THOUGHTLINE
August 1998
Outers and Inners:
Discovering the Undiscovered Country
The theory that the universe is expanding is practically a staple in that part of the scientific community which is concerned with such things. But this notion does raise some contusion, in my mind at least. "Universe means all there is. If you look it up in the dictionary, you will see that universe is the totality of all that exists. So, if universe is all there is, when you think about it, how can the universe expand? Into what does it expand?
According to an article by John Yaukey, a science writer published by the Gannett News Service, until recently questions like, "When did the universe get started?" were dismissed by scientists as imponderable. "However," the article says, "there have been breakthroughs [that] have traced the evolution of the universe back to the fuse that sparked the big bang 15 billion years ago when the cosmos as we know it erupted out of a point of infinite density, temperature and pressure." Was this the "beginning," we hear ourselves asking? What was going on 16 billion years ago? Still, we read further that, "At Columbia University scientists are building ... supercomputers, fully dedicated to simulating the trillion-degree conditions at the moment of creation when the universe consisted of a boiling plasma the size of a dime."
I check the article to make sure that it is not in a science fiction magazine. ... But, "Wait, wait.?" I think, "This is something I can do. ...Yes! A boiling plasma the size of a dime. ... I can see that." I visualize the universe. Then I do a quick check of the medicine cabinet. Assured that all of Loretta's leftover Prozac and Zoloft are still there, I go back to my visualization of the universe, a dime-size point of plasma boiling away. Mine is a sort of golden color like a dime-size sun. Good, good, I am making progress. But then I notice that my infinitely dense, dime-size point of boiling plasma is hanging in a deep midnight blue space which, as far as I can tell, is also infinite, not dense, but infinite. Completely forgetting about my dime-size point of boiling universe, I think, "What's that, what's all that deep midnight blue stuff?" "Well," I think, "it can't be the universe since the whole universe is locked into this dime-size glob of boiling plasma. OK, then," I think, "if it isn't universe, what is it?"
This is when my nose starts to bleed.
The whole notion of looking for answers to basically metaphysical, universe-size questions by examining only the physical levels of reality is, obviously, going to at least miss the point if not misinform, and, as it turns out, no matter how super or sophisticated the computers, we simply cannot have a dime-size ball of universe or any thing else without having a "something" that is not "it" to see that "it" is "it." But if, rather than denying simple logic and common sense, we start with the realization that unity is plural and a minimum set is two, we already understand that there must be a metaphysical side of the physical universe, even if we can't measure it on any of our devices (including the ultra secret cold fusion energized sphereocentric quark-separator which I keep, for security purposes, in the trunk of my wife's car).
Now, we know we can register the physical side of universe with our physical senses and all sorts of very sophisticated billion dollar instruments, but we also know from experience that we can register the metaphysical side of universe, too. We use a different set of sensory apparatus. These apparatuses are free. They come with the body model when we are born. Everyone has a set. They are like standard equipment. You know-when you buy the XLE model you get leather and a moon roof. Well, you might think of these as consciousness tools, psychic socket wrenches or energy registers. And through the use of these devices we can register the metaphysical side of universe. We can, for example, and in a word, be conscious of it. We can do this in a number of ways. We can feel it. Feeling doesn't mean anything, of course, but through feeling, we can sense or register the emotional frequency or quality of any particular part of the metaphysical side of universe of which we can be conscious. We can also think it, imagine or visualize it, which is totally different from feeling or sensing it; and at rare moments, we can contemplate or identify with it. "Identification with" is a method of "knowing about" that has nothing to do with thinking. In this mode one simply becomes.
But, we cannot weigh the metaphysical aspect of universe. We cannot measure it, do a spectral analysis or in any other way register it physically. There is, however-for myself, anyway-a physical reaction to this work. I often get very excited when I am registering aspects of metaphysical universe with the psychic instruments we all have at our disposal. The excitement is a physically "register-able" aspect of the process of psychically registering the metaphysical side of universe. I sometimes, for example, get very nervous, to the point where I feel like I am quivering, and I sweat. It even makes my nose ... not bleed, but definitely run, and it often makes my ears hot. These are physical effects of the psychic process of accessing-using non-physical tools-and endeavoring to record in thought matter and impress upon the brain the subjective side of universe. These are the physical side effects of the creative process of meditation, contemplation, illumination, inspiration and service.
However, we know that the excitation is not the vision, and, in fact, if one cannot keep it-the excitement-under some form of management it interferes with the other equipment we are using. For example, we all know that a wildly excited and fluctuating emotional body will generate a kind of turbulence, akin to a storm at sea. that will greatly' distort the frequency of the impressions coming from the abstract levels of mind as they impress the form-generating part of our minds and attempt to make their way to the brain. Of course, if one is locked into a one-dimensional, physical-only universe, one cannot even discriminate between the brain and the mind, and so all of this would be just more non-sense.)
But, back to the expansions for a moment. It appears that the "expansions" of universe which the scientists are registering arid recording with their wonderful physical apparatuses like the Hubbell telescope are actually the discovery of the always existent, but heretofore unregistered, motions of the apparently eternal and, to our very limited powers of observation at this point, incomprehensible Great Unfolding and Folding, which is my name for universe. These discoveries are expansions of mankind's ability to register, to encompass more and more of the countless details of the physical aspects of universe, more and more of that totality of all the forms, all the "things" that exist. (These "things" exist, by the way, independently of mere humanity's being aware of them.) To put this all in another, more logical way, we could say that as we gain in the capacity to register more and more of the physical universe, we are able to see more and more of the process of manifestation, the eternal unfolding and folding which appears to us as the evolution of universe.
Still, this vision lacks coherence. We need to remember that universe is all there is-all of it, including not only that part of the physical universe which we can see and that which we cannot-as yet-see, but also the unseen,metaphysicalpart of universe: the real, the true, the Undiscovered Country. So, when we talk about the apparent expansions or unfoldings of universe (suns being born) and contractions or foldings of universe ("black holes" swallowing suns), both of which, obviously, go on simultaneously, we ought really to be talking about the eternal exchange process which goes on between the physical time and space manifested aspect of universe-the form side which is "unreal" because it is only a temporary best possible at the moment rendition-and the unmanifest, real, unchanging sphere of perfection, of idea.
Those of us for whom these concepts are not weird or heretical or unscientific understand this process to be the eternal cycle of incarnation and abstraction and reincarnation. If I may be permitted a little aside here, the abstraction aspect of this Life cycle is a process with which humanity is only too familiar, a process of which we are terrified and which we call death. Reincarnation, on the other hand, is the part of the Life cycle equation which we presently more than fail to recognize or acknowledge, which we actively ridicule and deny, and which, if we would (because I think we could if we would) simply recognize the common sense of reincarnation, this recognition would go a long way toward removing the fear from death. Anyway, for those of us for whom these concepts are not weird or heretical or unscientific, it comes as no surprise that the processes of discovery that we associate with the physical scientists and the physical universe are likewise occurring on the metaphysical side of universe.
The results of this metaphysical exploration and manifestation are somewhat slower to come and somewhat harder to recognize than the technological adaptation of the physical scientists The results show up in new social systems and forms of living, in greater wisdom and understanding about what it is we humans are up to on this planet, and so forth It should, for example, not be too long now before a group of properly equipped and tuned-in historians-individuals who have a whole system view-begin to record the actual history of humanity's evolution, a history in which the physical record of our technological tool development from the S-curved stone axe to the supercomputer, aimed-and-fired laser disrupter cannons, and who conquered whom and dominated what continent, will be seen as effects rather than causes of human evolution. The new history will be a history of the expansion of consciousness rather than an expansion of forms, no matter how galaxy-large, or quark-small. It will be, to put it in a slightly different way, a history of causes rather than effects.
