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No 219 / April 2005

Dear Friends,

Revelation comes in many forms and on many different scales - from the ordinary "Aha!" on remembering where a lost item might be found to the mighty illumination of the glory of the Lord which rendered Saul of Tarsus blind to the physical world for three days and changed him into Paul the Apostle. Revelation transfigures the recipient who then becomes a conscious part of the outpouring of illumination - an illumination that reveals what had previously been hidden behind the illusory veils of his prior understanding. It may be an individual experience but it is not limited to the individual. It is a mighty, ongoing emergence of the divine Life "in Whom we live and move and have our being." It "concerns Oneness and nothing else."

It is easy to say that: "life is one; that there is nothing but unity" and it remains only an occult platitude unless life is expressing dynamically through our conscious experience. Revelation has been described as "a flash of wondrous informative and instinctive realisation and then steadies down, as progress is made into a constant apprehension and appreciation; it eventually produces the motivating impulse of all action." When this occurs the man is then "as a clear sheet of glass through which all may see the reality of Oneness as it demonstrates in practising operation."

In reality the oneness of our planetary life is not contained by any man-made theologies (religious, scientific, political or economic) but speaks in different ways through all men. We are all imperfect beings on the way to perfection - and learning on the job. It is easy to identify imperfection. That is the capacity of the critical/analytical mind and we are well practised in it! But to meet our destiny, and to achieve, we need to use our ability to recognise and respect each other's capacities and direct them towards our common goal, our common life, our common humanity. We need to see and take up our part in this great shared venture. The Tibetan Master reminds us that: "We are all the children of God; we are all equally divine; we are all on our way to the revelation of divinity, and this upon the physical plane of existence; it is what we reveal that is of importance; what is revealed to us is of lesser importance, though it has its due place in the process of training and perfecting."

The beauty of the system in which we live (and move and have our being) is that it is a synthesis and that we participate as integral parts within it. It has its synthesising and integrating purpose and as we attune to that we attune to the whole Life and all the lives contained within it. It is possible to be at-one with the whole and with all the expressing parts of it. It is possible to be and to know the whole. This has been defined as "something akin to 'immersion in a realised state of Being,' because the (knower) is a conscious aspect of that of which he forms an integral part." Revelation is progressive yet ever immanent. Each revelation is always a step to a greater one. Until we see all as God does, we can at least progress with a sense of that greater proportion: "It is this preparatory sensitivity in the disciple which produces true perception at all the various initiatory stages."

We know the experience of revelation - that "frisson" of wonder and realisation which expands our consciousness beyond the habitual self-awareness into a new field of knowing, blinding us to all else in that flash of light. That momentary pouring through of light and understanding irretrievably changes our vehicles of reception and they become sensitised to a new awareness and a new capacity to see. The Tibetan Master tells us: "The Mysteries are revealed, not primarily by the reception of information anent them and their processes, but by the action of certain processes, carried out within the etheric body of the disciple; these enable him to know that which is hidden; they put him in possession of a mechanism of revelation and make him aware of certain radiatory and magnetic powers or energies within himself which constitute channels of activity and modes whereby he may acquire that which it is the privilege of the initiate to own and to use."

It is not through information, theory and discussion that revelation occurs - though these create a readiness (if they do not become an objective in themselves and thus a barrier) and may subsequently serve as an integrative process. Revelation is a flash of intuitive perception, an immediate knowing, that may take many years to fully express in logical terms. It is the initiating impulse of knowledge and not the result of it. The logic of the rational mind self-references through the scope of the information it has to hand. Intuition is a leap into what is known by the greater whole.

Beauty draws us directly into those realms and tunes our apparatus of sensitive perception. In surrendering to beauty we enter into Joy (or Joy enters in). The impact of Beauty on our senses opens our being to its restoring and transforming effect. It "conditions" us for revelation and under its influence mankind begins to express the joy of the human soul. We are told that: "The wholeness of the universe is Beauty" and that "the beauty of the universe helps to call forth from the depths of consciousness sparks of joy." And so our living experience reveals the mysteries of life as we become immersed in that tide of revelation: "Revelation flows through me I know it not."

One of the qualities of the coming race, the new human, is the "ability to live always within the field of intuitive perception - a field which has been created, or a sphere of energy which has been generated, by the united purpose, the combined planning and the concentrated energy of the (spiritual) Hierarchy. An analogy (but only an analogy, however) would be to regard this field of reflecting, reflective and reflected energies as resembling the brain of a human being: this brain reflects the impacts of telepathic activity, the sensory perceptions and the knowledges gained in the three worlds; reflection then sets in in relation to the mental processes which are synchronised with the brain, and then follows the impartation of these reflections to the outside world."

The new humanity is already among us. The new human uses modes arising from a new understanding, a new way of living and a new sensitivity to the whole of which he knows himself to be a part. We are promised that: "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 will 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. …

That which is a mystery will no longer be so, and that which has been veiled will now be revealed; that which has been withdrawn will emerge into the light, and all men shall see and together they shall rejoice. That time will come when desolation has wrought its beneficent work, when all things have been destroyed, and men, through suffering, have sought to be impressed by that which they had discarded in vain pursuit of that which was near at hand and easy of attainment. Possessed, it proved to be an agency of death - yet men sought life, not death."

"Streams of joy fill the ocean of the Creator's Thought.
And you, pouring drops of joy into the human soul,
bring offerings to the Creator of the Worlds.
Enlightenment will never end.
Learn by teaching others.
You were not mistaken in expounding joy.
Each tree blooms in joy;
But when shedding its leaves, it grieves not,
remembering the coming spring."

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The books quoted in this newsletter and available from Sydney Goodwill are:
The Rays and the Initiations - by Alice A Bailey (Pages 298, 299, 301, 723, 337, 234, 331, 332)
Discipleship in the New Age, Book II - by Alice A. Bailey (Pages 105)
Supermundane, Book III - published by the Agni Yoga Society (Sloca 519, 578)
Leaves of Morya's Garden, Book I - published by the Agni Yoga Society (Sloca 251).