Rebuilding the consciousness of a “Servant-Nation” The vital need of a Servant-Nation in the light of universal planning, purposefulness and “revelation” This is the transcript of the tape recording of a lecture Hugh Schonfield gave in Cluny, France, thirty years ago, in May 1984. Unfortunately, the conclusion was not retrieved, but the bulk of the text provides valuable information deserving a careful examination when considering the rationale of a Servant-Nation today. Ch. Valensin -------------------------------------------------- Ascending scale of purposefulness ---------------------------------------------- Last night, we were speaking of the evidence of planning in the universe. That is of the utmost importance. But we should be quite sure about this. Because, if we dont really understand that this is a fact, there can be uncertainty about the future, about what will happen to mankind on this planet. So we want to extend this morning first of all a sense of this planning that exists. We look at everything around us. We see that it is controlled by a Plan. We have life that moves, life which stands still. This is represented by the plants. They cannot move out. They must stay in one place. And they are given certain qualities, they have colours, scents, perfumes, because they have to attract birds and insects that will take with them the seeds which will go in the ground and produce new plants. So, even some life which is fixed, as it seems, is still operating under a Plan. And at every stage of life as it grows and develops, we can see an increasing capacity of participation. First, we have the lower forms of life. As this life grows and develops, it acquires increased consciousness. It gets to the stage where it can make plans for itself, in addition to the Plan for which it was made. So, the higher we move in life, the more planning activity we can witness. And when we are thinking of God, we are thinking of a form of life which is supreme in the art of planning and purpose. We ourselves, as human beings, have created needs in our evolution, and for this purpose we ourselves become planners. We invent machines and other instruments that make certain things which we require of them. We have one here, now [tape recorder?], and this is a miracle. And this is why we have to be quite sure, no matter where we look, that there is positive evidence of this planning, and this gives us the assurance that the human race has not been placed here without a purpose for it. And if there is a Plan, there is an objective, a purpose. Otherwise the Plan would not be created. So that we have not to be anxious or troubled that things are just happening by chance. Things are under a control and a purpose. Now, we have been looking at the whole of the universe. Let us look at ourselves. As human beings, we represent a higher stage of life so far on this planet. We can look at the stars, the planets, but everyone of us is a whole world in ourselves. We have in us millions of inhabitants. All the different cells of the body, everyone of them has a function, and they are under a guidance which is exercised by our mind. Our mind sends out messages. In every part of our world which is our body, the body receives instructions and we carry out the objective that is given by our mind. Now, this is a human being, the highest form of life here, and it is an extraordinarily complex construction. And as we can see, it is constructed in order to achieve a higher purpose than animals, birds and lower plants, and so we have this ascending scale of purposefulness. So that we are carrying out individually our own planning. We are acting in a divine capacity in our ordinary life. So, surely, shall we not have understanding and confidence that what we see in our existence and in the planet on which we live, that this is how the operations of purpose are carried on? This is what I want you to feel and understand. Very, very clearly. That we are not left here, on this planet, without an object, a function, an objective which has to be achieved. So we have not to be in any doubt or anxiety about the world and about the future of mankind. You can be quite sure that the purpose for which man has been placed on this planet will be fulfilled, just as we in our own life, in a smaller way, plan a purpose for which we wish to put our lives. It is a mark of life that it is creative, that it has objectivity, that it has an objective. And this is what partly we call an adventure. It is very exciting. We can feel that if we can make a purpose and carry it out, it gives us a great satisfaction to do this. And we feel that now we can go further, because we are people with great curiosity. We are not satisfied with life really as it is lived for ourselves. We want to learn more, we want to make discoveries. We want to see beyond ourselves so we become explorers. Now, we want to move out into space and to discover what is outside our world, what is going on there, what purpose it serves. Need for guidance ------------------------ Now if we are confident, as I think we cannot fail to be, that there are objectives in that planning, then we have to ask further: In the story of mankind what evidence is there that just as our minds instruct our bodies, how much has the human race been instructed by