The fact that Avatars are human and divine gives them the understanding of human need and human suffering, human weakness, human potential.
Robert: Welcome to Inner Sight. 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. Today is a climaxing time of change. Humanity is passing through an extremely difficult transition period in which old forms are dying out and new ones are coming to life, with all the accompanying pain, chaos and disruption. Always in such times a great teacher comes forth. Today our topic is a time of expectancy. What are some of the signs that indicate a great Teacher and a World Saviour is coming into the world?
Sarah: One sign is a very ancient one. It’s a statement from the Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism; the statement that Krishna is supposed to have made is: “Whenever there is a withering of the law and an uprising of lawlessness on all sides, then I manifest myself.” Well, when we think about Christ, who came when the dying embers of the Roman Empire were most visible, there was lawlessness, there was a lack of morality, of civility and a kind of anarchy on a social level. You can look at the world now and see and sense a similar condition, I think. How does one know that this age is more lawless than previous times? That’s hard to claim, but there is a sense, I think, that people are operating more and more on their own code and not with the sense of being part of a larger society.
Dale: Yes, the withering of the law is seen in the evil tendencies that are coming to light.
Sarah: And what do we mean by evil? It’s a popular word these days.
Dale: Well, it has many meanings to whoever you’re talking to but it’s the selfish tendencies, the greed, all of the negative tendencies, the separateness, especially the hatred. All of this is coming to the surface of consciousness and it’s producing a lot of negative reactions in the world. It’s coming to the light, and it’s good because it’s all buried in human subconscious and it has to come up somehow, somewhere.
Sarah: Another famous statement that related to the time of expectancy is that “all things shall be shouted from the house tops” and that certainly is a condition we see today. Everything is becoming, as you say, uncovered.
Dale: Yes, and the media is playing a good part in uncovering a lot of this because that seems to be what they like to do; they like to scour around. They represent the forces of light in a way because they are shedding light on the evil tendencies that are just lying there in human consciousness which result in human actions.
Sarah: Well, it’s their duty, in a way, isn’t it? If it seems like the present age is a time of one expose after another, in a way it is. It’s an extraordinarily revealing time and an exposing time for long buried things to be coming to the surface, and when we look at it as a positive sign of the expectant return of a World Teacher or a World Saviour, then it makes one feel more positive about life. I think another sign of this expectancy is the almost pervasive expectancy in most of the great world religions for a World Teacher or a World Saviour. It isn’t only Christianity but Judaism also looks for the Messiah. In fact, the word Christ, which I think is Latin in origin, and the word Messiah, which is Hebrew, both interestingly mean the same thing: the anointed one; one who is consecrated or set aside for a special mission. So, these religions seem to be expecting the same type of being, and Hinduism awaits the Kalki Avatar, Islam looks for the Imam Mahdi, Buddhism expects the Maitreya. These are all different names, different religious teachings about a central world figure, a World Teacher.
Dale: Also, the fact is that we are coming to the end of an age and the beginning of a new age. This is a new two-thousand-year period beginning right now and the old energies and forces of the old age — which is sometimes called the Piscean age — are fading out and the influence is fading away with it.
Sarah: That’s an astrological statement isn’t it — the end of an age and the beginning of a new age?
Dale: It’s the beginning of a whole new cycle with new energies coming in and this represents an ideal time for this great World Teacher to come onto the scene and present some new teachings and new revelations, and in fact advance the ongoing revelation a little further for human consciousness.
Robert: It certainly is interesting that not only biblical prophecy, but even going back to ancient wisdom, it prophesied that during times such as we’re having that a great Teacher would come forth into humanity to help. I guess that was perhaps true of Buddha. This Teacher is referred to as an avatar. What is an avatar?
Sarah: An avatar is a Sanskrit word. I think it means literally: one who comes down from far away, from a high place. The idea of that term is to imply that this Being comes from a very high level of consciousness, of spiritual realization and descends to Earth, to humanity, to embody a new quality. You mentioned Buddha. Buddha is an Avatar who came to embody, demonstrate and manifest the quality of light. All his teaching was about light—the light of the mind, the indwelling light within all human beings that needs to be awakened and revealed. His famous last sermon, in which he said, be a lamp unto your own feet, was his teaching that we all have this light within us that we can shine upon our own way. We have the means of our salvation within us, and we don’t need to look for it outside of ourselves. And Christ was the embodiment of the energy of love in its most pure sense.
