Is that scary, or what? But, friends, do not be alarmed by these words. First printed in 1960, they are a deeply significant, if simply put, matter of fact. (That’s the thing about the Tibetan—he encases these profound truths in the simplest of sentences and leaves it to us to get to the heart of the matter.) Evolution is not over yet and, as our brother, Jesse Jackson, observed, God is not finished with us yet. The disciple, humanity, has a ways to go on the Path of Return.

We, therefore, must be willing to face and eliminate our fears, including the father of all fears—the fear of death which springs from our personality’s attachment to or identification with its self, its form. Eventually, and, I think, in the foreseeable future, a significant number of us will learn the lie of death that was engendered by the Forces of Retrogression those many millennia ago when the Forces of Light withdrew to subjective levels. We will shift the focus of human concern once again from death to life. In the meantime, what is required of us is what Morya calls the Lion Heart. Being compelled to honesty, we can really offer one another no comfort. We can offer camaraderie, companionship; we can offer co-labor and the joy that comes form the shared struggle, but no comfort. As has been observed many times, comfort is, after all, the cemetery of the spirit.

From the Father’s House, from the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World, from the City of the Gods, from the Bright Center lying far in the distance, from the White Island, from the place of mystery, and the home of The Secret Doctrine, from the City in the East, the city of light which is constructed of second subplane etheric matter (Initiation: Human and Solar, p33.) and which lies in the heart of the great Gobi Desert, from that much talked about but little understood place which is more commonly called Shamballa, flows Purpose, flows Monadic Energy, flows Spiritual Will, flows the Shamballa force, which I like to call the S force. Energetically, these names for the essence that flows from that most sacred of all spots on our planet spring from the same root. Their basic signature is Fire. If we can grasp even the superficial meaning behind the words with which I opened this talk, we will understand that the S force needs to be handled, not with kid gloves, but with asbestos gloves.

Morya has said, "A new dawn for mankind will come when the understanding of fire enters life." (Fiery World I, p9.) Lord knows that we have had ample opportunity to become acquainted with fire. The burning ground has been the most prominent planetary feature of the last, what, five centuries, certainly of the last 150 years. Humanity has passed through the World War, witnessed the fiery destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, harvested the fruits of despair from the Korean and Vietnam Wars; and, still today, we have the raging fires of war and destruction in Africa, Eastern Europe, South America and, just as fiery if a bit less loud, the ravages of starvation and disease in any number of places on the globe … I have North Korea and Iraq in mind.

So, if we are—heaven forbid—just now starting to prepare for an event of this magnitude, it would seem that we were a bit behind the curve. But, it is typical of those afflicted with spiritual myopia to put things off until the last minute and then to rush around trying to do something to get ready. We probably should have been having this conference 10 years ago.

However, as the saying goes, "Shoulds and woulds do not build bridges;" so, we work from where we are. Also, things seldom are as dark as they seem. It is being conned by this fear thing that makes us see things as darker than they are. And, I am aware that for the last 10 to 15 years there has been a lot of work going on in a number of the esoteric centers with which I am familiar (and, I suspect, in a number of others with which I am not acquainted) … a lot of work being done on exploring and endeavoring to implement the spiritual will.

This is good. It will—has already, in many cases—lead to the development of the art of visualization, which is gradually overcoming the spiritual myopia that has plagued us for so long and without which the understanding of fire or Shamballa is not possible, anyway. We each see such a small bit of the whole that we can get discouraged, but I have found a lot of encouragement in the work that has been going on. I have encountered disciples all over the world who are seriously and intelligently involved in the efforts to move with their groups into the realm of group-consciousness or spiritual living, which is what group-consciousness is.

For us, the time for self-improvement is over. Also, over is the time for looking for one’s group or one’s field of service. There will still be many who are interested in self-development, and there will still be many hunters of the horn or lookers or seekers out there, and they are good people. We should try to serve them, to meet their needs; but, because of the self-focus of their desire, they will probably not be available for the work of the externalization and reappearance.

