"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4)

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FEEDING THE RIGHT DOG:
THE KEY TO SPIRITUAL LIFE

Adapted from an article by the Rev. David Ayers

A man who was curious about Christianity once approached a recent convert to the religion, and asked him what it was like to be a Christian. The man thought for a moment, and answered: "It feels as if two dogs live within my soul. They often fight with each other for control over me, and at times I fear they will tear me apart." With intense interest, the curious man then asked, "Which dog is victorious?" "It depends," the convert replied, "on which dog I feed."

In his answer, the convert expressed the secret to spiritual life in interesting and unusual terms. Using concise and compelling symbolism, he spoke of the conflict between his newfound Christianity and his old ways of thinking and living.

In New Church terms we can see that the two dogs represent every person's higher and lower natures. The first dog represents a person's natural life, his proprium, or that which is his own, his self-will. The second dog represents the new heavenly proprium or will, which the Lord grants to a regenerating person. The two dogs' fighting for control represent the states of temptation which follow a person on his spiritual journey, where, in a state of freedom, he must choose either to follow his own natural thoughts and tendencies or the Lord's truths. Which dog wins and gains control over us is dependent on which one we feed. But what does it mean to feed a dog, and how do we do this?

The first thing we need to do to feed the right dog is acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the one God of heaven and earth. Then we must read and meditate on His Word - the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Heavenly Doctrine - because it is there that the Lord reveals Himself to us. Through reading, and listening to preaching from the Word, we learn who the Lord is and how He wants us to live. If we want to feed the right dog, we must start there.

Reading and meditating on the Word of God each day does more than provide us with a blueprint for heavenly life. The Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church reveals that there are deep and wondrous things at work when we turn to the Word, because we exist concurrently in both the natural and spiritual worlds. We dwell bodily in the natural world, but our souls live in the spiritual world. The Arcana Coelestia states that

through spirits a person has communication with the world of spirits, and through angels with heaven. Without communication with the world of spirits, and by means of angels with heaven, and thus through heaven with the Lord, a person could not live at all; his life entirely depends on this conjunction, so that if the spirits and angels were to withdraw, he would instantly perish (#50).

The Heavenly Doctrine also discloses that "spirits are associated with a person in accordance with his loves" (Arcana Coelestia 6196). Our decision to acknowledge the Lord and read His Word is critical, and it is also played out on the spiritual plane. By reading, we are not only learning the Lord's truths and receiving instruction on how we should live, we are also actually associating with the angels of heaven and thus with the Lord.

The Word enables us to feed the right dog by teaching us how to live, and by connecting us to heaven and the Lord. Conversely, feeding the wrong dog occurs whenever we think or act in ways the Word teaches us are wrong - when we submit ourselves to the tutelage of self and the world, and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, deciding for ourselves what is right and good.

Although angels are present with us when we read the Word, we form very different spiritual associations when we feed the dog of our own selfish desires. The Arcana Coelestia unveils a graphic picture of those

who in the life of the body have...taken interest in nothing else than what relates to self and the world.... Those of them who have lived at the same time in pleasures, or in a luxurious life conjoined with interior cunning, are...beneath the earth of lower things, where is the hell of such spirits. In their dwellings is nothing but filth; they also seem to themselves to carry filth, for it corresponds to such a life (4948).

When we feed the wrong dog, we draw these kinds of spirits to ourselves. In turn, these evil spirits feed off the evil loves we are engendering in ourselves, and incite us to more selfishness.

The convert's description, therefore, illustrates a fundamental spiritual concept. Modern computer jargon maintains a similar principle with the catch-phrase "garbage in, garbage out." Health experts and nutritionists tell us that "we are what we eat." Yet, we may labor under the misconception that we can eat our fill of garbage and still be spiritually healthy. We convince ourselves that it is fine to become immersed in the things of self and the world - to indulge in the violence and gratuitous sex which pervade many modern forms of entertainment, to plan our lives around the attainment of social and professional positions, to worship the false god of materialism, to harbor negative thoughts and destructive fantasies - all to the exclusion of consideration for the Lord and His kingdom. These are examples of feeding the wrong dog, of delusional thinking which springs from a person's natural life.

To be spiritually healthy we must feed the right dog with good food from the Word. However, while reading the Word is the necessary first step, applying it to life is primary (see True Christian Religion 336). We must learn to shun falsities and evil in our lives. When we learn what the Lord wants from us, we must try to do it. That conjoining of truth with good in our lives is critical. The Heavenly Doctrine teaches that, while "it is the office of the understanding to hear the Word...[it is] of the will to do it. To hear the Word and not to do it is like saying that we believe when we do not live according to our belief, in which case we separate hearing and doing, and thus have a divided mind" (Arcana Coelestia 44).

When we try to live according to the Lord's Word, we will experience what the convert described as two dogs fighting for control. We will experience temptations: struggles between our natural person, which governed our old way of life, and the new conscience and will which the Lord gives to those who are regenerating.

The Heavenly Doctrine reveals that receiving instruction in spiritual truths from the Lord's Word, prepares us for the temptations which are an integral part of regeneration. "Unless a person is prepared, that is, furnished with truths and goods, he can by no means be regenerated, still less undergo temptations" (Arcana Coelestia 711). We must go through these trials, for, as the Arcana further states,

without temptation no one is regenerated.... The reason is that regeneration takes place to the end that the life of the old person may die, and the new heavenly life be insinuated, which shows that there must needs be a fight, for the life of the old person resists and is not willing to be extinguished, and the life of the new person cannot enter except where the life of the old person has been extinguished (8403).

To truly become regenerate Christians, we must each experience this struggle for ourselves. We have the freedom to follow the Lord, to feed the right dog, by learning the Lord's truths and applying them to our lives. The Lord actually reforms us, but we must freely compel ourselves to think what is true and do what is right. The teachings of the New Church provide us with a road map for spiritual success and happiness. However, all who walk the spiritual road know that it is not an easy one. Regeneration is much more than a momentary decision to follow the Lord. The Lord will not save and change us in an instant. As He instructs, each of us must work with Him, take up our cross and follow Him.

In our spiritual lives we will not always have success. At some point we will all fail in temptation. Even when we follow the Lord's way, we will experience difficulties. In these times we can remember the convert's struggle and his description of it. Then let us choose to feed the right dog.

Originally published in New Church Life in 1994. 

 

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