Two facts must be taught to every child: the value of the individual and the fact of the one humanity.
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’s topic is citizenship and before we explore that particular topic, we might give credit to Alice Bailey, the founder of the Lucis Trust Organization which sponsors this show. All the dialogue that you hear on this show emanates from the literature of Alice Bailey, as does the following thought: “World citizenship, as an expression of both goodwill and understanding, should be the goal of enlightened people everywhere and the hallmark of the spiritual person.” We have to scratch the surface of what we mean by world citizenship. I guess most of us think we’re a citizen of the United States or whatever country, but let’s take a look at that. What is the spiritual significance of citizenship?
Sarah: Citizenship is full of spiritual significance. I think a lot of people might think that the spiritual life has to do with thoughts of the abstract realm, of prayer, of inward reflection and meditation, and that is a part of the spiritual life. But one of the things that I really appreciate about the writings of Alice Bailey is that her teachings orient a spiritual seeker to the world and they help the seeker to find his or her place within the world. You cannot turn your back on what’s happening in the world and what’s happening to your fellow men and to our planet if you are truly determined to tread the spiritual path. I think one of the best expressions of what spiritual citizenship is, was something that Paul McCartney mentioned once. He composed an opera some years ago, and I remember hearing him talk about the inspiration for that opera. He remembered his boyhood school in Liverpool, I guess. He remembered that over the archway to the main entrance to the school was chiseled into the stone the saying, “It’s not that the world was made for you, it’s you who were made for the world.” I love that thought. That was a statement over the doorway that every child who attended that school passed through every day and it obviously stayed in his consciousness from boyhood on and it formed the theme of his opera. Most people probably grow up—if they’re not guided to think otherwise—thinking that they’re the center of the universe and that the world is basically theirs for the plundering or whatever, for the gaining of satisfaction and happiness from. But in fact, we are here on Earth to find our place within the world and to take our appropriate place within the context of a much greater planetary-wide whole.
Dale: That expansion or that growth, we go through stage by stage, and we are all at different stages, and that’s part of the problems that we face in the world. But I think any recognition of citizenship on the part of an individual indicates a certain degree of expansion of consciousness, a certain degree of identification with a larger whole. That’s probably the real nub of the meaning behind citizenship: identifying with a larger whole.
Sarah: Alice Bailey put it very succinctly. She said, “Two facts must be taught to every child: the value of the individual, the preciousness of every individual life, the irreplaceability of each individual life, and the fact of the one humanity.” The value of the individual and the fact of the one humanity; every child should be taught those two. Those are two different perspectives, aren’t they? Literally two points of view.
Dale: Right. The “one humanity” is a phrase you hear quite often but it’s easy to throw it around. It’s easy to express it, but how many people really are able to identify with the one humanity?
Sarah: To believe that we’re all one, because the differences are so great on the outer level.
Dale: Yes, and it’s all a matter of degree of consciousness, of how much of that oneness of humanity one can really identify with. We start at the family unit when we’re very young children, and that gradually grows to identification with the community and then the state and then the nation and eventually the world as a whole. It grows and increases, like throwing the rock into the pond and the ripples expand outward, consciousness expands something like that.
Sarah: Yes, the whole thrust of the Ageless Wisdom is the increasing realization of the whole and of all the different ranges of consciousness and of expression within that whole. We know that humanity is the middle or mediating kingdom within this great chain of being which makes up our planetary life, and that below the human kingdom are the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. Above the human kingdom is the kingdom of souls, and still higher kingdoms. Citizenship, I think, relates to that realization because the sense of citizenship enables the human being to sense his relationship and his affiliation to the larger human society; at least that. We’re not talking about whether the person is aware of being a part of a planetary-wide scheme of evolution that includes rocks, minerals, animals, souls and so on, but at least to feel a sense of affiliation with humanity, not only with his own group and tribe and nation, but beyond that.
Dale: It’s very important because that’s really the goal, the objective ahead for human consciousness. You mentioned a moment ago about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of souls; that’s the next advanced stage for humanity to work towards. That’s why the understanding of world citizenship is so important because the next kingdom—the kingdom of God which we’re evolving into—will depend a great deal on the group consciousness of the soul and that ability to identify with the soul, which will in turn enable us to identify at that greater, larger level of the whole.
Sarah: It’s said that one of the first indications of the soul consciousness—of the dawning of the inner true higher self within the human being—is the awakening sense of responsibility. Certainly, the sense of responsibility is what drives or motivates good citizenship, that you can’t live just for your own self-interest. Neither can you live just for the interests and welfare of your own family or of your own so-called “kind.” You have to live and care about and identify with the well-being and the spiritual need of people whose lives might be very different than your own, people who on the outer level might have no similar experience in comparison to yours, but they have needs and they are souls as we are, and citizenship is that increasingly expansive sense of identification with the whole of humanity. And I think we are ready for this; we’re forced into it.
Dale: We’re very much so, I think, and it’s really kind of the saving grace, if you will, because citizenship—especially beyond the national level—brings a realization of our interdependence particularly among people and the nations of the world. We realize more fully that we’re not just citizens of this country or one’s native country. One becomes a citizen of all the world because we’re one humanity, so these divisions tend to drop away.
Sarah: I think we’re being forced into this awareness today because of globalization. Whether we like it or not, we are increasingly aware that what happens on the other side of the world makes an impact on us, particularly what is done in a Western technologically developed country. A so-called superpower like the United States does make a major impact on people in many different societies, so we’re being forced to realize that our global citizenship is an inevitable fact and we have to pay attention to it.
