We think the mind is “directive”—that it decides our action. But this is not true. The mind, as much as any other part of the body, is only a “potential” for direction. Like the hand or foot, the mind is only a muscle that can be used in one way or another. We are not directed by our mind. Rather, we direct our mind by what we love. We are not even directed by our so-called “free” will. Rather, the will too, is only a muscle we can use in one way or another—directed first by what we love.

Can you imagine going to the gym to build up muscles in order that those muscles might do “the right thing?” As if doing the right thing were a question of muscle! Yes, firefighters and lifeguards develop a certain physical strength in order to meet crisis. Likewise, a pianist practices scales in order to develop the strength and technique to play difficult music.

However, even if you have the physical strength to do the right thing, there is no guarantee that at the moment of crisis, you will actually go and do it! There is no guarantee that the well-muscled lifeguard will jump into the water. And no guarantee that the capable pianist will actually play the music well—in that sonata that night!

The capacity “to do” does not guarantee the doing—because the muscle is only a potential, an implement. Potential does not automatically produce the actuality.

In spirituality, the music is Love. And the “crisis” is the moment before us, which like a drowning swimmer is calling out in need. Even our relatively quiet or ordinary moments are still calling out for love. Everyone and everything before us—the planet itself—is crying out for love. But can we love through our minds? Through spiritual thinking or spiritual thoughts?

Our relationship to Love is not muscular. It cannot be trained. Like any relationship, it is about seeing what is before us and living in relationship to it. You can no more have a relationship with God on the basis of your mind—active, calm or even blank—than you can have a mental love affair with another person. Love is physical and actual—not mental. And we don’t arrive at love through the mind.

Genuine spirituality brings us to see what we love. We can think we love and still be far from the actuality—the action--of this love. So, it is much better to turn our self-inquiry to the question of “what do I love?” than “what am I thinking?” When we see what we love it is not always pretty and there arises a natural desire to rearrange our priorities and our day itself. The study of what we love will prove more fruitful than the aimless and endless task of trying to arrange the mind.

But here is the real question: Will we actually do this? Will we actually turn our attention to what is vital: self-inquiry and the demanding question of “What do I love?”

The answer to that question depends on what we love.