Mind and Heart continuing:
After rejecting the wrong—
pornography, propaganda, emotional pollution,
obscenity, and other destructive actions,
what is the first positive step
into purity of the heart?
#1 Love what is transcendent, first.
What is finite—needs to be an also-ran,
coming in very secondary.
Everything that pollutes the heart comes from imagining,
choosing, and acting as if some finite thing
is most importance. As Plato emphasized
so long ago, and many thinkers since, love the Good.
#2 Realize that seeking the Good, the True, the Just
the Beautiful, the Loving is the first step
into each
moment,
each minute,
each hour,
each day,
each month,
each year,
each lifetime,
not one goal among many other concerns.
Purity of heart
is the true path to everything else.
#3 As good as career, projects, achievements, and success are,
choose in the present now to put humans first.
That’s called humanism, altruism, benevolence,
friendship, empathy, compassion, and so forth.
#4 Remember, that commitment in marriage is continual
choosing,
continual action,
and continual promise.
Feelings come and go.
Circumstances come and go.
Understandings come and go.
Distractions come and go.
But purity of the heart is coupled to covenant.
This is when two lovers
are one in caring and sharing in the midst of their
many differences, disagreements, and mistakes.
To be continued--
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
