I have another question.  Tree of Knowledge in Christianity:  So Adam and Eve symbolically eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and then they saw they were naked.  Since I was a young girl I have been searching for Truth.  I equate truth with knowledge.  Then this new thought came to me yesterday… we ate from the Tree of Knowledge.  So, does this mean that there is something even larger beyond the Tree of Knowledge?  That knowledge (concrete truth of being) is only an aspect of who our Creator is or who we are?

The 6th spiritual Law of Success, Law of detachment seems to be a tough concept for me to grasp.  Does Law of Detachment mean you submit your desire to the universe and just trust it to manifest.  Or does it mean that what your desire should not define who you are.  For example, if you want a car, you should not think that without this car your happiness will not be fulfilled.  Instead you  should believe without any doubt in your heart and soul that the universe will manifest this car for you in some way.

Each day I awaken with the greatest of intentions.  I meditate using some sort of guidance, usually a podcast from the Chopra Center, as this is what works best for me, right now.( I’m just beginning)
I live on a lake and take advantage of the calming sounds of the water.  The waves echo my breath,  the wind becomes my breath and all that surrounds me is within me.  It is glorious and I feel as if I am home . . .
BUT, the moment my  husband comes home, with his moods and remarks,  the spell is broken!  And then I actually RESENT him for breaking my peace. (although I know it is ‘I’ that does this.)
Before I go into work, I take time out to be quiet.  I feel that I am brilliantly lit.  When at work (nurse), I have the best intentions to be of service to my patients and make a difference with each word, gesture or kindness I can bestow upon them. I know that I am fortunate to have this vocation.

The mood of the institution, right now most especially, is one of uncertainty and chaos, with job-cuts and budgets.  My co-workers complain, feel unappreciated and are worked beyond normal means.  I become one with the collective consciousness  . . .  I am like a sponge, absorbing the mood of staff and the place as a whole.  I end up complaining, perhaps not as much as I once did, but I still do. I leave there discouraged, defeated and feeling awful about myself that I was unable to remain untouched by outside forces.

I see a small progression, but if I could only sit on my rock by the water . . .
Why am I so weak?  Do I have to move to a cave or monastery to stay away from the judgment and negativity I’m seemingly absorbing?  Is it because I am empty, like a sponge, that I am so susceptible, so open to suggestion? How does one fall ‘deaf’ to the tremendous negativity of others without getting “sucked in”? Does it get better?
I feel such a frustration and ‘failure’ when this happens to me. Sometimes my ride home is filled with tears.
Also, how do you determine that situations and people are toxic, or whether they serve as  important characters in the play? How much is ‘too’ much work, to keep relationships alive?

May your insight  help me find my answers.  I sincerely thank you.

I have a question about letting go and holding on. I recently ended a relationship with someone who I care dearly about. There is no doubt that my love for this woman is clear to the both of us. During our relationship I learned that this woman has difficulty expressing her love and appreciation. This was something she had admitted to me, and we have discussed it and it was decided that I was teaching her, how to love. I do believe that my true self had accepted her for who she was, as I believed that her true or higher self did love me enough even though she has had time being the loving person that she wants to be.

Over time towards the end of our relationship I believe that I lost touch with my higher self. I was learning more about love and my feelings and I was slowly breaking away from listening to my ego and instead I found my self listening to her. She was a very demanding lover. She knew how much I loved her and held me to that standard at all times, and expected me to be a loving man in perfect ways always. This was mounting pressure on me. I eventually found my self in fear, being afraid that I would let her down and that she would leave me. I had lost my ego catering to her, I felt I had depended on my ego previously to give me what I now know was false courage to deal with being in this type position of vulnerability.

Recently an issue accrued between us that made me very afraid and I had let fear over run my love and my ego came back with a vengeance, my ego told me that I was not receiving what I deserved, that my love for her was greater than her love for me. I felt used and abused and neglected. I felt like she had taken advantage of my kindness. I expressed all this to her in as we verbally fought and I now that emotionally hurt her. And because she has had a problem with showing her love, during and after this fight, she still could not show me her higher self that I had fallen in love with, she could not re-assure me in any way that she indeed was in love with me and faithful to our expectations of each other. She left and our relationship ended the next day after the fight.

Since then, I have been doing some real deep soul searching and I have found out so much thanks to your website and books. I wish I could take back what I had said to her, but I know I can’t. When I have spoken with her she seems very confused sad and lost. She has told me she doesn’t know if she will come back to me or not. She is afraid that I could hurt her again. She knows that I had resentment for her and doesn’t know why I let this build up. She told me that I ruined what we had and I have accepted the responsibility for all this. I don’t believe she has forgiven me. I have forgiven my self and her. I would really like to repair our relationship but it seems that she is not ready.

So what I have done during this is I’ve been trying to detach my self from the desire that I have to love her like I really do. With no control of what she might do, I feel like letting go is the only way to heal my heartache. Inside I feel like she will, one day return to me but I know that I must not wait for her because that may only hinder my growth from this experience, if she was not to return to me.

So my issue is that I’m trying to let go, but Im still feel like holding on and expressing my love to her. I have addressed my issue that I have with fear and I have written down the lessons that I have learned from all this so that I can do my best to not repeat the same mistakes. Spiritually I feel like I’m holding on because I truly believe that our love connection and experience with each other was a spiritually one. Also during my healing process, I have wondered if perhaps my feelings of not being satisfied were valid, because of her inability to show her love and appreciation to me the way that I expect. Or maybe she is not something that I need in my life right now. With her being able to admit to me that she has this issue, should I have been or should I be more understanding and compassionate to her like I was previously before I had allowed fear to interfere with my love for her?

In the midst of this break up and I am still reaching out to her and to let her know that I am here for her, but it doesn’t appear to be effective as she is now very depressed, jobless and homeless since she has left our home. Is there anything that you can recommend about trying to help someone who has a hard time displaying their love and appreciation for another person?

I am in need of some clarification regarding the dark-side/shadow aspect of human beings.  I am confused as to whether a person’s shadow side is a permanent fixture of their awareness—to be accepted and integrated—or whether it is something that is to be eventually transcended and/or dissolved through diligent meditation practice.  I seem lately to regularly encounter seemingly contradictory viewpoints on this matter where sometimes the dark/shadow side is spoken about in terms of past conditioning or accumulated stress and karma wherein the implicit understanding is that, given enough time and due diligence with meditation, one would eventually tread past their negativity and emerge into unconditional love.  Other times though it seems that the shadow is portrayed as being a permanent, inescapable fixture of the human condition (love and hate coexist always) wherein the goal is simply to acknowledge it, accept it, and learn to live with it.  If one tends to favor their positive aspects over their negative ones does that necessarily mean that they are denying and suppressing parts of themselves?  I can’t imagine not preferring love over hate.

Anyway, I can’t help but see the above two points of view as being utterly contradictory.  Do enlightened individuals really have the same dark aspects as everyone else?  If so, what is it exactly that makes them enlightened?  Or have they indeed let go of and moved beyond all negativity.