Choices, continued...

When you get right down to it, it’s about choices. Evolution, that big mysterious concept, is simply our learning to become aware of the choices we are constantly making. First we begin to realize that we are choosing. Next we learn the often appalling, to say nothing of painful, lessons concerning just what is motivating or causing our choices, and then, gradually, we gain control by bringing the motive engine of the soul, our spiritual will, to bear. Finally, we began to make deliberate, conscious choices..., and we start the long trek out of the darkness toward the Light, out of the unreal toward the Real and eventually out of death and into Life.

These are the reasons why the notion of Free Will, an essential aspect of human consciousness, is so crucial to our liberty, to our very existence. The concept embedded in the word “Human” signifies the ability to freely choose. When we say, “This is a human being.”, we are signifying that this being has the power to freely determine his own way. It is this fact that discriminates between the 4^th Kingdom and the 3^rd Kingdom, in whose bodies we still get around, more clearly than any other.

This fact is also why systems of control—either overt through the force of arms or power, or covert through the force of fear, the use of the lie, or the use of psychic manipulation of one kind or another—that force or impose the views of one on another, that limit or take away a person’s right to exercise free will, are dehumanizing. Some of the most insidious and effectively repressive of these systems, are virtually invisible and operate on a line of least resistance. These are social, economic and religious systems which, initially, were probably put in place by force or fear, but which have been in place so long, they have gained cultural status.

Examples abound, but perhaps the easiest to see are the race lies that proclaim the superiority of one race over another, the myths of male superiority and female inferiority, and the notion that only those who subscribe to certain religions are God’s children, the others being infidels, heathens, or what have you. These kinds of cultural systems are part of the Great Illusion. They  constitute the substance of a number of the veils that hang between humanity and the Kingdom of God. These illusions split humanity into benighted pieces. They deny the light of essential divinity and free will to each side, for in the very instant that one acts to deny the free will of another, one denies his own free will.

How long will it take us to see this simple fact? No matter how diverse the differences in form, we are not separate from our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters.

The solution to these splits in reality—as Dr, King, among many others, continually pointed out—is not that one side or the other needs to unite in one massive block against or in opposition to the other. This is the old way. This is the way of force and coercion. It supports the illusion of separation. It results in revolution not evolution as the painful history of millennia reveals. This is the path of the old cultural habits, the path of least resistance and when followed, it would, as it always has, simply weave more tightly the veils of separation.

Humanity does not need separation. Humanity needs bridges, bridges that pierce the veils and unite the pieces. We need bridges that will connect Black, Brown, Yellow, Red and White, Catholic, Moslem, Protestant and Jew. Humanity needs bridges that will generate a union that allows all sides to see the diversity of God’s presence and to learn to discriminate between the forms God assumes and the essence of God which would in turn let us see that, as Dr. King said, “We are all God’s children.”

In the case of the cultural myths regarding gender superiority and inferiority, the solution is the same. Both victims of the great Lie, woman and man became separated over the centuries. The separation destroyed the character and essential divinity of each. Each was and to a large extent still is caught in the web of the lie. Neither is able to exercise  self-determination.

As we need bridges that unite the world’s races and religions, we desperately need a bridge that re-unites woman and man. Just as we needed to re-build the antahkarana, we need to re-create the union between the sexes. We need a union that recognizes gender as part of God’s diversity, a union that recognizes the essential divinity and dignity and innate right to self-determination of every human regardless of gender. Woman and man always and only co-exist, each giving meaning and value to the other. When the true role and co-existing value of the feminine and masculine is finally recognized again the unity of the race will be achieved.

But it remains for us to see and to understand. A person who, for whatever reason, is denied the right to freely choose his or her path is being denied the essence of being human. The person is reduced to the animal state.

A primary objective of the Forces of Retrogression is the enslavement, actually the elimination, of humanity through the elimination of free will. The elimination of one’s free will is the root crime of classism, of gender or sexism, of racism, of ageism and all such lie based, freedom sucking phantoms that stalk the landscape of human life. On a global scale, the denial of free will is the root crime, apparently invisible to our present appointed leaders, of a world power like the United States shoving, by force of arms, its version of democracy or freedom or economics down the throats of any other country. It dehumanizes the people of the country.

Well, as we can see, in a human life, choice is a law, a constant. It is an unavoidable constant, I might add. Of importance is the realization that only the foolish and benighted think that it is possible to avoid choice and remain human.

As I have mentioned, when we finally get around to it, or down to it, it’s about choices. When we start taking a closer look at this choice business, we learn that many of our choices, as I indicated, have been and are now made on the basis of the line of least resistance. If we were a river, that would mean we would cut through the soft parts of the land, and swing around the hard parts. In the river of a human life, following the line of least resistance is akin to following old ingrained habits. It does not matter to where following the path of the habit will lead one, even if, as is often the case, it leads to disaster of one form or another.

The Colorado river is instructive in this case. Over countless millenniums, this river, by following the path of least resistance, has created The Grand Canyon. There is no doubt that if one has had an opportunity to see this magnificent canyon, one would conclude that it is truly one of the wonders of the world.

A few years ago I spent a large portion of a week walking along and sitting on the rim of this canyon. One day, by virtue of being caught in and marveling at the canyon’s particular beauty, I was literally incapable of doing anything else. Thus, I found my self late that afternoon, as daylight was draining into the sunset, just sitting there enthralled by the shifting colors, and the changing shapes of fantastic beings and great warriors that would emerge from and fade into the canyon walls.

I could hardly tell the etheric realm from the dense physical. The canyon appeared to actually be alive, to be a living moving breathing being. I was seeing the Deva of the Canyon, you might say.

