Inner restoration with no pain E-Book

Wanderley Oliveira

• Herausgeber: Editora Dufaux
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 279

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Being a literary success in Brazil, in the book segment of spiritual work, Ermance Dufaux teaches us that self-love is the foundation of personal transformation. When we understand the emotions and thoughts in the base of our attitudes, the challenge of inner renovation becomes a quest for liberation and from that self-discovery process we can achieve the answers on touching issues of our inner life and we can take control of our being. "Emance, with rare happiness, manages to penetrate in the meanders of psychic issues, clarifying us about these cruel mental mechanisms that cause us to suffer instead of love, and self-punish instead of forgive. For all that we have read on that matter, this book is, to our eyes, a bedside book to be read and meditated upon, seeking for its application in our everyday life. Ermance, first clarifies then exhorts, inciting us to take a conscious attitude, so we can rescue ourselves from the mental mazes towards the clarity only love can bring.

Leseprobe

INNER RESTORATION WITH NO PAIN

Copyright © 2014 by Wanderley Oliveira

1st Edition | December 2014

DUFAUX, Ermance (Spirit)

Inner restoration whit no pain.

Ermance Dufaux (Spirit): automatically written by Wanderley Oliveira. DUFAUX: Belo Horizonte, MG. 2014

ISBN 978-85-63365-59-0

1. Spiritualism 2. Psychographic I. OLIVEIRA, Wanderley II. Title

Editora Dufaux

R. Oscar Trompowski, 810

Bairro Gutierrez

Belo Horizonte | MG | Brasil

SELF

"It is the archetype of wholeness, that is, it is the tendency that exists within the unconscious mind in every human being to seek for the best within oneself and for an encounter with God. It is the organizing center of the psyche. It is the center of the psychic apparatus, comprising the conscious and the unconscious. As archetype, it appears in dreams, myths and fairy tales as a higher personality, as a king, as a savior or as a redeemer. It is a dimension in which the ego evolves and forms itself. The Self is the central archetype of order, of organization. There are countless numbers of dream symbols of the Self, most of them appearing as a central figure in the dream. "

(Excerpt from book Personal Myth and Human Destiny, by the spiritualist writer and psychologist Adenáuer Novaes.)

SHADOW

"It is the part of the personality which is denied by us or which is unknown, whose contents are incompatible with the conscious behavior."

(Excerpt from the book Psychology and Spirituality, by the spiritualist writer and psychologist Adenáuer Novaes.)

Anguish of Perfection

Ermance Dufaux

Foreword

An Inspiring Word

Introduction

Self-awarenes

Chapter 1

Sorrows of Martyrdom

Who is in the intimate reform has an essential reference to self-analysis along the educational walk, a thermometer of the souls that are enriched. He who renews inevitably achieves the greatest achievement of free and happy people: the pleasure of living.

Chapter 2

The Ethics of Transformation

However, taking man down the improvement and self-discovery path requires new ethics in the relationship with oneself and with life. It is the ethics of transformation, without which an incursion into the inner world could be over in the mere attitude of penetrating the subconscious without the purpose of changing for the better.

Chapter 3

Life Project

A week on Earth is composed of ten thousand and eighty minutes. Based on ninety minutes as the usual time for a spiritual activity geared to the acquisition of high notions, and even taking into account that one rarely extends to within two or three weekly meetings, we find a coefficient of, at most, two hundred and seventy minutes of preparation for the implementation of mental renewal, or slightly less than three percent of the amount of time of an entire week.

Chapter 4

That which comes from the Heart

A fragile standard of regularization of spiritualist conduct has taken account of the customs among the idealists. The axiom "do this, but don’t do that" has set its roots, which try to frame the value of actions in unsustainable patterns of common sense.

Chapter 5

The Divine Wise Providence

The nature of reincarnation process leads us to forgetting the past just to learn how to discover in our inner world the root causes of our procedures, through the analysis of drives and impulses, interests and things that make all of our reactions called trends.

