When you think of the Plan and the intended purpose for our world, every human being has a place within that Plan. Every person is, in a sense, indispensable.
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. Our topic for today is the Plan, and this is part two. I’d like to begin with a thought set forth by Alice Bailey, the founder of the Lucis Trust Organization, and she wrote twenty-four volumes of books. All the dialogue on this show emanates from the literature of Alice Bailey. “The one thing which humanity needs today is the realization that there is a Plan which is definitely working out through all world happenings and that all that has occurred in man’s historical past, and all that has happened lately is assuredly in line with that Plan.” We talked in the last program about the Plan and we found out a lot but we want to go into more depth today. Let’s recap exactly what the Plan is and if it allows for free will.
Sarah: The Plan is a concept that is absolutely central to the writings of Alice Bailey, and oddly enough — at least it seems a little odd to me — when people first come across this concept sometimes they feel a little bit frightened by it, or skeptical of it. I think if it’s presented wrongly it might have the connotation of something that’s imposed upon human beings, something that implies there are forces that manipulate. I suppose if you’re a paranoid type of mind, you do tend to look for those hidden forces and powers that are behind the scenes controlling everything. I’m not one that tends to think that way, so it doesn’t bother me. Let me stress to our listeners that the Plan is held in the mind of God but not imposed upon humanity. Absolutely not. It’s the divine purpose for our planet, it concerns the evolution of our planet, it includes every living thing upon our planet. Everything is held within the totality of the plan—the mineral kingdom, the vegetable, animal and human kingdoms. All of us have a place within the Plan. As we talked last week, the great question mark and the lynchpin of the Plan is humanity because we have brains, we have free will, we have the power to decide for ourselves, to choose. So, humanity is very much the unknown and deciding factor in the Plan.
Dale: The idea of a plan shouldn’t be too unfamiliar to us because every human being goes through planning. We all make plans for everything; we plan weddings, we plan trips and vacations.
Sarah: I had a brother-in-law who had ten-year plans! (laughter) He worked in the military.
Dale: Okay, there you go; planning is very important to human life and we make plans for everything. We draw up plans for buildings, we make plans to design cities, and whole nations are based on planning. So, the idea of a Plan of God should not be too foreign to us, and it should not be too difficult to accept that God is in the process of creating a big Plan here on this planet Earth. It isn’t unthinkable that God would also be working at some building project just like we in the human kingdom do.
Sarah: To me, one of the most wonderful aspects of the Plan is the realization that every living thing is included within it. I think there are so many people, so many segments of society that feel perhaps left out or overlooked or on the sidelines of the great drama of life, that there are others who seem to have a lot more coming their way. But when you think of the Plan and the intended purpose for our world, every human being has a place within that Plan. Every person is, in a sense, indispensable, and I find that very comforting and very ennobling. But the crucial thing about the Plan is that it is not imposed upon humanity; it’s something to which humanity has to freely consent, and that’s where the concept of free will comes in. Absolutely crucial is the awareness that we have free will. That’s why freedom , as we’ve talked in previous programs, is such a powerful and divine ideal. It’s one of the highest ideals that humanity can grasp, but we tend to approach it as liberty or license, and that’s not the kind of freedom that we’re talking about here. It’s the freedom to use one’s energies, one’s resources, to cooperate with something that’s much greater than oneself. That is true spiritual freedom.
Dale: Yes, and this freedom, as you say, is so very important because way down the line in this Plan is eventual liberation, and we have to work our way towards that. Always we have this free will to make choices and make mistakes and to suffer for the mistakes we make so we learn the best way to carry us through this whole process. All along the way, we have the freedom to make mistakes and the freedom to do good.
