The World Teacher is a prototype or an embodiment of a quality, divine potential, that exists within every human being.
Robert: Welcome to Inner Sight. Today’s theme is part two of the World Teacher, which we started last time, so I hope you stay with us as we explore this interesting topic. “The history of mankind is,in reality, the history of man’s demand for light and for contact with God, and then the giving of light and the approach of God to man. Always the Saviour, the Avatar or the World Teacher issued forth from the secret place of the Most High and brought to man fresh revelation, fresh hope and a fresh incentive towards fuller spiritual living.” (Alice Bailey quote from her book, The Reappearance of The Christ.) I’d like us to recap what we discussed last time because we went into a lot of different levels of this.
Sarah: Well, briefly, we were talking about the role of a World Teacher. We talked about the different names this entity is known by, including Avatar, Bodhisattva, Messiah, Christ. Sometimes this Being is called the World Saviour, but there’s a kind of humorous comment in the writings of Alice Bailey to do with the difference between the World Teacher and World Saviour. She wrote that people love to be saved because it ignores their own immediate responsibility, and that it must be remembered that it’s the teaching given by the World Teacher which saves humanity. In other words, men must save themselves by their reaction and their response to the teaching that this figure brings. And that, to me, sounds like hard work, but it also sounds just right because as we said, the World Teacher is a prototype or an embodiment of a quality, divine potential, that exists within every human being. And we, each of us, have to summon up in response to the World Teacher that quality within us. For example, the Buddha who embodied the nature of light, the light of the mind, demonstrated the achievement of liberation when one is freed from attachment, desire, and materialism. And Christ embodied the nature of love and the saving power of love and compassion for one’s fellow men. So, the World Teachers bring a new quality, a new energy to humanity, and anchor it as a kind of a spiritual charge within the world.
Robert: Will he come alone, or will he have help?
Sarah: To me, it would be only logical that his purpose, his mission, would be fulfilled by the cooperation of many, many beings of various spiritual grades and ranks. We’ve talked before about the spiritual Hierarchy of the Masters or the White Brotherhood, the Kingdom of Souls who are highly evolved beings who have come through the human experience and who may not have attained the level of the World Teacher but have progressed beyond ordinary humanity. They will be involved in cooperating with the purpose of the World Teacher when he returns. We’ve talked about the new group of world servers, which are those men and women whose lives are dedicated to service of God’s plan through all the fields of human living: finance, government, education, religion, culture and the arts, philosophy, psychology. Every field of human endeavor has possibilities for service and these people also aid the World Teacher.
Dale: Yes, it stands to reason that he can’t do this job all by himself. He didn’t before, two thousand years ago when the Christ appeared; the Angels announced his coming, and the Angels were there to help and he had a group of disciples, as did the Buddha. So, it’s a group effort and that’s a very important thing to point out and to take to heart, because leading humanity towards the next step is not an easy job, and it takes a huge worldwide group effort. As Sarah just said, we have this group called the new group of world servers, who are literally men and women scattered throughout the world, in all societies, in all countries, who have a sense of love and a sense of sharing and a sense of cooperation in their hearts. These are the people, in their place, where they are, where they were born in the world, who act as a forerunner for the Christ and for this great World Teacher. It is by their actions that they help in the preparatory work.
Sarah: I find it really inspiring and meaningful to think that even the most ordinary human beings can be part of this assistance that is needed by the World Teacher. If we live lives of goodwill, if we live with unselfishness and dedication to serving our fellow human beings and the other lives that share the planet, in whatever way possible, then we can think of ourselves as assisting His purpose. I find that very inspiring.
Dale: Absolutely. And it is said in the writings of Alice Bailey that the new group of world servers act as the forerunner, the John the Baptist symbol, you might say. So, here again, we are in the beginning of a new age. We have the same pattern that is being presented to the world—this time on a world-wide scale, whereas before it was more localized in a very small area—but it’s the same great Avatar that’s coming again to advance the revelation further.
Sarah: And I think you can look at the world and see that there’s a tremendous amount of cooperation that’s being given to the World Teacher’s work. We can see a great deal in the world that’s not good, but we can look at splendid examples of unselfish service and dedication, not only by individuals but by groups. And you can sit here and name such groups until you doze off: Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, it goes on and on and on. There are so many groups mobilized today to assist, to redeem, comfort and uplift the condition of the world. Yes, we have our problems, but we also have a network of servers that’s in place, skillful, intelligent, and dedicated. This is a sign, I think, that the World Teacher’s return is assured. Why would such an individual waste his time coming back to a world where people were not interested or aware of him, or eager to be of help? He would need cooperators. He would need a receptive environment and I think we can say that that is being established.
