In the Greater Community, the weak are overtaken by the strong, just as in your world. In your world, you have the distinct advantage of being the predominant species of intelligent life. You have undertaken to dominate the world, but in the Greater Community you would not be considered strong or advanced. This must give you a very sober view of yourself, but a view that can engender a desire for greater intelligence and perhaps even the willingness to undertake the preparation. Your capacity varies amongst you individually, but it is still relatively small. However, human beings are capable of achieving great things if the incentive, the desire and the freedom are all present. That is why a greater intelligence than your own is bestowing this preparation upon you and with it the understanding of its importance, its relevance to your time and its possible application in the future where it will be called upon again and again.
Along with the preparation for greater intelligence comes the development of a larger perspective on life, which you may call a Greater Community perspective. The Greater Community perspective sees humanity as a growing, evolving race in a larger arena where there are other forces of intelligent life interacting and competing with one another. Humanity is not yet competitive in the Greater Community. It is not that unified, developed or focused. This must not be seen as a repudiation of humanity’s potential, talents or achievements. It is simply that in a larger environment you cannot yet compete with other forms of intelligent life. Yet, they are entering your world, and you are faced with the prospect of having to encounter these intelligences in situations where you will recognize your limitations. These situations can be very frightening, but they call upon you to rise above your sense of vulnerability and helplessness and cultivate yourself in ways that call forth the greater possibilities that you now have.
This requires a very unique form of education. It must be a form of education that is presented to humanity from beyond the world, for humanity cannot prepare itself for the Greater Community. Though people will prepare other people in The Way of Knowledge, its source is from beyond the world. It emanates from a greater intelligence and a greater race. You must recognize the need to have the willingness to undergo the preparation in The Greater Community Way of Knowledge. You must feel this need; you must see it in the world; you must consider it deeply. Your desire for truth, for the resolution of conflict and for self-realization is essential here. Here your own desires and needs are not sufficient, for you need to recognize that your abilities and understanding are needed in the world. This, then, will call forth what is possible within you. This can stimulate the development of intelligence.
Now, people already consider that they are very intelligent. This is generally assumed because they do not live in a competitive environment in this regard. Compared to plants and animals, you do seem very intelligent. You are also very troubled in comparison to these life forms. Yet, now you are emerging into a new arena with new requirements, new possibilities and new dangers. Clearly, it is a danger when human beings will not respond to what is occurring in their lives and will not seriously consider the implications. That is a risk.
The desire to learn, the desire to understand and the desire to overcome are all inherent within you. These all add up to a great motivation that is being accelerated in the human race. As larger and more complex problems arise, they call upon human beings to concentrate, to learn, to adapt and to rethink their current positions—all these things. It is wise, then, to consider that you are a developing intelligence.
Intelligence requires development on many levels and in many different arenas of activity. It requires clear thinking, objectivity, inner perception, highly cultivated intuition, the ability to understand mechanical things and the ability to identify and discern behavior. In practical matters and in the mysteries themselves, greater intelligence must find a larger view and a larger application. After all, if you evaluate your own intelligence, you can only do so in contrast to something else that you consider to be intelligent. Indeed, there are life forms that are more intelligent than you and, obviously, life forms that are less intelligent. It is the life forms that are more intelligent that can advance you. They will reveal your limitations and emphasize the need for these limitations to be overcome, and they will demonstrate to you that you live in a competitive environment as far as intelligence is concerned.