Sarah: We’ve talked about the spiritual Hierarchy before, and these are the Masters of the Wisdom who stand behind outer events and guide and prompt human consciousness. They are involved in the Plan in the sense that they formulate it and hold it within an integrated context; the expression I used last week is that they hold it in solution. They have the Plan of God in consciousness and in a sense they hold it in custody for human minds until those minds are ready to grasp it. They give direction, they throw light, they impress those minds that are responsive to these higher ideals, and that would be all people who are open and responsive to ideals such as unity, brotherhood, interrelationship, cooperation, as well as sacrifice, commitment to the common good. These are the qualities that make one receptive to the Plan. The free will comes in, in that each individual soul has to give its consent to the Plan. It has to recognize through experience, through inner intuitive assurance, that there is a design and a plan for the world, and they are compelled to cooperate with it. This has to be figured out for oneself; you can’t be convinced of this.
Dale: The Hierarchy is sensitive to this because they have been through the human stage, as we’ve mentioned before. They’ve experienced the pain and the suffering that we all have so they appreciate the need for this free will. They now act as mediators between humanity and God, and their responsibility is to work out this Plan. They are the builders, actually, on this inner plane, on the inner side, and humanity is impressed with the next idea that will move things forward in this building project. That all comes from the Hierarchy, from that stage.
Robert: I’m constantly redesigning my own plans because they’re so faulty and I try to correct them. In regard to divinity, in regard to God himself, is the Plan fixed or permanently set or can it be altered?
Sarah: Well, that’s a tremendous question and I don’t know the answer, but I think that probably it’s something that is mutable or adaptable depending on the response of humanity. I think we are the great question mark. I don’t imagine God Himself can predict how human beings will ultimately respond. Look at the world today; we don’t really know what direction we are heading in. Things are in such crisis and chaos. My sense is that things are heading towards something better through all the crisis and suffering, that we are emerging into a new era of better human relationships, but there are other extremely intelligent people that might have the feeling things are in a state of collapse. So, if we can’t figure out where we’re going, probably God doesn’t know either. Humanity’s response is unpredictable and that’s why people of goodwill who want to serve the greater good can be of such effect by aligning their forces with those who are working for unity, for brotherhood, for understanding.
Dale: I think there is a certain aspect of the Plan that is, you might say, fixed in the mind of God. He has his own agenda, his particular purpose that is working out, and we don’t know exactly what that purpose is, but perhaps it might be summed up in the word redemption. I think that is the general area where the plan is fixed or set, that this is a redemptive process that we are in the process of working through.
Sarah: We should define what redemption means.
Dale: Yes, it’s essentially upliftment: as Christ said, “if I be lifted up, all men will be lifted up with me.” It’s the lifting up of human consciousness and the refinement of human consciousness that will allow the more spiritual values of the soul and the higher spiritual values to come through and be manifest in the world.
Sarah: There is an interesting expression from the writings of Alice Bailey on this question of modifying the Plan or altering it: “It is the task of the spiritual seeker to modify, qualify, and adapt the proposed plan for the coming civilization.” In other words, using our sense of spiritual values, our discretion, our best judgment, and the art of spiritual compromise. Spiritual seekers, called in the books of Alice Bailey “disciples,” have the responsibility for modifying, qualifying and adapting the Plan according to the need of the times and according to what they hear in the cry of humanity. Because we are a part of humanity and are living on Earth and very much a part of the earthly experience, we are useful to the Hierarchy, useful in God’s Plan, in that we can better intuit the present need of humanity and of the planet. Not only is the Plan for humanity, it’s for the whole planet. I think you can see, for example, the work being done in the field of ecology. Those are servers who are very aware of the need and trying their best to present it to humanity as a whole—that the planet is crying out and needs our care, our better judgment, and our willingness to sacrifice a bit.
Robert: Can we recognize the Plan in the outer, visible world?
Sarah: Well, yes, depending on what aspect of the world we’re looking to. It’s said in the writings of Alice Bailey that there are three major departments through which the Plan of God is working out in the world, and these departments are: government, religion and education, in the very broadest sense of each of those departments. The example of the Plan working out in the world through government, to my mind, would be the work of the United Nations, because it is the only completely planetary global mechanism that we have for approaching the solutions to world problems. We all are aware of the weakness of the UN in terms of, for example, the General Assembly, but there is so much more going on in the UN’s work that is really quite wonderful. They are working in all kinds of fields, not just with national legislation and treaties, but in the development program for the environment, the problem of children through UNICEF and so on. So that’s the example, I think, of the Plan working out in government.
