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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

 

Human Potential

Editor's Essay

two views on human development

 

 

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Can personal change, human evolvement, be effected by will-power, sheer force of effort, or does it come in a natural way, like the effortless germination of a seed that naturally blossoms?

I’ve discovered a contradiction in my writings.

Sometimes I’ve said that human development is like a weight-lifter developing muscle by exertion. There seems to be a “potential benefit in pushing back against the difficulties of this world.” For a very long time, people have called this “character-building.”

But I also frequently say that the perfection of the human spirit “is not obtained by trying very hard, by religious rituals, prayer, fasting, vow, or pilgrimage - but simply by quietly observing the inner disorder.” The developing human potential “is like planting an acorn; within, lies dormant a towering, mighty oak.”

Both of these views have merit. How can we reconcile this apparent paradox?

 

 

Let’s look at many examples of each view:

the weight-lifter

The weight-lifter approach, trying very hard, is everywhere. It’s everywhere because it often works, or seems to. Much of the world’s educational system is based on this:

We cram for exams. It’s part of piano lessons, swimming lessons, any sport, any skill to be gained. A child learns her “time tables” by this method. And a baby learns to walk by it.

Religious instruction might be seen as an exercise in “trying very hard to keep rituals and rules.”

The doctrine of reincarnation, errant as it is, is built around the sheer force of much trying -- 100,000 lifetimes of trying to evolve.

Marriage counselors use it to attempt to revive flagging unions: “Go out on dates, do the things you used to do, take a trip together, go for walks.” In other words, "try very hard to recapture what you’ve lost."

As I began to think about these various examples of “exertion,” it occurred to me, “Maybe the weight-lifting approach works for content of the mind, like memorizing a poem. Maybe it’s not for the higher order sentience.”

But then I realized – not so fast! It’s said that we come to planet Earth to “wake up,” to become a person. This is not just content for the mind.

And why do we come to the Earth for this? and not just remain in a better world to learn our “ABCs”?

Well, the claim is also made that this world is a place of polarities, of great opposites: the hot and the cold, the evil and the good, the sadness and the happiness, on and on.

And when we experience the difference it can be like being plunged into ice-cold water, all of which, it is said, can help to “wake us up”.

These polarities, and pushing back against them, are just the weight-lifter in disguise.

the germinating seed

“And Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like sowing seeds in a field; some seeds fell on good ground, some on stony ground, some on ground filled with weeds, and some seeds were eaten by the birds of the air before taking root”

Krishnamurti was not impressed by weight-lifter tactics.

He said that the sheer force of chanting some phrase can, indeed, quiet the mind, but not without also dulling the mind. And it doesn’t matter what the phrase is: we could be chanting the name of our favorite saint or even the word “Coca-Cola,” and if we chant either of these a hundred or five hundred times, the mind will be quieted, but at the cost of sentience. We've lost our sharpness.

Ben Franklin, as recounted in his autobiography, tried repetition, daily rituals, and “trying very hard” as a program to eliminate character flaws and to inculcate virtues. He kept a list, made a schedule, was diligent in this effort. But after many months of regimen, he gave it all up as it wasn’t working.

It’s reported of the Buddha that his first attempts to achieve enlightenment were by asceticism, denying and punishing the body with much fasting and the like. Finally, he set aside all this will-power because he could see that it wasn’t helping him. He entered enlightenment only after he stopped “trying very hard to be good.” The truth is, we can't change in the way that we need to change without a mystical experience.

To reference Franklin again, he said, “That which is learned with pleasure is learned full measure.” Those who learn with pleasure, not having been forced, see much farther.

It's true, we can learn many things by the weight-lifter method - but it can have bad side-effects. Some of the religious elite, 2000 years ago, had studied very hard and had memorized much of the thousand pages of the Torah. They could tell you the middle word, the very middle letter, of the entire Torah, but – with all of that super-human effort – they missed the point of the Law, and ended up killing Christ.

