The First Sacred Key
Transcript:
Hi there and welcome to this important short video series on the fundamental and key elements required for a meaningful and effective spiritual practice and thus finding true purpose in your life!
In this short series I share with you three key requirements you must have in place if you want your spiritual life and path to enlightenment to be successful and have a spiritual practice that actually works.
Without these three elements – in other words if one is missing – you will find it impossible, to attain a peaceful state of mind and find purposeful direction to your life. Without just one of these three elements your spiritual practice will never result in true inner transformation. I can attest to that from over twenty years of practical experience.
So, let us start here with the first key requirement:
Love what is good.
Of course we begin by addressing the heart. Our heart is at the very centre of any spiritual growth, because it defines who we are now and dictates who we wish to become. Without changing what we love, we cannot progress and improve our inner character and true nature.
You need the will to change and engage in honest introspection (being critical self-assessment). Which in Christian terms is referred to as repentance.
Scripture tells us to Love the Lord your God and to love the neighbour as yourself. It tells us to help others, be useful and to do good. Scripture too tells us that we are what we love and this teaching is also core to Swedenborgian spiritual philosophy.
You need to unpack your own affections – your deepest and most fundamental loves and then seek to battle and reduce those that relate to selfish desires. Scripture often refers to evil and evils, but to make these terms more meaningful, perhaps even more practical and personal, they can be replaced with selfishness and selfish desires, which are synonymous. You see, it is not an external battle we are called on, a battle for us to point the finger to the outside world and identify how bad and unfair it is.
No, we are called to the battle within, it is our inner world and battleground where this fight is fought. Where our transformation takes place and the spiritual warrior must rule.
Perhaps it is for another lesson to delve deeper into this, but selfishness stems from an intrinsic level of self-love that seeks to dominate and rule over others. It does not have to be full blown narcissism or egotism on display, because at its foundation – its ultimate core – it simply is an unhealthy prioritisation of self and thinking we have are the ultimate source of our own life and intellect. This is why many self-help gurus and new age feel good programs can be so destructive when they seek to affirm and prioritise our love for self. I wholeheartedly believe that in the truest sense self-love is never something we lack, ever!
OK, so what is good and why do we need to love it?
Well this requires acceptance that there is such a thing as good and evil. This means we need to accept an objective reality and moral absolute. For me therefore, to summarise it for you in simple terms, good can be determined on a number of characteristics:
– It is in harmony with and affirmative of objective reality; meaning it exists and supports something real – not imaginary
– It therefore also supports or underpins what is true.
– It then also limitless or supports a continuation of its existence or effect.
– Therefore it is outward focused and it is the opposite of self-serving – meaning it gives, rather than takes – it creates, rather than consumes
– Finally, it is thus productive and of use, seeking to serve and be of continued use. The opposite of being destructive, which consumption is.
Love is equated with willing something to be and as such a creative force. To love what is good, then in simple terms is willing to be of use and seeking to sustain what is spiritually productive.
In other words, we must seek to serve, love others, be productive and be self-less.