Dear Friends,

The world media, whether television, newspaper, film, magazine or internet, certainly provides a plethora of perspectives on world events and public affairs. Often there are so many "views" that it's difficult to know what perspective provides the truest picture. The difficulty is that all are partial and are therefore incomplete and prone to varying degrees of distortion and prejudice. Essentially anyone's perception of things depends on their perspective. And perspective varies with the point from which we observe or "see", in other words, from our point of identity or identification. Thus true perception comes from the point of our true being, from who we really are.

While we see ourselves as separate, individual parts, then our view and our understanding will be partial and subject to distortion. But if we see through the eyes of God … what do we see in each moment of the eternal Now? … what do we experience of each change in space as His expression unfolds? For this unfolding expression teaches us, expands our understanding and ultimately develops a complete identity and identification with the whole of His life as demonstrated by great teachers such as the Buddha and the Christ.

As we observe the world, we may weep for the pain of those who suffer in the process of human self-determination and self-initiation into its true identity, but let us weep not for the pain of form life but for the pain of the great illusion of separateness and the resulting misidentification with form. Let us instead revere the sacrifice of the millions of incarnations down the ages which have brought us to our current point of human unfoldment and identity - and so let us value this moment bought at such cost of pain and suffering.

In this light, the value of each one of us is immeasurable because each is an atom of humanity, and, together with all the other kingdoms, forms part of the body of "the One in Whom we live and move and have our being". Let us experience life from this infinite perspective so that each moment, act and recognition is valued for its true worth. Everything we do, feel and think is done by an atom of humanity itself. It is never an isolated, individual occurrence no matter how powerfully bound we may be by the illusion that we are alone. Seeing in this way, we realise that even the illusion of separateness is a shared human illusion and not a uniquely individual one.

Our sense of aloneness is only a false refraction through the illusion of separation. It is a misperception of what is actually our freedom, of our free will - which is representative of the will of the whole. We are not alone. We are free! The moment we grasp that fact, in that moment we release ourselves from the bind of separation and enter into our power - mighty, majestic, all-embracing (and hence all-protecting) for we are no longer identified with any one form, animate or inanimate. The "anima mundi" of our little life is the "anima mundi" of our world.

In 2000 the final version of the Earth Charter was released in response to a call from the United Nations for a new charter that would set forth fundamental principles for sustainable development. In the preamble we read:

The Tibetan writing in the 1940's identified the immediate goal for humanity as "the one world for the one humanity" and spoke of the qualities of the coming civilisation: "Today two qualities are 'tincturing' the ideal of the coming civilisation … Freedom and spiritual security. This is true even if the man who talks in terms of security omits the word 'spiritual'."

What is this new culture and civilisation birthing from the old? The keynotes and signposts become universally clear as we move into the freedom of spirit within which the coming culture of peace and right human relations is being established. Only the poor in spirit cling to the past and fail to see the grandeur emerging on our planet - they need our help, not our condemnation; they need our understanding, not our discriminatory denial. Whenever we need to differentiate for understanding let it be with that true discrimination which is between the real and the unreal. As the Tibetan wrote:

Humanity is thinking for itself, sifting through expressed thought and increasingly assessing in the light of its own inner spiritual sense of the good, the true and the beautiful. It is beginning to think with a free mind and to resist the imposition of ready-made, "take-away" opinions dispensed by assumed "authorities" or paternalistic governments who may be more self-motivated than service-oriented. It is participating in "the getting of wisdom". The Tibetan explains that:

And elsewhere:

The coming civilisation will reflect the culture of the soul expressing in the world. It is the culture of true causal living - knowing our inherent oneness and divinity and attending to the cause of worldly expression rather than entering into conflict over the diversity of effects. From "Leaves of Morya's Garden", volume 1, we read the injunction:

"You have been admitted to the task
of building the New World.
I say to you: Strengthen your eyes,
that you be not blinded when I raise the hem
of the veil of the Future."

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The Festival in Aquarius will be celebrated at a meditation meeting at 8 pm on Monday, 13 February, at the YWCA, 5-11 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney. The keynote is:
"Water of life am I, poured forth for thirsty men."