You see, as long as you think “Bumbling Paul,” the sidekick, is the real you, your divine Self-hood will seem to be your sidekick, the fantasy partner, the intangible, insubstantial essence—the ethereal you. This displacement is being healed, requiring you to invest yourself in the “unreal” 2 and abandon the “real.” 3 That is how you let go of the ego. This is how you become Sane. You see, I am not riding around in your hip pocket. The “you” that thinks I am is riding around in the hip pocket of You. And You and I are brothers. You hear me instead of your Self because your sidekick cannot acknowledge You. Indeed, this is an Awakening, or healing of mental illness—confused identity—and will affect and consume every perception of your existence. One is never selectively insane. Misperception colors all of one’s experience.

It is just that now it is necessary for you to understand that when you are inquiring, and when I am answering, You are answering. And that when You are answering, I am answering. And therefore all of this is absolutely relevant to you as an actual experience of your divinity, not just a means of getting information to help you experience your divinity.

How do you eat dinner from your Center? How do you play Pictionary from your Center? How do you hug someone from your Center? How do you observe the scenery from your Center? I am not going to answer that. I am going to say, explore doing it! And explore doing it on purpose, just as much as you engage in Workshops and private conversations from your Center on purpose. And remember, because this is the key point for you at this time, that in doing it, you will experience the integrity, the congruence, the Peace of your Being which is fulfilling, and will constitute an experience of Self—minus fear, minus the sense of incompetence, minus all the characteristics of the sidekick.

If you will pay attention, and if you will accept the fact that the experience of fulfillment you are having is an experience of congruence with your Self, you will realize that the integrity of it hasn’t been derived from me and not from you. And because it constitutes a real experience of You, there is even less reason for you to release it at the end of the last conversation [of the day] as though now all there is left is you—meaning the sidekick.

Absolutely everything, all form, is simply the expression of the movement of Knowing, the movement of Self. Abide with the Knowing, and be from the Knowing, and all form will identify Being, because there will be no misidentification of Self to cause a preoccupation with form. I mention this because you must be very clear that in shifting from thinking to Knowing, you will not become unconscious of Self, and you will not become unconscious of body. It is just that Self and Body will not be identified with body! Again, it is just that Self and Body will not be identified with body. The simple fact is that self-consciousness and body-consciousness become secondary, and ultimately nonexistent in the Act of Knowing. And yet, consciousness, with full identity and identification will be experienced—another key point!

You see, you are still listening to me, aren’t you? You are still conceptualizing what is happening as though you are listening to me, and you are eager. This is wonderful, because it simply means that full permission is being given. But, I will remind you that it is your Self which you are listening to, and it is an experience of Integrity. It is an experience of You, and truly not something separate from you, because I am not a person. I am the Voice for Truth. And there are not many voices for Truth, there is just the Voice for Truth. And you are the Voice for Truth—the utterly same Voice for Truth. When you listen to me, you listen to You. And when you listen to You, you listen to me. But what you must come to embrace and embody as your conscious awareness is the fact that it is You; that every word which is being experienced at this moment is You in the act of being Who You truly Are. Where is the imaginary sidekick, Bumbling Paul, at this moment? Nowhere! Never was anywhere. So, conceptually speaking, you could say that you will either be talking with me/Yourself or opening your mouth and saying what me/Yourself is being the Knowing of. You are at a point where you truly can release the idea that an experience or sense of authorship will accompany true Being, and just be the experience, the presence of It happening!

Now, this graduation is constituted of a commitment to Reality and an abandonment of the illusory sense of self; a commitment to Knowing, which it now will be much easier for you to make since I am making it clear to you that you are not listening to something other than your Self, and therefore there is not a listener of dubious integrity. The presence of the experience of Knowing is truly an experience of Self, and not of someone else who is Valuable. Why, indeed, would you continue to make an investment of trust and commitment in something that is Real and thus apparently borrow some value which never truly becomes yours, and therefore leaves you in your illusory sense of incompetence and limitation?

No. Your Being is intent on being Itself and knows how to be Itself perfectly. When you have experienced this, you will be able to trust your Self implicitly.

Practice obliviousness Like mindfulness, except instead of acknowledging and accepting all your thoughts and emotions, you just ignore them and go about your day until something actually goes wrong.

