February 2009 Sydney Goodwill Newsletter

download a Word document copy of this newsletter

No 262 / February 2009

Dear Friends,

A new era is emerging in which our life's meaning and significance expresses in the contribution we make to the world - in what we give rather than receive. This is reflected in the "service" industries and the growing productive network of interconnected effort with each industry servicing the others as specialisation deepens our capacity; it gains heart through the emergence of the great humanitarian agencies over the past sixty years or so; and reaches authority through the acceptance of the central values of the Universal Declaration of Human rights and its extension to the rights of all kingdoms in the natural world. The growing attention to international law and its broader view of human justice over separate state agendas reflects how far the "good and faithful servants" of the world have brought us - though they may be largely unrecognised. And behind this unfoldment stands the concept of the United Nations and its evolving form, influence in and service to our global living.

In 1961 when, in his inaugural address, US President John F. Kennedy said: "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country" the idea of service was brought to the individual area of responsibility. He also acknowledged that this was a great departure from the previous orientation: "we observe today . a celebration of freedom - symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning - signifying renewal, as well as change . The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life." Many works and lives (before and more widely understood since) have attested to this and affirmed "The Power of One" as the author, Bryce Courtney, first brought to wider public attention.

Yet before these public events and quietly behind the scenes in the 1930's the Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, wrote: "In every European country, in the United States of America, and in parts of Asia and South Africa are to be found certain disciples, usually unrecognised in the world at large, who are thinking truth. whose daily thought life is oriented by the new ideal. they are first of all and always those who live in and work from the 'high and secret place'. Their influence is wielded silently and quietly and they lay no emphasis upon their personalities, upon their own views and ideas, or upon their methods of carrying forward the work. These possess a full realisation of their own limitations, but are not handicapped thereby, but proceed to think through into objective manifestation that aspect of the vision which it is their mission to vivify into form. They are necessarily cultured and widely read, for in these difficult transitional times they have to cultivate a world grasp of conditions and possess a general idea of what is going on in the different countries. They possess in truth no nationality in the sense that they regard their country and their political affiliations as of paramount importance. They are equipped to organise, slowly and steadily, that public opinion which will eventually divorce man from religious sectarianism, national exclusiveness, and racial biases."
[A Treatise on White Magic pages 416-7]

Now, seventy years later, striving for the freedom to develop individual or national potential for its own sake is giving way to the new goal of developing our talents in order to better serve the greater world of which we are a part. Fulfilment and happiness are no longer seen as attainable in isolation. Inequality, imbalance, unfairness and injustice are being weighed in the greater scales of our humanity over the petty accounting of personal ambition. With an increasingly illumined gaze we are seeing through the "smoke and mirrors" of propaganda, marketing and political spin to the essential and common human issues. The hierarchy of material wealth is giving way (however gradually) to the hierarchy of illumined justice, balance, equilibrium and dynamic peace.

Whereas change is usually experienced as part of a continuing and evolving dynamic, we are now entering a time when the next progressive step draws forth a more complete re-orientation to a new sense of the reality within which we live and move and have our being. Such major changes in context are referred to often as paradigm shifts. The realisations dawning under a new paradigm cannot be approached through continuing steps along the previous path but require a time to be still and silent to the old and to be entirely and freely open to the new - to allow all attachment to past familiarity and its reassurance to fall away from hold and influence. There is a period when we feel rudderless and the urge for security can rise as a powerful reactive surge against whatever is coming into awareness but cannot yet be clearly known without a sense of loss and grief dragging at consciousness. Yet these moments of interlude are powerful with portent and promise if we can find that subtle, clear space where the past cannot darken insight and where new creative expressions emerge.

