BUILDING THE ANTAHKARANA OR THE RAINBOW BRIDGE

IN THE BEGINNING

We all know by now we have to build the Antahkarana [the bridge between personality soul and spirit], but why and how did it all start? Why do we have to work so hard at something that is supposed to happen naturally? I came across the following information that will explain parts of the questions that come up in our minds:

Let us look again at humanity’s place in the scheme of things, in order to clearly ascertain his Purpose and the violation of that Purpose. Humanity, as we have said many times, is the Planetary throat centre, the centre through which the Logoic Word sounds forth. That word (the Soul and later the Monad on its own plane) is creative. It creates the forms within which our God shall appear.

Looking at it from another perspective, we see humanity as the brain of the Logos. Each human being is, then, a brain cell within the One Life. The Logos, or directing will, transfers His Purpose and Plan, via the heart of His Being, the Hierarchy, into this brain for condensation into form. Humanity then takes into itself that Purpose and Plan, recreates it into form, and gives it appearance in the Light of Day.

During the Atlantean period when all human beings were conscious magicians according to Plan, humanity, for an inexplicable reason (except that it be karmic), denied the Logoic Plan for one of its own. That is, men conceived and created according to their own separative purposes. In so doing, the economy of the Planetary Life was misused, the relationship of Spirit, matter, and consciousness altered, and the antahkarana between man and his own Soul broken. As the word sounded in time and space, it took on a destructive tone because it was sounded in violation of the One Life.

The breaking of the antahkarana resulted in an upheaval within the consciousness of the Planetary Life, and man set himself adrift from the Logoic Purpose which had brought him into being, i.e., he broke off his own relationship with God.

It was not a vengeful God who denied man his Divine heritage. It was man himself who destroyed his own awareness of himself as Soul, and consequently shut the door upon his creative genius.

The outer results of this act came in the form of a cataclysm which wiped out the Atlantean civilization. The violent changing of the earth’s surfaces, the inundation of heavily populated areas with water, and the gradual decline of man’s knowledge of the creative process, were but outer reflections of the terrible upheaval taking place within the consciousness of the Planet itself.

Since that time, humanity has gradually brought itself back to the reappearing cycle of opportunity. The antahkarana, not only between man and his Soul, but between the Hierarchy and humanity, is being reconstructed by those disciples in the world who consciously serve the Plan. That Plan, which has to do with man as a creator, is once again being focussed downward, and the redemption of both consciousness and substance for Logoic Purpose becomes possible.

Thus, the unveiling of the mysteries proceeds according to law, but with this specific warning: Let your creative genius be directed to the working out of God’s Plan on earth.

It is suggested that the sincere student take The Great Invocation into meditation for further clarification in the light of the above.

‘‘From the point of Light within the mind of God

Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.

Let Light descend on earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God

Let Love stream forth into the hearts of men

May Christ return to earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known

Let Purpose guide the little wills of men,

The Purpose which the Master Knows and serves.’’

 

These first three stanzas have to do with the reconstruction of that triple strand of Light which is called the antahkarana. They refer, also, to the proper equation of spirit, matter, and consciousness, which since Atlantis has been out of balance.

‘‘From the centre which we call the race of men

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out

And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

 Let Light, and Love, and Power restore the Plan

on earth.’’

 

These last are self-explanatory in the consciousness of one who has intuited the Truth from the above text. [Lucille Cedercrans, Master R. [R./Lucille] ]

So, now we know! It also ties together our theme, the relationship between the Soul-infused Personality, Discipleship and the project of building the Antahkarana. It is also clear that the greatest tool that the Disciple has in his aid is the Sword of God, THE GREAT INVOCATION. Every time he uses it he is not only helping to build and repair the World Antahkarana but also his own, the link between his Soul-infused Personality, the Soul Itself and the Spiritual Triad. We broke it, now as Disciples, we have to repair it as part of our evolutionary development.

Master DK made the following comment about the antahkarana:

The Science of the Antahkarana deals with the threefold thread which connects:

 

a. The monad, the soul and the personality, linking all three periodical vehicles and unifying all seven principles.

b. The triple personality and its environment in the three worlds of human enterprise, and later in the other two worlds (making five) of superhuman expression.

c. The consciously creative man and the world of ideas.  These he must contact and express through creative work, thus bridging with the light:

1.                   Between the world of souls and the world of phenomena.

2.                   Between the realm of subjective beauty and reality and the outer tangible world of nature.

3.                   Between himself and others.

4.                   Between group and group.

5.                   Later, when the divine Plan has become a reality to him, between the fourth kingdom (the human) and the fifth kingdom (the Kingdom of God).

6.                   Finally, between humanity and the Hierarchy.

We can see from the above that it involves all the aspects of our live and spiritual unfoldment. He goes on and said the following:

The Science of the Antahkarana is the science of the triple thread which exists from the very beginning of time and links individual man with his monadic source.  The recognition of this thread and its use, consciously, as the Path and the means of ever expanding contacts, comes relatively late in the evolutionary process.  The goal of all aspirants and disciples is to become aware of this stream of energy in its various diversifications and consciously to employ these energies in two ways: interiorly in self-unfoldment, and in the service of the plan for humanity.

