Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Gloria D. Karpinski

American Spiritual Teacher, Author

"Anything unforgiven is held in the body, the emotions, the mind, and even the soul. Unreleased, it crystallizes, forming obstructions in the very pathways along which energy must flow. Given enough time to harden, it will result in sickness."

"In surrender we can both give and receive. Relationships take on a different meaning. We learn to be in someone’s life without being in their dance. A relationship becomes important not because it satisfies personality needs but because it’s the pathway to wholeness."

"Life cannot be controlled. It is a mystery inviting us to participate, to risk, to trust fate, to accept the blank rune stone, the unknown. Surrender teaches us not so much to understand as to inhabit the mystery... Once we can accept the larger mystery of Life, we can consciously create within it."

"Live unconditionally and non-judgmentally, with a measure of humility - we can’t be taught anything new if we think we already know it all."

"Nonresistance isn’t passive. Passivity suggests powerlessness. But non-resistance is extremely powerful. It means we’re consciously choosing what we wish to empower. Nonresistance is the action of wisdom that assesses a situation and realizes there is nothing to be gained from fighting it."

"Self-knowledge is the primary step in conscious evolutionary change. When people confront and integrate their individual fears and limitations, they facilitate the confrontation and integration of our racial, national, and planetary fears. Lasting social change is only possible when individual consciousness has first been changed."

"We are indestructible. While our form may change, our true identity does not. We are not our careers, our money, our relationships, our successes, or our failures. Roles come and go. We create them because they offer us perfect settings in which to explore ourselves and learn."

"We draw to ourselves what we really want, not what we think we want. It’s not a bad idea to ask ourselves now and then, Whose truth are we living? Whose dream are we dreaming?"

"Whatever you believe is true - for you. We do not act outside of our perception of reality."

"Who you do not love says nothing about the other person. It only defines the boundaries of your understanding."

"Change challenges, relieves, frustrates, threatens, saddens or exhilarates us. Mainly it forces us to grow. It is the mechanism through which nature ensures evolution and the way God calls us home. It scares away our illusions about ourselves and others."

"I didn’t believe in reincarnation the last time either."

"Quantum physics teaches us that nothing exists in isolation. All of matter, from subatomic particles to galaxies, is part of an intricate web of relationship within a unified whole."

"The single most potent force you have is your will."

"The unreal perceives separation. The Real knows there is none. The unreal despairs, is lonely, worries; the Real sees challenge, creates solutions, knows. The unreal produces more and more confusion. The Real empowers."

"We are each a cell in the common body. When we choose to create, to activate the Godness within us, our movements affect and influence the whole. But until we really know this at a cellular level, our commitment to our own awakening remains an act of faith."

"With demands on our time and energy growing by the moment, it is important for us to take time to discover and energize our inner resources. Otherwise the intensity of rapid change can pull us into patterns of simply coping and reacting. The mandate now is to synthesize knowledge, self awareness and craftsmanship into illuminated practicality that is centered in Spirit and maintains poise in our material world."