Dear Friends,
Heroism in the Face of Danger
“In Memoriam”
In a talk given Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001
Opening Prayer
May the light of God, the light of the Lord of the World, surround us,
May the love of God, the love of the Lord of the World, enfold us,
May the power of God, the power of the Lord of the World, protect us,
May the presence of God, the presence of the Lord of the World, Sanat Kumara, watch over us.
Wherever we are, God is, the Lord of the World Is, Hierarchy is.
So let it be, forever and ever.
Tuesday, September 11, became a dark day in the history of humanity, not only for this nation, but for the world as a whole; it suffered a terrible affront to the dignity of human life. Terrorism has attacked the world, but no longer will the world stand still as a helpless victim.
Tuesday is a day we will always remember: the horrific images of men and women jumping from the tower out of fear and desperation for their lives; the images of fire and ashes; the pain and sorrow on the faces of children, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, friends and lovers waiting in hope to learn if their loved ones had survived.
Images of compassion and love arrived from around the world, as letters and e-mail messages were sent to us as a demonstration of a United World. There were memorable images as we watched peoples of different faiths join together at the Washington National Cathedral, standing shoulder to shoulder in unity, in the name of God, seeking refuge in His Light, Love and Power; seeking hope, seeking understanding, seeking love. We have seen this past week two lasting images: the action of hatred and the action of national and global unity.
The images of candle lighting vigils will remain in our minds, the image of the American flag upon the Pentagon, the image of the firefighters raising the American flag on the destruction site that was once known as the World Trade Center (WTC)—images that will remain for many months and years.
Liberty and freedom have taken on a new meaning for many; they have become more precious, more sacred—no longer something to take for granted.
We have seen evil and we are seeing good. Good is all prevailing. It is from good we will reconstruct and rebuild this country. It is from good we will strengthen our trust in God and the love of Hierarchy. It is from our love and trust in Christ, in Hierarchy, in the Lord of the World that we will draw the greatest reservoir of strength and courage ever known to man: a Chalice of Love, a Chalice that heals, a Chalice that restores our strength, our faith and our hope.
We know this vicious act will not go unpunished, but we must let wisdom punish—not revenge, not anger and hatred—but wisdom.
Rev. Billy Graham, when speaking at the memorial service Friday at the Washington National Cathedral said that evil is a mystery, even to him. We ask ourselves, How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty? Only one answer is possible: evil. There is a very dark side to some human beings, a depth from which unheard-of viciousness sometimes emerges, capable of destroying, in a moment, the normal daily life of an individual, a nation, a humanity. We saw such evil this week.
We must understand this world is made of goodness and evil—of the forces of light and love, and also of evil. We must, above all, understand that in the end goodness will always prevail over evil, always.
We are all dedicated to world peace. Not just this nation, but the majority of nations. This is a country that I believe is destined to lead the world to peace and prosperity. We have made our mistakes, but we are also making steps toward progress, toward a life where Beauty, Creativity and Freedom will prevail.
This world has been led by the Great Messengers sent to us from the One Source: Messengers whose lives we have studied, Messengers whose Teachings are revered: Jesus, Moses, Krishna, Mohammed, Buddha, Zoroaster and others—all telling a humanity that there is darkness and there is light. The dark forces send their agents, dark ones like Hitler, Saddam Hussein and others, who are destructive and inhuman.
There is another name, that of Osama bin Laden—most certainly a member of the dark forces. But our power, our refuge, is not found in fear, in hatred, in anger, in darkness, but in the Love and Beauty and Compassion of the Great Messengers from the Great Tower—the Tower of Light, the Tower of Love, the Tower of Beauty, the Tower of the Great Lord: the Tower of Shambhala—the Father’s Home.
The Ageless Wisdom instructs that humanity, especially disciples of light and love in all departments of human endeavor, must study the ways of the evil forces—not necessarily to fight against them but to bypass them, to frustrate their efforts, if possible, and make them fail.
As human beings we must understand the ways of evil, learn how to recognize the workings of evil and know the forces behind evil. We can learn about these things through studying the texts of truth and by observation, keen observation.
About evil: Evil forces are those who generally work in the open, in all fields of human endeavor. Evil forces take their inspiration and energy from the dark forces.
