Idealism Is The Mother Of Judgment

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Douglas

The Idealist by Luke Hillestad

Suppose your beloved were to say “Here’s what I really love about you…,” but instead of describing you as they know you really are now, they described an idealized version of you. It might be a person you may wish to be someday. It might be a person you are working toward becoming. But it’s not you as you are now. How would you feel? Would it bless you? It might be interesting, but would it be love?

Idealism is the mother of judgment

It’s as if I weigh other people in a pair of balances. In one balance, I put the person as they actually are. In the other balance, I put my ideal of the person. The person as they are is invariably found wanting in comparison to my ideal. The person as they are is then the subject of judgment.

And worse, I do the same thing to the world. The world as it is now is wanting in comparison to my ideal of the world.

A gentleman shared an opinion with me that all advertisements reduced to the generation of discontent, saying that people don’t measure up to a certain ideal, but they will if they purchase a particular product or service. Marketer Seth Godin concurs when he writes “Marketers trying to grow market share will always work to make their non-customers unhappy.”

Steps to Knowledge doesn’t say this, but I do. Idealism is the mother of judgment. Idealism is the fertile soil in which the noxious weed of judgment takes root. Idealism is the Petri dish which the bacteria of judgment consider an all-you-can-eat buffet. You get the idea.

If idealism is the mother of judgment, what remedy does Steps to Knowledge propose for this predicament? Step 29 “I will observe myself today to learn of Knowledge,” and Step 30 “Today I will observe my world,” address the practice of judgment. Step 29 offers observation as an alternative to self-judgment, and Step 30 offers observation as an alternative to judging the world. I consider Step 54, “I will not live in idealism,” and Step 55, “I will accept the world as it is,” to operate in parallel to Steps 29 and 30, except that Steps 54 and 55 are addressing the cause of judgment instead of the practice of judgment. Step 54 encourages the student to drop her ideal of herself. Step 55 encourages the student to relinquish his ideal of the world.

Some people find the idea of accepting the world as it is to be unacceptable, as it would imply accepting the world’s errors. That concern is addressed in the Step:

“Therefore, in your two 30-minute practice periods today, concentrate on accepting things exactly as they are. You are not condoning violence, conflict or ignorance in doing this. You are merely accepting the conditions that exist so that you may work with them constructively. Without this acceptance, you have no starting place for true engagement. Allow the world to be exactly as it is, for it is this world that you have come to serve.”

If you are a biological accident, if you have been born here against your will, if you’ve been thrown into the world, you might have reason to hate the world, and to cultivate that hatred. But if you’ve come to serve the world, that whole complex of idealism and judging and hating is something over which you’re going to have to get.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

What Do I Really Know?

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Alisa

When I first approached Step 3. What Do I Really Know?, I wanted to shout out “I know nothing!” And really I don’t. I don’t know anything for sure. Aha! So that’s the bottom line. What can I say I really know for sure? Nothing!

I know at some deep gut level, at the level of the soul (how poetic that sounds!), that Steps to Knowledge is true, that Steps to Knowledge come from a pure, unadulterated source, that Steps to Knowledge is a teaching I find worth pursuing, that practicing Steps to Knowledge is changing my life in a qualitative way. But can I say I know this for sure? And what do I actually mean by “for sure?”

The way the world works today, “for sure” needs some substantial base under it, it needs to have some facts and figures backing it, it needs some empirical evidence to prove it, something that can be seen with the eyes, heard with the ears, touched, tweaked and tasted, something solid and real.

None of what I might tentatively say I know for sure has any of this. So I concede that I know nothing, nothing of substance, nothing for sure. I am happy with this since it means I am not basing what I know on beliefs or assumptions or, heaven forbid, on the beliefs and assumptions of other people or even of humanity at large.

In the marrow of my bones, in the backwaters of my soul, I really know something else, some deeper truth that is only mine, what I will describe as gnosis—personal knowledge that is experienced rather than intellectual knowledge based on scientific facts.

