The Four Pillars of life

"You have Four Pillars in your life

Like the four legs of a table, they uphold your life.

Think of your life then in terms of having Four Pillars—

a Pillar of Relationships,

a Pillar of Health,

a Pillar of Work and Providership and

a Pillar of Spiritual Development.

Your life is only as strong as the weakest Pillar, the weakest leg of the table.

How much you can see,

how much you can know and

how much you can do

will be dependent upon the strength of these Pillars."

Directives

"You cannot afford to be over invested in any one area. You must seek a balance, which is something that very few people do in this world."

"Your spiritual practice must focus on building and maintaining the Four Pillars of your life."

“Between the life of the mind and the life of the heart there is a great gulf, a huge chasm, with no apparent bottom. The distance between the two seems insurmountable. Yet there is a way to bridge it. You must build the bridge, however, which is the foundation. The bridge has Four Pillars, and once the bridge has been built sufficiently, things can travel over that bridge. A life with this foundation is like a bridge between the world and your Ancient Home. Over this bridge ideas, strength, insight, and recognition can come into your life to be given to others because you will have built the bridge that makes the transmission of greater Knowledge and Wisdom possible.”

• "Come then to the first pillar, the Pillar of Relationship, and ask within yourself, 'Is there anything I need to know about any of my relationships?' Ask for a 'Yes' or a 'No' answer. If the answer is 'No,' fine. Yet, if the answer is 'Yes,' seek out who that might be. Maybe it is the relationship that you need to attend to at this moment. Ask yourself, 'Is there something I need to know here?' "Then open yourself to receive what that could be. This may only take a moment, but you must be very present.
• "Then go on with the Pillar of Career and Providership, the Pillar that deals with work, money, and contribution in the world. Apply the same process: 'Is there anything I need to know regarding my Career and Providership in the world?' If something comes to mind, ask yourself, 'Is there something I need to know here?" Then open yourself to what that could be.
• "Then you go on to the Pillar of Health and ask yourself, 'Is there anything I need to know about my health or about the health of those who are close to me?' If something comes to mind, ask yourself, 'Is there something I need to know here?" If there is, open yourself to it. Face it. Receive it.
• "Then go on to your Pillar of Spiritual Advancement and ask yourself, 'Is there something I need to know regarding my spiritual advancement?' And as with all of the other pillars, if something comes to mind, ask, 'Is there something I need to know here?'"

"'Which of my Pillars is weak right now? Which of my Pillars requires my attention? Where am I at risk? Where is my life jeapordized? Where can I be undermined.' Ask yourself these questions and pay attention to any Pillar that stand out from the rest."

The Four Pillars of Life

The Pillar of Relationships

Relationships and Higher Purpose

"Become dedicated to finding Knowledge and you will find Knowledge. And you will find those relationships that are based upon Knowledge. And those relationships will empower you and enable you to develop the other three pillars of your life."

"Building the Pillar of Relationships, for example, means that you have people in your life who can point out to you your weaknesses and who are free to correct your misperceptions. This will moderate your behavior and make you more self-aware and more circumspect about your ideas and your goals. Here your life is not full of critics but has people in it who are committed to the truth and can point out to you where you are making a mistake, where your life is going off course, and who can warn you about the influences of other people or even hidden powers that can dissuade you from your greater purpose. Without relationships of this quality, anyone is prone to failure."

"You must focus on healing your past relationships and building true alliances with other people. Because relationships require a considerable amount of time and focus, this is no small matter. These relationships are not merely to help you fulfill your ambitions but represent a deeper connection with others, relationships that have a spiritual dimension and a practical expression. They are not merely for fun or escape. They represent true alliances, and you must invest yourself in them to build this kind of deeper trust and connection."

"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."

Four Pillars Book: Living the Way of Knowledge

The Pillar of Health

"Health is vitality. Vitality is a will to live and to contribute. It contains an excitement about life. It contains a sense of purpose in life. And it communicates its natural affinity with life to everyone around you. This vitality can be in a body that is strong or in a body that is weak."

"Even the invalid can be radiant with Knowledge. This is vitality."

"Then you have your personal health, which involves your mental health and your physical health. You must recognize your psychological weaknesses, your unforgiveness of others and your unresolved conflicts from the past. You must explore how these things can be resolved." ... "If your body is weak, if your body is out of shape, then it may not be able to sustain you as a vehicle in this world. Many promising people have fallen because their physical health was inadequate to sustain the life that they had assumed. Here again you must assess your strengths and your weaknesses. Everyone physically has weak links in their health. What are those weak links? Where is your body strong and where is it fragile? What must you eat that is proper for maintaining a strong constitution? You must exercise every day and find the time to do this."

The Pillar of Work

"We will divide our conversation regarding work into three categories. The first is your work in the world. The second is your greater work. And the third is the handling and contribution of money."

"Do not confuse the reality of your Ancient Home with the reality of this world. They are different realities, and they call upon different responses within you. You have come here to work. You have work to do. You have to build a foundation for Knowledge. Then upon this foundation a greater work can be given to you. But first the foundation must be built. The bridge between your Ancient Home and this world must be constructed. You have to do your part."

"If you have a lot of money, become a benefactor. Give money to worthy people and worthy endeavors. The only value for having wealth is to be able to give it away."

