Agnes Gåsemyr - Norway
The fact that this force exists is a great challenge to us in our life. We know it exists because great men and women have given evidence of the fact through their lives and writings. They have pointed out that the world is one, and that we can become deeply aware of it in our expression of love and compassion.
Love and compassion not only towards a near friend or a family member, but an expression of it in relationship to all living beings and all Nature. How does this come about when most of us are living in cities and so necessarily do meet most living beings as we pass them by, where Nature is scarce and animals are only allowed on a leash or in certain areas.
We can read about animals or watch programs on Nature on the screen, and we know that they live by instinct. Biographies are becoming very much sought after. Through these we can come to know a little about how some people spent their lives, and learn what a human being is. But first of all we must go to the source and learn first hand about ourselves – look inside and see if we can find love, compassion and peace there. No one else can do this for me; I am the only agent to do this work. This is urgent – for 'if we can't find peace in our hearts, we are not going to find it elsewhere'. This is pointed out in all Theosophical literature.
We see the truth in ourselves and find what we can do – what we can contribute to Life. We must start where we are, literally, and use our discrimination. Do I act in a good way in this? Is my thinking true? Our possibility for action may seem limited – but truth and goodness are limitless. So we do the best we can locally to create a good atmosphere and friendly relations – wherever we have our walks in life by asking ourselves if this is true or false. Life is a never ending story and we are part of it. We can take a break and seek to be in Nature every day – or look after a plant on our window sill – and know that we also represent Nature, which has law and order and beauty.
If we are lucky enough to be a member of a Theosophical Lodge, the possibility of making an impact on the world is much greater. Wisdom and Truth are to be found in the sharing and deep understanding of Theosophical literature; only coming together in the atmosphere of a Lodge gives awareness of Truth and Love and an inspiration to do good work where we are. It is the spirit of questioning about the best way to act that makes the sharing universal.
Universal – the word is so full of meaning, we have to find it in our heart and keep it in the background and bring it forth when we use our discrimination: – is what we are doing right or wrong in this pespective? Being what we are (!) is no idle work, for it will make us strong to the benefit of every being and thing that we meet when we look at the spiritual side of things. We need to look at the spiritual aspect, because the TS is a spiritual body trying to promote the science of the spirit.
Theosophy is practical. Spirituality in man has to be awakened, and made to flower. It will embody us, so to speak, when we are awakened to letting ourselves look for it, have sympathy with it in ourselves and in all men and beings on the whole living planet, and sympathy with the universe also. It is a universal force that belongs to everybody. It is there all the time for us to partake in it – inwardly and outwardly – and to look for it always. Then we can’t go wrong, because if and when we do,we human beings being what we are, we can see it and make it right. In this way we work together – each in his or her own way – knowing the immense force that is at play, playing by the rules of universal laws which by nature are immutable. We only have to see it in ourselves and everywhere, and we are working for the good evolution of all the beings on this planet, from the wherever we are. Looking for the truth everywhere, the useless spill of energies will come to an end.
Truth can be discovered on any path, and that is the wonderful practicality of it. It is universal. So is Wisdom. The quest for it demands a force that has no room for the lower aspects of mankind, so we simply have to lift ourselves to the plane of a religious search for the Truth.
This work of ours will bring order in our consciousness. Without this inner order, truth – or spiritual consciousness - cannot function through us. It is there but it cannot function when we are not one, when we do not give room for the Universal Brotherhood to function. Inner order is the key to outer order and we are investigating all the time for this inner order to bring out these latent powers in man. We are so complex, and the powers latent in man need to be seen by us, to be used by us.
We have the tools within ourselves, and our relationship with others will stimulate and widen the depth of investigation. The books and the texts given us by the great spiritually evolved people who have gone before us are there for us to study. Let us look into them deeply and with perseverance search for the truth everywhere – the truth that we are one. How does it manifest? What is the beauty of it? The non-truth can be discarded – our illusions and our deep ignorance – as being invalid, dead; and so we give room for Truth which is the highest force we can reach - the real powers that are now latent in man. Sympathy with them is what we have declared when we became members of the Theosophical Society, and sympathy is what is needed. Discernment is also needed, because it has to be the Real that we have to have sympathy with, not with the egoistical part of the mind and lower self.
Can we bring about this evolution in man? We have every opportunity in our daily living. We just have to deeply grasp it and set about it now. We have been given all the tools - they are where we are – within us. Be a lamp in the darkness that is inside and outside.
In his Blavatsky Lecture CONSCIOUSNESS: Its Nature and Action (TPH 2002)
N.Sri Ram says:
“Intuition is not a hunch, not wishful thinking, but a faculty. It is like instinct, but there is a vast difference between them. Instinct is fixed and acts only in certain situations. It works mechanically. Its action is blind, elemental and repetitive. But buddhi is ever free; it moves in no fixed grooves. It is intelligence unconditioned, and creates newly every time. The development of thought in man has supressed instinct. But when the whole mode of thinking becomes different, when it ceases to divide, to shape and alter the underlying consciousness, then the instinct of the earlier stages reappears with a superior nature as a capacity to know the truth and create the image of truth. When manas regains its undivided state, it automatically integrates itself with buddhi, because there is only one consciousness in man, though it has these two modes of action. It is then a new consciousness, which has in itself the nature of truth and in its actions expresses the beauty of that truth. The newness has always been there, waiting to be uncovered.”