If we are going to make any sort of practical use of the Shamballa boost, we will need to be done with the bit—the luxury of searching for our groups or seeking our fields of service. One’s field of service is not what one discovers with the implementation of the spiritual will. What one discovers is that one is a servant … totally and constantly … that sacrifice—which is, I should point out, a heart quality, the heart being the only safe valve or center, if you like that term, through which we can route the S force—that sacrifice or service is the automatic response of soul-mind-brain alignment to living in form. One serves right where he or she stands, wherever that is.

Prepare for the Shamballa force. Find a group. Move into it. Align with what you sense as the group’s purpose. Work within it. In the center of the pentagram is the place of safety for all who love and serve the Plan, and every group that is a group has, at its very heart, a pentagram.

We need to realize that the impact of inflowing energy on a form, whether it be Shamballic, buddhic or mental energy, "…produces results which are dependent upon the quality of the forms…." (A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. V, p75.) So, we can expect that the coming inflow of Shamballa force will dynamically energize whatever set of attitudes or inclinations are present in the system under discussion, be it a person, a group, a nation or the human family. The larger issue, the easy-to-see issue, has to do with the relative focus of the attention within the system. To the degree that one is trying to implement the spiritual will in place of the personal will, or to the extent that one is service-centered, or other-centered, the inflowing Shamballa force will empower those efforts. The service will be more dynamically effective; it will reach more deeply into deeper and broader fields; it will literally blow by obstacles that may have previously been seen as insurmountable. And, it will do so through an application of solar fire rather than fire by friction. Or, to word it differently, rather than that ancient combative, competitive process, with which we are all so familiar, of divide and conquer or destroy and pick up the pieces, the spiritual will effortlessly surmounts insurmountable obstacles through that still barely understood process we call synthesis. It is not a case of either this or that. It is both, and.

Conversely, in those systems, be they separate personalities, organizations or states where the attention is turned in or toward the self, in self-centered systems or personalities, the inflowing Shamballa force will dynamically drive the life deeper into relationship with the forms. The identification with the forms will become more and more rigid to the point where they will explode or shatter. In this way, the imprisoned life will be released into a new state. This is the natural progression of evolution, anyway; but, with the advent of the release of this Shamballic inflow, the process will be greatly accelerated. And, if you will look around the planet right now, you will see many, many examples of this kind of shattering going on—as well as the reorganization and generation of new synthesized organisms.

I have the world esoteric community in mind now, but the following remarks would apply to almost any group—a government, or corporation or association in the professional and business worlds, as well as the world labor unions. Most of the organizations and groups which have been generated in the past couple of thousand years, like the great world religions, and even in the past 10 to 15 years, are somewhere in the process of moving from personal to spiritual, from self-conscious organizations to group-conscious groups. This is the thrust of the unfolding life on our planet. It just is, and there is, ultimately, no way to avoid it.

As a result of evolution and especially of the last couple of inflows of the S force, most of the groups on the planet are experiencing very significant shifts in their inner circumstances. These shifts are the results of the crystallization and fracturing of the self-conscious-generated view of group, which was all that we were capable of, all that self-consciousness could produce in those years. Among the many earmarks of this type of group was the dominant personality, the one person in the group who actually ran the group. This person was usually the individual who "founded" the group or, in the event of that person’s death, the dominant person was the one who inherited the mantle, not of leadership, but of rulership. This mantle was usually passed on to the person who could be counted on to continue to implement the thought form the original founder had put in place to guide the group. These people, being overwhelmingly form-focused, were usually unable to see into the heart of the form that the founder initially used to create the organization, and thus the group moved inexorably toward crystallization.

In those cases where the new people were actually leaders, actually able to see beyond the form to the founding idea, able to contact the life force that animates the soul of the group rather than the form which it initially used for incarnation, the groups will reorganize, synthesize and move into their new estates. They will be actuated by the living principles which brought them into existence rather than the forms which were useful and which originally worked, but which are now more like coffins than effective organizational structures. Incidentally, when a situation is reorganized through a process of synthesis, the baby is not thrown out with the bath water.