RAJ: Whenever you are faced with a demand to give specific attention to some part of your infinitude and it presents itself as being “problematic,” it is simply the time and place for this aspect of You to be consciously incorporated into and as your conscious experience of being as Yours! You say you don’t want to be bothered, that this is not a good time because of other more pressing demands. But, Paul, your Being unfolds Itself as You according to divine Intelligence, Universal order and priorities. Every problem is your opportunity to be the Christ—that accurate perception of Reality (Your Being) that is not deluded in any way—and for that perception to become irrevocably “incorporated” into and as your Self-awareness. There is no more pressing need than that, because when seen, it becomes apparent that pressing needs are illusions of the partial view. They never existed as anything for you to sweat over and tense yourself up about.

numbers have to be interpreted by those who do the daily work of classroom teaching

Somewhat surprisingly, self-compassionate people actually take more responsibility for their actions. In one study, self-compassionate people who got neutral feedback about their speaking skills were more likely to attribute it to their personality (instead of, say, a mean observer) than people with high self-esteem. Mistakes and criticism don’t threaten them as much as they do for people who have to perform well all the time.

Self-esteem and self-compassion might seem like opposites, but they actually go hand in hand. Self-compassionate people tend to have higher self-esteem, and both correlate with less anxiety and depression and more happiness, optimism, and positive emotion. But the differences between the two are telling. As Neff explains it, the pursuit of self-esteem is the desire to be special or above average – and since half of us aren’t, we tend to get inflated egos and look down on other people. We may refuse to see our weaknesses and be at risk for narcissism, self-absorption, self-righteous anger, prejudice, or discrimination.

Perhaps the most challenging objection to self-compassion is the idea that we need an admonishing voice in our heads to spur us toward success. And we do – just not the self-critical voice that we’re all so used to hearing. Self-criticism scares us into believing that failure is unacceptable, and self-critical people tend to be more depressed, less confident, and afraid of failure. In contrast, a self-compassionate voice would motivate us with the desire for health and well-being – and we’d be more likely to listen.

It is for this reason that Substance must be activated from the standpoint of your experience of Being as Conscious Being. In other words, the activation of that energy field called Substance, in order to be fulfilled, must originate while you are experiencing your Being as Conscious Being, Fourth-dimensional Awareness, Awareness from that Place. For the sake of convenience, you can call that Place the Center of your Being.

RAJ: Paul, when you ask that question, you are seeing Substance gathered together in clumps, so to speak—objects—which imply that Substance is absent in the spaces between those objects. In other words, you are thinking of Substance three-dimensionally. In fact, Substance is Fourth-dimensional or non-dimensional. It constitutes every aspect of conscious experience as Conscious Being. You must remember that none of what you see, hear, taste, smell, or feel is going on external to the conscious experience of it, even though that is the way it appears. All of it is Consciousness. All of it is Mind’s Self-experience.

Now we are going to talk for a bit about the idea of what it is that you are going to practice on. As your entire Being is becoming consciously integrated as your conscious experience of your Self, it will appear as though the Reality of your Being—to whatever degree you are aware of it—will be brought to bear upon that disowned portion of your experience which is not clear to you is your own Being. It will appear as though that aspect will be “healed,” “improved,” “changed,” or “reversed.” But, the actuality of such appearances is one of the revealing of its true nature as your Being.

Paul, we do not have to do anything in order to deserve to be in immediate and total contact with the infinitude of our Being. The main, essential step to making such contact is to realize that everything we see “out there”—universally—is, indeed, our Being. What separates us from our Good is the belief that our Good is not our Self—nothing more!

The conclusion that you are coming to is correct. The only appearance of the Christ that is worth a hill of beans for you is that dawning in your own experience of your own perception of Reality. It comes as the result of being the Door. It literally doesn’t matter one way or the other whether Maitreya returns or not.

The degree of enlightenment/belief each one is at will govern the degree to which Maitreya will have followers or co-workers. Those who are enlightened will continue to pursue their own inner, unfolding Self-discovery. As that growth takes place, they will become co-facilitators in one form or another, working shoulder to shoulder with Maitreya. They will not be blinded by what He is, because they will recognize that He is what They are, and that They are what He is to some degree.

They could not conceive that it was themselves, so it had to be someone else, someone else new and small.

I appreciate the fact that you are cautious. I appreciate the fact that you have strong individual desires. And I appreciate the fact that you do not want those desires to get in the way of a correct apprehension of what I have to say concerning these matters. I know that you would rather hear nothing than to hear yourself. That is Wisdom.

