Lessons for Living: What Only Adversity Can Teach You

Being emotionally independent doesn’t mean you don’t care about others or don’t need them, just that you don’t rely on them to give you things you can only give yourself.

world. The definition of love is that it accepts everything. If you can send love to someone you hate then you can embrace anything in life. You have experienced real love. Not until then can you activate the higher world.

There is always a point when we resent the effort we have to make and want to quit. Paradoxically, these dark moments are what give us the opportunity to develop faith. If during these times of demoralization when the outer world promises nothing you find the will to push yourself forward, you are relying on higher, inner forces. That is faith. As

The meaning of life, with all its pain, becomes comprehensible when you realize that you go out into the world to develop a relationship with yourself.

The second type is called reactive discipline. It’s the ability to control your reactions to the events that bombard you all day. If you’re a sugar junkie and someone offers you a cookie, you need reactive discipline to refuse. If someone cuts you off in traffic, you need reactive discipline to keep from responding with rage. When you lose control,

Just to say this plainly: human beings can never be made happy by the material world. We are spiritual beings and can be emotionally healthy only when we are in touch with a higher world. We need higher forces just as we need air. This is not abstract philosophy, it is a description of our nature. But it requires constant work to stay in touch with

As destructive as these patterns are, they are very hard to change. The moment we deny ourselves some gratification, we feel deprived. Part X appeals to our selfishness, telling us we should never have to feel deprived. The only way to fight this is to have an equally selfish reason not to give in to our impulses. In other words, we need to find a

In the long run, life is intolerable without faith.

The intelligence of the will leads to a spiritual view of action. Whether we’re in touch with it or not, each of us has a part that wants to ceaselessly move forward and create. This is our immortal part, the higher self. It is connected to a higher life that fills us with wisdom and makes us indifferent to temporary failure. The goal of modern spi

There’s a name for the correct relationship to the Father. It’s called discipline. Every time you submit to the discipline of committing