by
Marshall Vian Summers
from
GreaterCommunity Website
"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Chinese Proverb
As the war clouds
darken, many people around the world are expressing a growing
apprehension and anxiety as we are about to pull the trigger,
setting off a long series of unforeseen consequences. Our
government's short-term thinking regarding Iraq and the Middle East
will likely be a catalyst for a much larger and longer set of
events. The war against terrorism is about to be escalated, not only
by us, but against us. All this will be done to get rid of one man,
Saddam Hussein. The first casualties of this pre-emptive war will be
the real victims of this one man: the Iraqi people. But this will
only be the beginning. The sparks will fly in all directions within
a very dry forest.
Those of us who are students of The Greater Community Teaching and
those who are discovering
the Teaching for the first time have a
rare opportunity to see this seminal event within a larger context
and to counteract the growing fear and hostility that are rising all
around us. The Teaching enables us to gain a Greater Community
perspective, which enables us to see our small world within the
context of a universe full of intelligent life. With this
perspective, we can see humanity as one people drifting in an ocean
of space on one small world. Our interdependence and need for
cooperation with one another become very clear with this
understanding. It also becomes very clear that wars waged for
expediency or national dominance are a major setback to any attempt
to build human unity. As the Greater Community Teaching has
revealed, building this unity within the human family is crucial to
our ability to survive and to maintain our freedom in the face of
intervening races of beings from beyond our world who are already
present in the world today. (To learn more about this, see my paper
"Who is Marching Us to War?" and my book1 "The Allies of Humanity: An
Urgent Message About the Extraterrestrial Presence in the World
Today".)
Our world is teetering in a fragile balance. It is easy now for any
nation or even a hidden extraterrestrial presence to send the
dominoes rolling against one another. The embers of conflict are
glowing in many places, waiting to be ignited into a raging fire. In
America, we should not be arrogant in asserting ourselves with
bravado or believing that God is on our side. Our role as the
strongest nation is one of tremendous responsibility. This position
requires enormous restraint. We are symbols and examples to the rest
of the world. Their perceptions of us, whether justified or not,
cannot be ignored. Whatever we do now, others will feel justified
doing in the future.
How can we know what to do at this turning point? And how can we
work to prevent war from erupting within ourselves and within the
world? These are important questions. But to answer them effectively
will require courage and a greater set of abilities. The Greater
Community Teaching speaks to this need directly. It provides the
"Steps" to discovering a deeper kind of Knowledge that represents
the voice of conscience within us. This deeper Knowledge can reveal
itself dramatically in these unsettled times. Knowledge resides in a
very still place within us. It possesses an intelligence and wisdom
that are far greater than our intellect. Its power is greater than
our beliefs, our fears and our social conditioning. This kind of
Knowledge is not the product of schooling, belief or ideology. We
are all born with it. It is a latent power within us that has
largely been undiscovered. Knowledge is ready to provide vital
direction for each one of us, which can mean the difference between
safety and danger, life and death and peace and war. It is God's
greatest and most important gift and each of us has it living deep
within us.
Knowledge is deeper and more pervasive than our ideas, opinions and
passions. The ideas and passions of those advocating war and the
ideas and passions of those advocating peace, each with their own
definitions of justice and punishment, can be equally blinding. War
is not always the best prescription. It is, with rare exceptions,
far more destructive and long lasting than we ever consider at the
outset. Even if unavoidable, it produces consequences that cannot be
foreseen. Peace is not always the best prescription either.
Sometimes you have to make war within yourself to change bad habits
or to overthrow oppressive ideas. This, by the way, is the greater
meaning of "Jihad," waging war within to purify yourself. Sometimes
you have to sacrifice peace in your own family to speak the truth or
to set limits. Peace is always desirable in human affairs, but not
always possible. Sometimes you have to speak out against your
government's policies and against your country's prevailing
attitudes or ignorance. Sometimes even a revolution must occur in
order to fight off oppression. Our country and many others were born
out of such struggles. Every time you express yourself honestly, you
risk conflict and reprisal. Every time you act courageously to take
a necessary action, someone may be threatened or affronted. Even
when you express yourself with the greatest of care and compassion,
conflict may still arise. Yet real honesty, which comes from
Knowledge, whether it is disturbing or comforting, will set you and
others on a path towards resolution.
Consider this quote from
Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner
Knowing (The Greater Community Book of Practices):
"Two individuals, or two nations, or even two worlds, will have no
issues of contention if they are guided by Knowledge, for Knowledge
will always seek to join individuals in a meaningful way and to
clarify their interactions with one another. It is not possible that
Knowledge be in conflict with itself, for there is no opposition
within Knowledge. It has one purpose and one aim, and to this it
organizes all activity. It organizes all forms of opposition into
serving one purpose and one direction. Thus, it is the great
peacemaker in the world. As you abide with Knowledge, you will
become the vehicle for its expression. Then, you will teach peace
because peace itself will be teaching through you."
Steps 283:
"The world is ambivalent, but I am not."
