Idealism

"Your idealism ... can only lead you astray."

"The Greater Community Way of Knowledge takes you beyond idealism and speculation into real engagement and greater certainty."

Identification

"What is idealism but ideas of things that are hoped for based on disappointment? Your idealism includes yourself, your relationships and the world in which you live. It includes God and life and all realms of experience that you can imagine. Without experience, there is idealism."

"Idealism is the attempt not to accept the world as it is. It justifies blame and condemnation. It establishes expectations of a life that does not yet exist and thus renders you vulnerable to grave disappointment. Your idealism fortifies your condemnation.... Idealism justifies condemnation."

"This is the great difference between Wisdom and idealism. Wisdom leads to action, and idealism leads nowhere. It has no direction. You cannot act upon it effectively, for it is not going anywhere."

Directives

"Let not idealism guide you, for Knowledge is here to guide you."

"Do not then pretend that you are God by attempting to re-arrange the world toward your idea of perfection or wholeness or unity. To do so will merely deceive you once again and force you to use relationships to satisfy your idealism, which will in time require that you become an oppressor and a victim of error."

"See yourself as you are today. See others as they are today. See the world as it is today. All without condemnation. To see without condemnation, you must see without idealism. You must see without the need for you, for others and for the world to be as you want them to be."

The Impertinence of Idealism

"Within this greater context [[of The Greater Community Way of Knowledge]], the encumbrances of human pageantry, history, fantasy and idealism have no place."

"Only when you are removed from life and separated from it do you need a great deal of ideas and idealism with which to justify and direct your experience."

"True spiritual training is very disappointing. Why? Because you find that your philosophy, your idealism and your hopes must be left at the entrance to the temple. Only those who argue philosophy remain outside on the steps. In the sanctuary this has no meaning."

Idealism in Relationships

"Relationships which are used to fulfill fantasy and idealism must always go astray and end in anger and disappointment."

"If your experience of God is concealed by idealism or wishful thinking, so will be your relationships with others and with the world."

"Some people wish to return to God and commit themselves to God, but they cannot be with anybody. And so they are trying to be with everything, but they do not know how to be with any one thing. This leads to idealism of a very unfortunate kind, for people are committed to an idea of God and not to God at all. People are committed to an idea of relationship but cannot participate in relationship."

The Limits and Cost of Idealism

"Why would anyone become violent in life save that their idealism has been dashed by something?"

"Idealism ... paints a picture the world cannot possibly support."

"You cannot teach people from idealism, for then you place upon them the burden of your own expectations."

"People want life to be what life is not, they want themselves to be what they are not and they want their destiny to be what it is not. Then they attempt to gain from life that which confirms their own idealism, and because life cannot confirm this, all becomes distressed, conflicted and complex."

"Idealism can be helpful at the beginning, for it can start you moving in a true direction, but you must not rest your conclusions or your identity upon it, for only experience can give you that which is true to you and that which you can fully accept.... Even though your ideals may look beneficial and seem to represent your desire for love and harmony, they in effect hold you back, for they replace that which would truly give you the gifts that you seek."

"Idealism of any kind stands in the way of the reclamation of Knowledge. It is a choice for belief over experience, for ideas over relationships, for self-importance over truth. Even for those who have very lofty ideas about themselves and the universe, their ideas, which may seem harmless within themselves, become a great restraint in The Way of Knowledge."

See Also

Experience

Discernment

Surrender

Inner guidance