I have tried to summarise the whole proses in the following poem:

 THE ANTAHKARANA      [The Lost Word - OM, or The Rainbow Bridge]

 

The antahkarana is the true science of the mind

Where you leaf all your previous achievements behind

And utilise mental substance for the bridging between the personality triad

And soul, and then between soul-infused personality, and the spiritual triad

First, the life thread comes directly from the Monad or the One

To be anchored in the heart, during incarnation, for everyone

It is the seat of life

During the time you are alive

 

Then, directly from the soul, comes the consciousness thread

Which, during incarnation, is anchored in the head

It is the seat of consciousness

That brings about your responsiveness

Thirdly, and initiated and constructed by the personality

And anchored in the throat, is the thread of creative activity

It is the seat of creativity, created through our conceptions

That now gives life and expression to our creations

The antahkarana [OM] is a fusion and combination to perfection

Of these three threads [the sutratma - AUM ] and their projection

Into the higher mental plane, until the abstract mind

Is related by a triple cable to the concrete mind

On the first great union on the path to reality

A rhythm [OM] is set up between Soul and Personality

This first step to liberation

Is completed at the third initiation

Thus the energies that animate the soul and the personality 

Are blended and fused into one, soul-infused personality

The three aspects of the soul in the spiritual world

And the three worlds of the personality become one world

After the bridging of the personality and the soul

Comes the bridging of the spiritual triad and the soul 

This personality, soul and spirit combination

Is completed at the fourth initiation

Before a man can tread the path himself

He has to become that path itself

By using these forces for self-unfoldment and unity       

And in the service of the Plan for humanity 

By acting as if this stages have already been achieved

A shortcut to creating the antahkarana can be perceived 

 

 

A meditation to build the Antahkarana

A simple way to build the Antahkarana for beginners is this meditation: Sit relaxed or lie down, become still and quiet. Close your ears with one finger of each hand. The sound you will hear [sing like a radio off the station] is the vibration of the Antahkarana [OM]. Concentrate on your heart and send that love feeling across the sound vibration to your soul [or God]. If you cannot do it in the beginning, just concentrate on the sound, your heart and your soul [or God] alternately. You can do that as long as you like every day. Even at night when going to bed, good way to fall asleep.

Without the heart it will be impossible to build the Antahkarana [a hint]. This is just my simple method but we have to know what it is all about and why we are doing the necessary steps. We need to know the science behind it [another hint] to make the imagination work. To help us, the Tibetan Master had the following information for us.

 
THE PROJECT OF BUILDING THE ANTAHKARANA

Let us now consider, step by step this science which is already proving a useful source of experiment and testing.

The human soul (in contradistinction to the soul as it functions in its own kingdom, free from the limitations of human life) is imprisoned and subject to the control of the lower three energies for the major part of its experience.  Then, upon the Path of Probation, the dual energy of soul begins to be increasingly active, and the man seeks to use his mind consciously, and to express love-wisdom on the physical plane.  This is a simple statement of the objective of all aspirants.  When the five energies are beginning to be used, consciously and wisely in service, a rhythm is then set up between the Personality and the Soul.  It is as if a magnetic field were then established and these two vibrating and magnetic units, or grouped energies, swung into each other's field of influence.  This happens only occasionally and rarely in the early stages; later it occurs more constantly, and thus a path of contact is established which eventually becomes the line of least resistance, "the way of familiar approach," as it is sometimes called.  Thus is the first half of the "bridge," the antahkarana, constructed.  By the time the third initiation is completed, this Way is completed, and the initiate can "pass to higher worlds at will, leaving the lower worlds far behind; or he can come again and pass upon the way that leads from dark to light, from light to dark, and from the under lower worlds into the realms of light."

Thus the two are one, and the first great union upon the Path of Return is completed.  A second stage of the Way has then to be trodden, leading to a second union of still further importance in that it leads to complete liberation from the three worlds.  It must be remembered that the soul, in its turn, is a union of three energies of which the lower three are the reflection.  It is a synthesis of the energy of Life itself (which demonstrates as the life-principle within the world of forms), of the energy of the intuition or spiritual love-wisdom or understanding (this demonstrates as sensitivity and feeling in the astral body), and spiritual mind, whose reflection in the lower nature is the mind or the principle of intelligence in the form world.  In these three we have the atma-buddhi-manas of the theosophical literature—that higher triplicity which is reflected in the lower three, and which focusses through the soul body on the higher levels of the mental plane before being precipitated into incarnation—as it is esoterically called.

Modernising the concept, we might say that the energies which animate the physical body and the intelligent life of the atom, the sensitive emotional states, and the intelligent mind, have eventually to be blended with and transmuted into the energies which animate the soul.  These are the spiritual mind, conveying illumination; the intuitive nature, conferring spiritual perception; and divine livingness.

After the third initiation the "Way" is carried forward with great rapidity, and the "bridge" is finished which links perfectly the higher spiritual Triad and the lower material reflection.  The three worlds of the Soul and the three worlds of the Personality become one world wherein the initiate works and functions, seeing no distinction, regarding one world as the world of inspiration and the other world as constituting the field of service, yet regarding both together as forming one world of activity.  Of these two worlds, the subjective etheric body (or the body of vital inspiration) and the dense physical body are symbols on the external plane.

How is this bridging antahkarana to be built? 

It is with the work of the "bridge-builders" that we are concerned.  First, let me assure you that the real building of the antahkarana takes place only when the disciple is beginning to be definitely focussed upon mental levels, and when therefore his mind is intelligently and consciously functioning.  He must begin at this stage to have some more exact idea than has hitherto been the case as to the distinctions existing between the thinker, the apparatus of thought, and thought itself, beginning with its dual esoteric function which is:

1.       The recognition and receptivity to IDEAS.

2.       The creative faculty of conscious thoughtform building.

This necessarily involves a strong mental attitude and reorientation of the mind to reality.  As the disciple begins to focus himself on the mental plane (and this is the prime intent of the meditation work), he starts working in mental matter and trains himself in the powers and uses of thought.  He achieves a measure of mind control; he can turn the searchlight of the mind in two directions, into the world of human endeavour and into the world of soul activity.  Just as the soul makes a way for itself by projecting itself in a thread or stream of energy into the three worlds, so the disciple begins consciously to project himself into the higher worlds.  His energy goes forth, through the medium of the controlled and directed mind, into the world of the higher spiritual mind and into the realm of the intuition.  A reciprocal activity is thus set up.  This response between the higher and the lower mind is symbolically spoken of in terms of light, and the "lighted way" comes into being between the personality and the spiritual Triad, via the soul body, just as the soul came into definite contact with the brain via the mind.  This "lighted way" is the illumined bridge.  It is built through meditation; it is constructed through the constant effort to draw forth the intuition, through subservience and obedience to the Plan (which begins to be recognised as soon as the intuition and the mind are en rapport), and through a conscious incorporation into the group in service and for purposes of assimilation into the whole.  All these qualities and activities are based upon the foundation of good character and the qualities developed upon the Probationary Path.

The effort to draw forth the intuition requires directed occult (but not aspirational) meditation.  It requires a trained intelligence, so that the line of demarcation between intuitive realisation and the forms of the higher psychism may be clearly seen.  It requires a constant disciplining of the mind, so that it can "hold itself steady in the light," and the development of a cultured right interpretation, so that the intuitive knowledge achieved may then clothe itself in the right thoughtforms.

It might also be stated here that the construction of the bridge whereby the consciousness can function with facility, both in the higher worlds and in the lower, is primarily brought about by a definitely directed life-tendency, which steadily sends the man in the direction of the world of spiritual realities, plus certain movements of planned and carefully timed and directed reorientation or focussing.  In this last process the gain of the past months or years is closely assessed; the effect of that gain upon the daily life and in the bodily mechanism is as carefully studied; and the will-to-live as a spiritual being is brought into the consciousness with a definiteness and a determination that makes for immediate progress.

This building of the antahkarana is most assuredly proceeding in the case of every earnest student.  When the work is carried on intelligently and with full awareness of the desired purpose, and when the aspirant is not only aware of the process but alert and active in its fulfilment, then the work proceeds apace and the bridge is built.

Students should train themselves to distinguish between the sutratma and the antahkarana, between the life thread and the thread of consciousness.  The one thread is the basis of immortality and the other the basis of continuity.  Herein lies a fine distinction for the investigator.  One thread (the sutratma) links and vivifies all forms into one functioning whole, and embodies in itself the will and the purpose of the expressing entity, be it man, God or a crystal.  The other thread (the antahkarana) embodies the response of the consciousness within the form to a steadily expanding range of contacts within the environing whole.  One is the direct stream of life, unbroken and immutable, which can be regarded symbolically as a direct stream of living energy flowing from the centre to the periphery, and from the source to the outer expression, or the phenomenal appearance.  It is the life.  It produces the individual process and the evolutionary unfoldment of all forms.

It is, therefore, the path of life, which reaches from the Monad to the personality, via the soul.  This is the thread soul and it is one and indivisible.  It conveys the energy of life and finds its final anchor in the centre of the human heart and at some central focal point in all forms of divine expression.  Naught is and naught remains but life.  The consciousness thread (antahkarana) is the result of the union of life and substance or of the basic energies which constitute the first differentiation in time and space; this produces something different, which only emerges as a third divine manifestation after the union of the basic dualities has taken place.

The life thread, the silver cord or the sutratma is, as far as man is concerned, dual in nature.  The life thread proper, which is one of the two threads which constitute the sutratma, is anchored in the heart, whilst the other thread, which embodies the principle of consciousness, is anchored in the head.  This you already know, but this I feel the need to constantly reiterate.  In the work of the evolutionary cycle, however, man has to repeat what God has already done.  He must himself create, both in the world of consciousness and of life.  Like a spider, man spins connecting threads, and thus bridges and makes contact with his environment, thereby gaining experience and sustenance.  The spider symbol is often used in the ancient occult books and the scriptures of India in connection with this activity of the human being.  These threads, which man creates, are triple in number, and with the two basic threads which have been created by the soul, constitute the five types of energy which make man a conscious human being.

The triple threads created by man are anchored in the solar plexus, the head and the heart.  When the astral body and the mind nature are beginning to function as a unit, and the soul also is consciously connected (do not forget that it is always unconsciously linked), an extension of this five-fold thread—the basic two and the human three—is carried to the throat centre, and when that occurs man can become a conscious creator on the physical plane.  From these major lines of energy lesser lines can radiate at will.  It is upon this knowledge that all future intelligent psychic unfoldment must be based.

 

In the above paragraph and its implications you have a brief and inadequate statement as to the Science of the Antahkarana.  I have endeavoured to express this in terms, symbolic if you will, which will convey a general idea to your minds.  We can learn much through the use of the pictorial and visual imagination.  This bridging must take place:

1.       From the physical to the vital or etheric body.  This is really an extension of the life thread between the heart and the spleen.

2.       From the physical and the vital, regarding them as a unity, to the astral or emotional vehicle.  This thread emanates from, or is anchored in, the solar plexus, and is carried upwards, by means of the aspiration, till it anchors itself in the love petals of the egoic Lotus.

3.       From the physical and astral vehicles to the mental body.  One terminus is anchored in the head, and the other in the knowledge petals of the egoic Lotus, being carried forward by an act of the will.

Advanced humanity is in process of linking the three lower aspects, which we call the personality, with the soul itself, through meditation, discipline, service and directed attention.  When this has been accomplished, a definite relation is established between the sacrifice or will petals of the egoic Lotus and the head and heart centres, thus producing a synthesis between consciousness, the soul and the life principle.  The process of establishing this inter-linking and inter-relation, and the strengthening of the bridge thus constructed, goes on until the Third Initiation.  The lines of force are then so inter-related that the soul and its mechanism of expression are a unity.  A higher blending and fusing can then go on.

I can perhaps indicate the nature of this process in the following manner:  I have stated here and elsewhere that the soul anchors itself in the body at two points:

1.       There is a thread of energy, which we call the life or spirit aspect, anchored in the heart.  It uses the blood stream, as is well known, as its distributing agency, and through the medium of the blood, life energy is carried to every part of the mechanism.  This life energy carries the re-generating power and coordinating energy to all the physical organisms and keeps the body "whole."

2.       There is a thread of energy, which we call the consciousness aspect or the faculty of soul knowledge, anchored in the centre of the head.  It controls that response mechanism which we call the brain, and through its medium it directs activity and induces awareness throughout the body by means of the nervous system.

