The Practical Sphere of Spiritual Life

In some spiritual traditions, everyday life is considered "worldly" -- and "lower." Consequently, the spiritual quest aims to leave practical life behind. But for MOST people, neglecting practical affairs is unwise, and spiritually unproductive. And for ALL people, to have a truly spiritual life, EVERY aspect of life must be spiritualized.

 The distinctions between "higher" and "lower" become somewhat arbitrary when we view life as a whole. We NEED our spirituality to pervade not only our specific spiritual practices, but also our everyday activities and our relationships! To realize that goal, we had better clean up our unenlightened habits and beliefs where they flourish -- in everyday life.
A solid foundation for a life of truth

There's always a child bold enough to think he could run the country right now. But one cannot succeed by skipping steps. Similarly, a strong spiritual life is built from the ground up -- on solid practical foundations.

 The apparently humble domain of practical living is a good place to find and fix errant patterns of thought and behavior. A few years ago there was a popular book entitled, "Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." The practical sphere is often viewed as the kindergarten of cosmic schooling. (It is really more like "adult education" however, because children -- and spiritual beginners -- don't take it seriously enough -- yet.) We may not learn EVERYTHING we need to know from everyday life, but we certainly get the essential prerequisites for everything ELSE.

 For example, in grappling with ordinary situations, we learn to face and conquer our survival fears, get a grip on tangible self-responsibility, and adapt to the rudimentary ethical demands of getting along with others. All of these nitty-gritty victories are necessary preparations for the high wire dancing we'll do in more in more exalted states of consciousness.

 Although handling our mundane obligations is far from glamorous and may sometimes make us shed blood, sweat, and tears, "taking care of business" in the practical sphere gives us a tremendous -- and essential -- head start on our more sophisticated spiritual endeavors.

Implementation is partnering with God

Everyone knows that faith without works is dead -- and that spiritual life, to be true, must be LIVED. Spiritual values worthy of the name deserve -- and indeed call for -- living, dynamic, real-world expression. After all, spiritual purposes of all kinds, both human and Divine, can only be furthered to the extent that spirituality finds active expression in daily life. Likewise, only living implementation allows us to be instruments of God's work here on earth.

The prayer, "Thy will be done," may be the highest of all expressions of spirituality. Likewise, spirit-inspired implementation may be the highest expression of individual human will and personal effort. Spiritual action is, in reality, a cooperative partnership between the child of God and the Divine parent in order to HELP God's will be done. For it has been truly said, "God has a problem: He has no hands or feet." God NEEDS us to implement spirituality here on earth. In doing so, we find our rightful place in the universe as creative and response-able children in the family of God.

 Opportunities for spiritual implementation

 Ordinary life is ordinary ONLY when one takes an ordinary approach to living. It becomes extraordinary when spiritually lived.

 The practical sphere of spiritual life involves bringing spirituality to ordinary life in EVERY practical way. Spiritual implementation takes many forms, including:

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responsible living, including practical and financial self-maintenance, and appropriate health practices such as wholesome diet and regular exercise;

 self-discipline and self-culture;

 personal service to human individuals and to humanity as a whole;

 self-transcending teamwork and cooperation.

Living spirituality in everyday life is not only our responsibility -- it is our joy. Invariably, living spiritual PRACTICE puts fresh Spirit wind in our sails. The soul gains evolutionary traction by implementing, in the theatre of manifest life, what is spiritually known and felt. To the extent that we LIVE what we know, and bring our spiritual inspirations to life, we don't just feel relieved of the guilt of inaction -- we feel Divinely, sublimely empowered, delighted, excited! What could be more satisfying than to bring a ray of Divine light into the world around us!

 Healthy life challenges

A yogi in a cave is peaceful, and why not? It is relatively easy to be peaceful in seclusion, but that's no great accomplishment. The yogi has eliminated from his life practically everything he might find irritating!

We all have our own version of the yogi's cave, in which we are blessed with wonderful spiritual experiences now and then. Unfortunately, however, we lack the ability to HOLD that ground of higher consciousness when we return to our ordinary circumstances. Yet isn't that the implicit goal of spiritual practice -- the ability to maintain our peace under conditions that are exciting, distracting, even upsetting? Yes! We aspire to stable, unshakeable Spirit-consciousness.

