The “attainment of positivity” is a deeply esoteric goal held before highly advanced spiritual seekers. Yet, it is never too premature to attempt to strive to live with greater positivity once we understand its spiritual basis in electricity. Evolution advances as each stage becomes negative to a higher positive factor, we’re told. Even on the atomic level of life, every atom is both positive and negative; receptive or negative to the impact of inflowing force, and positive regarding its effect upon its own environment. The solar system itself is dual, the science of esotericism states—both negative and positive; positive as regards its own form, and negative as regards its greater sphere.
How do we apply that knowledge to the way we live our lives and thus contribute to the creation of a more just, humane society? We might begin with the fundamental realization that there is no experience in life that does not offer some gain to the life of the soul. This was the transformational recognition gained by the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl through his endurance of imprisonment in the concentration camps in the World War. Through the depths of his suffering he discovered that every experience, even the worst of circumstances, has meaning. As he observed his fellow prisoners, he noted that some, who felt unable to cope with their suffering, gave up and succumbed to despair, while others were able to retain some sense of life’s meaning in spite of the horror of the camps. In spite of the hopelessness that hovered over their daily lives, these people were able to discern some meaning, even if inchoate, that underlay life even at its most degraded, desperate level. This conviction—that life at its worst still held meaning—“charged” them with the positivity to focus on the future and to envision that at some point a better world awaited them all.
The writings of Alice Bailey advise us, “So hold the inner vision steadily and have that long patience which endures through the lesser cycle, because the key to the greater cycle has been held with firmness.” This capacity to direct the vision towards the future and towards a more inclusive perspective is crucial to understanding the power of positivity. How do we develop this worldview? Perhaps one way is to cultivate a spirit of gratitude…for all that life offers, for every experience—because even failure can teach us. Not only does gratitude create a particular perspective, it is described as “a major releasing agent” for it can unleash a positive expectancy towards life which fosters a gestational environment for future developments.
It’s been said by some that the way we perceive the quality of our lives is a matter of choice. Most of us are not tested, as Viktor Frankl was, by the dreadful circumstances of war and imprisonment, but grief and sorrow are encountered by everyone. Psychological studies have found that those who are able to surmount the losses in life and move forward in anticipation of a brighter future are the most psychologically resilient. We cannot avoid loss and suffering, but we can choose how we respond to them. In so doing we demonstrate either negative, fatalistic acceptance or we become agents of positive response. Perhaps this provides a clue as to why gratitude is related, in Alice Bailey’s writings, to the Law of Karma, which suggests the setting in motion of an inflow of positive energy. Every stage and every circumstance conceals a seed of understanding, of wisdom, sometimes deeply hidden, which points to the evolution of consciousness.
Most miraculously, all experience can expand the capacity to love when it is accepted and transformed into spiritual growth. Just as choice governs the way we direct our vision, so it can transform our perception of our fellow human beings. Pierre, the central character in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, understood this when he no longer chose “to wait, as before, for personal reasons, which he called people’s merits, in order to love them, but love overflowed his heart, and, loving people without reason, he discovered the unquestionable reasons for which it was worth loving them.”
There is no greater positivity than the energy of love, for it is the foundation of the universe, the driving force behind evolution and the attractive principle of life itself. Viktor Frankl understood this positive effect of love upon human relationships when he wrote, “Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality….By love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person …aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.”
What greater service can we render our fellow human beings than the gift of unconditional love and acceptance—as they are now and as they will become.