This new history will reveal, for example, that it was humanity's growing ability not just to see, but to recognise, to understand, to be conscious of, the organic and interdependent nature of reality that drove the development of government-of democracy, in particular. It is this continuing development in our ability to recognize and understand the naturally co-operative and interconnectedness of all life-which is itself a natural outgrowth of the ongoing and accelerating shift from self to group consciousness-that will eventually evolve a new form of government which will be a blending of democracy, "one person, one vote," and Hierarchy.
One of the early things that is already emerging from this new history, this new exploration into the evolving consciousness of humanity, is that the demonstrated structure, rationality, coherence, order which we encounter in every single layer or aspect of the physical universe is repeated in the metaphysical universe. The sea of energies in which we live and move and have our being is no less structured, rational, ordered than is its dense precipitation-the physical plane. For those among us who are climbers or fore-searchers on the timeless and spaceless mountain of consciousness, rather than miners or re-searchers into the time and space records of the physical or the past (because physical and past are really synonyrnous terms), the order and rationality of the inner worlds is, "A thing of beauty ... a joy forever." It is the Undiscovered Country, and, of course, what we discover is that it is the source of the reason, the love and order and beauty which we encounter at every level of the physical world.
As the shift from the state of separative self-consciousness to a state of unified or inclusive consciousness (which, again, for lack of a better name, we call group consciousness) proceeds, questions of how and when did the universe start, and is it expanding or contracting, will not be answered, they will simply go away. These are self-conscious generated questions. They could only come from the view of the one-dimensional illusory state of separative self-consciousness, a state of consciousness that has to hold that the material world is the only world, in order to exist. This sort of separative self-consciousness cannot exist in a unified field, in a whole system in which the interdependence of each part is recognized and honored.
Individuality, self-recognition or self-identification, knowing that we are and who we are, on the other hand, can only exist in such a unified field. Individuality and individual responsibility can exist because, rather than being separative, these conditions of consciousness depend on the synthetic nature of the whole for meaning and understanding, for their very existence. These states of consciousness cannot exist without synthesis, without the whole field. In a word, I can't recognize me without recognizing you to let me know that I am me and not you. It goes way deeper than this, as I will point out in a minute, but it gets back to the unavoidable realization that if one is going to think about it or be conscious of it, unity is plural and a minimum set is two. If we are going to be conscious of it, we can't have just one of us. To be real and not illusory we have to be whole, and to be whole we have to be at least two.
Now, the deeper and more important part is that it is this recognition that we each have to exist in order for either of us to exist that will lead to the amazing and liberating recognition of life or divinity in each of us. It is only as we are able to see that each one is a part of the Life, that each one of us is a "spark of divinity" and not only see each of us as humans but see each aspect of the physical world, each and every form from a quark up to and including galaxies and universe is a manifestation of the One Life, it is only as we can recognize and register this fact, become conscious of this condition of wholeness, that we will be able, truly be able, to discover the Undiscovered Country, and, on a more practical note, be able to begin to implement the immense and, to this day, little understood idea that Djwhal Khul put forth as Right Human Relations.
As humanity continues to move from the separative and basically illusory state of self-consciousness into a more inclusive and comprehensive state of consciousness-group consciousness, if you like-we will more and more, more of us and more often, recognize and register this inner divinity which we share. This condition of consciousness will gradually move the inquiry for truth and for answers to cosmic questions from Outers to Inners, from the "out there" of space and time to the "in there" of the timeless, spaceless, multi-dimensioned Undiscovered Country. A very well known scientist, a physicist who teaches at U.C. Berkeley, recently said in an interview published in the Washington Post, "I've always based my moral and religious ideas on the idea that there is something out there bigger than us." We have spent aeons looking outside for God and for reason, for answers to what are probably non-questions, and because we were looking for answers to non-questions in only half of the book, the answers have eluded us. Shifting the emphasis of our search to the inside will lift the veil from many obscure issues. The necessary outside-to-inside moves are from the physical to the metaphysical, from the concrete to the abstract, from the form to the idea, and, perhaps most important of all, from God transcendent to God immanent.
