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.