A New Order of Self-Understanding

All of us know what it's like to be dogged by parts of us that want to drag us down. Call it what you will: some compulsion or obsession seems to follow us into all our relationships, only to wreck them in one way or another. We struggle as best we can to free ourselves from these dark states but invariably find ourselves short of the mark. Slowly but surely, one thing becomes clear: we start to see that calling upon who and what we have been to save us from our suffering is like asking a windstorm to neatly pile our autumn leaves. So, without giving up, we begin to open our eyes to the truth of our condition and, somewhere in the midst of our misery, we suddenly see our lives in a new kind of light. In this new awareness, a whole new order of self-understanding dawns; and, as it does, our old dark sense of self departs, taking its suffering along with it. In these healing moments, where we seem to awaken from a bad dream, there comes a new understanding of something we've always known but had somehow forgotten! Revelations like these can mean only one thing: all that we need to know to grow beyond who we currently are is already a part of our true nature.
The Masters Speak...
All of us who are human beings are in the image of God. But to be in his likeness belongs only to those who by great love have attached their freedom to God. —Diadochus of Photike (5th c., Greece)
So, in regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion or flight, but in courage. He who wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself up to resolution. Let him front the object of his worst apprehension, and his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless. —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, United States)
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that