{"id":66532,"date":"2017-09-18T17:21:03","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T22:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=66532"},"modified":"2025-12-18T12:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:56:54","slug":"spiritual-disciplines-study-self-examination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/behavior\/spiritual-disciplines-study-self-examination\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spiritual Disciplines: Study and Self-Examination"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Welcome back to our series on the spiritual disciplines<\/a>, which explores exercises that can be used to train the soul<\/a>. The purposes and practices of these disciplines are approached in such a way that they can be adapted across belief systems. <\/em><\/p>\n

When you hear the word “study,” you probably associate it with your school days — with poring over textbooks, trying to comprehend new concepts, and memorizing facts.<\/p>\n

Close reading, critical analysis, and memorization all have something to do with study as a spiritual discipline as well, but they\u2019re marshaled for a very different purpose.<\/p>\n

Rather than trying to understand what a subject means generally<\/em>, the spiritual studier seeks to know what something means for him<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rather than cramming for a test — filling one’s head with facts that are quickly regurgitated and just as soon forgotten — the spiritual studier aims to deeply absorb knowledge and make it a permanent part of his soul.<\/p>\n

And instead of being limited to the study of written texts, the spiritual studier also examines himself<\/em> — a related exercise that also constitutes a distinct discipline.<\/p>\n

Today we will explore both of these exercises — the study of text and the study of self — as ways of training the soul<\/a>. As you’ll hopefully come to see, their practice can be far more compelling and rewarding than any of the homework you ever did in school.
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What Is the Purpose of the Spiritual Discipline of Study?<\/h3>\n

“The purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines is the total transformation of the person. They aim at replacing old destructive habits of thought with new life-giving habits. Nowhere is this purpose more clearly seen than in the Discipline of study. . . . The mind is renewed by applying it to those things that will transform it.” –Donald S. Whitney<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s often been said that a man\u2019s thoughts determine his reality.<\/p>\n

But how does he change his thoughts in order to change his life?<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve often advocated, one of the best ways of changing your internal life, is by changing your external one: in taking action, your thoughts shift to match the new reality created by your behavior<\/a>. Indeed, it can often be easier to change from the outside in, than from the inside out.<\/p>\n

But that simply throws us back onto another question: How do you decide what actions to take in the first place?<\/p>\n

The truth is that thought and action are inextricably tied, and cannot be separated. This is true on a couple of levels.<\/p>\n

First, action and thought form a loop, in which each vitally feeds on the other. Study provides insight on what actions to take; experience then tests the real-world validity of these abstract ideas, and informs one\u2019s future study. Action<\/a>. Reflection. Action. Reflection.<\/p>\n

Second, study and thought should not be understood as entirely passive practices, but \u2014 especially when engaged in with mindfulness, direction, and deliberation \u2014 as actions in and of themselves. Certainly, study is an action in that it produces an equal and opposite reaction; when you apply your mind to something, it shapes you right back.<\/p>\n

Richard Foster puts it this way in Celebration of Discipline<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cStudy is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction. . . . [T]he mind will always take on an order conforming to the order upon which it concentrates.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we observe a tree or read a book. We see it, feel it, understand it, draw conclusions from it. And as we do, our thought processes take on an order conforming to the order in the tree or book. When this is done with concentration, perception, and repetition, ingrained habits of thought are formed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whatever we pay attention to is<\/em> our reality.<\/p>\n

The spiritual discipline of study takes seriously this fact, calling us to be intentional in choosing the things on which we wish to focus, and challenging us to plumb them more deeply. Because while giving any level of attention to something will change you in return, you can control the profundity of this \u201cricochet\u201d effect: The more intensely you study something, the more your mind will \u201cconform to the order upon which it concentrates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the purpose of the spiritual discipline of study is to take knowledge on the long journey from head to heart — to incorporate it into the marrow of our bones, so that it not only alters our thought patterns, but transforms the contours of our entire self and how we act in the world.<\/p>\n

What Things Can Be Spiritually Studied?<\/h3>\n

Anything, from books to behavior to natural phenomena, can be studied \u2014 that is, rigorously focused on and examined.<\/p>\n

In terms of spiritual <\/em>study, nature is one fruitful subject (of which Thoreau offers abundant instruction<\/a>). As we\u2019ll unpack below, the self is a rich vein for spiritual study as well.<\/p>\n

Even the news can be worthwhile fodder for spiritual examination. Foster argues that it behooves us to \u201cmeditate upon the events of our time and to seek to perceive their significance,\u201d even arguing that \u201cWe have a spiritual obligation to penetrate the inner meaning of events\u201d in order \u201cto gain prophetic perspective.\u201d (Keep in mind that while we typically think of \u201cprophesy\u201d in terms of foretelling, it also concerns interpretation and the gaining of insight.)<\/p>\n

Of all the sources of study, written texts are of course the medium we most associate with the practice, and we\u2019ll dedicate the first half of this piece to how one can attend to them more fully.<\/p>\n

What Texts Are Worth Studying? <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cThe key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.\u201d –Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given the purpose of the spiritual discipline of study outlined above, not all books and articles are obviously suited for the task.<\/p>\n

