Religion does seem to tend—if it’s not blended with the spirituality at the same time—to direct the focus and the will outside of oneself and to put one’s reliance and to put the power in something or someone outside oneself, whereas the Ageless Wisdom says that God is present within all his creation.
Robert: Welcome. Inner sight is simply seeing that which is always present but not yet fully recognized. You have within you the ability to see yourself and the world around you in a new way, with new eyes, so stay with us and together we’ll look at the world and ourselves with inner sight. Our topic for today is spirituality for our time. And before we start, I’d like to give some credit to the founder of the Lucis Trust organization, and that’s Alice Bailey. She wrote twenty-four volumes of literature, and the main inspiration for all the dialogue on this show comes from the works of Alice Bailey. Here’s a thought, though, from the Dalai Lama: “I believe deeply that we must find, all of us together, a new spirituality. This new concept ought to be elaborated alongside the religions in such a way that all people of goodwill could adhere to it.” This reminds me a lot of the Alice Bailey literature and the Lucis Trust organization because one of the things that I enjoy is I’ve been able to explore good values and ways of looking at life that are very creative and positive towards humanity and yet at the same time it doesn’t at all conflict with my religion. But let’s get on with our topic of spirituality for our time. What does it mean to be spiritual and can you be spiritual without belonging to a particular religion?
Sarah: Yes—to that second question—yes you can. I think there are a lot of people who misunderstand and perhaps merge in their understanding the two terms, religious and spiritual, but actually they’re different. As I understand it, a religion is a particular spiritual philosophy or doctrine, a set of rules and principles that have been laid down that direct the follower of that religion on a path toward divinity. If you stay within those doctrines and follow those rules and principles and obey them, you are a follower of that particular religion. Whereas spirituality—as we’ll discuss on this program—is something much more amorphous and yet very inclusive. People sometimes ask us if the Lucis Trust is a religion. No, it’s not. We have no affiliation with any organized religion. And in fact, The Lucis Trust, which was founded about eighty years ago, in 1921, has always, from the beginning, had people who come from a background in many different faiths: Christian, Jewish, Buddhist; within Christianity: Protestant and Catholic. But at the same time, we’ve always had a lot of people who are not members of any particular religion. So, we seem to have a rather broad appeal. But certainly, a person can be a follower of their own particular religious faith and study the books of Alice Bailey and the Ageless Wisdom in general; they shouldn’t conflict. I think one of the major misconceptions about what spirituality is: the tendency to think that it’s warm and fuzzy, rather benign and passive, rather meek and mild in its approach to life, when in fact to be spiritual doesn’t mean to be passive at all. It can be rather incisive in its approach to life.
Dale: Yes, the spiritual life is essentially a state of being and not so much a state of achievement. It’s not so much what you do, but what you are, what you become that really matters. And it’s allowing that inner spiritual impulse to motivate your life. There’s a tendency of religions to look outwardly to God transcended for salvation, for example. But a spiritual person, the one who is really on the path perhaps, looks within, looks for that God within, the God imminent within his creation for guidance and as a way of saving himself rather than trying to find that salvation outwardly or upwardly from some outside source.
Sarah: Yes, I think there is that connotation to being spiritual, that you are self-motivated in your development, your evolution. I’m not in any way attempting to put down religion, because I have a great interest and respect for religion, but it does seem to tend—if it’s not blended with the spirituality at the same time—to direct the focus and the will outside of oneself and to put one’s reliance and to put the power in something or someone outside oneself, whereas the Ageless Wisdom says that God is present within all his creation, including within every human being. And that means that the mobilizing power of divinity resides within every human being. Someone, some great thinker said, “That in you which seeks God has already found him.” And I think that’s what that statement is saying. The search for divinity is generated from within the human being. So, we don’t totally go outside of ourselves to find God, but we find Him within ourselves. Spirituality—coming back to what it means in terms of its expression in the world—does not mean being saintly. Sometimes it might, but I can think of a lot of people that are deeply spiritual who are not particularly saintly. There’s a book that came out recently; I read about it in a couple of reviews. It’s about the life of three or four, I think, Catholics. Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and two others whose names escape me. But Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day are two examples of really spiritual people who were not by any means saints. I think Thomas Merton fathered a child out of wedlock when he was a very young man, Dorothy Day had a child out of wedlock and was a communist, but they turned their lives around through their own spiritual awakening and led lives of real spiritual power and service. So, they were flawed and human, but they were at the same time really spiritual. Another example, I think, would be Einstein. He was a scientist, but he brought to his science a vision of spiritual laws. As a family man: recently, what I’ve read sounds like he wasn’t anybody I’d particularly want to live in the same house with, and yet anybody who knows his writings would say he was spiritual.