Chapter 6

The Great Ally

Instead of being against that what we were, we need to learn the peaceful relationship of acceptance, without conformism, in order to make the old man a great ally in improvement.

Chapter 7

Sexuality and Collective Hypnosis

Before that, an energetic whirlwind of life and movement cuts through all the psychosphere of the orb. As if it was a seductive serpent created by primitive emanations, it is the result from attitudes before sexuality in all communities.

Chapter 8

Late Regret

If there were no redeeming work in spiritual life, the souls would have to reincarnate briefly because they wouldn’t bear the level of memories and mental disorder of repentance.

Chapter 9

Non-practicing Spiritualists?

Let us be convinced of a point in terms of spiritual improvement: we can only do and be that what we manage to, no more, no less. The important thing is that we are what we are, without this unjustifiable need of creating labels for our style or way of being.

Chapter 10

The Reflex Matrix

Reflexes are like inducing personalities setting the automaticity of feelings externalized in actions and words. In this circuit we live and decide, progress or stop.

Chapter 11

The Art of Questioning

It will be very simplistic the attitude of charging obsessive spirits and past reincarnations by what we feel and what we cannot explain with greater clarity. In some cases, it gets to be an action of lack of vigilance.

Chapter 12

On Being Better

The set of spiritualist teachings is a complete guide for all the profiles of necessity in the improvement of humanity. Taking all this set as rules for instant absorption is demonstrating an intellectual and systematic vision of growth, generating afflictions and fears, perfectionism and anxiety which are unnecessary for the enjoyment of opportunities.

Chapter 13

Meditation with the ‘Old Man’ on Friendship

Enmity with the former man is extremely harmful to the development of divine values, because we spend all the energy to combat ourselves and not to whittle virtues and conquer our shadow.

Chapter 14

Psychic Immunity

It is a creation of the superior souls in favor of the work of good that we all, little by little, are building on Earth. It is called psychic immunization. Composed by thin materials, but with high irradiator power of mental short frequency waves, it is an instrument of mental defense that gives the medium better resources on the performance of his mission.

Chapter 15

A Talk about Illusion

Self-illusion is that we want to believe in about ourselves, but something which does not correlate to the reality of what we truly are, it is a mirage of ourselves or something we imagine to see.

Chapter 16

Precious Lessons with Dr. Inácio

The imaginary of spiritists about life after death, despite being rich in information, walks away from what is really happening to those who are involved outside by the clarities of Spiritism, but who neglect the service of illuminating themselves inside.

Chapter 17

Why do we get offended?

However, there is large difference between natural offense and umbrage, that is the neurotic reaction to offense. Umbrage it is a sick condition of affective state of fragility, which dilates the proportion and the nature of aggression that we suffer from the environment.

Chapter 18

The Faith in the Victories

It is common to observe, nowadays, an obsession for the proposal of inner renovation. Lots of impatience and severity have accompanied this challenge, leading to perfectionism by lack of understanding of what intimate reform really is.

Chapter 19

The Torture of Improvement

The conflicts create the tensions in the inner world because of a contraposition between these three factors: what the creature would like to be and have; what the creature should want; and what the creature reaches.

Chapter 20

Recklessness in Traffic

The ethical attitude of good men before the civil laws should be moral integrity.

Driving a motor vehicle is an art, and as such should be conducted: the art of respecting life.

Chapter 21

Educational Depression

Similar depressions, therefore, are the most racking result of the long trajectory of egoism, because the core of this disruption is called disappointment or contrariety, this is it , the inability of living and getting along with the frustration of not being who it wants and having to accept life as it is, and not as we wish to be.

Chapter 22

The Old Illusion of Appearances

Hypocrisy is the human habit of appearing to be what it is not, because of the need for approval of the social group we live with. Intentional or not, it is a phenomenon in deep emotional and psychological roots, which involves specific features of each creature...

Chapter 23

Only Good Can Mend Evil

Most of us, who we are attracted for an imperious necessity of renovation before life in the lines of good, when in the return to the earthly school, bring inside pulsating aspiration of transforming ourselves, in reason of anguishes experienced by hard revelations brought by disincarnation.

