Following on from the previous blog on Identification and Initiation, I want to talk about evolution in our tradition. In particular I want to confront those limitations embedded in earlier versions – the remnants of sexism, racism, anti-materialism, and so on.
As mentioned previously, the awakening to the fact that evolution is at work in both forms and consciousness is one of the key insights of the twentieth century. Non dual Be-ness is ever present and unchanging in time and space. Consciousness of that Be-ness and the forms to express it however are evolving. More planes or forms are continually being birthed, and as they interact with consciousness, more and more sophisticated consciousness is evolving. The Ageless Wisdom tradition is no exception. There have always been those who awakened to Life. Awakening is one half of the story however, that some have expressed as “Wake Up, Grow Up.”.
Awakening in the sixth century or the sixteenth century would have been the same core experience of the non dual, but it would have been understood very differently and expressed differently depending on the cultures. So we want to be able to receive the current of being in the teachings but not the dogma or the concepts which were once leading edge, but now belong in history.
An example of this is what Simon is talking about when we says to welcome Schopenhauer’s great insights but trump the misogyny.
Between the second and third phases of the tradition we have had the sixties, and a great development and evolution in the way we understand our culture. Sex, race, civil rights, environmentalism, to name a few.
Many people who study the Bailey tradition for example, feel like they have to accept it all together, so while the transmission of consciousness is undoubted, the forms that consciousness expresses through make many sound stilted, old fashioned and carrying prejudice.
Many of the formulated ideas and the underlying tone reflect both the culture in which DK as a soul grew up and became enlightened in, and the culture of Alice Bailey. Lack of attention to evolving those forms results in the alienation of young people who are growing up in a modern world and are hungry for the essence and the understanding but not the old forms.
One can see the evolution in the work of Blavatsky, Bailey, Steiner, Cedercrans and so on.
Part of the function of those in third phase is to grow and evolve both the forms and the consciousness though which the ever present Be-ness is shining.
In my view the ability to bravely face these limitations and evolve them will be a key point of distinction between the second and third phases.
Bruce Lyon