The greater Knowledge that the Creator has given us cannot be in
conflict with itself. Our interpretations and experiences of
Knowledge can vary, but even here, if we are responding to
Knowledge, a common ground will become apparent. Hostility, rage,
conflict, revenge and war are all signs that Knowledge is not being
sought, experienced or expressed. In every moment, the great Gift of
the Creator is being neglected, either because it is unknown or
because it is being ignored for more expedient ends.
What then should be our response to war? Opposition? Perhaps. But
opposition alone can lead you to wage another kind of war against
people you disagree with. This opposition may be nonviolent at the
outset, but this can change. How many guerilla fighters and
terrorists today were once peace advocates? Opposition may indeed be
necessary, but is it a real answer or just an angry response in the
moment? Often we use our political positions to vent our rage and
indignation at one another, at society and at the world, usually
with a sense of self-satisfaction and superiority over our avowed
opponents. Indeed, there is as much rage and prejudice in the
antiwar camp as there is in the pro-war camp. Our response to war
must be something much more far reaching than simply protesting an
event or the actions of our government. It must be, in essence, a
return to Knowledge. With this understanding, conflict, war and all
of their attending causes and effects can be seen as a call to
return to Knowledge. This engenders restraint and compassion,
forethought and rethinking, all things that are so easily forgotten
in a passionate cause. This enables us to build something positive
and constructive in the world.
Consider this quote, again from
Steps to Knowledge:
"The commitment to
forgive, then, is the commitment to realize
Knowledge and to apply Knowledge, for Knowledge dispels unforgiveness like the light dispels the darkness. For there is only
Knowledge and the need for Knowledge. That is all that you can
possibly perceive in the universe."
Step 207:
"I forgive those whom I think have hurt me."
The Creator has already given a solution to every problem that
humanity has faced or created. It lives within us. In this way, God
does not have to manage our chaotic lives (a thankless job for
sure). God has placed a greater intelligence within us to guide and
protect us. Our schemes, problems and entanglements may seem
foolproof and irresolvable, but they are not God proof. Knowledge
working within us and with other people can show a way out.
Knowledge is ready to take each person from where they are today to
a greater realization and set of abilities. But who will receive it?
Who will listen? Will we listen or will we continue to press our
demands for war or peace. How many people are aware that such a
thing as Knowledge even exists? We all have, from time to time,
intuitive experiences, but where do these experiences come from?
They are fleeting fragments from Knowledge that have somehow managed
to filter past our preoccupations and defenses into our awareness.
How much more could we receive and understand if we consciously
opened ourselves to this Greater Intelligence within us?
How can we bring this Knowledge to bear its fruits in the world? We
begin with ourselves by learning
The Way of Knowledge. This means
learning to recognize, respond to and follow that Greater
Intelligence within us. One way is to take the steps presented in
Steps to Knowledge. This is a beginning to a greater experience of
our intrinsic power and purpose in the world. Our part is to
recognize our need for Knowledge, seeing that without Knowledge we
are lost and knowing that we must commit ourselves to its discovery.
The means have been given. The rest is up to us.
This is what spirituality is all about. Spirituality is not about
praising God. God doesn't need that. It is not about feeling good
all the time. Spirituality is not a drug. Spirituality is about
accepting, honoring and following what the Source of our
spirituality has given us to see and to do. This enables each of us
to do our part in building a just world and with it a lasting
foundation for freedom and security for all people.
This war in the making is like a fire in a forest. Once it is
started, it will be very difficult to put out. It is hot and windy
in that forest now. Whatever we start now will continue to burn for
a long time. It is an entanglement with unforeseen results and many
casualties. As Mark Twain once said about entanglements: "It is
easier to stay out than to get out."
The darkening skies and rising voices are more a call to Knowledge
than a call to arms. Respond to this calling and you can discover
how to become a real peacemaker in the world. Ask yourself, what do
I really know about going to war with Iraq at this time? How can I
find Knowledge within myself? Begin by asking questions that you
cannot easily answer yourself. Here it is not just answers that you
are asking for. We already have lots of answers for lots of things.
Here you are asking for a Greater Intelligence within you to guide
you and reveal to you what you will need to see and know in the
future in order to find your unique contribution and to become a
positive force in the world.
Before you commit yourself to a cause, no matter how compelling, I
recommend that you begin this deeper inquiry. The world does not
need more fear and rage, hatred and judgment. Instead, it needs the
wisdom, power and compassion that the Creator has given to each of
us. It is our job now to discover this deeper Knowledge within us
and have this become the driving motivation for our activism and
work for social change and justice. With Knowledge, we bring
something positive to the table. Real Knowledge always generates
constructive action. It will never leave you passive. Knowledge
leads you to the right place and the right people with the right
purpose and understanding to make a unique contribution in life.
This is our gift and our power. And the time for the giving of these
gifts and this power has come.
With all that is vested in me as the recipient and first student of
The Greater Community Way of Knowledge, I call upon all students of
this great Way to speak for the reality of Knowledge and to reach
out to people everywhere in order to begin to build our Greater
Community here on earth.
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