“Do you understand what I have done for you?”
Is there some level of mental cognition going on? Can you explain it to me in your own words? Can you see the significance? Are you beginning to think and process what you experience in the world differently? This isn’t an essay question that is going to be on a final exam, but I’m still checking to see what’s gotten through. Let’s at least start here.
Has the symbolic power sunk down into your heart? Are you different in some kind of way? Do you sense a new longing and desire rising up within you to live in a different way? When I say “heart,” I don’t so much mean emotions, although that can be a part of it. What I mean is where your energy for life comes from—it can feel as if you’ve plug in a new kind of battery into your soul.
Can you notice any changes in your behavior? (This can be harder to spot in yourself—it may be helpful to get an outside opinion). Do you find yourself doing new things? Or doing the same old things in new ways and for new reasons? Doing can be a helpful, objective indicator of being. How you live matters, not so that you can pass the morality test, but because it’s an indicator of who you really are.
When you start to think differently, feel yourself becoming a different person from the inside out, and begin to act differently, then you’ll know that the answer to the question is “Yes”. You won’t even need to say the word.
