SYDNEY GOODWILL NEWSLETTER PP 297537/00068
PO Box 627
Caringbah NSW 1495
Tel: (02) 9540 2391
Fax: (02) 9524 0025No 160 / March 2000
Dear Friends,
One of the qualities now being recognised as a driving force behind the events taking place around our planet is the quality of personal magnetism or charisma. It has been a rallying point for many peoples around which they can co-ordinate their energies and manifest their freedom to contribute to the planetary life. The magnetism of a Xanana Gusmao, Nelson Mandela, Gerry Adams or a Robert Menzies or Gough Whitlam draws those in their wake who respond to the vision they embody and anchor in the world. Through this century we have also been learning the imperative to discriminate the source of such magnetism. We have seen the dark side of blind response to charisma with the rise of the likes of an Adolf Hitler and other leaders who incite their followers to the evil processes of exclusive and separate ambition. In his biography of John Howard, David Barnet writes, "the concept of charisma is the most dangerous concept in a democracy".
The recent focus on what form of republic should be considered for Australia revealed the varying responses to this force in operation. Many merely succumbed to the flow of the forces without thinking through to clarity on just what they entail and what they will lead to. At a time when we are considering our future and what we have uniquely to anchor on the planet, many have been beguiled by the past or by only our present point of experience and, contrary to the impulse of our whole history as a nation, have identified with past glories or present state rather than continuing to pioneer the future. We are all here today as a result of forces unleashed to forge a new land and a new vision driven both by that vision and by a repudiation of the limiting aspects of what we chose to leave behind. We have been called a nation of immigrants - even our indigenous peoples have come across the land bridges to nurture and hold the spirit of the land for the future.
What have we migrated to? We cannot claim specific ethnic or cultural identity as we embrace many. We cannot claim specific religious affiliation for God is worshipped in many ways here. We cannot claim specific physical type for we are drawn from many races. The external organisation, appearance and practices do not reveal our united and unique contribution to the unfolding life of our planet. It is something finer, more subtle and more powerful that will be revealed when we cease to be distracted by identification with this or that part of the external world.
What is the source of the magnetism which draws us together as a people? We speak of "the spirit of a nation" and of "sharing the spirit" and so manifest evidence of a shift In our conscious identity as a people towards what we truly are and what we have to anchor in the world. The various centres within the nation have their part to play. Here in Sydney we see the time of the 2000 Olympics as an opportunity to begin to live that greater, subtler essence which is ours to know and express. It is an opportunity to respond to the magnetic point which draws those energies together unique to its expression, to the note which emerges here - unimposed upon by external expectations, appearances or practices.
The manifestation of spirit, or spiritual enterprise, is ever a response to the power of the inner life. The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, writing to a group of disciples about the emergence of the Inner spiritual Hierarchy says-. "Will you endeavour to realise the factual nature of this great, living, spiritual organism? It constantly "substands" or underlies the world organisation. See it as a growing, vital reality, of such life and potency that it can break through or break up all limiting outer organisations and, by the very force of its interior life, eventually externalise itself "
The difficulty for many is in understanding the uses both of distinction and of synthesis. Distinction can identify the part which is ours to play, according to our inspiration, In manifesting the Inner synthesis of Life in a united world. The greater the diversity of worldly expression the more that synthesis externalises. The more we are identified with Life as a whole, the more clearly we see the temporary distinctions of reality expressing in time and space. Emphases and priorities shift. We become so much a part of that inner potency that we become an external conduit for its subtle radiators presence in the world of form - and thus draw the soul of all Into its united and restorative embrace.
2000 years ago when Christ walked the Earth He did not establish any outer organisation though many have been raised by His followers and disciples to shepherd the "little ones". Down the ages many who have lived under His inspiration have been initially viewed with suspicion (as was He) but the radiatory impact of their presence on Earth has left the world a more beautiful place than it would otherwise have been. The new moment in time finds us at a point where group consciousness and magnetic identification have arrived signalling that which will be possible for Humanity - as a group - to externalise on our planet.
Speaking in the 1930's of the Law of Group Progress, the Tibetan tells us: "Today the new groups are slowly and gradually coming into being and are being governed by . . soul laws. They will, therefore, strike a different note and produce groups which are welded together by a united aspiration and objective. Yet they will be constituted of free souls, individual and developed, who recognise no authority but that of their own souls, and submerge their interests to the soul purpose of the group as a whole. Just as the achievement of an individual has, down the ages, served to raise the race, so a paralleling achievement in group formation will tend to raise humanity still more rapidly."
He then indicates the future which is now with us.. "the groups are (now) properly established . . and (having) worked together subjectively for a necessary period of time ( . . determined by the quality of the life of the individuals composing it, and their selflessness and service) . . they . . function outwardly and their life aspect . . (makes) its presence felt. The various lines of activity . . emerge when the group vibration is strong enough to make a definite impact on the consciousness of the race."
There is much selfless service being conducted throughout the world - both in outer and obvious Brays and in the inner thought orientation of all people of goodwill. It is the inner affiliation with the forces intending what is right and true that builds the great reservoir of the will-to-good. And it is the inner potency of this reservoir which brings understanding of the nature of the forces which must be reduced to powerlessness, If these new incoming energies are to prove effective in bringing about a "new heaven and a new earth."
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The Festival in Sagittarius will be celebrated at a meditation meeting to be held at 8pm on Tueday, 23 November, at the YWCA, 5-11 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney. The theme for reflection is:
"I see the goal. I reach that goal and then I see another."
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