I have a problem with that. Mainly, it is just impractical; and, I have come to realize that practicality or the wise use of energy, which is what practical really means, is a hallmark of the Hierarchy—of universe, actually. I mean, practicality is intrinsic in Universe… . But, it may work that way—maybe some Body does throw a switch at the exact point in time… . However, on the off chance that, like everything else in the physically observable and psychically registerable universe, the Shamballa force will actually flow on a flow basis, perhaps reaching some form of a peak in 2000, then go on for another number of years … on the off chance that that is the case, I suggest that we get prepared yesterday or today, right now.

I think that this force is flowing even as we sit here and talk about getting ready for it. I think that it has been flowing for a number of years ... that it is behind the efforts of so many of us to implement the spiritual will, to focus our service efforts on the externalization and reappearance, that it is behind the shake-ups, reorientations, new vistas we have all been experiencing in our meditation work and throughout our group lives, and within that galaxy I include not only the esoteric groups to which we may belong, but our family lives, our community lives, the lives we lead as citizens of this country and the world.

That humanity is on the brink of an initiation seems clear to me. I think that a bunch of people who know themselves as disciples, and a bunch who are disciples and know it not, are approaching the third portal. I also think that an even bigger bunch is approaching the second portal. What this means is that there are enough people on the planet now who are able to solve problems without being dominated by the power of their personal will that humanity can move on to the next step of its long journey back to the Father’s House. It was, I think, necessary for humanity as a group to reach this stage before the Shamballic inflow would be attempted.

The Great War was the test, and the passing of the test was the demonstrated ability of the so-called Allied Forces, through whom the Forces of Light were working, to not use their victory to dominate and enslave the world. This would not have been the case if there were not enough people involved at the decision-making levels of humanity who were relatively free from the dominance of their personal wills.

There are considerable forces arrayed on the side of retrogression. These forces are highly skilled. Unlike the Spiritual Hierarchy, they are not governed by any laws that respect the human right of free will, that observe the right of the individual to self-determination. They will, and do, manipulate any foolish person for their own selfish ends, and they work tirelessly. They don’t even take vacations. I do not mention this to be either frightening or discouraging. I just think that a sober understanding of the realities will help us see the need for the Lion Heart. As I said, in the near term, nothing is guaranteed. And, as I mentioned above, the inflow of this force being unavoidable, it will work out according to the focus of the consciousness. It’s like sunshine—it energizes whatever it touches, including the Forces of Retrogression. What did you think was empowering Milosevic?

What we need to try to insure in the coming 12 months and the next few years is that enough of us are focused steadily enough within the field of our spiritual wills that we can tip the scales of justice toward our next destined step in the light. So, preparing for the Shamballa inflow really comes down to each one of us doing his or her own work, throwing his or her weight onto the scales of planetary unfoldment.

By way of practicality—it always boils down to that—it boils down to the conscious control and direction of our energy. There is, of course, no such thing as being out of control … someone or somebody is always in control. It is our opportunity and charge to see to it that the point of control is the spiritual will. It is the steady and deliberately conscious use of energy for service that keeps the Forces of Retrogression at bay, and any act or thought that lifts, liberates, bridges, heals, any kindness, any consideration, any act of respect, any radiation of love or goodwill, any effort to bring beauty and harmony or light and understanding into a situation … is sacrifice and is service. It is this effort on the part of all who love and serve the Plan that will gradually absorb the darkness, by irradiating it with light and love and through the synthesizing power of the Shamballa force eliminate the last veil.

