Begin a New Life Four Universal Steps of Life Change and Spiritual Transformation A Process for Making Conscious and Intentional Life Choices Full Worksheets Issue to be Processed Date Based on the Bible as Explained in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg Mark Dandridge Pendleton www.beginanewlife.info
Step 1 Examine Yourself Take an Honest Look. Actions & Words Thoughts Intentions Desires & Will Here is what I've done and/or said, either 1, 2, 3 openly or secretly: Here are the thoughts, opinions, or beliefs behind my actions and words: Here are the aims, intentions, or plans linked to my thoughts: Here s what I would do if : 4 These columns continue onto the next page. 1 The way you begin this process of active life change and spiritual transformation is by choosing one action, trait, or pattern in your life that is either a problem in conscience or causing damage, hurt, or pain some specific part of your life that you want, need, or feel called to look at and address. Next, in the Actions & Words column of the Step 1 worksheet, you briefly describe what you ve recently done and/or said in this one part of your life, whether you ve done so openly or secretly. Be specific. Then you follow through on the Step 1 worksheet, and the rest of this process, with this one issue in mind. (Note: If you have feelings around this issue that you want or need to process e.g., anger, lust, fear, guilt, etc. you can do so by recording them in the Actions & Words column, and by following through in the same way. Doing this will help you get in touch with thoughts, intentions, etc., that are linked to your feelings, and it will help prepare you to make choices about these things through the rest of the process.) 2 Descriptions and answers to questions in these pages can be given in writing and/or by other forms of expression. 3 This process of active life change and spiritual transformation begins when you take an honest look at one problematic part of your life. At times this may not be an easy thing to do for any number of reasons. If this is true for you, and you discover that you have a hard time either getting started on the process or seeing it through, you may wish to review Section C of the Sourcebook that accompanies these worksheets. It describes a kind of change that is easier than the full process. This easier kind of change can also help prepare you to go through the full process later on. 4 In this column you briefly describe what you would do if you wouldn t get in trouble with the law, and if your reputation wouldn t be harmed in any way. Doing this will help you see what your old will wants, desires, and wills thus what its underlying goals and quality are within your actions, words, thoughts, and intentions. (Note: The concept of old will/new will is discussed in Section B of the Sourcebook, Starting Assumptions.) This work is available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en_us). 1
Actions & Words Thoughts Intentions Desires & Will This page provides extra space for writing during self-examination. Use a Step 1 Filler Sheet or reproduce this page for further writing space as needed. Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 5 (Psalm 139:23-24) 5 Here is some additional information that is part of this process, and which can help: God the Lord is present and at work in you during Step 1 of this process and even before it: He is the one who inspires you to look honestly at yourself in the first place, and He is the one who discloses things to you during this step. (Note: Section B of the Sourcebook discusses the name, title, and person of the Divine in this process.) You may experience grief of heart or mind as you work through Step 1 and/or Step 2 of this process grief over things you discover within yourself; remorse for things you ve said, done, thought, or intended; sorrow at the thought that you may have harmed a certain person, a number of people, or the Lord himself; etc. These conscientious feelings are actually inspired by the Lord, and along with them he gives you the motivation to stop doing things that cause damage, hurt, or pain, and to begin a new and better life. 2
A Prayer from the Heart At this point in the process you may wish to reach out to God the Lord in prayer talking with him from the heart and asking him for the things you most deeply want, need, and hope for in this part of your life. This space is provided for those who would like to offer such a prayer. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. The prayer is to be a request that the Lord have mercy on us, give us the power to resist the things we ve repented of, and provide us an inclination and desire to do what is good. 6 (Psalm 51:10; Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christianity 539) 6 This program suggests that the Lord s mercy is his love grieving for us when we re hurting, miserable, or in distress, and reaching out to help us in whatever ways that he can. 3
Step 2 Recognize and Acknowledge. 2.1 Recognize and Acknowledge Your Sin. See and Accept that a Thing is Against God. Information: This part of Step 2 begins by introducing and defining two biblical terms: evil and sin. Evil is anything in your behavior, thought, or intention that is harmful to your neighbor or yourself. Sin is any evil that you recognize as being not only harmful; it s also against God s universal principles for a wise and loving life (summarized in the biblical Ten Commandments), more broadly against God s Word, and thus against God. Questions: Are the things you ve uncovered during self-examination harmful to your neighbor or yourself in any way? If so, in what way(s) are they harmful? Questions: Do the things you've uncovered during self-examination break any of the Ten Commandments? If so, which Commandment do they seem most to break, and what are one or two ways in which they break it? (Note: Section D of the Sourcebook can help you answer these