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Dear Friends,
In the moment, long aeons past, when the human kingdom became
self-aware - in that moment our centre of identification shifted
from the animal nature (instinctually identified with self) to
the observer of that self, the soul. Once we had the capacity
to be self-aware, to observe and know, we parted ways with that
which is observed and entered the realms of consciousness and
its realisation through the forms in the world. From that moment
we were no longer the forms we inhabited - they had become part
of the field of observation for "the observer", new
areas opened to our awareness. This shift of identification is
still rippling through our emotions and echoing through the mental
planes of thought and its expression. However, these ripples
and echoes can become trapped into repetitive patterns and delay
the flow-through.
In the book, "The Journey Continues", we read:
"Underlying the outer structure of our world are great
inner thought patterns through which the evolutionary experiment
upon our planet moves into expression. It is humanity's role
to work progressively with ideas and concepts and through time
to build ever more truly to this great inner blueprint.
...When intuition guides and minds are free from any sense of
separativeness then there is unimpeded contact with the world
of reality and inner truth.
...We may venture to say that we are working within the principles
of the New Day when we understand this method of operation. We
are not working with oppositions, with battles; it is a matter
of understanding the flow. This is the Life aspect, the natural
flow of life. It may be seen how these thoughts on patterns
fit within the discoveries concerning through and the
realisation of identity within a unified or single state of being.
The flow of energies moves without obstruction.
...Within that area of natural movement we may see the patterns
emerging, set off by the intent of the moment and what we are
focusing, what we are flowing with. No doubt a magnetic attraction
is involved here too because all that will support our intention
seems to come together in a moment in time: the right gathering
of the right people and the required resources at the right moment
- availability without seeming organization - as against the
method of commencing at the opposite end of organization first
and foremost.
...At moments of great crisis upon the planet we find the forces
of change powerfully at work. The effect upon human consciousness
serves to force us out of the habitual compliance with a way
of seeing and expressing life that may have protected us within
certain boundaries, within a well established pattern, while
at the same time preventing our movement into a newer, freer,
more inclusive vision of greater human unity and interdependence."
Such moments of crisis can be observed throughout the world,
as well as in the individual life. We are becoming the observer
of self on a greater scale than any times past - for we, unitedly,
observe the whole of the human kingdom through our own invented
mechanisms and media. And while we remain identified with the
forms we inhabit we can be overwhelmed by suffering and pain
which render us powerless to progress. Yet suffering is an aspect
of humanity's unique gift. The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, writes:
"The capacity to suffer, which is distinctive of humanity,
is the outstanding conscious reaction to environment of the fourth
kingdom in nature, the human. It is related to the power to think
and consciously to relate cause and effect. It is a process on
the way to something undreamt of today.
...This same ability to respond through pain is not to be found
in any of the subhuman kingdoms, nor in the superhuman kingdoms,
any more than it was found in the previous solar system or will
be found in the next. It is related to an aspect of the creative
intelligence, an aspect and characteristic peculiar to humanity.
...It holds the secret of beauty in manifestation, and its first
expression can be seen in the creative perfection of certain
phases of art for which man, and man alone, is responsible. No
other kingdom in nature creates forms, produces colour and sounds
in harmonious relation, except the human; all of this type of
creative art is the result of aeons of conflict, pain and suffering."
Crisis and suffering are only experienced when we become lost
in a moment, forget the objectivity of the observer and lose
sight of the greater flow. The Tibetan asks
"See you not how the present crisis only indicates the
success of the previous evolutionary cycles wherein humanity
mastered certain lessons? All the post-war planning, the widespread
reaction to ideals..., And the seething turmoil reaching throughout
all levels of human consciousness, plus the inspiration of disaster
and suffering, are blasting open hitherto sealed areas in the
minds of men, letting in illumination, sweeping away the bad
old conditions.
...These expansions in the human understanding will, in the next
one hundred and fifty years, completely alter the manner of man's
thinking; they will change the techniques of religion; they will
bring about comprehension and fusion. When this work has been
accomplished we shall record an era of world peace which will
be symbolic of the state of the human spirit."
When these barriers in men's minds are "blasted open"
we can "see our way clear" through them into a greater
reality.
"Up till now the mark of the Saviour has been the Cross,
and the quality of the salvation offered has been freedom from
substance or the lure of matter and from its hold - a freedom
only to be achieved at great cost. The future holds within its
silence other modes of saving humanity. The cup of sorrow and
the agony of the Cross are well-nigh finished. Joy and strength
will take their place. Instead of sorrow we shall have a joy
which will work out in happiness and lead eventually to bliss.
We shall have a strength which will know naught but victory and
will not recognise disaster.
...'after weeping cometh joy, and that joy cometh in the morning,'
Only the dawn is with us as yet - the dawn of the Aquarian Age.
The full tide of light is inevitably moving upon its way towards
us."
What mighty power draws us on through time and space in its
inevitable tide, along the way creating great patterns of unfoldment?
These patterns have the power to break through the barriers of
perception that we erect when operating in poor reflection of
the greatness of that immense whole of which we are, even so,
a part. The power of purpose and the energy of will that brings
it about are something we begin to know only when Love has revealed
the underlying unity of life. We are told that "life is
loving synthesis in action". As we approach this realisation
the energy of will operates through our expanding understanding,
filtering down through the evolutionary moments in time and progress,
fragmented through the phases and illusory patterns of individuality.
Our historical moment of individualisation was, in reality, the
moment of entry of a unified consciousness into a diversity of
forms while consciousness remains: "having pervaded the
universe with a fragment of myself, I remain."
The Tibetan explains:
"The will is too often regarded as a power by means of
which things are done, activities are instituted and plans worked
out. This general definition is the easiest for men to formulate
because it is understood by them in terms of their own self-will,
the will to self-betterment - selfish and misunderstood at first
but tending eventually to selflessness as evolution carries out
its beneficent task. Then the will is interpreted in terms of
the plan (of the Spiritual Hierarchy), and the effort of the
individual man becomes that of negating his self-will and seeking
to merge his will with that of the group.
... However the will is in reality something very different...the
clue to understanding is to be found in the words 'blotting out
all form'. When the lure of substance dies and the attractive
power of desire dies, then the attractive power of the soul becomes
dominant and the emphasis so long laid upon individual form and
individual living and activity gives place to group form and
group purpose.
...When these in their turn assume their rightful place in consciousness
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 or Ashram can confine the consciousness of the
initiate, and all differences of every kind disappear."
The shift of our point of observation - akin to the "assemblage
point" spoken of by Don Juan in the accounts of Carlos Castaneda
- brings with it an expanding sense of identity. Reading again
from the Tibetan's writings:
"The disciple knows or is learning to know that he is
not this or that, but Life Itself. He is not the physical body
or its emotional nature; he is not in the final analysis the
mind or that by which he knows. He is learning that that too
must be transcended and superseded by intelligent love...and
he begins to realise himself as the soul. Then, later, comes
the awful 'moment in time' when, pendant in space, he discovers
that he is not the soul. What then is he? A point of divine dynamic
will, focussed in the soul and arriving at awareness of Being
through the use of form. He is Will, the ruler of time and the
organiser, in time, of space. This he does, but ever with the
reservation that time and space are the 'divine playthings' and
can be used or not at will."
And so eventually we arrive at the point of awareness at the
centre of Life - the point of "divine perception which sees
all things as within itself."
* * * * * *
The books quoted in this newsletter are available from Sydney
Goodwill. Referenced in this issue:
•
The Journey Continues - by Merle Stubbs
•
The Rays and the Initiations - by Alice A Bailey. |
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