“Attachment [to tradition] is perhaps at the root of more conflict in the world than anything else. If you doubt this to be true, take a moment to consider most of the ongoing struggles in world, and you will find that “tradition” has something to do with them…more often than not folks are fighting about something that has absolutely nothing to do with the present moment! Interestingly, nobody on either side of the conflict stops to think about how illogical this behavior is, because they are simply too emotionally “wired-in” as a result of their conditioning.
Just because the people of a neighboring nation did some nasty deeds to your ancestors, or happen to practice a different religion than you, does not by any means justify going into battle against them today. The common retort to such a comment is that it is merely part of heritage of the various peoples; it cannot be helped: it is based on wounds that have festered over the centuries, blah, blah, blah. Yet, if you were to put a Jewish baby into a playpen with a Palestinian baby, or a Kosovar baby with a Serbian baby, it’s quite likely after some initial sorting out occurs that harmony would be the order of the day. In any event, they surely wouldn’t feel inspired to kill each other.
The way out of this attachment to tradition is obvious, and that is for adults to stop passing these negative teachings on to their offspring.”
Jeff Maziarek, in “Spirituality Simplified”
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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.
