Image: The wind blows across the sky,
restraining the clouds. Ancients saw wind
as the breath of the Creative. The wind makes
the clouds grow dense, but it does not have the strength to turn the clouds into
rain. Many clouds promise needed rain,
but no rain yet comes.
The gentle temporarily restrains and shapes the strong
Creative force, which surges powerfully outward. Wind, the least visible of all experienced
phenomenon, acts to concentrate the strongest force to make it visible.
Creative forces surge outward into experience. At this turning point in history, we have the
task to concentrate and shape human forces into new forms, a new era. While we have this critical responsibility,
we individually lack the power needed to manifest the new era. No one person can create a new culture out of
nothing.
In our time, those who work for a new beginning are
average people. We feel the
responsibility and know the necessity of the task, but no leader appears whom
we can follow. In our time, a great
leader will not come forth to bring the new and creative era Instead, the new
era will become visible through the cooperative efforts of many wise people manifesting
in the world[1]
what benefits all.
Restraining our
selfishness and aversion for others while cultivating virtues[2]
within ourselves and in the world shape the chaotic powerful forces of the Creative.
This development of the spiritual path prepares the ground for the new
beginning and serves as the fulcrum to move the world. We must do this work to prepare for the new
era ourselves as nobody else can do it for us.
The time has not yet
come to give the new era a definitive form within the world that has the
integrity to hold the powerful energies of the Creative. Chaos has not ceased. Many seek the final shape
of things to come. First one vision
emerges, then another. A great strong
movement arises, firing enthusiasm and hope but then collapses, and new shapes
emerge from the chaos. The wise continue
to learn and share what their discoveries with others also engaged in making
visible the new era.
Collectively, we still need to restrain and shape more
Creative forces and substance. We have
to build a broad large form in which everything and everyone has a place. Those excluded from active participation in
creating this work would sabotage the process if the shaping prematurely concluded
without them. We must continue our
shaping efforts until the maximum point of expansion is reached in a form so comprehensive
and inclusive that all within the surging chaos finds its place therein. Only from within such depths can the shape of
the new era finally be known.
In these times, the most
harmful aspects selfishness and aversion for others still have the power to
stop and oppress the many. The wise do
not have the strength and capacity on their own to transform the situation. The
spirit, the weakest force within the world, cannot yet prevail against the
harmful forces and amorality. While we
can always tame and limit, we at this time cannot overcome the strong and
powerful negative forces. We can only
try to prevent the worst so that at least a future remains possible.
Confronted by the urgent search for the great,
all-encompassing form in which everything has a place, patience and faith in
the Way of humanity[3] alone prevents despair. The inner certainty that our efforts will
give shape to the new era gives us courage and resolve. With a glad mind, we persist.
This unresolved chaotic situation demands our
gentleness and patience. No benefit comes
from forcing a resolution and harvesting prematurely the unripe fruit of our
efforts. We wait, but that waiting is
not inactivity. While it is not the time
to conclude or perfect, we must pour our energy into the small efforts of
shaping, which in themselves never reach greatness on their own. The accumulated efforts of many will lead to
the world we seek.
This work begins with
our efforts to shape whatever arises in our daily experience. We can refine our response to the new era by
using the ways of that new era, the Way of humanity. This daily work within this thin zone of
freedom may not move the world, but it has a large influence in increasing our
capacities to extend this creative shaping into ever greater complexities of
experience.
Creative forces transform
and surge outward. They are never gentle
and mild. We must make the
transformative forces visibly apparent in our world. The only thing that can give these energies
and power a shape is our gentleness and powerlessness. Only these seemingly small and insignificant
encounters with the moment can tame the chaos of creation.
This is not the time to
cultivate the new era secretively and in isolation. We must join with those who mutually share
the understanding of what must be done and with whom we can openly make known
to the fullest extent the force of our nature.
That which is inside
must overflow to the outside. In this
way alone can we help prepare the new way.
New paths will appear, enabling us to manifest the spirit in greater
ways. Eventually the time comes when the
shape of the new era will suddenly appear complete. Our task is not to wait for that day but to
prepare its conditions, to satiate the time with possibilities so that the
spark of creativity will penetrate and ignite its completion. This is the fruit of the slow preparatory
work of small development.
The shapers of the new
era have this thankless work, an effort that seemingly never succeeds but just
tames. These laborers never see the
harvest. We may glance only from afar
into the promised land. While others may
gather the fruit, this vanguard plants the orchard. The success of the harvest is prepared at the
height of renunciation, at the time of small battles of resignation and taming.
A great and difficult
task engages us. No sphere of activity
is too small. Each sphere of influence that
fate has allotted to us matures with us and serves as the ground where we work,
where the small concentrates the creative.
Eventually, the winds change and the rain comes.
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