I suspect I began to make my spiritual-growth U-bie when I realized that seemingly everywhere I looked (in re spirituality) pointed me in the opposite direction of my common sense.
For instance, it is true that our joy comes in helping others, but, as Easwaran writes, If we try to [aid] someone who has been unkind, the joy is even greater.
To our reasoning mind...impossible. Impossible first off because common sense warns us away from the unkind person...remember the punchline of the old adage (about the person who went to the aid of a hurt rattlesnake and got snake-bit): You knew I was a rattlesnake when you picked me up.
To me, that's the "gotcha" of the reasoning mind. We're going for spiritual not stupid...what rational person would bare-handed pick up a hurt-or-not rattlesnake? We can go to its aid without picking it up. Just as we can go to the aid of the unkind person without cozying up.
The joy may well be greater when our aid comes to the unkind person without our name on it. We get no outer glory, just an inner glow. I'm guessing that is what Joel Goldsmith calls knowing God is on the field. That knowing transcends all the personal glory our world can offer.
We must go beyond reason to love. -- The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment
Thank you.
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