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Guy Finley
Selected Articles
Guy Finley Selected Articles
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Contents
New Freedom from Self-Defeating Behavior
Letting Go a Little Bit at a Time
Love's Secret Hold on the Human Heart
Enter Into The Untroubled Now
How to Use the Power of Inner Storms to Live Stress Free
Harness the Transformation Power in Self-Reliance
Choose to Remember the Light
Ten Causes of Needless Heartaches
Develop the Power of Patience that Perfects Your Life
Realize Your True Self in Stillness
You Can Change the World
About Guy Finley
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.
Visit Guy Finleyʼs Website
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
“Guy Finleyʼs books have
helped millions live fuller
more peaceful lives.”
—Barnes & Noble
Discover for yourself

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 More Information > >
recording labels.
New Freedom from Self-Defeating Behavior 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
by Guy Finley
externalized codependent behavior can exist or exhibit itself without some
unseen character at work within us providing it the right conditions it
An angel has two wings. On each of these wings is written one of these
needs for its foul life to flourish. With this in mind, here are some common
two words: YES and NO. As we are about to learn, these two simple
codependent areas where we all ache (often without knowing it) because
words represent special principles that are the wings of spiritual freedom.
we fail to stay awake:
For instance, we must learn to say YES to self-study, prayer, meditation
1. Making “peace” with people who would punish us: There are parts of us
and contemplating God’s great restorative powers. Can you think of other
that would rather be punished by unkind people than have to spend one
places in your days where learning to say YES to life would help you go
minute being alone by ourselves, because the only way these same parts
higher? For just one example, how about saying YES to those parts of
in us can exist is if they have someone to resent or somehow fear. In this
you that know nothing good can come out of judging others for their
case we remain in these ruinous relationships because the fear or
mistakes, let alone jumping all over yourself!
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
And we must learn to say NO to those unconscious parts of ourselves
that we experience does feel real, no doubt; but it belongs to an imagined
that want us to believe that the way our lives have gone is the only way
self. Collecting and then consciously cultivating this new knowledge of
they can go. We must say NO to the lies this lower nature throws at us
ourselves points the way out if we will walk with its truth in our hand.
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
To begin, walk away from anyone who “helps” you to feel that it is
life that comes to a close as we walk away from what we now see never
necessary to hurt; leave anyone who causes you pain for “your own
worked. No! What will begin to die is the dark nature whose will we had
good”. Here’s the rule to remember: Never make peace outwardly — or
done, because it cannot live in the light of our new wish and inner work to
inwardly — with anyone or any psychological state that punishes you. Say
be free.
NO and go! A whole new and independent life awaits you.
To help you strengthen the spiritual YES in you, learn to put Truth first,
2. Blaming others: Whenever we allow angry parts of us to cast blame
last, and always in your life. This grand YES will grow to have greater and
upon others for the conditions we find ourselves in, we enable the
greater meaning to you as you put it into practice. To give you one
sleeping nature within us to stay in its dream that if it weren’t for others
instance, always say YES to being ruthlessly honest with yourself about
doing us wrong we would never be so upset and angry, defeated or
yourself. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing, you can
depressed. The truth is there are unconscious parts of us that readily find
always come awake to yourself and remember the truth that there is no
fault with others in a misguided effort to remain infallible in their own eyes.
truth that is bad for you to know. This knowledge, coupled with your active
Each time we blame someone else we agree to remain asleep in this
wish to be free, outweighs any fear that may pop up in you as you
misery-making mistaken identity. Saying NO to this nature is saying
observe yourself this way. This remembrance is like liquid gold. It
goodbye to a host of imagined enemies this false self needs to remain
enriches the right parts of you each time you can be aware of yourself
itself, as well as to a war that can never be won.
through this Aim.
3. Complaining about your life: The self that looks out at life and
But equally important to taking on this task of saying YES is our inner
complains about what it sees cannot see that if it weren’t for a false
work of recognizing when and where to say NO. We must never allow
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:
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)

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.