Chapter 24

Icons

However, this process of integration generates a painful feeling of loss, necessary to progress. The old is lost to build the new. As a matter of fact, we effect a reconstruction marked by challenging steps. The old identity is lost and it is not known to build what must be now, the new identity.

Chapter 25

Faith and Singularity

Rational faith is psychological and emotional phenomenon built based on true and persistent desire to understand what is around us – conquer only possible by renovation of understanding and the form of feeling life.

Chapter 26

Disciplining Desires

We talk, think and act for the good in many situations, but we can’t always feel the good we advocate, establishing lack of affection in the commitment with the cause, attracting demotivation, doubt, laziness, disturbance and lack of identification with the responsibilities taken up.

Chapter 27

The Pressure for Testimony

By becoming the target of any plot of opponents, he works as bait, attracting very close to his mental life that disembodied who, without realizing it, becomes entangled in a web of powerful radiation, allowing us a more concrete action compared to many forays into dark valleys.

Chapter 28

The Power of Good

Men get to see spirits where they are not, and where they are they are usually not seen by men.

Chapter 29

Psychosphere

Taking spider webs by comparison, they are created to capture food and to defend the spiders, the human mind similarly has its mental field of absorption and defense established by the content of its moral radiation: these are the psychospheres.

Chapter 30

Conclave of Leaders

Fulfilling another one of our schedules in Hope Hospital, an incarnate influential group gathered of little over a thousand opinion leaders in the Spiritualist movement. We brought them to a brief and timely warning.

Epílogo

At what point in Evolution are we?

Despite the fact that we have been wandering for thousands of years as human beings, we have not yet been made rightful owners of the Divine Heritage, which belongs to us all. It is not wrong to say that we are only “semi humanized” beings.

"Could someone, with an impeccable behavior in the present life, climb all the degrees of the scale of development, and become a pure Spirit, without going through other intermediate degrees?" "No, because the idea that man has about what perfection is, is far from what perfection really is. There are qualities which are unknown and incomprehensible to men. She may behave as perfect as her earthly nature allows, but this is not absolute perfection ...”

The Spirits' Book - Question 192.

It is natural that you suffer unrest for having a transforming goal for your life.

Faced with the lack of your values, you plead no merit to receive the Divine assistance. In the extent of your flaws, you punish your conscience with feelings of hypocrisy by repeating the same deviations that should no longer be allowed. This is the road to perfection, do not suffer so intensely!

All this is understandable, and is part of all who seek education themselves, therefore, don’t be excessively hard on yourself.

Without lamentation and censure, forgive yourself and always proceed.

Trust and work increasingly.

By most inopportune intimate reactions in the conscience may be, keep yourself on prayer and in confidence and enrich your faith in small victories.

The anguish of improvement is an impulse for promotion, and for ameliorate it, the salutary remedy is unconditional acceptance of yourself.

By accepting yourself humbly as you are and doing the best that you can, you will vitalize yourself with strong interior appeals for the continuity of your improvement project. On the other side, if you punish yourself, you will be signing a decree of disaffection against yourself.

Love through devotion and wise the actions that are provided by rejuvenating activities of good, improving yourself in a regime of vigilance and patience.

Without feeding on fantasies of evolutionary leaps, take one step at a time.

Without ambitioning the greatness of the stars, love yourself as if in the condition of a simple firefly that strives to shed light in the dark night.

Make amends with your imperfections. Discover your qualities, believe them and put them into service of your growth targets, this is the formula for true transformation.

Time will grant value and experience to your efforts, adjusting your purposes to the limits of your possibilities, freeing yourself from the anguish that comes from excesses.

Walk every day with the certainty that God always waits with great respect for your limitations, guarding the unique duty of a zealous good Father, which is the hope that tomorrow you'll be better than today, for your own happiness.

Ermance Dufaux

There’s one question that should never cease to be the center of our thoughts: how am I improving?