Things that are learned with pleasure – not just as a function of “I was forced to learn this as a child” – affect us on the deep inside, and become part of us, in a pleasant and good way. I think of my own experience: as a child I was forced to work long hours on the farm, some of the work, very unpleasant and even dangerous (more than one of my child-peers were killed in farm accidents). Today, as an old man, I know that I still retain much knowledge and skill concerning managing a farm – but I never go back to the old farm, even to visit. Haven’t been there in many decades. It’s not a place of joy for me.

In many of the WG writings we’ve discussed how the soul has its own timetable for waking up. It does what it wants to do and no amount of will-power or trying very hard will move it an inch if it’s not ready to “germinate.”

In fact, as Krishnamurti also pointed out, when we “try very hard” to become “good” or some such, we immediately set up a conflict in the mind: we see what we want but also realize how far we need to go, and this dichotomy creates a tension which blocks and stifles spiritual growth. On some level, the weight-lifter technique actually shuts down real spiritual growth.

Are there 2 kinds of waking up?

What does this mean? As we’ve seen, it’s complicated. In the main, I think the soul is like a seed that will naturally germinate and grow, when all the conditions are right. It’s not possible to force a seed to grow if it’s inclined not to. The soul is a direct extension of the energies of God, and any attempt to regulate this divine essence by human will-power will end in utter failure. God doesn’t respond well to commands, She's funny that way.

What I’ve just said here is absolutely true. But, acknowledging this, why do we come to the Earth with the “polar opposites” if the soul cannot be affected by externals?

My sense here is cloudy. Perhaps there are different kinds, different levels, of awakenings. We come to planet Earth without well-defined personhood – we’re not yet persons in our own right. We don’t yet have a crisp notion of “self”.

"ok, whatever else I may be, I'm definitely awake now"

Maybe the sorrowful Earth and its polar opposites are at least good for this - that existential splash of ice-cold water down the back jarring us into a vague perception of human self-sentience – not yet a spiritual sentience, but just an activation of the human spirit, a mere beginning. The cold water could be like flipping the on-switch. This idea could be correct.

Editor’s note: This “on-switch” concept might well be on the right track. James Webster always said that, concerning aborted babies, even briefly touching the trauma-energy of the Earth-plane, sensed even in the womb via the mother’s disconcertion, is enough to begin the selfhood process. This trauma-experience, even so very briefly, is something that the babe can build upon for its spiritual growth as it grows up in Summerland. I think this is right, and it also answers the question about the “fairness” of the little ones being robbed of Earth experience. The core, essential part of vital education will have been gained, and the rest can be added to, even from Summerland.

I think that a later coming to spiritual enlightenment is a different kind of “waking up”. Many or most do not even achieve this while on Earth. At this level, it’s all “germination,” with the weight-lifter totally shut out of the process.

 

Channeled information from medium Mrs. Elizabeth Sweet, The Future Life: January 19, 1856. A person on the other side, having lived an egocentric life on Earth, landed in a dark place, wherein he drifted and sought escape for many decades. Finally, in a more humble frame of mind, he called out for help. A Spirit Guide responded: “... thou hast not outlived all of Earth and its errors; yet thou wilt overcome them one by one, and daily thou wilt acknowledge that man's heart is a universe, wherein is contained all the mystery, all the beauty, and all the love of the divine Godhead, constantly unfolding a spark at a time; but never, never canst thou imagine the heights and the depths to which it shall reach in the unending cycles of eternal thought... Be not strangers to yourselves; listen to those intuitions which speak unmistakably to thy spiritual being... Thy span of life, what is it? A thought, a flash, which but wakes thee to the journey before thee."

 

Postscript

This final note is being written a few years after the above.

Are there two kinds of 'waking up'? – perhaps this is correct.

Many on the other side would tell you that the Earth is vital to spiritual growth. They would also believe in reincarnation, with its related idea that the Earth, this special place of education, must be returned to 100,000 times. But see much discussion on this errant view.