Letting Go a Little Bit at a Time Her features were soft, and a faded red scarf was tied around her auburn
hair.
by Guy Finley
Set all around her – some on tables, with others freestanding behind her
A young man decided to visit a certain part of a distant country known for
– were various stone sculptures of wild animals, mostly great birds. And
its community of uniquely gifted artists. In truth, he felt compelled to go.
though it was obvious these creations were still in various stages of
completion, they already exuded a presence that almost pulled him out of
Over the last few years a growing sense of feeling strangely incomplete
his hiding spot and into the courtyard. “What have I stumbled onto here?”
seemed to stalk him, in spite of his many achievements. He felt blocked in
he mused to himself, leaning in a little farther to see what else he could.
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
Just then the young lady stood up, wiped her hands on her work apron,
to find someone, something, to help him release the great, but still latent
and walked toward one of the larger, darker stones that was perched on a
forces he knew lived in his heart. He longed to free himself from what he
work pedestal of some kind. She moved slowly around it, studying
sensed was keeping him from being able to express his True Self…
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
Soon after settling in at a small hostel for budget-minded travelers, he
whatever was to happen next.
found himself out walking through an expansive outdoor bazaar where
hundreds of local artisans displayed their works. However, despite the
After a further careful examination of one small area on the face of the
colorful character of the place and its highly animated people, he couldn’t
dark stone set there before her, she rapped it – just once –with her small
hide the growing sense of disappointment descending on him. Nothing he
hammer. She used so little force, he felt sorry for her timidity. Surely, he
saw moved him; everything seemed commonplace; just another dead-
thought, she must be a novice of some kind; but his eyes couldn’t believe
end. What now?
what happened next.
He kept on walking without even noticing that the hustle and bustle of the
As soon as her blow was delivered dozens of small pieces of the stone
bazaar was now far behind him. And that’s when something happened
broke away, showering the ground with dark fragments. At first he thought
that would forever change his life, although he couldn’t know it at the
she made a mistake and had cracked the whole stone; a moment later he
moment.
knew otherwise. She had not ruined the stone; instead, somehow, she
had released it secret character.
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
With that one blow she brought into the light not only a beautiful white
all; but just then his ear caught the slightly ringing sound of someone
marble-like material, but had somehow managed to shape the newly
tapping, rapping lightly on something from just on the other side of an old
revealed stone to resemble the graceful neck of a great swan. He was
wooden fence. He tried to look through it, but no luck. A moment later,
stunned. What magic was this? His longing to know swept away any
after turning a corner in the fence that lined the cobbled street, he came
concern that he might be seen as an intruder, and he walked into the
upon an open gate; he peered inside, taking care not to be seen by
courtyard saying, “Hello!”
whoever was working there.
“Hello to you!” she responded in a bright welcoming voice, seemingly
He was surprised to see a rather small young woman seated there, in an
unsurprised by his out-of-the-blue entrance.
open courtyard, surrounded by dozens of stones of all shapes and sizes.
“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 Heart transforms our collective heart -- proves the point: the Divine Love of
which we speak is not meant only for elected sages and hallowed saints.
by Guy Finley
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
Seated in the center of the heart, as surely as the essence of a tiny seed
light we are drawn. So be assured that where there is an ember, there
holds the promise of a towering tree, lives within us the Presence of a
can also be a flame. And that by the light of such a fire burning in each of
Power that can dispel any gathering darkness, and change what is unkind
our hearts, if we so will it, our world can be as the Divine intended it to be:
into conscious compassion. What is this great Presence and Power lying
a realm of reality that has realized the promise and the fulfillment of Love
latent within us? It is Love.
itself.
No matter who we are, all of us have known some kind of love in our
WHENEVER WE LOVE ANYONE (or some natural moment, creature, or
lives. Love has as many forms on this earth as there are human hearts to
thing) we relate to this, our beloved, through something Unseen. In such
reflect and reveal her countless expressions. There is the love we may
moments there must be that which allows us to know our lover: an
feel for objects and places, the love we know through relationships with
invisible power that somehow first penetrates the obstructing physical
those closest to us, and there is the love of excellence, of natural beauty,
form and then permeates it; one that grants us sweet access to the secret
and of all things shining bright with unfulfilled promise.
regions of this heart we have now entered — even as we revel in the new
depths of ourselves delivered there by this same Love.
