Daily Meditation: Wednesday, January 26, 2005

‘Neither is new wine put into old wineskins’ - commentary

01/26/2005

The discovery of a spiritual teaching is a source of great joy. Finally, we have found it! Yes, but the reality is not so simple. Once you have accepted a spiritual teaching, however elevated it may be, it often happens that after a month, six months or perhaps a year, confusion takes hold in you, and instead of strengthening your positive side, your efforts develop only your negative side. Why? Because every new idea, every new state of consciousness creates fermentation in those who are not prepared to receive it. Jesus said: ‘No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’ The new skins represent the solid, resistant forms you must prepare within yourself in order to hold and sustain a new vision of things. You must therefore begin by bringing yourself into harmony with this philosophy. That is to say, you must prepare your physical and psychic organism so that you can withstand the tension created by the new currents to which you will be exposed.