Robert: Now, in the works of Alice Bailey he is referred to as the Christ, he’s referred to as the World Teacher, but what is he likely to teach and what is going to be the nature of his teachings?
Sarah: Well, that’s an interesting question. If we look back at past World Teachers, two of the greatest ones were the Buddha, who embodied light, taught the way to achieve enlightenment, the Noble Eightfold Path that is discovered through detachment from the world of the senses, from desire, and being responsible for one’s own spiritual development, and then we can look at the Christ who embodied love in a way that had never before been expressed on Earth. It’s said in the writings of Alice Bailey that the World Teacher, when he returns, will teach us something or embody something to do with the spiritual Will which has never before been expressed as a quality of divinity. And I find that something very interesting to reflect on—the spiritual Will as an expression of divine purpose. Think what we could do for the world if there were the capacity to galvanise the will for the good of the whole. So much time is wasted with feeling helpless and with observing the effects of inertia and indifference. So, I personally look forward to a living, vivid example of spiritual Will.
Dale: In the writings of Alice Bailey, she outlines several of the themes that the Christ will emphasize, and one of them is a very important one for the condition of the world today, and that’s establishing right human relations. We’ve mentioned this so many times; the use of goodwill and establishing right human relations in the world as a precondition for his coming. Without that it would be, as Sarah said, pointless for him to come into a world in which there weren’t good relationships among people and among nations, because it would just defeat everything that he tried to do. Where relationships are based on goodwill, then you have the chance for love and goodwill to flow in the world, and that is so very important for the work of this great World Teacher. And it’s important for humanity because without love the world will just not move forward.
Sarah: There’s another interesting insight that is found in the writings of Alice Bailey about what the World Teacher will teach, and it has to do with equality. We know that liberty, equality, fraternity was the gift of the French Revolution, and it was linked to the American Revolution, which emphasized equality— all men are created equal. But that is probably the most unenlightened understanding of equality when viewed from the spiritual standpoint. It’s said that equality will be the revelation of the Coming One based on a sense of proportion and a spiritual self-respect, a recognition of the laws of rebirth, and of cause and effect or karma. And I was thinking about what this kind of equality implies. It doesn’t, I think, mean that every human being is equal to another human being, because common sense tells us that’s not so. Some people are born with talents and with gifts and intelligence, and others are born with limitations. We can’t say that we’re all equal in that sense, but those attributes that I just named have to do with the outer presentation, with the form aspect. All of those have to do with the material personal self. I think this thought, that equality will be the revelation of the Coming One, is the exemplification of a spiritual worth that is present within every human being simply because that person is a human being. We are all precious in the eyes of God, and we are all created by God, regardless of our limitations or talents that we might have achieved. Those come through rebirth, through learning mastery, according to the Ageless Wisdom. We don’t view this life as our only life; we see life as a continuity of incarnations, and some people are older and more experienced, but all are equal in spiritual potential, and that’s going to be the teaching of the Coming One.
Dale: Yes. And one of the great things that has to be done by the Christ and by those who come with him—the other great servers and helpers—is to break down this wall of darkness that exists between the outer world of the form life, our personality lives that we all live in, and the world of the inner spiritual life, the world of the soul. There is so much misunderstanding, so much fear, so much ignorance, actually, about these inner planes of life, but this is where our source resides, or where the soul resides. This is the great spiritual reservoir of where we originate and there needs to be more of a continuity between the inner and the outer life, and that’s one of the great barriers that has to be broken down, I think, before we can really understand the meaning and the purpose of the Christ’s life and work.
Robert: I think of the World Teacher as being a very powerful change agent. How will we recognize the World Teacher?
Sarah: Well, I think we cannot look for this Being only in the field of the world’s religions. In fact, sometimes I wonder if that would not be the last field he might come back to because there’s so much separation and mistrust and so many barriers that would need to be overcome; which religion would he choose and therefore, who would be left out of his recognition? Possibly we should look for him in the field of government. We have the United Nations, which is planetary in scope, and that would be a field that would be suitable for his purposes because he is, after all, the World Teacher. Maybe in science, maybe in culture and the arts, which is becoming increasingly universal in its appeal. Or maybe in psychology; all human beings are involved in trying to understand their fundamental essence. I don’t know. I think the mind needs to be open to this, but a good case might be made for looking for the World Teacher in the field of science, because scientists trust and rely upon the light of the mind, and that what the mind reveals is more important than personal interest. Such thinkers set aside personal biases and preferences when they are confronted with the truth, and so I would think maybe he might function well in that field. But in any case, I think we have to say that becoming sensitive to spiritual quality is preliminary to being able to recognize the World Teacher. In other words, we won’t be able to recognize him unless there is something within us that somehow responds or vibrates to the same capacity.
