Spiritual Path Quotes

What a vicious circle we can put ourselves in: we have come to accept the notion of "fix me first," when part of the essential fixing we all need is to be compassionately involved with others. ~ Bo Lozoff

All the various types of teachings and spiritual paths are related to the different capacities of understanding that different individuals have. There does not exist, from an absolute point of view, any teaching which is more perfect or effective than another. A teaching's value lies solely in the inner awakening which an individual can arrive at through it. If a person benefits from a given teaching, for that person that teaching is the supreme path, because it is suited to his or her nature and capacities. There's no sense in trying to judge it as more or less elevated in relation to other paths to realization. ~ Namkhai Norbu

In some respects, if I had to choose just one (virtue on the spiritual path), I'd feel safest with a sense of humor. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, have a good laugh about human nature, and get on with our journeys. ~ Bo Lozoff

The Spirit is as much a jealous lover as the ego. Both guard their path with an uncompromising passion but for very different reasons. ~ Donna Goddard

So many of us start along the spiritual path because we are suffering. But you must realize that for real healing to occur, there must first be deep compassion for yourself, especially the parts of yourself you dislike or consider ugly. ~ Pema Chodron

Coincidences "Syncs" or some call Serendipities are signs of God making corrections to your chosen spiritual path,.......Omens are signals to turn back ,..as your not paying attention to your "Coincidences. ~ Eric B. Watson

I believe everyone is on a spiritual path - some people know it, some don't. The ones that know it call themselves religious, spiritual, or Soul Searchers. ~ Emma Mildon

Sex, creativity, music, art, family, love, beauty, and creative imagination are all part of the spiritual path in the tantric traditions. So I think that for today that has a lot to say to us about not dividing ourselves from ourselves. ~ Surya Das

The spiritual path is more of an unlearning than a learning. ~ Donna Goddard

Overcoming negative tendencies and enhancing positive potential are the very essence of the spiritual path. ~ Dalai Lama

The spiritual path is an inward journey. On the spiritual path, the external life remains the same, but you begin the inward journey towards the truth. ~ Roshan Sharma

If we pursue a spiritual path in depth, then it changes who and what we are. There is no turning back. We can only move forward. ~ Vivianne Crowley

Never waste time and energy wishing you were somewhere else, doing something else. Accept your situation and realize you are where you are, doing what you are doing, for a very specific reason. Realize that nothing is by chance, that you have certain lessons to learn and that the situation you are in has been given to you to enable you to learn those lessons as quickly as possible, so that you can move onward and upward along this spiritual path. ~ Eileen Caddy

Its subtlest, most appealing accomplishment may be in how other characters respond to Gregorius' precipitous swerve onto the spiritual path. ( ... ) That said, Night Train to Lisbon is a very long, ambitious book that's feverishly overwritten. ( ... ) Think of W.G. Sebald recast for the mass market: stripped of nuance, cooked at high temperature and pounded home, clause after clause. Some of the clumsiness derives from Barbara Harshav's inelegant translation
we're often aware of her struggle
but she can't be blamed for the pervasive bloat. ~ Michelle Huneven

Be open to the possibility that there are other paths available to you in relating to yourself and to another. ~ Sharon Salzberg

When we seek from Zen (or from any spiritual path) the fulfillment of our fantasies, we separate from the earth and sky, from our loved ones, from our aching backs and hearts, from the very soles of our feet. Such fantasies insulate us for a time; yet in ten thousand ways reality intrudes, and our lives become anxious scurrying, quiet desperation, confusing melodrama. ~ Charlotte Joko Beck

To stay with that shakiness-to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge-that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic-this is the spiritual path. ~ Pema Chodron

The use of drugs like mescaline may serve an appropriate purpose. Indeed, "Psychedelic" drugs have been widely used in the spiritual traditions of the world, including the Yoga of Patanjali, though they were never advertised as ultimate keys to enlightenment, merely as stepping-stones on the spiritual path. ~ Georg Feuerstein

Despite its prominence now, you don't stumble onto the path of shamanism. That odd trail blazes itself to you. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

The object in being on the spiritual path is not to have just a little influx of energy, but to be the energy itself - consciously. ~ Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

The spiritual path is all about confronting resistance and finding strength from within. ~ Deepak Chopra

The spiritual path is easy. It's the only path that is. ~ Roger Delano Hinkins

Kindness and a good heart are the foundation for success in this life, progress on the spiritual path, and the fulfillment of our aspirations. Our need for them is not limited to any specific time, place, society, or culture. ~ Dalai Lama

Spiritual partners bond with an understanding that they are together because it is appropriate for their souls to grow together.