Well, as I sat within this magical world, it suddenly occurred to me that, although Grand, although expressing truth in a frequency of beauty that was literally stunning, the message was, the truth was that this was a canyon, a beautiful alluring place but a canyon, out of which it would be very hard for anyone to get.

It was one of those flashes, you know, one of those moments of insight. There was a message there and it had to do with choices and with following the path of least resistance. By emulating the river, by following the line of least resistance, many of us have made canyons of our lives

We have lives of material comfort, and happiness. And it is true; many of us have beauty in our lives. However, what matters most to us, it seems, is that to follow the line of least resistance is the easiest path. It requires the least amount of effort and is comfortable.

The path of least resistance leads into the country of the well known. It leads one into that comforting palace of familiarity, and I might add, deeper and deeper into the Grand Canyon of the Great Illusion. It leads eventually, if I may use the words of the Master M. to “the cemetery of the spirit.”

My assumption is that these are concepts about which we have all heard many times. We may even have become familiar with them to the point where we hear the words, but fail to register the meaning or significance any longer. I sound them once more because of the demands of the time.

I have just two things to say here. One of them deals with this path of least resistance. Very bluntly, following this path will not get one up the mountain. At best it will send one off into horizontal byways for entire incarnations. At worst it will carve a canyon of illusion out of which it will be very difficult for the pilgrim to get. The Path between the two ways is vertical, not horizontal. It requires choosing “the way less traveled by.”

A statement from D.K. about the frequency the Christ will bring when He next appears among us might be appropriate here. “It is the Fire of Love which He will bring; it is the message of the purificatory fire which He will sound; He will not teach anent the waters of purification, as has hitherto been the symbolic imparted truth; He will impart the fire which burns and destroys all barriers in man's nature, all separating walls between individuals, between groups and between nations. Are you prepared as individuals, as disciples and aspirants to submit yourselves to this fire?” Discipleship In the New Age Vol. I P. 722 One would think that The Teacher is talking here about the Spiritual Will. It is this energy that chooses the “Way less traveled by.”

The other aspect of choice which I think is of paramount importance is the universally held notion that we can avoid making choices. One would think that what follows is so blatantly obvious that it really does not require explication. However, the fact is that millions of people, including any number of those who count themselves in the spiritual camp, indulge in the fantasy that choosing is avoidable.

The unconscious but very common name for this particular glamour is “Not Getting Involved.”  Many of us think that, faced with a challenging choice—that is—faced with a situation that might conceivably cause some waves in the otherwise placid lake of one’s existence, one can simply not choose. We think that we can play the “not get involved” card. We think that by “not getting involved”, that is refusing to choose, we can avoid the waves and, incidentally, the responsibility for them.

Just a moment of detached, objective consideration will reveal that nothing could be further from truth than this notion. Many folks, however, are into deepening the canyons of their lives. They prefer the comfortable narrow canyon view, and simply refuse to even look at things from the rim. The possibility of rim consciousness, of a wider view gradually fades from their lives.

Esotericists, of course, are automatically eliminated from exercising the “Not Getting Involved” option because they know that synthesis is, that separation is an illusion, that life is unavoidably interdependent. They are involved.

It is quite clear that not getting involved, ergo, refusing to choose, supports the issue on one side or the other. It is therefore quite clear that not choosing is a choice. It is also quite clear that, just as they do from any choice, consequences will flow from this choice.

I know that I have been harping on this issue for several years now, but it is actually the folks who do not want to get involved that represent the largest obstacle to humanity’s forward movement at the moment. The non- involvement of these folks, in most cases, actually supports the repressive, freedom limiting propositions of the forces of darkness.

These folks are the comfortable planetary intelligentsia. They are the people who have educations. They have the sense of security, perhaps false, but to them, very real, that flows from having jobs, homes, healthcare, expendable income, and so forth. Ideas like right sharing, right human relations, universal health care, living wages, gender equality, full employment, and universal education frighten them. They would rather not get involved in the analysis, the discussion, the reasons for sharing and brotherhood.

Meanwhile, the forces of materialism are very busy generating a steady river of obfuscation, a river of fear-laden propaganda that is literally terrifying to the comfortable canyon dwellers. It frightens them to think that they will have to disturb their comfortable lives, so, as they carve the canyons of their lives deeper, the walls that shut out the real world become higher. I have been in canyons that were so narrow, with walls so high that they seem to meet near the top and only the very thinnest line of sky is visible. Some of these canyons where not in Utah or Colorado, but in people’s homes.

The challenge that faces us—and by us I mean all the world’s disciples, all of the people of good will, anyone who loves humanity and has some understanding of this situation—the challenge that faces us is how to encourage our brothers and sisters to see, in some cases that tiny sliver of sky, and choose the nobler way. As D. K. has said, “The work you have to do is to take the knowledge which is yours and adjust its application to the world's need so that recognition of the truth may be rapid.  In the heart of every man lies hid the flower of the intuition.  On that you can depend, and no eternal or cosmic fact clothed in a suitable form will fail to receive its meed of recognition and understanding.” Rays and Initiations P. 11

We know that if they will look, they will see, and they will choose the Path of Light… because they are, after all, human beings.

In another crisis equally as significant as this one, F.D.R. said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear.”  I do believe that the choice that faces us now is to throw everything we are and have into the task of somehow getting through to those folks who are hiding in those canyons to help them somehow to wake up and join the human family. I think that this is a task that can be done if enough of us can find the courage and the will to do whatever it takes.

Tom Carney October 2003