Robert: So, it would have to maybe do with a certain type of consciousness that would appeal to him, and in turn, the consciousness of that aspect of humanity might be attracted to him as well.
Sarah: Yes, it’s said that the Christ will have no proclaimers; the World Teacher will not be announced. That would be too easy. We have to recognize him because we sense his quality.
Dale: Yes, I think that’s the very important point, because today especially there are all kinds of people are walking around claiming to be the Christ.
Sarah: I’ve met some.
Dale: A few of them have shown up at our office from time to time.
Sarah: We never argue with them.
Dale: No, we just send them on their way. But you know, this is one time that we have to really use our powers of discrimination. And that’s why it’s so valuable to read the Alice Bailey book called The Reappearance of the Christ, because it lays out there in a very sane way who this Being is and the tremendous stature that he represents. So, if you run into these people that are going around proclaiming that the Christ is here and there, and saying this is the Christ, well then, be very skeptical about that.
Robert: Well, I for one want to key into that consciousness. I want to have that consciousness within me that would be magnetized to the Avatar, to the World Teacher. How can we prepare for the coming of this great Being?
Sarah: Well, there are many ways, but there’s one particular aspect that rings true to me. It’s a statement from the writings of Alice Bailey that says: “The power to think is the savior of humanity.” The power to think. If we remember that the very etymology of the word “man” is from the Sanskrit for manas, meaning, “one who thinks,” or “a thinking being,” then the power to think and to think truth is our salvation. That is surely our best means of preparing for his presence in the world: by our capacity to recognize the truth and to live by it. Another more practical expression of preparation for the World Teacher can be seen in the increasing group effort that we see in in the world. Human beings realize more and more that we are interconnected and that we have to function together as groups in right human relationships. We don’t always do a very good job of it, but when you look at the proliferation of conferences that have been called in the last few decades on a global level, to eradicate world problems having to do with the environment, with social conditions, with population control—there have been so many of these conferences called, which shows people are coming together for the common good.
Dale: Right. You mentioned the cycle of conferences and of course we have the founding of the United Nations. I think that is a very obvious sign on a world scale of preparation. Perhaps the people responsible for founding the UN don’t see it that way, but I certainly think it is. And, also, the great movement that’s going on in Europe now in the establishing of the European Union, I think that is also related to the preparation work and for the coming of the World Teacher, because it is bringing nations together in right relationship. And I stress again this importance of relationship because that is the fundamental key for the working out of the Plan of God.
Sarah: And another phenomenal development that I think is crucial to the World Teacher is the growth of the Internet and of the impact of the media. Even in remote villages in Africa and India, people are more and more informed, educated, and have a sense of connection to the rest of the world. And this is providing an accessible field of communication for the World Teacher to convey his teaching to the whole of humanity, and not just to a small group like the twelve apostles. The world is much better educated, more responsive, and it has come through the horrors of the last century, which I think was the bloodiest century in all of human history. Humanity, you could say, is chastened and hopefully a bit wiser as a result of all the suffering of the past century and these are means of preparation for his return. And then we have to come to the fact of the Great Invocation, which we always close this program with. This is said to be our major means of cooperation and preparation for his reappearance in the world. Because when we work with the Great Invocation, we are establishing a relationship with God and with God’s purpose as individual cooperators. We’re invoking light and love and purpose to work out in the world, through the cooperation and consent of humanity; the line that says “From the centre which we call the human race, let the plan of love and light work out.” The saying of this Great Invocation on a regular basis is said to be a major means of cooperation with his purpose.
Dale: Yes. In fact, the Great Invocation was given out to humanity for that specific purpose, to provide humanity with the means of helping in the preparation work.
Sarah: And the Great Invocation, when it’s said on a regular basis. is said to be a tool for transformation of the personal self and of integration into the group of world servers of the spiritual Hierarchy that are mobilizing to cooperate with the World Teacher. So, each of us, regardless of what our environment and circumstances offer, can begin by working with the Great Invocation.
Robert: In closing, we invite you to ponder on this thought. Goodwill is the touchstone that will transform the world. Goodwill is love in action. It is the energy that draws us together in right relationship. There is a world prayer called the Great Invocation, it is 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)
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