They recognize that their growth may take them to the end of their days in this incarnation and beyond, or it may take them to six months.

They cannot say that they will be together forever. The duration of their partnership is determined by how long it is appropriate for their evolution to be together.

All of the vows that a human being can take cannot prevent the spiritual path from exploding through and breaking those vows if the spirit must move on. It is appropriate for spiritual partners to remain together only as long as they grow together. ~ Gary Zukav

Your Soul is your ultimate guidance system. You can think of your Soul as the compass, map, and destination all in one. ~ Aletheia Luna

I have learned a great deal from other Witches, Wiccans, Odinists, Voodoo and Hoodou practitioners, Druids and many others who consider themselves Pagan. The one common thread is that every single person has been nonjudgmental. Isn't this what it's all about, acceptance? Are we not here to design our own spiritual path?
Icinia ~ Arin Murphy-Hiscock

A thousand years of tears can only be voluntarily avoided, ~ Donna Goddard

Human love is the shadow of the Great love; its child. And of all human loves, it is romantic love which has the most riveting effect upon our soul. Ageless and perennial, it is forever finding an outlet in poetry, music, dance, story-telling, and the media. We never tire of it. It commands attention at so many turns, such is the longing for its presence in our life. It is not by accident that it has such an unfailing pull on our psyche. If we cannot connect with visible human love, we will not be able to find the invisible Love. Human love is leading us, most of us unknowingly, straight to the divinity of our own nature. And that nature leads us, in turn, to the source of life itself. ~ Donna Goddard

Again and again we need to appreciate the subtle workings of the teachings and the practice, and even when there is no extraordinary, dramatic change, to persevere with calm and patience. How important it is to be skillful and gentle with ourselves, without becoming disheartened or giving up, but trusting the spiritual path and knowing that it has its own laws and its own dynamics. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

I have said so many times to many people on the spiritual path, 'You must be strong in yourself to help others. People who are in the emotional sea need someone who can pull them out, not someone who gets in with them and gets dragged away by the tidal wave of human emotions. We have to become emotional lifeguards. ~ Gordon Smith

For a seeker, Guru Purnima is a day of significance, is a day of New Year. It is the day to review one's progress on the spiritual path and renew one's determination and focus on the goal, and to resolve what one wants to do in the coming year ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

When we learn to deal directly with our complaints and difficulties, romanticized ideas about the spiritual path are no longer meaningful. We see that what is important is to take responsibility for ourselves, and to always be aware of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. ~ Tarthang Tulku

Your truest spiritual path will lead you to yourself for it is devoted to becoming. ~ Mollie Marti

The spiritual path - is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don't know it. ~ Marianne Williamson

The great gift of a spiritual path is coming to trust that you can find a way to true refuge. You realize that you can start right where you are, in the midst of your life, and find peace in any circumstance. Even at those moments when the ground shakes terribly beneath you - when there's a loss that will alter your life forever - you can still trust that you will find your way home. This is possible because you've touched the timeless love and awareness that are intrinsic to who you are. ~ Tara Brach

...about a spiritual path, seeing the validity in all paths, and knowing that religion can help or hamper the path. The teachings in every religion are valuable. It is humanity that has bogged down in dogma and rules. Loving and practicing the teachings that ring true is the key. ~ Lynne Cockrum-Murphy

Fascination with the psychic - or the psychological - can be a dangerous sidetrack on any spiritual path. ~ Starhawk

In the scriptures you will find the way to realize God. But after getting all the information about the path, you must begin to work, Only then can you attain your goal. ~ Ramakrishna

Everything must break open in order to live. The seed must break open in order for the tree to grow. The egg must break open in order for life to emerge. The Earth must be turned and the cloud must burst. You were never meant to stay in your shell. ~ Thomas Lloyd Qualls

