The One Who Spoils Love

Barry Long opens by cautioning against taking notes, asking listeners to be present in their own experience. He frames the talk not as a lecture but as a “divine meeting,” he says that truth is absorbed through being, not intellect.

Barry critiques the personal mind’s role in distorting love, highlighting how subtle emotional negativity can quietly destroy relationships. He calls for radical personal responsibility: to be constantly vigilant, to refrain from letting unkind or critical words pass our lips, and to die to our selfish emotional reactions. Real love, he says, is not emotional or possessive, but a ceaseless dedication to purity and presence—an unceasing refusal to let anything unloving come between oneself and another.

Barry goes on to explore themes of divine will, karma, materialism, and social illusion. He says that the present moment is the Divine Will in action and that fighting life's circumstances only deepens suffering. He critiques society's obsession with possessions, science’s futile search for God through matter, and the misuse of charity, which he sees as enabling irresponsibility. Instead, he calls for simplicity, surrender, and gratitude—for acknowledging beauty, refraining from judgment, and trusting that life, left to itself, unfolds intelligently. Above all, he challenges each individual to confront and cleanse the personal self—the “gorilla” within—that distorts love and truth.