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
So, in many ways yet to be discovered, Love is the secret Third Party in
with "eyes to see"; for just as radiant energy from the sun, which is not the
any relationship between two people who are in love. She is their
sun itself, reaches down into creation to animate all of its myriad forms, so
common ground — serving to unite them in a “place” neither may know
is it true that behind and above the everyday loves we have known there
without the other. And Love acts as a catalyst: creating a whole new
dwells an abiding Love of a far greater magnitude; an unseen and
sense of oneness from what are the two distinct characters now within
supernal Love whose emanations make all other loves possible.
Her. Let’s express this same idea from a slightly different vantage point,
something more familiar to all of us.
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
Just as we must enter a sheltering harbor right at sunset if we wish to be
borders that stand between our love and our beloved, so that two become
held rapt by the sea of golden light spreading itself out before us, so we
as one. Beethoven, Rembrandt, Curie, and Einstein -- these and other
must first enter Love Herself in order to begin to know love with another.
great souls didn't so much master their respective arts, as much as a
And if all this sounds a bit mysterious, that’s because Love is a Grand
great love for their art served to master them. Love educates whoever will
Mystery! Love works endlessly in Her mysterious ways to conquer the
embrace her. So it can be for us; to become masters of our own lives we
willing heart, and how each and every one of us — realized or not — is an
need only learn how to let Love master us.
apprentice of the Heart . . . being prepared by Love for Love.
Each heartache, every disappointment, all crowning moments by which
The classical and great historical Lovers of all ages attest to this essential
we win or lose the object of our desire -- that at the time seem the very
stage of self-discovery with what often turned out to be nothing less than
summit or valley of our lives -- each such moment is but one small step
the sacrifice of their own lives. And anyone who has known such a
along the path that Love has prepared for us to learn her Ways. And that
consuming love knows something of the paradoxical relationship it
all of us share in these kind of everyday experiences -- whose touch deftly
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:
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.

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
Enter Into 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
by Guy Finley
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
Waking up to ourselves describes a whole new level of being self-aware.
sleeping "I's" effectively returning you back into a state of undetected
We no longer know ourselves simply through the thoughts we have about
psychic slumber. This is why, whenever you do find yourself a bit more
ourselves, but we can now see these formerly self-defining thoughts as
awake than the moment before— wherever you may be, or whatever you
being only one small aspect of who we really are. So it can be said that
may be doing— deliberately align yourself with this inwardly breaking
awakening begins with being able to see that we have been asleep in the
light. Will yourself over to its will that you be awake. Seek ways to
state of thought. Looking at this same idea from the other way around, to
lengthen its stay within you by embracing these moments this awakened-
be spiritually asleep means that we are not conscious of our own
ness has brought you. In other words, do all that you can to stay awake.
thoughts, and are convinced these thoughts and feelings are the same as
us. This sleep state has far-reaching implications.
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
When we don't know we are in thought, then the choices these thoughts
qualities with them that lull you to sleep in their welcome familiarity. When
make can't be said to be our choices. This discovery explains much about
detecting these agents, voluntarily struggle not to go to sleep. Refuse to
how we often unwittingly choose our own undoing!
recline in the comfort of these habitual states.
Now, add to this insight that our lives move at the speed of our thoughts.
Other inner practices may include deliberately speaking with people at an
Suddenly we can see why we tend to crash as often as we do. There is
undetected fraction of your normal speed so that while you are
no real driver aboard! Once this discovery is confirmed in us—through
conversing, you will start to see and feel inside of yourself a whole host of
observation of it by a part of us that can see into this thought nature
thoughts never before known by you because of their formerly habitual
instead of seeing from it—we become interested in making a whole new
pace and place within you. Through this now-conscious contrast created
kind of choice in life. We want to be awake to ourselves more than we
by consciously slowing yourself down you will be kept awake and rather
want the comfort of the dreams that our thought nature creates. We are
than falling to sleep, and into trouble, you will gain new strength and
willing to invest more of our attention in seeing where we go to sleep to
insights into the truth of yourself.
ourselves in ourselves.
