Word Gems: Human Potential

Don't let the unsolved hairdos of The Nox fool you. Ultra-sophisticated, The Nox's schtick, just to throw you off, is to pose as primitive forest-dwellers.

But, in fact, they're one of the most advanced civilizations across the cosmos, with not only floating cities but cloaked floating cities.

Lya's pretty good at making a lot of things disappear -- weapons of soldiers, entire spaceships, turning people invisible and transporting them; and she'll help anyone. The Nox live by a strict code of nonviolence. When push-comes-to-shove, however, it's true they will help the "good guys," but, the annoying part is, they'll also help "the bad guys."

Little wonder then that even the battle-hardened Col. Jack O'Neill found himself gushing before the high-order morality and sentience of The Nox: "God, I love those people!"

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Jiddu Krishnamurti
1895 - 1986

no such thing as a law of cause and effect or karma, as the mind is capable of immediate transformation

12.Nov.1958. There is no such thing as a law of cause and effect, no such thing as karma. In the interval between effect and cause there will be time. In that time there has been a tremendous lot of change and therefore the effect is never the same in all cases. And the effect is going to produce another cause which will never be merely the result of the effect. There is no cause, isolated, which produces an effect; they are interrelated. Sow a mango seed and it is bound to produce a mango tree - but the human mind is not like that. The mind is capable of immediate transformation within itself.

to move uninjured among falling worlds, the anguish which might dissolve the stars

In his well-written essay on the Bronte sisters, Sydney Dobell speaks of Jane Eyre’s journey to Lowood School. Conditions are forbidding; dark, windy, rainy. Dobell comments:

"There is something intensely, almost fearfully, interesting in the diary of a child’s feelings. This 'I,' that seems to have no inheritance in the earth, is an eternity with a heritage in all heavens. This 'me,' which is thrown here and there as a thing of nought, the frail, palpitating subject of a schoolboy's tyranny, almost too fragile even to make sport for him, fear not for it. It can endure. This, that trembles at the opening of a parlour-door, quails at the crushing of a china plate, droops amid the daily cuffs and bruises of a household, and faints with fear in a haunted room, will pass alive through portals which the sun dare not enter, survive all kinds of temporal and spiritual wreck, move uninjured among falling worlds, meet undismayed the ghosts of the whole earth, pass undestroyed through the joys of angels, perhaps; also, through anguish which would dissolve the stars." Editor’s note: I am so shocked, breathless, at the beauty of Mr. Dobell’s writing here. I am tempted toward highest superlative: this might be the most captivating prose I’ve ever encountered. But, not just style, let us consider content. A young girl, alone, walking in cold and darkness, forlorn, with no safe harbor in life, secrets an astonishing destiny, one to yet surmount all obstacle, “to move uninjured among falling worlds, the anguish which might dissolve the stars.” Is this not incredible beauty?

Krishnamurti, May 14, 1961:

Why does one accept the tyranny of authority? - of the priest, the printed word, the Bible, the Indian scriptures, and all the rest. And if one rejects this outer authority, is it possible also to reject the inner authority of experience, one’s social conditioning? which is far more destructive than outward authority as it leads to every form of illusion. We have been taught that great creative ability, an expansiveness of mind, is only for a select few. I feel it is possible for everyone. It comes into being, unfolds itself, when the mind starts with the nearest thing, which is itself, and unshackles itself from the chains of cultural conditioning.

Frederic W. H. Myers, in the afterlife, transmitted to Juliet S. Goodenow, Vanishing Night: “You [shall] find whatever you search after. In all the category of experience, you gain what you are searching after — in literature, in art, knowledge, science, invention, love-attainment, in culture, wisdom, riches or treasure… All is accorded you. The spiritual embodiment of your life work is your treasure in Heaven, those laid up by yourself [that is, what you have made of yourself, reflecting your particular talents], your treasures, your mansion, your reward for all you have done on the Earth Plane is laid up by yourself, for yourself, when at last you attain your reward for deeds done in the body. No arbitrary avenging angel awaits you. Creation afforded you in the beginning the implements of industrious labor to satisfy the craving of hunger of the body, and for the satisfaction of the soul. Within your complex organism the Creator placed a guide [that is, your particular desire and sentiment, which reveal destiny] — your passport through the world and through eternity.”

