BEST of PONDER on THIS for Friday, January 2nd, 2026 by Don Miguel Ruiz in THE VOICE OF KNOWLEDGE

Posted on January 1, 2026 by jmaz479

“The voice that says, “That’s the way I am,” is the voice of knowledge. It’s the voice of the liar living in the Tree of Knowledge in your head. The Toltec consider it a mental disease that is highly contagious because it’s transmitted from human to human through knowledge. The symptoms of the disease are fear, anger, hatred, sadness, jealousy, conflict, and separation between humans. Again, these lies are controlling the dream of our life. I think this is obvious.

My grandfather told me in the simplest way, “Miguel, the conflict is between the truth and what is not the truth,” and this was nothing new. Two thousand years ago one of the greatest masters, at least in my story, said, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ Free from what? From all those lies. Especially from the liar who lives in your head and talks to you all the time. And we call it thinking! I used to tell my apprentices, “Just because you hear a voice in your head it doesn’t mean that it’s speaking the truth.”

Don Miguel Ruiz, in “The Voice of Knowledge”

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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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Thursday, January 1st, 2026 by Stuart Wilde in INFINITE SELF

Posted on December 31, 2025 by jmaz479

“You have to think of yourself as a bank account of energy. How much are you paying out, and what is your return on effort? Sometimes you’ll see that the potential upside in a particular situation is very limited, and the possible downside might include defeat, ruin, ill health, loss of a valued friendship, or suffering of some kind or another. So don’t be obstinate. When faced with obstacles, work your way around them, or wait patiently; sometimes the obstacle disappears or melts away in time. Use your brain, not your skull. There is no heroism in whacking things with your head. That’s dumb.

Trust your feelings, ask, and watch the signs all around you. You’ll know how hard to try, when it’s right to push a little harder, and when it’s best to pull back. It’s in the constant asking of questions that you logically don’t know the answer to that you empower your inner guidance.”

Stuart Wilde, in “Infinite Self”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Wednesday, December 31st, 2025 by Michael Tamura in YOU ARE THE ANSWER

Posted on December 30, 2025 by jmaz479

“Whenever you’re trying to be something other than who you are, in a condition other than how  you are, somewhere other than here  and at some time other than now, you’re going to be out of your body. The good news is that the choice is entirely yours. Most of the time, however, you don’t consciously choose to be out of your body. You go out as a means to avoid pain. Nonetheless, you must consciously decide to return to your body if you are to fulfill your purpose. Every time you’re unhappy and choose to blame, judge, criticize, hate, covet, cling or resist in some way, you leave your body’s space-time continuum.

As you can see, there are many ways to leave the body, but there is only one way to be in  it. You must learn to enjoy being who you are under all the present conditions.”

Michael J. Tamura, in “You Are the Answer”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Tuesday, December 30th, 2025 by Alan Cohen in DARE TO BE YOURSELF

Posted on December 29, 2025 by jmaz479

“It is said that if we want to be truly powerful we need but command what is happening to happen. While there is a humorous note in this advice, there is also a profound wisdom. We are most powerful when we are aligned with the flow of the universe. To deny what is, would be like running out on your front lawn in the morning and commanding the sun to reverse direction and set in the east. No matter how strong your wish for this to be so, your chances of succeeding are very slim.

Our attempts to make life other than it is, are just as foolish and ineffectual. To try to change people to suit us or fight against unchangeable situations is debilitating and useless. If something cannot be changed, our most powerful position is to go with it and find a blessing that we could not see when we wanted to be in charge.”

Alan Cohen, in “Dare to Be Yourself”‘

For more information about this book 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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Monday, December 29th, 2025 by White Eagle in THE PATH OF THE SOUL

Posted on December 28, 2025 by jmaz479

“Many successful people – the good, religious people as well as the materially-minded – are tempted to believe that their success is entirely due to themselves. They think how clever they are! They forget that without the help and blessing of God nothing can be accomplished. Not through man alone but by the will of God do conditions arise in a human life destined to give the soul opportunities to serve God.

Many worldly people become intoxicated with their own material success, and this can also happen on the spiritual path. People can become charged with spiritual pride, inwardly thinking how good they are and how nice they are to know! They have indeed been carried up into a high mountain.

When the soul is thus raised, the tempter, which is the lower self, now whispers, “How wonderful I am! It is “I” who have attained this spiritual height. “I” have made this progress – all by myself!” But the soul who would triumph over these three temptations must know that whatever it achieves spiritually, it is of itself nothing and can do nothing; and that all the good that is in it is of God.”

