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Watering the Soil

As an intellectually oriented person and a book lover, I have tended to put too much faith in the written word. The excitement of new ideas, the pleasure of an eloquent turn of phrase and, frankly, the cheap but powerful satisfaction of thinking I know something that someone else doesn't have too often driven me to read books of great spiritual value without profiting much from them. I simply read too many books too quickly to digest the gist of any of them. Before I finished one, my mind had already begun to hunt for the next, always looking past the wisdom offered in the present toward some supposedly greater wisdom in the future. This kind of reading was more compulsive than intentional. It stimulated but did not transform.

 Over the years my unhealthy relationship with spiritual reading has changed. Thanks to my spiritual teacher, Eknath Easwaran, I am coming to believe that truth and wisdom are not to be found among the aromatic pages and black ink of a paperback but within my own spirit. Spiritual reading has become, under the influence of this new perspective, more an exercise than a hunt, a way to gradually develop and shape the mind and the heart.

 Truth is not a prey to be captured but a plant that must be allowed to grow from its own ground. Reading is one way to water the soil.
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