SYDNEY GOODWILL NEWSLETTER PP 297537/00068
PO Box 627
Caringbah NSW 1495
Tel: (02) 9540 2391
Fax: (02) 9524 0025No 166 / September 2000
Dear Friends,
We have often been told that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and, indeed, we each have our own view of the external world of material form, our own emotional response to and our own interpretation of ideas, events and feelings. Yet there is a common human response to our world which underlies our variety and within which our diverse elements have relation and therefore definition - definition being the process of describing one thing in terms of others. Everything in our unfolding, manifesting universe is relative, based on relationship through time and space. The whole scheme is the result of the process of manifesting the relationship (the oneness) of spirit and matter.
The moment we make any qualitative assessment - this is better, more fine, more whatever, than that - we are relating. But there are many dimensions to relationship. We can speak of relating the pairs of opposites by identifying them as opposite poles on the one level but, from a larger perspective, they become parts within a greater whole and their relationship is then transformed from one of conflict to interdependence.
Christ said: "Behold, I make all things new!" and it is through the eye of the beholder that this comes to pass. "Behold" He said and if we behold through His eyes, indeed everything takes on a new significance through a new realisation. From the perspective of reality there is nothing new in the universe (or nothing new under the sun). The truth has ever been everywhere present - had we the eyes to see.
Strung out through time and space, what is new for one is not necessarily new for another but each individual realisation opens up the way for more to follow. Thus the chain of Hierarchy is established so that realisation may unfold through it - the realisation of oneness. Relationship is only preliminary to a sense of complete identification with all of life. For us, on our way, there is always the new moment in time and the new realisation in consciousness. There is that which is new to the individual and that which is new to human consciousness as a whole. And the one is the means of advancement of the other - through the indissoluble relationship of the part within the whole. We are told that "In the state of being which we call the monadic . . it is realised that there is no identity apart from universality and no appreciation of the universal apart from the individual realisation, and this realisation of identification with both the part and the whole finds its point of tension in the will-to-be, which is qualified by the will-to-good and developed . . by the will-to-know."
Realisation is in the eye of the beholder and so we are responsible for what we behold. However, it is easy to get lost in the complex web of external relationship between the diverse and various elements of our world and its inhabitants within the various kingdoms. Nevertheless there is a constant "subtext" which links them. This is the underlying Purpose behind our world's existence, driving its evolving manifestation into time and space. The process of achieving that purpose - of unifying purpose, the impetus, with purpose, the goal - is the direction which draws all into its wake. Caught in the force of this direction everything is relating, changing and constantly creating new relationships under the impact of newly emerging elements as the one Life diversifies out into full coordinated manifestation - synthesised as it pursues its purpose of expressing oneness in material diversity.
So behold! All things are constantly being renewed, are evolving. Transformation becomes an automatic effect of this great process and when we are identified with that Life and Purpose working out, we see that all things are made new. We may then see, with God, "that it is good" for we are told in the New Testament "as He is so should we be in the world." A new experience of purpose then transcends all previous understanding. The Tibetan Master tries to describe it: "It is a blinding conviction of an unalterable will, carrying all before it, oblivious of time and space, aware only of intensity of direction, and carrying with it two major qualifications or basic recognitions to the initiate: a sense of essential being which obliterates all the actions and reactions of time and space, and a focussed will-to-good which is so dynamic in its effect that evil disappears. Evil is after all only an impelling sense of difference, leading inevitably to separative action."
Separative action arising from the illusion of a separate identity for its own sake brings on its own destruction and thus we learn about our interdependence within the scheme. The will driving our living experience can still be subtly coloured by the illusion of separation. This will is "too often regarded as a power by means of which things are done . . This . . is the easiest for men to formulate because it is understood by them in terms of their own self-will, the will to individual self-betterment - selfish and misunderstood at first but tending eventually to selflessness as evolution carries out its benevolent task. . . . However, the will is in reality something very different to those expressions of it which exist in the human consciousness as men attempt to interpret the divine will in terms of their present point in evolution. The clue to understanding . . is to be found in the words 'blotting out all form.' When the lure of substance is overcome and desire dies, then the attractive power of the soul becomes dominant and the emphasis for so long laid upon individual living and activity gives place to group form and group purpose. Then the attractive pull of the (spiritual) Hierarchy . . supersedes the lower attractions and the lesser focal points of interest. . . then the dynamic 'pull' of (the centre where the will of God is known) can be felt, entirely unrelated to form or forms, to a group or groups. Only a group sense of 'well-Being' . . is realised, for it is comprehended as the will-to-good. No forms can then hold; no group . . can then confine the consciousness of the initiate, and all differences of every kind disappear."
The intensity and vividness of the material world can be overpowering. It can bind us to that surface world of effects. It is addictive. Through millennia it has called and we have responded blindly in our sense of dependency, believing the illusion of separation from life, of difference. How difficult to break that hold when we think that is all we are! But these great natural forces are for us to co-operate with - not to become their victims, their material for chaotic and purposeless creation. The greater, subtler forces of underlying purpose can bring order, beauty and meaning to the many lives within the one Life if we can realise this. We can then release the imaginary hold of matter and assist its rightful participation in the unfolding process of creation. We can see that: "from God the Creator of all that IS, down to the humblest disciple . , the theme of creativity dominates and is the expression . . of the divine intention. At present what is called creative work by men is in reality an expression of themselves . . According to their spiritual development and their intelligent perception, so will be the quality and nature of their expression - but it will be theirs." However there are those who "are occupied with the expression of soul as that soul should be known in the culture and civilisation immediately to be developed. They can work entirely free from self-interest; that which they create is not claimed by them but is regarded as an expression of (spiritual) activity; they are free from the spirit to identify themselves with that which they expressed, but . . pass on to a fresh expression of the dynamic, ever-moving purpose. They are not occupied with form, but with life, with organism rather than organisation, with ideas rather than ideals, with essential truth rather than formulated theologies."
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PLEASE NOTE - change of venue due to the OLYMPICS !
The Festival in Virgo will be celebrated at a meditation meeting to be held at 8pm on Wednesday, 13 September, at the The Centre, 14 Frances Street, Randwick. (The Libra meeting will be back at the YWCA.) The theme for reflection is: "I am the Mother and the Child, I God, I matter am."
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Millennium Peace Day - The year 2000 is the U.N. International Year for the Culture of Peace. The U.N. International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World will be 2001 - 2010. You are invited to join with delegates to the United Nations and with citizens in all the world's regions for One Minute of Silence to focus on Peace and the needs of the world's children, followed by practical acts of Peace. This is a Worldwide Peace Initiative wherein individuals, organisations and nations act in concert on Millennium Peace Day. This will be held on the third Tuesday of every September, noon in your time zone, and the week surrounding Peace Day. Every day can be a Peace Day when building Cultures of Peace. A special Millennium Peace Day will be held Tuesday 19 September 2000 to usher in the Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2000-2010). For further information email Pathways to Peace at <pathways@peacenet.org> or mail PO Box 1057, Larkspur CA 94977 USA.Return to Newsletter main page