Removing the Seeds of Enmity

As we strive to maintain accustomed patterns of daily living with the pandemic challenging them at every turn, it is easy to lose sight of truth in the crosscurrents between a long-established worldview and one that is yet to fully emerge. We seem to be confronted with a confusing cloud of conjectures, assumptions and opinions that come in a constant stream through the global media. Many of us are living in a precarious situation where our livelihood (and in some cases our lives) depends on what we accept as true. We are coming to realise that finding a path through all the proffered “truths” requires a new and more subtle level of discernment and a fuller understanding – a sort of expanded aerial view – of the terrain through which we must make our way.

Lockdowns and limited travel have turned us to the internet where we find a plethora of perspectives – many offered with an air of “special” authority and few with reliable fact-checking. It’s hard to know what to believe and the diversity of opinions can be so confusing that we may simply allow our fears and desires to choose for us. Many offerings intentionally play on our fears and harness them towards accepting what they promote. So we are faced with the challenge to rise above the pull of the lower nature and see with the eyes of the Soul to penetrate through to the true essence behind outward form and presentation. A commentary in The Light of The Soul explains:

This question of truth is one of the great problems which the aspirant has to solve, and he who attempts to speak only that which is entirely accurate will find himself confronted by very definite difficulties. Truth is entirely relative whilst evolution proceeds, and is progressive in its manifestation. It might be defined as the demonstration on the physical plane of as much of the divine reality as the stage in evolution and the medium employed permit. Truth, therefore, involves the ability of the perceiver or aspirant to see correctly the amount of the divine which a form (tangible, objective, or of words) clothes. It involves, therefore, the capacity to penetrate to the subject and to contact that which every form veils. It involves also the ability of the aspirant to construct a form (tangible, objective, or of words) which will convey the truth as it is. This is in reality the first two stages of the great creative process: (1) Correct perception, (2) Accurate construction, and it leads on to …the effectiveness of all words and acts to convey reality or truth as it is.” The Light of The Soul page 195-6

It’s easy to take “at face value” any of the many versions of events on offer. But what we may perceive as “facts” are the outer forms that veil the inner sound or intention behind their creation. A more expanded view can help to see the truth of a situation within the context of a greater Life and Its intention unfolding through space and time. Opening out beyond a limiting myopic view, we can begin to sense the presence and purpose of the “One in Whom we live and move and have our being”. As we transcend the lower nature (with its reactive mirroring of the obstacles to truth) we begin to reflect the unity and harmony of that mighty life so subtly pervading our world. The subtle power of this is explained in this passage:

Only that can be contacted which is already present or partially present in the perceiver’s consciousness. If enmity and hatred are therefore to be found by the perceiver, it is because in him the seeds of enmity and hatred are present. When they are absent naught but unity and harmony exists. This is the first stage of universal love, the practical endeavour on the part of the aspirant to be at one with all beings. He begins with himself and sees to it that the seeds of harmfulness in his own nature are eradicated. He deals, therefore, with the cause which produces enmity towards him and others. The natural result is that he is at peace and others are at peace with him. In his presence even wild beasts are rendered impotent and this by the condition of the mind-state of the aspirant or yogin.” The Light of the Soul page 194-5

As human consciousness expands and increasingly identifies with the greater Life and its laws, we learn to live harmlessly with less need for imposed restrictions. We are beginning to share a sense of the subtle and powerful laws that pervade our world. What we call laws in a legal sense are a way of organising our societies to maintain order but these are subject to change as well as to misuse through corruption and exploitation by those who will use any means to maintain worldly power. But things are shifting as a growing multitude of brave hearts are responding to their inner, truer soul being and are standing up for truth and a truer way of organising our shared living in resonance with the human Soul. The Tibetan Master explains the real nature of laws:

Laws are only the unalterable conditions brought about by the activity, the orientation and the emanated decisive thoughts of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being, just as the activities, the orientation and the thinking of a human being carry the cells and the atoms of his body along the line of his wishes. Energies are but the rhythm of His breathing and the results of the systolic and the diastolic action of His heart. From these energies we cannot escape, but—in a mysterious and peculiar manner—the planetary Logos directs them or withholds them to suit the recognised planetary needs of the period.” Discipleship in the New Age II, page 62-3

As we navigate the shift between the ages, humanity is passing through a culminating moment in its long life-journey. To see this moment in its true perspective we might shift to a soul view and review the long sweep of history that has brought us and our world to this point. An example of this perspective was presented by Jeremy Lent at the Parliament of World Religions in Toronto in November 2018 (See:  https://youtu.be/cxZp1Tg8xvA ) If we review our individual lives from the same viewpoint, we begin to see a larger pattern working out behind apparently random events in our lives and come to realise that a deeper “plan” has been working out all the while. Looking back in this way, we are no longer caught up in the smaller imprisoning moment. We realise that we have shared the same journey – expressed through individual circumstances – and have followed the same great life pattern.

The laws of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being have been guiding our journey all along. We have been reflecting the rhythm of that great life as we enter into incarnation, gain realisation through experience, and then return to the subtle dimensions again and again, unfolding rhythmically through the incarnations and changing the world as we progress. Each life is an opportunity to reflect the Presence of the greater life into the world. And, as we identify with that Life, each little life (or incarnation) becomes a return journey to “the Father’s home”. That Presence then reflects through each one and resonates with its reflection in others. In this way we lift and aid one another as we share in the process of manifesting a sacred world according to the divine impulse that breathes through the cosmos.

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