When we understand this basic simple truth, "Namaskar" will be a profoundly meaningful expression of celebration and not just a bland salutation. It will be sort of like the "Good Morning" with which Maya Angelou ends her marvellous poem, "On the Pulse of Morning."
Read by the poet at the Inauguration of William Jefferson Clinton 20 January' 1993
ON THE PULSE OF MORNING
A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon,
The dinosaur, who left dried tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow,
I will give you no hiding place down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness
Have lain too long
Facedown in ignorance,
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.
The Rock cries out to us today,
You may stand upon me;
But do not hide your face.
Across the wall of the world,
A River sings a beautiful song. It says,
Come, rest here by my side.
Each of you, a bordered country,
Delicate and strangely made proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more.
Come, clad in peace,
And I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I and the
Tree and the Rock were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear
across your brow
And when you yet knew you still knew nothing.
The River sang and sings on.
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing River and the wise Rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew,
The African, the Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek,
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the Tree.
They hear the first and last of every Tree
Speak to humankind today.
Come to me,
Here beside the River.
Plant yourself beside the River.
Each of you, descendant of some passed-
On traveller, has been paid for.
You who gave me my first name, you,
Pawnee, Apache, Seneca, you
Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then
Forced on bloody feet,
Left me to the employment of
Other seekers-desperate for gain,
Starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Arab, the Swede,
The German, the Eskimo, the Scot,
The Italian, the Hungarian, the Pole,
You, the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought
Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am that Tree planted by the River,
Which will not be moved.
I, the Rock, I, the River, I, the Tree
I am yours-your passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes
Upon this day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands,
Mould it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For a new beginning.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space
To place new steps of change
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out and upon me,
The Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes,
And into your brother's face,
Your country,
And say simply
Very simply
With hope-
Good morning.
Maya Angelou
And so, my dear friends and co-workers, in closing, let us pledge to work, and may:
…the light that has always been be seen; the love that never ceases be realized, and the radiance, deep concealed, break forth into Being. The Reappearance of The Christ, p. 94.
Tom Carney, July 1998
| THOUGHTLINE | September 1998 |
At the Center of the Lotus is a Lion
Let us accept love as the impetus for the expansion of consciousness.
The heart will not be aflame without love; it will not be invincible
nor will it be self sacrificing. Thus, let us give our gratitude
to each receptacle of love; it lies on the boundary of the New World,
where hate and intolerance are banished.
The path of love is the tension of cosmic energy.
Thus will people find their place in Cosmos. Not like dry leaves
but as flaming lotuses they will be akin to the Highest World.
|
| Heart #243, p 148 (Agni Yoga Society) |
Good evening, my fellow "divine and tawny orange Flames." (Esoteric Astrology, p 301.)
Did that get your attention? I have learned over the years that people have what at first glance appear to be really short attention spans. It is reported-perhaps I should say bemoaned-everywhere that this phenomenon has been growing rather than decreasing. Until recently, television-that sneaky waster of minds-got major credit for this phenomenon, but lately the Internet has emerged as the major mind-eater of adults and children alike. Today, it is estimated by advertisers and such people that, depending on the medium and the audience, you have between 5 and 20 seconds (that's seconds, not minutes) to get someone's attention. Multimedia, like television and Internet home pages, are in the 5-10 second class. Straight print media gives you a little longer, but even here the direction is to use more and more graphic devices, colors, shapes, different font sizes, and so forth, to gain and keep a reader's attention for more than a few moments. Take a look at any recent issue of Wired [a multimedia industry publication] to get an idea of what I mean.
A lot of people deplore this apparent shrinkage of the attention span. They especially worry over theappearance of this phenomenon in our children. They see it as an indicator of a growing tendency toward superficiality and a weakening intellectual/mental polarization on the part of humanity as a whole.
Once again, it is instructive to observe how the refusal to validate the subjective side of reality skews the analysis of the results of our most careful experiments and, even more so, as in this case, blinds us to the evidence of the unfolding plan as it manifests through current events. In the case of the apparent shrinking attention span, an understanding of the role reincarnation plays in the manifestation of humanity's evolving consciousness will give an entirely different slant to the same data.
For example, rather than evidence of deterioration, or of devolution, what we are seeing in the apparent shrinkage of the attention span is, in very many cases-perhaps one could even say in most cases an indicator of the success of evolution. Rather than a shrinking attention span and a growing inability to focus, this is evidence of a growing, and much more widespread than thought, mental polarization as well as an actual up-shift in the mental capacity of many millions of people in incarnation today. These facts, vis-à-vis the attention span issue, demonstrate the speed at which modern humans can take in, process and evaluate information. That they find the vast majority of the information presented to them as not being worthy of more than 5 seconds of their attention is another aspect of this issue we can talk about later.
Intel, a mere human corporation, will, as everyone expects, produce, in the next year or two, a 1000 MHz processor. It should not be a surprise to anyone that the Master Chip Designer built a very much greater capacity than that into this 140-billion-cell* processor we have between our ears, which we call the brain. When you think about linking millions and millions of these 140-billion-cell processor brains together through a wireless network, you will begin to get an idea of the kind of processing power humanity can generate and, incidentally, why we at Arcana Workshops are so interested in and work so hard at "a certain kind of meditation," i.e., synthesized group meditation.
There is, however, a little problem with this scenario. It has to do with adequate equipment. Of course, the generation of adequate equipment is what-bottom line-evolution is about. Evolution is the process of creating physical equipment that will allow for the manifestation of very high levels of power and consciousness to manifest on the physical plane. The soul, as we know, knows literally everything. Its understanding and reasoning powers are complete and developed. However, before we can stand in that rain cloud of knowable things-that deluge of wisdom which we might even think of as the soul-before we can access and download into our equipment what we comprehend as souls-the abstract realm of pure reason-the hardware, our physical equipment, has to be brought up to the point that can handle not only the charge, but make sense of the data. We have to have both the reasoning power and the understanding on board, as it were. "If the inner meanings of the outer symbolic forms of existence were registered by an unprepared form (the response apparatus of the soul in the three worlds and, in the case of man, involving an unprepared and undeveloped nervous system, glandular system and brain) the destruction of the form by soul energy would naturally supervene and a shattering of the lower expression would take place." (Esoteric Astrology, p 291.) Or, to put that into simple English, one just can't run lightning bolts through a flashlight without some serious downside.
Anyway, it is the evolving development of this greater capacity to both understand and reason that accounts for the apparent shrinking attention span of many people today. Before getting caught up in the current rage to deplore technology as the source of all of our problems, it would be wise for people to understand that the technology is an effect of our expanding understanding and mental capacity. The average, decently educated 8th grader knows more and understands more about the planet and what is going on on the planet than most of the university graduates of just a century ago.
The evolution of consciousness involves moving from a kind of isolated self-consciousness (I Am) toward an inclusive kind of group consciousness, which, at the same time, retains the sense of self (I Am That). Humanity has been painstakingly and laboriously, over millennia of millennia, moving steadily toward this New World. We are, as I alluded to a moment ago when I spoke about the wireless network, on the path to telepathy which, as I understand it, operates not at 1,000 or even 10,000 MHz, but at "no speed." Telepathy is beyond speed; it just is. If this sort of place interests you, hang around, because it is right around the corner. There is this phenomenon-observable phenomenon-where things speed up as they approach the change point.
Anyway, I was thinking about starting this talk off with a real grabber, like, "Mankind, standing literally on the brink of disaster, is facing what is perhaps its greatest crisis ever." So I tried it out on a few people, my neighbors, and some friends, and at a dinner table which I was sharing with my family and a few other souls while camping in the High Sierras. It got everything from a big yawn and, "So, what else is new?" to a polite and politic subject change. It occurred to me that this bit about facing the GREAT CRISIS has been played so often that it has lost its attention-getting power. In my hearing, it has usually been delivered in sonorous tones with a lot of hand wringing and very little in the way of specifics. I tried to avoid that energy signature in my efforts, but usually, no one was interested in even cold, let alone hot, pursuit.
