Ambition
"Being without Knowledge is being willful, ambitious, cunning, clever, manipulative, shrewd, and calculating. Take heed. This is the evidence that Knowledge is lacking." [1]
"It is only when people are ambitious and impatient, when they seek to have the great rewards now instead of later, that they get into serious trouble." [2]
Directives
"Do not let ambition pull you where you cannot go. Do not let it misappropriate your vitality and your energy. Learn to become patient and calm with Knowledge, for Knowledge has its own goal and direction in life, which you are now learning to follow." [3]
Quotes on ambition
"Your ambition is born of your personal need for recognition and reassurance. It is an attempt to counteract fear by controlling the opinions of others. Your ambition here is destructive, but like all other faculties of mind that are misappropriated, in time it can serve the greatness of Knowledge." [3]
"The greatest price of personal goals and acquisitions is that they disengage you from Knowledge within yourself. Here your pre-occupations override your true determination, your true inclinations and your inner voice, which is speaking to you throughout the day to help guide and protect you and to counsel you in matters great and small."[4]
The antidote to all personal ambition
"Your great gift is meant to be given in conjunction with the giving of others. You do not get to be a superstar in reality. Your contribution comes through relationship. You have part of the gift. They have part of the gift. You give together. It is your relationship that gives and makes the giving possible. This serves as a perfect antidote to all personal ambition and self-glorification." [5]
Ambitions must fail us
"Think ambition like this: it is an attempt to make separation work. It is an attempt to make your individual, self-created self satisfactory. This pursuit must fail for you to begin to realize that you have a greater life that exists without your self-definition but that needs your assistance and all of your energy for its expression. This is a new life, a new impulse, a new motivation."[4]
See also
Further Study
- Wisdom from the Greater Community, Book 2, Chapter 1: Ambition
- Greater Community Spirituality, Chapter 7: How is Wisdom achieved in life?
References
- ↑ Greater Community Spirituality, Chapter 17: How does revelation occur in human life?
- ↑ Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 10: Being Present in the World
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Steps to Knowledge, Step 219: I will not let ambition deceive me today.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Wisdom from the Greater Community, Book 2, Chapter 1: Ambition
- ↑ Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training, Step 80: “I have a gift that I share with others.”