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Insightful Q & A Quotes Archive 1

Insightful Q & A Quotes Archive 1 by Vernon Howard Sunflower
    
Over the years Vernon Howard had contact with thousands of people from all walks of life. In these encounters numerous questions were posed. So at a certain point he took the time to write out a number of these questions and to then supply the answers from the higher viewpoint. These answers are very direct and very uplifting. As you will see,  humor and light heartedness are also included. The following should prove to be very helpful on your spiritual journey.

Q: Why is criticism so popular?
A: Because it requires no intelligence.

Q: What is meant by instant recovery?
A: It’s a skill for returning to yourself instantly after getting kidnapped by a harmful feeling.

Q: We feel encouraged when you assure us we can make it.
A: Do you know what — it’s far more than an encouragement — it’s a beautiful fact.

Q: I don’t know how to change myself.
A: What’s that got to do with it? Keep going.

Q: You said I can change the entire world. How?
A: Change your reactions to the world and the whole world changes for you.

Q: Why can’t I get help from friends?
A: Why can’t a carrot get help from rabbits?

Q: Give us a liberating message.
A: You need never pretend to be unafraid.

Q: What must I understand about heartache?
A: It’s a condition but not a necessity.

Q: How can I see myself as I really am?
A: Ask whether other people might see you different from the way you see yourself.

Q: I feel tied down by invisible ropes.
A: The ropes are your own wrong thoughts which higher insight can break.

Q: Give us the first step for ending suffering.
A: Stop denying that you suffer from being you.

Q: It’s hard to even ask intelligent questions.
A: I’m just waiting for someone to ask if they’ll be tap dancing in heaven.

Q: Please summarize these teachings.
A: You suffer from being who you now are. We will show you how to end suffering by becoming someone else.

Q: I want to find this new world you speak about.
A: Then don’t be like a duck who thinks that his private pond is a great ocean.

Q: Why do riches and fame fail to satisfy?
A: Because a decorated dungeon is still a dungeon.

Q: Are my thoughts eternal?
A: No, but you are.

Q: Tell us one of the wonders we will see.
A: While still in this life you can discover what is beyond this life.

Q: I don’t understand what it means to be receptive.
A: It means to suspend your pride so that your deep confusion can be explained to you.

Q: How does knowledge of the mind conquer pain?
A: By seeing that thoughts must be allowed to come and go naturally, you give pain no den in which to breed itself.”

Q: Give us an example of how we misunderstand life.
A: Anything that forces you to examine your present beliefs is a friend.

Q: What makes me feel in danger?
A: Trying to force life to conform to your personal notions of safety.

Q: Help us get rid of self-defeating ways.
A: See that your habits and impulses have been acquired, for that supplies power for dismissal.

Q: How can I tell whether or not I have a false position?
A: You have a false position if the opposite position makes you nervous.

Q: Tormenting thoughts scream for my attention.
A: We’ll teach you how to refuse to talk with them.

Q: What is profitable seeking?
A: Seeking without a cunning wish to find yourself in everything you find.

Q: How does awareness bring relief?
A: When you’re aware of playing a role you no longer play it, which ends self-division.

Q: How can I replace false confidence with real confidence?
A: You may wish to write down the following: cosmic confidence is constant confidence.

Q: Why can’t I hear the rescuing voice?
A: The voice is calling down into the cave but you must climb up within hearing.

Q: How can we tell the difference between fact and fantasy?
A: By not having an ego-investment in fantasy.

Q: What happens when I give up pretense?
A: Release and relief.

Q: When will I be right?
A: When you need no other person to confirm your rightness.

Q: I think I’m nice but others don’t.
A: I wonder who’s right?

Q: I like to have fun.
A: First take life as a school, not as a theater, after which you can have all the fun you want.

Q: Give us a helpful truth that our vanity doesn’t want to hear.
A: You’re doing the wrong things to solve your problems.

Q: Please explain hostility.
A: Hostility exists in the space between what you imagine you are owed and what you actually get.

Q: I live for thrills but you say this is foolish.
A: If you’re caught in a storm it’s senseless to stop and get excited over all your money.

Q: I lust after every pretty girl I see.
A: Lust is loss of self-command. You can see her without losing yourself to her.

Q: I need inner refreshment.
A: Truth-drops are as refreshing to the spirit as raindrops are refreshing to the earth.

Q: Tell me how to get more.
A: Give up more.

Q: What does it mean to think from my cosmic mind?
A: To NOT think from your conditioned mind.

Q: Give me a thought to take back to my local study group?
A: Be aware of what you are doing at the moment you are doing it.

Q: What do you know about me that I don’t?
A: That along with the rest of humanity you’re under a strange hypnotic spell and don’t see that you are.

