Purity

Purity is not an untangible virtue as most think, but something that can be achieved with effort, patience and dedication. Would you like to learn how?

Photo by Johnny McClung on Unsplash

Purity is a virtue that is very difficult to understand.

According to the dictionary, pure is that which is clean, untouched, without spots or blemishes. In that sense, purity would be the state of someone who has never been touched by evil, in any of its forms.

Purity would have to be preserved from the beginning, as any stain would imply its loss.

In human terms, everyone would be born pure and remain so until they commit the first fault. In such a sense, the state of purity would be forever lost and beyond the reach of the vast majority of men.

However, Jesus affirmed the bliss of the pure in heart.

It is not possible that the happiness of the blessed is restricted to a tiny minority, for Christ also said that none of his sheep would be lost. Thus, the meaning of the word purity cannot be restricted to the condition of someone who has never been touched by evil.

Perfect Purity

Purity is not something you are born with or something that can be lost at the slightest slip. It is a state of consciousness to be built over time.

Being pure is not being ignorant of the reality of life, but opting for the good, for the beautiful, for the just.

On the flip side, an impure person only sees evil everywhere. They are those who judge and are always willing show levity on each action. Being harsh censors, they often expect a purity that they do no have and violently criticize those who make efforts to achieve it.

The pure person identifies the evil where it really exists. They perceive and regret dishonesty, selfishness, perversion and cruelty.

Final Thoughts

Purity is something that can be achieved.

Struggling to overcome our own difficulties is hard but worthwhile. What we need is to stop wasting time criticizing the conducts of others and focusing on our own bad habits to overcome them patiently.

Mary Magdalene is an opportune example of purity achieved. Despite the great mistakes of his past, after meeting Jesus she began to cultivate purity in her life. Her story is an eloquent symbol of the victory of reason and will over passion and vices.

Becoming pure is possible and it only depends on our own efforts.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on January 10, 2018.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

Planting in the Desert

Is it possible to transform an arid, desertic hearts in oasis of virtues?

Photo by Giorgio Parravicini on Unsplash

Is it possible to transform arid lands into productive regions?

Yacouba Sawadogo, living in the African country of Burkina Faso, was tired of seeing his plantations run out because of bad land. Even ridiculed by his neighbors in the 1980s, he decided to put into practice an old teaching, known as Zai.

Performing the opposite of the common sense, he began to prepare the ground during the drought period.

The technique consisted of opening small holes in the ground, next to each other, filling them with fertilizers and animal feces. These openings have the ability to retain rainwater and maintain a kind of reserve so that seeds of trees planted there, grow normally.

The fact is that, twenty years later, Sawadogo's land was productive and he had a thirty-hectare forest with more than sixty species of trees.

In solidarity, when realizing that his strategy was working, the African farmer started to organize lectures on his lands, in order to teach the technique to anyone interested. After the practice was disseminated, Sawadogo started receiving donations from all over the world to invest in his research and to foster the use of his techniques.

Sawadogo's quest was so impressed that inspired filmmaker Mark Dodd to create a documentary called The man who stopped the desert.

Our hears are like deserts

Like the desert lands, many hearts are dry in feelings. Emotions there do not flourish.

But still, they respond quite well to the African soil therapy. They just need to be made some holes and introduced the fertilizer of mercy and some seeds of love. And, without having to wait for decades, they could transform into a welcoming forest, with different species of trees:

• the tree of compassion: to look at those around us as brothers and sisters, reaching out to lift them from material and moral misery;
• the tree of sincerity: to stop creating intrigues and spreading slanders, denigrating people and institutions that do good;
• the tree of humility: to realize that they do not know (or can know) everything. That they are simply human beings and, like every human being, they have limitations and need help from others;
• the tree of generosity: as opposed to its greed, starting to sharing what they know, what we have with those who have less;
• the tree of patience: to walk less quickly and allow those around us to walk beside us, following our steps.
• And who knows, also help growing bushes of good will, gratitude, kindness, compassion, etc.

Final Thoughts

With time and patience, it's possible to transform a desertic heart into an oasis of blessings, full of virtues such as love, compassion, humility, patience and many other for the greater good.

Think about it.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on October 13, 2014.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem