Amidst the dire events roiling around our world and reported so dramatically in both mainstream and social media, we also find millions of acts of the heart, tiny jewels twinkling like starry beacons guiding us through the burgeoning chaos to the calm of a promised land. These shining gems reveal heart-touching events wherein love and compassion are demonstrated β sometimes in the midst of desperate circumstances and sometimes simply and beautifully expressing the deep bonds of loving understanding. We might take heart in the myriad of these instances such as the friendship between war-wounded children in a refugee camp, the uplifting performance of a child prodigy, the self-sacrificing care of aid-workers after a disaster, dedicated initiatives to conserve our planetβs ecology, inspired artistic creations to invoke our soul, or activists giving voice to issues of need and pressing for their solution.
…despite the surface appearance of outer events, hearts continue to beat in resonance
…we might bring together all the parts of the one shining Heart through which the New Era of enlightened living can be born.
I rejoice to see how the lightning flashes of foresight regarding the peopleβs welfare sparkle amidst your thoughts. These thoughts have to be launched into space. If you could daily spare half an hour for the future! Verily, the bonfire of your thoughts would receive Our welcome.
Let the things of everyday life vanish, but let the country of the future be embodied in thought. And what cleanses the spirit more thoroughly than the thoughts about the welfare of others? And what tempers the armour of steadfastness better than the wish to lead others to Light? And what weaves a better smile than a desire to see the very last child laughing? I urge you to think thus about the future, to place daily a pearl into the necklace of the Mother of the World. And so, concisely and simply think how to adorn the Hearth of the World.
There should be no comparison with the past, for a wrinkle of the past is usually a nest of errors. One can sail past alien shores; one has only to admire the world of light bestowed upon all that lives. Light is the best bridge between the visible and the Invisible.
When one can think about the future not by the evening fire but in the radiance of the sun, then the dew drops of prana illumine the thinking brow.β Leaves of Moryaβs Garden II, 301
At the heart of everything is a tiny jewel of immense promise and power.
Behind all forms is found the one Life; within every atom (solar, planetary, human and elemental) is found the one sentient existence; back of objective nature, the sum total of all forms in all the kingdoms of nature is found the subjective reality which is essentially a unified whole or unity, producing the diversified many. The homogeneous is the cause of the heterogeneous, unity produces diversity, the One is responsible for the many. This the student can appreciate more intelligently if he follows the golden rule which reveals the mystery of creation and studies himself. The microcosm reveals the nature of the macrocosm.β The Light of the Soul, page 386-7
From this perspective a whole new world opens up
The Dreamingβs genesis is a time before time began when the earth was soft. In this eternity dwell the Creation Spirits who gave form to the unformed reality. But the Original understanding of chronology is not that of naΓ―ve Western science, and the Dreaming is not a period of formation that is now over but one that is infinite. Indeed, one term for the Dreaming, Alcheringa, has been translated as β to see things eternal. It is obvious that in trying to come to grips with the ineffable, words can only get us so far. However, to some extent we can say that the Dreamtime is a place, a time, and a vision; one which is all places and all times; a dimension of reality which creates and sustains, and provides purpose and meaningβ¦ In contrast to [the Westβs history of war, conquest and exploitation] the Dreaming has been able to maintain its integrity because Indigenous Australian society is not moulded by these exploitative, violent, acquisitive aims and therefore has no motivation to distort the truth. Untainted by the separatist consciousness of βModern Manβ the Original Australians realize that to betray the Dreaming is to betray themselves. To rent the truth is to rent their own flesh. To destroy the land is to do violence to oneβs self and repress oneβs finer natureβ¦ When one really lives in the spirit, eternally, and sees it in the land and all things, then there is no chance of becoming disconnected from it and truth and morality β for at base all of these are one.β From the Introduction to Out of Australia by Steven and Evan Strong
Yet we do not always see what may be plainly before us.
The veils are β¦ 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 not basically related to consciousness at all, for in the majority of cases these veils βlie on the earthward side of being and not upon the side of lightβ; 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 constitute the lowest concentration of forces precipitated from levels of activity other and higher than the physical, as you understand physical substance. If one might use a phrase which, even if true, is misleading, 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. This inner world can be emotional or mental in its focus and in its force precipitation on to the etheric plane. It can be the fused result of personality integration and be a combination of energies; or it can be dominated by the effects of soul energy. These, if evoked, can penetrate β¦ and drive out or break down and through the separating veiling forces, thus producing coordination eventually between soul and brainβ¦ These veils are 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.β The Rays and the Initiations, page 195
So let us lift the veil of the Mother of the World that we may know the Heart of the World in the radiance of Her smile
How great is the play of the Mother of the World! She beckons to Her children from Her distant fields: “Hasten, children! I wish to teach you. I have keen eyes and alert ears ready for you. Sit ye down upon My garment. Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Β Let us learn to soar!” Agni Yoga 60.
Now at Easter we celebrate Light pouring in when Christ rent the veil of death βin twain from the top to the bottomβ. And so gave us a living demonstration of what He had earlier affirmed as the potential in us all:
I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.β John 11:25
The illusion of death cannot extinguish the radiant Soul which shines ever more brightly among the shadows, as do the stars against the dark of the night sky, then, with the dawn, become merged in the Light of the rising Sun.
No need to “understand” beauty or goodness, in order to appreciate and be inspired by them. It’s enough to be touched… and they transform us!