Most points of disagreement and conflict in the world today are clashes in the realm of effects or symptoms but, in the flood of destructive anger and frustration, we grasp at expedient reasoning and fail to see the true causes which, when finally understood, emerge as the same for all "sides". Perhaps the reality of our synthesis is too new and too great to grasp and so triggers the desperate clinging to difference and exclusivity. Nevertheless great unifying forces are at work and even fashion and common experience are powerfully binding people together into factions, albeit still vying for recognition. It seems we have learned to relate in smaller units but are still progressing to the fully human and global identity. Looking through to the heart of things in all the apparent conflicts, we find that we have common aspirations for peace, fulfilment of potential, loving relationship and for contributing something of value to our world.

We are learning on a global scale. The new guides and luminaries are the forerunners of a World Teacher, looked for by most of the world's great religions, who will come, as the Tibetan assures us, "when a measure of peace has been restored, when the principle of sharing is at least in process of controlling economic affairs, and when the churches have begun to clean house. Then He can and will come; then the Kingdom of God will be publicly recognised and will no longer be a thing of dreams and of ideals." And with the potency of peace: "This Spirit of Peace is not the sum total of an emotional and static calm, bringing to an end the turmoil on the Earth and instituting an era of peace. He is, in a mysterious sense, the Spirit of Equilibrium; He works with the Law of Action and Reaction and the inevitability of His activity will be recognised. His work will demonstrate in two ways-fully when the (World Teacher) appears among men and slowly and gradually until that time" [The Reappearance of the Christ pages 163 & 74]

Rather than competing and fighting with one another, what needs to be opposed and surmounted is ignorance and its spawn of narrowness, separateness, prejudice and superiority falsely measured in terms of material means and image. Indeed, as we witness the parade of the powerful, we could be reminded of the story of The Emperor's New Clothes, by Hans Christian Anderson, where a realisation dawns on a people, together and as one:

" Once upon a time there lived a vain Emperor whose only worry in life was to dress in elegant clothes. Two scoundrels who had heard of the Emperor's vanity decided to take advantage of it. They introduced themselves at the gates of the palace with a scheme in mind. 'We are two very good tailors and after many years of research we have invented an extraordinary method to weave a cloth so light and fine that it looks invisible. As a matter of fact it is invisible to anyone who is too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its quality.' ."

And then later: " 'We have worked night and day but, at last, the most beautiful fabric in the world is ready for you. Look at the colors and feel how fine it is.' Of course the Emperor did not see any colors and could not feel any cloth between his fingers. . But he realized that no one could know that he did not see the fabric. Nobody could find out he was stupid and incompetent. And the Emperor didn't know that everybody else around him thought and did the very same thing. . The Emperor was doubtful about showing himself naked to the people, but ... After all, no one would know about it except the ignorant and the incompetent. ."

Then the royal procession: "An applause welcomed the regal procession. Everyone wanted to know how stupid or incompetent his or her neighbor was but, as the Emperor passed, a strange murmur rose from the crowd. Everyone said, loud enough for the others to hear: 'Look at the Emperor's new clothes. They're beautiful!'. A child, however, who had no important job and could only see things as his eyes showed them to him, went up to the carriage. 'The Emperor is naked,' he said. .the boy's remark, which had been heard by the bystanders, was repeated over and over again until everyone cried: 'The boy is right! The Emperor is naked! It's true!'"

As we move from the age of authority to an age of mutual respect and universality we realise that the "authorities" we have relied on in the past may be knowledgeable only within the boundaries of the systems which have accorded them authority. Perhaps these very systems are like the emperor's new clothes. A reality check seems to be sweeping the world and all our preconceived sureties are being tested against real need. We are thrown back on our own deeply shared intuition, sense of balance and justice. We are moving towards a new way of relating to one another and expressing that relationship through new service structures and systems for distributing the substance of life to all kingdoms and parts of the one world in which we live and on which we depend for living. Our horizons of time, cause and effect, relationship and areas of influence are expanding. Human values are becoming the benchmark for solution and the creation of our new civilisation. And we are powerful beyond measure.

Visit our Website at www.sydneygoodwill.org.au for information on literature, books, meetings…