BEST of PONDER on THIS for Thursday, June 25th, 2009 by Paul Ferrini in THE SILENCE OF THE HEART

“The greatest block to spiritual awakening is the pretension that there is no suffering in your life, that you have no pain. If you don’t feel pain in your life, you are either awakened or you are in denial.

I hate to burst your bubble, but I must tell you there are very few awakened beings on the planet and chance are you are not among them. I say this so you can be realistic about your spiritual life. Even though you have dulled the pain, being frozen in fear is hardly spiritual. Indeed, all psycho-emotional defenses you have built to protect yourself are just blocks to love’s presence. True, you built them to deter or withstand abuse, but they also deter love. They push love away.

You see, you cannot awaken with a closed heart. The first step in the process of awakening is always “open you heart.” As soon as the heart is open, you will feel all the pain and shame you have intellectualized or repressed. It is inevitable. Let it come. Let the pain come forth so that you may be cleansed and purified…In feeling the pain, you begin to work through it. You see that it is not overwhelming. You see you can be with it without being destroyed.”

Paul Ferrini, in “The Silence of the Heart”

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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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