I Am Starting A Huge Foolish Project

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Douglas

I am not a great fan of New Year’s Resolutions (NYRs). They don’t work for a lot of people. As if the mere act of resolving was enough to make a change. I wrote a blog post on why this is so at the end of 2014. And yet, they work for some people. Taking action in the present seems to help. Inner envisioning of doing the thing one resolved improves the chances of success. Practices and habits consistent with one’s resolution don’t hurt.

I am starting a huge foolish project

Opening sentence of the revelation “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life”

I have NYRs for 2020. I would share them with you, but I don’t believe you would find them particularly interesting. They are mostly things to strengthen my position in the areas of relationships, health, work and spiritual development. Building and balancing the Four Pillars of my life.

But I am starting a huge, foolish project. It is more huge and more foolish than the project of making and fulfilling NYRs. In addition to making NYRs, I am also making New Decade’s Resolutions (NDRs).

I build the foundation to live a greater life

I am starting a huge foolish project. I have written from time to time about the New Message from God revelation, “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life.” I would like to think I have taken a step forward in taking this teaching to heart. There are 17 instances of a sentence beginning with the words, “You must.” The first one is “You must build the foundation to live a greater life.” I got the idea of responding to that by saying to myself “I will build the foundation to live a greater life.” I would later change it to present tense by saying “I build the foundation to live a greater life.”

I build the foundation to fulfill a greater destiny

Declarations inspired by “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life”

I am starting a huge foolish project. I share this because my NDRs are milestones along the path of these 17 declarations.

I build the foundation to live a greater life.
I develop the strength to live a greater life.
I have the humility to do this work.
I break free of other relationships and influences that keep me from attending to these greater matters.
I attend to really building the foundation.
I take the Steps to Knowledge within myself.
I have a great enough Work Pillar to provide for others.
I focus on healing my past relationships, and building true alliances with other people.
I invest myself in true alliances, to build this kind of deeper trust and connection.
I recognize my psychological weaknesses, my unforgiveness of others, and my unresolved conflicts from the past.
I explore how these things can be resolved.
I assess my strengths and weaknesses regarding my physical health.
I exercise every day and find the time to do this.
I have the humility to recognize my own vulnerabilities to life.
I bring forth the strength from the well of Knowledge within myself to meet life’s great challenges and sudden events.
I have the foundation to discover my real higher purpose in life
I have the foundation to fulfill a greater destiny.

I feel like you want to know my New Decade Resolutions

I am starting a huge, foolish project. I feel a little trepidation at sharing my NDRs with you. Who knows, maybe the whole idea is non-well-formed. I’m recalling the Bible verse “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” (Proverbs 27:1, New International Version) I’m well aware that nothing is guaranteed. And yet, it does seem to be well-formed to declare hopes and plans. Therefore, here are some of my New Decade’s Resolutions.

I hope and plan to have all the members of my health care team declare that I have done or am doing all the things they ask of me. I hope and plan to get through the next ten winters without a fall. (I had three in the past decade, resulting in a concussion and a hospital trip.) I hope and plan to shorten and simplify my supply chain. I hope and plan to sell a lot of these t-shirts and related items. I hope and plan to read and/or listen to the New Message from God in its entirety. (That could take a while). I hope and plan to make and share images for each of the revelations of the New Message from God. (I’m already working on that.)

Maybe I shouldn’t care what you think of me

In his poem “Those Spiritual Windowshoppers,” Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks) writes:

Even if you don’t know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.
It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

I’m happy to be part of the exchanging flow. I’m happy I am starting a huge foolish project. Will I succeed? I’ll get back to you in ten years.

* * *

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.

How Shall I Develop Myself?

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Douglas

I am persuaded that you are needed here. And by “here” I mean “in this world.” Therefore, it is my sincere hope that you will cleanse and develop yourself, because you are important. Therefore, I can get behind the idea of New Year’s Resolutions (NYRs) to a certain extent. I would also like to offer some adjustments to the existing custom.

How shall I develop myself?

How shall I develop myself? Ashleigh Brilliant wrote “At any moment I could start being a better person…But which moment should I choose?” The current custom of NYRs involves identifying a problem, and then not doing anything about it until January 1. Therefore, the earlier in December one’s NYRs are made, the more skeptical I am regarding them. The earlier in December one’s NYRs are made, the more disempowering they are, as they take you away from the idea that you could do something right now.

How shall I develop myself? I can generally get behind the idea of both spoken and written NYRs. I can generally get behind the idea of an NYR being in the form of an affirmation. But many spoken and written resolutions fail. Many affirmations fail. Why is that the case? I consider one reason to be the lack of unity on the inside of a person. Many people resolve to do something, but don’t envision themselves doing the thing they resolved. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger attributed his success as a bodybuilder not only to his efforts in the gym, but to his efforts in visualizing himself practicing, visualizing his muscles growing, visualizing his being acclaimed as a champion. Therefore, I consider any NYRs that do not include visualizations of both taking the actions, and getting the results of those actions, to be disempowering and non-well-formed.

How shall I develop myself? Many NYRs are reasonably well-formed, and have a certain amount of inner visualization behind them, but still fail. Why is that the case? I consider one reason to be the lack of practice, the lack of “putting feet to your prayers.” Some people are practicing things that are guaranteed to result in something other than their NYR. Therefore, I consider any NYRs that do not include plans for practices that will result in those things happening to be non-well-formed and disempowering.

How shall I develop myself? At this point, I can imagine someone thinking “So what is your 2015 NYR, Mr. Smartybritches?” It is to complete the study of Steps to Knowledge for the second time. Steps to Knowledge is the book of spiritual practice of the New Message from God. It has 365 steps to follow. I took about 4 years to do Steps to Knowledge the first time. I started again in April of 2014. I am currently on Step 85, “I find happiness in small things today.”. I was on Step 321, “The world is awaiting my contribution”. I therefore did 128 steps in 2014. I envision, resolve and plan to do more in the coming year.

How shall I develop myself? I have a plan to reach the goal. If I work my plan, I will end up closer to my goal than I will if I do nothing. Who knows, it might even take me all the way.