Dale: Yes, and it awakens the sense of responsibility because we realize we’re not just responsible for ourselves but also for the condition of the world, and this is coming out more and more.
Robert: I think that the concept of world citizenship bothers a lot of people because when we get into that concept we start thinking that somehow we’re going to lose our identity as an American citizen or a French citizen. Will the development of world citizenship affect the nation’s sovereignty?
Sarah: Well, this is a very hot issue right now in the United Nations community. It’s often discussed and there is still a powerful demand to retain sovereignty as nations. Yet the writings of Alice Bailey say that sovereignty is one of the great evils of the world and one of the causes of our problems, our failure to achieve peace, failure to achieve right human relations. I don’t know; I can understand that sovereignty is the demand of a people to have their say and to retain their sense of identity and to restrict or protect their voice, their rights, their place in the world. But I think it’s superseded by something still more important which evolution will show us: that beyond sovereignty of a people or a nation is the one world, the one humanity, that nothing is lost in incorporating or merging with the wholeness of humanity and the planetary scope of life. What is lost is a sense of being alone and isolated and what is gained is a sense of the vastness and the all-inclusive range of life. I think this life depends upon the tremendous diversity and range of difference that makes up the whole fabric of human experience. That’s part of its wonder. I don’t think that’ll be lost.
Dale: No, I think something greater will be gained, in fact. I think that’s why in the writings of Alice Bailey, she made those statements, because there is something far greater ahead of us to realize and sovereignty is a barrier to that realization of the greater whole. But I think as we move ahead in consciousness, that the concept and attachment to sovereignty will perhaps become less and less important in our minds. Perhaps we’ll increasingly be willing to give up our sovereignty for the sake of something greater, for the sake of helping another nation or for some greater good.
Sarah: Well, it’s already being done by many nations through the United Nations. For example, when different nations send their troops for a peacekeeping effort in Bosnia or wherever, they are not acting, as I understand it, as sovereign nations, but are sending their troops to serve as United Nations forces. I think that’s an example where they’re giving up their sovereignty to contribute to a more collective action. If we didn’t have the United Nations, we probably wouldn’t be able to envision ever being willing to give up sovereignty, but the United Nations supersedes that, and yet I think looks after the rights and the protection of the various member nations. I think those are assured and protected under the UN scope. The country that we inhabit, America, is one of the countries that has, I think, some of the biggest problems with sovereignty and the sense that the American way would be the best and that can’t be sacrificed. So, I think it’s something that’s particularly difficult for the American temperament to grasp. The Europeans might be farther ahead because they’ve already joined the European Union.
Dale: Well, that’s the model perhaps that is working out this question.
Sarah: A year or two ago there was this big discussion about whether they could bear to give up the franc and the deutschmark and now they love the euro and they don’t miss their franc and deutschmark from what I understand.
Dale: So, it’s giving up something lesser for something greater, and they find out that it’s not so bad after all.
Robert: Sarah, you made reference to the Ageless Wisdom. Before we get to my next question, can you make a brief comment on what that is?
Sarah: We should do a program sometime on the Ageless Wisdom because we do refer to it all the time. It’s that body of spiritual teaching that runs throughout human history from the dawn of human experience. Even before there was the written word the spiritual teaching was passed down verbally and it runs as a golden thread throughout all the major world religions and provides a kind of common worldview. There are many differences among the world religions, but there are certain essential doctrines that are quite similar among many of the world’s faiths. Beyond the world’s religions, there is this spiritual view of life that is called the Ageless Wisdom, and perhaps we can devote a program sometime to discussing it.
Robert: OK, good. Back to our theme of citizenship. What effect does world citizenship have on consciousness?
Sarah: Well, as I mentioned a while ago, it awakens the sense of responsibility. I think it brings up the whole crisis between the deep and inherent urge for individual freedom—which is a spiritual component—and the equally spiritual urge to take responsibility. There is a kind of a creative tension that’s set up by the desire for freedom, versus the desire to be responsible for more and more of one’s environment and community.
Dale: I think the growth that happens in consciousness sets up certain conflicts within the individual because it means individuals have to eventually give up their own little sense of sovereignty. We’ve developed certain glamours, I think, about sovereignty and about citizenship and “my country” right or wrong. Nationalism is very strong in some people and these kind of glamours get in the way, and in fact bring up a sense of pride and that sort of thing which is often encouraged by the government to rally the troops in a way.
Sarah: I think it’s something that has to be started at a very early age, and that’s why it’s really one of the responsibilities of our educational systems to teach children to understand that they are citizens. They’re citizens of their community, of their state, of their nation, and of the planet. All of these recognitions have to be awakened within the child from an early age so that they live not just as a selfish individual, but as someone who belongs—as Paul McCartney’s school said—to the world. You were made for the world. If every child knew that and understood that they were here because they belong to the world and have something to give to the world, maybe that would awaken within even very young children a sense of spiritual destiny and of contribution. I think it’s something even a young child can grasp.
Dale: Yes, that’s where it has to start. I don’t know that there’s enough emphasis in the schools today about citizenship, and that would be an interesting subject to bring up. I think one of the other effects that it would have on consciousness is to help build right human relations, and that’s extremely important in the future of the world.
Sarah: It also is something that would make us pay more attention to something beyond our own individual and family interests. When you look at, for example, a democracy like ours, where something like half the voting population actually turns out in votes, you realize that we have some work to do to awaken the sense of citizenship. Rousseau said, “As soon as anyone says of the affairs of the state, ‘what does it matter to me,’ the state may be given up as lost.” Well, that’s something to think about.
Robert: It sounds right! 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)
(#128)