This session addressed the nature of stress and anxiety as fundamentally spiritual rather than merely external problems, explaining that stress occurs when cells receive messages that it isn't safe to relax and expand. Bartholomew pointed out that most people try to eliminate stress by rearranging external circumstances - moving locations, changing relationships or altering jobs - but discover this approach often increases rather than decreases their anxiety. The deeper issue involve understanding what happens between external circumstances and one's internal response, recognizing that the interaction between outer events and inner reactions is what creates the experience of stress.

The teaching emphasized that 95% of human stress has nothing to do with the present moment but concerns fears about future possibilities or regrets about past events. Bartholomew challenged the common belief in hereditary determinism, asserting that mindset and internal beliefs determine susceptibility to familial patterns rather than DNA creating inevitable outcomes. He encouraged students to recognize that fear is rarely based in present reality but involves projecting past experiences or imagined futures onto current circumstances, creating unnecessary suffering about events that typically never materialize.

A central theme involved the revolutionary assertion that bliss is always present in the current moment, not something to be earned, deserved or achieved through spiritual practices. Bartholomew explained that all great enlightened beings have proclaimed this same truth - that one's basic nature is happiness, joy, and radiant awareness that exist regardless of external conditions. He identified three levels of response to this teaching: those who immediately accept and manifest it, those who believe it intellectually but seek methods to access it, and those who reject it entirely and continue seeking through various practices.

The practical instruction distinguished between necessary thinking (like balancing checkbooks or creative problem-solving) and emotional-based thinking that involves endless speculation about possibilities and problems. Bartholomew explained that creative thinking expands the cells while emotional thinking contracts them, creating physical tension and stress responses. Students were encouraged to observe their thought patterns and notice how different types of mental activity affect their physical bodies, learning to recognize when they are engaging in non-productive mental loops.

The session emphasized that meditation is simply "shutting up and allowing the moment exactly as it is" without trying to change, fix or escape from whatever is being experienced. Whether dealing with pain, anxiety, or pleasant sensations, the practice involves sitting motionless and observing everything without mental commentary or emotional resistance. Bartholomew warned against spiritual ego that can turn authentic practice into elaborate drama, encouraging students to maintain simplicity and humor about their experiences.

A significant portion of this session addressed the illusion that bliss is a future attainment rather than a present reality. Bartholomew explained that what people seek is so ordinary, immense, and ever-present that they consistently overlook it. The experiencer of all experiences - the awareness that knows thoughts, feelings, and sensations - is itself the bliss being sought. This awareness was compared to the deep sleep state, where ego identity dissolves, yet a continuous sense of being persists, providing the refreshment and peace that makes daily life sustainable.

The teaching concluded with the recognition that modern life has substituted action - mental, emotional, and physical activity - for actual living. Many people confuse the "hum of physical machinery" with genuine vitality, creating lives filled with constant motion but lacking authentic aliveness. The prescription involves slowing down all activities while maintaining full awareness - walking, speaking, and thinking with deliberate consciousness rather than mechanical automation. This shift from unconscious action to aware being will naturally reveal the bliss that is already present as the foundation of all experience, requiring only the willingness to stop seeking and start noticing what is perpetually available in each moment.