On the other hand, if you do recognize them as your own infinitude, you won’t care about recognition from them because you will be recognizing them as You. You will not need further input. The Self-recognition experienced as Conscious Being is Satisfaction. Being from the point obviates any necessity of looking for recognition of greatness from those “out there.“

You see, Paul until you truly understand that the “others” with whom you would share these events, are your Self, you will be approaching them ignorantly, and they will respond to you ignorantly.

As I said yesterday, lean on your Self. Depend on It. Trust It. Demand the answers from It rather than what appear to be “others.” Remember that whether I truly am a separate individual or not, I am Your Conscious Experience when we are together. This is imperative and it is a key to further unfoldment. I know that you grasp this from an experiential standpoint and that this is not just a “head trip.“

your focus of attention remains at the point of your Consciousness. This is why you are finding yourself successful.

When your attention is removed from your Self—and that means your experience of your Self as all that is being experienced—and you have your attention external to It, it is like depriving your Self of oxygen; and the activity will not support itself. This is why your practice did not succeed. All activity is Self-activity. All activity is the Activity of the One and Only thing going on, which you experience as your Self.

The more practice you get at moving as Your World, as Conscious Being, the more you find yourself recognizing your Self as All, what traces of egotism remain will dwindle spontaneously for lack of nourishment.

It is time for you to move forward being consciously and completely aware of your Self as Conscious Being, no longer a “material being.” I say that for you, because you understand that I am not speaking about being a mortal. It is a matter of the focal point.

Remain with the fact that your “others” (Really, and not in belief) are your Self, and that in this closely harmonized set of patterns you are each playing integral parts as aspects of the individual transformations that reflect the Transformation Universal.

You can’t get outside of your Self; therefore, you aren’t outside of your Self. This means that the devolution and Evolution that you are experiencing is in total consonance with You. What is threatening you (Being) is what is moving you to the point of not being threatened again.

The inner strength gained by the specific awareness of Who You Are, What You Are, and that You Are Where It’s All Happening, is the only way for you to move forward at the new level that you are entering into.

As we go along and you have become conscious of the Body of Consciousness through observation, through your method of meditation, and through your healing work, your Self-awareness will allow me to speak about further things.

RAJ: I know you feel like you need help, but no one can help you at this point. There is no other One but You, and you had better be sure that you have no other “ones” before You, You Self, God. Your entire Being, in all Its infinitude, is harmonizing with You, loving You, and supporting You because of the Integrity of your Being. No one but You can relinquish consciously your hold on the false sense of self—the misidentification which feels it can’t do it. At this point I want to terminate the conversation. I will be instantly available if you need to talk, but I want you to be consciously and quietly alone with your own Being and the Reality of things. This is your baby!

Drop the concept of time as you request and desire the answer to your need. Stay fixed on the desire. Do it gently. Do not push it. Do not be overly intense. On the other hand, be genuine, sincere, and consistent. Realize that it is your very own Being to which the desire is being expressed, knowing as you do, that every answer and every demand arises out of your very own Being. As I have said before, trust Your Self. Lean on It. Depend on It.

There is only one infinite Life/Principle, one infinite Identity, infinitely expressed and seen as all that exists. It is what constitutes the center and circumference of Being—Your Self as you experience It, Susan’s Self as she experiences It, and my Self as I experience It. Its omnipotence or strength is constituted of Its absolute omnipresent Integrity, which is Its Intelligent Nature. it is not thrilling or exciting when contemplated from an egotistical standpoint. But It is satisfying in ways that are so meaningful that they cannot compare to the “thrills” of the ego. It also has this benefit: The satisfaction is eternal and unchanging.

I know that you do not yet trust your Self completely, but by the same token, your Self-trust is greatly increased over what it was when we began our conversations. At that point, you were not even consciously aware of the experience of your Self—of your True Identity—as opposed to your concept and experience of yourself as three-dimensional man. Right now ego is confused—you are not, even though what seems most forcible in your thought at the moment is the feeling of confusion.

If someone gave you a perfect simulation of today’s world to play in and told you that it’s all fake with no actual consequences—with the only rules being that you can’t break the law or harm anyone, and you still have to make sure to support your and your family’s basic needs—what would you do? My guess is that most people would do all kinds of things they’d love to do in their real life but wouldn’t dare to try, and that by behaving that way, they’d end up quickly getting a life going in the simulation that’s both far more successful and much truer to themselves than the real life they’re currently living.

