All quotes from
David's book
Don't
confuse the Self (the soul) with the Me (the character), the part you play.
There is
the Me, which is ego consciousness. It
is the character we play, and it includes our psychological clothing -- such as
our thoughts and feelings -- and the physical sensations of our body. The fabric of our character is woven out of
our thinking, speaking, and behavioural patterns.
Too many
of us are living self-fulfilled prophecies about ourselves. We think we are victims.
The time
has come to courageously kill the petty character that is burying your
incredible light.
Death
shocks us into facing how easily our persona can be obliterated.
An
essential ingredient in the recipe for self-actualization is the ability to let
go of ego and, when required, the freedom to act out of character.
As
difficult as it may be to believe, loneliness plays a vital role in achieving
full self-actualization.... Loneliness is the key to living a life of love,
empowerment, fulfillment, and happiness anchored in the Great Self.
Loneliness
is a gift. Ironically, it is the very
gateway to extraordinary companionship.
All of us feel lonely at times.
We can deny it or pretend that we are not feeling it, or we can embrace
it and let the loneliness lead us to an intensely deep realization of our
intimate connection and fellowship.
We can
choose what we want, but we cannot choose whether or not to want. Choice is not a choice. Ironically free choice is forced upon us.
What we choose is our choice, but that we choose is not our choice.
Most
people think we can't see God because he is so far way in some other
realm. But the real reason we can't see
God is because he is too close; closer than our very own eyeballs. God is the Master Self. He is the Soul of our
soul, and we are one with him -- although not the same as him. There is a distinction between God and us,
just as there is a distinction between the sun and its rays, but there is no
separation.
Daily
living is a human/divine enterprise of shared thinking, feeling, and doing.
The
sacred side of soul demands that we look for our existential value regardless
of what we accomplish on earth.
Our
creative side shines in times of victory and success, while our sacred side
shines in times of defeat and failure.
The
spiritual quest of our sacred side often begins when crisis sets in.
The quest
of our creative side is dignity as achieved through creativity, productivity,
and mastery. The sacred side of our
soul, however, is looking for something more: it is looking for completion and
wholeness -- a feeling of personal adequacy and inner worth that is not
dependent on achievement.
We may
think we are independent, but the truth is that we are always serving something
or someone.
One of
the signs of maturity, adulthood, and higher consciousness is the ability to
draw from the lessons of the past and to anticipate, predict, and plan the
future.
True
happiness does not mean you are upbeat all the time.
There is
nothing to look forward to in the future that this moment cannot offer you.
The holy
life is a committed life -- a life focused with undivided attention on
living...purpose, which is to freely choose to do good for the sake of
goodness, to love for the sake of loving.
In truth,
we don't give love or make love -- we simply reveal it.
It takes
more than just an attitude for the service-driven life to become a path to
personal fulfillment. We need a daily
spiritual fitness plan to get our souls in shape and get to work.
God, who
is complete and beyond time, does not act out of futuristic considerations of
benefit or personal gain. Embodying this
truth we become godlike in the fullest way.
People
want to be happy and are looking for the magic formula. Marketers know this, and they bombard us
daily with promises for a better life.
People
are looking for happiness in all the wrong places. And they will never find it because happiness
is not something your find outside; it lies within -- within your soul.
You
cannot find happiness. Happiness does
not just happen; rather, you have to learn to be happy in whatever is
happening.
A
service-driven life does not offer any dispensations from the challenge of
life. It does not promise an easy life;
it promises a purposeful and meaningful life.
Ironically,
the service-driven life, while leading us to true happiness, makes us more
susceptible to sadness.
The path
to true happiness is to embrace your soul's sadness and discontentment.
True
seekers never want to find God, they want to feel that they are always finding
God, and there is always more to find.
People
confuse painlessness with happiness. But
the key to happiness is to embrace the sadness of the soul craving for purpose
and meaning.
The
secret to fulfillment and happiness is to embrace the emptiness and the sadness
of the soul and give voice to our soul's yearning.