If you live for the highest goal, you are living a life of the spirit-whether or not you consider yourself to be on a spiritual path. If you consciously notice the larger aspects of life, always consider whether what you are doing coincides with these aspects, never forget the times when you were enlivened by the power of the highest goal, use those memories in new situations, and act with the knowledge of the support you have and the journey you are on-you will be living for the highest goal. ~ Michael Ray

Catastrophe is the essence of the spiritual path, a series of breakdowns allowing us to discover the threads that weave all of life into a whole cloth. ~ Joan Halifax

[A] practitioner of any spiritual path must have complete confidence that his adopted path is, for him, superior to all others. (57) ~ Prem Prakash

No matter what stage we are at in our spiritual journey, whether we are beginners or have been traveling a spiritual path for years or decades; and no matter how awakened or asleep we are, there is always absolute truthfulness - the oneness and nothingness - which is our true nature. Our true nature doesn't need any explanation or demonstration to know itself. It just knows because knowing is part of its nature. This true nature resides in everyone. This is the meaning of the statement that everyone is already enlightened. ~ Ilchi Lee

Awakening self-compassion is often the greatest challenge people face on the spiritual path. ~ Tara Brach

To live a life without awakening is to leave it as it was begun. ~ Belsebuub

Looking at the world today, we might easily forget that the main purpose of our life - you could call it the heart of being human - is to be happy. All of us share the same wish, and the same right, to seek happiness and avoid suffering. Even following a spiritual path, or the religious life, is a quest for happiness. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

The message of love and compassion will travel far and wide if all who follow a spiritual path work together in harmony and mutual respect. ~ Dalai Lama

A spiritual path for the modern samurai, but in the service of the heart, not the dictatorship of the ego. ~ Vincent Thibault

We think we have to prove our allegiance to God by being poor. Many years ago, my own psychic development teacher taught me that to be on a spiritual path meant that you needed to be poor, because that was proving your allegiance to God. So growing up with that kind of teaching from her was a real struggle for me, also. ~ Echo Bodine

Ordinary people do not question the commonly accepted version of reality. They conform to the standard values of subduing enemies and cherishing friends and family. Materialism, ambition and mundane achievements are the worldly hallmarks of success. We experience the phenomenal world and our minds as solid and truly existent. Very few people doubt these assertions and question their solidity. Yet, the process of disbelief is the first step on the spiritual path. ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Being on the spiritual path means you want to be a success in an existential sphere, not just on a social level. ~ Jaggi Vasudev

The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everybody should follow any one path. Listen to your own truth. ~ Ram Dass

All paths do not lead to truth. There is no path to truth, it must come to you. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

It is one thing to lose people you love. It is another to lose yourself. That is a greater loss. ~ Donna Goddard

The great virtue of those who seek the spiritual path is courage. ~ Paulo Coelho

People remember the spiritual path only when nothing else seems to help. In deep hopelessness they remember. But it is only when you are full of hope, radiant, vibrating; when there is meaning in your life, when you feel the hands of destiny in your life, when you are riding on waves, when you feel at the top of the world - those are the moments to remember, to move towards the way. ~ Osho

If you decide that you're going to be happy from now on for the rest of your life, you will not only be happy, you will become enlightened. Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is. This is truly a spiritual path, and it as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly exist. ~ Michael A. Singer

Your spiritual developement is a divine path that leads to truth, goodness and beauty;
it is a spiritual path reflecting the unlimited, absolute nature of the universe
and the ultimate grand design of creation. ~ Morihei Ueshiba

The journey of a human is not only to expand its illusory personality of his mind, in the external world, but to realize himself beyond the identity of the mind and see the truth behind the formation of life within. ~ Roshan Sharma

There's nothing more important on our spiritual path than developing gentleness to oneself. ~ Pema Chodron

Sermon of the Mounts

Matthew 5

AND SEEING THE MULTITUDES, HE WENT UP INTO A MOUNTAIN, AND WHEN HE WAS SET, HIS DISCIPLES CAME UNTO HIM

The Gospels starts in a very beautiful way.

The Bible is the book of the books. The meaning of the word "bible" is - the book.

It is the most precious and beautiful document that humanity has. These statements are the most beautiful ever made.

That is why it is called "The Testament", because Jesus has become the witness of God.