"While you are building your connection to the great endowment of Knowledge within yourself, you are building your Work Pillar so that you have a viable means of sustaining yourself. Perhaps it is very mundane and not exalted, but it must be a focus that can provide for you and for other people. Instead of living hand to mouth, here you must have a great enough Work Pillar to provide for others, to provide for children, to provide for people in need and to secure yourself so that you will not be overwhelmed in the face of the Great Waves of change that are coming to the world."

The Pillar of Spiritual Development

"Spiritual development, said in the simplest of ways, is reclaiming your relationship with Knowledge—the immortal and eternal aspect of yourself that you have brought into this world.

"The fourth cornerstone of this preparation is called spiritual development. This involves spiritual practice of various kinds to enable your mind to think in harmony with Knowledge and to gain a greater perspective and understanding of the world and a thorough appreciation of your nature in relationship to the world."

"Let us make another important point. Many people think that everything they do is for their spiritual growth. This is not true. Spiritual growth is only one of the Four Pillars of life in the world. Most people will not want to admit that they do everything just to make money. Most people would not think that they do everything just to enhance their health. A few people think that they do everything for their primary relationships to the exclusion of everything else. So, why think that everything is for your spiritual growth?"

"There are many spiritual teachers in the world who will promise you abundance and enlightenment, fulfillment or spiritual powers, but there are very few of them that will teach you to build the foundation for living a greater life engaged in a greater set of activities and responsibilities. They are selling you on an idea, on a dream, on a hope and a wish. But in the real preparation, people have to work hard and build a foundation."

"Whether people believe in God, it is important that they know that there is a part of them that cannot be corrupted and has never been corrupted. And, that there is a way that that part of them can speak to them and advise them. And this is, you could call it your ground of being, your gut feeling, whatever you might call it within a religious or a general vernacular, there is a part of us that has to advise us."

A Stabilizing Force in Your Life

"The work ahead is substantial. It is humble. You are not going to be a superstar if you are to build the Four Pillars of your life. You cannot lose yourself in your hobbies, your interests or your obsessions if you are going to build the Four Pillars of your life. You cannot give yourself away to other people and their obsessions if you are to build the Four Pillars of your life."

"Occasionally, you will find the person who has built perhaps two Pillars of their life. But it is rare that you will find someone who has built all the Pillars of their life. When you approach building all the Pillars of your life, you realize you cannot be extreme in any one of them, that they require a balance and that rather than magnificence, you are seeking for stability and strength."

"There are few people who have built two Pillars. But very few people have adequately built all Four Pillars of their lives. To do so is a perfect antidote to eccentricity and extremism. For if you are really building and maintaining the Four Pillars of your life, you cannot be extreme or eccentric in any area. You cannot be compulsive. You cannot be addicted because you will be so busy taking care of the fundamental Pillars of your life, you will not have time for foolishness or self-destructive behaviors."

The Great Waves of Change

The Great Waves of Change

"You need to build these Four Pillars. It is essential for the future, for times will become difficult and unstable. The stronger your foundation, the better equipped you will be to weather the storms of the world and to deal with the increasing chaos as people’s confusion, anguish and rage increase all around you. You will need to know where to go, what to do, what to say, what not to say, where to give yourself, where not to give yourself, what to involve yourself in, what not to involve yourself in, where to speak out, where not to speak out, where to travel and where not to travel. You must have this foundation; otherwise, the Great Waves will wash you away."

"This teaching on the Four Pillars of your life is part of God’s New Message and Revelation for the world. It is being given to prepare you to become strong and stable, wise and compassionate, and capable of facing a world of ever-increasing instability and turmoil in the face of the Great Waves of change—environmental degradation, violent weather, resource depletion, increasing political and economic instability and the growing threat of war. When you begin to think of the Great Waves of change that God’s New Message is revealing, you will see how weak you really are and where you lack preparation, strength and stability."

Fulfilling Your Destiny

"The development of your Pillars is relevant to your greater purpose for coming into the world, and in that everyone has unique requirements. But in all cases your Pillars must be strong enough and built appropriately to enable you to participate in experiencing and expressing a greater purpose in your life. This means that you are taking on greater responsibilities. Even beyond the normal parameters of life, living a life of greater purpose means that you are taking on a greater set of tasks and facing a greater set of challenges. It is not for the weak or the faint of heart."

"If your life is to emerge into a greater expression and fulfill a greater destiny, you must have this foundation. It is like the launch pad for a rocket. If that launch pad fails, the rocket fails. It cannot take off. And so the infrastructure underneath that rocket becomes ever more important. It must be strong. It must be well designed. It must be able to provide its service."

"Many people think that they are ready to take on such greater responsibilities and challenges, but they really do not have the foundation that can sustain them through the long period of preparation and through the many challenges that they will face along the way. They love the idea of living a life of greater purpose and meaning, but they really do not have the foundation to sustain themselves in assuming and maintaining such a life."

See also

Practices for guidelines in conducting a review of the Four Pillars

Higher Purpose

Work

Life

The Great Waves of Change

Erosion in the Four Pillars of Life

Further Study

• Building the Four Pillars of Your Life

• Living the Way of Knowledge

• Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training