Essential Spiritual Zeal: The Key to a Resilient Mind
The absence of inner spiritual jealousy (i.e., a sincere desire to maintain spiritual purity and mindfulness in spiritual exercises) weakens the mind, because without it the spiritual practice becomes mechanical and is unable to fill the heart and mind with life-sustaining gentle emotion. In this context, if a person does not experience inner jealousy for their spirituality, they do not pay proper attention and care when observing prayer rules and reading sacred texts, which results in an insufficient strengthening of the mind’s spiritual state. This, in turn, makes the mind more vulnerable to negative influences and temptations, as it fails to develop the necessary resilience and “defense mechanisms” through attentive and deliberate spiritual practice.Much like how overeating weakens the stomach, excessive, unmoderated consumption of spiritual nourishment without proper focus weakens the mind. As stated in the quote:"Just as overeating food upsets and weakens the stomach, so too does excessive consumption of spiritual food weaken the mind, creating an aversion to pious exercises and inducing melancholy." (source: link txt)This analogy clearly demonstrates that the lack of inner spiritual jealousy leads to a depletion of spiritual attention, making the mind less capable of resisting negative influences and temptations. Thus, genuine spiritual jealousy is a necessary condition for maintaining and strengthening the mind, enabling it to counteract negative influences and temptations.