by Celia Coates
It is very hard, very, very troubling, to witness the violence of war and the suffering of other people. And when there seems to be no way for us to make a good difference, it becomes a terrible helplessness – the kind many people are feeling now as we watch a brutal Russian force attack Ukraine. A dear friend turned to the only thing she could think of to do – sending love to Putin with the hope that it would soften his heart and cause him to stop his war. People want deeply to do something about all this horror, and sending love is a very old practice for dealing with trouble. But, that may not be a good idea in this case.
Jack Stucki, in a conversation with Elmer Green, asked about dealing with evil. Elmer said that sending love to the evil ones only supports their current behavior. Instead, Elmer advised that we send the golden light to their High Self with the hope that might nudge the incarnated personality to change. In 2011, when Biden said to Putin, “I don’t think you have a soul,” Putin answered, “We understand each other.” A man without a soul is probably out of reach of the High Self.
Jack suggested that I read page 265 in Alice A. Bailey’s THE EXTERNALIZATION OF THE HIERARCHY, *
“There are those who send thoughts of love to the group of evil men who are responsible for world disasters, believing thereby to influence them for good. I would remind them that love is essentially an impersonal potency or energy, dependent for its effect upon the type of form which it contacts and upon which it makes an impact. Pouring, therefore, upon the selfish, materialistic nature, it will only enhance desire and nature and distort the true expression of love, leading to increased evil activity. Pouring upon the selfless, the pure, and the disinterested, it will foster reality and true love. These are points which should be remembered at this time by the well-intentioned but occultly ignorant server.”
Alice A. Bailey received three versions of what is called The Great Invocation around the years of the Second World War, another time of dreadful violence and destruction. (There’s an earlier post about this: http://www.winnpost.org/4/26/2019/about-the-great-invocation/%5B1%5D [1])
That post also discusses a new version of the Great Invocation that was given to Jack Stucki in 2019. In the fourth stanza the original lines were,
“From the center which we call the human race
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out,
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.”
For the last line Jack was given these new words,
“ So we may face and transform evil.”
Then, within days that line was changed again,
“ To engage in dance with the darkness.”
Sealing and dancing are radically different actions.
(www.winnpost.org/2019/04/28/update-the-great-invocation/[2] )
When the tactic is to seal evil behind a door, we are using something like the limiting psychological defense of denial. It’s not good enough to say, in effect, “that doesn’t exist in my world” or “out of sight, out of mind.” The set of new words that first came to Jack encouraged us to face and transform evil, and that is what is really necessary. Sealing the door may have been what was needed 75 years ago, but it seems to me that we have an even better choice than that now. We can face evil and go on further “to engage in dance with the darkness” – which means we can move without rigidity, and with balance to change how we relate to evil.
Many thinkers, teachers, and writers are saying that human consciousness is advancing. Arjuna Ardagh’s TRANSLUCENT REVOLUTION: How People Just Like You Are WAKING UP and CHANGING the World, published in 2005, was the first mention of that idea that I found. A comment on the back cover says,
“A radical change is occurring in our collective consciousness today. More and more of us all over the world are awakening and experiencing what Arjuna Ardagh calls ‘translucence’ – a deeper presence and purpose, a greater sense of joy, and a new-found selflessness and compassion.”
There is a wonderful saying from William E. Gladstone, the 19th Century statesman and British Prime Minister,
“We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.”
This is for each of us to do, to begin by facing that darkness is part of us and our lives. We can begin by pouring compassion upon ourselves as Alice A. Bailey advised, in order to “…foster reality and true love.” We can move first to replace our Western world’s love of power that shows up not just in our politics, but in our own lives. Experiencing compassion is part of the way to dance with darkness – we can connect through our hearts to the suffering of others, after opening our hearts to compassion for ourselves. These are hard times. Then we can move on to witness what is happening, to feel compassion within our own conscious awareness – as much as we can bear it – for those being harmed in Ukraine. This global compassion seems to be spreading.
The image that leads this post is by Chungliang Al Huang who is the president and founder of the Living Tao Foundation. He is a notable Tai Ji master, calligrapher, author, and performing artist. Many Chinese words are made up of multiple characters, each having their own stand-alone meaning. The Traditional character for Love includes the character for heart/mind in the center. When this character was simplified, the “heart” was removed. Chungliang has lectured in China to a group of corporate CEOs on this subject – “put the heart back in Love.” On one of his trips to China, he saw an advertising poster in the airport that incorporated this idea in their sales pitch. Very gratifying.
Hate is not the opposite of love, fear is, and the word courage comes from the French for heart. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s courage, seen by the whole world, comes from his heart as does the bravery of his people. So, if we can, it’s better to live love, to fill our own hearts with love and then link up with the others on our planet who are being guided, sometimes through terrible violence, to choose love too.
As we evolve in our consciousness, we are developing more power, more ways to deal with the reality that darkness and light, good and evil, exist together as parts of a natural continuum. Our abilities both as conscious individuals and as the conscious human collective now on the planet mean we can do better than to deny, to close evil behind a barrier. We can put heart back into love to protect each other, all living things, and the Earth.
* * * * *
Chungliang’s website is: https://livingtao.org/%5B3%5D [2]
* THE EXTERNALIZATION OF THE HIERARCHY by Alice A. Bailey, 1957 and 1985, The Tibetan Book Fund, The Lucis Trust.
Arjuna Ardagh’s book was published by New World Library
- http://www.winnpost.org/4/26/2019/about-the-great-invocation/ [3]: http://www.winnpost.org/4/26/2019/about-the-great-invocation/ [3]
- http://www.winnpost.org/2019/04/28/update-the-great-invocation/ [4]: http://www.winnpost.org/2019/04/28/update-the-great-invocation/ [4]
- https://livingtao.org/ [5]: https://livingtao.org/ [5]