Second step: the race (Christianity)

Having recognized the cry is oneself united with the universe, the ego bursts with a new insight. It is not oneself but one's ancestors talking through one, demanding that their work is completed that they may have significance. One chooses carefully and without mercy which of them will be allowed to fulfil its desires, to turn its thoughts to action, to give form to its hopes. One's first duty, in service to one's race, is to feel within one's being all of one's ancestors. It is not enough to be a slave to these ancestors. One is more, a new hope, a new possibility on which the whole of one's race is gambled. One is to make strong the living men, women and children of one's race. One's second duty is to continue the work of the race. The next generation fights for freedom from one's ways. They dismiss the present as sluggish. One rejoices, for the third duty is to pass on to one's children the mandate that they surpass this generation.

The second step in the march for the spiritual exercises of Nikos Kazantzakis.