While Buddha's words are refined and philosophic, Jesus words are poetic, plain and simple.

The beginning of the Gospel of Matthew states that 42 generations have passed from Abraham, the founder of Judaism, to Jesus.

Jesus is the flowering, the fulfillment, of these 42 generations.

The whole history that has preceded Jesus is the fulfillment in him.

Jesus is the fruit, the growth, the evolution, of those 42 generations.

The path of Jesus is the path of love. Jesus moved among ordinary people, while Buddha - whose path is the path of meditation, intelligence and understanding - moved with sophisticated people, who was already on the spiritual path,

Jesus is the culmination of the whole Jewish consciousness, while Buddha was the culmination of the Hindu consciousness and Socrates was the culmination of the Greek consciousness.

But the strange things is t ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

I think most people think that a spiritual path or growing spiritually means that all of a sudden you'll be able to forecast the six lotto numbers and all your bills will be paid. ~ Iyanla Vanzant

One of the great dangers on the spiritual path is that the ego becomes spiritualized. The ego loves to think of itself as spiritually evolved. It is just another way that it manages to feel important and in control. It is very difficult to free yourself from an enlightened ego. ~ Leonard Jacobson

The spiritual path means making a path rather than following one. ~ Mark Epstein

On the spiritual path we must become a gentle warrior--curious, kind, and alert to our own con games--whispering to ourselves, wake up. ~ Charlotte Kasl

What is Truth? Truth is the attribute of when the human heart marries the love of God, and the result is passion for your spiritual path. ~ Lee Carroll

The fundamental principal when traversing a spiritual path is that we do not have a mind. The mind has created the sense of you and me from the way it perceives reality. The truth is, the mind holds us within it. We are not the possessor of a mind and the mind is not something happening to us as if we were outside looking in. We are a part of the mental processing of the mind. The thoughts of the mind and the sense of 'I' are not two separate events. We exist only because the mind thinks us into creation. ~ Rodney Smith

Not all spiritual paths lead to the harmonious Oneness. Indeed, most are detours and distractions, nothing more. ~ Laozi

I strongly believe that nothing is more spiritual than living at our highest potential while serving others. I believe that the more closely aligned we are to "spirit" the more fully we will give ourselves in service to the world. As such, my "spiritual path" is the path that leads me to a more complete manifestation of my unique Bodhisattvic duties. ~ Brian Johnson

The test, the mark, of a person that's on a spiritual path is whether they can live in harmony. ~ Melody Beattie

You have to learn how to be comfortable with yourself and focus on making your own home within. Once you have a spiritual path, you have a home. Once you can deal with your emotions and handle the difficulties of your daily life, then you have something to offer to another person. The other person has to do the same thing. Both people have to heal on their own so they feel at ease in themselves; then they can become a home for each other. Otherwise, all that we share in physical intimacy is our loneliness and suffering. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

You take up the spiritual path only when you feel you cannot do otherwise. ~ The Mother

To undertake a genuine spiritual path is not to avoid difficulties but to learn the art of making mistakes wakefully, to bring them to the transformative power of our heart. ~ Jack Kornfield

The most important quality on the spiritual path is courage," said Gandhi. ~ Paulo Coelho

Sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos, how we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears. We can bring ourselves back to the spiritual path countless times every day simply by exercising our willingness to rest in the uncertainty of the present moment - over and over again. ~ Pema Chodron

The basis of the spiritual path is the development in ourselves of what is truly balanced, natural, and meaningful. ~ Tarthang Tulku

If you find no one to support you on the spiritual path, walk alone. There is no companionship with the immature. ~ Gautama Buddha

To prevent humiliating collisions with the universe, I suggest we all adopt an attitude of being open to learning in every moment of our relationships. Every interaction contains within it the possibility of deep connection with our beloved, with ourselves, and with the cosmos. Relationship is the ultimate spiritual path, because it constantly presents us with the challenge to love and embrace in the very situations in which we're most prone to shun and reject. For that reason above all, relationship is the place where our spirituality most visibly comes to light. You can tell more about a person's true spirituality from the way he or she treats his or her partner than you ever could from tallying that person's church attendance. ~ Gay Hendricks

Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Have you not realised how fragile and brutal the ego is? It will always choose what it perceives as in its best interest for the cheapest price. It may be as blatant as short skirts and lies. It may be more sophisticated and hidden behind 'kind' words. But it all comes from the same place of either using people to get what we want or trying to eliminate people who get in our way. ~ Donna Goddard

Parenting is a spiritual path that can bring you great pain and great joy and that can have a tremendous positive impact on your personality and your behavior. ~ Vimala McClure

I advise everyone to choose a religion based upon the beauty that the religion has brought to the world. There is much to be said about every religion, there is much evil in history written about every religion, and at the end of the day, you're only going to find out which one works after you're dead and if you're lucky, that won't happen soon! Simply put, you believe in the things that you believe in right now, because you were indoctrinated with fear from a very young age, forward. You fear straying a path that you were told you should walk on. So what path should you really walk on? Walk on the path that has created, is creating, and will be creating - beauty. The only real sign of anything worthwhile, is beauty. The true religion is the belief in what is beautiful. So if something creates a beauty in your heart and in the world - walk that path. ~ C. JoyBell C.

I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right. ~ Anne Lamott

We could become quite satisfied with ourselves because we are sitting in meditation and are endeavoring to practice the spiritual path. Such satisfaction with ourselves is not the same as contentment. Contentment is necessary, self-satisfaction is detrimental. To be content has to include knowing we are in the right place at the right time to facilitate our own growth. But to be self-satisfied means that we no longer realize the need for growth. All these aspects are important parts of our commitment and makes us into one whole being with a one-pointed direction. ~ Ayya Khema

You have to stay out of the game. It's deadly and no one ever wins. Everyone is a loser. Even seeming wins are short-lived and have the taste of bitterness mixed in with the satisfaction of personal gain. The ego is exclusive by nature. While the spirit seeks to include, the ego is unashamedly manipulative in its culling of people. The intention of self-aggrandisement is barely even covered over. The soul does not see people in terms of what it can gain. It seeks to share. It seeks to create by extension of its own and others' true nature. The ego is extremely changeable. It has no stability. Constantly guarding against attack and looking out for its own advantage, its perceptions and thus feelings towards others are ever-shifting. This creates unhappiness. The more we veer away from our true nature, the more unhappy we feel. When we align with our better self, we feel happy again. And so the process continues until the spaces between happiness are not as long and arduous. The presence or absence of personal peace is our barometer. It will guide us even if we are not sure of the way. ~ Donna Goddard

According to the law of karma, souls reincarnate in environments befitting their spiritual attainments. Good people (even those who have veered from the spiritual path) go, when they die, to the heaven of those who do good deeds. They dwell there for a number of years and then take birth again, this time into a home that is pure and prosperous. A few of them will be born into a family that is spiritually advanced, but such births are difficult to obtain. When this happens, the good environment draws out their latent spirituality and leads them rapidly toward liberation.
The ones born into the pure and prosperous houses have the opportunity at first to enjoy the relatively tame desires they held in their former bodies. But as soon as those pleasures are done they feel irresistibly drawn to spirituality by the force of the good habits they strove for in the previous life.
Even those who showed only a faint interest, merely inquiring about spiritual matters, progress further than the ones who merely follow the rites and ceremonies of their belief systems unthinkingly, and thus stall their true spiritual advancement. ~ Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

People on a spiritual path - personal growth, spiritual practice, recovery, yoga and so forth - are the last people who should be sitting out the social and political issues of our day. ~ Marianne Williamson

Safety is the most unsafe spiritual path you can take. Safety keeps you numb and dead. People are caught by surprise when it is time to die. They have allowed themselves to live so little. ~ Stephen Levine

The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.
Piet Mondrian
The Artist's Way A Spiritual Path to Greater Creativity by Julia Cameron ~ Piet Mondrian

Tolerance is a sign of growth on the spiritual path ~ Sivananda

Jesus, the son of Mary, peace be upon them, was accustomed to say, "O my God, surely I have entered into the morning unable to neither forestall what I fear nor hasten what I hope for. The whole affair is in another's hand. I have arisen bound to my deeds. There is no one poorer than me. Do not make me the cause of my enemies being cursed, nor make me the reason any harm should come to a friend. Do not place tribulation in my spiritual path, nor empower anyone over me who shows me no mercy."