Dark forces: Dark forces are those who work for evil purposes behind the veil, subjectively and in secret. They have very ancient origins and they have centers established in etheric, physical, astral levels of the Cosmic Physical Plane and in the Cosmic Astral Plane.
The dark forces give every opportunity to evil to work against human evolution, against human development, because what the evil forces want is to perpetuate the slavery of people.
Origin of dark forces: The origin of dark forces can be traced to the moon chain.
The evil lodge is formed by dark forces and those humans who for ages followed the dark forces and eventually lost their Solar Angels. They sold their soul to the dark lodge. The evil lodge is anchored on earth. It is organized better than any other organization. It keeps the world boiling in hatred, revenge, materialism, separatism, totalitarianism, ugliness, greed, and destruction.
Evil is concentrated in the Cosmic Astral plane and their victims are everywhere in this world, in all prominent places.
The Ageless Wisdom calls disciples “warriors.” The Great Sage tells us that all whose hearts are aflame with the call of service to humanity are called warriors. We can call them spiritual warriors. What are spiritual warriors? They are those who do not exercise any form of malicious violence, “who do not use any kind of weaponry, who bring to humanity health, happiness, and prosperity. Their ‘weapons’ are the ideals of global liberation, global peace, and unity. All those who follow the wisdom of the Great Ones are called warriors.”1
Some conversations during this past week have included thoughts of despair, thoughts of “there is nothing we can do,” thoughts of “there is no future.” These are thoughts that give power to evil, to the attacks of evil—thoughts and words that are saying, in essence, that evil will win over good. This is exactly what the forces of evil, the agents of the dark forces, want us to believe; for the forces of darkness, the forces of evil work against the evolution of man.
Please refrain from these kinds of thoughts, please refrain yourself from saying such words. This world needs warriors of light; disciples who are pure in heart and free from darkness, free from insanity, free from fear and free from obsession and possession; disciples who form the army of Christ, the Lord of the World on Earth and in the Higher Worlds.
We have seen many evidences of such warriors of light this week. Perhaps we could have, at one time, called them our “unsung heroes,” but in this moment of crises, they are now being recognized the world over.
This week we received an accounting from one of our friends in the Emergency Medical Service. This is what she said:
“We made our way into the building [the Pentagon] and I was suddenly reminded how surreal the whole experience was. We splashed through the waterlogged floors, two inches of running water covering my boots. The hallway was dark and smoky. The only sound was the sloshing splash of our boots as we slowly made our way through the corridors. The light from our flashlights bouncing off the walls cut an eerie beam through the smoke and dust and showed the paper floating in the water. We came to an opening between the rings. ‘Look,’ I was told, and I followed the beam of light to a rather small, perfectly round hole in the wall, maybe 10 to 12 feet in diameter, with a pile of rubble in front of it. At closer inspection, the rubble was littered with clothes, arms, and legs. ‘That’s where the nose of the plane finally stopped,’ I was told. They had already removed the metal pieces.... all that was left was the hole. We didn’t go to the upper floors; however, it was described to me as a burned out cafeteria with full mugs of coffee, still on the tables and bodies lying all over the floor.
“I spoke to the battalion chief who said that they were just trying to contain the fire to one section until dawn when crews would go up to the roof and ventilate, allowing them to attack the burning wood under the tar covering the roof. It was too dangerous to do that in the dark.
“A man in a marine uniform stopped next to us and watched a bit. His chest was covered in ribbons. It turned out that he was the Deputy Chaplin for the Navy. His office was in the destroyed portion of the building and he survived only because he happened to be over at the annex when the plane hit. He needed to talk for awhile.
“Soon after that, the courtyard was filled with chaplains, all of whom were looking exhausted but were needing to minister help. Since there were only firefighters available, we were inundated. They felt so helpless and they had lost a number of friends and colleagues. The Deputy Chaplin said that he had just sent 30 of his chaplains out to inform families. Later a two-star general came by literally wringing his hands. All he could do was thank us. He looked so lost.”
President Bush said on Friday, “We see our national character in rescuers working past exhaustion, in long lines of blood donors, in thousands of citizens who have asked to work and serve in any way possible. And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the World Trade Center, one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end and at the side of his quadriplegic friend. A beloved priest died giving the last rites to a firefighter. Two office workers, finding a disabled stranger, carried her down 68 floors to safety.
