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Transformation-the solution by Joy Mills

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Transformation —The Solution by JOY MILLS (Extracts from the Inaugural address at the 1982 Indo-Pacific Federation Conference)

During the recent Centenary Convention at Adyar, atten- tion was drawn to the statement in The Mahatma Letters that the work of the Theosophical Society is to bring about a regenerative brotherhood. This is not simply the acceptance of that which already exists but the realisation that there is such a thing as a regenerative brotherhood in which a cons- tant renewal is taking place.

The Theosophical Society was born in the last century in order to begin a process which is still continuing. Its work is far from done. There are those who believe that it is out of date. The glittering array of new saviours and teachers, new messiahs and gurus to whom they flock is all too absor- bing. But the work of the Society is still as it has always been — to transfrom the world within; to initiate a ‘new manner of thinking’ as Einstein calls it.

I have chosen Einstein’s words, not only because they are significant in themselves, but because he was a pre-eminent scientist, and science, in our time, has become increasingly the ma mode of’ knowing. But there are tremendous changes in scientific thinking — not, perhaps, by all scien- tists l)ut by many who are in the forefront, particularly in the field of physics, to some extent in biology, and certainly in psychology. Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, Einstein was not only a scientist but a human being deeply concerne(l for humanity’s welfare. It is this combination of disciplined knowing and a recognition of’ fundamental prin- ciples with a caring for life in whatever form it appears that enal)les us to find our way through the tangled course of our present uncertainty. It seems apparent, then, that we must awaken to a manner of thinking that comprehends the unitary nature ot the world and man — of life itself’; for we no longer live in a world in which man and nature are separate.

It is now suggestced by physicists that the very act of’obser- vation at the sub-atomic level of influences, in some man- ner, is that which is observed. Therefore we live in a participatory universe. We are not separate from it; the universe is no longer ‘out there’. This is not very different from the statement made by Krishnamurti: ‘The observer and the observed are one’. We cannot separate the two. We cannot observe the world without, in some sense, altering it. Consequently, we must be alert to the fact that the way we see that world is the way we project our own selves; we project on the world that which is within us.

We have now come to recognise that we need a transformed mode of thinking in which it is no longer man and the world or man against the world — a view so long prevalent par ticularly in western culture and, unfortunately, being accepted in the eastern world too. The technology imported by many Asian countries is designed to help man manipulate the world for man’s selfish ends. Martin Buber, the Jewish theologian describes an ‘I-Thou relationship’ in which the world is if ‘Thou’ and the ‘I’ is also the ‘Thou’. Everything is precious and must be cared for; there should be a concern for all life including the life of the planet itself.

The universe is interrelated and interdependent, rooted as the theosophical world view has always maintained, in an Ultimate Reality that both transcends and participates in all that exists. ‘With one portion of myself I pervade the world,’ says Sri Krishna, ‘and yet I remain.’ It is a mysterious paradox that the universe is relational because of an Ultimate Reality which permeates all existence and yet remaining forever transcendent.

Now we must not only seek to extend the boundaries of our present knowledge, but, by an expansion of co sciousness, to embrace the universe itself. This is the genuine knowing in which we become one with that which we seek to know. ‘A mind that embraces the universe’ points to the presence within the universe of a consciousness established.

We must, then, ask the serious questions: ‘Are we ready to move in a radically new direction? Are we, as individuals, prepared to undergo in ourselves that kind of transformation which will bring about a genuine transformation in the world — a transformation that will inevitably bring about a new vision?’ Today, all other kinds of thought are outmoded ed; all other ways of thinking are unthinkable.

To explore such questions implies also a willingness to probe deep into our own natures. For, to understand ourselv is to understand the world of which we are so intimate a pai By our very nature we are world-creating; but we have become world-destroying — a fact which the present day ecological movement is making apparent. We observe a world outside ourselves and seek to manipulate it to our own ends. We assume that its resources are inexhaustible and that they are there for our sole benefit; that the seas and the earth may be used as dumping grounds for the waste that we produce on such an appalling scale.