Dale: Yes, there have always been these, what they call divine Intermediaries, and it’s the great cycle of intermediaries that have come down representing God to humanity.
Sarah: Is that what you mean by an intermediary — mediating between God and man?
Dale: Right. Christ came to anchor the divine love of God, and he did that two thousand years ago, and that was the first time that he appeared as this divine Intermediary. So, in order to advance this revelation further, he must continue to come because his work, as we are told, isn’t finished yet. There is more to be revealed. There are different kinds of intermediaries, men and women of different stature and Christ perhaps represents the highest and greatest of the stature. When he comes, what he does sets a new note for a whole civilization in a sense, whereas lesser intermediaries may just affect a particular religion or a particular culture or civilization.
Sarah: I think we’ve talked about this before, that there are lesser avatars and greater avatars and the writings of Alice Bailey go quite a bit into this concept, particularly her book The Externalization of the Hierarchy talks about the doctrine or the teaching on avatars. It’s interesting: there are examples like Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Lincoln, who are lesser avatars and one of the Bacons, Francis or Roger — I never remember which.
Dale: I think both of them actually; it was the same soul.
Sarah: They are examples of lesser avatars in the sense that they embody a particular quality that is needed for their time and age, but the greatest Avatars, like you say, are beings like Buddha and Christ who — in a sense, they’re an event — the world is forever changed by them; they make such an impact that humanity is forever redirected in its course. That’s what’s so incredible and so wonderful to think about: this being a time of expectancy of yet another Avatar who will lift us up a notch and help us to redirect our course. Goodness knows we need it.
Robert: I’m fascinated by this topic myself, and I’d like to ask more questions about the time of expectancy, and the coming once again of a great Teacher who is going to more or less set things right, I hope, because we certainly need him or her right now. What will the Coming One teach, and will it be something new?
Sarah: Well, he will teach what humanity needs next to learn, and I’m not being coy about that; he will help us to take the next step. If you think about the fact that God is said to have “never left himself without witness,” as Scripture says, then there’s a continuity of revelation that’s implied in that. Stage by stage, step by step, humanity is helped to move forward on its evolutionary path. What do we think would be the next quality that the Coming One would embody and teach humanity about? Well, the writings of Alice Bailey say that it will have to do with equality. That’s very interesting to me because we give so much lip service to the ideal of equality, especially in American society; “all men are created equal,” the Declaration of Independence says, and yet we look around us in society and we know that’s not true. In one sense it is — we are all created by God, we are all precious in the eyes of God — but we’re not all at the same level of attainment or of contribution to society. So, our understanding of equality, I think, really needs some refining. It’s said by Alice Bailey that the Christ will teach us — or if we want to call this Coming One by another name, that’s fine — He will teach us something about equality. I suppose a spiritual equality, something about the inner divinity within every human being, don’t you think?
Dale: Yes, it would be the equality based on the revelation of the soul, I would think, because that’s the next great awakening that humanity must come to. It’s the fact of the inner spiritual self; that’s where the oneness of humanity is realized.
Sarah: Do you think that the present events in the Middle East, for example, and in Afghanistan and the attacks of September 11th might be related to that preparation?
Dale: I think it’s related to the preparation, yes, because also one of the requirements necessary to prepare for the coming of this World Teacher is the establishing of right human relations. This is repeated over and over again in the Bailey books — the need for establishing right human relations as a prerequisite for peace in the world.
Sarah: It’s also, I think, a demonstration of the soul, in the sense of the pain of both the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, the Afghan people, the Americans who lost loved ones. The pain of human suffering today is so intense that I think that evokes — or should evoke — a sense of the soul even in one’s so-called enemy.
Dale: Yes, because you try everything, you try all kinds of violent ways, this and that way, and finally you sit down exhausted and allow that soul to come through. It provides the way out, and the liberation from all of the past destructive ways.
Sarah: If you look at the suffering, could you not say, “If I hurt this much, those people must hurt just as much?” That is one expression of the soul and of the equality of suffering, the equality of aspiration. This is one lesson that the Coming One will bring. Another is implied in the books of Alice Bailey, of the teaching of some new understanding of the spiritual will. This will be the mission or the purpose of the Avatar, the Coming One, when he next returns.