But, if the first kind of waking up occurs rather quickly, even in the womb, why do we have to be here for “three score and ten”? Well, many are not here that long, and for much of history average human life-spans were far less than 70 years. Were they damaged by the shortened stay? I don't think so.

The way of life in Summerland is so pleasurable that opportunities for the “splash of cold ice-water down the back” are not plentiful. The Earth does a really good job in this area.

Editor's note: The "weight lifter," the familiar character building, will not take us to where we want to go. It offers certain benefits of "good conduct by way of strait-jacket," and there are worse sins than trying very hard to be good, but will-power is no avenue to higher levels of spirituality. Strangely, not at all.

But why stay 70 years or longer if “the first on-switch has been flipped”? We stay not to further awaken. The “seed of life within” can now germinate anywhere in the universe. The second way to wake up is not exclusive to the Earth.

We stay 70 years, it seems, for a more intense dose of the problems of evil. It’s good experience, very educational, can offer understanding and wisdom, rounds us out. Experience, by itself, however, does not make us a spiritual person on the deep inside – that’s the domain of the second awakening. See Krishnamurti on the inadequacy of experience.

There are other ways to get this “extra credit” in the curriculum, usually derived from suffering. For example, aborted babies and children having died young, lacking Earth experience, grow up in Summerland, and part of their education is to briefly return to the Earth – not via reincarnation – but as spirit persons who temporarily attach themselves to a mortal, often a blood relative, to gain vicarious experience of the sufferings on planet Earth.

We know this to happen as there are many reports of this occurring. And this spirit-attachment informs the naïve concerning the evils of egocentrism. It offers wisdom. But this exposure to suffering, by itself, does not “activate the second switch,” anymore than it does for us who live in the trenches for 70 years. The point is, everyone suffers on planet Earth, but the “flipping of the second switch” is relatively unknown or not frequently engaged by the masses here.

Special note: Let us keep in mind, too, that experiencing evil first-hand or by attachment is not the only way to get this education. Maybe not even the best way. And we don't need to personally commit every sin, or view atrocity up close as witness, to be convinced that it's not the approved way. When we “go within” we can learn about the human heart of darkness, and this front-row seat to the workings of evil can be even more jarring, and more educational, than by first-hand witnessing or spirit-attachment. We need to understand that “going within” is our best teacher, and we can do this wherever we are in the universe.

Carl Jung: “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely. Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

 

'we are the world, we are society'

Very often, Krishnamurti would caution his audiences against blaming others, seeing ourselves as "above." It's not easy to stand down as there’s much aspersion to cast. Right now, we witness the world marching toward totalitarianism, to a degree not seen since the days prior to World War II. Many of us are angry, and we want to believe that if we could just get rid of “the bad guys,” the ones causing all the trouble, then life would be good for all of us “good guys.” But this is illusion.

The seeds of evil, not always unsprouted, reside within each of us. If sufficiently provoked, if blinded to the light within, each person is capable of any atrocity, any brutality, and more, that we’ve seen in history. In other words, “We are the world. We are society.” We are not exempt, as we too reflect the human condition, and we take the vectors of perdition with us in our travels through life. And until we learn to “go within” to access the inner light, there will be no peace and happiness; not on an individual basis nor for us collectively as the world.

the seeds of evil

Star Trek: Next Generation, episode "Violations"

"No one can deny that the seeds of violence remain within each of us. We must recognize that - because that violence is capable of consuming each of us."

In other words, “We are the world. We are society.”

 

 

The “insane 500” on the other side hold as sacred doctrine that the Earth is vital to spiritual awakening. They believe this because they themselves have not gained the “second switch,” and they assume that only “the weight lifter” can be of help. But this is gross error.

If the system of coming to enlightenment had been crafted to exalt an exclusive benefit from the Earth – “the second switch” – then our progress in Summerland would be ever tainted and held back by the view that the Earth is the only place where all the good stuff is, the place of the “good old days” where we could really grow spiritually.

And the “insane 500” do believe this, but, well, they’re also insane.