These two energy factors, which are recognised by the human being as knowledge and life, or as intelligence and living energy, are the two poles of his being.  The task ahead of him now is to develop consciously the middle or balancing aspect, which is love or group relationship.  (See Education in the New Age, pages 26-27, 32-33, 92.) [THE RAYS AND THE INITIATIONS, P434/52-adapted]

Please read the full article at: http://edgeba.webs.com/buildingtheantahkarana.htm

 

 

 

 

THE PROBLEM OF INTERNATIONAL UNITY

The distribution of the world's resources and the settled unity of the peoples of the world are in reality one and the same thing, for behind all modern wars lies a fundamental economic problem. Solve that and wars will very largely cease. In considering, therefore, the preservation of peace, as sought for and emphasized by the United Nations at this time, it becomes immediately apparent that peace, security and world stability are primarily tied up with the economic problem. When there is freedom from want, one of the major causes of war will disappear. Where there is uneven distribution of the world's riches and where there is a situation in which some nations have or take everything and other nations lack the necessities of life, it is obvious that there is a trouble-breeding factor there and that something must be done. Therefore we should deal with world unity and peace primarily from the angle of the economic problem.

With the cessation of World War II came the opportunity to inaugurate a new and better way of life, and to establish that security and peace for which all men ceaselessly long. Three groups immediately appeared in the world:

1.       The powerful, reactionary, conservative groups desirous of retaining as much of the past as possible, having great power and no vision.

2.       The fanatical ideologists in every country—communistic, democratic and fascist.

3.       The inert masses of the people in every land, ignorant for the most part, desiring only peace after storm and security in the place of economic disaster; they are victimised by their rulers, by established old conditions, and kept in the dark as to the truth of the world situation.

All these factors produce the present disorders and condition the deliberations of the United Nations. Though there is no major war, there is no peace, no security and no immediate hope of either.

It is essential for the future happiness and progress of humanity that there should be no return to the old ways, whether political, religious or economic. Therefore, in handling these problems we should search out the wrong conditions which have brought humanity to its present state of almost cataclysmic disaster. These conditions were the result of religious faiths which have not moved forward in their thinking for hundreds of years; of economic systems which lay the emphasis upon the accumulation of riches and material possessions and which leave all the power and the produce of the earth in the hands of a relatively few men, while the rest of humanity struggle for a bare subsistence; and of political regimes run by the corrupt, the totalitarian-minded, the grafters and those who love place and power more than they love their fellowmen.

It is essential that there should be a presentation of these things in terms of the spiritual welfare of humanity and a truer interpretation of the meaning of the word "spiritual". The time is long past when a line of demarcation can be drawn between the religious world and the political or the economic. The reason for the corrupt politics and the greedy ambitious planning of so many of the world's leading men can be found in the fact that spiritually minded men and women have not assumed— as their spiritual duty and responsibility—the leadership of the people. They have left the power in the wrong hands and permitted the selfish and the undesirable to lead.

The word "spiritual" does not belong to the churches or to the world religions. "Pure religion and undefiled" is pure charity and a selfless following of the Christ. The churches are themselves great capitalistic systems particularly the Roman Catholic Church, and show little evidence of the mind that was in Christ. The churches have had their opportunity, but have done little to change men's hearts or to benefit the people. Now, under cyclic law, political ideologies and national and international planning are occupying the attention of the people and everywhere efforts are being made to bring about better human relations. This, in the eyes of the spiritually minded and of the enlightened worker for humanity, is a sign of progress and an indication of the innate divinity in man. That is truly spiritual which properly relates man to man and man to God and which demonstrates in a better world and the expression of the Four Freedoms throughout the planet. For these the spiritual man must work.

The Kingdom of God will inaugurate a world which will be one in which it will be realized that—politically speaking—humanity, as a whole, is of far greater importance than any one nation; it will be a new world order, built upon different principles to those in the past, and one in which men will carry the spiritual vision into their national governments, into their economic planning and into all measures taken to bring about security and right human relations. Spirituality is essentially the establishing of right human relations, the promotion of goodwill and finally the establishing of a true peace on earth, as the result of these two expressions of divinity.

The world today is full of warring voices; everywhere there is an outcry against world conditions; everything is being dragged out into the light of day; abuses are being shouted from the housetops, as the Christ prophesied they would be. The reason for all this outcry, discussion, and noisy criticism is that, as men awaken to the facts and begin to think and plan, they are aware of guilt within themselves; their consciences trouble them; they are conscious of the inequality of opportunity, of the grave abuses, of the entrenched distinctions between man and man, and the factor of racial and national discriminations; they question their own individual goals as well as national planning. The masses of men in every land are beginning to realize that they are largely responsible for what is wrong, and that their inertness and lack of right action and thinking has led to the present unhappy state of world affairs. This constitutes a challenge and no challenge is ever totally welcome.

The awakening of the masses and the determination of the reactionary forces and of the monied interests to preserve the old and fight the new are largely responsible for the present world crisis. The battle between the old, entrenched forces and the emerging, new idealism constitutes the problem today; other factors—though important, individually or nationally—are from the true and spiritual standpoint relatively negligible.

The unity, peace and security of the nations, great and small, are not to be attained by following the guidance of the greedy capitalist or the ambitious in any nation, and yet in many situations that guidance is being accepted. They are not to be gained by the blind following of any ideology, no matter how good it may seem to those conditioned by it; yet there are those who are seeking to impose their particular ideology on the world—and not solely in Russia. They will not be reached by sitting back and leaving the changing of conditions to God or the evolutionary process; yet there are those who make no move to help, even while knowing well the conditions with which the United Nations have to deal.

