Intellectual Development

The New Testament provides us with possibility to see the religiosity of people of different intellectual levels.

The highest level is represented by Jesus Christ. No one even of His personal disciples could comprehend with mind all profundity of His Teachings.

The second level is represented by the closest disciples of Jesus who tried to understand the Teacher and partly succeeded in this.

The next level is people of a high social rank who knew and followed earthly religious traditions concerning rituals and rules of conduct. But they were not capable of apprehending the living words of God.

And the lowest level is people capable of thinking only according to the following scheme: “They give me — it’s good! They stop giving me — it’s bad!”

The developed intellect of a person does not imply that the level of ethical development of this person is also high. But ethical self-perfection is not possible without a developed intellect. Therefore, if we seek spiritual self-realization, we have to work on intellectual self-development as well.

What does contribute to this development? First of all, getting education, various kinds of labor (especially, creative ones), work with books, taking part in theoretical search. The modern society, highly developed in the scientific and technical aspects, is a very good possibility for applying the mind and developing it.

… The translation of the New Testament (into Russian, for example) is far from being perfect. Profound meaning of some statements of Jesus was “cut off” by translators, who were incapable to understand His ideas.

But one error in translation had a disastrous effect. It is the phrase “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 5:3). Many readers concluded from it that Jesus preaches intellectual primitivism and parasitism.

But Jesus meant completely different thing! He said about future blessedness not of panhandling parasites, but of people who renounced possessing material wealth and who did it not due to laziness, drunkenness, or other reasons like this, but due to spiritual creed — “due to spirit” and not “in spirit”.

Those will be blessed in the Kingdom of Heaven who renounced possession of earthly things, renounced seeking earthly wealth because the Heavenly Father will be their Wealth if they dedicated themselves to aspiring for Him. “Do not lay up treasures on the Earth…, but lay up treasures in Heaven… for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt 6:19-21), — this is one of the most important postulates of His Teachings.

Regarding wisdom Jesus taught the following: “Ignorance is the mother of all evil for us. Ignorance will result in (spiritual) death. Those abiding in the Truth will be perfect when all the Truth is revealed (to them). … How much it is stronger than ignorance and error! It gives Freedom.

Jesus said, ‘If you know the Truth, the Truth will make you free. Ignorance is slavery. Knowledge is Freedom.’

“If we know the Truth, we shall find the fruits of the Truth within us.” (The Gospel of Philip, 123).

“… Be wise… and simple…” (The Gospel of Thomas, 39).

The Ripple Effect

Each choice we make causes
a ripple effect in our lives.
When things happen to us,
it is the reaction we choose
that can create the difference
between the sorrows of our past
and the joy in our future.

Know Yourself Through Awareness

"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself."
Abraham H. Maslow

"To be authentic is literally to be your own author, to discover your own native energies and desires, and then to find your own way of acting on them."
Warren G. Bennis

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
Albert Einstein

"Self-knowledge is the great power by which we comprehend and control our lives." Vernon Howard

"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself."
Beryl Markham

Who am I? To answer this, we must first learn to become more aware of ourselves. To be aware, we must STOP and PAY ATTENTION! We need to STOP and objectively watch and experience ourselves in action.

We live most of our lives by habit. These habits keep us stuck in patterns that limit our experience of life. Once we detect a pattern we were previously unconscious of, we can choose differently, if we want. With awareness comes choice and with choice, we gain freedom.

Start building the awareness habit: STOP and PAY ATTENTION. Set an intention to become aware of how you automatically react to different things in your life.

For example, how do you typically react to the alarm clock, traffic, work colleagues and situations, your partner or children? How do you react to anger or fear in someone else? How do you react to your own anger or fear? Become a witness to your own life. Pay attention to how you do things.

Become aware of how your thinking creates your reality. Probe the messages underlying your emotions. Learn to honour your body's wisdom. Awareness reveals to us a whole new fascinating world.

Align with your true essence
Identify and resolve life issues and your life will change!

Triple Filter Test (Socrates)

In ancient Greece(469-399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom.

One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance that ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students called Plato?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything, I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test.

The first filter is TRUTH. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of USEFULNESS. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

This is why Socrates was a great philosopher & held in such high esteem. Friends, use this triple filter each time you hear loose talk about any of your near & dear friends.