To have clear notions about inner achievements, even the least expressive ones, is the worthy mental core of motivation for the continuity of the renovation enterprise. However, not to value small steps is allowing for the expansion the feeling of impotence and underestimating the efforts already made.

To be fair, the reincarnated brethren, may ask: how to acquire this clear notion about the spiritual position of everyone, considering the tampon of the physical brain?

The only stance that will give us a minimum certainty that we are doing something in favor of our spiritual our growth, in our body or outside of it, is the continuity we give to projects of renovation we idealized. The obstacles will be endless until the end of existence, not being our responsibility to feed expectations with amenities, but with courage and optimism that are capital to win a challenge after the other.

May hope not fail before this reality. Our achievements can’t be built in lull. Our virtues will not blossom without the blows of pain that smoothen edges and prune the thorns of imperfection.

Our watchword is resumption – an inspiring word.

How often they were needed, our great e unique virtue on the arid fields of inner enhancement is the ability to resist the appeals of falling as may times as necessary, never giving up the ideal of freedom we cherish, working even when tired, serving even when needy, studying even when unmotivated, and learning even with no defined objectives. Reincarnation itself is the divine mechanism of resumption, of recapture. So it’s fair that we can, full with love, hug the forsaken commitments from other times and equalize our tortuous ways.

We have what we deserve and we are what we shape.

Amid the mire of the discouragement, the lily of the youthful personality we are slowly cultivating is born. Under the cruel weight of anguish, we are building the immunizing condition of mental power.

Since we do not give up, there will always be a chance to victory.

Let us proceed without expectations of an angelic becoming that can’t be achieved by now.

Not being who we would like to be is the highest price to pay for those who opted for the misguided ways of selfishness, which is in turn the biggest torment for all those who aim for self-improvement. There resides the inner drama narrated by Paul of Tarsus: “For the good which I have a mind to do, I do not: but the evil which I have no mind to do, that I do.”

We don’t want to be who we used to be, but we still aren’t who we want to be. Then who are we?

It generates a step defined by deep rejection of everything in life. Body, profession, relationships, affections and even the successes of the path are dramatically shaken up by decreasing joy and enchantment before these “adjustment ordeals".

However, the law establishes the death of sin, not the sinner.

Mercy is plentiful to everybody – the universal law of paternal piety – that assures us: Love covers a crowd of sins.1

Despite this celestial rule, pain-evolution has not been supported by many, being aggravated by others, inducing to states of serious moral infirmities and disaffection towards oneself.

Even intimate reform has, in many cases, due to bad customary interpretations, been an instrument of self-punishment and penitential martyrdom.

In this whirlpool of concepts and psychological drama, Ermance Dufaux brings a word of comfort and discernment to our hearts. Her initiative in this book is filled with inspirational value that will bring us encouragement, pacification and light to many hearts incarcerated in the arduous ordeals of intimate growth. Analyzing her objective and lucid texts, we can anticipate the utility of sending them to Earth. Therefore, despite her offer, she herself is the first to decline of her merits, asking us to highlight that these pages are the product of a tour de force of souls working for the implementation of the program of human values2 for the spiritualist societies, whose responsible is our benefactor Bezerra de Menezes, who complies with superior guidelines from the Spirit of Truth.

It is noteworthy that the cases narrated here, happened in the Hope Hospital3, where we worked together in the service of good are precious indices gathered directly from souls who lived the situations described. This way we express, in respect to all of them who allowed, out of kind heartedness, the narrative of their falls or experiences in favor of the other.

May the message here be a word of resumption and inspiration for the continuity of the intimate struggle for the victory of the renewed man in the Christ of God.

And, remembering, once again, the bastion of the free Christian message, we highlight that the mishaps did not denigrate Paul of Tarsus, towards the ridges.