And yet, I know, and you all know, too, that it is true. We, that is, humanity, is facing, if not the REALLY, REALLY BIG ONE, at least the biggest one in present recorded history Yes, I think it truly is make-or-break time for old humanity. And I truly think we need to try to raise the alarm about this. Time is ....... if not out, at least low, and we need to make a move; we need to take action.
Any actions on the part of humanity are good ones. However, as we know, it is a lot easier to work on the form than it is on the consciousness, and there is a tendency for well-meaning people to mess with the form; that is, try to adjust the form so that it will survive the crisis. This is really not what is needed, and frequently this kind of activity-by focusing on the form side as it does-takes attention away from the real need. We do not need to work feverishly to survive an approaching situation, live through an earthquake, hurricane or tsunami, an economic collapse or the current doomsday machine known as the Y2K bomb. These kinds of events, while not to be ignored, are not the issue. There are plenty of people with the skill and understanding to deal with physical plane crises. But these things are not the crisis, at least not for people who understand even superficially the evolution of consciousness.
Humanity has, over and over and over again, triumphed over these sorts of adversity. The fact is that we will live through the approaching adversity of whatever kind, too. So, the present crisis is not whether we will live through these kinds of events, but how we will be configured when we come out on the other side. If there has not been a significant shift in consciousness, we are in for a very long night. "If the forces of evil, plus the groups of men who seek control of the human spirit (no matter in what country they are found, and they can be found in every single country without exception), become dominant, the doors of evil will open and the life of man will lose its meaning; death will settle down upon our planet-death both spiritual and mental." (Externalisation of the Hierarchy, p 651-2.)
Also, equally glamorous, and therefore diverting, is the notion, mistaken notion, sometimes even wish, that these sorts of adversity will do our work for us-save us from ourselves. It is true that these sorts of unfolding karmic situations will wipe out a lot of growth-inhibiting systems. Sort of like running the rivers through the stables.** In fact, we very recently had a major round of this kind of help. It was called the Great War, and it wiped out much that was old and worn. Many forms that needed replacing were swept away. But the Great War, which was a karmic result of our past efforts, did not build the new forms for us.
My childhood memories are stuffed with people being saved. People loved to be saved. Hollywood has built an entire economic system on this fact. Practically every movie that is made involves people being saved from awful disaster by the cavalry or some other form of deus ex machina. But the raw truth is that only humanity can save humanity God will not do it.
God is in the evolution business, not in the disaster business. He does not design disasters, even disasters that will save us. The disasters are the results of our own free will working out as karmic reactions to our previous efforts to, usually, try to avoid our destiny The whole point, at least part of the point anyway, is to develop a humanity with a free will, a humanity that can save itself, that can love itself, that can use power without being corrupted by it, that can create a space for initiates to breathe, that can build the bridge between that world of unity and harmony and the three lower worlds over which it can come and go at will, that can make the space in which beings of both the 4th and 5th kingdoms can once again be physically present together.
These kinds of developments do not deal with making the form safe. They involve changing the form. They involve raising the consciousness of humanity to the next level.
While this kind of action is much more a matter of the heart than it is a matter of the brain or intellect, I think we actually know exactly what we need to do to raise the level of consciousness to the next level, to help switch the emphasis from the isolated self to the individual as a member of the one humanity or, to use esoteric jargon, from the illusory state of the separative self to the reality of the One. I do (I may be hopelessly deluded here), but I really do think that we know what needs to be done. and we know how to do it.