“A group of men drove through the night from Dallas to Washington to bring skin grafts for burned victims. In these acts and many others, Americans showed a deep commitment to one another and an abiding love for our country.”2
The President and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a bond trading company with offices in the WTC, delayed leaving for work to take his young child to his first day of kindergarten. All 700 employees in his New York office were lost. In his interview he was sobbing, taking such responsibility for the loss of these lives. Later I learned that his own brother was among the 700, but he did not single the brother out, for he considered all 700 employees as his family. He said from now on things would be run differently. People, friendships, relationships would, from now on, come before money, before the business. A man of power reduced to tears, he found his humility in the eyes of the Most High. His hope, his faith is strong. This event has changed his thinking from materialism to spirit.
The Rev. Mychal Judge, “Father Mike,” the chaplain for the New York Fire Department, was killed giving the last rites to a fireman. The fireman had been killed by the falling body of a person who had jumped from the floors above. As the building collapsed on the priest, another rescue worker, another fireman, pulled Father Mike’s body out of the rubble, taking it to a church, where he placed the body on the altar and then returned to the scene.
Fifty police officers, and three hundred firefighters, both men and women, and the chief of the New York Fire Department died this past week. These are our heroes. Let’s honor our heroes not only in death but also in life. When you greet a fireman, an Emergency Medical Technician, a priest, a rabbi, a minister, a chaplain, give respect to the heroism in their nature. Honor their many services and sacrifices to humanity. Remember the words of Christ: “He who is the greatest among you shall be your servant.” And, “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be demeaned; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” 3
Too often we knowingly or unknowingly demean the fireman, the policeman, the EMT, the priest, rabbi or minister by treating them like commoners. Yes, too often we see these honorable people treated as commoners rather than heroes and protectors. Why? Perhaps because these are not people of great wealth, of financial power. These are people who normally have to struggle to pay their bills, struggle to put their children through college, struggle to buy a house while protecting and serving the needs of the wealthy and the poor in the world. Let us remember from this point forward that there are many heroes in the world; let us honor them in life as well as in death.
A friend on our Living Ethics forum reminded us of the words of Mahatma Gandhi:
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall; think of it, always.”
************************
1.
Obsession and Possession,
T. Saraydarian, p. 333. © 2000 The Creative Trust
2.
In a speech delivered at the Washington National Cathedral Memorial Service,
Friday, Sept 14, 2001.
3. Matthew
23:11–12.
Diversity of Consciousness:
“The Great Teachers decidedly do not contemplate uniting all the existing groups into one or several ‘closed’ communities—this would be tantamount to death. Life and beauty exist only in diversity, therefore, let the cells of Light flourish freely, like beautiful flowers on the meadow of life. Unification does not necessarily mean that one has to have communal headquarters or identical methods of application and achievement, etc. Unity, as a true motive power, must first of all be born in spirit and must manifest in magnanimity and cooperation in all circumstances of everyday life. Cooperation, collaboration, and community imply the broadest admission. There is no room for forcing where there is unity of consciousness.”
(Letters of Helena Roerich, Vol. II, p. 234)
“People are so different. Therefore, is it not wiser to let them freely unite on that step of consciousness which is nearest to them? Why should they be dragged forcibly to one’s own side? If even beautiful flowers should be selected and planted according to their occult properties, for otherwise they destroy each other; if even a motley bouquet of flowers, combined without this knowledge, may become explosive and disease-spreading in our hands, how much more should this apply to people! And how careful they should be when they approach the Source of the Teaching and when they form groups!”
(Ibid., pp. 58–59)
“Also, you must bear in mind that when the need for unity is mentioned in the books of Living Ethics, it is not outward unity which is meant, but the unity, or harmonization of consciousnesses that does not come in one hour. Such unity requires a mutual foundation of high morality and complete recognition of the oneness of the Hierarchic Principle, consequently, an absolute devotion that teaches us discrimination first of all. But the chaotic mixing of the most varied elements only because they have fastened the label of occultism upon themselves is impermissible. One can and should treat tolerantly and magnanimously the rare groups of fine quality, but why must one go so far as to eat with them at the same table! Why create artificial explosions by combining uncombinable elements? One should not bring together the sheep and the wolves, one should not gather all into one heap. Is a formless pile the goal of the given Teaching? Nature is our best teacher, and therefore we should observe more attentively how, while containing all, at the same time she harmoniously and goal-fittingly chooses neighbors in all her kingdoms. There are plants that will never be able to grow together, and yet each one of them is useful in its own place of soil; whereas were they forcibly planted in close proximity, they would lose their usefulness and degenerate. One should beware of degeneration through the admittance of poisonous neighbors.”