Q: What do you mean when saying we have a false feeling of life?
A: Living from emotions such as anger or envy which produce a destructive thrill.

Q: You said a feeling of futility can be used wisely. How?
A: See the futility of solving problems with usual thinking, which is an upward step toward cosmic wisdom.

Q: Help me stop the mad pace of my life.
A: See how hard you work to make life hard.

Q: Why must we depart from our present beliefs?
A: Because you can’t reach the mountaintop by staying in the valley.

Q: It’s hard to even ask intelligent questions.
A: I’m just waiting for someone to ask if they’ll be tap dancing in heaven.

Q: What is an example of social slavery?
A: Giving your attention to a demanding person when you really don’t want to give it.

Q: Does a conscious man have eternal life?
A: A conscious man is eternal life.

Q: Help me to understand my artificial behavior.
A: You try to make other people feel liked by you so that you will feel liked by them.

Q: I try to be myself but fail.
A: Stop trying to be yourself and you'll be yourself.

Q: In simple language, what must I do to change everything?
A: Let higher understanding break through the wall of habitual thoughts.

Q: I have a strange loyalty to hardened ideas.
A: How odd to be loyal to self-injury.

Q: How can I have the power of awareness?
A: Once you see the difference between thinking and awareness you can stop thought and be aware.

Q: What is suffering?
A: A message that something needs correction, which a wise person heeds.

Q: Is everyone as dumb as I am?
A: It depends on how dumb you are.

Q: I want a first glimpse of the higher kingdom.
A: Seeing that you must depart from usual thoughts is the same as sighting the kingdom.

Q: What do you mean by cosmic power?
A: The true power residing above all human deception.

Q: What is the new world?
A: Your new mind.

Q: I feel accused and condemned.
A: Only by your present misunderstanding of yourself.

Q: I like the idea of getting out of my own haunted house.
A: And when you succeed you’ll wonder why you waited so long.

Q: We feel encouraged when you assure us we can make it.
A: Do you know what — it’s far more than encouragement — it’s a beautiful fact.

Q: Why does delusion fail to satisfy?
A: Because nothing can’t be felt as something.

Q: Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about after all.
A: That’s a positive doubt that can teach you to know what you’re talking about.

Q: I’ve been a phony all my life.
A: Isn’t it a relief to see it? Now you can become real.

Q: How can I end spiritual laziness?
A: Always do exactly what laziness doesn’t want you to do; for example, think about these ideas when you don’t feel like it.

Q: Why do I go to my relatives for dinner when I don’t even like them?
A: Probably for the dinner.

Q: You advise us to be spiritual detectives. What should we detect?
A: Detect the fact that everything that makes you unhappy has false power over you.

Q: Everyone is afraid. Please give us a fact about fear to memorize.
A: Fear is an unnecessary agitation that supplies a harmful distraction from what must be faced.

Q: What is a first course in the cosmic college?
A: Never fear that these lessons may be too much for you — the entire universe is your patient teacher.

Q: I want something else but don’t know what it is.
A: Don’t let your usual thinking tell you what it is and you will finally know what it is.

Q: Life demands answers, but I don’t know what to say.
A: It’s marvelous freedom to have nothing to say.

Q: Maybe I have wrong ideas about goodness.
A: Wrong ideas about goodness make you the victim of charlatans who’ll hurt you.

Q: I like the idea of calling the bluff on my troubles. How is it done?
A: Invite troubles to do their worst to you. This gets them so confused they lose interest in you.

Q: I’m astonished that I neglected these truths so long.
A: But now your personal miracle has begun.

Q: What is a first course in the Cosmic College?
A: Never fear that these lessons may be too much for you — the entire universe is your patient teacher.

Q: What is disturbance?
A: Disturbance is the interruption of your daydream by fact.

Q: I want to learn but what if I make dumb mistakes?
A: I give you permission to make ten-thousand mistakes.

Q: What am I?
A: You are what you actually value, not what you say you value?

Q: Why don’t I understand these teachings?
A: Because you can’t see above your own level. But cheer up — you’re raising your level.

Q: How will these ideas change our day?
A: The day will belong to you instead of to your anxiety.

Q: I feel like a soldier on a dangerous battlefield.
A: One day you will tell yourself the war is over.

Q: Is blabbermouthery connected with unhappiness?
A: Blabbermouthery is an attempt to convince oneself, but only succeeds in self-torment.

Q: Can my willingness open the door?
A: If you’re willing to be mistaken.

Q: What good things come from these teachings?
A: So many good things you won’t be able to count them.

Q: I’m guilty of foolish thoughts.
A: You can learn wise thoughts which will chase them out.

Q: How can I detect vanity?
A: Notice the pet flatteries you run through your mind, such as what a lovable little sugar-pie you are.

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