 How do we get there? We get there by rightly embracing the everyday difficulties the traditional renunciant may have excluded. We develop spiritual strength by cultivating spiritual responses to the trials and tribulations of daily living. And luckily for us, life has in store for us many practical challenges -- each of them an opportunity for spiritual growth.

 Rise to your challenges! Most people err on the side of cowardice, underestimating their abilities. But excessive caution slows growth. It is good to know your own weaknesses, but never overestimate them, because that only feeds them.

 Although some of our challenges are daunting, and victory is never assured, there are three compelling reasons for taking the bull by the horns:

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Win or lose, we are better off for having faced the challenge. If we take God's dare, go into some of those highly fruitful areas, and manage to dodge the pitfalls, then we gain both strength and confidence. Even if we get tripped up by our own liabilities, all is not lost, for even a challenge that defeats us can leave us with increased determination and insight.

 There is no victory whatsoever in running away from the challenges. Conceding the battle before it begins adds nothing to our strength, motivation, or experience.

 Facing challenges is what life -- especially spiritual life -- is ALL ABOUT. Life is for rising to the challenges, passing the tests, and overcoming the liabilities. Remember, Christ didn't say, "Withdraw from the world." Instead, he said, "Be in the world, and not of it." He knew there is a reason for being born here. It's spiritually appropriate to be in the world AS WELL AS not of it. We grow only by facing challenges.

Take God's dare, and you will be glad you did.

 Spiritual tests of practical living

There are different ways to view ordinary living. One is, it's a waste of time. That view MAKES it waste of time. Another view is, ordinary living is a test of spiritual values, soul intention, and spiritual mettle. That view correctly sees the circumstances of so-called ordinary life as a very efficient and effective way to uncover and correct our flaws and to solidify our gains. How but through real-world experience can we measure how far we've come; recognize and repair our weak spots; and see where we've developed competence? In facing everyday challenges, we gain valuable insight into our areas of strength and weakness.

For example, it's easy to "love everyone" while sitting alone on our meditation cushion. But in ordinary interactions at work or at the dinner table, we find golden opportunities to confront and gradually transcend our ego's persuasive justifications for NOT loving this or that particular person in this particular moment. NOW is always the time for spiritual practice. And HERE is always the place to share higher love and higher consciousness with all of God's children.

Some tests we fail, others we pass. But what's really important in all the ups and downs is what we LEARN (and, of course, whether we ADJUST accordingly). Even "failed tests" correct our course, refreshing and refining motivations. Everything is grist for the spiritual mill if we construe it that way.

 Passed tests provide confirmation and validation

Spiritual growth is hard to measure -- especially in oneself. We can't just sit there and introspect about how we're doing; we're as likely as not to judge ourselves wrongly. Also, too much internal self-watching is spiritually unhealthy.

 Here again, the practical sphere comes to our rescue. We see objective evidence of our progress in our improved performance in the theatre of living. Real increments of spiritual growth may be revealed in practical-life observations like these:

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We're having a visibly improved influence on others

We've got noticeably better ability to hold higher consciousness through the fire of earthly hopes and disappointments.

We're seeing thrilling evidence that FOLLOWING inner guidance creates marvelous results under real-world conditions.

 We discover we actually feel grateful, not defensive, when we (or someone else) sees one of our flaws -- because now we can fix it!

Do as the ADVANCED practitioners do

The importance of the practical sphere of life is one of spirituality's "best kept secrets" -- because so many people don't want to hear about it! A wise man once remarked, "My instructions on the importance of the practical sphere are for my advanced students only -- who else is ready for them?" Spiritual beginners prefer to jettison responsibilities and relationships so they can focus on things they consider to be "more lofty." Experienced spiritual practitioners take their earthly commitments and relations far more seriously.

 Which group do you want to be in? The slow-learning group, who look down on ordinary responsibilities, or the advanced group, who recognize that every part of life is "spiritual"? To go to the head of the spiritual class, embrace the practical!


What the Practical Sphere Contributes to the Mystical Sphere


Many aspiring mystics subscribe to the misleading belief that a person must abandon practical life to free up attention for God. REALLY? In many, if not MOST cases, minimizing practical responsibilities may actually hinder mystical progress. After all, idle hands are the devil's helper. But the practical contributes to the mystical in many more ways than that.
Practical support for mystical adventures

 A strong mystical life requires the support of a strong practical foundation of living rightness. A person who isn't functional enough to create a regular schedule of spiritual practices and stick to it isn't likely to get far as a mystic. And likewise, a spiritual student who can't manage to adequately reciprocate to his or her spiritual mentor is not likely to get the teacher's best.

