Individuality

"There are no great individuals; there are only great relationships. A great relationship means that those involved have been able to transcend, to a certain degree, the littleness of their personal preferences in order to meet the true requirements of their lives. This means that the relationship reflects their Knowledge beyond their preferences and their certainty beyond their desires."

Directives

"Give up the idea of being a hero or a heroine. Give up the notion of the rugged individual who can do everything on his or her own. This is a great illusion, and it is a very damaging one."

Designed for Contribution

"Your contribution is unique, and this is the meaning and value of your individuality."

"This is how a new fabric of unity is established. The great tapestry of life is woven strand by strand, person by person. Do not think another will do this for you. Do not think such great things are only left up to people who are great, who are heroes or heroines, for this is your responsibility. This is your calling—not to gain spiritual immunity, not to become all knowing or all powerful, but to join your mind with other minds in Knowledge, to become stronger than you are or ever could be as an individual. The Greater Community is made up of communities. That which is powerful in the Greater Community is communities. Your mind alone, no matter how developed, cannot contend with a community mind. That is why we teach the Four Pillars of life, so that you have the basis for learning how to join with others—genuinely, truthfully, honestly, effectively. We do not send you off on your solo pursuit for spiritual enlightenment. We bring you into the world and teach you how to engage with others and join with others to bear fruit here within the world."

"While we all value our individuality

and emphasize it greatly in ways that we are conscious of and even unconscious of, it is what we hold in common that is the most important thing…our deeper nature. Who we were before we came into the world, who we will be after we leave this world, represents our deeper nature, the eternal part of us, not the part that is a product of culture and everything that happens to us here down on the ground on Earth.

Therefore,

the more that you really develop spiritually, the closer you come to this deeper nature, if you are doing good work. If you are doing the real work to get down to who you are and why you are here, down to what we call Knowledge—the deeper Mind, your deeper nature—then you find that it is what is similar between you and another, and between you and all people, [that] becomes really the emphasis.”

"In the Greater Community you will not find individuality to be valued very highly because compared to the power of group mind, individuality is weak and can always be overcome. That is why the great saints in your past have had their Spiritual Family at hand. They were not thinking like individuals. They were not acting like individuals. They were representing a group mind. Any person who demonstrates real spiritual power in the world, any person who demonstrates physical power in the world and any person who demonstrates mental power in the Mental Environment all represent group mind because a coalescing of intelligence and the focus of many minds will always be stronger than one mind. One mind alone will not be able to verify its own experience effectively. Here you reach the limits of your individuality. Here you also see where your individuality has real purpose and merit. Here you see that your individuality is meant to be a contribution to others rather than a glorification of your own struggle to be free from others."

Further Study

• The Journey to a New Life, Chapter 6: The Gift of a New Life