"Walk on Water: The Wisdom of Jesus"
From Traditional Arabic sources, translated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. ~ Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā

The idea is not to regard the spiritual path as something very luxurious and pleasurable but to see it as just facing the facts of life. ~ Chogyam Trungpa

Family life, which is the Ashrama of the householder, can also take you in His direction, provided it is accepted as an asrama. Lived in this spirit, it helps man to progress towards Self-realization.

Nevertheless, if you hanker after anything such as name, fame or position, God will bestow it on you, but you will not feel satisfied.

The Kingdom of God is a whole, and unless you are admitted to the whole of it you cannot remain content. He grants you just a little, only to keep Your discontent alive, for without discontent there can be no progress. You, a scion of the Immortal, can never become reconciled to the realm of death, neither does God allow you to remain in it.

He Himself kindles the sense of want in you by granting you a small thing, only to whet your appetite for a greater one. This is His method by which He urges you on. The traveller on this path finds it difficult and feels troubled, but one who has eyes to see can clearly perceive that the pilgrim is advancing.

The distress that is experienced burns to ashes all pleasure derived from worldly things. This is what is called 'tapasya'. What obstructs one on the spiritual path bears within itself seeds of future suffering. Yet the heartache, the anguish over the effects of these obstructions, are the beginning of an awakening to Consciousness. ~ Anandamayi Ma

Many people look upon change with dread and foreboding. But for those on the spiritual path-for those who believe in God and the power of prayer-change is a fuller expression of life. When a problem or condition arises in your life that indicates a change, rely upon God, and realize that it is not so much that a door has closed on a chapter of your life, but rather that a door has opened on new and more interesting things. ~ Emmet Fox

When we start out on a spiritual path we often have ideals we think we're supposed to live up to. We feel we're supposed to be better than we are in some way. But with this practice you take yourself completely as you are. Then ironically, taking in pain - breathing it in for yourself and all others in the same boat as you are heightens your awareness of exactly where you're stuck. ~ Pema Chodron

Love is proved the moment you let go of someone because they need you to. ~ Shannon L. Alder

I realize that the curriculum is my life on any given day. At this point, more than anything, my spiritual path means looking at every circumstance and trying to see my part in where it's good and where it's not so good. ~ Marianne Williamson

No one spiritual path is better than another, although one may accept the universe's role in life more than another. ~ Meredith L. Young-Sowers

Since the early 1920s a unique spiritual path has existed in Japan. This distinctly Japanese version of yoga is called Shin-shin-toitsu-do, and it combines seated meditation, moving meditation, breathing exercises, and other disciplines to help practitioners realize unification of mind and body. Besides yoga, it is a synthesis of methods, influenced by Japanese meditation, healing arts, and martial arts; along with Western psychology, medicine, and science. Shin-shin-toitsu-do is widely practiced throughout Japan, although it is almost unknown in other countries. Through its principles of mind and body coordination people have an opportunity to realize their full potential in everyday life.A remarkable man created this path, and he led an equally remarkable life. He was known in Japan as Nakamura Tempu Sensei, and this is his story. ~ H.E. Davey

The doorway into the silent land is a wound. Silence lays bare this wound. We do not journey far along the spiritual path before we get some sense of the wound of the human condition, and this is precisely why not a few abandon a contemplative practice like meditation as soon as it begins to expose this wound; they move on instead to some spiritual entertainment that will maintain distraction. Perhaps this is why the weak and wounded, who know very well the vulnerability of the human condition, often have an aptitude for discovering silence and can sense the wholeness and healing that ground this wound.

There is something seductive about the contemplative path. "I am going to seduce her and lead her into the desert and speak to her heart" (Hosea 2:14), says Yahweh to Israel. It is tempting to think it is a superior path. More often, however, the seduction is to think we can use our practice of contemplation as a way to avoid facing our woundedness: if we can just go deeply enough into contemplation, we won't struggle any longer. It is common enough to find people taking a cosmetic view of contemplation, and then, after considerable time and dedication to contemplative practice, discover that they still have the same old warts and struggles they hoped contemplation would remove or hide. They think that somewhere they must have gone wrong.

Certainly there is deep conversion, healing, and unspeakable wholeness to be discovered along the contemplative path ~ Martin Laird