Certainly, everyone reading this Newsletter has long felt in their hearts the call to something new and beautiful – the call to a better world and to a life richer in meaning and quality.
We have been cultivating these aspirations over a long period of time and have prepared ourselves by committing to be protagonists in the birth of a new world – not just passive spectators. Many of us have dedicated a large portion of our lives, as well as our best resources, to realising this dream.
Right now, in the early 2020s with the procession of long-awaited astrological dates acting as harbingers of renewal, the form side of life has become more difficult and complex and, in many cases, even more arduous.
The focus of attention and awareness that in previous times was to a large degree concentrated on the formulation of new ideas and new models, has rapidly become captured by the unfolding drama that marks planetary life today. This drama engulfs and affects everyone and is no longer limited to certain parts of the world. Now, we all share common challenges of extreme climate change, pandemics and wars that cause migration of populations to name just a few. The list of challenges facing humanity appears to be endless.
When these challenges affect our daily life and the choices each of us is called to make concern the world of forms, this worldly plane inevitably becomes a point of focus from which we observe and make sense of life. It is therefore all too easy to take a more horizontal view and to seek concrete answers to the challenges we are now encountering.
Without realizing it, the world of ‘aspirations for a better future’ and that of ‘current concrete considerations’, begin to drift apart until they become two separate worlds. Even to the point of seeming divergent. When this occurs it is difficult to remain steadfast and hold to a unified vision of life that includes and harmonizes all the different aspects and levels. And this mismatch might even undermine the experience of our own identity.
One tendency could be to accept and stay with what life presents us in the here and now of daily life, postponing the mental and pragnmatic commitment towards constructing the world of our aspirations to a future date. It is like saying, “now I have other things to take care of and everything else must wait.”
In some people, the perception of a separation between parts of oneself – aspirations on one hand and physical and concrete life on the other – is such that it leads to reducing and minimizing the value given to our aspirations and dreams so that we tend to focus mainly on a horizontal plane and perspective.
This appears to be the plan nurtured in large part by the media. Whatever interpretation of the facts is put forward and proposed by them, always appears to comes across as horizontal. After all, the task of the media is focused on the level of form, known facts and concrete experience.
On this level, everything can only be black or white. Above all, this level provides no truth that holds. Everything can turn into its opposite in a flash depending on the point from which we look at the issues. This applies to all kinds of issues facing us. Specifically, examination of the great problems afflicting humanity through different perspectives and limited lenses, each with its own partial point of truth, causes paralysis in decision-making or impulsive choices that fail to consider all aspects of the issue at stake.
It is therefore not surprising that insecurity and fear are rampant, causing discomfort in people and creating challenges in their relationship with others.
This is happening in our individual lives, but also inside the context of families and friendships and, unfortunately, also inside our group life.
We are in the midst of the battle, to use a term dear to the Agni Yoga teaching. Perhaps we had imagined this battle would take place between us and an outside world hostile to our beloved ideals. Instead, it is being fought much closer to home. It is happening within us in the conflict between our thoughts and emotions, or between one opinion and another. It is happening in the world of relationships and it is happening inside the various parts of society to which we belong. The concreteness with which the state of battle presents itself clearly tells us that we cannot exempt ourselves from participating. This is what we are now all living with.
Therefore, it is a question of cultivating an image of ourselves that is different from before. Trying, for example, to see ourselves placed on a high-wire, upon which we must keep a certain point of balance that must be constantly monitored. From this point of poise, we may observe everything that concerns our concrete life and its requests while at the same time keep our eyes turned towards our highest aspirations. Perhaps it is time to act not only as we have done before but even more than before with greater determination and courage.
It does not mean abstracting ourselves from the concrete challenges of life and taking refuge in a dream world which is increasingly distant from reality. It is a matter of accepting this position of equilibrium which at times can be somewhat uncomfortable.
It is a question of consciously accepting that a state of battle exists and consider this to be an integral part of the new world we wish to see born. The daily effort each of us makes to stay balanced between concrete facts and aspirations is already part of the victory we seek to achieve. A characteristic note of the state in which we find ourselves is the simultaneity of all experiences, of all differing feelings and even all the destructive events. In this day and age, there are so many certainties that are collapsing together – not just one at a time as before. This demanding simultaneity is also a key factor in achieving victory to the extent we are able to accept it.
Another factor is the speed of events. Problems that in the past took years to reveal themselves, are today presenting and revealing themselves extremely rapidly. We need to deal with them at the same rapid speed. Therefore we are called to accelerate motion, first of all by increasing the dynamism of consciousness upon which external life depends.
While we are balanced on that high-wire, let us remember that this awkward position represents the period of gestation before a new Birth – as individuals and as one human community.
We proceed with our gaze steadily turned to the future – a future preparing to pour through each one of us. While we live in a world of uncertain forms, we must content ourselves for now with the art of compromise. We need to choose the most intelligent solution that can be accessed, knowing that whatever this may be, it will only have a partial and temporary effect and function.
Even the different opinions which we debate and struggle with are always and only partial. None of them represent the whole Truth. We are not yet ready to grasp the “real truth” Truth is that which does not stand on one side or the other but which simply expresses “what is” – certain and indisputable. ‘Truth’ will descend from above with certainty and with precise and timely clarity only when we have learned to be in the right position to attract and welcome it into our being. Until that moment, all that remains is the horizontal battle with its consequent and inevitable losses.
The days of our upcoming conference will be dedicated to looking together at the “lower level” of our individual and planetary life in order to welcome and heal it as well as gazing upward to attract and preciptate the future. Above all, we will attempt as a group to stay balanced on the high-wire of life, expectantly awaiting the New Birth.
by Marina Bernardi
Read more about the “Towards a Planetary Renaissance” Online Event here