White Eagle, in “The Path of the Soul”

For more information regarding 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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Friday, December 26th, 2025 by Donald Altman in ONE MINUTE MINDFULNESS

Posted on December 25, 2025 by jmaz479

“The sky and the moon are waiting for your gaze. Their spaciousness invites us to a revolutionary perspective, the big view, the right now. To gaze at the sky and the moon is to leave the thinking, discursive, calculating, judging mind behind and to expand our awareness beyond the limited self to vast consciousness, of which we are an integral part. Stargazing and moongazing do not have to be an escape from the mundane; instead, they can be a way to grasp that the ordinary is also sublime when we become fully present to it.

The practice of gazing at the sky and the moon brings two important things into focus. First, it lets us embrace wholeness and unity, balancing out our personal, limited, and separate view of existence. British philosopher and Zen practitioner, Alan Watts, described this well when he said, “You are breathing. The wind is blowing. The trees are waving. Your nerves are tingling. The individual and the universe are inseparable, but the curious thing is, very few people are aware of it. Everything in nature depends on everything else. So it’s interconnected…When you look out of your eyes at nature happening out there, your looking at you.”

Donald Altman, in “One Minute Mindfulness”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Thursday, December 25th, 2025 by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer in GIFTS FROM EYKIS

Posted on December 24, 2025 by jmaz479

“You have no reason to blame anyone for how you are treated, and yet most of you think that the problems you face and the treatment you receive is the result of other people’s lack of consideration. You have the inherent power to teach anyone how you want to be treated. When you simply sit back and accept being abused, you are responsible for permitting that abuse to be heaped on you.

I’ve noted that those people who refuse to be abused, insist on respectful treatment, and react swiftly and firmly when they are mistreated receive the respect that so many “blamers” never see in their lives.

Teach those around you through behavior not empty arguments, that you will tolerate nothing less than respect. This is never difficult for those who have self-respect, since a person with high self-esteem expects the same kind of treatment from others that they expect of themselves. Respect yourself, and you’ll receive respect. If you receive disrespect, look to yourself and ask that most important question, “Why have I allowed myself to be treated this way?” instead of “Why are they doing this to me again?”

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, in “Gifts from Eykis”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 by Fr. Anthony DeMello in THE WAY TO LOVE

Posted on December 23, 2025 by jmaz479

“You stupidly squander so much energy trying to rearrange the world. If changing the world is your vocation in life, go right ahead and change it, but do not harbor the illusion that this is going to make you happy. What makes you happy or unhappy is not the world and the people around you, but the thinking in your head. As well as search for an eagle’s nest on the bed of an ocean, as search for happiness in the world outside of you.

So if it is happiness that you seek you can stop wasting your energy trying to cure your baldness, or build up an attractive body, or change your residence or job or community or lifestyle or even your personality. Do you realize that you could change every one of these things, you could have the finest looks and the most charming personality and the most pleasant of surroundings and still be unhappy?”

Fr. Anthony DeMello, S.J., in “The Way to Love”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025 by Lisette Larkins in DIFFICULT PEOPLE

Posted on December 22, 2025 by jmaz479

“Once awakened, no thought goes unquestioned. Thoughts are recognized, when they cause suffering, to be lies; or at the very least, to be suspect until they are unraveled as a misunderstanding by a mind that can do nothing other than be offended. Thoughts are concepts and they produce an active mind. Even thoughts that contain seemingly altruistic ideas are still noisy thoughts. Simply attend a town meeting about how to obtain peace on Earth and you understand this point. Conversely, a deep sense of peace that arises from within is usually elicited by a feeling, not a thought, that comes from the source of life rather than from the ego. Again, a murderous thought is no different from a conceptual thought of universal brotherhood: busy mind or quiet mind is the choice.”

Lisette Larkins, in “Difficult People”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Monday, December 22nd, 2025 by Alan Cohen in THE DRAGON DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE

Posted on December 21, 2025 by jmaz479

“The force that opposes determination is INERTIA. Inertia is not a static thing; it is a “dynamic force.” Like any force, it tends to magnify itself and gain momentum until or unless it is superseded by another force stronger than itself. If you jog every day, and then stop for a day, and then two days, and then three, the momentum of inertia will make it more and more difficult for you to re-initiate your practice. This is how we can get sidetracked from our dreams.

