Failure

Personal

"Every failure started out as a good idea—something that would lead in a preferred direction, something that would further a personal cause. Let your failures in life, then, disillusion you and sober you, temper you and open your eyes. Accept your failures. Call them failures. They are failures. Let them renew you. Let them clear your vision. Let them free you from future failure. Let them give you discernment. Let them teach you discretion. Let them take you back to truth, which is what you needed to begin with."

"Why take the easy and comfortable way? That only leads to a great failure at the end of your life, a failure that will cause you much distress and unhappiness throughout your life. There is no comfort in comfort. There is no escape in escape. There is no relief in passivity. There is no luxury in luxury. Unless you can fulfill your mission and purpose here, a misery will attend you that no amount of pleasure, luxury, avoidance, comfort or passivity can allay."

Societal

"For it is at this great turning point that humanity will choose success or failure in the face of immense difficulty in the world and in the face of opposing and competing forces from the Greater Community who seek to take advantage of a struggling and divided humanity."

"Even if the Greater Community were not present in the world today, your failure to take these steps [toward unification of all humanity] would lead to the destruction of your environment and the loss of your opportunity to live in this world. Two great tragedies. The possibility for that failure now is great; the risks are high.

"If you fail in this regard, you will fail even to meet your world's needs, and this will overtake you in time. You cannot afford this, and you know it."

In learning the Way of Knowledge

'You may ask, “How can someone fail in learning The Way of Knowledge?” And I say: “Seek out or protect an inappropriate relationship, and you will fail, and your failure will be a difficult learning process.”'

Potential pitfalls

ambition

impatience

unwillingness to learn

unwillingness to fit oneself into appropriate placement

misguided associations ("the wrong people in the wrong ways")

attempt to use rather than be used by the truth

lack of discernment

indiscretion

grandiose imaginations about one's role or abilities

Metaphors

"The one who is taking the real steps to Knowledge and is learning them correctly will pass you by. And you will become broken down by the side of the road, unable to participate and unable to move forward."