OSaD, D67

A crystal goblet
So fragile and dear
Needs fill
One step at a time

• Cynic

Growing spiritually means also working with our propensities, good and bad. Our propensity, for example, to gossip, to not eat appropriately, etc. We all know the way, but few walk it. Our propensities pull us away from the way. The way to work with those pesky propensities is through love, true love and, sometimes, tough love. But maybe forget for the time being about the tough love because I suspect that must of us are actually too hard on ourselves. Does that help? Well, you tell me. What I've found most consistently is that being tough on ourselves in the long term works against us. Tough love is just sadism if it does not have a heavy dose of compassion and in today's times self-compassion is rare. So when you trip, when you follow those tendencies that pull you away from the path, remind yourself of your goal and keep yourself aloof from self-flagellation—which is nothing but just another tendency that pulls you away from the path of light.