Metaphors for vantage point
The vantage point at the beginning of the journey
"If you can make this journey and if you can choose this journey again and again, you will advance. If you quit, you will not advance. The journey is the way. You will only know it is the way if you travel it. Do not stand at the beginning and say, 'Well, I’m not sure. Is this the way or should I do something else? Something else looks better. Something else looks quicker. Something else looks more pleasurable.' Do not be deceived. You can only find the way if you travel it."[1]
The vantage point from further up the climb
"The emphasis here is for you to reach that vantage point where you can see your relationship with God and with yourself clearly while you are in the world. It is from this vantage point that you will be able to see the relationship of all things. Like climbing a great mountain, you must reach a certain position where the relationship of that mountain to everything around it becomes self-evident. From this vantage point, you will see why you could not have comprehended the overall meaning of your existence before. Previously, you were consumed within a certain stage of development and all that you could see was that stage of development. Yet when you look down from the mountain and see the trail far below, you will say, 'Yes, from that vantage point down below, I could only see the trail and my immediate circumstances.' Perhaps on that trail you lost track of the mountain and its summit altogether. Yet when you reach this higher vantage point, your perspective will be more complete. Therefore, to answer the fundamental questions of life, you must reach the vantage point where the answer is self-evident." [2]
"You can advance up the mountain and gain a greater vantage point in life, a greater view and a greater honesty. As you proceed, what is necessary will serve you. What is unnecessary will burden you and will have to be left aside. Then your steps will become quicker, and your burden will become lighter. And your need to associate with life that exists in the lowlands will become less and less of an encumbrance for you."[3]
References
- ↑ Greater Community Spirituality, Chapter 8: Who is Wisdom meant for?
- ↑ Relationships & Higher Purpose, Chapter 1: Your Most Primary Relationship
- ↑ Greater Community Spirituality, Chapter 20: What is religious education and who is it for?
See also
Further study
- Preparing for the Greater Community, Chapter 8: Developing a Greater Community Perspective and Understanding