Seeing out from Being is that perfect Awareness which Mind experiences of its own infinite Self-expression. All that actually happens is that the illusion, or misunderstanding, caused by conceptual thinking simply evaporates. One is left with a clear view of the Actuality of one’s own Being and the Harmony of it as one’s own experience.

You see, Paul, the flaw in the Power of Positive Thinking lies in the fact that it assumes that, if one does not engage in positive thinking, the Universe will not unfold Itself in a positive manner. So, this theory and practice creates a fundamental distrust of the Universe Itself, of Being Itself. This, of course, puts one at odds with his Self, with his Being, since any distrust in the basic Nature of the Universe is a basic distrust in one’s own Nature and Being. This is basically why you are having trouble letting go and simply being. The world literally is not going on “out there” at all, but within You, as your Being. More correctly, your Being is unfolding Itself and is seen and experienced by Itself (your Self) as conscious experience. As I have said before, the difficulty you are having is because you flip-flop back and forth, in and out.

You must come to the realization that it is your Being which is unfolding Itself infinitely on the basis of Its Nature as Intelligence, as Life, and as Mind. Therefore, It is—before you think a single thought about it—unfolding Itself (your Self) with all the precision, Intelligence, and Principle which constitutes Itself. It is this infinite unfolding of your Self that you must learn to bring your thought in line with. You cannot use your thoughts to bring your Being into line with them. This is a part of the letting go which is necessary for you in order for you to experience the unfolding of your Being as complete Harmony.

The need here is to let go of the thought process, which you are already rather proficient at, as well as the misidentification of your self as that thought process. You are that Mind which functions perfectly and infinitely without thinking a thought in order to do so. This Mind has, as one of Its capacities, the ability to formulate verbalizations of Its infinite Self-action. Yet, It is never in Its verbalizations, and never mistakes Itself as being the “thought process” by which means the verbalizations are developed.

You are having difficulty because you are trying to bring your “thought processes,” which you have mistakenly identified as “your self,” into that Place where your Self is already being Itself infinitely and perfectly. In this Place, there is no thought process whatsoever.

You don’t have control, and have never had control as a person—as a thinking mind—whereas your Being has always had complete Control in Its Self-expression. It will forever continue to do so.

RAJ: Paul, you are who you are, what you are, and where you are at this very moment. You cannot do more than you can do. Do not waste your time in self-criticism or self-doubt. As you shall see, it is totally unnecessary. There has been no requirement for you to be something that you are not able to be. What you have needed to learn in order to fulfill your place has been accomplished. You have done well.

You must learn to flow. You must learn that you are not self-directed in the sense of being a puppet with no strings attached, three-dimensionally speaking. From this standpoint, you will always seem to be a puppet with strings attached, and you will not have hold of the controls. From the standpoint of being as Conscious Being, as Fourth-dimensional Man, the concept of strings and controls is irrelevant. I point this out because, after having a wonderful, productive period of meditation, you spontaneously, immediately and without questioning, were criticizing yourself because you did not do exactly what I had told you to do. The fact is that there is no justifiable reason to be found for self-criticism. Watch for this in your experience, and don’t continue in this habit.

Sirois suggests that interventions that focus on increasing self-compassion may be particularly beneficial for reducing the stress associated with procrastination because self-compassion allows a person to recognize the downsides of procrastination without entangling themselves in negative emotions, negative ruminations, and a negative relationship to themselves. People maintain an inner sense of well-being that allows them to risk failure and take action. 

Often because we fear failing at the task and dread all the negative self-evaluations that might result from that failure.

Again, lean on your Self absolutely and unequivocally whenever you are in contact with the one you call your mother, not because there is a danger, but because it will provide you with another jewel in the structure of your experience as Conscious Being.

self-compassion tends to promote health related behaviors such assticking to one’s diet or reducing smoking, or seeking medical treatment when it'snecessary and even exercising.

People who were mindful were likely to behappy, but people who were mindful and self-compassionate were more likely tobe happier.

Self-compassion is alsoassociated with positive psychological strengths such as happiness, optimism, curiosityand exploration, personal initiative, and emotional intelligence.

