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

No 206/March 2004

Dear Friends,
How is it that we can remain so unaware of (so insensitive to) the motivations and inspirations of others with whom we interact in the world? Perhaps it is because we are so enmeshed in our own individual web of fears, ambitions and thought forms that they become a densely woven prison that inhibits any enlightenment from breaking through. For, in as much as we separate ourselves from each other, so do we cut ourselves off from the other kingdoms in nature and from the divine inspirations ever present and ever permeating the world, a world which we see through the distorting veils of ignorance we ourselves have created. "In as much as you do it unto the least of these, you do it unto Me."

This intense self-awareness maintains a powerful vortex around which our thoughts and feelings weave the illusions and glamours that separate us from one another. In this state, whenever we make a judgement of another we are reflecting our own limitations in understanding. We see only "through a glass darkly" and we see only separate parts rather than the synthesis of all within the one whole of which we too are a part. True understanding flows from the radiatory centre of that whole, not from the individual. It may flow through us if we take our place in the magnetic field that radiates from the centre of the whole rather than being cut off by blinding self-awareness.

Under the impact of the constant pressure of divine inspiration many experiments and pioneering efforts are working out in the world to break through the barriers created by this individual self-consciousness. Over millennia we have identified with partners, family units, ethnic groups, racial aggregations, religious organizations. The modern world has seen the rise of great idealistic undertakings such as the great humanitarian movements and international agencies for human betterment. Yet often the motivations of the individuals within are still personal, separate and self-serving - perhaps appeasement of personal guilt or a desire for personal achievement ahead of others, doing good deeds to be rewarded in either earthly recognition or heavenly acknowledgement. The dynamic is still drawing attention, focus and energy around the individual and personal motivation rather than identification with the greater centre at the heart of all life.

The truth is that our own separate lives come and go, wreak havoc or bring glimmers of reality and then are no more while the true heart of our being remains eternally breathing out loving understanding, synthesising relationship and ordering purpose into the chaos of separate life experiences. The minute we react, either positively or negatively, to another part within the whole our attention has withdrawn to a sense of separateness. But when we stand at the still, dynamic centre of all being and lose ourselves in its great, inclusive outflow, magical changes are wrought in the world. Personal reactions of frustration, longing or logical rationalisation become meaningless, insignificant and disappear from any consideration. In this state of grace the Christ said: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

He had submitted to incarnation in the world to know from experience the challenges of imprisonment in a separated vehicle amongst many others. He demonstrated the way back to the reality of our true wholeness at the centre of all life through the living experience of it in the world - not through theory, discussion and argument nor through longing, aspiration and seeking comfort but in the naked dignity and might of complete immersion in a realised state of being which encompasses all. The realisation which poured through Him, and through all Great Teachers, was released into the world and redeemed the energy which was previously appropriated by the lesser motivations and goals of venal living.

The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, describes the energetic nature of living in the world: "The life of the … (disciple) is consciously lived in the world of energies. Those energies have always been present, for the whole of existence in all the kingdoms of nature is manifested energy, but men are not aware of this. They are not conscious, for instance, when they succumb to irritation and find themselves voicing that irritation in loud words or in angry thoughts, that they are taking astral energy and using it. The use of this energy admits them to a level of astral living which is not suitable for them; continual use of this energy brings about what (has been) called 'habits of residence that imperil the resident.' It is when the aspirant recognises that he himself is composed of energy units - held in coherent expression by a still stronger energy, that of integration - that he begins consciously to work in a world of forces similarly composed; he then begins to use energy of a certain kind, and selectively … This world of energy in which he lives and moves and has his being is the living, organised vehicle of manifestation of the planetary Logos. Through it energies are circulating all the time and are in constant movement, being directed and controlled by the head centre of the planetary Logos; they create great vortices of force or major points of tension throughout His body of manifestation. The Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet is such a vortex; Humanity itself is another, and one which is today in a condition of almost violent activity, owing to its becoming a focus of divine attention. … Certain great readjustments are going on in that centre for it is beginning to conform at long last to divine intention."

The energy patterns established in the minds and hearts of men over millennia form a huge, though false, barrier to break through. As a species we have created our prison - and indeed we could not have done otherwise being immersed in separate forms in the world. Yet we came with a microcosmic centre that still resonated to the true centre of life that is our real source of being. No matter how many layers of matter and experience the material world cocoons us in, that inner life beats ever and undiminished. Only as the waves of matter break constantly against that immutable being does realisation of the inner greatness gradually emerge until it governs the whole - both the most subtle and the most material expressions.

In the end it is each one of us who is responsible (able to respond) to live out the greater wholeness and its purpose rather than the individual self-serving life. Humanity in its individual and mass form is its own initiator and creates its own trials, tests and challenges. We may cry out at fate and at one another and lay blame where we may but the energy we radiate is what colours the response from all around us. Only the true centre of all Being remains unmoved and radiating the life which we turn to good or ill, greatness or ignominy. We create the doors of initiation ourselves, out of the substance of our own lives and our own experiences. The way through is the realisation of the one centre rather than the separate lives and the beating of our hearts in time with that greater rhythm that allows the imaginary scales to fall from our eyes and the true "scales of balance" to bring all into a sense of divine proportion where personal comfort or discomfort no longer exists in consciousness and we truly "walk humbly with our God".

The Tibetan tells us that: "This is one of the most advanced injunctions in any of the world scriptures … It has no reference to humility as usually interpreted and understood. It signifies the ability to view all life with a sense of divine proportion … It involves acceptance and comprehension of purpose and this in such a manner that the consecrated personality … walks the ways of Earth as a channel for the three divine qualities (love, will and intelligence), but also as a channel for that which these three qualities will enable him later to sense, know and reveal."

Our mass experience is a great teacher. Our great parent-teachers, Spirit and Matter, guide us through inspiration and experience, through enlightenment and discipline, as our consciousness expands to be able to hold all in its embrace and to enter the mind and heart of God. The prodigal son returns home bringing the manifested relationship between Spirit and Matter, the connection which synthesises all.