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

No 210/July 2004

Dear Friends,
Great inspiration can come through the least obvious and most unexpected sources. In a recent ABC television programme, called Ryan's Well, the story was told of how a 6 year old Canadian boy, inspired by hearing at school about the urgent need for fresh water in some places in Africa, decided to save his pocket money towards the cost of a well for them. In the beginning his brothers helped him in doing odd jobs for family members to earn extra money for the project. But it was Ryan's project and eventually their interest returned to their own pursuits. As time went by and Ryan's focus on his project remained the same, his parents began to pay more attention. Other family members and neighbours became aware of the ongoing task and responded with ways for Ryan to earn more funds - donations also began to roll in.

Eventually the target $70 was reached and the family sought out the non-profit organization which facilitated water projects around the world. They were dismayed to find that not $70 but $2,000 was required. Undeterred, 6 year old Ryan then set about finding the extra money. By this time his focussed persistence to help those in need had inspired all who heard of it and he was asked to speak at schools and organizations who then lent support to the cause.

The project finally climaxed in the building of a well, called "Ryan's Well, at a school in Northern Uganda. Touched by this generosity of spirit, neighbours funded a trip for Ryan and his parents to visit the village and school where the well was built. This was not the end, however, as Ryan, now 9 years old and having seen first hand the relative privation of the wonderful people he met there, planned further fundraising for other wells and equipment to build them in other places of need.

As each step was taken the next was revealed and the inspiration, far from running out, actually expanded and touched all who heard of it. A new energy of possibility rather than limitation, of knowing rather than fearing, of achievement rather than pain, enlightened the minds and hearts of all involved and shone through the new interconnections of human beings coming together from different parts of the world, joined by a common sense of purpose and unfolding direction.

Indeed, Life breathes through all around us - friends and foes, colleagues and strangers, near and far, modern and ancient, future and past. We can be moved by the same spirit though it expresses in another part of the world, another race, another time. Such is the breadth to which human consciousness can expand. Not only is "the sky the limit" but the furthest reaches of space are within the scope of our consciousness. We are not contained by our physical presence or surroundings, but can use our response mechanism to apprehend and transmit the greater life in which we participate.

In so doing we are at one with Life, identified with it, and are free in the most expanded sense from the limitations of form and the material world. Entering this realisation takes us beyond any sense of suffering and pain which are the automatic response of the physical form to protect it from untimely end. We are told "neither pain nor anxiety can overwhelm the man who dwells in the consciousness of eternity". In the New Testament we read of the experience of the Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, explains: "There again …the human element of suffering is emphasised, whereas in the true symbolical 'garden' … there is no aspect of suffering. Suffering and pain enter not into the consciousness of the Master."

Instead there is absorption in a higher purpose and there is a growing sensitivity to the vast whole of which we are a part. In simple but powerful accounts such as Ryan's Well we see this sensitivity beginning to reflect through changing human activity.

The Tibetan goes on to explain that for those living the greater reality: "We have no adequate word for this quality or type of sensitivity, for it is not something which we can consciously understand, nor is it a form of conscious reaction; neither is it awareness as we use that term. It has been … defined as something akin to 'immersion in a realised state of Being,' because the initiate is a conscious aspect of that of which he forms an integral part. … Revelation is a progressive matter. (We) are not readily able to understand the extensive significances of the (next step), … even high initiates fail to comprehend that which lies plainly before Them. (We) can, however, dimly sense the nature of the transfiguration which characterises them, from a (spiritual) point of view, and the Masters can also dimly sense the nature of the decision with which They are faced. It is this preparatory sensitivity in the disciple which produces true perception at all the various initiatory stages. This is a statement of major importance and links sensitivity, its interpretation and control, with the everyday life of the ordinary disciple. It is important because of its inclusiveness and because each stage upon the Path … has in it the germ of comprehension and an understanding (deeply hidden) of the various steps which have to be taken upon the Way …"

Ryan was a point of inspiration and held true to it - but he did not do it alone. All involved worked as one under the common goal which he held to, sharing it only as requested. He made no demands or expectations or judgements on others as to whether they should or should not help, but those who responded were drawn to the cause by the magnetic appeal of his dedication. At no point did he appear to make self-reference - which would only have deflected focus and effort from the goal. His story is an example of how "a man's reach must exceed his grasp or else what is heaven for". We cannot grasp something without reaching a little beyond it - quite physically that is how our hands work! - and so reflect the greater principle in the most ordinary and unconscious actions.

The drive of all explorers, investigators and seekers of new truth is the impelling sense of expanded understanding available to the seeker - just through the next veil of ignorance waiting to be dispersed by revelation. Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa has for five centuries pulled at human consciousness tugging it towards the knowing reflected in the smile of the timeless being superimposed over a primordial landscape like an awareness that embraces vast reaches with a presence so gentle as to be barely present in a physical sense but dynamically potent in its effect. All that moves our hearts, minds and souls towards something greater than our previous concept of ourselves can be seen in every part of our lives - "to see heaven in a grain of sand". We are immersed in greatness even at our lowest ebb.

So even the "least of us" can transmit the greatest inspiration if we move the focus of our being into that greater Life working out in the world. The following words from Agni Yoga were quoted in last August's Newsletter but resonate again in this moment:

"Broadly has spread the praise of daring. The least of the disciples have turned to the path of searching and have approached Us. Each brought his dreams: "I will destroy all earthly temples, because Truth needs no walls. I will water all deserts. I will open all prisons. I will demolish all swords. I will blaze all trails. I will wipe away all tears. I will travel through all lands. I will inscribe the book of humanity."
But the least one of them turned to the shining stars and said, 'Hail to you, brothers!' And in this salutation of daring his ego vanished."