Upon even closer examination, I discover that what I really know goes far back into the depths of time, it goes beyond me into some unfathomable Mystery, it is something I have always known, but forgotten, so tend to doubt.

I am told though to “never doubt what you have always known.”

I take this with me as I go on.

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Знание Со Мной, но Где же Я?

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Alisa

Знание со мной, но где же я?

Знание полностью с тобой, но оно находится в той части твоего ума, в которую ты пока ещё не проникнул. Знание представляет твою Истинную сущность, Истинный разум и Истинные взаимоотношения во Вселенной. Оно также содержит в себе твоё высшее предназначение и идеальное использование твоей сущности, твоих врожденных способностей и навыков, даже твоих ограничений – всё это дано тебе на благо миру.

Знание с тобой, но где же ты? Сегодня подумай о том, где ты. Если ты не со Знанием, то где? Поэтому, три раза в день по 10 минут, размышляй над тем, где ты находишься, не физически или географически, а где ты находишься с точки зрения осознания себя в мире. Задумайся об этом очень серьёзно. Не позволь своему уму отвлечь тебя от этого размышления. Крайне необходимо задать эти вопросы именно сейчас, в начале твоей подготовки.

Практика 2: три практических занятия по 10 минут каждое

Разъяснительное замечание–перевод Шагов к Знанию на русский язык находится на начальной стадии. Тот перевод, который вы тут читайте, является первой попыткой передавать смысл Шагов на русском языке.

See English Version here.

Исходя с того, что Шаг 1 меня воодушевил словами о том, что несмотря на то, что я без Знания, Знание всё-таки со мной, в Шаге 2 я столкнулась с беспокоящим вопросом—тогда где же я сама?

Я без Знания, с этим я согласна. Тем не менее, я также согласна с тем, что Знание пребывает в той части моего ума, куда я пока ещё не проникнула. Как мне видится, это дает мне некоторое преимущество. Ведь, я не обладаю тем, чего хочу, но я знаю, где его найти. Я не иду туда, не знаю куда, не найду то, не знаю что. У меня есть цель, а когда я её достигну, я обрету себя истинного, свою истинную сущность и свои истинные взаимоотношения во Вселенной. К этому, пожалуй, стоит стремиться.

Знание с мной, но где же я?

Так что, когда этот Шаг рекомендует, чтобы я поразмышляла над тем, где я нахожусь сейчас, я вижу себя мысленным взором, как будто стою внизу у первой ступени лестницы, которая восходит вверх, а там наверху мелькает что-то сияющее и заманчивое.

Я всё ещё без Знания, но я стремлюсь к нему, я хочу добраться до той части моего ума, где это Знание пребывает, ищу пути к обладанию им.

Не слишком ли это чрезмерное требование?

В ответ на мои искания, я услышала от другого человека, практикующего “Шаги”, следующее: «Ты пока ещё на пути. Путь длиною в жизнь. По пути ты научишься, как знать. Потребуются время и усилия. Потребуется прохождение по “Шагам к Знанию”. Потребуются последовательность и упорное стремление».

Ободряясь тем, что я не участвую в гонке, а отправляюсь в дорогу длиною в жизнь, я смело делаю следующий шаг.

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Why Do Tyrants Fall?

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Douglas

In his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Mohandas Gandhi wrote:

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always.”

I realize that some people might dispute this claim, or have objections as to length of time it takes for a tyrant to fall. For the sake of argument, I wish to accept this statement as true. I wish to offer a reason as to why tyrants fall.

Why do tyrants fall? They rely on centralized intelligence

One of the things that makes tyrants fall is something that has come to be known as the “knowledge problem,” developed by the 20th century economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek.

