Guy explains the interior meaning of the expression "familiarity breeds contempt," which has to do with a nature that only knows itself by revisiting the past. The more that it dwells on the past, the more dissatisfaction grows, and the less able we are to keep from falling into a pit.

How many of us sometimes entertain thoughts and feelings that get us into trouble? We have all found ourselves compromised by thoughts and feelings that hurt us, but the truth is that nothing has access to our heart or mind without us inviting it into our life. When negative states knock on our psychological door, we cannot get into bad relationships with them unless we go outside of ourselves...

There is no one problem that a person has that is not the problem of everyone. The bottom line is that the only problem we ever have is that we hurt ourselves. If we had the choice, we would all obviously say that we would like to stop hurting ourselves. But the fact is that we run into problems--run into ourselves--again and again. So what is it that is blocking our wish to stop punishing our...