The world

Short Quotes

In some traditions the Earth itself is considered sacred—-the entire Earth, not one particular place. But the Earth is not sacred; it is just the Earth.

• The Sacred 4/29/08

The world, in its great change, can serve you if you can approach it correctly. The shock of the world can prepare you. It can shake you out of your dreams of happiness and disaster. It can bring you to your senses. It can call upon your strengths and your determination and most certainly your compassion for people.

• The Shock of the Future (April 30, 2011)

The world has what you need only insofar as it can give you the opportunity to give, to engage yourself fully and to avoid the little preoccupations, addictions and difficulties that keep people in chains here.

• GCS, chap. 11, p.128

Long Quotes

[T]he world is a place where you have come to serve, to give and to reunite with those whom you are destined to meet, to know and to participate with.... The world is primarily a place to give.... You have come from beyond the world bearing gifts for the world.... Instead of a place to proclaim yourself and to establish yourself, it is a place to get something done behind the scenes, in secret, without recognition and acclaim.

• [1], ch. 2, pp. 11-12

God is not managing the world.

God is not creating the catastrophes, the storms, the earthquakes, the floods, the droughts.

God is watching to see how humanity will deal with a world it has changed—a new world, a new and unpredictable world.

• The Recitation (April 1, 2011)

God is calling you to respond, both within yourself and to the signs of the world. To see the signs, you must be looking and paying attention, not just here and there, but continuously. Like the birds in the air and the animals in the field, you are watching your environment. Just like them, you have a great need to do this.

Everything you value—your future, the people you care about, even your own life—will depend upon this. It is not looking with fear. It is not living in a state of trepidation. It is looking with clear eyes, with the power and the presence of Knowledge.

That will make all the difference in whether you can see or not and whether you can look upon the world with dread and anxiety or with certainty, compassion and determination.

• The Shock of the Future (April 30, 2011)

Further Study

• Greater Community Spirituality, chapter 2: What Is the World?