Winter is the quietest time of year

Even with its storms, winter is the quietest time of year. There is nothing like the quiet after a storm. If you have had the privilege of being in the mountains right after a snowfall when there is no wind, nothing is moving, the snow is sucking up every sound, and you hear a deep silence everywhere, you know how potent this silence is.

Like a flame that leaps up from the log into the air

When you enter the stillness of the eternal now by letting go of the fictional me, you see that reality, enlightenment, or God is like a flame. It’s alive, ever moving, and ever dancing–the flame is always here. But the flame is impermanent. There is nothing about a flame that is permanent, static, or stable. If it were, it would be dead. Reality is alive, ever on the move, like a flame that leaps up from the log into the air.

Wisdom has broken through

Everybody has had transcendent wisdom break into the mind.When you’ve wracked your brain with a problem for a long time and then, for some reason, you’ve stopped struggling, and then all of a sudden you got an "Aha! That’s it," where does that come from?Wisdom has broken through.

The freedom of Truth

If you are not only to taste freedom but to be freedom, you have to have an absolute fidelity to Truth, and you have to be wedded to this fidelity forever. If freedom is going to be a living and ongoing experience, the human part of you has to keep fidelity with Truth and be committed to living in that Truth. As soon as you break your fidelity to Truth, you kick yourself out of the freedom of Truth.

Realize that you are the mystery

Being your true self, being your true nature, is different than experiencing it with thought. Realize that you are the mystery, and you can't really look at mystery because you are only capable of looking from the mystery. There is a very awake, alive and loving mystery, and that is what is seeing through your eyes at this moment. Encounter pure mystery, which is pure spirit, and wake up to what you are.