For our real understanding of truth we must draw from the "Father within." When we come in contact with a presentation of the perennial philosophy, it is that interior guidance that allows us to make the teaching our own and to take from the great doctrines that which we most need and can use.
As I grow older, the implications of the "Father within" assume greater and greater importance because nothing can ever separate us from that Father. Sometimes we tend to disregard this, but if we turn to it sincerely in heart and mind it is always there. This has seemed to me the basis of true faith, a faith that can bring guidance and, more, the inner strength to meet what we must in our lives. When things are going along easily we tend to forget that we have that inner strength to call upon. It is when the going gets tough that we turn to it, and if we do so with the right motive, the strength is there. And when we do call on that extra strength we get just enough to see us through the difficult events — sometimes just "by the skin of our teeth."
The "Father within" is that deep part of us that by its nature is at one with all other beings. The sense of the oneness of all life and the realization of ourselves as part of that oneness is a growing thing, and the feeling it brings might be best expressed by the word "love." This brings to mind those great teachers whose conscious oneness with all life made them the transmitters of the wisdom humanity needs — their gift of love.
(From Sunrise magazine, December 1997/January 1998. Copyright © 1997 by Theosophical University Press)