 The "beam me up" strategy fails when there are ethical problems associated with neglecting practical affairs. For example, a man whose family goes hungry because there are no jobs that are "spiritual enough" for him has a problem. So does a woman who prays too much but disciplines her children too little. Those problems will more or less insure that their precious mystical adventures don't pay off. God is not in the habit of rewarding irresponsibility. Spiritual life is an upward spiral in which we embrace ever-higher levels of responsibility. We graduate to those above only by handling those below.

Guilt robs the very peace that retreat is supposed to provide. A troubled mind is a chaotic mind, and has greater difficulty than USUAL concentrating on meditation and prayer. In particular, the mind that has ethical problems is always spinning, trying to solve those problems or at least rationalize them away.

 For example, a lazy man may spend a great deal of thought energy thinking about getting a job -- and a great deal MORE thought energy thinking about why finding a job is, at least for him, impossible. That poor fellow will certainly be a lot less troubled, and therefore a lot more amenable to meditation, after he gets a job, and puts the whole matter behind him.

 It is common (not appropriate, but common) that a person will practically disappear from the relationship to God when there's a big practical problem to handle -- such as settling a feud, or resolving pressing financial concerns. How WOULD you feel if a beloved child disappeared on you? How DO you feel about doing it to someone who delights in your company as much as your heavenly Father does?

 Clearly, getting one's practical affairs in order, and keeping them that way, is extremely useful for mystical life. Flying HIGH is much easier when our attention is free from guilt and worry, and our energies are not scattered due to concern.

 Practical opportunities for ego transcendence

 Practical responsibility does much more for the mystic than prevent a few problems. Though prayer and other spiritual disciplines are important ingredients in the life of a budding mystic, spiritual aspirants benefit as much from the practical challenges of everyday life -- maybe more!

 Spiritual life is about transcendence of ego, and private devotions contain relatively few ego-transcending elements. In contrast, ordinary obligations and interactions are FULL of occasions for ego-transcendence. For example: being on time for work; not reacting to your boss; doing the work well; living within a budget; exercising even when you don't feel like it -- to name a few. And that's just the beginning.

 Practical life requires ego-transcendence in many specific and valuable forms that are worth a closer look.

 A life of service gives us a lift up the mystical mountain

 As you know, spiritual growth is simply a matter of more and more perfectly and consistently manifesting the true Self that God created. Selfless service is a big part of that. Service gives our spirit true expression: Scratch the surface of any child of God, and find a natural-born servant of humanity! That's WHY a genuinely spiritual life IS a life of service, lived out in practical terms.

 The worthiness factor. We may always DESERVE mystical experience, but we may not always sincerely FEEL like we do. And yet, FEELING deserving, subjectively, may be absolutely CRUCIAL to the receptivity upon which mystical experience DEPENDS. In general, mystical experience comes to those who feel worthy of it.

 Service makes us more receptive to mystical experience, because people who feel good about what they've done feel good about themselves. As children of God, we feel good when we serve. Love is our nature -- like Parent, like child! We WANT to serve; we WANT to give, we WANT to love. The self-esteem we feel when serving translates directly into a feeling of worthiness.

 Guilt relief. Just as a life of service makes us feel presentable to God, a life selfishly lived, lacking in sufficient service, is plagued with guilt, and makes us want to hide. For us, service -- REAL service -- is not about sacrifice or people-pleasing; it's about satisfying our SELF. Indeed, even if no one ever asked anything from us, we would still feel bad -- or at least incomplete -- if we did not serve generously.

 Guilt is a real obstacle for would-be mystics, because openness is essential for ALL mystical experience -- particularly the experience of Unity with all of life! By liberating the mind from the guilt of selfish living, service frees the soul for higher pursuits. Service literally opens us up to higher consciousness.

 A higher base camp. Clearly, a soul-satisfied person is already closer to achieving mystical success than a person starting from the doldrums. A person who is following their conscience and obeying God's will has already reached an important milestone of spiritual life. So the mystic contribution of service is not just a stronger inclination and greater receptivity for mystical practice, but also a higher base camp -- a more elevated starting point for further expeditions up the mystical mountain.