No, what they call knowledge has nothing to do with the knowledge in Steps to Knowledge. What they call knowledge could also be called data or information. You don’t have to be a scholar to understand Hayek’s 1945 paper “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” The barbed point of this paper is that economic activity managed by distributed intelligence does a better job than centrally managed economic activity because it does a better job of mobilizing the knowledge relevant to the decisions that need to be made.

Northwestern University economist Lynne Kiesling explains why this is a big deal:

What does this have to do with tyrants and their fall? Tyrants are the ultimate central planners and managers within their lands. Their egos demand that they make the decisions, even if they can be better made by what Hayek called “the man on the spot.” Their egos demand that finite resources be spent on sending information about events to a central point, and relaying the tyrant’s commands to the peasantry. It is as if the tyrant’s belief in his own wisdom and goodness, imposes a heavy, hidden tax on every transaction within his domain.

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Я без Знания – Хорошая Исходная Точка

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Alisa

Шаг 1. На данный момент я без Знания.

На любом этапе развития должна быть точка отсчёта. Тебе нужно начать с того места, где ты находишься, а не c того, где ты хочешь быть. Тебе следует начать с понимания того, что ты не обладаешь Знанием. Однако, это вовсе не означает, что Знание не с тобой. Это просто означает, что ты не с ним. Знание ожидает от тебя действия, оно ждёт, когда ты сделаешь первый шаг. Поэтому, сейчас, ты начинаешь подготовку, которая поможет тебе вступить во взаимосвязь со Знанием – высшим аспектом разума, принесённым тобой из твоего Древнего Дома.

Сегодня, три раза в день по 10 минут задумайся над тем, что такое Знание. Однако постарайся не применять свои установившиеся идей и прошлое понимание, но поразмышляй над тем, чем Знание является на самом деле.

Практика 1: два практических занятия по 10 минут каждое.

Разьяснтельное замечание–перевод Шагов к Знанию на русский язык находится на начальной стадии. Тот перевод, который вы тут читайте, является первой попыткой передавать смысл Шагов на русском языке.

For English Version click here.

Я без Знания, но вот у меня есть книга с названием «Шаги к Знанию: Книга внутреннего познания». Что делает человек, когда находит такую книгу? Я думаю, что это зависит от внутреннего отклика. Ёкнуло ли сердце в узнавании, или нет? Если нет, то человек скорее всего отложит книгу. А если, наоборот, вспыхнула искра узнавания, – человек откроет книгу и приступит к изучению.

Мне отрадно сообщить, что когда я нашла «Шаги к Знанию» к концу октября 2012, я испытывала ту искру узнавания.

Теперь хочу перемотать пленку назад и начинать пересказ своего опыта прохождения этих “Шагов”, начиная с первого. В это же время, год назад, я сидела на берегу Можайского водохранилища в Московской области и смотрела как поплавок подскакивает на поверхности воды, тем временем размышляя о том, что такое Знание.

Шаг 1 гласит, что я без Знания сейчас. Ну чтож, пожалуй, соглашусь, ведь мне очень близки слова «я ничего не знаю». Если я ничего не знаю, то это значит, что я могу, с определённой доли сознания, заполнить эту пустоту знанием. Так что, я начинаю с ничего, с того места, где нахожусь на самом деле, и двигаюсь вперед, к тому месту, где хочу быть, то есть, туда, в то место, где Знание пребывает.

Я без Знания сейчас, потому что на данный момент, мой разум не в состоянии постичь и понять суть Знания. Но дальше этот Шаг меня воодушевляет словами: «Однако, это вовсе не означает, что Знание не с тобой. Это просто означает, что ты не с ним. Знание ожидает от тебя действия, оно ждёт, когда ты сделаешь первый шаг. Поэтому, сейчас, ты начинаешь подготовку, которая поможет тебе вступить во взаимосвязь со Знанием». Это меня воодушевляет потому, что подразумевает, что со временем, с приложением усилий и с решимостью, я найду путь к Знанию и смогу вступить во взаимосвязь с него.

