By Dr. Lynne Wooldridge
   These teachings are both beautifully simple and incredibly profound. This work is not really hard to understand. The complication comes when Truth meets my habit-laden mind. The mind is very, very tricky and convincing in its insistence that because we’ve heard a truth, we now understand it and live it. Vernon Howard said in a lecture that we students are very careful not to understand too much for fear that we’ll really have to get down to the business of seeing through and discarding the impostor nature. We tend to want to remain in either confusion or in the delusion that surface understanding can take the place of deep personal experience. For example, we can study and even articulate a truth for many years before realizing that we have failed to apply it in our own lives.
   One such principle that I have become aware of recently in my own spiritual studies is Vernon’s instruction to stop avoiding and dreading problem situations and difficult people. Challenges and difficulties tend to come in waves. About two weeks ago, one after another of these situations just kept coming with no break. The old nature immediately launched into the complaint “I just can’t take anymore of this.” Fortunately, in our ongoing New Life classes, we had been given the spiritual exercise of choosing two of our own exercises for that week. One exercise I had chosen was to not welcome the immediate reaction of irritation and resentment when the problem appeared. As Vernon often said, the reaction, the stab of pain, the irritation is just too quick for us. It’s there and has a hold on our psychic system before we know it. Sometimes it can even hold on for hours after the initial incident. For the first few days of that week, I worked with catching the pain before it got a hold of me. Sometimes I could only watch when my own internal volcano erupted, but other times I was aware enough that the negativity wasn’t able to take hold or if it did, it dissolved quickly in the light of awareness. About the fourth day, I was dealing with a very touchy person on the phone. But this time I found that I handled everything differently. I did not react with my usual internal response of irritation, resentment and impatience. I quietly listened and answered but the usual ‘responder’ wasn’t there. There was an absence of trying to ‘say the right thing’ which is the cause of so much inner tension. I also noticed a casualness that hadn’t been there before. I wasn’t invested in the outcome of the interaction; I simply handled it practically and the rest was up to the other person. When I got off the phone, I realized that in terms of my own inner state, I had just had one of the most ‘free’ conversations of my life.
   This world is addicted to ‘instant gratification’ and the demand for an ‘immediate reward’. But this work is not like that. You may do a particular bit of work on yourself and not see the result for years. In the story of the phone call above, the reward came very quickly but there is also an unseen trap that seems to accompany many of our inner successes. There is a tendency to want to stop and ‘rest’ from the work, saying something like, “I’ve worked hard on myself and deserve a break.” No, I must use this experience to open up even more of a willingness on my part to go through what I must go through to be free of the chains of the old nature and to welcome the guidance of the new and the higher nature. I have begun to glimpse the fact that there can’t simply be an intellectual curiosity or a lukewarm interest in understanding these things. Every inner experience taken consciously should awaken in us a fierce desire to understand these things with our whole being, not simply our minds. The insights we allow to come to us are the very encouragement needed to keep going.
   Another of the great benefits of applying these principles is that underlying everything that goes on in my day, there is an abiding realization that I am on the right path at last. There are many ‘ways’ and ‘systems’ out there but this is the only teaching I have ever found that never gets old, that never has and never will betray you and that always gives genuine relief from mental pain. Vernon once said that if we knew what awaited us, we would be zooming toward the spiritual life as fast as we could go. There is no limit as to how high we can fly with this.

By Sherry Day
   For many years I was completely lost and confused about how to handle everything in my life — the failed relationships, angry people I would encounter at work, my finances, etc. Someone always presented a solution for my problems, which always failed to provide a lasting solution. I might find a tiny bit of relief for awhile, but the feeling of desperation always came back.
   One day, I dropped to my knees and prayed to God “Please show me what’s wrong with me. Why am I in so much pain? Why are there so many problems in my life?” Shortly after that, I came across the greatest gift I have ever received: Vernon Howard’s teachings! From reading his books, listening to his tapes, watching the DVDs and attending the New Life classes, my life began to change.
   One of the first things I noticed was that my mind is actually the enemy! It is not on my side but is working against me. I realized with a shock that my own mental chatter was driving me crazy. I needed help turning these ‘mental movies’ off. One of the first principles I applied in my daily life was the ‘Slow Down’ exercise. From the moment I got up until the very end of the day, everything was rush, rush, rush. This rushing was causing one negative thing after another to happen. The spilled coffee, the lost keys, the anger and irritation that would explode at the slightest challenge. Just by slowing down, I could see and understand how I was giving over precious moments of my life to negativity.
   I work in the medical profession where I do encounter difficult and angry people all of the time. I had no idea how to handle these patients. No matter how hard I tried I would get angry too which of course only made matters worse. By the end of the day I was emotionally drained. Why was I allowing angry people to drain my energy? How could I apply Vernon Howard principles in this area of my life?
   I chose to use two exercises that really appealed to me because though I knew my old nature would protest, I sensed that applying these particular principles would lead to a lifting of the heavy burden of my own anger. The first principle is to let the other person win and the second is to turn the attention back on myself at the crucial moment of confrontation. In the past, I was always depending on myself. I wanted to win the argument. I wanted to be right. I wanted to fight and win! By turning the attention back on myself, I was able to see what an angry person I am.
   I know that I have a lot of work to do before all of the difficulties in my life are conquered, but the gratitude for having found these teachings can’t be expressed in words. My heart knows that I’m finally on the right track.