the Life and teachings of Jesus in the UB

no sophist wrote:

J. Barry wrote:

So on one hand we need the possibility of evil in order to face the challenges that build character and avail us the opportunity to make choices, but also on the other hand we have the intelligence to shape a society and world that Fosters and Augments the best in us, the path towards the Era of Light and Life.

So for me the reals question is “what am I doing to move in that long distant direction” that is obviously the goal.

I think the hammer anvil idea reveals much about what we should be doing.
Like trust that the Most High rules.
Also that we were not put here to fix the problems of our fellow humans.
Self mastery is our challenge and destiny.

In the hope of showing how both of these concepts serve each other, I find it very interesting that the best way to "shape a society" personally while fulfilling self mastery as "our challenge and destiny" is to realize and integrate the functionality of love of and service to others! How do we grow personally? By love of others. How do we harvest the fruits of the Spirit? By love of and service to others. How do we shape a society? Exactly the same way!!!

I think there are two ways to approach this personal mission of religious experience and personal growth while also serving our fellows. One is strictly the personal as we walk by method....it is undirected and generalized and personalized in our reflexive responses to all the people and situations of every day and the intersections of relationship and choice of every day. The second is to identify those social, community, national, or global issues that resonate within us that cause great empathy and an eagerness to help solve by donating our time, talents, skills, and money - be they disaster relief, hunger, disease, education, orphans, refugees, peace, human rights, equal opportunity, suffrage, pollution, sustainable agriculture, organic foods and pharma, mental health, addiction, democratic reforms, or any of the many progressive social reforms which are obviously needed to move our world toward Light and Life!!

I believe it very immature and impatient for us or any believers to be political ranters and ravers and vocalize and perpetuate dissatisfaction and distrust of our planetary rulers (the Divine ones that is) and to focus on blame and political solutions for what we should know are problems with only spiritual solutions. The world will change only so much as the people on the world change, growing less barbaric and primitive by personal religious experience and spiritization. The world spiritualizes as its population spiritizes. We help the world most by our own transformation in the Spirit and second by the fruits of the Spirit we lovingly share in service to others. God will direct that love and service to the greatest need and effect during our short sojourn here.

I agree we are not here to "fix the problems of our fellow humans" and some of us are way too fixated on solving secular problems by secular solutions. But we are here to serve our fellow humans and by our service we are indeed shaping society, usually in ways we cannot see or measure, but which do help the Most Highs to civilize our world and progress toward Light and Life.

Planetary evolution is too slow, we are taught, for any single generation or life to appreciate or even witness. We must have a time unit perspective of our far distant past and far distant future to appreciate the progress our world has made in a million years and 2000 years and 300 years and 100 years and to see the acceleration of progress we are in the midst of today and to see beyond only the failures and challenges and evil/errors of time to truly witness the glorious transformations already achieved by the Most Highs. Who are we to complain and whine and be so disappointed and so demanding and so impatient? Our goal should be to appreciate the real progress we enjoy and to help others overcome suffering and obstacles by simply lending a friendly smile and hand forward.

Lots of related text to consider....I'll research and post some. Impatience is a mind poison. So is disappointment. Must get over it to move forward. Otherwise we are only part of the problem and cannot be part of the solution.

118:1.3 (1295.3) There is a direct relationship between maturity and the unit of time consciousness in any given intellect. The time unit may be a day, a year, or a longer period, but inevitably it is the criterion by which the conscious self evaluates the circumstances of life, and by which the conceiving intellect measures and evaluates the facts of temporal existence.

118:1.4 (1295.4) Experience, wisdom, and judgment are the concomitants of the lengthening of the time unit in mortal experience. As the human mind reckons backward into the past, it is evaluating past experience for the purpose of bringing it to bear on a present situation. As mind reaches out into the future, it is attempting to evaluate the future significance of possible action. And having thus reckoned with both experience and wisdom, the human will exercises judgment-decision in the present, and the plan of action thus born of the past and the future becomes existent.

118:1.5 (1295.5) In the maturity of the developing self, the past and future are brought together to illuminate the true meaning of the present. As the self matures, it reaches further and further back into the past for experience, while its wisdom forecasts seek to penetrate deeper and deeper into the unknown future. And as the conceiving self extends this reach ever further into both past and future, so does judgment become less and less dependent on the momentary present. In this way does decision-action begin to escape from the fetters of the moving present, while it begins to take on the aspects of past-future significance.

48:7.20 (557.4) 18. Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet’s nest.

48:7.21 (557.5) 19. Anxiety must be abandoned. The disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.

195:5.12 (2076.3) As you view the world, remember that the black patches of evil which you see are shown against a white background of ultimate good. You do not view merely white patches of good which show up miserably against a black background of evil.

195:5.13 (2076.4) When there is so much good truth to publish and proclaim, why should men dwell so much upon the evil in the world just because it appears to be a fact? The beauties of the spiritual values of truth are more pleasurable and uplifting than is the phenomenon of evil.

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