questions. It introduces the Ten Commandments, and it lists different ways in which they get broken. If you don t have immediate access to the Sourcebook, your best knowledge of these Commandments, together with intuition, can help you answer.) Questions: In addition to things you ve listed above or selected from Section D of the Sourcebook, are there any other truths that now come to mind, or that you search out and discover, which help reveal the true nature or quality of the thing you looked at during self-examination? If so, what are they? (Note: These can be any truths that come to mind or that you know or discover; but truths, stories, or images from the Word of God/divine revelation may be especially helpful in this part of the process.) Questions: Given the above information and discoveries, what would you say is the true nature or quality of the thing you uncovered during self-examination how would you briefly describe or encapsulate it? What title would you give it? (Step 2 of this process continues on the next page.) 4
2.2 Accept Responsibility. Acknowledge that You Have Done It. Hold Yourself Accountable. Information: Step 2.2 of this process calls you to consider your involvement in a transgression/sin, and to accept personal responsibility for it. For example, if you have done or said something that is against God, you are the one who has actually done it or said it. More deeply, if you have engaged in harmful intending and thinking in what you ve done or said, you are the one who has done it in your heart and mind, and thus in your spirit. 7 These things are especially true if you know that what you re doing is in conflict with God, and you willingly do it anyway. At that point if you are knowingly and willingly committing a sin you are the one who is personally investing in it, freely choosing it to be a part of your life, and fully responsible for its presence or persistence there. 8 At that point too you are personally acting a- gainst God. 9 Question: Given the above information, what would you say of yourself in terms of personal responsibility for this sin in your life what part are you personally playing in its presence or persistence there? (Step 2 of this process concludes on the next page.) 7 It is possible to sin in spirit (that is, in your heart and mind) without actually doing so in outward life (see Matthew 5:28). This occurs when you desire to do something that you know is against God, and you aim to do it, but from fear of the law and/or for your reputation you don t actually do it in outward life. It is inner conduct as compared to outward behavior an action that occurs in your mind, not yet openly in your body. This program suggests that at that point, since you re already doing it in your heart and mind, it is something that you re capable of doing, and would actually do in outward life, if such fears didn t hold you back. 8 On the other hand, if you have done or said something that is harmful and contrary to God, but you haven t done so knowingly and also willingly, you aren t fully, spiritually responsible. You may be guilty and accountable on the level of outward life or in the eyes of the law, but not on the level of your heart, mind, or spirit. This program suggests that a person who does something that is harmful and in conflict with God, but who doesn t realize what s going on at the time, or who does so because of an overwhelming feeling, emotion, desire, etc., isn t spiritually accountable it isn t something you planned to do, and you don t support or justify it. What matters under these circumstances, spiritually speaking, is what you do after the fact once you know that a thing is against God, and your mind is fully free to choose. (Note: Section E of the Sourcebook takes a more detailed look at when you re spiritually responsible for a sin and when you re not.) 9 This is what it means to sin in the fullest sense of the word. As mentioned in Step 2.1, sin is anything in your behavior, thought, or intention that you recognize as being against God. But sin is more than that. What makes anything harmful (evil) fully to be a sin is when you know that it s against God, and you willingly do it anyway. Sin, in its fullest sense, is evil personally against God. In addition, anything evil that is knowingly and willingly against your neighbor is also sinful by the fact that it is personally against God s will and desire for love, truth, and goodness in relationships. In brief summary, the evil that is sinful is evil against your neighbor, which is also against God, and that is what sin is. 5
2.3 Confess Your Sin before the Lord. Sum It All up before the Lord God. Acknowledge Your Personal State and Condition to Him. Information: In this final part of Step 2, confession of sin before the Lord doesn't mean that you give a list of transgressions. The Lord already knows that list he is the one who revealed it to you during Step 1 of this process. Instead, confession is a time for drawing near to the Lord, acknowledging what has been accomplished in this process so far, and offering up any discoveries you re making about your own state or condition through all of it. Activity and question: Imagine yourself coming before the Lord God in a spirit of confession. Between you and him, what is now accomplished through the early parts of this process self-examination, recognition, and acknowledgment and what are you discovering is your state of mind and life, or your personal condition, through all of it? Indeed I have sinned. Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son. The tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. The confession is to be that we see, recognize, & acknowledge our evil, and that we are discovering that we are miserable sinners. 10 (Joshua 7:20; Luke 15:21; Luke 18:13; Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christianity 539) 10 The word miserable means very unhappy, in a wretched/pitiable state or condition. The word sinner indicates that we ve acted in conflict with God. Together they mean that we re caught up in the misery of sin, etc. 6