 The best retreat is EARNED

 It's not time yet for a work break only five minutes after starting the day's work. The best time to take a break is when we feel we're really READY for a rest -- when we've completed a cycle of action or reached an interim goal -- or at least worked hard and continuously in the attempt.

 Similarly, the BEST retreat is the one that's earned, and truly NEEDED. We feel most truly prepared to set aside quality time with God when we've exerted sincere effort in the spirit of earnest, self-transcending service. That exertion prepares the soul to meet its Maker in mystic rendezvous.

 You must have had this experience more than once: You work hard all day on some useful task. At the end of the day, you feel REALLY complete, and are REALLY ready for some spirit-rejuvenation. And BAM! As soon as you sit down to pray or meditate, you find that your mind easily lets go of the whole world, and soars into the skies almost effortlessly -- as if it had wings OF ITS OWN. It does -- it has EARNED them.

 The healing forces of heaven. And who's to say for sure, but it certainly seems to be true: Freely spending our creature powers in wholehearted service doesn't just make us more eager to join with heavenly forces. It also makes heaven more eager to come to us, too.

The forces of heaven are always happy to recharge and revivify a weary soldier.


Give your all in the valley, and on the mountain, God will give it all back to you -- with interest! Didn't the Psalmist rejoice,

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He restoreth my soul."


God comes to our aid -- in the heights of spiritual desiring, as in the depths of fatigue. And that, dear friends, is the essence of mystical experience: It is God's gift to humanity -- literally.

 Ethical responsibility sustains the gains of mystical practices

 Spiritually-oriented engagement in practical life not only makes mystical achievement more likely, it also makes mystical consciousness more LASTING.

 Mystical practices can quickly raise consciousness and energy, sometimes producing mystical experiences, lofty revelations, and great peace. But then, as we return to our ordinary lives, the benefits of consciousness and energy-raising practices often fade FAST. Why?

 A wise man said, "It's never your good habits that bring you down; it's always your bad ones." Irresponsible behavior patterns -- such as careless speech, habitual tardiness, procrastination, freeloading, and physical carelessness -- perpetuate guilt, and also create problems and conflicts with others. Within minutes, they can cut in half the vibrancy created by an hour of meditation!

 Usually, when mystic gains disappear quickly, the solution is not more prayer or meditation; it's higher ethics. Most often, the errors that drag us back down from the highs achieved through spiritual practices reflect ethical shortcomings.

 Think of it this way: When we fall from grace, it is never something we do for others -- we do it for ourselves. Our tumbles generally coincide with selfish decisions, uncaring actions, unfeeling words. Understandably so: we revert to patterns of thought and action that are, essentially, primitive, self-protective, and compressive whenever we default from choosing an ethical, self-transcending course of action. So, for the gains of any consciousness and energy raising program to finally become permanent, they must be supported not just by behavioral modifications or philosophic improvements, but by life-level ETHICAL advances.

 What DOES it mean to live an ethical life? Here are some well-known hints:

The Golden Rule -- "Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you" -- represents a perfect guide to spiritual, ethical living.

 And so does this --"Love thy neighbor as thyself!"

A truly ethical life is always a life of service. To hold the Divine charge, we must deliver "God's mail."

 Living ethically is a fine spiritual art we hone in everyday interactions, and we demonstrate in the way we conduct our ordinary affairs. To permanently end the roller coaster of higher and lower consciousness, we must bring spirit and spiritual impulse into life, into action.

 Use it or lose it

 Here's another reason why we need to bring our spiritual consciousness into life. It's like anything else: "Use it or lose it." Practical life is WHERE we get to either use it or lose it. Every day, every hour, every minute, we CHOOSE how to live, what to do, what to think. We can hold our spiritual charge, and grow spiritually, ONLY if we take charge in our everyday lives.

 For example, in prayer and meditation, we may realize our Oneness with all of life, but AFTER meditation, we have to strongly choose to HOLD onto that sense of Oneness if we happen to run into an irritating person. Likewise, we may be quite radiant immediately after our spiritual practices, but we won't share much of that spiritual light with others if we keep the world at a distance even while IN it; if we perform our daily tasks without strong and enthusiastic spiritual intention; if we allow ourselves to react and contract in the face of ordinary life difficulties.

