One of the ancient spiritual paths goes by an old name…
“mortification.”
It means to put to death. Once we see that our false narratives, our faulty Life-Stories are strangling the life out of us, we want to turn the tables and put that clutching instinct to death itself. Historically, spiritual people have done that by killing off the passions they associate with those attachments.
The traditional use of the practice is always voluntary. But what about those times when we are involuntarily forced into being without this thing, that person, or the other circumstance that we have come to believe we cannot be happy without? Can we apply this ancient practice to an involuntary season of “Lent?”
Have a listen,
I’ll talk about a friend of mine who has involuntarily been forced into a “vow of poverty” by an extended season of unemployment. Can he benefit from involuntary mortification, just as the ancients tell us we can from a voluntary one?
Doug
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