Я испытываю ещё большеe вдохновение, когда читаю, что Знание является «высшим аспектом разума, принесённым тобой из твоего Древнего Дома». Я готова принять тот факт, что я еще не добралась до этого разума. Я готова принять тот факт, что я «забыла» про него, и что мне предстоит его восстановить. И это требует усилия.

Так что, сидя в ожидании поклёвки рыбы, я дошла до понимания того, что Знание – это прикосновение к глубокой Истине, это прикосновение к себе истинному.

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Idealism Has A Fatal Flaw

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Douglas

Every human world view has a concept of the ideal human being. It doesn’t matter whether the world view is religious or materialistic. The ideal human being of a particular world view has a certain set of attributes and qualities. These qualities are demonstrated by engagement in some activities, and avoidance of other activities.

The New Message from God has a relatively nuanced approach to this. Steps to Knowledge teaches that certain practices should be embraced, such as observation, compassion and contribution. Steps to Knowledge teaches that certain practices should be avoided, such as judgment, blame and assumption. So it is reasonable to say that if a person studies Steps to Knowledge, he will become a certain kind of person.

But the New Message from God doesn’t identify a particular individual as the ideal human being. Someone is thinking “Well, what about this Marshall Vian Summers person you go on and on about. Is he the ideal human being of the world view of the New Message from God?” My answer is “If he is, he’s not supposed to be.” He is the Messenger of this New Message, and he shares his message by his life, but if we put him on a pedestal, if we make him the ideal human being, then he failed, then we failed.

Idealism has a fatal flaw

Some time ago, I mentioned that in the late 1980’s, the organization of Marshall Summers made a series of five cassette tapes containing messages Marshall had received. One of these tapes was on the development of Knowledge. On this tape, it was taught that ideals and idealism was a hindrance to the emergence of Knowledge. I don’t remember why this was this case. But Step 54, “I will not live in idealism,” elaborates.

“What is idealism but ideas of things that are hoped for based on disappointment? Your idealism includes yourself, your relationships and the world in which you live. It includes God and life and all realms of experience that you can imagine. Without experience, there is idealism. Idealism can be helpful at the beginning, for it can start you moving in a true direction, but you must not rest your conclusions or your identity upon it, for only experience can give you that which is true to you and that which you can fully accept. Let not idealism guide you, for Knowledge is here to guide you.”

When the word “true” is used as an adjective in Steps to Knowledge (as in “a true direction,”) I am currently hearing the phrase “genuine and effective” in my mind’s ear. Idealism can be helpful at the beginning, for it can start you moving in a genuine and effective direction.

Still, idealism has a fatal flaw. What is this fatal flaw? The violation of experience. I have offered as a working definition of knowing something “an experience of something being self-evident which inspires consistent action.” If we don’t have experience, we don’t have knowing. If experience is being violated, then a false self which is apart from life is being created.

Kabir (translated by Rabindranath Tagore) has an exclamation point he would like to provide:

THERE is nothing but water at the holy bathing places; and I know that they are useless, for I have bathed in them.
The images are all lifeless, they cannot speak; I know, for I have cried aloud to them.
The Purana and the Koran are mere words; lifting up the curtain, I have seen.
Kabîr gives utterance to the words of experience; and he knows very well that all other things are untrue.

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Tyranny Is The Prescription When Doom Is The Diagnosis

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Douglas

No, I am not ready to let it go, I haven’t finished saying everything I have to say about the doom-mongering books of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. I mentioned four such doom-mongering books here.

If Doom Is The Diagnosis…

Suppose the scientific evidence for these books was repeatedly proven. Suppose the scientific evidence for these books was repeatedly demonstrated. In the Bible, Pharaoh asked Joseph for a strategy in the face of impending famine. What strategies do the authors of these books offer in the face of impending extinction?

