July 2017

SPIRITUAL WORK IS SECRET WORK
     Spiritual work is secret work. Withdraw yourself secretly, spiritually from any individual whom you secretly depend on for anything at all. It can even be a memory. Just thinking about them seems to give you comfort, but it keeps you tied to the past. Work in secret to cut yourself off from that person who is dominating you. Don’t say a word to them. Inside yourself make your spiritual life the one love of your life.

NO MORE WORRY
     I want to emphasize a point that no matter what you get that the world gives you is never enough. It drives you crazy; you’re always hungry. Now isn’t that enough for you to stop to realize that you’re just going to have to go on to other things?
     I tell you, during the course of one half hour talk of maybe about fifty powerful points, if you can remember and take one and say, “I’m going to carry that one around with me for a month until I see through it.” That would be your opening into the beautiful Garden of Truth.
     You know, the Garden of Truth, it does have hundreds of paths around it. And the one I just gave you now is one. Take it — the fact that there is no way you can ever satisfy your craving for recognition, for appreciation. See why? Because there is no one there to receive the recognition. There is only a temporary, sick, neurotic emotional thrill. That’s all there is.
     I want you to see so clearly what I say, that of yourself you’ll take a rest from yourself. And just sit back in the chair of life, and give up without any thought about the consequences of you giving you up. That’s what you must do. Now you see, if you could begin to do that, it would occur to you how folly has ruled and ruined your day from the first day up until now. Folly operating as ignorance and misunderstanding in that you believe that you have to do something about the awful ache. You would vow that you have to do something about the awful ache. What you have to do is to not do anything about the awful ache. That’s salvation, that’s deliverance from evil, that is finding the Kingdom of Heaven.
     Ah, that’s release from getting up in the morning and hating what you face. See, when you want recognition, when you want to believe in yourself, that very act is what creates the opposition. And I tell you, you can get up every morning from now on, get out of your bed, and you go to work. Or you get the children off to school and clean the house or cook the breakfast, or whatever you do. You can get out of your bed every morning from now on — and listen to the loveliness of this — knowing that there is not a single enemy or opposition to you anywhere in the whole world of people and events.
     Look, this class isn’t for people who just want to grab more money. Who just want the recognition of saying, “I have a right to more money and if you don’t give it to me, I'm going to cause you trouble.” Oh, some day please exclaim in horror how sick everyone is!
     I am telling you as a fact that there is in existence a spiritual nature. There is a shining light that will be with you when you get up in the morning and it will be with you all day long, in which there is no recognition of opposition, of enemy, of hardship, of foe. There is no recognition of that because there is first no recognition of your personal self.
     When you know that you are not the imaginary you, when you know there is no self there — you understand automatically there is nothing to do. When you know that you are not who you imagine you are, that is it. It’s the whole business.
     There is no way you would ever get up again and worry about your finances. You’ll have common sense, you’ll understand you and money. You’ll understand that it’s an artificial invention of man, for one thing. Money won’t be a problem. Sex won’t be a problem to you. Sex is a problem because that’s one way in which you connect that with recognition. You ladies, if you can appear to be attractive to a man you can use his need for sex to get him. Then you will feel secure. Forget it.
     I tell you, right now, as you are seated here, there is nothing for you to do except see. See what I talked about. Understand that. When you see, when you understand, a hundred thousand strains and problems and decisions that drive you crazy all fall away. You go into a house and you’ve got junky furniture, you throw all the junky furniture out, then there’s room for everything new. That’s what we’re talking about.
     Your part of what I have been talking about is to ask yourself — this is an exercise. I want all of you right now to say to yourself, “Could he be talking about me?” Now answer the question, which is yes. He was talking about you and you sense it. You must do more than sense it. You must remember what was said in order to bring it up so you can see what a vain little egotist you are, and how that connects with the fact that you’re scared.
     You don’t have to be who you think you should be. You can drop all thoughts about building yourself and finding recognition. And what comes after that is all you need.