Dale: I read also in the book The Reappearance of the Christ that another thing the Coming One will teach will be the Law of Rebirth, which is commonly referred to as reincarnation. We’ve talked about that before — the fact of the Law of Rebirth and of the rebirth of the soul lifetime after lifetime.
Sarah: I think society is really prepared for that lesson because they’ve taken polls of the American population and some huge percentage — over sixty percent of people—believe in the basic doctrine of reincarnation.
Dale: That’s the way it’s going to happen. I don’t think we have to wait for scientists to tell us that this law is a fact or we don’t have to wait for the ministers or priests or our bishops or whoever to tell us this is a fact. It’ll come from the realization in every human being that this must be so because it’s the only real, just, way for the working out of our striving for perfection.
Sarah: This sensing of the Coming One, of what humanity’s need and next step might be, I think, is related to the fact that these avatars are both human and divine, and that’s an essential point to emphasize about these beings. They are as—maybe it’s the Bible that says — “flesh of our flesh and spirit of our spirit.” It is the fact that they are human and divine that gives them the understanding of human need and human suffering, human weakness, human potential. They are of us but progressed beyond ordinary normal human beings enough to serve, as you said, as an intermediary between divinity or God and humanity.
Dale: Yes, they’ve been through — and this is where the Law of Rebirth comes in — because they’ve been through the human stage many, many times, and they’ve evolved beyond it and their consciousness is now so far beyond our strictly human understanding that they have reached that stature of Avatar. That’s true in the sense of Christ and the Buddha.
Sarah: To me, that’s one of the things that’s so appealing — if that’s the word — about the Buddha and the Christ. I think of both of them as Beings who have seen it all and understand all that is potential and nascent in humanity. They are, I think you could say, shock proof and they look clear eyed directly into humanity. They see our weaknesses, our terrible sins and errors, but they also see potential and believe in our highest and best self. This unwavering conviction that humanity is capable of better deeds, better relationships is what they hold before us; that confidence in us, which I find really mobilizing.
Dale: Yes, they’ve been through the stages. They’ve seen it all, as you’ve said. Another thing that impresses me that they want the world to know about is this inner spiritual Hierarchy. The existence of not only the Christ and the Buddha, but there are many other great beings, these Masters of the Wisdom, as they call them, who have also gone through the human stage. There’s a considerable Hierarchy that exists on the inner planes, and these are what also must be revealed in the coming centuries.
Sarah: Yes, it’s a tremendous group effort that’s part of this return.
Dale: They’re not coming alone.
Robert: I welcome their coming. We certainly need them right now. Is there anything people have to do to prepare for this teacher?
Sarah: Well, it’s related to what we just said about this tremendous group involvement of the Masters of the Wisdom or the Hierarchy supporting and aiding the return of the Coming One; so too can we play a part. The Alice Bailey teachings speak of the New Group of World Servers, which is a term for all men and women of goodwill who are actively engaged in world service to humanity in all fields: finance, culture, arts, education, science, religion. All of us can — whatever our present situation is — think of ourselves as part of this tremendous group preparation of human consciousness for the return of the Coming One. How would we help? Well, we could help by creating better human relations within our own environment.
Dale: We can also help by sounding the Great Invocation, which is the prayer that Sarah sounds at the end of each of our programs. Everyone can use this prayer, this mantram. If you think deeply about the meaning of the words you are contributing in a subjective way to the new atmosphere that is necessary in preparation for this divine Teacher to come forth.
Sarah: The Great Invocation works with human consciousness by invoking divine energies of light and love and power. When we say the Great Invocation, we’re creating a conduit or a channel for these divine energies to pour into human consciousness, where they can reach and make impact on the minds of all intelligent thinking people. It isn’t a manipulation of human consciousness but a stimulation of it, so that those minds that are capable of responding to light and love and power can be somehow energized and quickened. When we think of the burdens and the responsibility that world leaders bear today, if we would work with the Great Invocation and bring more light, more love, more power to help them in their decisions on behalf of humanity, that would be a tremendous service and we can all play a part.
Robert: That’s about all the time we have for our discussion today. You’ve been listening to Inner Sight. 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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