…Then Tyranny Is The Prescription

I believe Mark Steyn succinctly describes the solutions offered by the doom-mongers, so I am going to quote from his book America Alone:

“For Al Gore and Paul Ehrlich and Co., whatever the problem, the solution is always the same. Whether it’s global cooling, global warming, or overpopulation, we need bigger government, more regulation, higher taxes, and a massive transfer of power from the citizen to some unelected, self-perpetuating crisis lobby.”

But don’t take Mark Steyn’s word for it, consider the doom-mongering texts. In The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich suggested heavy government disincentives to discourage Americans from having children. He suggested mandatory sterilization for men in India with more than three children. I can see it clearly in my mind’s eye, a local government official in India saying “I’m sorry Mr. Kumar, but Dr. Ehrlich says you need to be sterilized.”

Some people might say “Well, Mark Steyn isn’t a scientist, so his opinion is irrelevant.” While it is true that Mark Steyn isn’t a scientist, it is also true that Jim Steele is a scientist, who has this to say at the end of a somewhat technical post on climate change data:

“Instead of promoting more respectful public debate, he [Al Gore] in essence suggests Americans should hate “deniers” for thinking differently than Gore and his fellow CO2 advocates. He and his ilk are fomenting a new intellectual tyranny (emphasis mine). Yet his “hockey stick beliefs” are based on adjusted data that are not supported by the raw temperature data and unsupported by natural tree ring data. So who is in denial? Whether or not Gore’s orchestrated call to squash all skeptical thought is based solely on ignorance of natural cycles, his rant against skeptics is far more frightening than the climate change evidenced by the unadjusted data and the trees.”

If doom is the diagnosis, then tyranny is the prescription.

The Great Waves of Change has an alternate body of prescriptions for navigating the difficult times mankind will face in the future, but I wish to unpack this body of prescriptions over a number of future posts.

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Knowledge Is With Me, But Where Am I?

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Alisa

After feeling encouraged by the words in Step 1 assuring me that although I am not with Knowledge, Knowledge is nevertheless with me, I was confronted in Step 2 with having to consider the unsettling question of well, where are you, then?
I am not with Knowledge, this I can accept. However, I have also accepted that Knowledge resides in the part of my mind to which I have not yet gained access. I see this as giving me a certain advantage. I don’t have what I want, but I know where to find it. I am not on some aimless journey, going whither, I don’t know where, and looking for something, I don’t know what. I have a destination, and when I reach this destination, I will know my true self, my true mind and my true relationships in the universe. This seems to be something worth striving for.

So when asked to think about where I am, I see myself in my mind’s eye as standing at the bottom of a stairway, a stairway leading up a mountain, with something gleaming and beckoning at the top.

I am still without Knowledge, but I am striving to reach it, I am looking for ways to access that place where it resides, looking for ways to understand.

This may seem like a tall order.

However, on the Forum of the Free School of the New Message, I was assured by another student in response to my sharing on Step 2 that “You have a journey to take. It will be for the rest of your life. You will learn along the way how to know. It will take time and effort. It will take Steps to Knowledge. It will take consistency and perseverance.”

Encouraged by the understanding that this is not a race, but a journey of a lifetime, and I will learn along the way, I boldly take the next step.

* * *

You Are Not Alone

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Douglas

Steps to Knowledge has been examining the nature of individuality from a number of different angles. In Step 11, “I am not apart from life,” we learn that our total inclusion in life is true. We are not aware of it, we must reclaim it. In Step 25, “I am at one with the greatest truth in life,” we are told that great truth is the product of great relationship. In Step 45, “Alone I can do nothing,” we are told everything is the product of relationship. Step 53, “My gifts are for others,” hammers the point one more time, only a little harder:

“Alone you can do nothing. Alone you have no meaning. This is because you are not alone.”

