S Y D N E Y G O O D W I L L N E W S L E T T E R
PO Box 627, Caringbah NSW 1495
Tel: (02)9540 2391 Fax: (02) 9524 0025
www.sydneygoodwill.org.au
No 240 / March 2007
Dear Friends,
Have you ever looked out from a railway train or car at another train or car headed in the opposite direction and been momentarily confused as to which was moving - one or the other or both?
Perhaps it's a little like watching politicians debate an issue - we can agree with now this and now that presented stance. Such is the relative view of life from a sideways window of perception where one
reacts to another and our "reality" is derived from external events rather than from that all-inclusive point at the centre of life and the direction of its purpose - bringing intuitive knowing and inspiration for progress. From that greater centre we can see Life moving through all things, all events, and see the overriding direction and dynamic of that great essence. The moment that we ourselves are moved - by reaction, desire, fear - we lose touch with that divine spark (poised at the centre) which establishes all growth patterns from the smallest life-form to the mighty stars wheeling through the heavens.
"Go with the flow" can be interpreted as allowing the flow of our thought, emotion and action to be driven by the forces of the personality life (our own and those with whom we interact), becoming immersed in (and even overwhelmed by) the thing of the moment swimming in the river of time. Or "the flow" can be observed from the point of view of the divine entity eternally "at rest" at the centre. That centre is deeply within and yet outside and beyond the reactive world of experience and experiment, observing, learning and transforming the creative chaos of form life and watching it swing gradually into line with the streaming energy of divine will - the powerful flood that cannot be forever resisted though its time-spans move on such a large scale as to be imperceptible to the atomic life struggling in the lesser currents and vortices.
What "moves" us at any moment in any place? Much is written and practised about motivation. Sales teams are urged to greater success through "can do" encouragement and the prospect of great material reward. The goal used to draw forth their powers may be lesser than or even conflicting with the greater life yet the essential principles of energy flow are operating and can be learned for later application in a truer world view. Athletics and sports coaches encourage the visualisation of success and so direct the thoughts and emotions of the athletes to that end so that energy is marshalled and managed towards their defined goal.
It is true that we can eventually achieve whatever we set our mind and heart towards for we are powerful beyond measure. It takes only realisation of that to unleash the flood to our bidding. While, however, we are identified with the lesser goals the full potency is dammed up and pressing against the gates in consciousness. We may feel driven and be as yet unaware of what we are driving towards, trying out many goals until they become transparent and we see through to something deeper, more inclusive and more expansive in scope. The cause of our discontent may elude us until we recognise and reject the limiting ideas that are not discerned at first until their constraint becomes unbearable to the burgeoning consciousness. We do not always see the distinction between the unreal and the real until the unreal is a demonstrated failure.
The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, explains to a disciple: "It is very difficult for the beginner to grasp the basic differentiations which he has welded into unities through his innate capacity to identify himself sequentially with that which is revealed." [Discipleship II p624]
He turns our perception around to see from the point of reality rather than the individual:
"…the progressing disciple does not move into new fields or areas of awareness, like a steady marching forward from one plane to another… What must be grasped is that all that IS is ever present. What we are concerned with is the constant awakening to that which eternally IS, and to what is ever present in the environment but of which the subject is unaware, owing to short-sightedness. The aim must be to overcome the undue concentration upon the foreground of daily life which characterises most people, the intense preoccupation with the interior states and moods of the lower self which characterises the spiritually minded people and aspirants, and the imperviousness or lack of sensitivity which characterises the mass of men. The Kingdom of God is present to day on Earth and forever has been, but only a few, relatively speaking, are aware of its signs and manifestations. The world of subtle phenomena … is ever with us and can be seen and contacted and proved as a field of experiment and experience and activity if the mechanism of perception is developed as it surely can be. … The world of energies, with its streams of directed force and its centres of concentrated light are likewise present, and the eye of the see-er can see it … The subjective realm is vitally more real than the objective, once it is entered and known. It is simply … a question of acceptance, first of all, of its existence, the development of a mechanism of contact, the cultivation of the ability to use this mechanism at will, and then inspired interpretation." [Telepathy 953]
So what is it that moves us? What is "the centre of our universe" around which our purposeful living revolves and towards which it directs all resources at our command? What is that central "self"? Is it the individual life, the group life, the national life, the planetary life or the centre of life itself? And what drives us? Is it the basic needs for survival of the form, a desire or a fear - hunger, escape, protection; is it the sense of values that hold us in mutually safe relationship - justice, fair play, protection of those weaker than the self; is it a sense of a greater Plan, cooperation with and participation in a greater life purpose unfolding?
From the prison of the "blind forces" of the natural instincts to the freedom of the living energy of the One Life we share, our conscious journey takes us through the imaginary veils of the unreal and dispels them from existence until our apparent differences are seen in proportion to our common Being which expresses through the beauty of our diversity. Then will each value the unique part of each and work harmoniously for the greater good we all share. As we walk this return journey we bring all magnetically with us shifting our sense of identity beyond any limitations of personal surface living.
The veils which blind us to the real are described by the Tibetan in this way: "The veils are not actually veils in the usual sense of that term. They are in the nature of opposing forces and energies which act as inhibitory factors to the aspirant as he seeks to make progress, and to the entire human family as it moves onward upon the Path of Evolution. … they are essentially physical forces, and although they are the result of man's own effort and activity down the ages, they are largely unrealised, unseen obstacles to his progress. … they lie between the subtle inner man, mental and astral, and his physical brain. They are that which prevents brain registration of the world of causes and of meaning. … These veils can be as curtains over the windows of vision. They prevent realisation of that which lies beyond the room or area of average or mediocre experience, and they prevent the light from penetrating. …"
The Tibetan helps us see more clearly the great service of those who have helped humanity on its way through the veils - Moses, St Paul and most of all: "The glory of the Christ and the uniqueness of His accomplishment lies in the fact that He was the first to bring about the rending of the veils from 'the top to the bottom'. This He could do because He acted as the World Saviour, outside and independent of humanity; He was free from the aura of the human family …"
And quoting from the Old Commentary: "From above He worked and from the further side issued the force which tore its way into the separating forces, driving them in a threefold direction, from the point which is the highest, to the right and to the left, thus letting in that streaming force which resolved itself as light, as love, as lifting energy. Thus worked the One for Whom all men must wait. He is a man, but works not as a man. He works as light divine, as energy supreme and as the Saviour of the world of men." [Rays & Initiations p195-6]
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The Festival in Pisces will be celebrated at a meditation meeting at 8 pm on Friday, 2 March, at the YWCA, 5-11 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney. The keynote for reflection is:
I leave the Father's home and turning back, I save.
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