Whenever you can, and as often as you are able (right now for instance,)
When we will come wide awake, bringing ourselves fully into the present
just come aware of yourself, of that to which you are inwardly connected.
moment, thoughts cannot travel into it with us. With even a small
This awareness of what you are in relationship with in the moment
willingness on our part to enter the Perfect Present, it is possible for us to
instantly changes your relationship. Come awake over and over again in
experience the consistently new, thought-free, and untroubled Now.
this way, and watch how new and higher energies, and their
commensurate inner states, make a happy home in you.
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
Excerpted from Seeker's Guide to Self-Freedom, © by Guy Finley.
fearful place in the true here and now. With all of this in mind, use the
Published by Llewellyn Publications.
following special lessons and exercises to help you come awake and
remain in the untroubled Now.
How to Use the Power of Inner Storms to Live
Stress Free
by 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-
Reliance
by 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.
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.

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.
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."

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.
Choose to Remember the Light remembrance in the face of our trials requires our deliberate and
conscious willing of it; but, to paraphrase St. Augustine, "My
by Guy Finley
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
Have you ever had appear in your mind the image of someone who hurt
with our new aim.
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
So, in that same moment when you realize that something painful from
does such a painful image seem to stay in the mind, especially given the
your past has again pressed its way into you, holding you hostage to a
fact of how much we struggle to make it go away? We all know how it
hated image or painful regret, here is what to do: right there, right in that
feels to try and "fix" such visitations, where we dream up a new solution,
Now, instead of capitulating into that familiar state of feeling yourself to be
tell ourselves what we should have said, hope that something we can
a captive of what this pain tells you that you must remember (along with
think of will make it go away. Of course none of these answers work for
all of its suggested solutions for ending the suffering), you choose to
one very good reason. Here is the key to unlocking this continuing
remember the Light. Here is a quick look at what this new inner action
conflict.
entails.
These unwanted images return again and again as they do because
Instead of being drawn into a struggle with that unwanted sense of
something within us keeps recalling them and drawing them to the
conflict, complete with its cast of supporting characters drawn from your
forefront of our mind. Perhaps your reaction to this lesson is something
past, intentionally withdraw your attention from that stage show. And at
like: "Impossible! How can that be true since all I want is to free myself of
the same time as you close the curtain on it, bring all of your reclaimed
their painful presence?" The answer is self-evident, even though our
attention into the Now. Come awake to the sense of your own physical
present senses dictate otherwise.
body. Observe what thoughts and feelings are pressing themselves into
your awareness and, while working in the Now like this, welcome into you
Since the truth is we do not have to share a single moment with the
a conscious remembrance of the Light, of God's Life, of the whole truth as
memory of anything that we don't want to, this means there is something
best you understand it.
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
For instance you might work to remember that the Living Light that has no
ourselves, based in conscious awareness. Now we can choose to
burden, as opposed to identifying with an old bitterness that is itself the
remember what it is that we want to! In other words, rather than allowing
burden that it always blames on others. The key, regardless of one's
ourselves to be drawn into battle with unwanted thoughts or feelings that
individual approach, is to make interior effort based upon bringing your
appear by themselves within our heart and mind, we can do something
new self-knowledge into a willing watchfulness. To help get you started,
completely new. We can choose not to focus on what these troubled
here are a few other suggestions. When an angry thought flashes in your
states want us to; we know that's the road to ruin. Instead we will choose
mind, accompanied by the fiery sensations born of recalling some
to remember what it is that we want above all else -- the Light of Truth
injustice done to you in the past, instead of remembering the resentments
that not only reveals what has been hurting us, but that frees us from
this little image stirs in you, turn the tables on it. Bring its little troubled life
these unconscious conditions at the same time.