Despite his conflicts he declared, unbeatable: “… wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet...”4 “And let us not be weary of doing because at his time we shall reap if we faint not.”5

Let us be faithful and positive in the small efforts of ascension we have to accomplish. Let us abandon the distress and the anxiety as (to what) we would like to be, because only by loving what we are we can find strength to go on. The same Paul of Tarsus who declared, in the torment of his struggles:”…the evil which I have no mind to do, that I do”, later, hardened by educational struggles, understood the importance that it had for the operation of good by stating that: “… that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (…) But by the grace of God I am what I am”6 In our turn, let us be certain that we are not special people elected to the work we give ourselves, but we’re already set to forget the evil and build the good that we can. Is there a better new beginning than this one?

Cícero Pereira7

Belo Horizonte, March 2003.

1 I Peter 4:8

2 Seara Bendita, Several Spirits, Maria José Costa e Wanderley Oliveira. Introduction - “Atitude de Amor”, Editora Dufaux.

3 Hope Hospital is a work of love raised by Eurípedes Barsanulfo in the spiritual world. Its objective is to support the followers of Jesus who face afflictions of consciousness and guilt after disincarnation. More details about the hospital can found in the Book “Lírios de Esperança”, work of spiritual authorship of Ermance Dufaux and psychography of Wanderley Oliveira, by Dufaux publishing house.

4 Hebrews 12:12-13.

5 Galatians 6:9

6 I Corinthians 15:9-10.

7 CÍCERO DOS SANTOS DA SILVA PEREIRA – Born in São José do Gorotuba, district of Grão Mogol, Minas Gerais, Brazil, on November 14, 1881 and passed away on November 4, 1948, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He was one of the first collaborators and partner in the Spiritist Union of Minas Gerais; He was a spiritualist advisor, including to Francisco Cândido Xavier. In Boa Esperança, he became closer friend with the Amigos na Dor Spiritist Center, of which he became a benemerit-partner. In this house his spirit rested for three days, after his disembodiment. In his memory was founded the SPIRITIST CENTER OF CÍCERO PEREIRA BROTHERHOOD.

“In principle, the man or woman who exalts himself, who erects statues to his own virtues, by this very fact annuls all the merits he might effectively have had. Furthermore, what can be said of those whose only value is in appearing to be what they are not? You must clearly understand that whoever does good has a feeling of intimate satisfaction in the bottom of their heart. But from the moment that satisfaction is exteriorized for the purpose of provoking praise, it degenerates into self-love.”

The Gospel According to Spiritism Chapter 17, item 8.

A scholar, disciple of Spiritualism, proposed us the following question: what new revelations would have spiritual friends in favor of inner perfection in this time so many struggles hit humanity?

In response to his earnest request to learn, we recorded texts discoursed about here. They are not new, but practical approaches to old moral issues that absorb many of those who yearn for the improvement of themselves.

My proposal is to present some ideas for the purpose of meditation and self-assessment or for studies in groups which crave for answers to intriguing questions about the inner life. If we do not really understand the reason of our actions, we won’t gather the necessary conditions for renewing the service of ourselves.

The ability to manage the objective world becomes increasingly precise and rich of technology for more effectiveness of results, however, the inability to run the intimate world is proven, at any moment, by the lack of attestation and dissatisfaction that men have demonstrated in their personal lives. Great architects build wonderful bridges that become postcards worldwide; however, they not always mastered the art of building a simple thread of attention that could set a bridge between them and their neighbor, reducing the distance that separates them. Skilled surgeons transplanted sensitive organs with precision and control in the fingers, however, they constantly snap when silverware escapes the small hands of their kid, causing distress and malaise in the family.

If the essence of the educational proposal of Spiritualism is the spiritual uplifting by the intimate reform, the latter, in turn, aims to free the consciousness of the prison of ego so conscience can shine with exuberance, without the shadows that stubbornly overshadow it. As we begin to renew ourselves, we start a battle between the ego and conscience in the course of winning the final and glorious self.

Intimate reform! Here is the hot topic of the followers of Spiritualism, within the huge range of high matters which challenge our understanding from the point of view of the immortal spirit. Despite this preference, it appears that the frequency with which it is treated has not granted him broader notions that enable the conscious effort for the transformation of the human personality.

