Weaving a New Garment of the Mother of the World

Around the globe, commemorations of Armistice Day have drawn our focus through the sweep of time since the destructive force of the First World War came to an end. After enduring subsequent wars and conflicts, we realise that it was not, as hoped, the “war to end all wars”. In some ways we are a little wiser now, and the reality of our world as a vital, living organism is beginning to permeate our consciousness where it may be translated into a way of living that is responsive to that Great Life of which we are all organic, interconnected parts – living, growing and transforming together. We are transcending the devastation of war and entering a realisation of humanity’s mighty heart.

How wonderfully this was illustrated in the Invictus Games, recently held in Sydney, for veterans whose bodies have been damaged by war. They were a celebration of our essential spirit beyond any limitations of form. And while they were based on a model of athletic competition, there was such shared heart that competition was transcended by joy, camaraderie and shared achievement. These veterans were celebrated for their sacrifice in service and demonstrated for us all how to express the sacredness of life by conquering the limitations of form and enabling the living spirit, the essence, to shine through it. And most significantly, it is not achieved alone but together. Watching some of the most moving and uplifting moments, one could begin to realise that we are more than “our brother’s keeper”, rather we ARE our brother in essence, in heart and in living power.

The will that brought them out of the depths of despair and devastation into the transcendent heart is the fiery will of love that unites what is real and burns away illusory phantoms. We saw a wheelchair tennis player stop to help his opponent through a painful moment of PTSD until ready to continue; wheelchair runners slowing in their race to urge on a struggling competitor; rowing teammates one of whom was wounded by “friendly fire” and the other the one who had fired the “friendly” bullets and subsequently himself wounded, their deep bond unbreakable.

We have lived through so much conflict and are learning to reconnect with each other and with the essence we share. A co-worker expresses the essential beauty at the heart of this journey:

Amber tears, through captive years,
Eons over test and time;
Fall to rest on waiting breast,
Washing clean the Dweller’s grime.

Within the frozen Golden Light,
Beauty, petrified, bursts free,
Remembered Essence smoulders, bright,
Fractalled Form comes forth, to Be.

~ Frozen Fire by Suzanne Miller

The sense of context, which we hold in consciousness as we move through our daily living, has been expanding. From the time when nations sent their strongest youth to fight on foreign shores, the human heart and mind has been expanding as though the strands of love connecting those at home with those serving far away were stretched to new breadth and depth. The pain of loss without the “closure” of funeral ritual has also anchored those strands that weave around the world. This was perhaps most beautifully expressed in the famous speech about Gallipoli by Ataturk:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives … You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours … You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Such a welcome is yet to be shown to many millions of refugees fleeing poverty, violence and hopelessness and migrating across the world. While some achieve safe haven many more have perished or become political currency as those defending the separative mores of the passing civilisation defend their acquired material comfort. They fail to see their own selves reflected in these poor souls rendered destitute and desperate by the wars and other effects of exploitation carried out by the very nations who would now deny them entry.

Christ taught:

What you do to the least of these [fellow humans], you do to me.” Matthew 25:40

And we might ask:

Am I my brother’s keeper? Does my sense of brotherhood extend to those pitiable homeless human souls who are being treated like the refuse of humanity? If I cannot help them directly, can I make a place for them in my heart and pray for their well-being? Were I in their place—stateless, homeless, money-less—what would I welcome the most? What would kindness mean to me?” from the Living Discipleship Initiative

A growing number are answering these questions with their hearts, and the resultant sense of joy is exponentially increasing. World Kindness Day, November 13th, highlights this. Its purpose is “to look beyond ourselves, beyond the boundaries of our country, beyond our culture, our race, our religion; and realise we are citizens of the world”. More information is at:
http://www.kindness.com.au/world-kindness-day.html
And some heartening examples are at:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/world-kindness-day-random-acts-viral-inspiring-free-haircuts-homeless-veteran-funeral-a8631436.html

Strands of loving connection stretch between every migrant heart and all that they have left behind. New strands are woven wherever they meet a heart-response in new lands. And so the weaving strengthens and brightens into the Mother’s garment for the new era. The pain and sorrow of the past is gradually bringing us to new shores of loving understanding. It is expanding our sense of self – of what we really are – and ultimately transcending time and space and stretching into a vast oneness. This vastness encompasses more than the little physical self; it embraces all other selves and knows them by resonance. More and more consciously we are sharing in the great Communion of the Universe:

Communion, like fragrance, spreads far. If it is beautiful, the quality of broad dispersion is a blessed one. Let space be saturated with the best thoughts; many of them will join harmonious radiations. Though not all can absorb the full expression of thoughts, yet the beneficent substance formed by them will be a healing one. One should offer gratitude to the unknown Senders, who impregnate space with beneficial substance. Thoughts manifested in lofty communion are as a spring in the midst of a desert. Pursuing the direction of such springs one may find the Brotherhood.” Brotherhood, sloka 556

Along the strands of this communion we hear and know one another, together weaving a new garment of the Mother of the World, connecting in beauty and bringing us into the One Spirit. The perfume of this communion is spreading. It seems to be reflected in the changing atmosphere as Spring ripens into Summer (here in the Southern Hemisphere) and the perfume of the flowers grows stronger as though to celebrate the deepening communion of the human heart. It floats on the winds reminding of the rhythm of the Great Life on whose currents we travel through lifetimes as we journey back to our true home, our true being, our essence. The rhythmic breathing of Life carries us through the spiral – from pain and suffering to joy and achievement – and always there is present that power we touch in the interludes between breaths, between cycles, where the divine Life empowers Its purpose.

While the human heart has expanded greatly it is now in a crisis of expansion – on the edge of a mighty explosion through all the confining structures of the passing era. The Signs of the new are all around and growing in number and radiant presence – bringing the power of hope and joy. The Coming One is a new sense of oneness which we are creating as a beachhead for the reappearance of the Great Ones and the World Teacher (by whatever name He may be known). Our oneness will draw them forth.

* * * * * *