OAKLAND, CA – NOVEMBER 06: Tim Tebow #15 of the Denver Broncos prays before their game against the Oakland Raiders at O.co Coliseum on November 6, 2011 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
“When those who have acquired moral stability and contemplative knowledge employ these for the sake of human glory, merely conveying an outward impression of the virtues, and uttering words of wisdom and knowledge without performing the corresponding actions; and when in addition they display to others their vanity because of this supposed virtue and knowledge, then they are rightly handed over to commensurate hardships, in order to learn through suffering that humility which was unknown to them before because of their empty conceit.
“Each demon promotes the attack of this or that particular temptation according to his innate propensity. For one demon is productive of one kind of evil, while another is clearly more abominable than his fellow and has a greater propensity for some other form of evil.” ~The Kolbrin Bible
For Sake of Human Glory
The purpose of spiritual and moral development is to help ourselves and others and to help bring about God’s Plan for the redemption of the world. It isn’t for self-glorification or to allow us to claim that we are better than others because we have Awakened. When our motive for spiritual development is human glory or self-pride, our results will be limited at best. It isn’t just doing certain development techniques that help us grow, it is also our attitude while doing them.
Words Without Action
Likewise, spiritual development is limited when we talk about it, use the right words, say Namista often, etc. but don’t actually engage in any real spiritual growth techniques. Our results will be limited. In fact, we will probably get no results at all just by talking the talk. Speaking German doesn’t make me German, speaking the current spiritual words and phrases doesn’t make me a spiritual person.
Learn Through Suffering
It is true that many have to learn through suffering. It is not, however, because God requires us to suffer, but because some of us refuse to learn without it. As the Kolbrin Bible says, it is those who display vanity or hubris who need suffering to wake them up. The Dark Night of the Soul isn’t necessary if we develop humility.
Particular Temptation
The idea that each demon has its own way of tempting us makes sense, even if you think of demons more as forces of evil rather than beings (they could be both!). As we are individuals with different tastes and different desires, so are demons. Of course, there is more than one demon that uses money as a temptation and more than one that uses promises of love, but the idea being expressed is that different demons may use different temptations to get to us. We must be aware of this and be prepared to protect ourselves against all sorts of temptations. We should also be aware that some demons won’t use temptations, but trials and tribulations instead. When the demon sees we are on the Path of Righteousness, it will make us ill, or cause us to have an accident. They will make us miserable to get us to turn away from truth. We must not listen to those demons either. The war between Light and Dark is truly a war, and the forces of darkness fight dirty.
From the SUN TALK collection by Harold Boulette