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

No 207/April 2004

Dear Friends,
It seems as we watch events around our planet, as well as in our more immediate neighbourhood, that we must all eventually become weary of conflict like warriors at the end of the battle. Yet through the conflicts between the dualities we have created, we are beginning to see the doorway to resolution and enlightenment gradually opening as we discern more and more clearly what is unreal, temporary and dispensable. And the reality is nothing like what we may have expected! What survives even the most bitter of conflicts is the singular resilience and grandeur of the human spirit, no matter how soon or late its many forms return to the reservoir of substance. What lives on is the essence of men's lives and what lives eternal is the human spirit that breathes through them, drawing life from the central source of all Life.

When we lay our thoughts, feelings and actions behind one side or another, one opinion or another, one ideology or belief or another - we, too, are entering that great arena. Ultimately there is no duality - only oneness. What we are fighting our way towards is the essence of that oneness and the realisation that the dualities only exist in time and space where the illusion of separation occurs - moment from moment, place from place. As we resolve conflict after conflict, as we enter into mutual relationship and as we draw our sense of identity from larger and larger wholes, we move towards the reality of wholeness, towards the interrelatedness and the great operational flow of the one living system of which we are an integral part. We are spirit interrelating with matter to express through the myriad mutual creations.

True discrimination is not between ideologies, beliefs, nations, factions, cultures, or people - it is between spirit and matter in time and space. Every individual is an anchor point for the soul into the material world. If we see each other in this light we then begin to see through the defences triggered by the animal nature's instinct for self preservation and perceive the eternal being patiently and persistently seeking to express in the world. Cries of fear or desire are cries of pain from the form. We are not that form. Our pathway to freedom lies in expressing not the nature of form but the nature of life through form.

In neither pain nor joy is liberation found.
In neither dark nor light will the spiritual sun appear.
The pairs of opposites distract the eyes of men.
Only the single eye directs the steps
Of the initiate upon the Way.

While we are torn between the opposites we are bound by them as on a rack. The pain or relief we may experience is a response of our consciousness to these illusory bonds. But in reality we are not so bound and can walk free in consciousness at any time. We are told: "Your major need is freedom, is liberation. … not … freedom from incarnation or liberation from the pressures of life, but the freedom which the sannyasin knows as he roams free in the three worlds - unsupervised or unintruded upon by aught but his own soul. It is the freedom which gives mental help, emotional response and physical time as and when the disciple chooses. These are not evoked by habit or by the demand of others, but are the free contribution of the soul to a current need. Your response is not always to need, is it, my brother?"

The bound consciousness progresses through the discipline of fear, of pain and sorrow because it is immersed in that illusion of reality and responds accordingly - like the battered wife who will not leave the source of her torment, or like any of us who, through habit and conditioning, march into the same combats day after day. What changes everything is a change of consciousness - an expansion into a greater view that sees all in their places and at the point they are at (in time and space) and understands. Understanding is a transforming energy that flows from the centre of the whole, clarifying and enlightening with blinding revelation. It is contained by no individual but flows through each one and thence through all within the direction of their focussed attention. The reactions to fear, failure, punishment and death are replaced with the reality of joy, achievement and the free flow of the one life through all. The Tibetan Master asked: "Have you ever thought, my brother, that just as there is a discipline of pain and of sorrow, there may also be a discipline of joy and of achievement? This is a thought worthy of attention. Men need these days to learn this new truth, and its perception will greatly change human consciousness. That which is bliss is today here or on its way, and the disciples and aspirants of this present time must be taught how to recognise and implement it."

This flow of joy comes not through the self-conscious, self-congratulatory criticism of another's lack but in recognising the potential soul in expression and assisting it towards fulfilment simply by recognition and by engagement with it rather than with its (as yet) imperfect expression. We still see much of the discipline of pain in politics today - distraction from the real issues by focussing on critical attack, either direct or implied. This conflict and pain may drive us to a point of clarity and readiness but it is Joy which leads us from the conflict of dualities into harmony and thence into the revelation of oneness. Then we are no longer animated by the fire of friction but enlivened by solar fire which in turn is empowered by the electric fire of spirit.

We live in an expanding universe - expanding in consciousness. Every expansion breaks through the old barriers of illusion we have constructed, and its effects are deep and far-reaching in the world if we look beyond the external happenings. In this way we consciously enter into the place where the real, the true and the eternal may be contacted: "Neither pain nor anxiety can overwhelm the man who dwells in the consciousness of eternity; this sense of the eternal, coupled with the realisation of essential unity, marks the dweller in an Ashram. … This place is not a dream or a figment of wishful thinking; it is a sphere of focussed awareness where the minds, the love, the aspiration and the spiritual consciousness of many meet, and meet in truth"

Through our expanding awareness we help bring Heaven upon earth and prepare the way through our increased capacity to consciously share in the greater life and its inspiration. The challenge then is no longer between the opposing sides in the illusion of separate views but is the challenge of living the reality of the one life and not looking back to the old illusion of separation, fear and pain. This is the challenge of the light amidst the darkness, the real amidst the unreal, of immortality amidst death. Easter time reminds us of this in the way Christ brought the aura of His presence and all that flows through it into the world. Those who would serve Him stand in that place He has shown us. The Tibetan explains to a disciple:
"Those disciples who work today in the world and do so consciously in order to aid the Christ and His mission, come within the protecting aura with which (He) at all times surrounds certain work … This work of preparation for His coming is curiously fraught with danger because of the immense antagonism it arouses in the opposing forces of evil. The main attack of these forces is upon disciples and particularly those in a position … where they can act with potency and greatly help in the task of reaching others. This you can do, and along with all disciples are, therefore marked 'for protection' … This does not mean that you will be free from attack and … attack on all three bodies simultaneously, but it means that such an attack will arouse in you no fear. Remember always … that it is fear that permits the entry of wrong potencies, and that such an attack may not be aimed at your weakest point but preferably at your strongest; it is there where disciples are often caught unawares and thus suffer a temporary setback …Those who work in this coming cycle must cast off fear and refuse to register in their consciousness - by an act of the spiritual will - the very existence of that which causes the reaction of fear."

The following extract from the Affirmation of a Disciple reminds us of our part in this great emergence:

I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focussed within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand.