“It does not surprise me that people feel irritated when they hear this much overused phrase, “Know yourself.” The term has been tossed about since the dawn of civilization and has been especially abused over the past two decades. People offer vague general advice but very little is suggested of a specific nature as to how to bring it off. We are seldom told if we can do this alone, if one needs a guide, a psychiatrist, a minister or a mystic. Oscar Wilde said that “only the shallow know themselves.” The implication of this statement is most profound. It suggests that there must never be an end to the process.”

Leo Buscaglia, in “Loving Each Other”

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“BONUS” PONDER on THIS

“Just let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

      

“There is a healing instinct within us that can manifest itself in our dreams. Though this can occur on an emotional level, my focus here is on the physical…When you are asleep you open yourself up to healing forces. I am not saying that you have two sets of powers – one when you’re asleep and another when you’re awake. But in dreams, your resistances and inhibitions fall away; things can happen that you don’t ordinarily give yourself permission to experience.

Whether you believe that healing dreams come directly from the divine, or view them as an expression of your higher self (I no longer make a distinction), just know that if you become ill, your dreams can be with you every step of the process – from the initial diagnostic phase and all through treatment. They may even enable you to find a cure. In the same way that you can actively solicit guidance in other dreams, you can also request direction about healing.”

Judith Orloff, M.D., in “Second Sight”

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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

      

“Do you think you help people because you are in love with them? Well, I’ve got news for you. You are never in love with anyone. You’re only in love with your prejudiced and hopeful idea of that person. Take a minute to think about that:

You are never in love with anyone, you’re in love with your prejudiced idea of that person. Isn’t that how you fall out of love? Your idea changes, doesn’t it?

“How could you let me down when I trusted you so much?” you say to someone. Did you really trust them? You never trusted anyone. Come off it! That’s part of society’s brainwashing. You never trust anyone. You only trust your judgment about that person. So what are you complaining about? The fact is, you don’t like to say, “My judgment was lousy.”

Fr. Anthony DeMello, S.J., in “Awareness”

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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

      

“Change is the only constant in life. It is the one thing we can count on. Most human suffering comes from resisting change. We either resist new things from entering or familiar things from leaving, and in this resistance we struggle. Resisting the inevitable, we become entrapped in our limited ideas of how things should be. Genuine peace is not dependent upon things being a certain way, because inevitably they will change and peace will be disturbed.

From a spiritual perspective, freedom from attachment to a particular outcome is the ultimate expression of liberation. We can choose the actions we take, but we cannot control the consequences of our choices. Freedom is expanded by focusing our energies on the options available and making choices that have the greatest chance of increasing peace and happiness in our lives.”

David Simon, in”The Ten Commitments”

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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

      

“The “you should have” gambit is used virtually every minute of every day, especially in offices around the world, by people who want to tie you up for their convenience…

When people use the “you should have” tack, they are usually interested in having you feel bad for their own ends, and not in helping you learn from your past mistakes or correct your ignorance. Once they have you feeling bad or stupid, it’s easy to convince you that they can’t possibly help you, and you’re set up for, “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do now. You should have…” And if you buy it, off you go, a good little victim, done in by your not recognizing the trap that was so neatly, though perhaps not deliberately, set for you. It is easier to punish someone who unconsciously agrees he should be punished, and ‘you should have’ is designed to make you think just that…

The only strategy for avoiding the “you should have” trap is to decline to participate in the ritual by focusing on what actually can reasonably be done in the present. When someone tells you, “You should have,” you can respond with, “Are you asking me to go back in time and do what you claim I should have done, or can we talk about what really can be done right now?”

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, in “Pulling Your Own Strings”

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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.