We slip into the undertow of inertia, and then forsake our commitment. It takes a strong will to buck inertia, but overcome it we must. When we refuse to be intimidated by unchosen habit, and we do just one act of our practice again, the momentum of the ‘practice’ will increase, and it will be easier and easier, and not harder and harder to continue.”

Alan Cohen in, “The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Friday, December 19th, 2025 by Polly Campbell in IMPERFECT SPIRITUALITY

Posted on December 18, 2025 by jmaz479

“Resistance, in a very real way, shows up as blocks in your life. It appears in the form of the same old problems, ongoing arguments, issues that never seem to resolve but always seem to matter – the twenty pounds you are unable to lose, the resolutions you repeat annually, the excuses you make. Because our pockets of resistance become familiar behavior and a habitual way of living, we often fail to notice that we’re resisting at all.

Once you do tune in and gently look for the places resistance may be rooted in your life, you’ll see some distinctive patterns. Resistance is almost always focused around our fears.”

Polly Campbell, in “Imperfect Spirituality”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Thursday, December 18th, 2025 by Neale Donald Walsch in THE NEW REVELATIONS

Posted on December 17, 2025 by jmaz479

“Neale Donald Walsch: If religion can make people ecstatic, why can’t it heal the world?

God: Because organized religion as you currently create it is largely an exclusive experience. It is exclusive to the individual or the group experiencing it. You have not found a way to include everyone in the same experience – that is, society as a whole – because you have not found a way for everyone to agree on how the experience should be experienced. Indeed, you disagree on this question so dramatically that it has caused you to interrupt your own ecstasy to express your disapproval of another for not experiencing their ecstasy in the same way. You have argued with each other, battled with each other; and killed each other in your anger over this ecstasy.

Neale Donald Walsch: Why? Why have we done this? And why can’t religions heal this?

God: Organized religions by their nature exclude as many as they include. This would be non-problematic if religions were tolerant of those they exclude, yet far too often this is not the case.  Religions, which you count on to teach tolerance, have not learned how to practice it, and so, teach just the opposite.”

God, as spoken to Neale Donald Walsch, in “The New Revelations”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Wednesday, December 17th, 2025 by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer in YOU’LL SEE IT WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT

Posted on December 16, 2025 by jmaz479

“Know that you are not stuck where you are unless you decide to be. Know that if you use your mental energy to see yourself spending your days doing what you truly love, and if you keep that thought uppermost in your mind, that is what will expand for you. It has to.

You were very likely taught that you choose your career in the early part of your life, and then you live out your life doing what you were trained to do. But is it sensible to continue doing something that someone eighteen or twenty years old chose years ago? Would you go to an eighteen-year-old today for vocational counseling?

Continuing to do regularly what you dislike is going to expand scarcity in your life. You will never escape from the trap unless you are willing to shift the internal focus of your thoughts to what you love doing. Put that thought in your mind and make it the central feature of your thoughts, even if you refuse to make the move today. Stay with the thought. The more you focus on it, the more it will expand”

Dr. Wayne Dyer, in “You’ll See it When you Believe It”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Tuesday, December 16th, 2025 by Shakti Gawain in THE PATH OF TRANSFORMATION

Posted on December 15, 2025 by jmaz479

“Pay attention to whatever feedback you get from the way things unfold in your external experience. See how things work out when you follow your own inner guidance. If things don’t seem to be working out, it may be because you are not yet fully attuned with your inner guidance. You may be following other feelings instead. The best indication that you are in tune with your inner truth is that you feel more alive as a result. Also, things generally work more easily. Doors open. There’s a sense of following a certain flow of energy.”

Shakti Gawain, in “The Path of Transformation”

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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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Monday, December 15th, 2025 by Sanaya Roman in SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Posted on December 14, 2025 by jmaz479

“You do not become strong by seeking those situations that keep you sheltered and protected; you become strong by learning to navigate all the different kinds of weather, finding your strength and direction from within. If you have felt any resentment because you had a difficult childhood, let go of it, and appreciate all the strength you gained from the situation you grew up with.

At various times in your life you may have been around people whom you had trouble loving. Look at the circumstances you have in your life right now. If you are around people or energies you aren’t comfortable with, see them as offering you opportunities for spiritual growth by teaching you more about becoming transparent. The thoughts and feelings of people you have the most trouble harmonizing with are the very ones that will give you the most growth when you do learn to be transparent to them. That is why you have attracted these people into your life.”

Sanaya Roman, in “Spiritual Growth”

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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