Spiritual Exercise without Action is Dead

Last Updated on September 27, 2022 by The Unbounded Thinker

‘It is not an uncommon thing to meet with people who spend hours of each day doing spiritual exercises and who, in the intervals, display as much spite, prejudice, jealousy, greed, and silliness as the most “unspiritual” of their neighbors.’ – Aldous Huxley. The Divine Within: Selected Writings on Enlightenment

The popularization of spiritual exercises such as yoga, meditation, and prayer, has encouraged many to practice them without embracing spiritual virtues. People think doing these exercises alone will enable alignment with Infinite Mind/God. They are unaware that the exercises cannot enable alignment if not accompanied by action.

Apostle James noticed an almost similar phenomenon when he wrote, ‘faith without action is dead.’ He observed how early Christians prayed and praised God, yet they never demonstrated their faith by helping the poor. He thus asked, ‘What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?’

Similarly, several people today allocate time for meditation, praise and worship, prayer, and yoga, but fail to demonstrate spirituality through their actions. They then wonder why they never experience a state of oneness with Infinite Mind and why their lives seldom change despite performing several spiritual exercises.

Spiritual exercises are dead without action. Although they enable us to access the Infinite Mind within, the access is short-lived. For them to lead to permanent access, they must be combined with actions such as forgiveness, love, humility, compassion, honesty, and so on because these deeds clear the negative energies within and enable alignment with the Infinite Mind.

It’s thus pointless to practice spiritual exercises and still embrace hate, jealousy, pride, self-centeredness, and other negative qualities as most people do today. Many people go to the church/mosque/temple to pray/meditate but still display negative qualities in their relationships with others. ‘They thoroughly cleanse the outside of the cup, and ignore the inside.’ For this reason, they never achieve higher states of consciousness that allow them to experience the Infinite Mind.

We – the enlightened ones – must accompany spiritual exercise with action to experience spiritual growth.

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