I have been thinking a lot lately about an earlier time in our nation’s history when we were called on to implement the will of our hearts in order to move onto a higher plateau and to save, not just ourselves, but, in many respects, the human family. I see a lot of similarity between the symbology of the situation our fledgling nation faced in 1776 and humanity’s current situation. It is sort of the same thing on a larger and higher spiral. The issues at stake now are just as enormous and just as important to the Great Unfolding as those in 1776, and I think that Tom Paine’s words are just as eloquent now as then, and so today, I leave you with them.

A deeply thoughtful answer to this question—"What is a good-willed person to do?"—can be found in the Tibetan’s words in A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. V, p751-2:

The task which the Hierarchy wishes to see accomplished at this time is the spread of goodwill; each person, community and nation should begin with a diagnosis of their own attitude towards goodwill, and then set an example by eliminating cleavages in the home, the business, or the nation. Goodwill is contagious; once a definite start has been made in a pure and disinterested spirit, goodwill will permeate the world and right human relations will be rapidly established. The healing of cleavages is a practical matter. The Spirit of Synthesis, working through the great first ray Avatar (the Avatar of Synthesis) is closer to the Earth than ever before, and the clarity which will emerge in the Light of His Presence is already available; the tendency to integration can therefore be more easily fostered and a new synthesis attained among men. Before, however, integration and synthesis are possible, this first ray energy must work to destroy all that prevents integration and all that is hindering a needed synthesis. Human beings themselves must also destroy the prejudices, the animosities and the fixed ideas which have prevented synthesis, which have created cleavages and hindered right understanding.

There are several key interrelated concepts here: "the elimination of prejudice and cleavages," "the tendency to integration" and "synthesis." I want to focus on synthesis, as there is evidence that it will be the predominant keynote of the Aquarian Age.

What is synthesis? The Funk and Wagnall’s dictionary says:

While its opposites seem so obvious, almost universal, in the behavior of mankind, synthesis itself seems hard to spot … almost elusive and ungraspable.

What do we look for when we look for synthesis?
By what qualities will we recognize it?
Does it have many faces?
Can we intentionally develop synthetic sight or vision?
Is it simply a point of view that can be adopted?
How do we embody it?
Are there certain forms or actions that facilitate its presence or induce its appearance?
Can we develop the skill to ‘grow it?’

These questions all seem incredibly germane as we gather here, tonight, under the influence of the energies of Pisces. It is also significant that this is the last full moon in the solar month of Pisces for the 20th century, as we navigate the turn of the millennium from the Piscean era into a world increasingly under the influence of the concentrated Aquarian energies.

The Tibetan has said that the entire theme of the zodiac can be approached from the angle of light, the unfolding and increasing radiance of light and of the gradual demonstration in "the glory of the One." The mode of development of this light and its externalization can be expressed symbolically for Pisces as "The Light of the World." This light reveals the light of life itself. It ends, forever, the darkness of matter.

Other characterizing words for the influences of Pisces:

Sacrifice or "the process of making whole"
Release into full spiritual service
I and the Father are one
The Constructors of fusing Wisdom
Awareness of the group, of the whole and of the Universe
Universal Consciousness
Intuitional Control
The Savior

As we move from the Piscean Era under the influence of the 6th Ray, we see, as indicated by these characterizing words, that the emphasis has been on the awareness of the whole, group awareness and universal consciousness. There has been a gradual identification of the ideal, coming out of the evocative "devotion to the ideal." The discovery of "ideals" has been one of the predominant "soft" products generated in the last 2,500 years under the Piscean energy influences.

How does this "product" show up? Many of us can now sense what is ideal; we have experimented widely with many idyllic forms (with a special "rash" of it in the 1960s). We know enough now to recognize that the ideal has to do with the love and caring of the whole of life. Our challenge seems to be in learning how to manifest the ideal in the daily life and around the world.

This is where the Aquarian or 7th Ray energies come in. 7th Ray is characterized by "Spirit into Matter"—the grounding of the spiritual kingdom on earth. As above, so below.

Under Pisces we have evoked the ideal. Yes, the ideal is to be "as the Christ." Under Aquarius, we work it into manifestation. Every human becomes the Christ.

