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100.3.7
Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable conditions. Growth is always unconscious, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual. Love thus grows; it cannot be created, manufactured, or purchased; it must grow. Evolution is a cosmic technique of growth. Social growth cannot be secured by legislation, and moral growth is not had by improved administration. Man may manufacture a machine, but its real value must be derived from human culture and personal appreciation. Man’s sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality — living faith.
if it is true that we cannot cause growth, what is it then that we can do to create favorable conditions that will allow growth to happen?
theres a catch phrase going around :”let go let God” it can’t be that simple can it?
just love and growth happens?
simple enough eh?
Why then do we continue to live in a world that is full of intolerance, prejudice, hate, intellectual divisions that separate reason and faith with intensity etc, etc?
Gene wrote: . . . theres a catch phrase going around :”let go let God” it can’t be that simple can it?No, not exactly; it is not quite that simple. Hopefully this won’t come across as a sermon, but here goes:
Growth, even though we cannot cause it to happen, requires effort and work. Yes, we do have to let go, let go of attitudes which prevent growth and foster attitudes which promote growth (100:1.8). That is where the effort and work lie and the means by which we supply the favorable conditions. Once the conditions are provided, the remaining factors for growth are supplied by grace. We grow by grace (193:2.2). Grace is a gift (2:4.2) and it is up to us to cooperate with it through faith. Transformation of character that results from grace is a part of a living faith attitude, of which there are four (140:5.4).
32:3.9 The perfection of the creatures of time, when finally achieved, is wholly an acquirement, a bona fide personality possession. While the elements of grace are freely admixed, nevertheless, the creature attainments are the result of individual effort and actual living, personality reaction to the existing environment.
Growth is simple only when you completely and wholeheartedly cooperate with the spirit forces within you. (159.3.7) Very few can do that, not because they don’t want to, but because they aren’t always aware of their own pet evils and because we are dual natured creatures. Growth requires that the mind be in a constant state of prayer (grace) in which the personality is consistently, devotedly and consciously living in the presence of God during all waking moments. The prayer is a simple one, one of faith, and the practice of the presence of God is a constant striving which becomes a habitual attitude of desire for Godlikeness (divinity) (26:4.13). Everything else is left to God as Jesus explained in his parable:
151:3.15 Before he dismissed the group for the night, Jesus said: “Now will I tell you the last of the parable of the sower. I would test you to know how you will receive this: The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who cast good seed upon the earth; and while he slept by night and went about his business by day, the seed sprang up and grew, and although he knew not how it came about, the plant came to fruit. First there was the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And then when the grain was ripe, he put forth the sickle, and the harvest was finished. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.”151:3.16 Many times did the apostles turn this saying over in their minds, but the Master never made further mention of this addition to the parable of the sower.
Sermon is ok
that first sentence says a lot: letting go of attitudes that prevent growth is analogous to shutting off the SELF switch. I don’t have much success with this.
I don’t think it’s possible to manually shut off the SELF switch. The SELF switch flips when you’re totally engrossed in some OTHER-THAN-SELF and forget about yourself altogether.
It’s about priorities. Even the Adjuster prioritizes when it comes to the self. He doesn’t dismiss the importance of the self and its egoistic motive, but he always pushes us to be slightly more altruistic (103:2.7 below). In other words, try to take the emphasis off the self and put it onto others in a positive way. But that does not mean that the self has to be sacrificed. That’s a big bubbameister. We are supposed to learn self-mastery, or self-discipline, but that does not necessarily mean self-sacrifice. Besides, true self-sacrifice would have to be an unconscious act if it were to be of any value. True self-sacrifice is more like self-forgetfulness. That happens when you find yourself thinking mostly of how useful you can be to others. That’s when the self disappears in your relationships. Your mind is on other people, not on what they think about you or how what you think of them, or even what you think of yourself. It’s a beautiful thing when it happens. It’s total honesty, sincerity and all that. Darn, gotta go. Sorry.
103:5.4-5But man’s interpretation of these early conflicts between the ego-will and the other-than-self-will is not always dependable. Only a fairly well unified personality can arbitrate the multiform contentions of the ego cravings and the budding social consciousness. The self has rights as well as one’s neighbors. Neither has exclusive claims upon the attention and service of the individual. Failure to resolve this problem gives origin to the earliest type of human guilt feelings. Human happiness is achieved only when the ego desire of the self and the altruistic urge of the higher self (divine spirit) are co-ordinated and reconciled by the unified will of the integrating and supervising personality. The mind of evolutionary man is ever confronted with the intricate problem of refereeing the contest between the natural expansion of emotional impulses and the moral growth of unselfish urges predicated on spiritual insight – genuine religious reflection.
103:2.7 Moral choosing is usually accompanied by more or less moral conflict. And this very first conflict in the child mind is between the urges of egoism and the impulses of altruism. The Thought Adjuster does not disregard the personality values of the egoistic motive but does operate to place a slight preference upon the altruistic impulse as leading to the goal of human happiness and to the joys of the kingdom of heaven.
100:2.4 Spirituality becomes at once the indicator of one’s nearness to God and the measure of one’s usefulness to fellow beings. Spirituality enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values. Spiritual development is determined by capacity therefor and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities of love.
You know, I was reading a book on the history of Christianity the other day and a point was made that made me really think. In my own words, the author suggested that after Christianity became a state religion and state imposed martyrdom became a less frequent phenomenon for winning over converts, a different type of martyrdom arose, namely self-martyrdom. Severe asceticism which included self-mortification took off in Christendom. When the state stopped making saints for Christians, they came up with a new way of making saints equally as bad. It’s a bizarre human trait run amok. And I often wonder if it wasn’t this harsh turn toward self-sacrifice that repulsed the Bedouin we now know as Muhammad.
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