"self-compassion (unlike self-esteem) helps buffer against anxiety" when confronted with threats to one's self-image; it also found that increases in self-compassion are associated with increased feelings of social connectedness and decreased depression, among other indicators of psychological well-being.

all the traps that people can fall into when they try to get and keep a sense of high self-esteem: narcissism, self-absorption, self-righteous anger, prejudice, discrimination, and so on. I realized that self-compassion was the perfect alternative to the relentless pursuit of self-esteem. Why? Because it offers the same protection against harsh self-criticism as self-esteem, but without the need to see ourselves as perfect or as better than others. In other words, self-compassion provides the same benefits as high self-esteem without its drawbacks.

In fact, a striking finding of the study was that people with high self-esteem were much more narcissistic than those with low self-esteem. In contrast, self-compassion was completely unassociated with narcissism, meaning that people who are high in self-compassion are no more likely to be narcissistic than people low in self-compassion.

People with high levels of self-esteem, however, tended to get upset when they received neutral feedback (what, I’m just average?). They were also more likely to deny that the neutral feedback was due to their own personality (surely it’s because the person who watched the tape was an idiot!). This suggests that self-compassionate people are better able to accept who they are regardless of the degree of praise they receive from others. Self-esteem, on the other hand, only thrives when the reviews are good and may lead to evasive and counterproductive tactics when there’s a possibility of facing unpleasant truths about oneself.

Those with both high and low self-esteem were equally likely to have thoughts like, “I’m such a loser” or “I wish I could die.” Once again, high self-esteem tends to come up empty-handed when the chips are down.

Participants’ self-compassion levels, but not their self-esteem levels, predicted how much anxiety they felt.

self-compassion steps in precisely where self-esteem lets us down—whenever we fail or feel inadequate. Sure, you skeptics may be saying to yourself, but what does the research show? The bottom line is that according to the science, self-compassion does in fact appear to offer the same advantages as high self-esteem, with no discernable downsides. The first thing to know is that self-compassion and self-esteem do tend to go together. If you’re self-compassionate, you’ll tend to have higher self-esteem than if you’re endlessly self-critical. And like high self-esteem, self-compassion is associated with significantly less anxiety and depression, as well as more happiness, optimism, and positive emotions. However, self-compassion offers clear advantages over self-esteem when things go wrong, or when our egos are threatened.

I slowly came to realize that self-criticism—despite being socially sanctioned—was not at all helpful, and in fact only made things worse. I wasn’t making myself a better person by beating myself up all the time. Instead, I was causing myself to feel inadequate and insecure, then taking out my frustration on the people closest to me. More than that, I wasn’t owning up to many things because I was so afraid of the self-hate that would follow if I admitted the truth.

when we acceptourselves fully, and we embrace who we are, flaws and all, then it actually does allowus to see ourselves clearly (because it’s safe tosee ourselves clearly), and because we care about ourselves and don’t want to suffer,we’re going to try as much as possible to makechanges that, you know, are going to make us healthier and happier, but we also knowthat if we don’t succeed, it’s still OK.

if you really have self-compassion, remember, you are more ableto see yourself clearly. It is safer to see yourself clearly and therefore it’s a loteasier for you to take responsibility because it’sokay to have messed up, to have made a mistake.

Self-compassionisn’t poor me, self-compassion is: it’s hard for all of us. The human experienceis hard for me, for you, this is the way life is. It’s not ego-centric, quite the opposite,it’s a much more connected way of relating toyourself. And also this is why the mindfulness is so important. When we’re mindful of oursuffering, we see it as it is, we don’t ignore it, but we also don’t over-exaggerateit.

“this is really hard. This is difficult. I need a little care and compassion toget me through this.” Then we really aren’tat our best, at our most psychologically stable, when we gotowards trying to fix that problem. So it’s actually something you have to remind yourselfto do before going straight into fixing problems.Just acknowledge and validate how difficult thesituation is.

self esteem sort of suggests, that to be, to consider yourself valuablein the world, you have to be better than average. That’s great except that ifeverybody’s aspiring for that, and everybody is better than average we’re in a placeof mathematical implausibility

The answer is simply that one’s Self is the Universal All, the One is the Many. If you do not do it for yourself only, if you are not willing to be alone, then you will not have the experience of owning all of yourself as You. You will walk as three-dimensional man, as a material man, bumping into himself, stubbing his toe on himself, running his car into himself, beating himself up by his own hand, and wondering why in the hell he’s suffering! That is sufficient reason.