Unity, peace and security will come through the recognition—intelligently assessed—of the evils which have led to the present world situation, and then through the taking of those wise, compassionate and understanding steps which will lead to the establishing of right human relations, to the substitution of cooperation for the present competitive system, and by the education of the masses in every land as to the nature of true goodwill and its hitherto unused potency. This will mean the deflecting of untold millions of money into right educational systems, instead of their use by the forces of war and their conversion into armies, navies and armaments.

It is this that is spiritual; it is this that is of importance and it is this for which all men must struggle. The spiritual Hierarchy of the planet is primarily interested in finding the men who will work along these lines. It is primarily interested in humanity, realizing that the steps taken by humanity in the immediate future will condition the new age and determine man's destiny. Will it be a destiny of annihilation, of a planetary war, of worldwide famine and pestilence, of nation rising against nation and of the complete collapse of all that makes life worth living? All this can happen unless basic changes are made and made with goodwill and loving understanding. Then, on the other hand, we can have a period (difficult but helpful because educative) of adjustment, of concession and of relinquishment; we can have a period of right recognition of shared opportunity, of a united effort to bring about right human relations, and of an educational process which will train the youth of all nations to function as world citizens and not as nationalistic propagandists. What we need above all to see—as a result of spiritual maturity—is the abolition of those two principles which have wrought so much evil in the world and which are summed up in the two words: Sovereignty and Nationalism.

World Disunity

What at this moment appears to prevent world unity and keeps the United Nations from arriving at those necessary settlements which the man in the street is so eagerly awaiting? The answer is not hard to find and involves all nations: nationalism, capitalism, competition, blind stupid greed. It is an intense emotional nationalism which made the Polish nation so difficult a member of the family of nations; it is materialism and fear, plus a lack of spiritual interest, which makes France so constant an obstructionist and has led her to work against united world action; it is fanatical adherence to an ideology and national immaturity which prompts so much of Russia's activities; it is a rampant capitalism which makes the United States one of the most feared of the nations, plus her gestures of armed power; it is the fast dying imperialism which handicaps Great Britain and a clinging to responsibilities and territories which she is realizing could well be turned over to the United Nations; the hope of Great Britain lies in her socialistic tendencies which enable her to take the "middle path" between the communism of Russia and the capitalism of the United States. It is the smug greed of the nations which escaped the war which is hindering progress; it is the devious actions of the Jews and the hatred which they cultivate which tend also to undermine the hope of peace; it is the chaos in India and China which is complicating the work of the well-intentioned; it is the unchristian and undemocratic treatment of the Negro peoples in the United States and Africa which is contributing to the ferment; it is the blind inertness and lack of interest of the masses of the people which permit the wrong men to be in power; it is fear of the rest of the world which makes the Russian leaders keep their peoples in ignorance of the attitude of other nations on world affairs; it is the wrong use of money which colours the press and the radio in Great Britain and still more in the United States, thus keeping much of the truth from the people; it is the upheaval of labour everywhere which feeds the turmoil and forces unnecessary suffering upon the public; it is powerful, political and international distrust, lying propaganda and the apathy of the churches which still further complicate the problem. It is—above all else—the refusal of that public to face life as it is and to recognize the facts for what they are. The mass of men need arousing to see that good comes to all men alike and not just to a few privileged groups, and to learn also that "hatred ceases not by hatred but that hatred ceases by love". This love is not a sentiment, but practical goodwill, expressing itself through individuals, in communities and among nations.

Please read the rest at: http://edgeba.webs.com/internationalunityii.htm

[PROBLEMS OF HUMANITY, 1947, pp. 167-181]

THE PROBLEM OF CAPITAL, LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT

In a unique sense we stand today at the dawn of an entirely new economic age. This is increasingly obvious to all thinking people. Because of the triumph of science—the release of the energy of the atom—the future of mankind and the type of the incoming civilization is unpredictable. The changes which are imminent are so far-reaching that it is apparent that the old economic values and the familiar standards of living are bound to pass away; no one knows what will take their place.

Conditions will be basically altered; along certain lines, such as the distribution of coal and oil for lighting, heating and transportation, is it not possible that in the future neither of these planetary resources will be required? These are two instances of the fundamental changes which the use of atomic energy may make in future civilized living.

Two major problems will grow out of this discovery—one immediate in nature and the other to be later developed. The first is that those whose large financial interests are bound up in products which the new type of energy will inevitably supersede will fight to the last ditch to prevent these new sources of wealth from benefiting others. Secondly, there will be the steadily growing problem of the release of man power from the gruelling labour and the long hours today required in order to provide a living wage and the necessities of life. One is the problem of capital and the other is the problem of labour; one is the problem of established control of the purely selfish interests which have for so long controlled the life of humanity and the other is the problem of leisure and its constructive use. One problem concerns civilization and its correct functioning in the new age and the other concerns culture and the employment of time along creative lines.

It is not useful here to prophesy the uses to which the most potent energy hitherto released for man's helping can or will be put. Its first constructive use was to end the war. Its future constructive use lies in the hands of science and should be controlled by the men of goodwill to be found in all nations. This energy must be safeguarded from monied interests; it must be turned definitely into the usages of peace and employed to implement a new and happier world. An entirely new field of investigation opens today before science and one which they have long wished to penetrate. In the hands of science, this new potency is far safer than in the hands of capital or of those who would exploit this discovery for the increase of their dividends. In the hands of the great democracies and of the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian races, this discovery is safer than in other hands. It cannot however be kept in these hands indefinitely. Other nations and races are discovering this "secret of release" and the future security of humanity is, therefore, dependent upon two things:

1.       The steady and planned education of the people of every nation in right human relations and the cultivation of the spirit of goodwill. This will lead to a complete revolution of the present political regimes, which are largely nationalistic in their planning and selfish in their purposes. True democracy, at present only a dream, will be founded on education for goodwill.

2.       The education of the children of the future in the fact of human unity and the use of the world's resources for the good of all.

