Teen - Spiritual Reality

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DOCTRINE FOR THE YOUNG

SPIRITUAL REALITY

by the Rev. Stephen D. Cole

It is a challenging idea to those of us who live in the natural world that the spiritual world is not only as real as this world, but is, in fact, more real. This may seem hard to believe to some, but there are ways of thinking about the two worlds that may help us see more clearly that it is indeed true.

At first, it seems to most people that the world of the mind is wild, unpredictable, and unreal, when compared with the cold, hard, objective reality of the outer world. One can gain a new perspective, however, by asking which world has more power over one's life. It is true that circumstances in the external world can affect one's state of mind, but far more dramatic is the effect that one's state of mind can have upon how one views the world.

The same words spoken by another, the same facial expression, can have widely different meanings to us depending on whether we are in a good mood or a bad one. Even the inanimate or non-human elements in our environment can seem, if we are in a good mood, to be going our way, whereas, when we are in a bad mood the same elements can seem to be conspiring against us.

One illustration of this can be seen in comparing how bleak the world looks some nights before going to sleep, perhaps as one lies awake worrying, with how insignificant the concerns of the night before seem in the morning.

The mental world, the spiritual world, is the real world. It is the world in which our real life goes on. The outward wor1d, by comparison, is a mere shadow world, the reality of which can only be viewed in terms of the mental, spiritual reality.

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