Again, I am reasoning from a position that includes the facts of reincarnation. All of this advance that humanity has made in the various fields of endeavor over the past 200 or 300 years indicates the incarnation of many, many advanced souls. These very same souls know, in their deep heart's core, if not in their heads, who they are and from whence they come. All we need to do is raise the issue with them, intelligently, commonsensically, non-weirdly, even non-religiously in many cases. It is this, exactly, that we at Arcana Workshops are attempting to do with The Los Angeles Heart Project. We are attempting to raise consciousness about the nature of the heart and the power of love. I do not think that I am saying anything that any of you or anyone who may read this later does not already know.
So, what is the big deal?
As I said, I think this supreme effort at this very crucial time involves the heart more than the intellect. We know, but we do not do. Why do we not do what we know in our hearts needs to be done? I think that the true nature of the crisis humanity is facing now-the really big thing that it is time for us to demonstrate-is that quality which is found only in the heart, that quality without which nothing else will happen. And so, once again I want to talk for a little while about courage, about that quality without which nothing else will happen. The crisis humanity is facing is a crisis of having the courage to be what it can be.
The work of the heart is the work of reality The heart does not lecture. The heart does not preach or moralize. The heart does not make promises. The heart does not deal in halfway measures. The heart does not desire, and the heart never cries.
The heart is the organ of action. A sufficient intelligence will eventually pierce the wall of illusory materialism, which, like a skin of steel, lies over and hides the truth, and lead to the realm of principle. Principles are not things or facts or objects to be dissected with the intellect and known. They are lives to be with, to be understood, to be comprehended. They then become a part of us, or we become a part of them. Wisdom is the comprehension, the understanding, the being of principles. Love is wisdom in action, and, once again, the heart is the organ of action.
The physical heart is symbolic in many ways of the spiritual heart, the soul. The heart beats until it stops. It does not go on vacation or get tired or bored. The heart, because it is the fount of wisdom, advances with joy in the face of danger. Upon the encountering of beauty or truth, indeed, in the face of infinity, the joy of the heart is sublime.
The heart is the center, the fount of courage. The heart is fearless because the heart does not know fear. When we are afraid-when we avoid saying the right word at the right time, when we avoid taking the action that would liberate, that would enlighten, that would warm, heal, lift, when the opportunity to do so is presented to us by our karma (as it is now being presented to humanity by humanity's karma), when we avoid acting, when we are faced with these opportunities-we are, very simply, not tapping into the energy of the heart. The heart would rush to act, would be overjoyed at the opportunity to lift, heal, enlighten. It is only natural for the heart to do so.
Tonight, we will be thinking in our hearts about the wellspring of love and how we wish to create a channel free of impediments so that we may be a way by which men may achieve, a source of strength so that they may stand, and a light so that they may see. At the very core of the heart, friends, lies the tawny, orange lion of courage: indomitable, unquenchable, indefatigable, fearless-because it knows not fear And friends, if we are to save ourselves here, for we are humanity, "The lion must emerge from its lair." Remember, friends, at this stage of our lives we are not conditioned by the environment; we are, in accordance with divine purpose and the plan, men and women of the heart, men and women of the soul, men and women of action, conditioners of the environment. At least, we can be, if we but have the courage to have the will to be so.
With the physical eyes closed, see with me, please, a closed lotus of pale blue. . . . Watch its petals slowly unfold. ... At the center of the lotus burns a tawny orange flame, the lion in the lotus, the Angel of the Presence. Deep within this flame see a point of brilliant white light. . . . Watch, as it slowly waxes forth into a scintillating jewel, the Star of the One Initiator. ... OM-MA-NI PAD-NE HUM. ...
OM-MA-NI PAD-NE HUM.
Tom Carney
* Mayo Foundation for Medical Education & Research. "Brain cells." [Online] Available http://www.mayohealth.org, October 1996. Note: D.K. indicates 140 thousand million 140 billion] deva monads in this second solar system and 60 thousand million human monads. (Esoteric Healing, p109-110). Also note: Cosmic Fire, p 246 and p 578-9.
** The Labours of Hercules, Labour XI. Cleansing the Augean Stables (Aquarius).
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