Conscience is the ghost of common sense that haunts us until we obey its calling. Sadly, common sense is not so common, simply because so many hate it and because those who do love it cannot generate the proper energy or faith to act and express themselves from its guidance.

Ambitious people are threatened by those who are at least “alive” enough to try to put their common sense into practice. The worldly-wise, on the other hand, are committed to keeping decent souls from awakening and taking charge of their own lives.

No tyrant can rule us as long as we follow our common sense.

At every point along the way to life, there are many subtle choices and turnings. You must make the right choices or be eaten alive. Your lower nature will continue to complete itself through the spirit of its fallen existence, to exchange the life of the soul for vain pleasures that reinforce the life of pride.

For example, imagine that you are gazing longingly at a new dress or coat or a toy in a store window. You are beginning to visualize how nice it would be to own. Suddenly, a wordless caution reminds you: “You don’t really need that.” But the selfish demon of doubt, prompted by a real emotional need to survive and grow in pride, is very strong.

Temptation pulls one way, and the “wordless knowing” pulls the other way.

Observe how, every time you give way to the lower selfish impulse, you are never happy with whatever you obtained that way. Whatever it is that you have “treated” yourself to evokes in you a disquieting sense of loss, along with a greater ego-determination to fulfill a need that can never be satisfied—at least not in the way you have been going.

No matter how you thrash about in your efforts to find relief, you end up more disillusioned, angry, and guilty—as determined as hell to make “your way” work.

In your prideful attempts to resolve frustration, your mind is stirred each time to reach away from the Truth toward the false fulfillment of new toys, clothes, sex—those things that always seem to promise to fulfill what seems to be a genuine need. Unfortunately, the very nature of pride, which seeks happiness in things, is itself the cause of its own frustration with everything it gets, or fails to get.

But people, places, and things seem to be the only fulfillment for pride. Pride, going its stubborn way, is therefore forced to self-destruct as it continues to seek security in people, places, and things.

There comes a time when you discover the awful truth of your servitude, and the ultimate agony of the loves you need; and it translates into a fear of reaching out for anything at all. You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. You are caught between the hell of hell and the “hell” of heaven.

The commonsense Presence now seems to be the enemy, telling you what to do and how to live—especially when being good is an impossibility for the kind of selfish creature you have become. And so it comes to pass that, even though you may realize that what you want is wrong and harmful, you find pleasure in “giving in” just the same.

You can literally vomit in your beer, in a manner of speaking; still, you cannot stop indulging in your pleasure, even though you hate and fear it.

The very nature of vanity is rebellious and selfish. It follows that the more wrong you become, the more your guilt draws you away from the “awful” Truth, toward the false fulfillment of escape. You are compelled to follow the path of surrender to selfish desires, partly because it is your way of escaping and rebelling against conscience, and partly because that is how the false ego-identity reinforces itself.

"Temptation pulls one way,

and the 'wordless knowing'

pulls the other way. "

Memories from fun activities build the foundation of interests. Make time for you kids, and they won’t go looking for worthless, time-wasting things to do, and they won’t look for love and acceptance in the wrong type of friends!

When you build a real foundation for children, they will turn into interested teens. How many teenagers do you know who have interests in healthy things, or even have any interest at all except in their Social Media page?

I have met so many teens who look at me with their goat eyes, and after a few words with them I find that they have nothing to look forward to in life. Most of them have been spoiled beyond belief and feel there is almost no hope for a bright future, although I can usually dig deep and bring to the surface a little glimmer of something they were inspired by at some time in their lives.

Be a hero for your child and be interested in everything for them, so they can be inspired by you. Let them know that life is full of endless opportunities, not endless dead ends.