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?

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That which was true yesterday, though it has still elements of truth, is not so in the light of new knowledge. Knowledge is something ever changing. Man is ever experiencing new things, gaining greater understanding, greater realisation, greater wisdom and, in consequence, knowledge becomes ignorance through the light of new knowledge.

An ancient Chinese man, from the other side, offered testimony via Leslie Flint direct-voice mediumship; tape-recorded July 30th 1959.

"I have lived on your plane of Earth centuries ago, in China. I have been called by several names, and I do not feel that it would be any advantage for you to know these names... For a man who was wise, as you understand it, upon Earth, as soon as he passes through the gates called death, he realises that his Earthly wisdom was as naught. Wisdom is purely the condition or state of being which may apply, and does apply, until such time as you have progressed to a further state - and that which was wisdom in the past becomes ignorance, in consequence of the wisdom gained. Wisdom is something which is a state of being according to one's knowledge of things appertaining at the time. But that which was true yesterday, though it has still elements of truth, is not so in the light of new knowledge. Knowledge is something which is ever changing. Man is ever experiencing new things, gaining greater understanding, greater realisation, greater wisdom and, in consequence, because movement is life, because man cannot remain stationary, knowledge becomes ignorance through the light of new knowledge… We who come to you know that man will only find divine truth when he himself becomes divine, when he himself becomes spiritually attuned into the higher spheres and the greater souls who come… [There are] tremendous things that lie further ahead in the higher spheres - where it is impossible in words to depict in any shape or form such a condition of life… You cannot see these things, for you are not ready to see. You cannot understand these things, for you are not ready to understand. We are not in a world that is three dimensional. We are in a world that is four dimensional, which you could not possibly conceive or understand. It is beyond your comprehension… To all those who seek I say, seek. At the same time remember, that you must be as children and have faith and keep open wide the door that it may enter therein and realise that truth is ever-changing. That which was truth yesterday won't remain as truth, in the light of new truth… It is only, as it were, a little aspect - for we must always remember, it is but a grain, like of sand in the desert of truth, a grain of truth in a huge sea of sand or desert.”

‘truth is a living thing’

In his lectures, Krishnamurti states, “I am a living thing” or “truth is a living thing.” What is this “living thing”?

As K describes, and as we also come to personally know, when we become intensely alert, especially in a mental state of “no you and no me,” when psychological “distance” collapses between “subject and object,” when there is no existential separation, we will experience “sparks”, flashes of insight.

As we sensitize ourselves to this process – what is this process? – we begin to perceive the mind, the essential self, as a seething, roiling, churning mass of cognitive energy, in constant flux and movement. It begins to feel, very much, like a “living thing.”

What does it mean, “truth is a living thing”? Truth is a word for reality, “what is.” Universal Consciousness (UC), not matter, is the ground of all being, the elemental constituent, of the cosmos (see on the "quantum" page). Matter derives from UC. To say that truth is a living thing is to acknowledge truth’s linkage to UC. And what is UC? We could say that it is the mind of God.

We are individualizing units of UC. And UC is not only a “living thing” but the source of what we call life. We can feel, deep within, this to be true, this “living” reality, this vibrant, dynamic, pulsating “living” essence, throwing off “sparks” of insight, as we "open a channel" to the molding, shaping influence of UC.

All this needs to be actualized, reified, for us to truly understand. But once the process is under way, the “sparks” come every day – pop, pop, pop – as UC, the ultimate and quintessential “living thing,” reconfigures us in Its own image.

Winston Churchill: “Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

Charles Schulz: “There is no heavier burden than an unfulfilled potential.”

Marilyn Ferguson: “Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.”

William Faulkner: “Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

Roy T. Bennett: “Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.”

John O'Donohue: “Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.”

William Blake: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is -- infinite.”