Religious scriptures are the most natural source of fodder for spiritual study, and adherents of many faiths will typically say they are the most important thing to apply one\u2019s mind to.<\/p>\n

But there are other texts that reward close, spiritually-oriented study as well.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ralph Waldo Emerson has some excellent recommendations on this front. When he presented a list of what he considered must-read books to an audience of young college students, he suggested studying many of the Western canon\u2019s \u201csecular\u201d classics in order to build the intellect. But he also argued that certain books were vital for the education of the soul.<\/p>\n

First among these was that \u201cclass of books which are the best: I mean the Bibles of the world, or the sacred books of each nation, which express for each the supreme result of their experience.\u201d Here Emerson listed the Hebrew Bible, the Christian New Testament, the Zoroastrian Desatir, various Buddhist writings, the Confucian Four Books and Five Classics, and the Hindu Vedas, Upanishads, Vishnu Purana, and Bhagavad Gita.<\/p>\n

In addition to these more obvious religious texts, however, he also recommended \u201csuch other books as have acquired a semi-canonical authority in the world, as expressing the highest sentiment and hope of nations.\u201d These included the Stoic writings of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, the works of Indian author Vishnu Sarma, The<\/em> Imitation of Christ<\/em> by Thomas \u00e0 Kempis, and Pascal\u2019s collection of \u201cThoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emerson further commended for closer and more intuitive study anything with \u201cthe imaginative element\u201d and a certain \u201crichness\u201d that \u201cleave[s] room for hope and for generous attempts.\u201d That is: \u201cEvery good fable, every mythology, every biography out of a religious age, every passage of love, and even philosophy and science, when they proceed from an intellectual integrity, and are not detached and critical.\u201d Such works included:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Greek fables, the Persian history, the \u2018Younger Edda\u2019 of the Scandinavians, the \u2018Chronicle of the Cid,\u2019 the poem of Dante, the Sonnets of Michel Angelo, the English drama of Shakespeare . . . and even the prose of Bacon and Milton, \u2014 in our time, the ode of Wordsworth, and the poems and the prose of Goethe.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAll these books,\u201d Emerson notes, \u201care the majestic expressions of the universal conscience, and are more to our daily purpose than this year’s almanac or this day’s newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emerson\u2019s list is certainly not meant to be definitive. There are many more texts that \u201chave the imaginative element\u201d and \u201cleave room for hope and for generous attempts\u201d (including Emerson\u2019s own!). Anything that feels \u201cdevotional\u201d in nature, that offers elevation and inspiration, that challenges our assumptions, that helps us see life in a different way, that explicates myth and archetype<\/a> — anything that contains an element of profundity and expands the soul — can be on the table for spiritual study.<\/p>\n

The apostle Paul offers a good rule of thumb here: \u201cwhatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.\u201d Emerson adds another helpful guideline, arguing that texts which bear spiritual study should feel as though \u201cthey are for the closet, and to be read on the bended knee\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir communications are not to be given or taken with the lips and the end of the tongue, but out of the glow of the cheek, and with the throbbing heart. Friendship should give and take, solitude and time brood and ripen, heroes absorb and enact them. They are not to be held by letters printed on a page, but are living characters translatable into every tongue and form of life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While these general guidelines definitely don\u2019t exclude studying texts we disagree with, if their arguments are forwarded in constructive ways, we would also do well to remember this Nietzschean maxim: \u201cif you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Is the Difference Between Reading and Studying?<\/h3>\n

The spiritual discipline of study involves more than simple reading, and that difference goes beyond what<\/em> you read. Just because you\u2019re reading the Bible, doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re studying<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

Studying differs from reading in the degree of deliberation, immersion, and focus you bring to the text. Reading is about breadth, while study is about depth. To borrow an analogy from The Shallows<\/em><\/a>, reading is like crossing a lake on a jet ski, while studying is like scuba diving below the surface. In the first instance, we want to see as much of the landscape as possible; in the second, we\u2019re deliberately hunting for treasures below.<\/p>\n

Spiritually-oriented study also differs from reading (and \u201csecular\u201d study) in regards to your intentions. You\u2019re not just reading for information or entertainment, but for discernment. You\u2019re seeking to know not just what a text means generally, but what it means for you<\/em>. You\u2019re open to the idea of it influencing your decisions, your ideas about life, and how you think you should act.<\/p>\n

Study is essentially disciplined<\/em> reading. In a time where we\u2019re prone to distraction, and used to scanning and skimming, it requires an inner muscle that\u2019s typically atrophied from disuse.<\/p>\n

Which makes it all the more worth exercising.<\/p>\n

How Do You Practice the Spiritual Discipline of Study?<\/h3>\n

\u201cThere is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power.\u201d –Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The spiritual discipline of study involves the practices typical of any kind of study, alongside a uniquely meditative element. Critical analysis and contemplation work together to allow the practitioner to dive deeper into the text: search and scrutiny pull forth insights, while meditation extracts further marrow, allowing it to be personalized and internalized.<\/p>\n

The practices outlined below incorporate both edges of this blade.<\/p>\n

General Tips<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n