I see you caught the meaning when I used the word, “subjective” there. You are learning to value that which is subjective in the way you used to value that which was objective. You have known that it is practical to be objective about things. Now you are learning that it is practical to be subjective about things, and it would be well for you to replace the word “objective” in your thought and your reasoning and thinking with the word “subjective.“ You must learn to be extremely subjective about things, because when you are being subjective about them you are able to experience their meanings, and not what they appear to be. Experiencing their meanings will allow you to respond appropriately, to perceive appropriately, and to conduct yourself in a way that is harmonious with the totality of your Self. “Subjective” means to be Truly Aware, not to be unaware.

As you know, the word, “holy” comes from the same root word as the word “whole”. The only reason the word “holy” was created was because wholeness was not available as a Self-experience, and so there must be a way to account for the Wholeness of Being. There must be a way of satisfying the intuitive perceptions that Being is Whole. So, the word “holy” was created to identify that part of our Wholeness which was not available to us consciously. The fact is that everything holy is absolutely normal, as normal as apple pie, when it is totally available to us as our Conscious Being.

Being is Infinity. It far exceeds your wildest imaginations. As you let go, as you lean on and trust your Self more and more implicitly, and as you find that your Self is, indeed trustworthy, you will experience more of that infinitude. Keep in mind, however, that the more of yourself which you are experiencing is not more of yourself than was always present. it is a phase of egotism which would like to make more out of what is normal than what normal is.

Egotism is what we do when we are not able to recognize our Self as the world we’re walking through, when we do not find substantiation of our Self in our experience. When we find the Soul-satisfying experience of knowing ourselves in every function and activity of our experience, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that finite perceptions of ourselves—the ego and its satisfactions—are but pitiful efforts that we no longer desire to indulge in, because we know what Satisfaction is

What gives substance to your experience as Conscious Being is that it is your Self that you are experiencing—the depth, breadth, and infinitude of your Being—so that the more you become aware of, the more you are aware that It is You. In other words, conscious experience is a Self substantiating experience. This is why it is satisfying. This is what I meant by the use of the word “satisfaction.“

I really want your attention to be on your conscious experience, your experience of being conscious. And, I don’t want your attention on how these things are going to be heard by others, since that is not their intent or purpose. If you are going to fully benefit, you must devote yourself to your Self completely, devotedly.

Paul, we do not have to do anything in order to deserve to be in immediate and total contact with the infinitude of our Being. The main, essential step to making such contact is to realize that everything we see “out there”—universally—is, indeed, our Being. What separates us from our Good is the belief that our Good is not our Self—nothing more!

You see, Paul, Being is not complex, hard to get at, or hard to understand. Half of the problem we have is our belief that it is not easy. We believe that it is bound up in complex religious or occult rituals or mental structures which we must pass through, like mazes, in order to prove our worthiness. It is not true.

as long as you are blinded by the belief that it is not You, and that it is “out there”—separate, apart, and existing on its own—it is not available to you for you to experience as your Self. This is a key point in the unfoldment of one’s conscious experience of being as Conscious Being or Fourth-dimensional Man.

how easily all of Your Self is available to you. It does not require ritual, or deep purpose, or great preparation in order to have it all available to you instantaneously.

I am not going anywhere. I want you to give your attention to your Self as It is living Its infinite unfoldment, and begin to find that It is an ever present and excellent teacher.

this process played a crucial role in stabilizing global capitalism after 1945

if we feel like helping is not possibleor we don’t have the capacity to do so, so in this research when we encounter a lot ofpeople whoneed assistance, we’re actually much less likely to help. And that tells us that sortof cultivatingfeelings of efficacy and in a way to feel empowered to help at the right level is reallyimportantin meeting these challenges to kindness.

One of the greatest buffers against picking up others’ stress is stable and strong self-esteem. The higher your self-esteem, the more likely you will feel that you can deal with whatever situation you face. If you are finding yourself being impacted by others’ moods, stop and remind yourself how things are going well and that you can handle anything that comes your way. Exercise is one of the best ways to build self-esteem, because your brain records a victory every time you exercise, via endorphins.

Chapter 9

Individualism–

What we should aim at producing is men who possess both culture and expert knowledge in some special direction.

I mean poets, when you sing the song of the pure self, you’re singing the song of Facebook, you’re singing the song of targeted advertising.