Step 3 Pray to the Lord Beg for His Help and Power in Resisting It. Information: Any transgression/sin that has gotten into you is, by definition, a spiritual problem or disease having roots that reach into your habitual thinking and intending. Therefore, you will now need spiritual help and power to resist the thing you ve discovered in yourself and to be freed from it. And since the Lord God is the source of everything true and good in life, he is the one who can give you this help and this power. The Lord will help you in different ways that you will discover, but in general by fighting on your behalf and overcoming this sin moment by moment within you. 11 He will also give you the power you ll need in terms of desire, willingness, strength, etc. to resist this sin in what you do and say. 12 He will do these things any time you ask and even beg for divine help and power, and welcome them into your being. Therefore, you are now invited to turn to the Lord, talk with the Lord, and ask him for divine help and power in resisting this sin. 13 Activity: Take a moment to pray to the Lord. Ask and even beg for his divine help and power in resisting the sin you ve discovered in yourself. This space is for those who wish to offer such a prayer in writing or record it when finished. (Note: If there are specific ways that you want or need the Lord to help or empower you, it may help to include these in your prayer.) With God all things are possible. The smallest amount of divine power is enough, every time it is called on, to tame instantly the entire devil's crew, even if it consisted of millions. People who believe in God say to themselves, With God's help I will conquer this. And they pray for it and obtain it. Ask, and it will be given to you. (Matthew 19:26; Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven 8626, Charity 203; Matthew 7:7) 11 Overcoming sin within you means, especially, overcoming the desire, urge, craving, or compulsion to do what is harmful/ destructive/against God. When you experience any of these things, the Lord can battle it on your behalf, neutralize it in the moment, and free you from its strong influence. 12 In addition to overcoming the urge/lust to sin, the Lord can give you the ability to resist doing or saying what is harmful/ against God in your daily actions and words. 13 In the final analysis, the Lord is the one who offers resistance to sin in your inner world and your outward choices. When his help and power are engaged he wins and you win too. 7
Step 4 Begin a New Life 4.1 Stop Doing It (Having Completed Steps 1 through 3, Abstain from Your Sin ) Information: A new and genuine way of life can't begin where an old, destructive way remains entrenched. Therefore, you will now need to stop doing the sin you've discovered in yourself, before you can receive new life from the Lord to replace the old. The more fully and deeply you refrain from this sin, the more fully you can be freed from it, the more deeply you can be healed of it, and the more richly your life can be blessed with genuine goodness from within. This means that you will be abstaining from it first in outward behavior, and later in intention and thought. When harmful actions and words are stopped, and more deeply, when you refrain from destructive intending and thinking, a way is opened, and the Lord enters and touches your heart, mind, and life with genuine goodness from within. In one sense then, not doing this sin on these levels of your being is the first part of the new life that you now begin. 14 Activity and question: Following your prayer to the Lord for divine help and power, imagine that you are actively abstaining from your sin. Visualize yourself doing so in the moment. 15 What do you see, hear, feel, or otherwise experience in your visualization, and what do you do to abstain? (Step 4 of this process continues on the next page.) 14 Part of spiritual health is realizing that you can t stop harmful thoughts, inclinations, or impulses from popping into your mind, surfacing, or impacting you. When they do, you aren t responsible or at fault for the fact that they ve shown up in your mind (see Mark 7:14-23 and Section B of the Sourcebook). The fact that they ve shown up simply means that you have options and choices. Instead, you are responsible when you entertain these things in your thinking, harbor them in your intending, or let them go forth from these places into your words and actions. 15 It is known that mental rehearsal, mental practice, or visualization of a desired outcome can increase peak performance and help heighten achievement. Visualizing an outcome also produces hope for achieving it. This feeling of hope increases or fades as the desired outcome is envisioned, looked forward to, even expected. It is then fulfilled in the outcome. These things are true of spiritual life as they are of earthly/physical life. 8
4.2 And Live a New Life. Information: A "new" life is a good life a life of love, goodwill, and good action that is breathed into you by the Lord, and which takes the place of the old way you've been living up until now. This new life is standing at the door of your heart and mind all the time every moment wanting, urging, even pressing on you to receive it. Each time you desist from a sin, you open the door to that new life. At your invitation it enters, and by conscious choice or spontaneous act you extend it to others. This new life is first felt as an inclination and desire to do what is good which touch your heart and tinge your spirit like the morning sun peeking over the horizon and wrapping the earth in warmth, brightness, and the dawn of a new day. 16 Activity and question: As in the previous step, imagine that you are actively abstaining from your sin. The moment you abstain, what do you feel inclined to do, even