The Four Essential Questions: Choosing Spiritually Healthy Habits - Paperback

Preface:

Habit with him was all the test of truth. It must be right: I’ve done it from my youth.—George Crabbe

We all have habits—some of them work in our favor. However, the ones that are formed through unknown and unconscious perceptions always work against us without our knowledge. In order to eliminate these dangerous habits, and replace them with spiritually healthy habits, we have to drill down into our thinking and perceptions.

We will use The Four Essential Questions as the drill. Once the way is cleared, we can consciously choose the habits that work for us; not against us. In this book, you will find the tools you need to continue to check, and eliminate, the habits that are no longer wanted, and build spiritually healthy ones.

When drilling into a deep piece of wood, it is necessary to continually pull the drill-bit out so the sawdust created lifts out of the hole.

Otherwise, the sawdust compacts and makes it harder and harder to drill. On the other hand, when we keep on drilling, and clearing out, at the end, the drill bit breaks through, and the last of the sawdust falls through easily. The hole is clear and ready to be used.

If we don’t completely drill the hole the whole way through there are two results. The obvious one is that it was a waste of time to do all that drilling because without a completed hole nothing can be done with it. The other, not so obvious, is that the hole will, over time, fill up with “stuff.”

This also happens when we dig a hole for a plant. Of course, we know that the dirt must be taken out of the hole, in order to be even called a hole. However, if we don’t fill the hole with the intended plant, it will eventually fill up with something else.

We dug plant holes one year expecting to plant trees, but never got around to it. The next year, the holes had to be completely cleared again in order to be ready for the trees.

This same idea happens with ruts. My husband Del sees this all the time when working in the woods. If a machine has gone through and caused ruts, and they were not filled in again with soil, eventually they fill up on their own.

Perhaps this seems okay, but it isn’t really, because they don’t fill up with solid dirt. Instead, they fill with loose things like leaves and grass. This makes them invisible to someone using the path or road, and causes a dangerous hazard for anyone who steps, or drives, into them.

This is the same with uncovering habits. We are really drilling down into our thinking, but if we don’t go the whole way through, the empty space will simply fill up with unwanted, and unknown, “stuff.”

That is why it is important in drilling down into our perceptions to continue the process of clearing unwanted habits. If we experience a small amount of freedom, or life changes a bit for the better, it will be tempting to simply stop and go no further. However, if we stop before completion, then like the uncompleted hole in the wood, the unplanted hole in the dirt, or the unfilled rut, we have an even worse situation than we had before.

Sometimes holes are easy to drill, dig, and fill in. Other times they are not. However, if the going sometimes seems to be too hard, or even boring, because it isn’t happening fast enough, keep going anyway. Use the questions in this book to help you through it; to make it easier and even to make it fun.

The reward is far greater than the apparent effort.

Just as when we finish drilling a hole and the last of the sawdust simply drops out, if we keep on going, the last of the unwanted perceptions that have caused the habit will simply drop away.

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way, and not starting.— Buddha