 No matter HOW we view them, the challenges of ordinary living ARE a proving ground for cosmic revelation. If we choose an ordinary response to an ordinary challenge, we are voting with our all-powerful free will to let our spiritual awareness slip. A higher response, on the other hand, is a persuasive prayer for continued higher consciousness.

 A summary of mystic benefits of practical responsibility

 Pragmatic dysfunction is a common problem among spiritual seekers today, especially the more enthusiastic ones. A literal interpretation of the admonition, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven" seems to support this unfortunate state of affairs. Nonetheless, the downsides of pursuing mystical goals to the detriment of practical responsibility are significant, while the contributions of practical life to the mystical adventure are rich and varied. As aspiring mystics, we do well to appreciate the valuable spiritual advantages we can harvest from our "worldly" engagements and practical obligations. Primary among these are:

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Balanced personality development. Generally, the strongest spiritual life is the best balanced. Often, when we lose our balance, we lose our way -- and more than that, we lose "The Way." What happens to a person who meditates or prays a lot, but serves very little, and takes little practical responsibility? Such a person tends, over time, to become excessively mental, overly self-involved, socially dysfunctional, and functionally incompetent. But simply embracing the various disciplines of ordinary living provides the healthy balance upon which strong spiritual character depends.

 Necessary spiritual exercise. No one wants their enlightenment to be effective only in a cave, or only when things are going the way they want. To attain a spiritual consciousness that cannot be shaken by anything in the world, we need to take advantage of the spiritual exercise provided by this world. Spiritual exercise builds the spiritual strength and staying power needed for maintaining a spiritual perspective while facing the many difficult challenges of life.

 A sense of larger purpose. People of spiritual consciousness are indeed the light of the world. But unless we engage with the world, we are hiding our light under a bushel basket. We were born not just to experience mystical realities and to know spiritual truths, but to serve the humanity by sharing those gifts with others. We feel useful and fulfilled only to the extent that we actively SERVE.

 Constructive engagement. A person who punches the clock at an ordinary job is protected from becoming a lazy couch potato. Similarly, a person who takes good care of their practical affairs escapes the temptation to spend their "free time" indulging in negative patterns, mental or physical. Constructive engagement also protects us from the bad habits of imposing on others for material support, or relying excessively on God to solve our practical problems. After all, God helps those who helps themselves.

Lay the foundations of your mystical life in the practical

 Spiritual teachers often complain that a prepared student is rare thing. It's no problem, they say, to bestow the gifts of enlightenment -- but it's hard finding a mind ready to receive it. Teachings that could be transmitted in a second to a prepared person cannot be effectively transmitted in years to a person who is ill-prepared.

 In the fertile field of practical life, valuable preparation and refinement takes place. Without that under our belts, unfinished business weighs us down, and we cannot take flight into the mystic. The way to the spiritual skies is through, not around. A sense of satisfactory completion allows the mind to soar.


What the Practical Sphere Contributes to the Social Sphere


Everyone yearns for companionship, love, and support. Taking care of everyday responsibilities is admittedly less appealing! But competence in the practical sphere prepares us in many ways for success in the social arena. Keeping our ordinary affairs in order keeps our confidence high and frees our attention for relating. Implementing our spiritual values in daily situations prepares us to respond constructively in interpersonal interactions. And emphasizing service intentions in our social dealings optimizes our chances for relationship success. So to succeed in the social, pay your dues in the practical!

Worry, well-being, and social relations

 Financial problems and arguments about money number among the most common reasons given for divorce. It is said that love can conquer all, and that's true in the case of exceptionally strong and healthy partners. But practical problems can drain well-being so terribly that often, love crumbles under the strain.

 The fact is, pragmatic dysfunction -- a chronic pattern of mismanaging life-level responsibilities -- is a huge black hole that affects people all around. When one of your friends repeatedly screws up on basic behaviors like paying the rent late or burning the dinner, and constantly worries about life level problems, it can be a drain on both of you. So, any person can make a huge contribution to those around him just by putting his practical affairs in order! That's an important thing to know -- and implement.

Setting things right in the practical sphere affects social prospects in many ways. If you have your practical life together you feel good about yourself, and more presentable. If your practical life is a terrible mess, you certainly don't want anyone to get too close. If your house is dirty and disorganized, you don't want someone you care about to see the pigsty you're living in. If you're unemployed, you might be embarrassed for a prospective life partner to know it. Anything you yourself aren't proud of could be a reason for that someone special to reject you. And why not? Great minds think alike.