From this perspective, we detail some concepts about intimate reform that deserve to be redeemed on their best understanding:

It's a gradual building of values, aimed at solidifying eternal qualities.

It is a proposal of entireness, not of ‘defeatism’. It is set to cast more light to dispel the shadows. Many, however, believe that light is made by extinguishing darkness.

It is the formation of a good man in us. It is not about removing vices and placing virtues. Much importance is given to imperfections in spiritualist environments, when we should be talking more on the virtues of the good man.

It is a liberating process for conscience. It's not about overcoming ego, but conquering it by the natural domination of the divine voice that echoes in our intimacy.

Intimate reform should not be understood only as containment of lower impulses. Beyond that, it is urgent to analyze it as a commitment to work towards the development of authentic human values in our intimacy. Limiting it to discipline and willpower to be supervised may create the culture of martyrdom and the storm as essential conditions to its dynamism.

Containment is a process of agglutination of the defense forces against a mental routine of reflexes of evil in us, however, only the edification of a Christian personality, fertile with noble moral qualities, can allow inner peace and the final release service beyond bodily death. For this reason, there is urgency among spiritualists to spread more lucid notions about the level of commitment that everyone must conform to. Just avoiding evil is not enough, it is imperative that we do everything well within reach. The deep personal transformation requires full dedication to the commitments of spiritualization, wherever we are, creating conditions for intimate experiences that may ensure revitalizing and motivating affective transformations towards broader directions both in action and reaction: it is the creation of new and high conditioning states.

As the body does not eliminate parts which have fallen ill, but seeks to harmonize them all, the soul makes its growth within the principle of reusing all unfortunate experiences.

Those seeking self-improvement have as a first challenge encountering themselves. The absence of clear ideas about ourselves is a heavy burden to overcome, which has led sincere and well-intentioned people to painful mental conflicts with individual improvement, installing a painful process of martyrdom towards oneself.

There is no intimate reform without pain, which is why it would be appropriate to discern which are the natural growth pains and which are those arising from our inability to cope with the forces of subjective life ignored in ourselves. The distinction between them both will make our program of personal improvement somewhat more effective and less painful.

There is much talking on the old man and almost nothing about how to consolidate the young man. Dominated by the bad habit of highlighting their spiritual diseases, some created a neurotic system of overvaluation of moral imperfections which has led many spiritualists to the condition of becoming authentic hypochondriacs of the soul.

Withholding evil is part of the transformative process; building good is the new stage that waits for us.

Well beyond control, there is education.

Above disciplining inclinations, there is the development of innate qualities.

Maturity can be defined by the individual's ability to hear the appeals of conscience at the expense of the ego’s appeals. The more we do that, the more we will be more mature and free. Health is to be in full contact with the conscience, and the disease is slavery under the ego. Reforming oneself is being aware of oneself, of a latent perfection where we direct ourselves to. In other words, we are praising the act of self-education.

It was the notorious Jung who once said: "as far as we can discern, the only purpose of human existence is to cast light into the darkness of merely being."1

It is imperative that we light up this light, which originates from self-criticism, without which we’ll not educate ourselves.

And how to honestly exercise critical judgment without the knowledge of the tricks of the old personality we generate?

Critical sense is, therefore, one of the key pillars for the constitution of self-awareness, which will allow us to unravel the tracks towards the divine treasures embedded in the heart of this jungle of imperfections that bring from the evo.

In this work we present some maps to tame this jungle safely. Routes to old moral issues already known to us all, but where we cannot always bring the intimacy of satisfactory understanding, given the exuberant longing of our souls that propagates in the construction of the new personality.

Certainly, like any map, the paths to reach the destination are varied and personal, and so are the point of view and the choice of each person, and thus we should commit all of our approaches with total unpretentiousness as to results. However, as the pilgrimage through dark valleys of our intimacy is fraught with the unforeseen and pitfalls, we not abdicate of the clear and sincere word, adding some examples of painful stories of those who have been enlightened by the Spiritist Doctrine without enlightening themselves with the light of experience and renewal.

