“May the words of our mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in thy sight, over I.”   
– Psalm 19:14 as stylized by the Melodians’ song “Rivers of Babylon

Many of us have read one or more spiritual books that that have touched our hearts and resonated with our spirits. There are numerous books, both ancient and modern, on ways and means of bringing forth soul-guided wisdom, and writings that remind us that we are more than our physical system. If you can recall a piece of writing that is important to you and remember how it spoke to you and made you feel, you can use that inner experience as a personal guide for discussions. It’s a time-honored tradition for teachers to use the words of others as parables for teaching/learning.

We are lucky that, in this time as well as in earlier eras, there are many, many authors out there from whom you can draw inspiration. I’ve found my own inspiration in the writings of Eckhart Tolle, Mary Strong (Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood), Paramahansa Yogananda, Pema Chodron, Chogyam Trunkpa, Don Migueal Ruiz, Rumi, Hafiz, The Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Claire Heartsong to name a few.

When I find poems, stories and books that resonate with me, I write them down, I dog-ear them, I reference them.

For instance, practical mystic Eckhart Tolle writes about the fact that pain comes from future thought or past thought, and that when we’re stuck in a cycle of being always in the past or always in the future, this creates pain and suffering on all levels. Tolle remarks that often when people are in the present moment, they don’t feel pain. Reading this, you may, as I did, try these pieces of wisdom on and see if you are able to relate these words to your own experience.

You can use these spiritual ideas as a springboard to allow the great God-source wisdom to come through you. You can use acquired words, stories, quotations in your healing work to inspire you to say what is going to be most effective, and to  find the right vibrational frequency for your own helpful words. This is one more way of preparing the ground for shared and meaningful inner work.

Build your own collection of “potent quotes,” seek out those that encapsulate spiritual wisdom for you, whether from Mahatma Gandhi, Hildegarde of Bingen, Paramahansa Yogananda, Albert Einstein, your old gym teacher or your Grandmother Rosie. You can look in many different directions to find nuggets of wisdom that will help you remind yourself of the Divinity that you are and that will help you with your work.

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