Practice
More important than knowledge for spiritual life
December 2nd 2015
Humans are extraordinarily learned when it comes to theoretical knowledge, but it’s another story when it comes to putting things into practice. They know that difficulties can be overcome with patience, but they are not patient. They know that gentleness gives better results than violence, but they repeatedly allow themselves to get carried away by anger. They know, they know... and they can even speak very well about what they know, but they remain weak and vulnerable. They have not yet really understood that their knowledge is of no value unless it is applied in daily life.
What counts is your work and your willingness to transform your knowledge into harmonious behaviour for the benefit of everyone. Without this, you will never have a solid foundation, and you will be exposed to all manner of tribulations. You will still go through ups and downs; that’s normal. Daily life is nothing but obstacles and unforeseen circumstances that can temporarily unsettle you. But if you get used to doing spiritual exercises, to putting certain principles of spiritual life into practice, not even difficulties and failures will be able to destabilize you.