I don’t know what’s best for me or you or the world. I don’t try to impose my will on you or on anyone else. I don’t want to change you or improve you or convert you or help you or heal you. I just welcome things as they come and go. That’s true love. The best way of leading people is to let them find their own way.
There’s only one thing harder than accepting this, and that is not accepting it.
I’ve always been just me, but I was the last to know that it was all right.
Because if it hurts, it’s your thinking that’s hurting you.
Everyone is doing his job. No one is more valuable than another. The things in the world that we think are so terrible are actually great teachers. There’s no mistake, and there’s nothing lacking. We’re always going to get what we need, not what we think we need. Then we come to see that what we need is not only what we have, it’s what we want. Then we come to want only what is. That way we always succeed, whatever happens.
And when people die, it’s so wonderful that they never come back to tell you.
God’s will and your will are the same, whether you notice it or not. There’s no mistake in the universe. It’s not possible to have the concept “mistake” unless you’re comparing what is with what isn’t. Without the story in your mind, it’s all perfect. No mistake.
No one will ever understand you. Realizing this is freedom. No one will ever understand you – not once, not ever. Even at our most understanding, we can only understand our story of who you are. There’s no understanding here except your own.
Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.
Dying is everything they were looking for in life.
Whenever you mentally oppose what is, you’re going to experience sadness and apparent separation. There’s no sadness without a story. What is is. You are it.
The receiving is the giving. It’s the most genuine thing you can give back. That’s what they wanted to give you in the first place.
We all do emotional gymnastics to be seen as wonderful or funny – just to get what we already have. And because we’re doing the gymnastics, we don’t see that we already have it.
The Work is merely four questions; it’s not even a thing. It has no motive, no strings. It’s nothing without your answers. These four questions will join any program you’ve got and enhance it. Any religion you have – they’ll enhance it. If you have no religion, they will bring you joy. And they’ll burn up anything that isn’t true for you. They’ll burn through to the reality that has always been waiting.
Reality is always kinder than the stories we tell about it.
Peace and joy naturally, inevitably, and irreversibly make their way into every corner of your mind, into every relationship and experience. The process is so subtle that you may not even have any conscious awareness of it. You may only know that you used to hurt and now you don’t.
I already please everyone, and I already have everyone’s approval, though I don’t expect them to realize it yet.
Self-realization is the sweetest thing. It shows us how we are fully responsible for ourselves, and that is where we find our freedom.
There’s no reason to believe that thoughts match reality. As you move through life, thoughts appear like shots in the dark. They are no more than vague attempts to figure out what’s going on around and inside you. When you’re seeking love and approval, many thoughts are aimed at deciphering the behavior of the people you care about, or theorizing about what’s going on in their minds.
Katie: We live; we die. Always right on time, not one moment sooner or later than.