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Religion
and Group Work
We find in the book Glamour p. 132, the following: "Such illusionary picturing of reality and such visionary showing forth of the idea has both the pride and the curse of the world. It is one of the factors which has brought our modern world to its sorry pass, and it is from this misuse of the divine faculty of touching the idea and transforming it into the ideal that the world is today suffering, - probably inevitably. The imposition of these humanly and mentally interpreted ideas in the form of limited ideologies has had a sorry effect upon men. They need to learn to penetrate to the true idea which lies behind their ideal and to interpret it with accuracy in the light of their soul, besides employing those methods which have the warrant and the sanction of LOVE". To work at the plane of ideas may not be possible for all as individuals but as a group we can face the challenge, and so to strive not to work on concrete levels of the mental plane: "the concrete level of the mental plane have acquired or accumulated - down the ages – a vast number of ideas, which have been formulated as ideals, clothed in mental matter, nourished by the vitality of those who have recognised as much of the truth of the idea as they are capable of expressing and who have given to these ideals the emphasis of their thoughtform-making faculty and their directed attention, which necessarily implies the energising of the limited formulated ideal because – as you know – energy follows thought". GWP p. 133 Understanding and compassion in the outer world and in the daily living can be expressed only when the group works from the plane of ideas and not of ideals, something also possible if the group`s abstract mind is controlling. Astrally polarized masses cannot see; vision is a sense provided by the mind; `to see is to know', the masses only touch and so, believe. As we find in the ageless teachings that "religion is the emotional appropriation of philosophy", those who are capable of using their higher mind and who are independent thinkers know, and they do not need any outer expression of the inner truth to find their way, those who are not yet capable, have no other option than to be believers and followers. Religion has saved mankind from degradation, and has still an important role to play, 70% or so, of humanity is still astrally polarized. What we see today at the ending of an age is the waste of something that was good and useful, that has served its purpose and is in its process of dying, a needed step before resurrection into a more fitted form for the new age – IF the group raise the attention of the outer form and work in the plane of causes. Let the group meet above the differences of crystallized presentation of truth (as the race has worshiped the golden calf, the golden ram, we are at risk of worship the golden fish), and bring down/out the real fact of unity. The NGWS is birthing the kingdom of Love on earth; its members must express the reality of Love, compassion, redemption, and glorification, right here, each one starting with themselves. Concrete mind, as a needed and sine qua non foundation, must be in its right place, left behind/under, to allow the next step. Inclusiveness is the hallmark of the workers for the new age. The usefulness of a group that aims the solution of an old problem will depend on its capacity to work with the substance wrongly qualified, make them pure again, and make a new construction, inspired by the idea, and according to the new ideal, will depend also on its capacity to keep the vision of what "must be", no matter their different understanding of known presentation of truth. "Let
vision come and insight, let the future be revealed, let Love prevail,
let all man Love". |