Guy Finley Quotes

The less one knows about oneself, the more one enjoys talking about oneself

Anyone or anything that asks you to be untrue to yourself has already acted against you.

We are not here on earth to change our destiny but to fulfill it.

When you realize no one else on this earth can be like you ... that no other soul may know the beauty, sorrow, light and darkness you alone are given to see ... then you will, at last, be the fearless individual your Heart of hearts has called you to be.

Those who dare to try what others only dream of - never fail to discover that real effort is always rewarded.

Within each of us dwells a higher order of consciousness created with a possibility far greater than to merely appear and disappear as some form in the river of passing time.

Once something has outlived its usefulness in one area of life, its purpose for being in existence is no longer the same. The leaf that captures a stream of sunlight, and then transfers its energy to the tree, serves one purpose in the spring and summer, and another completely different one through the fall and winter.

Discouragement tricks you into mentally or emotionally dwelling in the very place you want to leave.

The mistake we have made in our lives is that over and over again we've run into the needful moment and then failed to learn its higher lesson. We don't like needful moments and therefore we resist them.

We become what we love. What we put first in our lives is what we receive from life.

Learn to be one with who you are in Reality, and the waves of a thousand passing worlds cannot wash you away.

Each moment of every one of my relationships serves as the secret path to the summit of myself.

It only seems that there is something more important for you to do than to just quietly be yourself.

As the lesser is always found within the greater, so this principle holds true with regards to time and the eternal.

What good is any feeling we may have about ourselves, if it only lasts as long as others agree to it?

Real freedom isn't subject to how others estimate our value; it is in realizing that none are free who find their sense of worth wondering how others measure their lives.

The vast majority of our troubles and heartaches would simply vanish from view if only we could remember - before we act - that we are made victims mostly by our own tendencies.

Every relationship that we have in our lives - our contact with each person, place, and event - serves a very special, if yet to be realized purpose: They are mirrors that can serve to show us things about ourselves that can be realized in no other way.

Do the moment-to-moment work of dropping anything that wants to drag you down, and Reality itself will see to it that you rise.

Any conclusion you reach about yourself has to be an unseen limitation because there's always more to see.

When it comes to the fearless life, the divine gives nothing freely ... save to those who freely give themselves to discovering the truth about their own fearless selves.

The Peace you long for also longs for you.

It's important for us to become aware of the fact that we are needful, for with that awareness also comes the sensing that we couldn't be needful if there weren't something to fulfill the need.

All things good come to those for whom the Good is all things.

Only you can choose the nature of what grows, or what doesn't, within you.

All created forms are fractal, as is their purpose, use, and allotted time for existence.

We must do the work to prove our fears groundless, otherwise it is our fears that will gain ground and our lives will be spent in their service.

Real prayer, the soul-transformi ng kind, is self-discontinu ity. It is a conscious act of self-suspension arising from the wish for something new to occur..

A whole new kind of spiritual happiness dawns in us as we realize that dark clouds do not ruin sunny skies ... they merely pass through them to help us remember our love of the light.

What you don't want to know about yourself wants to be known, which is why it keeps 'showing up' at your door unannounced!

Trying to change ourselves in order to please others - so that we can feel temporarily whole for having won their approval - is like cutting a flower into pieces so that it will fit into a vase.

The only way to cultivate a quiet mind is by planting seeds of silence.

Every one of us lives in a world that is no larger and no smaller than our understanding.

Real achievement
the true measure of how far we have advanced in life
is not determined by what we have acquired, but rather by the degree to which we have put our fears behind us.

The secret self knows the anguish of our attachments and assures us that letting go of what we think we must have to be happy is the same as letting go of our unhappiness.

Trying to "fix" the people in your life that cause you pain is like massaging your shoes because your feet ache.

What possible good does it do to resent any moment for unfolding as it does, to wish it didn't happen? Does it change the moment in any positive way? No it does not.

The great ones in life are not those who are handed silver spoons. Their excellence comes from digging into the raw ore of their own character, through hard work, persistence and faith turning whatever they touch into gold.

The only thing worried thoughts have the power to change is what the next thing will be for you to worry over!

Believing that anxious thoughts and feelings can restore order to your life is like using a chain-saw to fold your laundry.

Spend everyday casual, but industrious Every moment alert, but relaxed.

Never speak out of anger, Never act out of fear, Never choose from impatience, But wait ... and peace will appear.

Within us - the heart of us, really - is a 'ground' that is to our thoughts and feelings, our relationships with others and ourselves, as is the Earth to the leaves that first race across her and then, no longer able to run, give themselves up to nourish her body so that she may give birth again come the spring.

As those who have learned to rule their own mind will attest, misfortune is a state of mind long before it becomes a miserable circumstance.

Within the human being there exists both the needful and the needed. You know that the needful exists in you. Your own dissatisfaction tells you so. But you believe the needed is somewhere outside of you.

Rushing around, hoping to find peace of mind anywhere other than within yourself, is like looking for your heart in someone else's body!

You don't need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.

Make it your moment-to-moment aim to recognize the difference between being aware of your thoughts, and being carried along by them.