Dale: Yes, and I’d just like to add something about the United Nations. This whole idea really came through from the inner side. The idea essentially for the old League of Nations —which came about during the 1920s, after World War I — was impressed upon certain members of the human family, particularly those aides around President Wilson. President Wilson seized upon this idea and really brought it through and was very instrumental in manifesting the old League of Nations. Of course, all the countries in the world, particularly the United States, didn’t get behind the idea and back it, so it kind of died off a little bit, but then it was resurrected, thankfully, after World War II, and we have the great institution that we have today. So, this is just an example of how these ideas work out from the inner side, the divine side, into humanity and how humanity can be impressed.
Sarah: I think an early example of the Plan working out in human affairs through the department of religion would be the growing ecumenical movement that brings people of different faiths together to foster more understanding. There have been so many occasions in the last few decades since the sixties that have increasingly brought religious leaders and the many believers of those faiths together to consider where they have common ground. This is an indication of the Plan because the Plan is meant to foster a sense of interrelation, of cooperation and of harmony among all the disparate parts. So, any activity that works to bridge differences and to unite is an expression of the Plan. The field of education is a little more difficult for me to point to. I don’t know if you have any ideas.
Dale: I wasn’t thinking of the field of education so much as other fields, particularly the ones that have developed now in the field of economics and in world finance. There’s a lot of controversy arising over the globalization of humanity and the economies and so forth. But it is an idea that is also coming from within because it is helping humanity. These great world institutions that are being developed are helping us to develop a worldview, a world consciousness. This is very much in line with the Plan because synthesis is a characteristic that must develop and is developing through human activities in the world.
Sarah: I suppose that the Internet is an example of the Plan working out in the field of education in the sense that it’s a means for conveying knowledge instantaneously across tremendous distances and by uniting or connecting people who otherwise would never contact each other. So, the flow of communication, the flow of light, of knowledge, of awareness, of communication is so incredibly advanced by the Internet and by computers in general. Another aspect of the Plan working out through education would be the growth of literacy over the past century. I think I read somewhere the difference between the amount of literate people on the earth one hundred years ago and now is just tremendous. So, this would be an indication that the Plan is working out through education by lighting human minds, making them able to think and decide and choose so that they can of their own free will consent to the Plan and cooperate with it in their way. You can’t possibly ask that of people if they don’t have education, if they don’t have minds, if they can’t think.
Robert: There’s a powerful prayer with which we close the show every week called the Great Invocation. Why is the Great Invocation called the blueprint of the Plan?
Sarah: Well, Dale may have some ideas on that. I’ve often pondered on it. A blueprint is a plan of action. It gives the steps that have to be taken to accomplish something. I think the Great Invocation distills those steps that humanity must take, wouldn’t you say?
Dale: Yes, it lays out the essentials that have to be worked out: the essential energy of light, the essential energy of love and the essential energy of the will to good. The will to good is essentially the power to bring about light and love and the will to good in the world so these three essentials are embodied in the Great Invocation.
Sarah: You’ll notice that the Great Invocation uses as its reference point humanity. This is a very new thing according to my understanding. It’s a sign of human evolution that humanity is now actively appealed to, to take its active role in the Plan. The Great Invocation asks or demands that light descend into human minds, that love descend into human hearts — from the heart of God into the human heart — and that the purpose which the Masters know and serve express through the human will to good, and the final stanza through the centre which we call the human race, let the plan of love and light work out. So, humanity is actively engaged in this Plan now; this is very new.
Dale: That’s why this Great Invocation was given out in 1945, and it’s written about in the Alice Bailey books for the very purpose of preparation work for the coming world teacher who is coming very soon. This is a central tool, an invocation to invoke this light and love and power and bring those energies into the world and express them. The Great Invocation is a tremendous tool to accomplish that.
Sarah: In other words, we have to want light and love and the will to good. We have to ask for it. That’s the point of the invocation.
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 the world prayer called the Great Invocation. It’s a call for light and love and good will 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)
(#096)