Dale: Well, as it says in the Ageless Wisdom books that, “That which is spiritual lies beyond the point of present achievement.” So, it’s looking beyond oneself in consciousness that really has to do with what is spiritual. It is that which embodies the vision and which urges the person on towards a goal higher than the one they presently have attained.
Sarah: So, these examples of Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton follow that pattern of having pulled themselves out of their circumstances and predicaments and moved beyond it and triumphed over it.
Dale: Exactly, and by following that inner guidance, they conducted their lives accordingly. And they brought forth, as in case of Dorothy Day, wonderful service work in the world. And that’s the true mark of service of the spiritual person.
Sarah: I think there’s some connection, too, to the fact that Christ chose his followers from among people who were not the priests of his time, the established holy men. Instead, he looked for quite ordinary human beings, the fishermen of the time, but also prostitutes such as Mary Magdalene. Why would he look for the people such as that to cooperate with him in his mission? Perhaps because they had the humility and the self-awareness to be open to something totally new and transformative? Nothing like falling flat on your face and disgracing yourself to inspire the urge to change and grow.
Dale: It strengthens your humility.
Sarah: Yes. Buddha also chose his followers from among people that weren’t the priest caste of his time, so, holy, spiritual lives can be lives that have gone through real trouble and disaster. So, those are some of the misconceptions about spirituality. I think one of the most important things to keep in mind is that it’s an energy that doesn’t soothe necessarily or calm or comfort. Spirituality can in fact shake things up. It can be even destructive in its effect in the sense of destroying glamours and illusions and breaking up crystallized patterns and ideas. It can be sometimes rather destructive and harsh in its effect and yet because of its power it can bring about change for good.
Dale: But that power comes from within. It comes from pure spirit within and spirit comes by way of the soul. Every human being is a product of the soul, and the soul itself is a product of the original creative urge when pure spirit merged with dense matter and produced that third factor, which we call the soul. And then the soul has followed that same pattern in creating a human being, so the spiritual aspect is present in the soul, and it’s also present in the human being, and that’s why by the very presence of the spirit within us, that assures us of that path back to God.
Robert: What are some examples of spirituality in today’s world?
Sarah: I think that spirituality abounds in the world. One of the problems is that there’s a misconception that spirituality is separate from worldly life. In fact, the real duality is spirituality and materialism. But our nation in particular has this strong separation between church and state, or between the religious and the secular. And I think that’s part of the misunderstanding. Religious and secular are opposites, but spirituality and materialism are even stronger opposites. So, the spiritual can be found in both religion and in secular daily life. The way we live our family life, the way we conduct our business, the objectives for which scientists work. Those are all examples of spirituality and yet they are expressed in the secular daily world. Can you think of others?
Dale: Well, spirituality is essentially, as we are told, the establishing of right human relations and the promotion of goodwill. As we said earlier, it has to do with the outward expansion of consciousness, and wherever that happens, then you have a spiritual movement in the world because it moves consciousness in the direction of spirit, of the whole, so it contains more of the whole in its vision.
Sarah: I think you’re implying that it’s more inclusive in its vision. The writings of Alice Bailey say that the spiritual is all that establishes right human relations. Everything that works toward building right relationships between people is spiritual. That would be brotherhood, understanding, helpfulness, a belief in the soul that unites all human beings. Those are examples of qualities that stimulate right human relations, and they are deeply spiritual. Another aspect of spirituality in today’s world is the speed of life. People might not think of this as a spiritual effect, but in fact it is, because I think it’s hastening people’s sense of power. It’s building a stronger urge to develop and evolve. Those are qualities that I think are spiritual because they force us on the path.
Dale: And you might say, spiritual organizations, and an example of that would be the formation of the United Nations. Wouldn’t that be a good example of that?
Sarah: Yes, because it brings together in the effort to establish right relations, yes. It’s deeply spiritual; people who have been there know that.
Dale: And I believe there is so much change going on in the world today that it is being motivated by the inner spirit of human creativity to reach out. There’re expansions going on everywhere in all walks of life, and science is reaching out to an understanding of the universe and also of the inner world of the atom and so forth.
Sarah: Other examples of spirituality would be the demand for freedom that we see in all parts of the world. That’s a spiritual impulse straight from the soul: the desire to have the freedom to control and direct one’s life according to one’s own highest instincts. The demand for human rights, the concern for the rights of the children, the increasing concern for the environment and what man has done to the environment. Those are spiritual impulses because they’re recognitions of responsibility for something, in this case, having gone wrong, speaking of the environment. The sense of responsibility is always a spiritual impulse, even when it’s expressed just in the most obvious ways. It’s spiritual because it’s the presence of the soul.
