BEST of PONDER on THIS for Thursday, November 25th, 2010 by Jeff Maziarek in SPIRITUALITY SIMPLIFIED

“…a person who does harm to another is simply doing what they know how to do at the time given the level of their awareness of spiritual principles, nothing more, nothing less. While it can be difficult to adopt this perspective when an individual does something that is really mean or hurtful, if you got down to the heart of the matter, you would find they were merely doing the best they could in that moment to deal with their own life’s issues and fears.

Think about it for a moment, and you realize that it is true; people (including you) are generally so focused on themselves and their own personal drama that they tend to be oblivious to what anyone else is going through at the time. That’s why it is important for you not to take things personally, for people will be what people will be, and the underlying cause of their behavior actually has nothing to do with you. In that regard, consider this passage from a marvelous book called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz:

Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about “me.” Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world than the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world. Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you.

When you can truly embrace this perspective, you will come to understand exactly what Jesus meant by “they know not what they do,” and you’ll also put yourself in a position where no one can ever really hurt you again.”

Jeff Maziarek, in “Spirituality Simplified”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff 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.

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