A Lesson from the Spirit

"Everyone can deal with pride, but dealing with yourself, with your thoughts, is much harder."
"What is the difference? Pride shows itself through our thoughts. So where is the point?"
"Pride is fleeting and fragile in its faith. But foreign thoughts—those planted in you—are much harder to dislodge. Pride shatters against insurmountable obstacles, against life's burdens, against hardship and deprivation. And there you remember God. But thoughts, like someone else's thoughts imposed on you, let your pride inside you revive again.
Do not fear pride; fear the judgments of others and your own pliability, the sway of outside opinion.
Again and again they force you to walk in circles. Just when you repent, just when you find the road to God, thoughts again test your faith for strength and endurance.
Beware not of yourself, but of your weakness, of your susceptibility to alien teachings.
What disturbs inner peace?
These judgments, like eternal disputes within you, rock you, stirring agitation, irritation, anxiety.
Only you can quell this heat. You are the one who knows the way to yourself, for you have laid it.
When you stop blaming others and turn your gaze upon yourself, you will find confidence, steadfastness, trust, protection, and the flourishing of your soul.

Do not give yourself over to blind judgment; open your eyes to yourself. Eyes of truth, of acceptance. And in those eyes let a cleansing light be kindled—warm, gentle, not burning, but offering hope, calm, peace, healing, and the acceptance of your true path."