Theosophy Northwest View

Humanity Is Made of People

Sometimes the goals pointed to by sages and teachers inspire and discourage us at the same time.  We know our-selves fairly well; we realize how far away we are from those peaks of spiritual attainment.  Still, there are signposts we overlook.  By exemplifying the teaching they propound, the seers and guides of mankind reveal attitudes that can be far more helpful in our daily life than the vast knowledge we might gain from a close scrutiny of metaphysical ideologies.

Who of us, for example, has not been thwarted by frequent interruptions?  If we are in the middle of work we consider important – work, moreover, that must be finished – and suddenly the phone rings or someone knocks on the door, what happens?  Perhaps these are superficial social calls. Isn't it easy to become irritated beyond reason?  We may even be rude in our efforts to shake them off, justifying our action by the importance of the task at hand.  But are we justified?

Porphyry, with some wonderment, described Plotinus in this familiar situation.  During long tedious hours of writing down his philosophical concepts, thinking as he went along, he had a constant stream of visitors – people who generally had no vital business with him. Instead of concluding that their casual calling was blocking an essential task and turning them aside as quickly as possible, Plotinus put down his pen, welcomed them warmly, gave of himself as long as they wished, and only then returned to his labors.  Obviously, as he saw it, his guests, whoever they might be, unfailingly represented his immediate duty; the treatise could wait.

Jesus was chided for giving comfort to various persons whom his followers considered unworthy of attention and concern.  We all know his reaction: no one was ever turned away.  Years ago I came across these words by W. Q. Judge:

“You dislike to be interrupted. You have decided to sit down and write or read on some useful subject.  A person comes who perchance happens to be a bore or who is not agreeable personally to you.  First, you do not wish to have your fixed object laid aside, and, second, you dislike being bored.  Both these are solely personal.  In this case – unless of course some pressing duty to others requires you to go on – you should at once mortify the personal self by dropping the reading, writing, or whatever it is, and attend to the wants of the other person.  Judgment must be used.  But there will be every day and in all places opportunity after opportunity to pursue this practice. It is the giving up of yourself.”

This passage carried great impact, for the advice was exactly opposite to my own views and behavior.  I decided to try it out.  The understanding gained through the interchange of ideas, problems, and reactions in general conversation, with any individual who came to me – whom I no longer inwardly turned away – proved a gift of inestimable worth, to say nothing of being released from intense frustration.

Every system of religious thought asks that we trust implicitly in some divine Intelligence. This implies that there is meaning in everything, not excluding the events that happen to each living thing in the universe, from moment to moment, from age to age.  If ours is a universe of cosmic law and order (and evidence certainly supports this theory), then there can be no accidental happenings; there is purpose in every contact we make with other individuals, whenever and wherever this occurs.  There are extremely subtle currents flowing in the sphere of personal relationships.  A "chance" remark by a friend or stranger has the power to change the course of our lives.  And we may unconsciously give others a new outlook that will help them at just the right time.

We have been told: "Seek and ye shall find." Possibly we search too far afield, imagining that spiritual understanding comes only with thundering drums.  Might not enlightenment come in the wisdom of a child's observation, a neighbor's trials, an example of human courage?  These are little things, but the fullness of our lives is made up of just such moments of awareness.  Aside from the fact that we could not long endure a constant leaping from crisis to crisis, it is in the quiet times in between that we garner the strength and stability to meet whatever comes, regardless of its magnitude. The quality of our relations with others plays no small part in this.

We are inclined to become so mentally occupied with the intricacies of religious and philosophical doctrines that we largely ignore, or toss aside as mere ethics, many basic principles that could supply us with the answers necessary to successful living. The often understated teaching involved with the reality of inner ties that bind humanity together is an example.  Yet could we not spend a life pondering the impli-cations contained in the expression "Love ye one another"?