Dear Friends,

A response to the energy of freedom is rippling through human consciousness. Though it manifests in diverse ways and in varying degrees amongst different places and people, it is still the same influence washing through consciousness - every wave leaving its modicum of understanding on the human strand. And still the waves continue to break and still there is a vast and deep ocean of wisdom yet to be sounded through our world, through the body of "the One in Whom we live and move and have our being".

Freedom calls to the human heart and mind because there is something deep within us that responds. That "something" is of the same nature, of the same source from which freedom flows. It is part of the mighty magnet that draws us down the eons and onward through the worlds of experience and transformation - back to the home from which we came, as the spiritual essence within primordial matter, and to which we are drawn to return. As the poet, William Wordsworth, wrote: "Not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home".

Our evolving understanding of this potent energy arrived at a key milestone in Franklin D. Roosevelt's statement of the four basic freedoms of human living, written 6 January 1941:
"In future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want - which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear - which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction in armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbour - anywhere in the world."

How far have we come in the half-century since he wrote those words? The ongoing search for freedom has brought much to the surface for examination, clarification and assessment. One man's expression of freedom may impinge on another's thus diminishing its overall expression. But we are learning that freedom also means responsibility - response to the greater life to allow it full expression, transcending the selfishness of individuals, groups or nations - not through imposition but through a realised livingness and, eventually, through an identification with the one life that flows through all forms. Freedom from want transforms into freedom from wanting as we transcend the lower, individual desire nature by expansion and immersion in the good, the true and the beautiful of the divine Whole. We are told that:
" The goal of the (world server) is identification with all forms of the divine life, so that he can know himself to be an integral part of that Whole and can tune in on all states of divine awareness, knowing for himself (and not just theoretically) that they are also his own states of awareness. He can then penetrate into the divine arcana of knowledge, share in the divine omnipresence and - at will - express the divine omniscience and prepare himself to manifest in full consciousness the divine omnipotence."

How vast and diverse is our manner of experiencing, understanding and expressing freedom - all under its single inspiration. The little "freedoms" are but small reflections of the mighty flow of a powerful pull that eventually releases us from the little illusions of specific human players in this great mystery. Freedom is a universal principle which we are barely beginning to understand. The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, tells us that:
"The principle of freedom is a leavening energy which can permeate substance in a unique manner … This principle of freedom is one of the attributes of Deity (like will, love and mind) of which humanity knows as yet little. The freedom for which men fight is one of the lowest aspects of this cosmic freedom, which is related to certain great evolutionary developments that enable the life or spirit aspect to free itself from the impact, the contact and influence of substance.
… it is that which enables the (server) to achieve a state of 'isolated unity'; it is that which lies behind the Spirit of Death and forms the motivating power of that great releasing Agency; it … gives the incentive towards the 'culture of freedom' or of liberation … it is that which produced the ferment and vortex of conflict in far distant ages and which has been recognised in the present through the results of the Law of Evolution in every kingdom in nature; this is that which 'substands' or lies under or behind all progress. This mysteriously 'exerted influence', this 'pulling away' from form (as we might simply call it) … is the law of which the three cosmic laws - the Laws of Synthesis, of Attraction and of Economy - are only aspects. None of these three subsidiary laws imposes any rule or limitation upon the Lord of the World. The Law of Freedom, however, does impose certain restrictions, if one can use such a paradoxical phrase. It is responsible for His being known as the 'Great Sacrifice', for (under control of this law) He created our planetary life and all that is within and upon it, in order to learn to wield this law with full understanding, in full consciousness, and yet at the same time to bring release to the myriad forms of His creation."

By releasing the hold of our self-centred rationales, limiting ideologies and the imprisoning desires of the selfish life (often subtle and unrecognised), the pain of wanting fades out of existence and a new motivating life-force flows in to replace it. A newer and greater centre draws our heart and expands our mind. Our realm opens up into mighty dimensions the door to which was opened by the Christ with His words: "I and my Father are one." Truly "home is where the heart is" and the mighty heart at the centre of our universe calls us home and frees us from the illusions of separateness and exclusivity and opens up realms of service beyond the personal. As the Tibetan describes to a disciple:
"I do not mean 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 the demand of others, but are the free contribution of the soul to a current need."

The distinctions used here to clarify are the distinctions that unite rather than separate because they identify and dispel the illusory barriers that separate and imprison us. True discrimination finally dispels illusion - distinguishing the real from the illusion of the unreal, light from the illusion of darkness, life from the illusion of death. This is simply and beautifully expressed in one of the oldest mantric prayers known to man which defines the essence of our living journey:

Lead me from darkness to Light,
from the unreal to the Real,
from death to Immortality.

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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 (Page 416-417, 53)
The Externalisation of the Hierarchy - by Alice A Bailey (Page 319)
Discipleship in the New Age Vol II - by Alice A Bailey (Page 758)
Reflections - by Foster Bailey (Page 130)