I have never been moved by the intention that the considerations entered into here could form a path of orientation or a didactic thesis about the topic with the aim of planning rules of conduct. They aren’t but suggestions for dialogue in group or individual meditations. These texts are a start for conversations, a start point so that you who are upon Earth may undertake healthy and salutary discussions about the paths for human transformation in the light of the Immortal Spirit. My heart will always be where there are frank and productive dialogues on this topic.

Without any pessimism, measuring the personal condition without full knowledge of stories contained in our reincarnation records is, almost always, making a myopic analysis of authentic spiritual conditions that have surrounded our path in millennia. For this, so many illusions palpitate on the ground of our rehabilitative fight, either on the physical plan or out of it. "In principle, the man who exalts himself, which raises a statue to his own virtue, overrides, for this simple fact, every real merit he may have." 2

These reflections are intended for self-assessment. Without a sincere foray into our inner world, in order to measure what we are and we are not, we run the severe risk of repeating the many stories we have followed here, in the immortal life, in which the heart that benefited from doctrinal conceptions cherishes a mirage of itself beyond its real proportions, having to look at itself without refuges, in the mirror of immortality embittering the painful process of disillusionment.

I fetched inspiration from the Gospel According to Spiritism – ethical repository for human happiness and incomparable wellspring of higher inspiration, in which we find inexhaustible source of instruction and consolation of the Kind Guides of Truth in favor of the paths of men before their tests and atonement. Let us consider it as a moral prescription for all human needs on Earth.

I deliver these appointments to readers and friends with joy, hopeful that the heavenly mercy may multiply our crumbs of love, satiating the hunger of the soul with blessings of peace and encouragement in the acquisition of self-awareness.

With love,

Ermance Dufaux.

Belo Horizonte, February of 2003.

1 Memórias, Sonhos e Reflexões – Chapter ‘Sobre a vida depois da morte’, Nova Fronteira – Rio de Janeiro.

2 The Gospel According to Spiritism – Chapter 17, item 8.

On the topic of spiritual growth it becomes essential to distinguish which are the growth pains and the pains of martyrdom. There’s no intimate reform without suffering, but martyrdom is a form of self-punishment, psychological penances we undergo as if, through them, we were to improve.

Because of the inferiority complex that plagues a significant portion of souls on earth, today we have created mental covers to feel minimally well and take on the desire of existing and living, aware that such psychological experience is due to our voluntary separation from God, throughout the developmental stages, making us feel insecure and powerless. These covers are the structures of the ideal self that make us believe we are more than we really are, a defense against the illnesses we do not want to accept on ourselves.

Authentic intimate improvement occurs by the process of raising awareness, and not by the pains arising from recovery and inner conflicts, which install closed circuits and breakdown within the life of mind.

Undoubtedly, we all suffered to grow; martyrdom, however, is the excess that comes from the inability to manage the emotional world through balance, which assumes proportions and diverse facets as the temperament and needs of every one. Also we shall not mistake it by sacrifice – the act which causes severe pain in order to achieve some goal or overcome some difficulty.

What sets the psychic condition of a martyr is the fact that they believe in the development of qualities that, in fact, are not being worked inside him. They are the pains imposed to ourselves by unloving attitudes when we believe in the ideal self and deny or run away from the real self.

Almost always, the pains of martyrdom stem from being unwilling to experience growth pains. A typical example is when we are called to examine certain imperfection pointed out by someone, and between the pain of self-assessment and the pain of denial, we prefer the second, which composes the list of excessive pains.

Among the most common self-punitive forms, we emphasize that the way we react to our errors has been an access channel to endless expiatory dimensions. Many hearts transform error and dissatisfaction with their experiences in pitifully sunk falls, when school life is an act of wisdom and complacency, always inviting us to rebuild and start over before the failures of the way.