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 257 / September 2008

Dear Friends,

United Nations International Day of Peace – Sunday 21st September

A 24 hour Peace Vigil involving 18 different spiritual traditions will be held at the steps between Sydney University and Victoria Park, Broadway, Sydney, from midnight 20th to midnight Sunday 21st September.

Please join us at any time during the day for meditation, prayer, presentation, music and dance.

* * * * * *

It is an opportune time to experience being at peace with the world. Here in the Southern Hemisphere we are re-entering the Spring season with its vitalising renewal of life and the promise of inner beauty bursting forth into outer form – reminding us of the impulse of life and its seeding through the material nature. It is a reminder too of our deep relationship with the world of natural forces and their life potency – our point of communion through which the divine expresses in our world and our planet becomes a sacred home for that “Life more abundant” of which Christ spoke as coming into expression in this next great age. An ancient Scripture looks to this moment we are now entering:

"When the sun progresses into the mansion of the serving man, the way of life takes the place of the way of work. Then the tree of life grows until its branches shelter all the sons of men. The building of the Temple and the carrying of the stones cease. The growing trees are seen; the buildings disappear. Let the sun pass into its appointed place, and in this day and generation attend ye to the roots of growth." [A Treatise on White Magic p426]

There is a new life rippling through the field of human consciousness after the storms of the past century. It brings a new urgency to build those forms which will better house our planetary life. The growing recognition that we live in a whole world context carries with it the realisation that each atomic life has its appointed place within that great life and its own contribution to create – if it will.

The noise of the outer, material world – with its glamours and illusions trapping attention – can dim our ears to the deep song and heartbeat of our world. But, in silence, we might hear this “ultra-sound” of life gestating in all its rich and fecund potentiality. We read of the potential of silence:

“89.  Urusvati understands the significance of silence. But what kind of silence must this be? People think that silence is simply not uttering any sound, but true power comes when the whole being is overwhelmed by silence and an energy is generated that permits communion with the Higher World. We know these hours of surging energy, and can affirm that this kind of silence is the highest tension.

One must practice to attain this state, but it can only be acquired gradually. One may trace in one's various lives how awareness of this energy develops, thus broadening one's possibilities, whatever the circumstances may be. The sooner one begins to expand on his experience, the better.

When silence reigns in Our Tower it means that We are experiencing this powerful tension, and communion with the Higher World will result in a renewal of forces. We need such an accumulation of new forces, just as all of life needs it. …” [Supermundane I sloca 89]

And also:

“563. … It was always said: ‘First the storm, then the thunder, then silence.’ In this absence of sound comes the so-called Voice of the Silence. But higher than this voice is communion. You know how the voice of the Teacher is transmitted; but there can be a coming together in consciousness, not using words but transporting one's consciousness instantaneously into the consciousness of the Teacher. One almost ceases to be aware of oneself; but the Chalice is filled to the brim with straight-knowledge. Such union surpasses words, for it nurtures one with straight-knowledge. Of course it is not easy to attain such a state; but with expansion of consciousness it comes by itself, if not hindered by ignorance. All forms of communion are made possible by such a consciousness….” [Agni Yoga sloca 563]

This new consciousness is free from the round of old desires whose satiety brings no sense of resolution, no real growth or progress. Desire for power, control, territory, image, appearance or for an exclusive right to anything our world offers has taken us around the destructive cycles of action and reaction like a lesson repeated until at last its meaning dawns on a new realisation and we recognise the forces of balance bringing the equilibrium needed for the real growth of the interdependent whole of which we are a part.

We can now begin to weigh need against desire. Our self-created problems such as global warming, water scarcity, polluting energy sources and the unequal distribution of the worlds food and life resources, have all eventuated from an old and now outmoded understanding whose limitations bring us to a door into a new sense of being and identity as a whole race and a centre of power within the planetary life. New laws and principles of operation become apparent to a subtler and more inclusive consciousness:

“… the Laws of Nature are imposed upon the mass of men, and cannot be avoided. If these laws are broken, infringed or evaded, they carry their own penalty within themselves, and this also cannot be avoided. These great protective laws are intended to guard the personalities through which the soul incarnates and eventually to cement and further all the great and possible relationships. The man passes from the stage of antagonism (as an individual) to the control of these natural though divine laws, to a recognition of their inevitability and of their wisdom. They automatically then control him.

When this control by the Laws of Nature has become complete, the man … begins to come under the Laws of the Soul, which are laws concerned primarily with the establishing of the great Fellowship of the Universe. … The Laws of Nature, therefore, concern the activities of the soul in form and are mandatory and accepted by the form nature. The Laws of the Soul concern the life of the soul upon its own plane, and the relation which the blending soul and personality learn to establish with other souls and with the (Spiritual) Hierarchy. These are consciously and voluntarily obeyed, and are not just accepted as mandatory and as forced upon the man by force of circumstances, experience and evolution. They tend to bring about increasing relation between the Hierarchy of Souls and Humanity as a whole, between the great planetary centre which is the custodian of the principle of love and the planetary centre, humanity, which nurtures and distributes the energy of mind.

... From acceptance of the laws of nature and obedience to the laws of the soul, (man) passes into the positive phase of understanding and wielding the great synthetic Law of Life or of Spirit…... [The Rays and the Initiations page 156-7]

All the current realisations are preparing the way for a new appreciation of, and communion with, the natural world. We are learning much about the other kingdoms in nature and how necessary all kingdoms are to each other and to the planet’s precariously subtle balance of life. From world events and issues to the deeply personal where our domestic gardens and pets teach us so much of balance, proportion and responsibility – all bring realisation. We are moving into a place where we begin to know and cooperate with the great natural forces rather than being blindly enslaved to them or attempting to conquer them with a force that only rebounds. We are learning to listen to the voice of the whole – bringing life to the seed of the future humanity and the future world. A co-worker offered these words:

“The invisible woman
wants nothing,
loves all,
is nobody,
speaks silence.”