| SYDNEY GOODWILL UNIT OF SERVICE |
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PP 297537/00068 No 228/ January 2006 |
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Dear Friends, An invitation to all and final reminder of … Gifts of Spirit…an evening of meditation and discussion to commence the Festival week of the New Group of World Servers within the theme, Living Synthesis. This will be held at 8pm on Wednesday, 21 December, at the YWCA, 5-11 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney. The Festival week of the New Group of World Servers is celebrated on 21 to 28 December every 7 years around the world by all those who recognise and support this great subjective group whose effect in the world may be seen in all walks of life where there is progress towards the essential reality of life unfolding through our world. * * * * * * We are entering that time of year when there is a renewed emphasis on giving and receiving; on endings and beginnings; on releasing the burden of old outmoded patterns and being refreshed with new life, new opportunities, new understandings, realisations and revelations. It is a time of giving in the sense of sacrificing our attachment to the past in order to pour our focus and energy into a brighter and greater future, a future that more accurately reflects the human spirit. In sacrificing we "make sacred" our offering to the greater flow of life throughout the world. No gift goes without its impact. The world media brings the many sacrifices into our own hearts and minds, and weaves the energy of our interconnection ever more deeply into the fabric of our living expression. Each sacrifice, each "gift of spirit", is an opening for a more sacred essence to flow through the web of life. Some carry an exquisite realisation, pouring through an individual life to the many witnesses and touching according to the witnesses' own powers of receptivity and sensitivity beyond the smaller world of the little self. Millions of Australians recently witnessed the impact of the death penalty carried out against a young man who, although he had broken a law that served us all, had also come to realise a greater truth. As his crisis was brought to the attention of everyone in the countries involved through the media effort, many were stirred from the apathy of daily life patterns and were raised into a clearer light where larger questions and issues were being addressed. Whatever the effect on individuals, there was clearly a broad-reaching response. Energy poured through new thought currents - questioning, revealing, expanding consciousness through a united empathy or identification with either the young man himself, his mother, brother or friends. Emerging through all the rationales was the question: what was this life really sacrificed for? And perhaps, what does extreme punishment achieve other than a reinforcement of the violence it seeks to eradicate? What did Christ really mean by "turning the other cheek"? We are reminded by the Tibetan, "Resist not evil, but so organize and mobilize the good, and so strengthen the hands of the workers on the side of righteousness and love, that evil will find less opportunity." And thus we seek to support and strengthen the hands of those who serve that good wherever they may be engaged in the world, in whatever department of human affairs. These are the New group of World Servers. They are those who work towards the future through building, healing and reconstructing. Giving of themselves, they are so engaged in creating the new future that defensive attitudes, constantly on the watch for evil to combat, do not enter in, though due understanding and care is exercised within a greater framework of understanding. They are the expanding force that reflects the true essence of human nature Focussing too exclusively on the negative effects in the world can draw us in along the powerful lines of human empathy and identification. Energy flows through us along the lines of our directed attention. Seeing only the problem holds the door tight against perceiving the real issue at stake, the real cause, and its solution. The Tibetan warns about the possible "…reaction of the disciple to world evil. This produces uncertainty as to the future, annoyance at what is being done throughout the planet by non-disciples, criticism of national and international planning and a general atmosphere of unhappiness, plus a sense of superior knowledge. All this is expressed in a negative unconstructive manner." He goes on to remind us that: "… world affairs are not and cannot be moulded or determined by any (spiritual) knowledge in the possession of the disciple. World affairs and conditions have necessarily to be based upon the demand and the point in evolution of the mass of humanity, working through their representatives, chosen or imposed, in every country. This demand can be and is affected, modified and spiritualised by the attitude and teaching of the disciples everywhere who are vocal and of humanitarian instinct. … It is humanity which determines its own destiny. Disciples point the way, indicate the vision, set a needed example and emphasise the ancient landmarks." The Tibetan also draws the distinction between "expression to meet … expediency" and the truly creative faculty. He explains: "… the expression of the creative faculty is radiation and magnetism. This brings to the possessor the material for creation and a magnetic capacity which arranges in due form and beauty that which radiation has evoked. Creativity is a consequence of a particular state of mind and a specific state of being"… "Love induces that radiation which invokes and evokes not only the heart of God but the heart of humanity also. Love is the cause of all creation and the sustaining factor in all living." The impact on the heart of humanity by what it sees through the eye of the media is having a powerful effect - but the choice of viewing and "seeing" remains within the realm of individual self-will. Live broadcast and "reality TV" foster empathy and human identification. But what do we identify with - the form experience suffered by the protagonist or the essential qualities and being of the human spirit drawn forth by that experience? Which ultimately has more magnetic impact? For the New group of World Servers it is the essential nature and being that calls forth their service. They are those who lift and aid. They are drawn to serve world need rather than personal desire. Their impact radiates out widely through all hearts in tune with the inspirational spirit of their service - increasing constantly, subtly but most powerfully through their radiatory presence in the world. They are the gift-bearers to humanity. In serving humanity they serve also the spirit from which we spring. The magical archetype of this group gift-bearing was enacted 2,000 years ago when the three kings, the Magi, were drawn across the breadth of continents to lay the most refined substances at the service of the Christ child in a humble stable in Bethlehem. They recognised the power of life to lead us out of darkness and gave the best they had in service to that power radiating through an incarnation. In essence all is spirit and the gifts of spirit are within us all and in all things - we need only allow them to flow. At Christmas time we celebrate the gift of Christ's presence in the world. His impact reverberates ever more strongly out from that quiet moment in a stable so long ago. Although turned away from the material comforts of the inn, His family found the lowly stable was sufficient to bring the gift of grace to the world. As the heralding Angel greeted the shepherds in the field the note of a new dispensation was sounded pointing us to a future beyond fear and death to freedom, peace, joy and achievement to be shared by all since, in essence, all things are part of the one circulatory flow of life - moving through the "giver" to the "receiver" and onward: "Fear
not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall
be to all people … * * * * * * The
Festival in Sagittarius will be celebrated at a meditation
meeting at 8 pm on Thursday, 15 December, at the YWCA, 5-11 Wentworth
Avenue, Sydney. The keynote is: "I see the goal. I reach
that goal and then I see another." * * * * * * For
ways to help joy flow through Christmas, readers might like to refer
to: http://www.thetithingtree.org |
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