(Ibid., p. 390)
Instruction to groups:
“I entirely agree with you that the admittance of unstable elements into an esoteric group or a governing body presents a serious danger. Therefore, we must fight this evil, and tactfully eliminate the corrupting elements. Try to accept only those who are well tested; those who with all their hearts have assimilated the foundation of the Teaching; with truly a sincere devotion to the Hierarchy of Light. Without it, there can be no real understanding of the Teaching, for only this silver thread of the heart links our consciousness with the consciousness of the Teacher. Those who reject the necessity of understanding the leading concept of the Teacher should be told that the present day predominance of all-pervading corruption is the result of negation of authority in all spheres of life. But what can exist without the leading concept? I shall never tire of repeating the words of the Teaching: ‘The entire Universe is saturated with this principle.’ On what else can evolution be based? Therefore, each one who rejects Hierarchy, rejects evolution. ‘Of all principles leading to the broadening of consciousness, the principle of Hierarchy is the most powerful.’”
(Ibid., pp. 128–129)
“Spiritual unity, first of all, implies the toleration of many and various degrees of consciousness, but never forcing one’s own upon others....”
(Ibid., p. 59)
“Lately, I have been thinking a great deal about the members of your group. Once more, I am convinced that no one can be replaced and that everyone is needed. And how simple it is, in such circumstances, to achieve the complete harmony which guarantees victory in all directions. But my heart feels that there is something that prevents this unity. What is the remedy? Of course the only solution is comprehension of the Teacher and the Teaching by the heart and not by the head alone. Therefore, we must pay attention to the development of our heart, that amazing organ which includes in itself, in its numerous centers, all creativeness and psychic life. Without development of the centers of the heart we are sterile; there is no creation of psychic life; there is no life in the higher spheres; and the crown of the Arhat is unapproachable. Only with our heart are we able to approach the consciousness of the Arhat, of the Teacher, as his consciousness is in the heart. Humanity has an obscure understanding of the Arhat, but without this understanding it is impossible to advance.”
(Letters of Helena Roerich, Vol. I, p. 12)
“ ‘Thus, My Advice is once again to transform the Teaching into the daily necessity. My Advice is to observe the extent to which one’s surroundings will become successful. In small groups one should especially watch mutual thoughts in order not to burden and interrupt the current. Many teachings advise this simple discipline, but each book should give a reminder of it because that which is most vital, most needed, is not applied to life. And it is a great happiness for Us when We have as complete confidence in someone as in Ourselves. Thus, powerful is the citadel of the open heart.’ ”
(Ibid., p. 106)
“Great events are about to come and many new workers will be necessary. Those who have assimilated the foundations of the Living Ethics should help to maintain the balance of life and confirm the coming epoch based on the true comprehension of the spirit of beauty and cooperation.”
(Ibid., pp. 185–186)
“The group instructors should not only give lectures but should, together with the pupils, discuss the questions that arise regarding the Teaching. By all means, questions should be asked, but I know from experience how difficult it is to encourage pupils to ask the right ones. They prefer that the teacher give a subject and explain it! But the important thing is for them to ask questions, as only by the question is it possible to judge the direction of thought as well as the level of consciousness. Besides, this is the best exercise for the instructor himself. Often the pupil will approach the question from the most unexpected angle, and thus will give the teacher the possibility of checking his own understanding. The teacher is made, not born! Verily, we learn while teaching.”
(Ibid., pp. 275–276)
Communities:
“Before building communities, co-workers with a prepared consciousness are needed. Otherwise, the result will be nothing but a terrible burden and an ugly caricature of a community. For this purpose, it is first necessary to create new schools where from very childhood will be laid the foundations of the understanding of the destination of man, his place and role in the world, and his cosmic dependency. With such concepts, he will realize his social role, and, mainly, his personal responsibility, which will be given a fitting significance. But such schools need appropriate teachers. That is why it is so useful to have groups that gather around the Teaching of Life, for from such groups can come forth bearers of the new consciousness.”
(Ibid., p. 238)
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