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Education in the New Age - Chapter IV - Reasons for the Present World Unrest
Reasons for the Present World Unrest Let me list for you some of the reasons for the present world unrest, reminding you that many of them are based upon causes which lie in so remote a past that history knows nothing of them, and they appear meaningless to you because you have no clear idea of the nature of early humanity. Some grasp of the essential situation will be of value if you are to follow development in the future intelligently. First, the point reached by humanity itself is one of the major and primary causes. This evolutionary status has brought mankind to the threshold of a door upon the great path of evolution and has indicated an unfoldment which necessitates drastic changes in man's entire attitude to life and to all his world relations. These changes are being self-initiated by him and are not imposed upon him by an [117] outside force or by the coercion of humanity in any form. This is an important point to be grasped. It might therefore be stated that: Man is now at the point where the principle of intelligence is so strongly awakened within him that nothing can arrest his progress into knowledges which would be dangerously misused and selfishly applied if nothing were done to call a halt and thus safeguard him from himself - even at the cost of temporary pain. He must be taught to react to a higher and better sense of values. Millions of human beings are now integrated or at the point of integration. They are beginning to function as a unity within themselves, preparatory to a higher process which will enable them consciously to integrate into the greater Whole. From the form side of manifestation, mind, emotion and brain are working in unison. Now the higher correspondence of these lower forces - wisdom, love and direction - must appear; the more subtle energies must be enabled to express themselves. Instinctively and mystically, humanity perceives that need with a clear definiteness. The instinct to go forward to higher achievement, to enquire and to search for that which is better, remains potent. Humanity can be trusted to push onward and to make progress. The Hierarchy of Love is, however, endeavoring to hasten the process, thereby taking the risk of complications in so doing. Certain men and women in every field of human thought are expressing the potency of the unfoldment of their achieved integration and (if you will but believe it) the reality of their soul contact, by emerging out of the dead level of humanity. They stand forth above their fellows through the very force of their personality-integration and because they can [118] function as high grade and idealistic persons. From the altitude at which they stand (relatively high from the human standpoint, and interesting from the hierarchical point of view) , they are seeking to mould the racial thought and life to a certain pattern which seems to them - according to their inclination, type and ray - to be desirable. These individuals in the fields of government, religion, science, philosophy, economics and sociology are having a united powerful effect, some of it of a high and good order, some of it not so good. They affect their civilization materially if their emphasis is there; they produce a cultural effect subjectively and spiritually if that is the impression they seek. Their motives are often sound and good, for they all have a touch of true idealism, but - being as yet inexperienced in the ways of the soul - they make many mistakes, are sidetracked in dangerous ways and lead many people into error and trouble. In the long run, the result will be the awakening of the public consciousness, and that is ever good. Second, the emerging of a new racial type. The subjective outlines of this type can already clearly be seen. So glamored are we by the form side that many claims are made today that the new race is to be found in America. The new race is forming in every land, but primarily in those lands where the fifth or Caucasian races are to be found. Among the fourth race peoples, however, a few, such as those to be found among the Chinese and the Japanese, are being discovered by the Hierarchy and are making their real and esoteric contribution to the whole. Let me also make one definite statement at this point which may cause some surprise. The fifth kingdom in nature, the spiritual, will emerge out of the fifth root race. Such is the esoteric control of the Law of Correspondence. I would [119] remind you nevertheless that the only fourth root race people to be found upon our planet are the Chinese, the Japanese, the various Mongoloid races in Central Asia (and they are somewhat intermixed with the Caucasian race) and the hybrid groups found in the many islands in the southern waters in both oceans and hemispheres, as well as the descendants of the races which a million years ago made the South American continent famous for its civilization. I am necessarily widely generalizing. The new racial type is far more a state of consciousness than a physical form; it is a state of mind more than a peculiarly designed body. In time, however, any developed state of consciousness invariably conditions and determines the body nature and produces finally certain physical characteristics. The outstanding type of awareness of the coming new race will be the widespread recognition of the fact of the mystical perception. Its primary quality will be the intuitive understanding and control of energy; its contribution to the development of humanity is the transmutation of selfish desire into group love. This can be seen working out noticeably even today in the attitudes of great national leaders who are not, as a rule, animated at all by selfish ambition, but are controlled by love of their nation and thus by some definite form of idealism - hence the great emerging ideologies. Ponder on this point, get a wider picture of the growth of the human consciousness, and grasp somewhat the goal of the new and coming educational system. Third, the ending of the Piscean Age, which has brought to the point of crystallization (and therefore of death) all those forms through which the Piscean ideals have been molded. They have served their purpose and done a great and needed work. It might be asked here: What are the major Piscean ideals? The idea of authority. This has led to the imposition of the different forms of paternalism upon the [120] race - political, educational, social and religious paternalism. This may be either the kindly paternalism of the privileged classes, seeking to ameliorate the condition of their dependents (and there has been much of this); or the paternalism of the churches, the religions of the world, expressing itself as ecclesiastical authority; or the paternalism of an educational process. The idea of the value of sorrow and of pain. In the process of teaching the race the necessary quality of detachment, in order that its desire and plans shall no longer be oriented to form living, the Guides of the race have emphasized the idea of the virtues of sorrow and the educational value of pain. These virtues are real, but the emphasis has been overdone by the lesser teachers of the race, so that the racial attitude today is one of sorrowful and fearful expectancy and a feeble hope that some reward (in a desirable and usually material form, such as the heaven of the various world religions) may eventuate after death, and thus compensate for all that has been undergone during life. The races today are steeped in misery and an unhappy psychological acquiescence in sorrow and pain. The clear light of love must sweep away all this and joy will be the keynote of the coming new age. To the above thought must be coupled the idea of self-sacrifice. This idea has lately shifted from the individual and his sacrifice to the group presentation. The good of the whole is now held theoretically to be of such paramount importance that the group must gladly sacrifice the individual or group of individuals. Such idealists are apt to forget that the only true sacrifice is that which is self-initiated, and that when it is an enforced sacrifice (imposed by the more powerful and superior person or group) it is apt [121] to be, in the last analysis, the coercion of the individual and his enforced submission to a stronger will. The idea of the satisfaction of desire. Above everything else, the Piscean Age has been the age of material production and of commercial expansion, of the salesmanship of the products of human skill which the general public is educated to believe are essential to happiness. The old simplicity and the true values have been temporarily relegated to the background. This was permitted to continue without arrest for a long period of time because the Hierarchy of Wisdom sought to bring the people to the point of satiety. The world situation is eloquent today of the fact that possession and the multiplication of material goods constitute a handicap and are no indications that humanity has found the true road to happiness. The lesson is being learnt very rapidly and the revolt in the direction of simplicity is also rapidly gaining ground. The spirit of which commercialism is the indication is doomed, though not yet ended. This spirit of possession and the aggressive taking of that which is desired has proven widely inclusive and distinguishes the attitude of nations and of races as well as individuals. Aggression in order to possess has been the keynote of our civilization during the past fifteen hundred years. Fourth, the coming into manifestation of the Aquarian Age. This fact should provide the grounds for a profound and convinced optimism; nothing can stop the effect - growing, stabilizing and final - of the new, incoming influences. These will inevitably condition the future, determine the type of culture and civilization, indicate the form of government and produce an effect upon humanity, as has the Piscean or Christian Age, or the earlier period governed by Aries, the Ram or Goat. Upon these steadily emerging influences [122] the Hierarchy counts with assurance, and the disciples of the world must likewise learn to depend upon them. The consciousness of universal relationship, of subjective integration and of a proven and experienced unity will be the climaxing gift of the period ahead of us.
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