Twenty-five years from now, a new generation will look back at this period in human history with profound consternation and ask the obvious question. What were they thinking?!
There will be some, as yet unaware of the healing power of silence, who will spontaneously react with two words, they weren’t.
Others, more mindful of the deep complexities of ancient sorrows, will ponder the evolutionary role of the Gordian Knot presently strangling the very breath out of mankind’s existence.
The world is in spiritual crisis, because Humanity is in the midst of a baptism through fire. The birthing of a new world order will bring the resurrection of human rights and the recognition by each member of its inherent responsibility to the Whole of Life.
In this time of global upheaval, choked with visceral reactions, it can be difficult to respond with clarity and compassion. Yet, we, Humanity, are the chosen life-force tasked with identifying and implementing equitable, sustainable solutions for all of our planetary ills.
Leaders of groups all over the world – governments, corporations, universities, and religious organizations – are not being held accountable for their words, actions, and far-reaching impacts on a living world desperately seeking right direction.
Individual failure to recognize that accountability begins within each one of us is the source of this global problem. Calling Earth ‘home’ is a privilege, not a right, and comes with collective responsibilities and shared obligations.
Groups, by definition, are a gathering of human beings. Two people constitute a group, just as two hundred million people form a larger group, albeit with more multi-layered dynamics.
The laws which have served past generations are not necessarily the right answer for the future. The institutions relied upon to create a civilized world are now crumbling before our eyes.
Humanity is facing a wholly new reality where “old ways” will not satisfactorily address the new emerging human needs of intuitive human relationships, group consciousness, and goodwill.
‘Eat, drink, and be merry; tomorrow we perish’ did not work in the 1920’s; and surely will not work in the Twenty-First Century. Acceptance of our shared mandate for this massive planetary mess could be a good starting point.
An interesting shift in the human psyche takes place when we accept accountability. We become less prone to judge that which we do not fully understand. Our natural curiosity then seeks truth and explores resolutions, rather than reinforcing ancient prejudices.
Many of today’s leaders seem tone deaf and out of balance with their chosen role of service to Humanity. Each of them sought out and secured a position of power over others.
How many corporate leaders address real human need? How many religious leaders exhibit an integrated balance of thought and feeling? How many national leaders intentionally place the welfare of the largest group, the human race, before their own self-enriching ambitions? The people of earth are crying out for a transformational vision of new world-wide leadership.
In today’s reality, both materialists and spiritualists are enraptured with the same global excess: placing dominant focus on mental prowess, without completing purification of the human heart.
The birthing place of serenity lies within the human heart.
Until mankind learns to silence the turmoil of churning emotional waters by cleansing the mind of ancient dregs of self-absorption, all human thought – material and spiritual – will be soiled by the instinctual constraints of the thinker. Narrow lines of thought will continue to disorient and distort the thinker’s perceptions. Distorted perceptions lead to dangerous, unbalanced choices.
Healing comes through a blend of lighted clarity of mind coupled with a compassionate heart. This interior dual dynamic of genuine livingness is the unique and powerful essence of being human. So, let’s talk Serenity.
Every member of the human race is familiar with this word; but how many members know and understand the deeper meaning? What is the key to implementing this miraculous healing power? Could an eight-letter solution provide a possible way forward to a human kingdom navigating blindly through a world of extremes?
One of the cornerstones of all human progress is mankind’s capacity to envision. The ability to creatively imagine a better tomorrow has been the driving force behind all human advancements throughout history. Resilience, growth, and expansion evolve through imagination.
Every plague eradicated was because someone, somewhere imagined a cure. Every major city on the planet came into being because people imagined a cosmopolitan concentration of work, play and living spaces. Every small business that grew beyond the hobby stage did so by imagining and then delivering on quality goods, promises given, equal respect for staff and customers.
Conglomerates imagined global reach long before achieving their goal. Religious organizations, national identities, and cultural authenticity are each the evolving expressions of human creative imagination.
Tens of millions of people, at varied stages of awakening, have already stepped upon the spiritual path; and they all share the same knowing. The road ahead is paved with time-honored golden bricks of absolute forgiveness. This central tenet is featured in most spiritual and secular belief systems, because underpinning the idea of forgiveness is a visionary ideal of a human race freed of all violence.
Forgiveness begets harmlessness begets understanding begets inclusion begets unity begets Love.
How many members of the human family practice forgiveness in their daily lives? Both real and unreal hurts, betrayals, selfish manipulations, violent eruptions, all must be forgiven before true harmlessness gains a foothold.
‘Turning the cheek’ does not mean abdication when confronting evil. Speaking truth, in the face of evil, begins the journey of redemption on golden bricks. The perpetrators of evil will all be held to account.
Remember the biblical story of Christ in Jerusalem, “The Cleansing of the Temple”. When Christ expelled the merchants and money-changers, he stated clearly, “Stop making my father’s house a marketplace!” How apropos to today’s global marketplace.
Serenity becomes a real possibility when these earlier steps have been taken, practiced, and actually begun to root in one’s daily life.
There is a wonderful passage in the Bailey books which describes serenity as a “deep calm, devoid of emotional disturbance, which distinguishes an individual who is focused in a mind held steady in the light”.
In order to attain this state of clarity, Humanity must first achieve a deep calm, devoid of emotional disturbance. This begins with acceptance. Accepting survival instincts as an ancient necessity, no longer beneficial in a world rapidly approaching a mental renaissance defined by a larger and more encompassing vision of Life.
The old warrior ways of meeting violence with instinctual counter violence needs to be replaced with a new-found willingness to welcome differences as inherently valuable to the Whole. Fresh and imaginative expressions of goodwill could then invite understanding and unification.
This is the law of substitution-in-action where all voices are elevated into a chorus of common good. Replace the archaic concept of compartmentalized organizations with the idea of organic open movements, transparent evolution, in which each contribution has intrinsic worth. This could lead to humankind’s transmutation through substitution-in-action.
Ancient inequities would no longer be denied nor repressed; but rather, viewed in the light and fulness of truth. Accepted and replaced with even greater truths with minds and hearts liberated from the weight of habit-induced biases. As individuals consciously cultivated a deep calm, devoid of emotional disturbances so too would the very heart of Humanity.
In this way, another striking passage in the Bailey books could come to be realized by the human kingdom: “Serenity is the intensity of feeling transmuted into focused understanding.”
When the heart is freed and cleansed of the weightier reactions (intensity of feeling) mankind could respond with the uplifting lightness of compassion (focused understanding) for all living beings; and begin an intentional ascent towards wisdom.
This way forward opens humanity’s heart to a renewed living world flooded with joy.
Joy is spontaneously defiant in the face of despair; hope is the steadying action of belief. Global transmutation through substitution gives birth to a new age of human transformation. Purification elevates the awakened heart until it reaches a final point of immersion with lighted mind. This is the loving home of Soul.
Becoming a human vessel of light and love is sublime joy. Transforming Humanity into a power vessel of Light and Love is the coming vision and the foretold mandate.
We each and all live, move, and have our being within this loving Light of Spirit.