An interesting era has started of Martial arts of the Spirit, which raise creativity. There is a type of martial art when you keep what you had – for example, you don’t give away your Shalom to your opponent – that is, you don’t gain, but keep. But there is a type of art that takes you somewhere. What is of interest here is what leads to prophetic creativity, what opens up your potential. Sometimes in the pursuit of a gift, we get some degree of inferiority and lose what we already have.
And sometimes you have developed abilities, but not a gift. There are artists who can draw a sketch, but a talented master will immediately understand whether this artist has a gift or not. Because he will see if there is a complete philosophical thought in the work. An artist is the one who sees, not the one who draws. It’s good to have both.
You have to pay a huge price for a gift. In order to do a powerful thing, one has to have an open spirit. You can be chasing it all your life, and it can either leave you or reward you.
Therefore, a very strong martial art of the spirit is to separate oneself in order to penetrate the object. And there penetration can be either informative, or it can be spiritual; like an Angel passes through a wall. It takes an instance and you are already inside.
You’ve penetrated, studied the subject deeply, and realized that they were talking about it incorrectly. For example, I have changed my point of view on the Middle Ages. The well-known facts are epidemics, the Catholic clergy, the need for reformation, the low standard of living. But I changed my opinion – it was an amazing time. It was the heyday of human civilization – such buildings and wonderful inventions are rare in the history of mankind. When I changed my attitude towards the Middle Ages, it transformed me as a person, because I had an incorrect picture of the universe. It was the height of the Reformation, there were mystics who became teachers of the Church.
When I penetrate deeply into the subject, I feel that I am being replenished in the spirit, as if the truth were pouring in. One of the martial arts of the spirit is to reject the false reality, to feel it. False reality gives us nothing but the spirit of delusion.
One of the martial arts of the spirit is to reject the false reality and accept the true one. But how can this happen? How can you discern? To do this, you must first make a U-turn. And the forerunner for accepting the truth is to give up all things. Learn to give up all things. It’s such a freedom!
When a woman rushed at Brother Roger in the Taize monastery and stabbed him to death, the monk brothers did not even move, accepting it as the will of God that the brother became a martyr. And those were parishioners, the laity, who rose up and seized the killer.
To give up is when you’ve torn what is yours from yourself, as if you didn’t have it. You received something, but you already lost it inside yourself – this is freedom.
These are the words of Jesus: “Whoever doesn’t give up all that he has can’t be My disciple” (Luke 14:33). It’s not just material items. These are also people near and far. Everything of value is on my list. If I can give up all things, then I become His disciple, I am ready to follow Him.
We, however, cling to what we received and try to run away from God. Imagine how Abraham, having received Isaac, runs away from God, like Jonah. Where will he run?
Separate. Give up all. These are the most powerful martial arts of the spirit. How can we learn to give up all? – Understand that the thing is not of value. You are of value. When I’m ready, everything will be ready.
You may be chasing a gift, but it slips away. But you may have, possess all gifts. Sometimes faith comes that you can do anything. Why? Because of the Source. You give up everything superfluous, and all the gifts of the Source are yours. You don’t have to know anything – you need to connect to the Source. And if you know how, but build everything on experience, then you are a natural person, not a supernatural one. But in order to learn to connect, you need to learn to give up all. Even from your good experience. Cross it out completely, throw it away and switch to a new reality. Then there will be new film directors, businessmen. We have no time to study, but we have time to connect!
Jesus is not just close. He is already!..