Outer Life Conditions are NOT the Focus 

The outer external life can only be called a charitable life insofar as we give attention to the practise of charity where our inner life is concerned. So, the focus in Logopraxis is on the application of truths from the Word to examine the quality of our mental life with its thoughts and affections. It is this practise of charity on this inner plane of life that keeps external life in its proper perspective and gives it spiritual meaning.  

It’s important that these levels of life are kept separate in our thinking so that we are clear about where to apply the portion of Text that we working with, i.e. to the inner life of our mind, to our thoughts and affections. 

It is perhaps one of the most difficult things of all not to have our attention drawn into the external world with its outer events, circumstances, and people and see it as having some causal connection with how we are feeling internally. To be taken with thoughts like,  

• If only this or that would change then… 
• If only she or he would just do things this way then … 

What we fail to see is that this attitude to the conditions of outer life creates inverted ways of thinking about the relationship between the inner spiritual world of causes and the outer natural world of effects.   

The natural mind is predisposed to viewing external life as the cause of its internal states. However, what the Word teaches is that this is an inversion of how things actually are. From a Logopraxis perspective, external events and people are not held to be the cause of how we feel and think. The external events and people merely ground an inner response (emotional state), the cause of which is tied to belief structures that we carry but are largely unaware of. When we project the cause of our state onto something in the external world, we are operating from a belief that the external world is a world of causes and that what we experience as our emotional state is an effect resulting from whatever it is we are facing. Effectively, we believe the appearances of our senses over what the Word says is true. 

When our thinking regarding cause and effect is inverted, our focus will be on changing externals as the basis to effecting a change in our emotional state. In this inverted state of mind, we believe that changes in our external outer world will provide us with relief from feelings of discomfort, frustration, and sadness or, alternatively, will provide us with feelings of happiness, fulfilment, and joy in life. This is a diversionary tactic of the hellish proprium. The infernal proprium continually works to deflect our attention away from examining our beliefs in the light of what the Word says is true and in attending to the quality of our thoughts and affections. Logopraxis supports us to place our focus on applying truths from the Word to our mental life, this being where the real causes of our responses are seated. Attending to this level of life is where genuine spiritual work can be carried out and transformational change effected. 

The inner and outer dimensions of life then come into a new relationship. This can be seen when in our effort to work faithfully and sincerely in our dealings with others and to operate with integrity so far as our external employments, relationships, situations, and circumstances are concerned, we become aware of the quality of our inner responses as we look to meet outer life demands. Often, we find that our attitudes, thoughts, and feelings don’t necessarily match what we project outwardly. It is this newfound awareness that gives form to seeing what it is that needs to be worked on interiorly.  In this way, outer life is transformed into something that directly supports inner work. 

So, while outer life conditions can serve as triggers for inner work, they are not the focus for change in Logopraxis. Logopraxis work is psychological work; we are called to work with the Word in a way that brings a light onto our inner mental life with its thoughts and affections. We all, of course, have a life in the external world, but this outer level of life with its relationships, activities, situations, and circumstances is not the direct focus for Logopraxis work.  

 

The Purpose of the Task is Observation 

The purpose of formulating a task in Logopraxis work is not to achieve some predetermined outcome but is instead to work with it as a means to enable us to bring a specific focus to our inner life. So, task setting in Logopraxis is not concerned with achieving the task but is about setting up conditions that remind us to observe a truth or spiritual principle. The formulation of a Logopraxis task and the effort to implement it in life creates conditions that allow us to focus our attention on something higher. Tasks bring a focus to our work that creates new conditions in which something related to the spiritual life (i.e., the life of our mind) can be seen.  

 The purpose of the task then is observation; it enables us to see what we are given to see in the effort to work with it.  
 

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.