When most think of a recipe, they associate it with cooking. However virtually everything we use today has a “recipe.” Plastics are very different in their compositions; concrete mix and mortar have many specific recipes for different applications. Look around you, the desk you are sitting at may be mass-produced but if there are different colors or compositions, these all require different recipes. The paper used in envelopes is a different recipe than printer paper or fine stationary. No chef, builder or manufacturer would leave out an ingredient or add something destructive and expect the final product to embody all the qualities or flavor they were striving for, yet is that not exactly what so many do spiritually? Remember reaping and sowing? Spiritually they tried to make mortar without sand, a cake without flour and then are surprised when their arch falls, their cake inedible.
To restate the classic teaching: If you wish to be loved, be loving. If you desire respect, be respectful. If you wish to be known as an honorable person, treat all with honor. We can wish for these things with all our might but until we are willing to follow directions and include all the ingredients in the proper amounts our results will remain unsatisfactory. Love and anger do not mix, sarcasm, mockery and disdain are not found in the same bowl with respect, and honor and gossip are never found together.
Without the realization of the Presence, consistent prayer, meditation and service the cake will be unsavory, the archway unstable and the whole world suffers because we have been shown the light but choose to stand in the shadows out of fear or just plain laziness. What recipe are you using for spiritual success?
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