View Related
Best-selling, Self-Realization author
Key Lesson: Whatever it may be within us that fears death… is itself the thing that must die.
For Further Study
Here’s a challenging idea: those who don’t know their true identity do not know that they don’t know who they are. It’s a kind of spiritual amnesia produced by having assumed a false identity without knowing it. How is that possible?
This temporary false self feels real. There’s no mistake about that! It is animated and driven along by the flood of reactions we have as we run around seeking fulfillment. But the fact that this lower nature is driven doesn’t mean it is alive.
A bulldozer rolls along too, but it cannot see or understand why it smashes into things. It is a machine. So, in many ways, is the false self.
The false self is fueled by negative emotional reactions, which, in turn, are maintained by habitual incorrect thinking. Because these punishing thoughts and emotions are merely the mechanical movements of our lower nature, they are “in time.” This means they have no choice but to fade with the events that gave them birth. As these negative feelings slowly lose their force, so too does the false life of the false self they once animated.
Fearing the death of itself because the temporary reactions that gave it life are now fading, the false self is then compelled to start its strange non-life cycle all over again. It begins to crave and to seek out new, more intense excitements or troubles; and when it can’t find any, it creates what it needs to sustain itself until conditions become more favorable. For instance, the false self loves to pick fights with others, because whether you win or lose is of no consequence to it. Your distress is its life’s blood, and so all it needs to do in order to win is to keep you fighting. As a matter of fact, the false self is the master of making mountains out of molehills, because it loves nothing better than dark and bumpy downhill roads. Our unhappy part in this recurring nightmare is that we willingly go along on this dark drive that leads us to repetitious events and unhappy endings. Why? Because we have mistakenly assumed this false identity that lives for troubles, and we fear that the end of its existence means the end of ours. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The real problem is that our present life-level can’t tell the difference between a ride to Dracula’s castle and a trip to Disneyland, and so it tells us that we have no choice but to cave in to the demands of the false self. This one point alone is all the reason in the world to dedicate your days to raising your life-level. If this fact doesn’t convince you to go to work, then let this next idea inspire you to new and higher actions. Thinking that the end of this nervous nature is the end of who you really are is, as Vernon Howard so beautifully writes, like thinking that the end of the storm means the end of the sky.
The sky is forever. And so is your true nature.
For over 40 years Guy Finley has helped individuals around the world find inner freedom and a deeper, more satisfying way to live. His in-depth and down-to-earth teachings cut straight to the heart of today’s most important personal and social issues –stress, fear, relationships, addiction, meditation, and peace. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and spiritual leaders of all denominations.
Guy is the author of 45 books and video/audio programs including his international bestseller “The Secret of Letting Go” which has been translated into 30 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide.
He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery with over 40,000 online newsletter subscribers.
https://www.guyfinley.org
Through Life of Learning, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 30 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. Guy is a faculty member at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York and 1440 Multiversity in Scotts Valley, California. He is a regular expert contributor to Beliefnet, Insight Timer, Simple Habit, and many other popular spiritual sites.
Finley holds regular online classes that are live-streamed – to register go to:
https://www.guyfinley.org/light These classes are open to all. For more information about Guy Finley and Life of Learning Foundation visit www.guyfinley.org
Post Article:
Submit Your Own Article