Everything in the Word is relevant

Step 3 has many components, and asks us firstly, to identify a spiritual principle from that portion of Text we have chosen to work with, then create a task from that principle. So, a task is a spiritual principle reworked into a form that we that can engage with, and take into ourselves over the remaining two-week period. In this we’re seeking to walk a spiritual path that is tied directly to the practise of the Word. In Logopraxis we work with tasks drawn from the Text to have spiritual principles illustrated and affirmed in our direct experience.

This requires two things:

• Identifying a spiritual principle – with the question:

“What are the spiritual principles/truths being revealed to me in what I am reading?”

• Formulating a task to direct our spiritual practise – with the question:

“Do I know this principle to be true in my life or experience?”

If we answer Yes, then we should also be able to call to mind examples of how the principle operates in our lived experience; but if we struggle to be able to do that, it may indicate that while we subscribe to the principle intellectually, we’re not clear how it’s true in our life. To experience truths in this way is to know, not just that the Word is the Lord, but how He, as the Word, is working in our own life.

Creating a Task

There are several aspects in formulating a task, and a number of valuable tools to consider, which include:

• Rewording the selected text
• The ‘In Me’ tool
• Person, Place, Time & Space
• Verb Primers
• Outer Conditions
• Working from the Present
• Perseverance

Firstly, we may need to rework the material we’ve selected from the Text so as to make it more readily applicable to the inner life of our mind, and as something we can work with to apply in life. The closer that a task is to the principle, the better, and the more specific the better. Once a principle from the Text is identified, then formulating a task, in most cases, becomes relatively straight forward.

Here are some examples:

From Heaven and Hell 228 we read:

“Angels have been permitted to activate my steps, my actions, and my tongue and speech as they would, and this by influx into my will and thought; and I have learned thereby that of myself I could do nothing. They said afterwards that every man is so ruled, and that he can know this from the doctrine of the Church and from the Word. For he prays that God may send His angels to lead him, direct his steps, teach him, and inspire in him what to think and what to say, and other like things. Yet when man thinks within himself apart from doctrine, he says and believes otherwise. These things have been said to make known what power angels have with man.”

Key Principle:  Of ourselves we can do nothing; all activity is the product of influx. When we reflect from doctrine this is known, yet when we think within ourselves apart from doctrine, we say and believe otherwise.

Sample Tasks:

• Give attention to my conversations, to see how much of what I say comes from myself or is borrowed from others.

• Is what I’m saying being said with the doctrine of influx in mind, or apart from that doctrine? What happens in those times when I realise that I’m not speaking from an understanding of that doctrine – does this modify what I say, or my experience of the conversation?

• Bring that doctrine to the forefront of my mind when another person is speaking, and to observe the effect on my own state and view of the other person.

From True Christian Religion 185 we read:

“The spiritual world contains climatic zones similar to those in the natural world. There is nothing in this world, which does not have its counterpart in the other, but their origins are different. In the natural world the varying seasons depend upon how far the sun is from the equator; in the spiritual world they depend upon how remote the affections of the will, and so the thoughts of the understanding, are from true love and true faith. Everything there corresponds to these two.”

Key Principle: My inner state (climate) is a corresponding effect of how remote my affections of the will are, and so the thoughts of the understanding are from true love and true faith.

Sample Tasks:

• To become more aware of the “climate” of my inner landscape – noting states of coldness and warmth. I will try and capture any recurring patterns of thought that are associated with such states. 

• Try to remember that states of cold and warmth reflect my relationship to true love and true faith, and to note what impact, if any, remembering this has on my internal state.

Remember, when speaking of the spiritual world in Logopraxis we are speaking of mental states belonging to the life of our minds. Keeping this clear opens the way for the Text to be directly applied to our inner life.