PP 297537/00068
PO Box 627
Caringbah NSW 1495
Tel: (02) 9540 2391
Fax: (02) 9524 0025
www.sydneygoodwill.org.au

No 195/March 2003

Dear Friends,

The resounding success of the "Share the Spirit of Peace" peace summit is perhaps the best expression of gratitude to all those who donated time, money and expertise towards its realisation. Most significantly it was the energy of these freely given gifts of the heart that made it such an enriching experience - for we found ourselves constantly in a powerful exchange. Almost a third of the delegates to the summit offered their services as volunteers and so became fully part of the transmission of the power of the Spirit of Peace through the interaction and activity of the day. All who came joined in the group effort to anchor a new culture of peace on earth. And all was done in a new mode of freely given efforts under the new discipline of united joy and achievement.

The speakers addressed the empowerment of the human heart and will, and recognized its emerging strength in the world as we look to those leaders who can point the way with greater clarity and as we enter a new age, a new era, and create a new culture. They addressed the causal level behind world situations and clarified the way forward to achieve a dynamic, creative world at peace.

The young people ensured that all went smoothly and highlights were the thoughtful opening remarks from the youth MC, the inspiring closing message of the day from the leader of the youth hosts and then the amazing celebration of the World Peace Prayer Flag ceremony as 192 children, youth and adults presented each of the member flags of the United Nations and moved in procession from the Great Hall at the University of Sydney to Victoria Park for the planting of the Peace Pole where the choir and student captains of Cabramatta High school paid tribute to the energy of peace and our united intention to anchor it on Earth. The celebration concert was the final exquisite gift to the purpose of the day.

The experience of the day was a beautiful reminder of one of the most apparently simple yet deeply significant sutras from Patanjali:

"In the presence of him who has perfected harmlessness, all enmity ceases." As the commentary on this sutra explains it "demonstrates to us the working out of a great law. . . Patanjali tells us that the perception of a characteristic, of a quality and of an objective form is dependent upon the fact that in the perceiver similar characteristics, qualities and objective capacity are to be found. This similarity is the basis of perception. The same truth is hinted at in the first Epistle of St John where the words are found 'We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.' Only that can be contacted which is already present or partially present in the perceiver's consciousness. If enmity and hatred are therefore to be found by the perceiver, it is because in him the seeds of enmity and hatred are present. When they are absent naught but unity and harmony exists. This is the first stage of universal love, the practical endeavour on the part of the aspirant to be at one with all beings. He begins with himself and sees to it that the seeds of harmfulness in his own nature are eradicated. He deals, therefore, with the cause which produces enmity towards him and others. The natural result is that he is at peace and others are at peace with him. In his presence even wild beasts are rendered impotent and this by the condition of the mind-state of the aspirant or yogin."

The empowerment of our humanity does not ultimately lie in amassing material might. This in and of itself carries only the seeds of its own destruction. For any blow given is a blow received through the equal and opposite reaction. How clearly our criticism mirrors our own next steps. How powerfully do our actions invite the same in response. Knowing this, we realise that to attempt to eradicate something by the use of it sets up a downward spiral of destruction and we fall into the power of the very thing we would refute.

Many people around the world are calling on their leaders to mirror their example, to represent their insight and vision and to point the way with greater clarity. The soul of humanity is stirring and responding to a powerful vision of peace and its true power to enliven and change the world. The power of this vision is penetrating to the causal levels and the deeper truths behind world affairs. It is expelling any doubts of the way forward. Humanity is deploring those actions that would perpetuate current hindrances to solutions needed at the point where issues begin, solutions that will take us beyond the cycle of effects and out of the imprisoning round of action and reaction.

The power of the human spirit is moving across the face of the Earth and expressing through small and large gatherings, through the internet, through communication and through inter-human relations, restoring them to the right interrelation within the interdependent whole which comprises our world. Truly we are entering the age of the people's vision and the people demand that their leaders represent this vision on their behalf. It is the age of freedom and of universality. Authority now comes from the sense of human unity within, from a sense of global forces marshalling to carry the world, in its entirety, to a future of dynamically expressing peace.

And so our planet, our world, moves onwards on its journey towards becoming a sacred planet where divine will expresses truly through all interdependent parts of a beautifully coordinated whole - where the inner worlds of reality guide and direct outer action and creation to more fully manifest the one spirit in the many forms. Human beings are learning to think through issues and so provide an inflow into the world of truth, reality and divine power. They are learning to perceive, assess and see direction and they are doing this together. The Master, Djwhal Khul, wrote in the 1940's:

"Few people realize . . how naturally telepathic every human being is or how impressionable are their minds . . The creation of the millions of material things which men everywhere regard as essential to their well-being is also the result of the creative activity . . This is . . as it demonstrates on the physical plane. When it demonstrates upon the mental plane, we then talk of ideas, concepts, philosophies and ideologies. When it demonstrates upon the astral plane, we are aware of the religious impulse, of mysticism and of the emotional and conditioning desires. All of these aspects are present in the consciousness of men everywhere today. Everything is crystallizing in human consciousness, and this takes place in order to make man aware of where he stands upon the ladder of evolution, and of what is wrong and what is right. . . This will begin to transform human living and human desires and also human affairs and attitudes, and will lead eventually . . to the great Transfiguration . . in which the reality which lies behind all human phenomena will stand revealed."

And thus the divine Life works out through our united service and our beautiful diversity of expression throughout the world and throughout time.