everything put back together. When we sit still in meditation, we don’t scratch if we have an itch. Now, this drives people crazy. I’ve had people say, “This is demented. How could not scratching when you itch have anything to do with spiritual practice?” It has everything to do with spiritual practice because it’s that “It itches, I must scratch”

STUDENT: What is this “worst thing”? GUIDE: Believing in inadequacy. Believing that you are not equal to your life. Turning away from your True Nature, your Heart, Life.

Self-hate is getting a new car and not taking care of it.* *“Not taking care of” is not taking

Your habit is to find fault, criticize, judge and compare. Remember, what is is all that is. The alternate reality in which everything is as you think it should be exists only in your mind, and it exists primarily to torture you.

Suffering cannot be healed through self-hate. Only through compassionate acceptance can suffering be healed. If we accept, if we open ourselves, life will transform us. If we resist, if we try to run away, pain and suffering are reinforced, and we deepen the conditioning that causes

Spiritual Practice Doesn’t Begin Until the Beatings Stop. I’m suggesting that you stop the beatings. Many spiritual teachers suggest that hatred is not the answer. They say things about love, forgiveness, generosity and gratitude. They hardly talk about beating people and hating people and this sort of thing. They say, “Now, folks, this is the

STUDENT: I think that’s what it would eventually come to. If I don’t do my work, and don’t make money, then I won’t be able to pay for my house, and I won’t have any food. And if I follow that along far enough, I realize that I believe that all those things on the list are designed to keep me alive. And if I don’t do them the ultimate consequence

Fear is very dramatic. It tells very plausible stories. It makes strong feelings in your body. It is the primary support of egocentricity. It is egocentricity. Ego is fear, and ego is everything it does to manage, control, and avoid that fear, that experience of itself. (It says, “I’ll protect you. I’ll keep you safe.”) Ego spends enormous amounts

“Yes, but look what happens to kids!” Life is life with or without the illusion of control. Children feel the pain of life. Pain and suffering are not the same thing. Suffering happens when we are taught to believe that what is happening to us is wrong and a mistake, and we should have prevented it. We learn to think of life as reward and