a desire to do, that is new, different, and better, inspired by the Lord from within? Often it will be the exact opposite of what you've been doing up until now. (Note: Section F of the Sourcebook can help you answer this question. It reintroduces the Ten Commandments, and it lists different forms of goodness that can be kindled in you by the Lord, each time you stop doing things forbidden in them. If you don t have immediate access to the Sourcebook, your intuitive sense of direct opposites can help you answer.) Questions: In addition to things you ve listed above or selected from Section F of the Sourcebook, are there any other truths that now come to mind, or that you search out and discover, which either confirm or help flesh out the new life you'll now begin? If so, what are they? (Note: These can be any truths that come to mind or that you know or discover; but truths, stories, or images from the Lord s Word/divine revelation may be especially helpful in this part of the process.) Activity and question: Now that you ve started to abstain from your sin, imagine yourself living the new life outlined above. Visualize yourself doing so in the moment. What do you see, hear, feel, or otherwise experience in your visualization, and what are one or two things that you do as part of the new life? (Step 4 of this process continues on the next page.) 16 As an aside, it is possible to have a desire and will to reach out and do what is loving, true, and good; but for one reason or another you aren t able to act on that will (e.g., old age, disability, people are unreceptive, etc.). This program suggests that under such circumstances, the will to act is taken by God to be the same as an outward action (provided the will continues when an opportunity to act presents itself). The will to act is a type of action an action of the heart. As such, it becomes an outward act when circumstances are right. Knowing these things can provide comfort and hope at times when you truly want and intend what is good, but for the moment you aren t able to act on that intent. 9
4.3 All of This is to Be Done as if You Were Doing It on Your Own. Take Full Ownership; Exercise Full Responsibility. Acknowledge that You Do So from the Lord. Information: Doing something as if you were doing it on your own means that you take full ownership of that thing and exercise full responsibility in it; and at the same time you acknowledge that you do so from the Lord. 17 Doing something as if you were doing it on your own acknowledges the Lord s part in the process, and at the same time it allows the thing you re doing to find a place in your heart, mind, and life, and to become a part of who you truly are. Each of these things exercising full, personal responsibility, and acknowledging that you do so from the Lord is equally important in this process. When each is done in full measure, your efforts at life change and spiritual transformation have their greatest chance for success. Question: What opens up for you as you reflect/meditate on the above words All of this is to be done as if you were doing it on your own especially at this point in the process, when you are actively abstaining from a sin, beginning a new life, and living it? (Step 4 of this process continues on the next page.) 17 Other ways of saying this include: You do the steps of this process as though you act from yourself, but you acknowledge that you do so from the Lord. You do the steps as if in your own strength, yet you acknowledge that you do so in the Lord s. You do the steps as though it all depends on you, but you acknowledge that it all depends on your connection with God. Etc. 10
4.4 Do This Once Or Twice a Year in Preparation for Holy Communion. Information: Holy Communion is a unique, symbolic ritual of life change and spiritual transformation. It invites you to come before the Lord as the source of life and author of love, and to present yourself for entrance into a new and heavenly state of heart, mind, and life. As such, it is a time for humbly submitting yourself to the Lord putting your heart in his hands, committing your way to his purposes, and opening up your life as a temple in which he may dwell. 18 Information: The ritual of Holy Communion includes eating unleavened bread and taking a sip of wine. 19 The bread and wine are elements from nature which correspond to goodness and truth from the Lord. 20,21 Because of this correspondence, eating the bread and drinking the wine are powerful symbols for taking these spiritual realities into your life, absorbing them into your being, and making them your own as you actively abstain from sin, begin a new life, and live it. In addition, the breakdown and function of the bread and wine in your body serve as an actual, physiological foundation on which the Lord s inflowing goodness and truth rest. 22 When all of these things happen together, they allow you to enjoy a complete and perfect connection with the Lord soul, mind, and body. This in turn seals and strengthens the spiritual elements within you, as you go forward from this communion and continue living these steps of change. You are not alone in this process. The Lord is with you, and the Lord will be in you. Activity and question: Imagine yourself coming to the Lord in a holy state of mind and taking part in this communion. What do you experience, or what opens up for you, as you do so as you imagine eating the bread and drinking the wine of this holy ritual, taking in new elements of goodness and truth from the Lord, and making them your own? (Note: Such things can be yours when you actually take part in this communion, and as you move forward from there.) (Step 4 of this process concludes on the next page.) 18 This process of life change and spiritual transformation recommends that you go through the full process at least once or twice a year in connection with this communion. It also recommends that you focus on one sin or another one sin or maybe two at a time. Doing these things is enough to make life change real, effective, and lasting. 