The Dunce
It is recorded in the Christian Bible, that a good man once asked Jesus for help, as to what he might do further, to be able to attain the Kingdom of God, or to get eternal life.
The man was told to sell all of his Earthly goods, and then to come back, and to follow Jesus himself.
The man could not bring himself to do this, however, because he had immense wealth.
In many other spiritual teachings, a similar story has been told.
(It is very hard to grow the things that matter from our wealth alone).
A good man, called Alan, went up towards such a master once, and he asked him:
“How can I have any proof that what I am practicing has any real truth to it?
Alan, had been praying, fasting, and meditating, for over forty years. He was now in his sixties, and for some reason, he felt that he had not really achieved any real spiritual growth, apart from a whole lot of head knowledge about various spiritual topics.
This master, a Jewish Rabbi, replied:
“You have been doing all of this for selfish reasons. Selfishness creates a filter between you and God. You do not feel his love completely fully then.”
“Who are you, anyway, to expect any growth?”
“Expectation stunts all growth. Drop down from your wanting spiritual growth in your head, and start simply loving others from your heart. Anything other than this constitutes a selfish practice, at least for you, at this time, anyway.”
“Do not expect yourself to grow for yourself alone. You never grow in that way. No, real growth, must always benefit the whole of creation, not just yourself.”
“Love reaches out to your heart, and always finds it, except when your mind has placed its own thought shields around your heart, thinking for itself what it thinks that that love might be.”
“Have no thoughts about what you think love might be, just love as God loves, and your thoughts will then take care of themselves.”
Alan left the Rabbi feeling much like the good man in my opening story about Jesus. He had a great intellectual mind, always questioning things, and it seems, like this other man’s great wealth, he just could not let go of this either.
All forms of wealth can hang us up in our lives.
(Don’t peg, or pin yourself to your wealth, whatever that wealth might be).
Photo Credit: The photos used in this article were sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