Certain nations, because of their international character and the multiplicity of races which compose them, are normally more inclusive in their thinking and planning than are the others. They are more prone to think in terms of humanity as a whole than are the others. Such nations are the United States, the British Commonwealth of Nations and the united Soviet Socialist Republics. Many nations and races constitute these three Great Powers—the central triangle at the heart of the coming new world. Hence their opportunity to guide mankind at this time and their innate responsibility to act as world leaders. Other races have no such inherent capacity. They are not, for instance, successful colonists and are more nationalistic and exploiting in their approach to "subject races". For the three Great Powers, the fusion of the many elements composing their nationals into a united whole has been a necessary conditioning impulse. The basic intention of the United States is the well-being of all within its national jurisdiction and the "pursuit of happiness" is a familiar citation of this intent; the fundamental principle governing British rule is justice for all; the underlying motive of the U.S.S.R. is right living conditions, opportunity for all and the general levelling of all separative classes into one thriving group of human beings. All these objectives are good and their application to the life of humanity will guarantee a happier and more peaceful world.

In every country without exception there are the good and the bad elements; there are progressive and reactionary groups. There are cruel and ambitious men in Russia who would gladly exploit the world for the gain of Russia and who would seek to impose the will of the proletariat upon all classes and castes throughout the civilized world; there are thinking men in Russia and men of vision who are opposing them. There are reactionary and class-conscious people in the British Empire who fear the growing power of the masses and who hang on desperately to their inherited prestige and standing; they would hold back the British people from progress and would like to see the restoration of the old hierarchical, paternalistic and feudal system; the mass of the people, speaking through the voice of labour, will have none of it. In the United States there is isolation, the persecution of such minorities as the Negro race and an ignorant and arrogant nationalism, voiced by some Senators and Representatives with their racial hatreds, their separative attitudes and their unsound political methods.

Fundamentally, however, these three Great Powers constitute the hope of the world and form the basic spiritual triangle behind the plans and the shaping of the events which will inaugurate the new world. The other powerful nations, little as they may like to realize it, are not in so strong a position; they have not the same idealism or the same vast national resources; their national preoccupation limits their world vision; they are conditioned by narrower ideologies, by a greater struggle for national existence, by their fights for boundaries and material gains, and by a failure to offer full cooperation with humanity as a whole. The smaller nations have not quite the same attitude; they are relatively cleaner in their political regimes and constitute basically the nucleus of that federated world which is inevitably taking shape around the three Great Powers. These federations will be based upon cultural ideals and will be formed to guarantee right human relations; they will not eventually be founded on power politics; they will not be combinations of nations banded together versus other combinations for selfish ends. Boundaries and regional controls and international jealousies will not be controlling factors.

To bring about these happier conditions, one major adjustment must be made and one fundamental change brought about. Otherwise no hope of peace will be found on earth. The relation between capital and labour and between both of these groups and humanity as a whole must be worked out. The problem is one with which we are all familiar; it is one which evokes violent prejudices and partisanships and in the clamour of all that is being said and in the violence of the battle it might serve a useful purpose to approach the subject from a more universal angle and with an eye to the emerging spiritual values.

First of all, it must be recognized that the cause of all world unrest, of the world wars which have wrecked humanity and the widespread misery upon our planet can largely be attributed to a selfish group with materialistic purposes who have for centuries exploited the masses and used the labour of mankind for their selfish ends. From the feudal barons of Europe and Great Britain in the Middle Ages through the powerful business groups of the Victorian era to the handful of capitalists—national and international—who today control the world's resources, the capitalistic system has emerged and has wrecked the world. This group of capitalists has cornered and exploited the world's resources and the staples required for civilized living; they have been able to do this because they have owned and controlled the world's wealth through their interlocking directorates and have retained it in their own hands. They have made possible the vast differences existing between the very rich and the very poor; they love money and the power which money gives; they have stood behind governments and politicians; they have controlled the electorate; they have made possible the narrow nationalistic aims of selfish politics; they have financed the world businesses and controlled oil, coal, power, light and transportation; they control publicly or sub rosa the world's banking accounts.

The responsibility for the widespread misery to be found today in every country in the world lies predominantly at the door of certain major interrelated groups of business-men, bankers, executives of international cartels, monopolies, trusts and organizations and directors of huge corporations who work for corporate or personal gain. They are not interested in benefiting the public except in so far that the public demand for better living conditions will enable them—under the Law of Supply and Demand—to provide the goods, the transportation, light and power which will in the long run bring in heavier financial returns. Exploitation of man-power, the manipulation of the major planetary resources and the promotion of war for private or business profit are characteristic of their methods.

In every nation, such men and organizations—responsible for the capitalistic system—are to be found. The ramifications of their businesses and their financial grasp upon humanity were, prior to the war, active in every land and though they went underground during the war, they still exist. They form an international group, closely interrelated, working in complete unity of idea and intention and knowing and understanding each other. These men belonged to both the Allied Nations and the Axis Powers; they have worked together before and through the entire period of the war through interlocking directorates, under false names and through deceptive organizations, aided by neutrals of their own way of thinking. Today, in spite of the disaster which they have brought upon the world, they are again organized and renewing their methods; their goals remain unchanged; their international relationships remain unbroken; they constitute the greatest menace mankind faces today; they control politics; they buy prominent men in every nation; they insure silence through threat, cash and fear; they amass wealth and buy a spurious popularity through philanthropic enterprise; their families live soft and easy lives and seldom know the meaning of God-ordained work; they surround themselves with beauty, luxury and possessions and shut their eyes to the poverty, stark unhappiness, lack of warmth and decent clothing, the starvation and the ugliness of the lives of the millions by whom they are surrounded; they contribute to charities and church agencies as a salve to their consciences or to avoid income taxes; they provide work for countless thousands but see to it that these thousands receive so small a wage that real comfort, leisure, culture and travel are impossible.

The above is a terrible indictment. It can, however, be substantiated a thousand times over; it is breeding revolution and a growing spirit of unrest. The masses of the people in every land are aroused and awakening and a new day is dawning. A war is starting between the selfish monied interests and the mass of humanity who demand fair play and a right share of the world's wealth.