An expanding mind is the truly theosophical mind. For the word ‘theosophy’ refers to this kind of knowing that grows from within. We are too often content to say that it is derived from the Greek words theos and sophia and that it has to do with divinity or God, however we may define the terms. But I suggest that theos, derived from a Greek verb them, is synonymous with the Indo-European root of the San- skrit word brahma, derived from brih, meaning ‘to grow’, ‘to expand’, ‘to move from within outwards’. So Theosophy is a Gnosis, a Sophia or Wisdom which is a way of seeing that is constantly expanding.

The theosophical mind, therefore, is that consciousness which embraces all life, and it is a growing mind — not one set in tradition. Our minds tend to move in certain well-worn grooves, so that our beliefs become fixed. We are so convinced of the rightness of our own points of view that we cannot look at or benefit from the wisdom of other beliefs and attitudes. We look at each other out of the past, as we were; we never see each other as we are.

We are told that since it takes a vast amount of time for the light from distant stars to reach us, when we look at the heavens we are looking at things as they were millions of years ago. There is also a measurable amount of time bet- ween my looking at you and my recognition of you; in that infinitesimal moment you can change utterly, because transformation is not a matter of measurable time. In that timeless realm being is always be-ness. So we can begin to realise that, even in looking at each other, we may do a disser- vice to each other—indeed to the world about us —ifwe say, ‘This is how things are.’ The mind that is transformed — the theosophical mind — realises that knowing is a pro- cess just as life itself is, and that as process, knowing can grow to embrace more and more of understanding.

So we begin asking ourselves questions: What are the boundaries of our knowing? How do we define ourselves? Is transformation a goal? Or is it a process that is constant- ly taking place within us, emerging from a fresh and regenerative mind with a way of looking that is constantly new? But there are no final or easy answers. Part of our work is to learn to live with questions and paradoxes. For life cannot be simplified into black and white; there are shades between. Can we not learn to accept the ‘shadings’ so that two things can be true at one and the same time even though they are apparently opposites? Fortunately, we have wiihin us the abili- ty to comprehend all colourations. Physicists had to accept the fact that light is both wave and particle artd coined the word ‘wavicle’ to describe its nature.

Often we seek answers wIthout even knowing the ques- tions. We are content with the customary answers given to us from outside. ‘It has always been done this way,’ one hears even in Theosophical lodges. The very definition of the term ‘theosophical’ should preclude any such lazy way out as ‘we have always done it that way.’ New situations demand a transformed mind. We look for answers from those invested with a certain authority but, ultimately, their, answers never suffice. The new mode of thinking that is now required demands of us the ability to live with questions, to realise that life itself is constantly challenging us and that instead of ‘true’ or ‘false’ alternatives, there are multiple choices. This last is perhaps the most difficult of all for us to deal with.

How, then, do we define ourselves? The original face of man has been marred by a number’ of metaphysical crises which have occurred in the West and inevitably have had their effect on the entire world.

Historically, these crises may be seen in a variety of ways. First, as the attempt of religious authority to dominate secular life or to separate theological answers from man’s secular life, thus cutting him from man’s secular life, thus cutting him off from direct access to his own transcendence. In a well-known Mahatma letter, one of the Adepts suggested that nine-tenths of the evils of the world stem from religion. It was a metaphysical crisis which led, a century or two ago, to the objectivism of the scientific method and the Carte- sian development with its philosophic implications, giving official status to a dualistic position which reduced the in- dividual to a mere epiphenomenon of nature, and the separatism of the profane world from the sacred. Finally, in the last century, at the time of the birth of the Theosophical Society, the major metaphysical crisis was the locking of horns between a scientific determinism and a religious dogmatism which left the human being cut off from ‘his roots, the plaything of blind faith, unable to control his own destiny.

It was into thatphilosophic milieu that the Society was born to reaffirm an ageless Wisdom Tradition grounded in a unitary view of reality. In one sense, it was a hundred years ahead of its time. It has, in some ways, leavened the mind ‘came awake’.

We must cease being sleep-walkers, moving about in a comatose state and, like the Buddha, ‘come awake’. We must open our eyes- and see what is there before us; we must re- cognise the world. This is resurrection — the rising again of the primordial Self, the root of our very being, which has been for so long disfigured by our identification with the tran- sient vestures through which it functions. Like the traditional resurrection, it is an awakening from the dead, or the death- like state in which we are content to rest.