 Furthermore, you may feel too insecure on account of your untogether life to be ready for relationship. For example, if you're intensely worried about things, you won't feel in the mood to put on a happy face and go out on a date. Sometimes it really IS better to say, "Call me back in a week. Right now I'm too preoccupied. I need to untangle my mess." You want to be proud of where you're at, what your life situation is, how you're going, before you "show up" in relationship.

 Is this putting too much store by practical things?

 It's true that no one should put too much store by practical things. But how much is too much? Realistically, can you NOT worry about it? At some point, we need to get our lives together, if only to please ourselves -- no matter whether we think we "SHOULD" care about those things or not.

 And actually, we should care about practical life -- because it has such strong connections to things of the spirit. For instance, we don't acquire spiritual virtues like diligence, courage, awareness, care, consideration, and conscientiousness by reading about them or by watching others exercise them. We develop them by the way we handle our practical lives.

 The ability to bring spiritual values and principles into everyday circumstances elevates human relationships beyond the level of pleasant but unsatisfying associations, conflictual collaborations, and gut-wrenching emotional roller coaster rides. Strong spiritual muscles, built in the practical sphere, allow relationships to be truly fulfilling.

 The central role of practical service for social life

 As we've seen, handling our ordinary life responsibilities well helps us be a good half of a good relationship. But we don't want to help ourselves only. Essentially, the spiritual purpose of all God's children -- AND our own heartfelt desire -- is to help one another. We all want to be able to make a positive difference to other people, and we feel incomplete otherwise.

 Ordinary life situations provide a great context in which to fulfill this Divine mandate. People talk love and commitment more than they LIVE love and commitment. But talk is cheap. At some point, lip service falls short. The important thing is, "What would you DO for love?" To be effective, the INTENTION to serve must be backed up with ACTION.

 The specific social benefits of practical service are numerous. We further ourselves, help others, and reinforce our spirituality, all through practical service to others.

 The benefits of practical service to ourselves

 1. Practical service gives us an almost-sure win. "Will I be accepted?" is always an important question in social interactions. So it's a big plus that practical service is something the recipient can ALWAYS use and appreciate. Loving service and support on the practical level -- cleaning the house, for example -- is universally welcome. The gift of service never goes in the back of the closet with those sweaters of the wrong size or color.

 2. Practical service creates plentiful relationship opportunities. The practical sphere is a good place to get a potentially stalled social life up and running again. Many of us have dropped out of the "relationship market." Perhaps we lack sufficient confidence because of inexperience. Possibly we've withdrawn to nurse the hurts of past relationships. We may feel daunted by emotional complications and compulsions that arise in us when we become personally involved.

 Practical service is a great way -- and sometimes the only way -- to get our "minimum daily requirement" of human contact and relationship practice. In the process of serving people, we can relate with them in a context that is relatively free from social fear and complication. That might happen while helping a friend clean out a garage. It might happen at work, at school, at church, or in any kind of volunteer work.

 Granted, circumstantial associations may not completely fill our hollow leg for relationship. Nonetheless, intentional service DOES provide a basis for satisfying interactions. When serving others, or serving WITH others, we get to know them better than more fleeting or casual contact would allow. And who can doubt that the spiritual intention of HELPING dramatically improves the QUALITY of relating? Service is caring made manifest. Caring about others brings US closer to them. Being cared about makes THEM feel closer to us. So service not only helps us form relationships, but also gives those relationships soul-nourishing depth and quality.

 3. Practical service develops social skills. We need good social skills to successfully pursue many important goals and activities. Sincere attempts to serve others in practical, ordinary ways helps us develop social skills in a relaxed and unpressurized way.

 The benefits of practical service to others

 1. Being served instills a sense of worthiness in the receiver. Sometimes, when people are served with real loving intention, they feel moved to ask, "Why are you being so good to me?" The REAL answer to the question, spoken or unspoken, is this: "Because you deserve it!" And whether you tell them in words or not, they can feel it in your actions.

 Through both the loving spirit and high quality of your personal service, you send an uplifting message to the recipient: "You are good, and worthy of love. I care about you and want you to be happy." You are communicating to people who you think they are, and make no mistake: Who you think they are makes a big difference to them.

