Sunrise

The Deep Calm Center

Letha Olson Reineman

The last half of the century is already in its second year. We have again experienced the joy and uplift of another Christmas season, gathering what we could of spiritual inspiration during that sacred time of the year when all nature's forces are in alignment, and spiritual influences can easily enter our sphere. It is almost Easter now. Still the mission of the Prince of Peace is not yet realized, nor his message put into practice.

Some would have us think that his mission was a failure, and that the ancient message which is periodically brought to humanity by the Great Ones will never be accepted on this earth. To all appearances this is true, as we stand on the verge of bringing about our own destruction, because of the misuse of knowledge gained of some of Nature's terrible forces, which can be used equally for good or evil.

There are undoubtedly evil forces at work, using us to their own ends for violence and destruction. The outlook is very discouraging if we look only at this stormy side of the picture. Happily, however, there is another viewpoint, and we can again go to Nature and her laws for an answer and explanation.

Have we realized that there could be no storm, if there was not a great, quiet center around which the violence whirls itself, as in cyclones and tornados?

There could be no dashing, rolling, wildly destructive storm at sea without the quiet, deep flowing fathoms of water below, undisturbed by the angry elements above.

Bitter, cold winds could not blow across the land unless there was warm, balmy air some place, rising upward.

Avalanches, and breaking up of ice on winter-bound rivers are only caused by warmth, and returning summer weather — the growing, expanding season.

Snow, rain and hail with terrifying thunder storms could not be unless sunny seas and gently flowing streams had been giving moisture into the air, during happy, balmy days.

Think of the stormy conditions in which we find ourselves now. Could they be if it were not for the softening effect of the "wind of the spirit" that is now enveloping our earth? The quiet, gentle influence of great spiritual teachers has been creeping into the hearts of men everywhere, seemingly ignored; but there have always been a few hearts to treasure the precious message, and preserve it and pass it on to those who were ready and receptive. Now the storm has gathered, and old crystallized and frozen conditions are being broken up under the warmth and power of love — the most tremendous force in the universe, and the only thing that will bring about peace and a true brotherhood of man.

Never before has the feeling for peace, and the wish for brotherhood taken hold of men's hearts everywhere, as it has today. We have never known a time when tolerance or a desire for understanding has taken such a grip of people as it has at the present time. So the deep, calm center has been formed, which is in the hearts of men. It cannot be destroyed by the storm whirling madly around and over it, for the stress but compresses it into a still more potent power. Divinity dwells here, with love, light and everything needed for the world's salvation — never violent in its action, but as persistent as the sunshine and as effective in its warming, life-giving and expanding energies.

If we can stand firm in our knowledge that there is a spiritual Reality from which all life springs, and insist on our belief in our essential unity, as all being children of the same God, no matter what our individual conception of Him may be, or our particular mode of worshipping Him, we will safely ride out the storm.

The teachings of the Great Ones all down the ages have not been for nothing. It was not for nothing that the Christ came at one of the blackest periods in human history. The message has grown and spread and been accepted, quietly but surely. There must and will be a dawning of a new order, with the coming of the new century, when man will begin to realize the full meaning of and find ways for a practical application of the message, "Peace on earth, good will to men."

Sunrise Articles

The higher we rise the more self-discipline, self-control and economy are required of us. — B. Jowett

Theosophical University Press Online Edition