In the Steps to Knowledge universe, “alone” is not a proposition with a truth value of false. It is not exactly true to say Steps to Knowledge teaches that you are not alone. It teaches that “alone” is a non-well-formed idea. As if I were to type “susujsdlossw.oAE.lwehjubaFbvl.oSVADFfe!” and demand that you understand, appreciate and celebrate it. (Yes, I was slapping my hands on the keyboard. I’ve been wanting to do that from the very first time I used the phrase “non-well-formed”)

Suppose you were offered two choices for your destiny.

In one scenario, you receive everything you want. You receive whatever you believe will make you happy.

In the other scenario, you intensely participate in life, meet every person you came to meet, give every gift you came to give, fulfill your mission in life, and slide into the grave with every last drop of contribution wrung out of your individuality, and the last words escaping from your lips are “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race.” Or “I gave what I came to give.”

That’s why I’m studying Steps to Knowledge.

* * *

Doom-mongering Is Big Business

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Douglas

During my lifetime, a number of commercially successful books have been published, saying that human civilization faces catastrophic collapse, saying that humanity faces extinction as a species from some cause or another.

Paul Ehrlich published the book The Population Bomb in 1968. What do people remember about this book? Do they remember that it sold two million copies (which it did)? Do they remember that it predicted the deaths of hundreds of millions of people from starvation and famine in the 1970’s (which didn’t happen)?

The Club of Rome published the book The Limits to Growth in 1972. This book was an attempt to mathematically model a sustainable future for humanity. Another step forward of this book was the use of computer simulations. I read this book as a high school student. What did I take away from this book? Without some kind of global management, humanity would either run out of crucial resources, or die in its own poisons. The fact that there is a 30th anniversary edition demonstrates the book’s commercial and cultural success. As a predictive success, it wasn’t so hot.

Lowell Ponte published the book The Cooling: Has the Next Ice Age Already Begun? in 1976 It is my understanding that there have been 5 of what geologists call ice ages in earth’s history. We are 2.58 million years into the fifth one, called the Quaternary Ice Age. Inside an ice age, there are periods of more ice, called glacial periods, and periods of less ice, called interglacial periods. What geologists call glacial periods, non-geologists call ice ages. It is my understanding that we are about 10,000 years into one of these interglacial periods, called the Holocene interglacial period. How long will this interglacial period last? I don’t know. The interglacial period before this one lasted about 50,000 years. There have been interglacial periods in this ice age lasting as long as 100,000 years.

Al Gore published the book An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, which has gone on to be made into a movie with a worldwide gross income of roughly $50 million. Al Gore has won a Grammy award, an Oscar award, and a Nobel Peace Prize for this work, making it quite possibly the most culturally and commercially successful doom-mongering presentation in the history of mankind. Let it be noted that there are differing opinions as to the scientific credibility of the presentation.

While doom-mongering books have been culturally and commercially successful, betting against the predictions of doom-mongers has also been culturally and commercially successful, most notably the Julian Simon-Paul Ehrlich wager.

I’m unhappy that the flaws in all of the above books will make it harder for people to receive the book from the New Message from God about the difficult times ahead, The Great Waves of Change. It’s not like anyone is making very much money from this, as the e-book version is being given away for free. Eventually, I’ll get around to telling you a little more about this book.

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Mystery of Ascension

A great mystery / Is my true self that I bring / From my ancient home

Monthly Archives: October 2013

Idealism Is The Mother Of Judgment

Idealism is the mother of judgment

What Do I Really Know?

Знание Со Мной, но Где же Я?

Знание с мной, но где же я?

Why Do Tyrants Fall?

Why do tyrants fall? They rely on centralized intelligence

Я без Знания – Хорошая Исходная Точка

Idealism Has A Fatal Flaw

Idealism has a fatal flaw

Tyranny Is The Prescription When Doom Is The Diagnosis

If Doom Is The Diagnosis…

…Then Tyranny Is The Prescription

Knowledge Is With Me, But Where Am I?

You Are Not Alone

Doom-mongering Is Big Business