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From the thread of peace the cocoon of true peace is spun. Let all realize the salient truth that just as the capacity for misbehavior and violence exists within the human potential, so there also exists the capacity for positive action and peace through the mighty reservoir of spiritual strength that is in the citadel of the heart. Those who are inclined to exercise wrong choice have just as much of the potential for peace within them as those who are inclined to exercise right choice. It is a matter of adaptability, of a man's motivation and his determined effort to select and express those exalting qualities of the Christ-nature which create hidden strengths in the motif of his life weavings.
Try to realize that your life is being spun from the domain of your thoughts and feelings into a covering garment that will affect not only your future but also the future of all mankind. With the ascendancy of goals such as these, man will find it much easier to prevent the flow of interfering thoughts; and with the passing of time, he will be able to effectively transmute all interferences with his divine plan into more generous impulses, toward both himself and his fellowman.
I would like to speak of the preconditioning of the mind and emotions which compels man to react according to patterns that have become ingrained within the nervous system through hereditary and environmental influences. Thus instead of utilizing the flow of the divine energy that beats man's heart to initiate new cycles of perfection, he reacts according to the modes of his former experience when he attempted to resolve similar situations and problems from the standpoint of imperfection. While he remains in this state, his personal progress is hampered proportionately as he indulges what psychologists have called his "conditioned reflexes."
How delightful it would be if you would bypass those reflexes and attitudes that originated in an awareness of imperfection, if you would exercise your freedom of choice and your freedom to espouse perfection! Then you would carefully examine every circumstance you encounter with both your heart and your head and base each decision you make upon the reflection of your highest purpose rather than on a reaction to your lowest motivations. How easy it is for individuals to function in a manner that seems to satisfy the irritated sensibilities that man mistakes for his Real Self. But if they would pause to reflect upon the manner in which their Divine Self would deal with conditions of imperfection, they would find themselves not lacking in spiritual resources at all, but instead possessing undreamed-of capacities that are actually within the range of their own consciousness.
Won't you think about the fact that no man except yourself can actually defraud you of the beautiful storehouse of infinite wisdom that is right within your being, having been placed there by God? There are men of varying capabilities, it is true; but in addition to those capabilities that can be called lesser and greater, they also have a far greater spiritual capacity than they realize. The Law simply allows for people of different levels of human achievement - those who are well educated and those whose academic experience is meager - to draw forth the same divine potential of Christ-conduct. This can happen if they are willing to pursue that conduct and if they realize that the divine potential is ever ready and waiting to assist them in the highest manifestation of purpose and if, when confronted by the opposite, they remember to pause a moment, as the saying goes, to count to nine before acting.
If, in spinning the substance of their personal history and writing it upon the pages of their life, individuals would reach beyond the level of reaction to one of original insight in keeping with the goals of Christian conduct, they would be simply amazed at what they can accomplish in the span of a year. What a difference those three hundred and sixty-five days can mean to those who are determined to conquer the purposeless trends of the human consciousness!
Now we are aware of the multitude of the involvements of thought and feeling that beset mankind - of the struggles that bear a similitude in the lives of all, regardless of the level of their sophistication. Yes, each man is an individual; and it seems at times that his personal dreams isolate him from his peers more than they unite him with them. But from the range of our experience and from a calm viewing of the purposes of Life and the attitudes of the mankind of earth, we of the Hierarchy believe that greater thought upon the common lot of each individual evolving upon the planet will not cheapen individual life but rather enrich it.
Surely those who look at life in a universal sense see the outworking of universal purpose even when individuals fall short of the perfect outpicturing of that plan. These failures should not be dwelt upon, but a moment's reflection upon them will show those who have a proper attitude how an honest reckoning of personal failures can be an incentive to future success.
Some say what a tragedy it is that some people make so little progress in the course of a lifetime. Beloved hearts of gold surrounded with the golden flame of illumination, be wise! In the hidden recesses of man's heart there are often recognitions that do not readily appear upon the surface. Progress is not measured by man but by the Karmic Board, those Intelligences that God has placed in the structure of universal Life for the specific purpose of making the correct assessments that will help individuals and society to make their mark upon the pages of each age. Life is not a tragedy or a comedy, but an ongoingness which, from the domain of their own limitation, individuals often view sparsely.
Christ came to spread abroad the abundant Life1 and the sense thereof. When man consciously removes himself from the socket of individual or collective failure, he will witness the steadfast, forward movement of Life that runs like a thread throughout the universe. Through his sense of integration with Cosmos, man will suddenly discover what was not readily apparent to him; for now he is willing to discover it. The blacks and whites of life, as well as the grey tones, will be seen not so much in their checkered patterns; but little by little they will come to represent a progressive thinning of what is without doubt a nebulous veil and a removal from the consciousness of those opacities of life which render the true image unclear. Thus a new cut, a new cross section of Life, will appear; and the Hand of God will be seen in those places where it was least expected to show itself.
The Hierarchy of Light can also be subtle; it can also function where it is not recognized; it can and it does act ceaselessly in the fulfillment of divine and universal purpose, strengthening the bonds of love upon earth and acting in the life of each individual to produce a great and beautiful blessing. The fact that the eyes do not behold what they expect to see does not mean that God has not worked, that Heaven has not provided the answer.
Learn to chastise yourselves less and to trust your Higher Self more. And watch how this will help to bring a greater sense of peace, and with it a prosperity of soul that will enable each day to become a rung upon a ladder - a ladder of compassion, a ladder of unification, a ladder of cosmic integration.
The Hierarchy awaits the hand of its workers. The labors of love that are consciously given are cosmically appreciated, and all whose efforts together swing the pendulum of the worlds Godward are welcome. Those whose efforts form a pattern that is less apparent seldom see the overall purposes that are being accomplished through them; nevertheless, they will also receive their reward. Only those who hinder the plan of Divine Love may tremble.
Devoted to the filling-in of the great sketch of the Universal Architect and the materialization together with the spiritualization of His design which remains a stream of outgoing purpose that forever appears,
I remain your Servant in Christ,