to end the

relationship with what compromises us, we are only required to do one thing: we must no longer lend ourselves to the will of any dark state looking to use us as its vehicle.

This means that in moments of trial, our first task is to wake up, become fully aware of ourselves, and then dare to do the light thing. Here are five simple exercises that you can use to prove this powerful universal principle to yourself:

1. Help make the life of someone else go a little easier in spite of it making yours go a little harder.2. Refuse to criticize yourself — or anyone else — for not living up to your expectations.3. Give no voice to any part of you that wants to complain about anything.4. Catch yourself in a dead run to get something done and voluntarily drop out of the race by deliberately assuming a casual pace.5. Take one difficult moment and use it as a place to start all over instead of a time to sink into self-pity.

By practicing with these five exercises, you will discover the great power behind the principle of not giving life to negative states. You will begin to see how when we do the work to change ourselves, the whole of life begins to the change for the better. Our health improves, our relationships improve, and we begin to realize our part in the great work of becoming a brighter and brighter embodiment of the light of the world. ###

"Unpublished writing exclusive to GuyFinleyNow.org, reprinted with permission from the author."

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