The Great World House
Jonathan's story

Building an Education and Stretching a Dollar Beyond Physical Limits

by Jonathan Duerbeck

Building the Reign of Peace

“The idea that the reign of peace must come one day has been given expression by a number of peoples who have attained a certain level of civilization. In Palestine, it appeared for the first time in the words of the prophet Amos in the eighth century B.C. and it continues to live in the Jewish and Christian religions as the belief in the Kingdom of God.

“It figures in the doctrine taught by the great Chinese thinkers: Confucius and Lao-tse in the sixth century B.C., Mi-tse in the fifth, Meng-tse in the fourth. It reappars in Tolstoy and in other contemporary European thinkers. People have labeled it a utopia. But the situation today is such that it must become reality in one way or another; otherwise mankind will perish.”

—Albert Schweitzer, theologian, musicologist, organist, medical missionary, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. Schweitzer’s words are spoken as part of The Invitation.

Would you rather support a building or a class? How about both?

When something is created in the School of Metaphysics, it’s always a class. That’s how our school works; it’s part of our ideal to aid anyone to be whole. The process of building our new (and needed) headquarters building is more than just a shelter where people can do good work for humanity. It’s actually part of our education, and we are milking every step of the way for all the learning and teaching we can get.

That’s what we do.

That’s how we know life can be lived, so that’s how we run our school.

Who did we hire to design the building? No one. One of our advanced students, and my former teacher, Paul Madar, is leading the effort. It’s part of his education in leadership, directing, teaching, communication, and more. And, like everyone else involved, he has a teacher working with him to help him see all ways he can learn from this effort and use it to transform himself.

How many organizations work that way? This is a unique approach. It’s wholistic beyond the norm, just like our school.

In the history of the School of Metaphysics, before every big new creation, there’s a sense of expectation. In my own time as a student, that expectation was present before building the Peace Dome, before sending a delegation to Australia for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, even before things like performing The Invitation, publishing new books, and launching new websites. It’s the expectation that we will all learn a LOT, and that we and our school are transforming as we create something new. This new building is the biggest construction project we’ve tackled to date, and we expect bigger learning and bigger growth for ourselves and our school. We have a dream of teaching and serving many, many more people, and this is our latest, biggest step on the road to that dream.

The leaders of this project are all teachers and students, and none are working for any kind of wage or salary. They all care, and they are engaging their minds in ways that make things happen faster, better, and bigger than the norm.

So, putting that all together, this is an incredibly efficient, powerful way to build. It accomplishes so much…

1. The leaders of the project, and many of the workers, are all giving their time and talents freely, which not only cuts cost, it actually creates prosperity through Universal Law.

2. The building process is a valuable part of the education of everyone involved, and it’s part of a visionary way of learning and creating, so in the very act of supporting this building, you’re supporting the vision of how people can live ideals of spiritual growth, and helping people learn.

3. The building exists to serve people—not their egos, but ultimately, their real Self. This building is for helping people evolve. It will help us continue serving more people all over the world .

4. It’s the way something is created that makes it sacred or whole-y. A building created as an organic part of learning and teaching how to live a spiritual life becomes a sacred site. Our planet can use more sacred sites, and we need to build in more whole-y ways. The earth needs us to build in more whole-y ways, too.

You can help us set an example, engage universal laws, and live a spiritual vision, just by supporting our effort to create, learn, and serve with this wonderful “world house.”•

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