Such an awakening is both radical and wrenching. It is a rebirth, felt as a sudden outflow of inner energy; of freedom in which there is the sense of things being never again the same. So it has been called a miracle and, indeed, it is the supreme miracle present in life itself. Such an awakening calls for both faith and courage, both of which are essential elements in the transformation process.

Faith means being grasped by a power greater than ourselves — a power that shakes, transforms and heals us. It is a surrender to the Primordial Self — a surrender known in the yogic tradition as Ishvara pranidhana. It arises out of a complete absorption in that which we essentially are. It is the universal and essential self-affirmation of our being. Plato related courage to the element within the Soul which forever strives towards the good, the true and the beautiful.

The most important image that anyone of us can ever have — and that determines our entire existence — is the image of the Self. If it is a vision confined to the vestures worn at one particular time or another, then we have to find the courage to break through that limited view. If it is a vision that there is but one Self of which I am but an expression, then there is the possibility that, at every moment, I may change the world by changing myself. It is a transformation process which happens not once but continuously.

Today there is a movement towards a recovery of creativity and a consequent willingness to forego rigid attachments to intellectual systems in favour of the experience towards which these formulations point. It may perhaps be expressed as a movement from structural concerns to a mystical experience. This is exemplified in FritjofCapra’s The Tao of Physics; there is indeed that almost near union of the physicist’s observa- tion in which he knows that his observation is subtly chang- ing that sub-atomic structure which he seeks to measure. He realises that he cannot measure the position and the velocity of a particle at the same time, for measurement of one preludes measurement of the other.

This is moving towards a genuine mystical experience, which as Fritjof Capra puts it, is ‘the Taoistic experience. It is a constant movement between the Yin and the Yang which is always present in the world. It is a willingness to forego rigid attachment to the formulations of systems. The effort, in other words, is to synthesise knowledge within con- sciousness in a manner that will result in a genuine transfor- mation and the arising of the new mode of thinking of which Einstein wrote. It is a mode that is really not so much new as newly discovered by each one of-us in himself.

I think of that moment in American history when, out of the chaos of a congressional session, a Constitution final- ly emerged. One of the wise men of that time, Benjamin Franklin, rose to his feet and pointed to a carving.on the back of the chair on which had sat George Washington, the President of that Convention. It depicted the sun low on the horizon. Said Franklin: ‘Through all of the turbulence and the difficulties of this Convention, in forging a bond of uni- ty, there were times when I looked at that symbol and saw it as a setting sun. But we have come through these dif- ficulties, this turbulence and dissension, and we have forg- ed a document which symbolises our unity, and I know now that it is a symbol of the rising sun.

So transformation is a process not simply a goal. Whether the sun rises or sets is dependent on where we stand. If we see only the sun setting on a past mode of thinking, on a civilisation and a culture that we have held dear, we must turn to the east, traditionally the place of light and face the rising sun. Then, when we have turned ourselves squarely in that direction, we shall know transformation awakening, resurrection, regeneration — the recovery of our original Self which is the One Self in all life. ‘came awake’.

- Faith means being grasped by a power greater than ourselves — a power that shakes, transforms and heals us. It is a surrender to the Primordial Self — a surrender known in the yogic tradition as Ishvara pranidhana. It arises out of a complete absorption in that which we essentially are. It is the universal and essential self-affirmation of our being. Plato related courage to the element within the Soul which forever strives towards the good, the true and the beautiful.

Out of our passion for the possible, with faith and courage, we move on our journey in a constantly transformed and transforming condition towards a consciousness which em- braces the unitary nature of ourselves and the world. It is a journey into an awakening, ever fresh and new, to an altogether ‘other’ experience. The most important image that anyone of us can ever have — and that determines our entire existence — is the image of the Self. If it is a vision confined to the vestures worn at one particular time or another, then we have to find the courage to break through that limited view. If it is a vision that there is but one Self of which I am but an expression, then there is the possibility that, at every moment, I may change the world by changing myself. It is a transformation process which happens not once but continuously.