Spiritual life

Understand the advantages of living this life

June 12th 2025
You have no desire to live a spiritual life? Fine, understood. But you can still make the effort to understand intellectually that there are advantages to living this way. And once you have understood the benefits, you will find it easier to commit to it.
Let’s take an example: you need dental care and you hate what that involves; naturally, you are afraid that the treatment will be painful, but you decide to go see the dentist anyway because you realize that there are advantages to it. Even if you really do not want to go, your intellect understands that it is for the best, so you agree to it. So why not apply the same reasoning to spirituality? Tell yourself, ‘I know that I shall suffer, but afterwards I shall have the means to resolve many of my problems.’ And there you go, off to the ‘dentist’!
So to begin with, you must understand the advantages of leading a spiritual life; then try to associate with people who are already living this way, and finally, do the spiritual exercises as if you already enjoyed them. Say to yourself, ‘Even though I don’t feel like it, I will go to the sunrise, I will meditate, I will do the exercises, I will kneel down and pray!’ And you will soon find that you will acquire both a taste and a need for the spiritual life.*
* Related reading: 
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