19 Some faith traditions use leavened bread and/or non-alcoholic alternatives to wine. 20 Goodness is a collective term meaning love of the Lord and goodwill toward your neighbor, as these things show themselves in loving actions. (In other words, goodness is wanting what the Lord wants, wanting what s best for others, and treating them well.) Truth is anything that gives expression to goodness, points the way to it, and also leads you there. This includes knowledge and understanding, genuine faith, and wisdom of life. 21 The word correspond indicates that unleavened bread and wine are physical manifestations of genuine goodness and truth they are earthly forms of these spiritual realities. As such, they are living symbols of these realities and potent reminders of them. 22 Unleavened bread and wine (or their alternatives) nourish your body similarly as goodness and truth nourish your spirit. Functional equivalence is the main basis of earthly-spiritual correspondence. 11
4.5 Afterward, When the Sin You re Responsible for Recurs, Say to Yourself, I Do Not WantThis Because It is a Sin against God. Information: During the early parts of this process you discovered elements of self-desire and self-will that lie at the heart of the sin you're currently abstaining from. And now, during Step 4, you ve experienced things that are new and different an inclination and desire to do what is good and true, also a new way of life, inspired by the Lord. These things are the first beginnings of new wants, a new will (a will for good, goodwill) and a heavenly way of being that are built up in you by the Lord over time, and which are the Lord s presence, dwelling place, and existence within you. As such, they are far more worthwhile, powerful, and productive than the old wants, old will, and old way of life you've been living up until now. In fact, they are the only things that can truly quiet this sin down in your life, move it to the sidelines of your conscious experience, and keep it there. 23 Information: The words, I do not want this are words of separation from sin spoken from the heart. When the sin you re responsible for recurs, you say to yourself, I do not want this, meaning, I do not care for this sin anymore; I am even against it. I do not want it in the actions of my life, my intending, or even my thinking. 24 In saying these words, you now take a stand against this sin and resist it from the heart. In this way, moment by moment, and in growing measure you set yourself against this sin, shut it out of your conscious experience, and separate from it. 25 This is where true choice, deeply felt change, and full freedom from sin are gradually and increasingly realized on the level of your heart, desire, and will. Information: When you speak out against a recurrent sin, you might do so with resolve. But you also do so for a reason. You say, I do not want this because it is a sin against God, that is, because it s a transgression against God s Commandments, against God s Word, and ultimately, because it is against the goals, intentions, and desires of His heart. 26 Abstaining from a sin for this one leading reason means that you do so on the side of God, and you truly abstain from the sin, as you continue forward in the new and better life. 27 Activity: Any sin that you refrain from will tend to recur: it will tend to present itself to you again even repeatedly as an option for you to choose or reject. Imagine the sin you re now abstaining from recurring in this moment. Imagine speaking out against it in the words and for the reason given. In addition, you might imagine a host of angels or a group of good-hearted people gathered around you, all proclaiming with one voice, We do not want this because it is a sin against God. 28 What do you see, hear, feel, or otherwise experience as you stand in this gathering, join this chorus, and utter these words? Record your experience(s) in the space below. 29 Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. If after self-examination we decide that we do not want an evil, because it is a sin, then we are practicing a repentance that is true and deep. When we see something evil in ourselves that we love and desire, and we know what sin is, we can, if we beg for the Lord's help, stop willing it. Then I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. (Matthew 3:10; Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christianity 532, Divine Providence 278; Ezekiel 11:19) 23 Good desires, goodwill, and true ideas from the Lord are what push harmful desires, ill will, and false thinking toward the periphery of your experience and keep them there. They are the Lord Himself present and at work within you. 24 Alternatively you say, I do not will this, meaning, I do not function from my old will in this situation I do not engage in the will to sin; I do not strive in my heart to commit this sin I make no internal effort to commit it; I do not try to make this sin happen by the use of mental powers. 25 This process of life change is about departing from sinful words and actions. More deeply (and ultimately) it s about separating from your old will, which prompts these things, as you gradually receive new life and a new will from the Lord in its place. 26 Alternatively you say, I do not will this because it is a sin against God. 27 This process of life change suggests that if you abstain from something that is harmful or destructive (i.e., evil) for any other reason than because it s a sin, you aren t actually abstaining from it, but merely making it invisible to the world. 28 Alternatively, We do not will this because it is a sin against God. 29 At some point in your practice of this process, you may wish to review Section G of the Sourcebook. It describes a kind of change that is easier than the full process, and which can also partner with it.