Today, there are many extremists who feel they have achieved the ideal religious or political structure; in their insistence (often backed by force) that others adopt a similar view and practice, they generate considerable conflict worldwide. These people have stopped midway in the process, at an intermediate step on the way to synthetic vision.

The conflict that we have seen in the political arena, that I alluded to in my opening poem, is a dramatization of extreme points of view and is a direct outgrowth of the energy of synthesis and its precursor—the destroyer aspect of the 1st Ray—at work specifically under the jurisdiction of the Master Morya and his Ashram:

On the physical plane, the initiates and the disciples working in the Ashram of the Master Morya are primarily occupied with the expression of synthesis in the world of politics and of government, and with offsetting wrong approaches to synthesis, seeking to preserve freedom in unity. It is a subjective synthesis for which they work—a synthesis which will express itself in an outer differentiation. This synthesis will define the many aspects of the essential, basic unity which, working out under the stimulation of the energy of synthesis, will bring about eventual peace and understanding on earth—a peace which will preserve individual and national cultures, but which will subordinate them to the good of the whole of humanity.

(The Externalization of the Hierarchy, p663-4.)

Again, by contrast, as we reflect on the Clinton impeachment process—where the conflict was so clearly along party lines, often representing aged grudges and hates—we saw the opposite of synthesis in manifestation. This could be a good sign, and we can suspect Master Morya’s hand in this work. These extremes and imbalances were illuminated in the light of the public eye, by people of goodwill and by working disciples around the globe.

Just as love brings up all that is unlike itself, so, too, will the energy of synthesis bring up all that causes divisiveness. The old, divisive forms will be exposed to the light and destroyed in the process if they do not serve the whole of life on this planet.

In the early days of the Clinton administration, Hillary Rodham Clinton, on several public platforms, spoke to the nation about "a crisis in meaning;" it was her concern that there was a crisis because of the dearth of meaning in our society.

In hindsight, the enormity of the irony in this is staggering … or just plain "cosmically perfect," given the events that she subsequently found herself embroiled in during Bill’s impeachment, where "truth" and "meaning" were put under a national microscope.

Meaning is linked to intent and to purpose. When one is fully aligned with a noble purpose—i.e., one that serves the whole—there follows naturally: integrity, wholeness and coherence, a connection to essential truths that directly communicate and touch people "at heart."

When selfish, separative purpose comes in, the need to camouflage enters. What a burden it is to achieve a sense of the meaningful when one has to work so hard at getting under and through so many layers of duplicity to access the truth!

Synthesis is needed here: first, a recognition that each "layer" of duplicity originally had a purpose; and second, finding that purpose and getting its "original intent" to express in a direct way rather than indirectly or covertly. All of us collectively have a part in this; when the presentation of truth results in too onerous a consequence to the "teller," then truth will go underground. The truth will be repressed while still holding on to its underlying purposes, all of which have karmic lessons attached to them. Only by "getting the lesson" will the cycle of deception and its consequences stop repeating.

It is significant that our globally-watched political crisis had as its central focus "lying about sex in the personal life," demonstrated by our highest elected official, in the most powerful office in the world. I suspect that this is reflective of an underlying truth—that America has still not balanced the extremist puritanical attitudes that were part of the culture brought to the New England shores by our earliest colonists. The controversy wages between the puritans and the pornographers, both energizing and engendering one another. Both condemning. Both extremists needing balance.

a. A destructive cycle, wherein the old order passes away and that which has been created—human civilization with its accompanying institutions—is destroyed. With this destructive action humanity is today occupying itself—mostly unconsciously. The major creative agents are the intelligentsia of the race.

b. A cycle of restoration, with many accompanying difficulties in which the mass of men take part, under the influence and inspiration of a regenerated intelligentsia.

(A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. V, p553.)