 2. REGULAR service is "a gift that keeps on giving." The cumulative benefit of ongoing service is enormous, both practically and emotionally. Surely, a regular service commitment communicates devotion and loyalty much better than any gift, however flashy, can possibly do.

 The cosmic benefits of practical service

 1. Practical service may seem humble, but it has truly cosmic implications. The body itself is a physical symbol of separation. Practical service bridges that barrier -- it actually USES the body to create a sense of oneness. The more we serve each other physically, the more we call attention to our spiritual unity.

 2. God needs our help. When we serve, we are sharing God's love with our brothers and sisters in the family of God. God doesn't just APPRECIATE such work; God NEEDS the help. Truly, for God's love to be shared on earth, someone besides Him has to DO it. If you're looking for a sense of purpose, you can't find a better one! As Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, "Do something beautiful for God."

 3. The cosmic benefits of teamwork. Anyone who has tried it knows, working together in teams can be more challenging than working alone, because it requires a higher level of maturity -- specifically, more ego-transcendence. Because of that, if teamwork were OPTIONAL, many people would do all their projects alone! But oftentimes, cooperative effort is NOT optional. The more practical you are, the more you realize that a TEAM is needed to complete any large project, because "many hands make light the work." Therefore, a truly practical approach ends up CREATING the social alliances upon which goal accomplishment depends.

 It is fortunate that practical necessity requires us to stretch spiritually in ways we might otherwise have avoided. Unquestionably, the teamwork experience advances the evolutionary progress of all the team members. Who among us would not benefit by the process of cooperation, by the energy of spiritual joining, by the resolution of disagreements, by the promotion of harmony, and by the celebration of accomplishments? When all is said and done, there is no work so joyous and heartening as work done shoulder-to-shoulder with others -- particularly when doing projects of human/spiritual value.

 Paying our dues for social success

 Because of our deep human and spiritual need for social interaction, no life value has more importance to our hearts than interpersonal relationship. But everyone knows that relationship success requires more than mere desire. To really get it together with others in a viable and sustainable way takes WORK. That work gets done in the context of everyday practical interactions. We work SMART when we wholeheartedly bring our spiritual values to all our ordinary affairs.


What the Practical Sphere Contributes to the Wisdom Sphere


Who would you rather fly with -- a pilot who studied flying on the ground for 20 years but never flew a plane, or a man with ten years of flight experience who never cracked a book? That's an easy question. If you're going to be that far off the ground, you'd rather trust your safety to the man plenty of practical experience. When it comes down to a choice like that, we realize how little we value learning that lacks the support of real-world experience.
We learn through experience -- it's a well-known fact. Study yields knowledge, but without practical experience, the greatest fruit of knowledge -- true wisdom -- does not appear.

 Wisdom requires more than a grasp of information. According to Webster's Dictionary, wisdom is "the intelligent application of learning, conferring the ability to discern essential qualities and inner relationships." The definition goes on to state that wisdom is "the ability to deal with persons, situations, etc., rightly, based on a broad range of knowledge, experience, and understanding."

 Clearly, study is only one of wisdom's "parents." Practical life experience is the other. No matter what the subject, a person seasoned in the school of practical experience grows much wiser and more capable than any mere scholar can become.

 The many roles experience plays in developing wisdom

 Deepening understanding. Part of the way practical experience contributes is by deepening the comprehension we began to acquire through intellectual learning. Words convey ideas and DESCRIBE experiences, but even the best-chosen words convey little meaning compared to the living experiences to which they refer.

A big city. If a travel book says, "Mexico City is the largest city in the world," you might believe it. But if you walked across Mexico City and it took you two days, you'd have a MUCH deeper comprehension of how LARGE the largest city in the world actually IS.

Learning from mistakes. Valuable wisdom can even come from our mistakes -- not theoretical mistakes, like the questions we missed on a test in school -- ACTUAL mistakes.

The shock of shocks. What about the shock an apprentice electrician gets when he touches the wrong two wires in the fuse box? That is a lot more convincing than what they told him in trade school about the dangers of working with electricity. Once he's been SHOCKED and knocked on his ass, you better believe he's going to be careful around live voltage from then on. When he starts working with higher power in industrial situations, the habits he formed after that early mistake could save his life.

Raising more questions. Practical experience increases wisdom partly by raising more questions. Clearly, the nuances of life are more numerous than can be documented in books. Experience not only the confirms things we learned, which is important in itself, but it does something more valuable: It makes us aware of things that we need to know, but DIDN'T KNOW we needed to know. Experience expands our awareness of the nuances and issues involved.