Who you really are, your True Nature, is no more tied to the kind of person you've been than the wind is tied to the skies through which it moves.

Instead of always asking yourself how to clear up your mental fog, learn to ask: "Can confusion know anything about clarity?"

There is nothing as certain as silence, stillness, and solitude to introduce you to the secrets of yourself.

Staying present, living in Presence is the best gift anyone can give to those they love.

Once you know what it means to choose in favor of yourself, there is no power in the universe that can make you choose against yourself.

The fear of seeing ourselves as we are ensures we will never see the end of our fears.

The right attitude toward any negative state begins with understanding that its only authority over you is a direct reflection of your attitude towards it.

In these times - where social appearance is more important than spiritual substance - what has become our longing to change is really the unconscious desire to control not just the shape of our bodies (according to prevailing values) but to dominate our environment as well, regardless of the cost.

Chasing after a pleasure to ease a pain is like running after a breeze to cool you down.

If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining

It is Spiritually impossible to hide and see at the same time.

Instead of always asking how to get others to approve of you ... learn to ask: What do I really want, the applause of the crowds or to quietly have my own life?

The only reason your mind won't stop its endless chattering is because you won't stop listening to it!

Life can only be as new as you Choose to be.

See that any time you feel pained or defeated, it is only because you insist on clinging to what doesn't work. Dare to let go and you won't lose a thing except for a punishing idea.

Past mistakes cannot create a present pain; no mistake in life has the power to make us ache any more than the echo of someone crying can shed tears.

When we stop blaming the darkness, or ourselves, for having been walking in it, and decide, instead, to thank the Light for showing us the truth of our actual estate ... then we turn the corner in our work to awaken conscience.

One of the most important rules for me is: Don't ever defend myself. If we could put this one principle into practice, how much more simple life would be.

Better that the whole world should turn against you ... than you should consent to turn against what is true within you.

If we're interested in spiritual things, we gradually realize that what we really need is to understand this nature that seems to be a bottomless basket, because there is no peace in it.

Looking to any angry, anxious, or otherwise stressed emotional state to help you sort out the pain you're in is like trying to organize your monthly bills by throwing them into a blender

The belief that you have no choice but to keep suffering through whatever frightens you is like believing you have to hold onto a scalding cup so that you won't spill your coffee!

Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.

Work to connect yourself to the allness of life
instead of identifying with the smallness of it
and you'll awaken to a greatness already living within you that is no more bothered by the little things in life than a mountain is made miserable by the rain that falls upon it.

The smallest effort to remember the Divine, or even one of its timeless truths, connects you to a calmness whose power is in that secret strength found in all things deep.

Until you can love what the truth would teach you about yourself ... then your love is incomplete.

The limit of your present understanding is not the limit of your possibilities.

Be still; quietly remember the presence of and within yourself, and you will know, without thinking, that while all around you everything changes, within you lives something unchanging.

Ours is the task of discovering that our true nature has nothing to fear.

The strength of any weakness within us is the degree to which it is feared.

We conquer ourselves by learning patience, for she gives to us our longed for victory only in the surrender of self.

To be more aware, we need only listen for and let go of the thoughts which steal our attention.

The greatest power you possess in life is your understanding that life gives you a fresh start any moment you choose.

If you don't leap, you'll never know what it's like to fly.

What is the nature of that place where our original self is one with its longing to explore its own deepest possibilities, and where discovering the treasures waiting there is the same as fulfilling our purpose for being?

A crisis is a close encounter of the third kind.

Don't believe what the spiritual sharks and clever carnival hustlers tell you about fearless living - they lie.

The deepest parts of you know that if freedom from fear was as easy as 'creating a new reality' for yourself, then you would already be the fearless person you know in your heart that you're meant to be.

The path to the inwardly enriched life is not hidden from the man or woman who longs to walk upon it.

The nature of what the Divine notices about you is completely different from the nature of what you do to get noticed.

Listening to your own mind gives you "good reasons" why you should be fearful over unexpected events is just like being friends with someone who thinks it's funny to find new ways to hurt you!

Instead of always asking yourself why so-and-so acts this or that way, learn to ask: "What's inside of me that wants to hurt itself over how anyone else acts?"

You must learn to stop thinking in terms of beginnings and endings, successes and failures, and begin to treat everything in your life as a learning experience instead of a proving one.

Never run from what you don't understand, as it will be waiting for you every time you come to a stop.

Letting go, at its heart, is an act of agreement with Life.

Disappointment, discouragement, and despair are nothing but the bitter fruit of an unfulfilled expectation allowed to live beyond its time.

The only world in which "defeat" exists as a reality is the one darkened by the false idea that what may have happened to us a moment ago is the same as what's possible for us to achieve now.

Wasting your time in anxious worry over what you may not have is a good way to waste what you need to get it.

Far better is it for you to go through one small thing that frightens you than to make a thousand plans for an imagined fearless day to come.

To know that every moment - regardless of how it comes wrapped - is a gift greater than you can give yourself, is to be well on your way to a life without fear.

If I am identified with my relationship, with my house, or with my money, I am doomed to suffer.

Real change isn't found in some new way to think about yourself, but in freedom from the need to think about yourself at all.