In your new book, The Courage to Be Free, you talk about seeing the good when things look bad. Many people are seeing a lot of bad right now — the economy has hurt many people and nature itself seems to be in upheaval. How can we see the good in events that seem to be so destructive?

First, can we agree that freedom from whatever limits a human being is always for the good of them? If so, then let’s look at another false belief, that the more we fear the loss of something, the more valuable it must be. That’s a false belief! We believe that the more we feel, “Oh my god I’ve lost something,” the more valuable that thing must be that we’ve just had threatened, or actually lost. And that’s absolutely a lie.

And here’s why: Fear doesn’t reveal value; fear reveals dependency. How can dependency upon something be valuable when dependency leads to attachment and fear? 

So the reason that there’s always something good in what seems to be bad, is that the moment comes along as a gift from God to say, “Hey, look at what you are clinging to.” It’s not the thing, but the sense of self whose very premise is a limitation. The opportunity to make these kinds of self-liberating discoveries is why there’s always something good in what seems to be bad. 

But see, that’s assuming that we really want to be free, because one of the big problems is that we correlate the idea of security with freedom. And as long as we do that, then we will always be looking to something that the mind is clinging to and has identified as being the source of its protection.