There are those, however, within the capitalistic system who are aware of the danger with which the monied interests are faced and whose natural tendency is to think along broader and more humanitarian lines. These men fall into two main groups:

 

Please read the rest at: http://edgeba.webs.com/capitalandlabour.htm

 

[PROBLEMS OF HUMANITY, 1947, pp. 66-84]

 

THE PROBLEM OF THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD

This problem is, without exception, the most urgent confronting humanity today. The future of the race lies in the hands of the young people everywhere. They are the parents of the coming generations and the engineers who must implement the new civilization. What we do with them and for them is momentous in its implications; our responsibility is great and our opportunity unique.

This chapter deals with the children and adolescents, under sixteen years old. These two groups are the most hopeful element in a world which has fallen to pieces before our eyes. They are the guarantee that our world can be rebuilt and—if we have learned anything from past history and its dire consequences in our lifetime—rebuilt along different lines, with different objectives and incentives and with well-defined goals and carefully considered ideals.

Let us remember, however, that visionary, mystical hopes and dreams, wishful thinking and the formulation of highly organized plans upon paper are useful as far as they indicate interest, a sense of responsibility and possible objectives but they are of small importance in any effective, transitional enterprise unless there is a grasp of the immediate problem and of the immediate possibilities, plus a willingness to effect those compromises which will lay the ground for later successful work. This work is largely that of education. Hitherto, there has been little effort to bring about a bridging between the needs of the future and the present forms of education. These forms have apparently failed to equip humanity for successful and cooperative living and the newer aspects of mental training; no scientific bridging has been done and little attempt has been made to correlate the best of the present methods (and not all are bad) with future ways of developing the youth of the world so that it can cope with a new civilization which is inevitably upon its way. The visionary idealist has hitherto held the field against the established modes of teaching; his impracticality and his refusal to compromise has thus slowed up the process and humanity has paid the price. The day has now come when the practical mystic and the man of high mental development as well as of spiritual vision will take his place, thus providing a training which will enable the youth of any nation to integrate successfully into the world picture.

We start with the realization that our educational systems have not been adequate; they have failed to train children for right living; they have not inculcated those methods of thinking and acting which will lead to right human relations—those relations which are so essential to happiness, to success and to a full experience in any chosen sphere of human enterprise.

The best minds and the clearest thinkers in the educational field are constantly endorsing these ideas; the progressive movements in education have done something to remove old abuses and to instil new techniques, but they still constitute so small a minority that they are relatively ineffectual. It is well to bear in mind that had the teaching given to the young during the past few hundred years been of a different nature, the world war might never have happened.

Many and differing reasons have been given for the total war which engulfed us. This has raised the question whether the failure of our educational systems or the ineptitude of the churches may not be the basic causes behind the others. But—the war happened. Our old civilization has been swept away. There are those who would like to see that civilization return and the old structure again rebuilt; they yearn for a peaceful return to the situation before the war. They must not be allowed to rebuild along the old lines or to use the old blueprints, even though necessarily we must build upon the old foundations. It is the task of the educators to prevent this.

Let us be willing to recognize that those countries in which the old mode of education is still peacefully practised may be not only dangerous to themselves because they are perpetuating the bad old ways, but that they also constitute a menace to those countries which are in the happy position of being able to change their educational institutions and thus inaugurate a better way of preparing their youth for total living. Education is a deeply spiritual enterprise. It concerns the whole man and that includes his divine spirit.

Education in the hands of any church would spell disaster. It would feed the sectarian spirit, foster the conservative, reactionary attitudes so strongly endorsed, for instance, by the Catholic Church and the fundamentalists in the Protestant churches. It would train bigots, build barriers between man and man and eventually lead to a powerful and inevitable swing away from all religion on the part of those who would finally learn to think as they reach adult manhood. This is not an indictment of religion. It is an indictment of the past methods of the churches and of the old theologies which have failed to present Christ as He essentially is, which have worked for riches, prestige, and political power and which have striven with all available means to increase their membership and to imprison the free spirit in man. There are wise and good churchmen today who realize this and who are steadfastly working for the new age approach to God, but they are relatively few in number. Nevertheless, they are waging war against theological crystallization and academic pronouncements. They will inevitably succeed and thus salvage the religious spirit.

Then let us endeavour to see what the goal of the new educational movement should be and what are the signposts on the way to that goal. Let us try to formulate a long range plan which will meet with no hindrance from the methods immediately employed, which will link the past and the future by using all that is true, beautiful and good (inherited from the past) but which will emphasize certain basic objectives which have hitherto been largely ignored. These newer techniques and methods must be developed gradually and will hasten the process of integrating the whole man.

There is no hope for the future world except in a humanity which accepts the fact of divinity, even whilst repudiating theology, which recognizes the presence of the living Christ, whilst rejecting man-made interpretations of Him and of His message, and which emphasizes the authority of the human soul.

The future which lies ahead is full of promise. Let us base our optimism upon humanity itself. Let us recognize the self-proven fact that there is a peculiar quality in every man, an innate, inherent characteristic to which one may give the name "mystical perception". This characteristic connotes an undying, though oft unrecognized, sense of divinity; it involves the constant possibility to vision and contact the soul and to grasp (with increasing aptitude) the nature of the universe. It enables the philosopher to appreciate the world of meaning and—through that perception—to touch Reality. It is, above all else, the power to love and to go out towards that which is other than the self. It confers the ability to grasp ideas. The history of mankind is fundamentally the history of the growth of ideas, progressively realized and of man's determination to live by them; with this power goes the capacity to sense the unknown, to believe in the unprovable, to seek, search and demand the revelation of that which is hidden and undiscovered and which—century after century owing to this demanding spirit of investigation—is revealed. It is the power to recognize the beautiful, the true and the good and by means of the creative arts to prove their existence. It is this inherent, spiritual faculty which has produced all the great Sons of God, all truly spiritual people, all artists, scientists, humanitarians and philosophers and all who, with sacrifice, love their fellowmen.

