Inner  Frontier
Fourth Way Spiritual Practice

 

Inner Work


For the week of: September 6, 2004


A Labor of Love

Make no mistake: spiritual practice is work, hard work, both physically and psychologically demanding, sometimes requiring the difficult sacrifice of our desires, although not of our love. The obvious difference between labor of the spirit and earthly labor is that by the one we earn and pay for spiritual sustenance, and by the other our material sustenance. While the necessity of latter imposes itself on everyone, the need for the former eludes most. Even in those who recognize it, the need for spiritual labor waxes and wanes. Only in the recesses of our being does the spiritual need always reign supreme. The more we engage in the spiritual work, however, the more the need for it emerges into our ordinary daily life. Eventually we see that life is meaningless without love, and that the labor of the spirit is a labor of, by, and for love.

We pay our dues to care for body, family, and society, while at the same time we give our love, heart and soul, in responding to the great call of the spirit. The two need not be separate, as in the love and care for family. But to neglect our inner work leaves our soul emaciated and grasping at externals for the satisfaction that can only come through the spirit. Pursuing the labor of the spirit, sooner or later, saturates us down to our very bones with joy, fulfillment, and connection to the sacred, surpassing our wildest imagination.

For this week, give your own labor of love its rightful place.


     

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