The Congress, the Senate and all heads of state in the world will, in the coming days of the new millennium, be called on to demonstrate the restorative principles of synthesis in a form known as "visionary synthesis." Ironically, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last head of the Soviet Union, who oversaw its political and economic dissolution, continues to demonstrate this vision quite clearly for us. The following relates his thinking on our subject:

When I speak of a new synthesis, of the need for increasing unity and interdependence, I am not calling for a kind of universal leveling, sameness or uniformity. I do not accept a civilization that would be like a huge historic steamroller, flattening out everything. Who would need such a civilization, and why even call it new? By no means do I want all countries and nations to become alike. I think that the civilization to which we all belong is one of great multiplicity. And that is a source of its strength, the basis for the exchange of cultural values, for comparing methods of organization and ways of living.

The philosophy of the twenty-first century must be grounded in a philosophy of diversity. If life as such is the highest value, then even more precious is the singular identity of every nation and every race as a unique creation of nature and human history. At the same time, we must begin to define certain moral maxims or ethical commandments that constitute values common to all mankind. It is my view that the individual’s attitude toward nature must become one of the principal criteria for ensuring the maintenance of morality. Today it is not enough to say, "Thou shalt not kill." Ecological education implies, above all, respect and love for every living being. It is here that ecological culture interfaces with religion.

The beauty and uniqueness of life lies in the unity of diversity. Self-identification—of every individual and of the many different nations, ethnic groups and nationalities—is the crucial condition for preserving life on Earth. Struggles and conflicts burn out the diversity of life, leaving a social wasteland in their wake. Honoring diversity and honoring the Earth create the basis for genuine unity.

Another synthetic visionary was Buckminster Fuller. In his book, Personal Philosophy, he summed it up this way:

The human objective: To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.

Nelson Mandela is another world leader who has exhibited synthetic vision. In South Africa, instead of prosecuting his jailers after 27 years of imprisonment, when elected to the highest office in the land, he raised reconciliation to the status of a national civil religion. Reconciliation, or, the bringing together of disparate social factions to find harmonious common ground, is action based on thinking derived from synthetic vision.

Many of the world’s leaders have already come together to agree on principals that have a synthetic ring to them. These were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 in a document called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its Preamble states, in part:

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, …

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore, The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

This is recommended reading for all members of the new group of world servers, and can be found in its whole form on the United Nations web page on the internet at http://www.unhchr.ch.

There are many other individuals who are sounding a synthetic note in the world today; I want to mention a few of my favorites:

Hazel Henderson, futurist and author of Paradigms in Progress and Building a WIN-WIN World, Life Beyond Global Economic Warfare;

Robert Thurman, the first American to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk, father to actress Uma Thurman, author of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and his most recent book, Inner Revolution, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Real Happiness, about the export from Tibet of the culture of enlightenment;

Gordon Davidson, co-author of Spiritual Politics, the Valdez Principals; co-founder of The Center for Visionary Leadership (web site http://www.visionarylead.org);

Vaclav Havel, Czechoslovakian President, poet;

Oscar Arias Sanchez, Costa Rican President, winner of Nobel Prize for Peace in 1987;

Robert Muller, 40 years a worker at the UN, aide to three Secretaries-General, author of New Genesis, Shaping a Global Spirituality;

Al Gore, Vice President of the United States and an early endorser and champion of the internet;

Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama;

Jimmy Carter, President of the United States, Habitat for Humanity activist, and founder of The Carter Center in Atlanta, a mecca for social innovation.

All of us struggle with synthesis, and today many intentionally strive for it. Synthesis is the ideal at the heart of the Unity and Diversity movement, and what the Unitarian Universalist Church seeks to support and encourage. It is at the center of all of the UN challenges around the world.

As our "ring-pass-not," i.e., our circle of responsibility and mastery, expands, ever more diversity needs to be harmonized. The whole is getting larger for all of us in this "Information Age."

How do we get so many diverse units to work as a cooperative whole? I could say, with an impish grin, "Gee, look at how well God does it, when man is not ‘chiming’ in."