Here lie the grounds for optimism and courage on the part of all true educators and here is the true incentive to all their efforts.

The Present Problem of Youth

The world, as known to people over forty years of age, has crumbled and is fast disappearing. The old values are fading out and what we call "civilization" (that civilization we have thought so wonderful) is vanishing. Some of us are thankful it is so. Others regard it as a disaster. All of us are distressed that the means of its dissolution have brought so much agony and suffering to humanity everywhere.

Civilization might be defined as the reaction of humanity to the purpose and the activities of a particular world period and its type of thinking. In each age, some idea functions and expresses itself in both racial and national idealisms. Its basic trend down the centuries has produced our modern world and this has been materialistic. The aim has been physical comfort; science and the arts have been prostituted to the task of giving man a comfortable and if possible a beautiful environment; all the products of nature have been subordinated to giving humanity things. The aim of education, generally speaking, has been to equip the child to compete with his fellow citizens in "making a living", in accumulating possessions and in being as comfortable and successful as possible.

This education has also been primarily competitive, nationalistic and, therefore, separative. It has trained the child to regard the material values as of major importance, to believe that his particular nation is also of major importance and that every other nation is secondary; it has fed pride and fostered the belief that he, his group and his nation are infinitely superior to other people and peoples. He is taught consequently to be a one-sided person with his world values wrongly adjusted and his attitudes to life distinguished by bias and prejudice. The rudiments of the arts are taught him in order to enable him to function with the needed efficiency in a competitive setting and in his particular vocational environment. Reading, writing and elementary arithmetic are regarded as minimum requirements, plus some knowledge of historical and geographical events. Some of the literature of the world is also brought to his attention. The general level of civilized information is relatively high, but it is biased and influenced by religious and national prejudices which are instilled into the child from his earliest years, but which are not innate. World citizenship is not emphasized; his responsibility to his fellowmen is systematically ignored; his memory is developed through the impartation of uncorrelated facts—most of them unrelated to daily living.

Our present civilization will go down in history as grossly materialistic. There have been many material epochs in history but none so generally widespread as the present or which have involved such untold millions. We are constantly told that the cause of this war is economic; that is surely so but the reason is that we have demanded so much of comfort and of "things" in order to live "reasonably well". We require so much more than our forefathers needed; we prefer a soft and relatively easy life; the pioneering spirit (which is the background of all nations) has faded, in most cases, into a soft civilization. This is particularly true of the Western hemisphere. Our standard of civilized living is far too high from the standpoint of possessions and far too low from the angle of the spiritual values or when subjected to an intelligent sense of proportion. Our modern civilization will not stand up to the acid test of value. A nation is today regarded as civilized when it sets a value on mental development, when it puts a premium on analysis and criticism and when all its resources are directed towards the satisfying of physical desire, towards the production of material things and towards the implementing of material purposes as well as towards dominating competitively in the world, towards the amassing of riches, the acquiring of property, the achievement of a high standard of material living and towards the cornering of the produce of the earth—largely for the benefit of certain groups of ambitious and wealthy men.

This is a drastic generalization but it is basically correct in its main implications, though incorrect where individuals are concerned. For this sad and dire situation (entirely of humanity's own making) we pay the penalty of war. Neither the churches nor our educational systems have been sound enough in their presentation of truth to offset this materialistic tendency. The tragedy is that the children of the world have paid and are paying the price of our wrong-doing. War has its roots in greed; material ambition has motivated all the nations without exception; all our planning has been directed to the organization of the national life so that material possession, competitive supremacy and individual and national selfish interests would control. All nations, in their own way and degree, have contributed to this; none has clean hands and hence war. Humanity has the habit of selfishness and an inherent love of material possessions. This has produced our modern civilization and, for this reason, it is being changed.

The cultural factor in any civilization is its preservation and consideration of all the best the past has given, and its evaluation and study of the arts, the literature, the music and the creative life of all nations—past and present. It concerns the refining influence of these factors upon a nation and upon those individuals in a nation who are so situated (usually financially) that they can profit from them and appreciate them. The knowledge and understanding thus gained enable the man of culture to relate the world of meaning (as inherited from the past) to the world of appearances in which he lives and to regard them as one world, but one existing primarily for his individual benefit. When, however, to an appreciation of our planetary and racial inheritance, both creative and historical, he adds an understanding of the spiritual and moral values, then we have an approximation to what the truly spiritual man is intended to be. In relation to the total population of the planet, such men are few and far between, but they guarantee to the rest of humanity a genuine possibility.

Will cultured people realize their opportunity? Will our civilized citizens embrace the chance to build afresh—not a material civilization this time but a world of beauty and of right human relations, a world in which children can indeed grow into the likeness of the One Father and in which man can return to the simplicity of the spiritual values of beauty, truth and goodness?

Yet, facing the worldwide reconstruction demanded and the well-nigh impossible task of salvaging the children and youth of the world, there are those today who are engaged in raising funds to rebuild stone churches and restore ancient buildings, thus demanding money which is sorely needed to restore broken bodies, to heal psychological wounds and to produce the warmth of love and understanding among those who believe that such qualities do not exist!

The Immediate Need of the Children

The magnitude of the problems to be faced may well leave us bewildered and at a loss how to answer the many questions which immediately arise in our minds. How can we lay the foundation for a long range programme of reconstruction, of education and development as it affects the youth of the world and thus guarantee a new and better world? What basic plans must be laid which will be appropriate for so many differing races and nationalities? In the face of understandable hatreds and deep-seated prejudices, how can we make a sound beginning?

Please read the rest at: http://edgeba.webs.com/thechildrenoftheworld.htm

[PROBLEMS OF HUMANITY, 1947, pp. 32-65]