Ladders from Heaven
"You can be visited by angels. You can hear an inner voice. You can have wonderful experiences. But until you get up and start moving, until you climb up that ladder and get out of the hole, nothing has really changed."[1]
"When your confinement becomes oppressive and intolerable, you will call for help, and the help will come—a ladder will be sent down to you. But it will not be the ladder of escape and pleasure. It will be the ladder of work and self-application. It will be the ladder of forgiveness and renewal. It will be the ladder of relationship—not with the Divine but with the Divinity in the world."[2]
"It is as if you had descended down into a deep ravine or canyon and God has sent down ladders to help you climb out. But if you do not climb out, you are still stuck there. You cannot wish yourself out. God is not going to just elevate you someday and erase all your errors. And belief will not bring you out because belief is not true yet unless it is guided by Knowledge.
You cannot believe your way out of this situation. You must learn to climb up the other side, using the ladders that God has dropped down. And God has dropped down more than one ladder because God knows that not everyone will follow one ladder alone. God knows that not everyone will follow one Teaching or Teacher alone."[3]
"You will be called into the development of Knowledge and into your spiritual life when you are in the middle of the ladder, and when you reach halfway up the ladder, your spiritual life will begin. Then you find out at some later time that the ladder—remember, We are going for the halfway point—extends infinitely in both directions."[4]
"The answer to your prayer for purpose, meaning and direction in life is a preparation. What other answer could there be? When you call for help, a ladder is sent down to you. What other help could there be? When you have fallen into a deep pit, will ideas, realizations, or visions help you? What will really help you? What will really help you is that someone sends down a ladder, with steps on it, so that you can climb out. When you are in a deep pit, you cannot see the world; you cannot see your predicament; you cannot see what is beyond your predicament; you cannot see where you need to go. The only reality is you must find a way out."[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 5: The Pillar of Work
- ↑ Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 6: The Pillar of Spiritual Development
- ↑ The One God, Chapter 12: The Heart of God
- ↑ Wisdom from the Greater Community, Book 1, Chapter 35: Achieving Peace
See also
Further study
- The Ladders from Heaven (February 11, 2015)
- Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 5: The Pillar of Work