Hans has asked me to post my response on the HPFS List to Chris's
response here. Chris' response was to my comments that I feel J. Van
Rijckenborgh has an extremely dark view of the world. The posts do
seem more appropriate here than on the HPFS List.
I have added one or two new quotes from enlightened teachers which
were not in the original post. I think we are all following our own
Light and inner guidance on these issues; and that is what is
essential.
Cathy


Cathy had written:
<
There is no great mystic, spiritual being, religion (Eastern or
Western),
Christian, Wiccan, Jewish, Kabbalah, Buddhism avatar, great spiritual
teacher,
etc. who has ever seen the world in quite this extreme light... or
extreme dark.
>

Chris:
Whereas I have the impression that they all did :- )

Dear Chris,

It is o.k. that you don't agree with me. If we all agreed with
everything
someone said, we'd be like clones. I'll list a few of the spiritual
sources
which have informed my comment with which you disagreed. And, of
course, we may
still agree to disagree, which is fine. In my experience, most of the
world's
great spiritual leaders, teachers and avatars did not teach that
there is no way
possible to change this world or transform it. Most of them do see
God as
immanent in the world and active in the world by his immanency as
well as
through those who channel the power of God in the world through their
service to
the world. I don't see the world as lacking in divine intervention.
Ultimately,
the world and the planet are reflections of our projections. Our
projections
determine how we see the world. And then beyond our projections is
Vision; true
seeing.

In the Christian tradition, in the Our Father prayer are the
words, "Thy
Will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

In the Egyptian Kybilion are the words "As above, so below".

The Hasidic Jews, who I think are one of the purest forms of Judaism,
see the
world as a "garden". They say to the uestion "Where is
God?", "wherever you let
him in." Along those lines, they encourage good deeds in the world
(tikkun). The
great Hasidic Rebbe Menachem Schneerson said, "We never know but that
the next
good deed we do will shift the balance of good and evil in the world
and then
the Messiah will arrive." (that can obviously be seen symbolically not
specifically as the Messiah being a person.)

Dr. Albert Schweitzer, in his key book, "Reverence for Life", warned
against
"life-negating" religions and paths.

Rudolph Steiner saw the world as a place of service, worthy of our
efforts to
help transform it.

Gandhi, in his Hinduism, felt we could do much to transform the world
and he
did.

Wicca sees nature as sacred, the world as Gaia, the world infused
with the
Divine.

The Course of Miracles says that we see the world as a prison but it
is a place where we can awaken, that the presense of Love (God,
Gnosis, Divinity, whatever we may name the Nameless)is always within
us and present, that we need to remove the blocks to the Awareness of
this Love/Divinity ... in other words, surrender the ego.

Shakespeare wrote:
The mind is its own place and can make a hell out of heaven and a
heaven out of hell.

Thich Nhat Hanh, the beautiful Buddhist teacher, says that
the "Pureland" (Heaven) is here and now and we only need to become
aware of it... mindful and not lost in thought, present.

Yoga teaches many methods of self-transformation.

Alice Bailey saw the world as a place where not only is service
important but
where we can certainly do something to evolve and transform ourselves.

Hindus sees the world as maya in the sense that this world is not
Absolute Reality in that it is not eternal and permanent yet there is
no caution in Hinduism about serving the world, love, and friendship.
In fact, the great Hindu classic Bhagdavad Gits puts great emphases
on selfless love.

The key teaching in Buddhism, of course, is love and compassion. I
have read in Buddhism that his students asked the Buddha to speak of
God and the Buddha replied that they should go out and help every
person they know and every person in the world who needs help and
then return and he would speak about God.

Dr. David R. Hawkins, a great sage, writes that "Love is the doorway
to the non-linear (spiritual) realms." He has also said, "Ask not
that you become enlightened but that you can serve." I would imagine
that loving service, selfless service such as Mother Teresa gave to
the world, lifts each person's vibrational levels and in addition,
the vibrational level of the planet is higher as each person's
personal vibrations lift.

Eckhart Tolle's great work, "A New Earth" certainly has a more
affirmative view of what the planet (and we of course) can be as we
all participate in the process of "the flowering of human
consciousness." Tolle, much like Advaita Vedanta, stresses
the "direct path".... our realizion of who we are/our Soul. And that
this Self-Realization is here and now which we realize/experience as
we surrender the false self/the ego and awaken to the Presence.
(God,Source, Being.)


