The Power of Simplicity

While many may delight in celebrity culture, there are far more amazing and inspiring people living among us – possibly right next door – if only we knew their story. One might wonder just how many heroes we pass in the street without realising that we have walked through the radiance of greatness. God is in everything from the little seed pushing its way up through the earth, to a mother bear protecting her cubs or a migratory bird flying thousands of miles to give birth to a new generation. All are heroically moving to the rhythm of our planetary Life – of our God.

Humble beginnings do not always mean an obscure life and there are many inspiring examples of those who, at a very young age and against all odds, have decided to make a difference in the world. Inspiring examples are Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai whom we focussed in our last Newsletter, or Li Cunxin, well-known as Mao’s Last Dancer in the book of that title, whose life exemplifies the qualities that can overcome all odds.

If we live life passively and vicariously through the airbrushed lives of the rich and famous, we may not realise the greatness of our own souls and fail to express it to help improve the world. There is a similar danger in living within a theory or teaching. We can become imprisoned in a mental realm of informational structures unless we are consciously identified with the life they are intended to represent. By bringing the theory into how we live, we breathe life into it and so transform knowledge into practical wisdom. And the simplest souls are often the wisest. The Tibetan master reminds us that: “Simplification proceeds rapidly as one nears the goal of the spirit”, and the Agni Yoga writings tell us of the power of simplicity:

…the Great Pilgrim directed and guided human consciousness toward the Highest. He understood that people were not yet ready to go by the Middle Path. Thus, even when someone attempted to utter the unutterable the Great One would allow him to address the Highest, rather than let him lower the process of his thinking.
The Great One taught people to pray within their hearts, upon the mountain, amid inspiring summits. It is impossible to grasp the full depth of meaning of the Sermon of the Great One, because He gave instructions for the whole of life in the simplest words. The key to this greatness was in His simplicity, which not only allowed Him to more easily communicate with people, but was a beautiful way of expressing the Highest in the simplest words. One should learn to make the complicated simple, for only in simplicity is kindness reflected. Such was the work of the Great Pilgrim.
Great is His luminosity in the Subtle World, and He loves to descend into the lower spheres so that His prana may purify the dark realms. It is not easy even for Him to descend, and one should appreciate all the more this example of His selfless healing of those who suffer there.
It is customary for Us to visit the lower spheres of the Subtle World where a compassionate heart can save multitudes.” Supermundane, 150

The more information we have, the more aware we become of the level of its integrity. These days, however, a veritable flood of information is brought to us – often pushed at us – through every conceivable communication method. So much so, that it can all seem too much and, in the pressure of daily living, it can seem easier to simply accept what is presented. Yet our heart knows what is true and we are discovering just how much of what has been presented as true is in fact distorted or even false. What is our response and responsibility when we identify misrepresentations of truth?

It is not always possible to discern truth simply on the basis of argument between opposing viewpoints. So we need to apply our subtle sense, the knowing of the heart, to discern what is true. And in the face of some of the most sweeping revelations that have been broadcast – such as the abuses of previously revered clerical leaders – we find that acceptances of the past must be questioned in the light of a whole new perspective. The structures of a civilisation based on these crumbling acceptances then also become questionable.

This questioning has brought the realisation that much of how we have been operating in the world is counter to what we now know about its ecology, climate, potential and sentiency. As we human beings have spread across the face of the Earth we have come to realise how fragile is the delicately perfect balance of Mother Nature and how critical is our part in supporting the world that sustains us and all the interdependent species that share its life with us.

This realisation impels us to expand the scope of our creative faculty in order to find ways of using the planet’s resources so that its life is nurtured and sustained. Our world seems to be teetering towards a tipping point with climate change and the great inequities between rich and poor, secure and vulnerable. Increasingly we human beings are reaching for a point of balance that will enable the rhythm of life to continue beating through the fabric of the world and through all the lives woven into it, together sharing the great breathing of its cyclic turnings.

We have grown beyond primeval innocence, and made our way out of ignorance and into knowledge. We are now in process of progressing into the wisdom of knowing – that state of awareness which automatically expresses harmlessly in the greatest sense. Merle Stubbs described this state of knowing in the book, Journey of a Lifetime:

We are not here speaking of ‘knowing something’ but rather of that state we simply call knowing. It is a direct awareness independent of reasoning, logical processes of the analytical mind, and of time or sequence. Direct knowing is beyond the function of the intuition but instantly precipitates that intuition. Any resultant revelation can be given out in a chosen format to advance the thinking of humanity. The format is not the truth itself but only an instrument.
There is a distinction between creating something yourself and tuning into something that is a part of Life’s own expression. Direct knowledge just is so – it is beyond us and yet a part of us. We are not separate from it. This awareness can be achieved by the recognition of that process which has been termed ‘identification’. If you are identified with something there is no space between. Why? Because you are one with that. You are that.” From Journey of a Lifetime by Merle Stubbs

As we learn that nothing is separate from us, we are realising that human wisdom is needed and is being evoked by the critical effects of past ignorance, prejudice and narrow self-interest. Such is the wisdom of the Soul which knows itself to be at-one with the soul in all things, parts of one interdependent Whole. At this point we meet those Wise Ones who have lived through and transcended the human condition just like we are now beginning to do as circumstances make it imperative.

The bridge between the material world and the subtle world of Soul and shared being is the final, critical and urgently needed link in the great chain of being, linking and so expressing through every part of our planetary life from the tiniest seed to the Lord of the World we call God. And it is now coming more fully alive as this poet knows:

A softly whispered stillness fell about,
In which a Pregnant Glory seemed to shout!

The dying moments of a Passing Age,
With all its share of growth and pain and rage,

Gave way with shuddered sigh and gnarled hand
To Infant Life, now learning how to stand.

And luminous eyes of shining Crystal Light
Gazed forth in wonder at the passing night.

New Life reached forth embracing that grown old,
Then Light blazed forth –

And Silver merged with Gold!

~ From New Waves of Light at:
https://newwavesoflight.org/poems/

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