into your remembrance of that greater presence within you that dwells
well beyond its punishing power. Work like this whenever you can and,
The Wise Ones have always taught the great gift of remembering the
like a pebble tossed into a deep pond, the ripple effects of that past pain
Living Light and the practice of placing ourselves in its presence before
will simply disappear into the healing nature of the Now. Instead of a life
we embrace anything else. Of course the elevated nature of this kind of
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 Heartaches 5. It is impossible to take advantage of others without living in secret fear
of them.
by Guy Finley
6. It is impossible to realize the God-filled Life as long as we remain filled
Our lives are meant to be bright, noble, and ever ascending. This promise
with ourselves.
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
7. It is impossible to rise above any fear or worry whose root we have not
is impossible. Most of our sorrows are the offspring of trying to be
found to be buried somewhere in our own unsuspected
something we have no real need to be, in trying to do what cannot - and
misunderstanding.
need not - be done.
8. It is impossible to receive forgiveness in life without having learned
The following "10 Causes of Needless Heartaches" reveal how we
what it means to freely forgive.
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
9. It is impossible to wish another person any kind of ill - for any reason -
into attempting the impossible, we not only suffer defeat but we also
and not be made sick ourselves.
strengthen the self that would have us believe it's possible to put out a fire
with gasoline.
10. It is impossible to hate any condition in life and learn from it at the
same time.
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
See how many ways you can enlarge this list through insights of your own
guidance. In other words, our needless heartaches end as we see that
about the ways in which you are being tricked into punishing yourself.
the healing we hope for begins with letting go of our unseen relationship
This is priceless self-study and it rewards the sincere seeker with a Life
with those parts of ourselves responsible for our self-hurting.
free of unnecessary sorrow.
Now, let's look at just ten small places in our psychic lives where we are
Remember and honor your intention to win Real life by daring to act out
trying to do the impossible and where, as a result of our
the Truths that set you free. This is the challenge and the cost. ###
misunderstanding, we are still sowing and reaping the harvest of
frustration and heartache.
"Unpublished writing exclusive to GuyFinleyNow.org, reprinted with
1. It is impossible to make others see where they have made a mistake.
permission from the author."
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.

Develop the Power of Patience that Perfects
Your Life
by 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 Stillness princess, living out their lives in the castle dungeon because they “forgot”
they’re entitled to live as royalty do.
by Guy Finley
This kind of forgetfulness is a timeless theme running through all classic
Key Lesson: “Fearless comes with the birth of this new
spiritual literature. Whether it is the sleeping masses depicted in Eastern
understanding: the only reason that life changes as it does is to
traditions, or the wakefulness or the watchfulness asked for by the Christ
reveal the secret Goodness underlying those changes.”
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
To see a great mountain is to see the physical expression of a great
no awareness of it. Its fleeting sweetness--meant to stir and awaken
principle. To see the expressed form of any such greatness is to stir in us
within us our interior counterpart of an everlasting sweetness--is lost to
the corresponding principle that already lives within us. This means that
us. Why? We aren’t there in the moment to receive the message.
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
We have lost the relationship between what we see with our eyes and the
that great character we see before us. That power, that purity, such
registration of it as an aspect of our own True Nature because we don’t
beauty had always been there, living within us, only we had been asleep
see what we see; instead we think about what we see. And when we think
to its indwelling presence. In this way, nature reminds us that we have
about what we see, what we receive is the content of thought that has
forgotten ourselves; each time we see and are touched by the expression
stored that experience. We don’t receive what is real, alive, changing,
of some eternal principle, we catch a sweet glimpse of some aspect of our
creative, and forceful. Instead, we dine upon ourselves, and it is a fool’s
True Self. How nice.
feast.
