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How Do You Practice the Virtue Devotion? Question: How
do you practice the virtue “Devotion?” Richard: It
is more a matter of how does one acquire the “state” of devotion. It is
easiest to be devoted to a hero, and Christ is certainly a good candidate for
that role. To want to do that which He would want you to do is, of course, a
rewarding desire. To find Him worthy of your turning yourself over to what—
ever it is He would like you to do is an important part of your becoming
devoted at all. Real devotion is committing yourself to an ideal that you are
willing to die for if necessary and willing to work for with every effort in
order that it comes about. This desire is something that comes from deep
inside the psyche. It is not usually a calculated intellectual decision that
one makes, but is rather like falling in love--we must first find the object
worthy, yet love is not just manufactured. Devotion infers the total giving
over of one’s energies and commitments to something that is greater than
oneself. You probably have seen this many times in your life and you probably
have experienced it personally. Devotion can be developed indirectly. A
person who is self-centered finds it hard to be devoted to anything,
certainly nothing outside of himself. It requires that a person not be so
cynical that he cannot believe in something. If he is cynical, then obviously
he cannot be devoted. Perhaps devotion is useful to the extent that it can
overcome the debilitating sense of frustration or despair of the cynic. Devotion is the thing which makes giants of people.
It makes them do marvelous deeds which they may never have otherwise done. It
is difficult to overcome your own nature; there has to be something to
inspire you to change yourself from what you are to what you want to become,
to improve the condition of civilization wherever you happen to be. But to
catch fire, one should be devoted to something greater than oneself. Question: How
does being devoted to something keep you from being blind as you research the
very thing you are so devoted to? Answer: That
is a very difficult problem, and, of course, it is a danger that all of us
can slip into. You can be so devoted to someone as to be blinded to the facts
of what that individual actually is. Ideals fall into the same category.
People kill each other over their ideals, and if one of them is different,
obviously one of them must be wrong — and chances are, both of them are
partially wrong. To find something which one c an pin his hopes
on is what we are all searching for. Again I come back to Christ as one that
we might most easily feel secure with and that we are going in the right
direction with. Of course our vision of what Christ is can differ
considerably. I think that the advice of Franklin’s is best here: In order to
have integrity, you must live your philosophy, whatever it may be, to the
fullest rather than say I won’t devote myself to any philosophy until I find
the right one. That just scatters you and you never accomplish anything. But
also, according to his advice, when you find something that answers your
questions better, be ready to switch and then live that fully. There is much
satisfaction and much gusto in living fully that which you believe, whatever it
may be, but people’s minds do change. The balance you bring to living, of not
going too far in any direction at one time is part of the wisdom of living a
good life. Certainly some horrible things have happened because of someone’s
devotion to the wrong thing; so you do have the responsibility to be as
correct as possible in choosing the goals of your devotion. (04-1973) |
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