Reference point

"Only Knowledge in you knows"

"how you will be able to unite yourself into one person with one deeper reference point within yourself, instead of being a person who is pulled here and there by many different forces of persuasion."

True North

"Education in The Way of Knowledge deals with learning things that are essential, releasing things that are not and gaining the discernment to tell the two apart. How do you tell them apart? You tell them apart because they are so different, and you can feel the difference. The experience of Knowledge is unlike anything else in the world. Here you will develop a deeper reference point for Knowledge within yourself— not something that tantalizes your ideas or stimulates your emotions, but something that resonates with the deeper part of you that you are now able to experience and identify."

"To see what must be unlearned, what conflicts with your present experience and what denies, thwarts or alters your present insight, you will need the experience of a Greater Power in your life, and this Greater Power is Knowledge. With Knowledge as a growing reference point within you, you will be able to work with the mind and to understand the mind with real objectivity. Then the mind will not threaten you or haunt you. And over time you will be able to make it a useful instrument to serve a greater purpose in life. You will become more still, more observant, more patient, more tolerant and more fearless. All of this will happen because of your mind’s renewal and the renewal of your relationship with Knowledge, which will become your new foundation. Knowledge will give you its qualities, its beneficence and its power. It will give you a new life."

"Following The Greater Community Way of Knowledge readjusts all things so that you are able to devote yourself to great values and great rewards and yet have those small pleasures that are necessary for your momentary convenience and personal value. There is no conflict here. However, going from a life of small pleasure and great investment to a life of great pleasure and small investment represents a complete reversal. This reversal must be carried on gradually. Within this is a tremendous period of re-evaluation and rededication that will affect every aspect of your life and everything that you value or hold dear. This is very confusing at times, for you no longer identify with things that were formally pleasurable to you, but you do not know what will take their place. If you are wise, you will not attempt to replace them but will allow the changing focus and direction of your life to illustrate to you the greater value that is awaiting you. This is going from poverty to wealth, for wealth is investing yourself in that which yields the greatest benefit for yourself and others. Poverty is investing greatly in things that yield little or no pleasure or value. Wealth and poverty are not about how big your house is or what kind of automobile you drive or how much money is in your pocket or what your wardrobe looks like. Wealth and poverty are very different here. In this different light, the wealthy seem poor and often the poor seem wealthy. This, then, gives you a genuine reference point with which to gauge value in the world."

A Greater Perspective Than One's Own

"In the context of the world’s emergence into the Greater Community, it is most beneficial that you have some idea of how your neighbors perceive you. This is important to give you a new understanding of how to relate to intelligent life around you and to give you a greater vantage point to view yourself from a larger and perhaps very different viewpoint. This is a rare opportunity, for though people may attempt to have a more objective viewpoint of each other, they are still far too subjective in their evaluations, and they do not have a reference point that is significantly unique or different in order to develop a truly new perspective. You see each other according to a standard set of values."

"Learning how others view you gives you a reference point and an idea of how you must cultivate your abilities and what you must achieve."

Focal Point

"When you are learning the way of stillness, which produces an environment in which Knowledge can emerge within you, you realize that the mind is constantly thinking, constantly moving, distracting you, taking you away, and so forth. You find here that as it is doing this, you are actually within your mind, for your reference point is still in your mind, and so wherever it goes, you go. In practice, you are trying to bring yourself back to a position of objectivity and observation, but the mind takes off, and it takes you with it. It goes here, there and everywhere. It thinks about things that are grand, and it thinks about things that are ridiculous, and it imagines all kinds of scenarios—little dramas in which you then find yourself. It is like a television that is running all the time.

Navigation Through Space

"The galaxy as a whole is uncharted. Only regions within it are charted. Only regions where there is a great deal of trade, travel and the existence of evolved technological nations are charted. Beyond this, you have uncharted territories, sometimes immensely huge, where any traveler could become lost without known reference points."

See Also

• The wilderness experience