Within each of us live nobility, kindness, gentleness, and the love that
There is one great principle that underpins a common thread found
gives rise to all things timelessly good and true. The world exists as it
running through all world religions, because within it we find the secret
does to help us realize that within us live the eternal principles that give
foundation of all true religious experience. In Psalms 46:10 we are told,
rise to all the forms that we see and to remind us of this immeasurable
“Be still and know that I am God.” Allow me to paraphrase this Divine
truth: we are the Ground of all that we see.
invitation and ultimate spiritual instruction.
The world we see with our eyes is secondary to the world within us that
Be still: Cease from thinking about what you see, and know--without
recognizes what it does, else we couldn’t recognize it--we couldn’t “know”
thinking about it--that no real distance exists between the seer and the
it as we do when seeing it. The truth is, as modern physics now affirms,
seen. The beauty or ugliness you see, near or far, is none other than Self.
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
and know: Realize that there is no real distinction between what you
psychological darkness--whose existence isn’t already a part of our
perceive about something and what you receive from it in the same
consciousness, else we wouldn’t be able to know it as we do in this
moment. Life is a reflection of the consciousness that reveals it. Nothing
moment.
else exists outside of this.
This finding speaks of a world beyond anything we can imagine with
that I am God: I am not just the life source of all that has been or ever will
thought, a higher realm within us that we’re meant to be conscious of, but
be seen, but I am the seer as well that dwells within you. Your True Self is
that we just don’t know anything about. This amounts to a prince, a
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 World 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
by Guy Finley
darkness everywhere made less? Mustn’t even the tiniest bit of light
added to even the greatest darkness leave that same darkness not so
A great secret rests inside the heart of every human being:
impenetrable? The answer is a brilliant yes!
Each of us is created with the power to change the whole world.
Once we agree to actualize the Living Light in our own individual life,
everything around us, including those things beyond the sphere of our
Every human being is born into this world with a nascent interior light. We
awareness, is altered in its fundamental makeup. Negating even the
can think of this light as the power of higher conscience by whose
smallest negative positively changes the whole of reality. All that’s
compassionate intelligence we learn to discern what is helpful from what
required to realize this promising fact in our life, is that we first understand
is harmful — to intuitively know the difference between what is good and
the possibility of changing the world, and then make the specialized
true, and what is dark and destructive.
interior effort to effect this grand transformation of life. . . .
When we do our part to make this power active within us, we begin to
And here’s exactly how we do it: we no longer allow ourselves to identify
realize the great truth that nothing on Earth has the power hurt us. After
with any negative state, regardless of why that state tells us we must
all, how can any negative force prevail if the light of conscience reveals its
embrace its painful presence. We must become as ruthless in detecting
unsavory character before it begins its punishing action? Just think of the
and rejecting dark thoughts and feelings as they have been ruthless in
promise in such a power! Fear, stress, worry, anger, regret, and
wrecking our lives.
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
Each time we say “I” to what is destructive or corruptive in us, we actually
matter the circumstances life brings our way.
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
Now, you may ask, “That’s a wonderful idea, but what does my own
dark force of anger or stress to live inside of us. We become the
higher conscience have to do with changing the world?”
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
In a word, everything! Consider this: Is there any spec speck of light
process in action, we find that it’s absolutely true.
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
Whenever we identify with negative forces, we unknowingly provide them
modern Quantum physicists all agree: Light is timeless and
with two conditions they can’t otherwise have: First, we give these chaotic
indivisible.Ancient wise philosophers, modern Quantum physicists, and
states a place to appear within a plane of reality to which they ordinarily
our own common sense all agree : Light is timeless and indivisible.
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
Building on this truth, let’s ask another important question: Is there any
within our psychic system.
spec speck of darkness anywhere in the universe that isn’t part of
darkness everywhere in the universe? Again, the answer is evident. For
There is great power contained in this new understanding, for when we
instance, is the dark hatred or fear that consumes a soul in Britain any
refuse to supply negative states with the vehicle and the life force they
different in nature from a similar dark state that consumes someone in
need to survive, they cannot flourish. Withdraw water from where weeds
Brazil — even though the two are thousands of miles apart? We can
grow, and they will wither; it’s a natural law. So, if we wish to end the
clearly see that they are both part of the same darkness.
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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