A life lesson from one of the most influential books ever written.
I will never understand why people today read Marcus Aurelius more than the Bible.
Whether you are a Christian, atheist, or process another religion, the Bible is a book full of power and wisdom capable of giving you the answers you need.
And I intend to prove it to you.
There is a phrase that is constantly misunderstood in the Bible.
A phrase that within it is encrypted is one of the most potent spiritual lessons ever written.
But only eyes used to reading between the lines can decrypt such information.
Let us begin.
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his life? — Mt 16:26.
It makes no sense to lose one’s life to gain the world — yet many do so for fortune, power, fame, social status, or simply pleasure.
But to understand this, you have to know how the world works.
The currency of the world is not money; it is time. — Money is nothing more than paper.
Every time you buy something, you do it with the lifetime it costs you to get that paper.
Ergo, you are wasting lifetime every time you consume in excess.
And what you own ends up owning you. — And eventually, it costs you even more lifetime (money).
More houses owned, more money in maintenance and taxes.
More cars owned, more money for repairs and insurance.
More stuff = More problems = Less Time = Less Quality of Life.
Losing your life to gain the world is not just for the ambitious.
It can be happening to you.
- Gluttony is something mundane that can make you lose your life.
- Lust is something worldly that can make you lose your life.
- Pride is a worldly thing that can cause you to lose your life.
- Envy is something worldly that can make you lose your life.
By losing one’s life, we mean living in a state of perpetual suffering, both physically and emotionally.
As you see, no one is free from falling into the trap of the world.
So how to gain life?
By losing the world
- At work: focusing on process and service without obsessing over financial success.
- In the social environment: cultivating patience and kindness and practicing detachment to live with people without trying to possess them or impose your will.
- In health: Avoiding excesses and ordering the affections.
For this, Christians use a misunderstood method: mortification.
The method of mortification
Many people, including Christians, confuse the original meaning of mortification.
Mortification means to impose your will on your body by denying yourself the pleasures of the world (obviously in their proper measure).
In other words, to overcome daily temptations and not fall into excesses, bad habits, and recurrent negative thoughts or behaviors to have a more balanced mind and a better quality of life.
The mortification of the body, thus understood, leads to the well-being of the soul.
For we all have the nature of an Angel and the nature of a beast.
The Beast and the Angel.
To restrain the impulses of the ego of the body and avoid the temptations of the environment is very difficult.
But in the game of life, learning to lose is winning. Reread it.
Everything worldly ends up becoming a burden. That’s why losing is winning. Freeing yourself from the burden makes you float and reach Heaven.
Heaven is understood as a state of being that brings us closer to the Angel that lives in us than to the beast full of primal impulses inhabiting us.
In short, within us dwell two natures, that of the Angel and that of the beast.
One brings you closer to the world, the other to transcendence.
The world is a place where animal instinct prevails over reason and conscience.
However, losing the world (imposing your will on the body’s desires) brings you closer to the divine nature to a much more balanced life with less spiritual and physical pain.
A virtual hug
AG
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