Burning the brain during the process of hard, wholesome work is an act of self-purification as written about even in the Psalms. It is through hard work and faith that we are purified, burned white hot through the trials of life, even as a psychological journey, for just as a hunter fails and his family starves, just as the farmer’s crop fails and his family starves, so even the monk can lose his faith and his spirit starves.

Therefore, just as we remain sober when hunting, tilling the earth, working that field one zap at a time, or when preparing food for hospital patients, so we must remain sober in our prayer, working, concentrating, involving to the greatest extent possible body, mind, and heart, burning ourselves to the utmost to achieve white-hot purity, serving others if we can, just as a candle burns itself out to give life to others.

Be mature enough to give your best time to God, to give the first fruits of your living to God, and do this in the way that feels right to you, in the truthful way, in song, in harmony with the will of God.

Give the best of your culture, the field that you work, everyday, one zap at a time, because the best of your culture, your cultivation, also represents the best of your time, your first fruits. Therefore, be not ashamed to be who you are, also in cultural terms, because that is the life that God made through you, but also be a peace-maker, in all social conditions as Christ commanded you to be blessed, not letting the life of your own culture to overcrowd that of other living creatures, but living in peace and harmony with them.

It is right, then, to give the best of ourselves to God, and this can be done in a myriad of ways, but mainly through hard work at making a living, love of family, and most of all, I would say, through the sincerity of one’s prayer, letting nothing interfere with the pure flow of one’s heart, for there-through extends a path to more than just mere eternity, but the most direct channel to the glory of God which you reflect not just in the mere here and now, but beyond any notion harbored in that feeble though at times noble instrument that is the human mind, but in the all-powerful truth that transcends through the heart.

Cultivate this feeling, then, through your hard work as you cultivate the field of life, one zap at a time, concentrating your effort on reaping the fruits of the Spirit, tolerating the weeds, for they have their purpose too, perhaps beyond your understanding, but in any case not your main business, and with this in mind, blowing aside with overwhelming force, stronger than any hurricane, the very concept of hostility, the concept of an enemy, making love of one’s “enemy” a normal part of the business of nature as you play your part in it.

Any time is the right time to exercise a little discipline. You will never achieve purity or perfection, but it is the very attempt that can help set you on the path to becoming pure: always try to make the most of whatever the circumstances to exercise at least one of the several virtues (fruits of the Spirit), and the chief of these are those that are in harmony with God’s will based on the overarching virtues of love and creativity. That means, for example, if you are in a family situation, then love the family, help it grow, cook the best and the most sincere meal that you can with the ingredients available to you. We can fill these pages with myriad examples, but the aim is the same: we must focus the meaning of all our efforts, all our actions, all that appears natural for us to do, on the glory of God.

Therefore, you have things to do? Well, good. Do them in the spirit of the Lord, splash your soul and mind in His glory in everything that you do, in accordance with His will as it is most natural for you to do. This is the way to overcome your frailties, your doubts over whether what it is you are doing is the right thing: learn the virtues as the philosophers and saints have taught us since the days of old and do your best to put them into practice. The value of the attempt is measured first of all by the sincerity of the effort. Then, in time, if you are sincere and if you persist, you will find that the Lord will assign you no task that is beyond the talents that he has endowed you with, if you keep the faith, the source of energy that is the never-fading burning light of life, an energy beyond the grasp of bodily understanding, for just as the soul is more than just a burning candle, so the womb is more than just a fleshy cavern temporarily feeding a new body emerging onto the face of the earth, but the generation-to-generation symbol of an energy that expresses the very life that God willed in His creation, just as the modest green shoots that seize the opportunity for life, growing in the barest top soil that accumulates in the concave space of ceramic roof tiles, are no less a reflection of the glory of God and His love-inspired creation which is life itself dispersed into the unending numbers of living souls in the Universe, cohered into the one family of faith, the energy of life.