Look at the orchestration of the human body, and the interdependent ecosystems in nature, and at the planets and solar systems all moving in divine order. As we take up our roles as conscious co-creators, we are "sort of" in the awkward teenager stage—wanting the power and freedom to create, and unable, as of yet, to think in terms of the whole. Instead, we often have the attitude that we "know it all" and, consequently, get the learning experience from "messing things up."

Real compassion looks into the heart of the "other" to see what they need. How do we love more? Keep this question in the forefront of our minds.

Look deeper

Be more present

Be self-revealing (not with camouflage and very appropriately)

Express true motives and intents with right timing and context

Listen … the practice of deep listening is transformative; it brings us into the "Whole."

We in the esoteric movement have for so long emphasized that "separativeness is the great heresy" (Blavatsky), that it is the greatest "sin" that mankind perpetuates in the service of the dark forces. We can easily recognize that separative attitudes are the source of most of the great evil in the world. The condemnation of "the other" or others is at the root of war and personal conflicts.

When we reflect upon the meaning of the Ten Commandments of the Christian traditions they all reduce down to Thou shalt not be separative or, Thou shalt not perform separative acts.

The new commandment, delivered to us 2,000 years ago by the Christ, has come down to us as, Thou shalt love thy brother as thyself. Could this also be said as, Thou shall recognize the essential unity of one another? And, isn’t this another way of saying, Thou shalt synthesize?

The "ten" further reduce to:

Thou shalt not segment into selfish fragments.

And … the "new:"

Thou shalt think feel and act for the greatest good of the whole. (= synthesis)

So, if I can be so glib, the rules of Christianity distill to: Thou shall not be separative, and Thou shall synthesize.

Achieving synthetic vision is an inevitable part of the path of the initiate participating in intentional self-evolution.

Intuition is the synthetic understanding which is the prerogative of the soul and it only becomes possible when the soul, on its own level, is reaching in two directions: towards the Monad, and towards the integrated and, perhaps (even if only temporarily) coordinated and at-oned personality. It is the first indication of a deeply subjective unification which will find its consummation at the third initiation.

Intuition is a comprehensive grip of the principle of universality, and when it is functioning there is, momentarily at least, a complete loss of the sense of separateness. At its highest point, it is known as that Universal Love which has no relation to sentiment or to the affectional reaction but is, predominantly, in the nature of an identification with all beings. Then is true compassion known; then does criticism become impossible; then, only, is the divine germ seen as latent in all forms.

Intuition is light itself, and when it is functioning, the world is seen as light and the light bodies of all forms become gradually apparent. This brings with it the ability to contact the light center in all forms, and thus again an essential relationship is established and the sense of superiority and separateness recedes into the background.

How these energies impact will depend on how we have prepared ourselves, how we have built our sensitivity to the synthesis aspect, how far we have gone to develop it in ourselves, our groups, our communities, our nations. Preparation for this energetic event is group work.

Let us remember that, "Human beings themselves must also destroy the prejudices, the animosities and the fixed ideas which have prevented synthesis, which have created cleavages and hindered right understanding." (A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. V, p752.)

However, we will be assisted in this process, for:

Synthesis dictates the trend of all the evolutionary processes today; all is working towards larger unified blocs, towards amalgamations, international relationships, global planning, brotherhood, economic fusion, the free flow of commodities everywhere, interdependence, fellowship of faiths, movements based upon the welfare of humanity as a whole, and ideological concepts which deal with wholes and which militate against division, separation and isolation.

(A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. V, p121.)

Los Angeles, because of its extreme diversity, is the perfect playing ground for the new synthesis of forms to work out. The work we are doing in the Los Angeles Heart Project is very much in synch with these evolutionary forces for, in opening the heart, the synthetic influences will have greater play. We encourage your participation in these monthly public meditations.

I hope to have heightened your awareness of synthesis and that it will now show up on your radar with greater frequency.