I don't think any of the few examples I've listed above waited until
they were enlightened in order to serve the world, muggles and all. I
meant they served everyone.


Cathy:
<When enough people are transformed the calibrations of the planet
will change.>

Chris:
Or, to put it another way, the vibration level will change, lifting
it out of this universe.

Cathy:
Yes. The calibrations measure the vibrational levels.

Cathy:
<I think those at Hogwarts must have been very grateful that Harry
did not wait
to do something to benefit others and the planet UNTIL he became
enlightened.>

Chris:
When a giant smashed the door of the hut on the rock and says `Best
be off,
Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer
stuff fer
school.' Harry doesn't say `My name is down for Stonewall High, and I
want to go
there and do something to benefit others and the planet.' He goes
with Hagrid
eagerly, without a backward glance. As Hagrid says, Harry belongs in
`our world,
I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world.' Harry turns his
back on the
muggle world and knows from that moment that he doesn't belong there.
And
although he has to visit it once a year for the next seven years, he
spends as
little time in it as possible, and doesn't get involved with its
affairs in any
way unless the Dursleys compel him to do so.

Cathy:
I think we have to be careful here. We don't want to have the muggles
lined up
outside Prof. Umbridge's door in order to sign a paper saying they
are muggles
and knowing her policy of seeing them as worthless or to be avoided.
I think Jo
Rowling, in an interview, likened that to separatism and segration
and similar
to what happened in Germany under the Nazi Regime. And let's face it,
at this
point, we are all still muggles trying to find our way Home, to the
Kingdom
within.

Chris:
The action of the books takes place on various planes, but very
little that
Harry does affects the muggle world until the final defeat of
Voldemort, where
the powers that menace the muggle world are defeated by Harry's act
just as they
are defeated in the magical world.

Cathy:
I feel that everything we do affects the world, muggles and all, just
as
everything the great spiritual beings did affects the world. For
Buddhists,
compassion has the highest value. The Dalai Lama has
said, "Compassion is my
religion." Jesus said, "Whatever you do to the least of my brethren,
you do unto
me."


Chris:
When Hagrid issues the invitation to Hogwarts, something pretty
dramatic is
happening in Harry's life. A force that Harry doesn't immediately
recognise but
which he feels perfectly at home with, suddenly appears, and he
surrenders
himself to this force, which is here named Hagrid. And because he
does so, it
starts to lift him out of the fallen universe.

Cathy:
Thank goodness we all have a Hagrid within us, our Inner Teacher.
Recognizing
our source of inner guidance and honoring that source within us is so
important.
I like this quote from Thomas a Kempis' book, "Let all other voices
be silent
and Thou alone speak to me" and his "O Thou holy lover of my Soul,
when Thou
dost come into my heart, all that is within me will rejoice."

I feel, as you know, that service in the world in important but that
the first
dictum is most important, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven
(within) and all
else will follow."

"The world is a ship and not our Home, but I feel there is much work
to be done
and much work has been done while on this "ship" of earth to help
transform
ourselves and the world.

From Henry Drummund:

"Christ sets His followers no tasks. He appoints no hours. He allots
no sphere.He Himself simply went about and did good. He did not stop
life to do some special thing which should be called religious. His
life was His religion. Each day as it came brought round in the
ordinary course its natural ministry. Each village along the highway
had someone waiting to be helped. His pulpit was the hillside, His
congregation a woman at a well. The poor, wherever He met them,
were his clients; the sick, as often as He found them, His
opportunity. His work was everywhere; His workshop was the world."

I find that piece by Mr. Dummund very beautiful. And, of course, our
aim and hope is not only to give love or do loving things; but, as is
said in Advaita Vedanta, Eckhart Tolle, Shankara and other
Advaitists - to BE love, to merge with the Love that we are by
removing the blocks to the Awareness of that Love.... by surrendering
the ego.

I'm not looking for agreement in posting this. I think we must all
travel the Path guided by what the Light within reveals to us and the
great spiritual scriptures and teachings of the world which resonate
within us.

Cathy