Rainer Maria Rilke: “Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”

Og Mandino, The Greatest Miracle in World: “Most humans, in varying degrees, are already dead. In one way or another they have lost their dreams, their ambitions, their desire for a better life. They have surrendered their fight for self-esteem and they have compromised their great potential. They have settled for a life of mediocrity, days of despair and nights of tears. They are no more than living deaths confined to cemeteries of their choice. Yet they need not remain in that state. They can be resurrected from their sorry condition. They can each perform the greatest miracle in the world. They can each come back from the dead...”

Confucius: “A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do we know that his future will not be equal to our present?”

William Shakespeare, Hamlet: “What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure he that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and god-like reason to fust in us unused.”

James E. Faust: “It is a denial of the divinity within us to doubt our potential and our possibilities.”

Elna Baker, The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir: “Impossible is Nothing,” it said. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “…there is no planet, sun, or star could hold you if you but knew what you are.”

Robert Murray McCheyne: “The seed of every sin known to man is in my heart.”

Rishank Jhavar, Champion's Handbook: Meteoric Guide for Meteoric Success: “(Your) potential doesn’t mean **** if you don’t get off your *** and start working.”

Charles Bukowski: “I'm one of those who doesn't think there is much difference between an atomic scientist and a man who cleans the crappers except for the luck of the draw - parents with enough money to point you toward a more generous death; of course, some come through brilliantly, but there are thousands, millions of others, bottled up, kept from even the most minute chance to realize their potential.”

Jennifer DeLucy: “All that you have been is but a small part, a very mere bit of the potential of your life.”

Mehmet Murat ildan: “Whenever a child is born, a potential power that may consciously change the universe is born!”

Sunday Adelaja: “If a person refuses to develop his potential, it can lead to nervous or mental disorders, somatic diseases and personal degradation”

Gugu Mona: “Never underestimate the power within you, because you may be the only person in the entire universe to solve a specific problem.”

Lailah Gifty Akita: “What you do with ease is your passion.”

White Eagle: “Flowers do not force their way with great strife. Flowers open to perfection slowly in the sun. Don’t be in a hurry about spiritual matters. Go step by step and be very sure.”

Christian D. Larson: “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle [or mountain].”

William James: “Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me’, and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”

Samuel Butler: “Every man’s work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.”

Byron and Catherine Pulsifer, Leadership vs. Management: "By attempting to manage people you are limiting their potential."

Patrick King: "We don't all have the potential to be world-class athletes, but we all possess a certain amount of potential and innate ability that differentiates us from everyone else in the world."

Calvin Coolidge: "The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential."

Robert Browning: “Our aspirations are our possibilities.”

Thomas S. Monson: "In the private sanctuary of one's own conscience lies that spirit, that determination to cast off the old person and to measure up to the stature of true potential."

Life In Two Spheres, or Scenes in the Summerland, by Hudson Tuttle, channeled testimony from the other side:

"Wretch! Wretch! Wretch,” he exclaimed in anguish."Oh, that I had never been born!”

The Sage, taking him by the hand, raised him up, saying: "Self-accusing child, why blame yourself thus? Blame no one for their follies, but the circumstances in which you were placed. They were bad; popular opinion, before which you bent , was bad. All tended to make you what you were. You have a germ of native goodness in your being, or you would not thus accuse yourself. Arise! weep no more! The future is bright.” ...

"You have corrected me aright; I acknowledge your superior spiritual powers of perception reverentially."

"Reverence not me; I am no more than the others. We acknowledge submission to no one. Each is his own individual sovereign, to think and act as best pleases himself, if he is regardful of the rights of others and is measured by his worth alone. If you are thankful express it, not by words or gestures, but by actions. Reverence not me, but truth. You are still prejudiced on this and kindred subjects, and your prejudice must be overcome."

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “There are many who are living far below their possibilities because they are continually handing over their individualities to others. Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself. Be true to the highest within your soul and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded on principle.”

Mary Daly: "It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God"

Orison Swett Marden: “Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.”

Albert Camus: “In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

Ernest Hemingway: “Man is not made for defeat.”

William James: “If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.”

Lou Holtz: “I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.”

Aberjhani: "Stars wishing upon the potential of humans shine faithfully on."

Editor's last word: