How are we going to transform the world if we don’t begin to build that image within our minds collectively of the world we want to leave to those who follow us?
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 how do we change? We owe a lot to Alice Bailey, the founder of the Lucis Trust organization. She wrote twenty-four volumes of books and all of the dialogue that you hear on this show has been influenced by Alice Bailey, and much of it comes from the works of Alice Bailey. We have a thought here about Cardinal Newman: “The great changes of history have come about because some men began, where they were, to live a new life.” Last time we talked about change on a personal scale. Maybe we should recap what’s been said in the last show, because you did say a lot about how we go about making personal changes.[*]
Sarah: Yes, we talked about change on the personal level and why it’s so difficult. The inertia of the personality really wants to continue being the way it’s always been and yet the realization—often as a result of crisis—that one is compelled to change in order to stop one’s suffering. Crises offer an opportunity to get our attention and to make us realize we are, in fact, presented with a choice, so those can be very productive moments, We talked about cultivating the stance of the observer, the detached view even of oneself and one’s circumstances that you find by retreating within. There is that place within every individual that observes the life but doesn’t really enter into the fray, and that is the soul or the Christ principle or the inner Buddha. Whatever one calls it, this observer is detached from the circumstances and can provide enough light to help us figure out how to make change.
Dale: And we also talked about The use of the as-if technique is a way of effecting change, which is simply using our innate powers of visualization to visualize that which we would like to be, in other words, that better person or that person who speaks with a better attitude or who has better relationships with the people around us. It’s visualizing as if one were that person and in that way effecting the change.
Sarah: It’s not as vacuous as it might sound or as dreamy and unrealistic as a newcomer might think: the as-if technique. It isn’t that you just think your way into prosperity and beauty and fame. It’s more of a magical process, I think, where using the imagination, you hold before your mind’s eye an image to live up to and then taking every step incrementally that you can recognize to achieve that state of being. So, it’s something done slowly and with rhythmic endeavor, building upon small successes.
Dale: Yes, and it’s based on that biblical quotation, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” It’s the heart that is the custodian of the power of the imagination, and the imagination is released into creative activity when one acts as if he were, for example, the soul in full expression.
Sarah: And the imagination, again, is also not vacuous and dreamlike. In fact, it’s said that we couldn’t imagine something if it didn’t already exist somewhere in our universe. So, by imagining a particular quality or state of being, we are actually working with a realistic vision. It may not come overnight, but we couldn’t imagine it if it didn’t exist so it is attainable. But the value of rhythm and persistence can’t be overemphasized, and that’s why daily meditation is so important and an evening review that looks back at every day and traces effects back to their causes. It instills a kind of responsibility for one’s life and one’s circumstances, and this is where all change has to reside: in responsibility for oneself. Not blaming others.
Robert: Well, last time we talked about changing our individual selves, which is certainly quite an undertaking and quite a challenge, but now we’re going on to a greater idea, about how we can change the world? I don’t know if we can, but we can talk about it anyway. Is it realistic to envision change on a global scale, that is, the reconstruction of the world, so to speak?
Sarah: I think it is not only realistic, but necessary, and that it counts on the willingness of every adult, every concerned citizen, every responsible individual building this vision of a world that we would choose for our children, for all who follow us. How else are we going to transform the world if we don’t begin to build that image within our minds collectively of the world we want to leave to those who follow us? Rather than letting it just unfold through happenstance and through the wrong decisions of a few, we can all work together to create this world. This is, I think, an essential concept that humanity has to recognize: that the world depends upon all of us using our minds and our visualization to create a world that is better and finer than the one we’ve got. It’s not going to happen overnight. But we can look back just sixty years to the end of the World War, and those who were alive then and are alive still today know that society has been through tremendous changes.
Dale: And it’s because of the great visionaries that have been among us that those changes have been brought about. You think about President Roosevelt and the vision he had about the United Nations, and before that, even the visionary President Woodrow Wilson and the vision that he had in the founding of the League of Nations, the forerunner of the present-day United Nations. So, we’ve always had these visionaries among us, but it doesn’t mean that we have to leave it up entirely to these great leading lights in the world, because as citizens, each one of us has a part to play, and very much so in this. Our visions that we have and the ideas that we have are just as valid, and it’s the combined effect of a huge group of people that will actually effect change in the world.