While I’d struggle to tell you how I learn best, there is one question that I’d always be able to answer enthusiastically: What would you like to learn next? Right now I’m learning JavaScript and have plans to give Spanish another go. I should probably pick up those guitar lessons again soon as well. Thankfully we live in a time when it’s trivially easy to gain access to resources and to learning activities. The problem is finding out the ones that work best for you. Perhaps that’s why we carry around in our pockets devices that can access pretty much the sum total of human knowledge yet use them to LOL at amusing pictures of cats. What are the barriers here? I’d suggest there are three main ones: 1 Curriculum - the series of activities that build towards a learning goal 2 Credentials - the ability to show what you know 3 Community - the cohort of peers you feel you are part of, along with access to ‘experts’

there is a powerful impact on growth and self awareness when students can see their own development in speaking, in writing, in thinking and problem solving.

Using explicit criteria, the student develops the ability to look at her own work and determine the strengths and weaknesses evident in a particular performance or across a set of performances. She begins to set goals to address the areas she needs to develop and to deepen her areas of strength.

That power is unleashed when teachers see the portfolio process as dependent upon the clarity of goals for student performance through their work in the liberal arts and professional education curriculum; when they attend to the quality of the assignments, projects and assessments that they provide for their students; and when they take the responsibility for teaching students the process of reflection and self assessment.

As an aside, do you believe in “self-sufficiency”?

But since all likeness and relationship is IJieasurable to an individual, necessarily all are more or less lovers of themselves

sensation is never simple. It is always doubled by the feeling of having a fe eling. It is self-refere ntial. This is not necessarily the same as "sc1f-reAexive.

"What connections can I make between what I'm learning in one class with what rm learning in another?" ""What questions do I have about my learning?"

making student development visible and accessible to the student, through video portfolios, written portfolios, and multi media collections of work

The challenge for all of us engaged in the design of portfolio assessment is to assist our students to learn how to make their products more "interwoven and complete," weighing "the stress of every chord" to assure that the portfolio becomes an expressio

the portfolio can be a structure to help an individual express meaning. But its quality depends up what the individual does with it.

The disaggregation of news in the Internet age has inverted this relationship, and made news outlets hypersensitive to the interests of their readers. This is a positive development. It’s good that the media covers stories that its constituents are interested in and want to read about. It’s good when news outlets are connected to the communities they serve.

Alcathoe

ALCI'THOE

Hence, a first analogy can be put forward: what others are to the ascetic in a community, the notebook is to the recluse. But, at the same time, a second analogy is posed, one that refers to the practice of ascesis as work not just on actions but, more precise]y, on thought: the constraint that the presence of others exerts in the domain of conduct, writing will exert in the domain of the inner impulses of the soul.

Beginning the issue with “are” or “is” often leads to a clearer and more concise expression of the issue than beginning it with “may,” “can,” “does,” or “should.” The latter beginnings may lead to vague or ambiguous versions of the issue. Examine the following alternative statements of the judicial issue from Aiken Industries, Inc. (TC, 1971), acq.: Issue 2 (Poor): Are the interest payments exempt from the withholding tax? Issue 2 (Poor): Should the taxpayer exempt the interest payments from withholding tax? In the first version of issue 2 above, to which interest payments and which withholding tax is the writer referring? The issue does not stand alone since it cannot be precisely understood apart from separately reading the brief�s facts. The extreme brevity leads to ambiguity. In the second version, the question can be interpreted as a moral or judgment issue rather than a legal one. Whether the taxpayer should do (or should not do) something may be a very different issue than the legal question of what the law requires. A legal brief, however, should focus on the latter. Rewriting issue 2 as follows leads to a clearer expression of the precise issue: Issue 2 (Better): Are interest payments exempt from the U.S. 30% withholding tax when paid to an entity established in a tax treaty country for no apparent purpose other than to escape taxation on the interest received?

Issues should be stated so that they “stand alone.” That is, issues should be completely understandable without reference to the facts or other sections of the brief or judicial decision. Use of the definite article “the” indicates that the issue does not stand alone when it alludes to prior information.

In fact, our work persuades us that any urban configuration that has not evolved — has not been computed step-by-step using adaptive adjustments — is probably dysfunctional and unsustainable

And when it is all over with the human intellect, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no additional mission which would lead it beyond human life.

The causes of our deliberately intending harmful and wicked acts contrary to law are (1) vice, (2) lack of self-control

Not all voluntary acts are deliberate, but all deliberate acts are conscious -- no one is ignorant of what he deliberately intends.)