Back to the drawing board. You go out and do something, and for a while everything goes according to plan, but then a wrinkle comes up. You say, "Oh my -- I didn't expect that! What's going on?" In that moment in which success eludes you, greater wisdom becomes a higher priority. Your eagerness to achieve a real-world result refreshes your desire for learning, and sends you enthusiastically back to the drawing board to find a solution for the unanticipated obstacle.

Knock and it shall be opened to you. As new questions are answered, knowledge deepens and broadens. The more questions, the more answers -- and greater wisdom results. For this, the questions we need are found in the practical realm.

 Testing and refining understanding. In the school of experience, there are tests around every corner -- and that's a GOOD thing. These "pop quizzes" show us where we're at. They help us assess the adequacy of our knowledge and discover misunderstandings about ourselves, life, and the path of spiritual evolution. In practical living, tests give us opportunities to question, correct, confirm, and refine our spiritual understanding.

 Book learning is not soul-satisfying

 We're just not satisfied with reading a movie review or a recipe -- we want to see the show, and taste the dish ourselves! By the same token, we can't be ultimately content with contacting lofty truths through spiritual books and lectures. We need to experience them and apply them to really "own" those ideas.

Unity. Some people spend many hours studying spiritual books, yet how far do they get just from reading the testimony of others? Numerous awakened souls have written about the joy of Unity-consciousness. But what a great difference there is between understanding the CONCEPT of Unity, and experiencing the Reality of Unity. In the technique of Unification, that joy can be PERSONALLY known. It is the birthright of every human to experience higher consciousness, but it takes some practical effort to bring that experience into realization.

 Fulfillment through service. Spiritual and religious leaders all agree that a life of serving other people is a very fulfilling life. Anyone can easily see, theoretically, how that might be true. But you have to immerse yourself in serving to REALLY appreciate the satisfaction they're talking about. Obviously, the gratitude of someone that you've actually helped is incredibly more rewarding in reality than in theory. And the satisfaction of having worked unselfishly all day -- how can book-learning anticipate that?

It's not whether you win or lose, but WHETHER you played the game

 It is said, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." Here, we can simplify that further: "It's not whether you win or lose, but WHETHER you played the game."

 Undeniably, HOW we walk is important. And so, obviously, is the DIRECTION we walk in. But in the long run, WHETHER we walk or not may be most important. Even if, at times, we walk in the wrong direction and reach a dead end from time to time, we can always turn right around and walk somewhere else -- as long as we're mobile. Mobility provides the practical experience from which we learn.

 All of our attempts at spiritual implementation can contribute to wisdom, no matter how successful or flawed they may be, and no matter what their apparent results. Of course, SUCCESSFUL efforts reinforce knowledge -- "Yes, that's TRUE. Wow, that really WORKS!" FLAWED efforts contribute, too, by raising important spiritual questions which, if asked, will be answered. Directions proven to be wrong turn us around and head us where we should have been going.

The most famous 180° turnabout. At one point in his vigorous search for enlightenment, the Buddha fasted himself half to death. After falling down in a stream in a faint, he struggled to his feet with some difficulty, and emphatically declared, "This is NOT the way!" In that decisive change of direction, the "Middle Way" of Buddhism was born.

Win or lose, as long as we take action, we stand to gain. So let's walk the walk.

 Live and learn

 Study is one virtue where MORE isn't necessarily BETTER. When we study too much, while doing too little, we suffer from "spiritual indigestion." The best way to avoid stagnation is through living implementation. For true spiritual assimilation, nothing beats LIVING -- sincere, dynamic engagement in life.

 Action requires a degree of courage that thinking does not, but the rewards make the risks worthwhile. Clearly, a spiritual life LIVED is more profoundly educational -- and spiritual -- than a spiritual life merely STUDIED, CONSIDERED, or PONDERED. We have seen this principle in action many times.

Example: At the LFF, an on-line student may go along for weeks just studying. But almost invariably, as soon as a person starts APPLYING recommendations from the class, their life becomes dynamic. They have many fresh insights.

The more spiritual life is LIVED, the more it fills with significance and meaning. That is one of the great gifts of the practical sphere of spiritual life. In "the school of experience," class is always in session! So, LIVE -- and learn!

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