Sarah: There was something I read just yesterday to the effect that real leadership is giving people what they already aspire to. So again, that’s drawing upon the collective will and intention of the mass of people. The leader might be able to articulate it, but all of us are needed to implement it and to cooperate with it. I think this is something that we see so clearly in the crisis in the world today, the conflict over the Middle East that’s now focused on Iraq. You can see how citizens all over the world have entered into this situation with their thoughts and with their ideas and their interpretations and their suggestions for how to solve it. Some of the ideas and suggestions aren’t particularly well-founded in a lot of research and understanding of history, but they’re all thinking and they’re all contributing. This is something I think that’s quite new and creative.
Dale: Right, it stands out as an example of the awakening of humanity as a whole, because so many people are aware and because we have television and the internet that help these ideas to flow around the world on a minute-by-minute basis. So, thousands and millions of people are weighing in with their opinions and it just indicates that humanity is really awake and the mind is really thinking and that’s a very hopeful sign.
Sarah: I think that’s also an indication that the indwelling Christ principle, the soul within all human beings, is awakening because we do feel more of a sense of not only responsibility, but a desire to have some say in the development of the world on an international and collective level. And I think this is a sign of the inner divinity within human beings and the sense of responsibility coming to the forefront, that people aren’t just absorbed in their little lives, their little personal spheres anymore, but are also very much caught up in the fate of humanity as a whole.
Dale: Well, they’re seeing how their little lives are interdependent with the larger situation in, for example, the war in Iraq, and how our whole economy, the world economy, is affected by this. So, they do see the relationship there between the part and the whole, and that’s a very advanced stage.
Sarah: Yes, and the media now brings so much of the fate of the world to our attention with the news and people are much more aware. But I think it’s another phenomenon too where evil in the past was usually hidden and out of sight. It seems today that everything is being brought to the light for public recognition. We’re much more aware of what needs to be changed. Scandals bring the most awful doings to the public consciousness. Maybe they would have been hidden away a few decades or generations ago. Now it seems we hear about everything, more than we might like to know. But painful and shocking as this is, I think it indicates that humanity collectively is ready to bear the light, to bear what the light reveals, to take responsibility for it.
Dale: Because humanity is the “light bearer,” so it has to take the good with the bad.
Sarah: Yes, that’s true. Regardless of what seems to be working out today, where it seems sometimes that evil methods are being used to fight evil, it’s temporary, I think, and we are entering into an age when human beings will have more of a sense of responsibility for changing the world and taking part on an individual level in the sense of paying attention to the world, expressing opinions, communicating their ideas, educating themselves, building a vision of the world as it should be. This is all part of it.
Dale: And this is part of the spiritualization of humanity, I think. I don’t mean that in the religious sense, but it’s a spiritual awakening in the sense that consciousness is being affected in awakening and expanding, and that’s the spiritual aspect of what’s happening right now in the world.
Robert: We have so much we can say about change, but I guess, as Sarah mentioned in the last show, I think that what we have to do is become the person that we want the world to be. That maybe is how we can effect world change, one very important thing we can do at least. What part can the ordinary citizen play in changing the world?
Sarah: Well, one can begin by redeeming their own little corner of it, never losing sight of the fact that one is a citizen of the world and endeavoring to be aware of what is happening to all of humanity, not just based on one’s own circumstances, but responsible for one’s own particular environment and family and relationships. This brings in a concept in the books of Alice Bailey that’s so important to understand: that “goodwill is the touchstone that will transform the world.” Goodwill. And it begins in one’s own life. You can experiment with this enormously powerful creative energy in your own relationships and circumstances. For example, if you work in an office or in a factory or whatever and you have problems relating to your co-workers or your boss or to your neighbors in your neighborhood, try coming to those people with more goodwill, no particular expectations for what they should do, but just meeting them with a spirit of goodwill and holding the mind open to the possibility of change coming into the relationship. You might be amazed at what will arise, because no doubt the other person will meet you more than halfway. People are so responsive to this energy when they experience it, that it brings out the same quality within them. This is the really constructive, lasting energy that brings about change.
Dale: Right, and I just came across a statement the other day that says: “The more you love, the more the energy of love can reach out through you to others.” And that’s a way to effect change because love, this energy of love is a building energy, and if you can express that love to the fullest, then you are helping to build new relationships in a new way.
Sarah: Think about applying that energy in community efforts, in groups that you’re involved in. There’s a great deal of protests going on now in the world, and understandably so; people have been turning out to protest government policies. Try conducting your protest and registering your opposition with a spirit of unwavering goodwill for all parties and all points of view. You can still speak the truth as you understand it, but you can do so without burning bridges and without severing relationships if you maintain that goodwill that allows for change to come about, not only within the other person, but within yourself.
Dale: And I think another way everybody can participate is to be informed. Be informed fully, because there are so many sources of information today, like magazines and the newspapers, and everything is on the Internet—both the truth and the falsehoods; you have to kind of wade through it. You can get a balanced position, a balanced picture, if you’re willing to inform yourself about what other people are saying. So, I think that there’s no excuse for not being informed today, and I think that’s a place to start if you’re not so informed.
Sarah: Another thing to keep in mind is that this particular time of the year—as we’ve talked on recent programs—is a moment in the annual cycle when real spiritual potencies are available to empower change. What I’m speaking of is the coming Wesak festival of the full moon of the Buddha. This is a moment that is called in the Ageless Wisdom “the higher interlude of the year,” the most potent time of the year in terms of the energy flow that comes into our planet. So, when we work in meditation—particularly in groups—we can build a vision of a world of our choice that is augmented and empowered by these in-pouring energies of light and love and power. All the heavy lifting doesn’t have to be done by human beings. We are aided more than we can possibly realize by energies and forces that work with us; but we have to supply our own momentum and our own effort.
Dale: I think one of the other things we can do is to support the world institutions like the United Nations, because that’s one of the most outstanding creations of this last century. It represents the high point, I think, of human creativity and human vision.
Sarah: People love to criticize it, though, and there is much to criticize. But again, if you would change it—as we all probably would like to—it doesn’t help to just criticize it. You have to build an understanding of what it should be and how it can change.
Dale: The people that work at the UN are very familiar with the need for change because they’ve been talking about changing and transforming the UN ever since it was founded, going back even to the League of Nations. There have been studies and studies and studies at the UN to bring about change; so that’s an ongoing thing.
Robert: You were talking about how we approach people and change when you were speaking about the office as an example. I’m wondering, what if people in that office have been attempting to undermine us, should we generate that positive feeling and that positive energy towards them as well?
Sarah: Well, I wouldn’t focus too much on what they’ve done to you, but on building practical ideas of solution. If you’re speaking about people that are actively out to do you in, that enters into an area where I feel like you would need to call upon help from people in positions of power. I’m speaking more about the traditional kinds of conflicts and frictions between people that are basically decent people but just rub up against others in a way that produces inharmony; that can always be solved by greater goodwill on the part of everyone concerned. I want to come back to this point about the power of the collective effort. That’s the value of group meditation and of prayer circles and of community efforts and of all the collective kinds of protests that have been organized over the last few months. When people come together in numbers, there is power, and I think that’s a very well understood concept today. Never underestimate the power of a group of people who are united in their thinking, clear in their vision, and working with intelligence and a realistic appraisal of possibilities.
Dale: Especially if they’re working in meditation, because then there is a group of people generating a tremendous amount of power.
Sarah: That’s one reason why working with the Great Invocation in meditation is so potent. That’s the world prayer that closes every one of these programs. It’s a major agent of transformation, both of the personal self and of the world, far more than we would probably realize. If you think about it, the Great Invocation calls for light to descend on Earth, for the Coming One to return to Earth, for purpose to guide the little wills of men. All of this is referring to what must happen here on Earth where we are responsible as human beings for working out the Plan of God on Earth. And that’s why the sounding of the Great Invocation is so potent a means of bringing about the change that we hope for.
Robert: You have been listening to Inner Sight. Now we would like to close with that 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)
(#144)
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[*] Last time refers to #143 How Do We Change, Part 1, which is missing from the archived programs. All text referring to part 1 is highlighted in bold.