Dale: That’s the main thing to bear in mind, that it is the soul at work here, and that’s why it is deeply spiritual, because it is the soul working its methods, its qualities out through human activities. And likewise, the soul works out through nations. Every nation in the world has a soul aspect to it, a personality aspect and a soul aspect. So, if nations are unified in their approach, they can also begin to demonstrate those spiritual characteristics.
Sarah: Well, for example, the classic example might be France in the late 18th century when it declared liberty, fraternity, and equality. That was a deeply spiritual declaration of the French spirit. And there was linked to the American Revolution the realization that all people strive for freedom and happiness. Those are examples of spirituality within a whole nation.
Dale: Right, and the people within a nation should bear this in mind, that they need to speak with one voice that demonstrates the soul of that nation, the soul quality of that nation because this is so very important in building the right human relationships throughout the world.
Robert: Can you comment on this particular thought? I think it relates to what we’re talking about: “We’re not human beings going through a spiritual experience, instead we’re spiritual beings going through a human experience.” Would you agree with that thought? I wish I could remember who it came from, but I can’t.
Sarah: Yes, it redirects the focus by its surprise element that we are in fact, in essence, spiritual rather than strictly human. I’ve heard that said many times.
Dale: Right. It goes back to what I was saying earlier and probably bears repeating: that because we have this spiritual factor within us, deep within the heart, that’s what we have to rediscover. And meditation, of course, is one good way in which one can rediscover that central core of spirit because that is the beginning of the path of return to the Father’s home, and that’s essentially why we’re here.
Sarah: Maybe we could come back to another duality or another pair of opposites. The spiritual relates to the sacred, but the sacred is contrasted to the profane. And the writings of Alice Bailey said that’s why spirituality is so often seen as opposed to worldly living. And yet it has to do with one’s attitude because nothing is truly profane or unspiritual in and of itself. We make it so by our attitude of disrespect and irresponsibility towards it and here for example we could say by the way we use our money. We are either handling it in a spiritual way or in a profane way by the attitude we hold towards it. Do we use it strictly for selfish purposes and for needless expenditures, or do we use it as an energy that can be shared with others and that is, say, a stream of energy that necessarily doesn’t belong just to oneself, but that should be used to provide for the meeting of need for all people? That can be a revolutionary transformation of an attitude towards something that’s totally material and yet has real spiritual significance when it’s used rightly.
Dale: And also, I just was thinking back to another example that might be useful to throw in here, an example of a spiritual experience is when an infant undergoes an awakening. I don’t mean a grand awakening like the Buddha, but he wakes up to his family. He opens his eyes and his little consciousness suddenly awakes and there are these other people here that take care of him or her. This is an expansion of consciousness for this little infant, and it grows from there to the family, to his other siblings, and to his family and friends, and then the neighborhood, and so forth. It grows from that and there is a constant expansion of awareness going on there, and that’s what we mean by this spiritual experience. So, that’s just another small example of what we can look for in the way of spiritual experiences.
Sarah: So, I hope that people listening to this program can see that their religious beliefs, whatever they might be, don’t necessarily conflict at all with a real spirituality in the way they live their lives. The two should reinforce each other. One shouldn’t have to choose between being overtly religious and more amorphously spiritual. It’s not that. But they are not the same because spirituality has to do with the expression of divinity in every aspect of life from the economic, to the educational, to the humanitarian. It’s all that fosters right relationship between the individual and the world around him. I don’t know how else we can put it. I hope that that’s clear.
Robert: I find it remarkable when I go to the Lucis Trust meetings that so many people have a different number of religious backgrounds and are all getting along and talking, and I find that just remarkable. Do you have any theories about why that happens? I mean, there are no fist fights or anything like that, and nobody’s really violently disagreeing. (laughs)
Sarah: I think it’s perfectly normal that people of different religious backgrounds should get along. I think the present world is so weird with its wars that are based on religious differences, it makes no sense.
Dale: It’s based on the factor of goodwill.
Robert: Exploring the commonality, rather than the differences, I guess. You’ve been listening to Inner Sight, and now we would like to close with a world prayer called the Great Invocation. It’s a call for light and love and goodwill to flow into the world and into our hearts. Let’s listen for a moment to these powerful words.
Sarah: Closes the program by reciting the adapted version of the Great Invocation.
(This is an edited transcript of a recorded radio program called “Inner Sight.” This conversation was recorded between the host, Robert Anderson, and the then President and Vice-President of Lucis Trust, Sarah and Dale McKechnie.)
(Transcribed and edited by Carla McLeod)
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