God in the function for which He created us? We cannot believe otherwise. But if there is all this planning here, then there is a higher planning beyond what we have contrived, and therefore the object of life must be for us to enter into that greater Plan. Nations as part of a Master Plan ------------------------------------------- When I was a boy, I was taught: “You must put things to the use for which they are intended.” So, if we are to put this planet in which we live to the use for which it is intended, we must have some means which will inform us, if we are willing to take part in it, how we should act towards each other, how we should move into the future to achieve the object of this planet. Now, I said that our bodies are planets in themselves. We are whole persons. We have what we call collectivities, different elements in our bodies which cooperate with one another to carry out our function. Now, in the world, if we look around us, what do we find? We find a similar situation. We find that the human race has developed along lines of nations. So that the idea of a nation, which is like the extension of a human being, is part of the purpose. And therefore, nations are a particular form of construction which is a natural form of construction. We know how, in our ordinary conduct, how much we like to associate together, to exchange views, ideas, to have what we call a corporate function. A group, as we have now, becomes a whole. It is a new body we have created temporarily here in order to make certain discoveries, to cooperate together, to carry out a Plan and to learn about what we have to do. And so, all through the life of mankind there is this activity of this character. We form associations, whether they are regional, social, politic, for purposes we want to achieve and which we can only achieve as a body of people, as a new planet if you like. So, when we are thinking in terms of the future of mankind, we will go in the right direction if we go along the lines which are the natural expression that is given to us on this planet when we form collective bodies. Now, many people have been puzzled, they are troubled about what kind of shape, what kind of planet in a smaller sense is necessary to build to bring peace. We seem to have many elements here which are seeking to go their own way, and some of them to go ahead of others, to suppress others, because they want to come out on top. This is an impulse, which is part of the constitution of life. Because without that kind of activity there is no progress. But the thing is that these different progresses which are made when we think only for ourselves are not concerned with the life of everyone else, with the structures of everyone else. Revelation -------------- And this is where we have to come to the way in which God works. Because if we do not see how God works, we cannot see how humanity has to work. We become selfish, dominant, we are not concerned for the whole, but for our little part. And this applies in a collective sense just as in the case of individuals. Then it is essential that we should understand how we can make a contribution to that Plan. Not according to our ideas, but according to the evidence of Gods ideas. And this is what we call REVELATION. It is the way by which there is communicated to us, if we wish, how we should set about things. Need of a global revelation ------------------------------------ A few weeks ago, the Pope was in Canada, and he said these words: “The world is now in need of a new vision of peace,” He could not supply that vision, but he knew it was necessary. And we have to have now a new vision, a vision which is related to the whole of our planet, to all mankind. Because it is most important that this information comes out now. Why do you imagine we are assembled here like this? Because our world has come to a stage where we are seeing things in a whole way, as it had not been possible to see them in previous times. The world has become a very small place. We are now having to determine in a more positive way than ever before how we have to relate to one another, because we are aware that we are capable to destroy our world. Therefore, it is most essential for us that, in our time, we should make the discovery how we can bring our planet to a new vision of peace We are not going to get that information from any other source than the source which is responsible for the creation of that planet. Men tried to launch quite a number of different organizations which can carry out such a purpose. That is why such organizations as the League of Nations, the United Nations, etc. were created. That is why we have many movements working for peace. But none of them can achieve the objective, not one. And we see that, and that is true. If that is true, it means that we are going about things in the wrong way. Why dont we stand still for a minute and say: “Look, I dont know what has to be done. Please, tell me what should be done!” We have to go back again, back again to that purpose of existence. So, if we have all the evidence, we should also be conscious that GUIDANCE is part of the purpose, and that we can avail ourselves of it to know how to set about with our task. I have had an experience once I will tell you just as an illustration. I was staying at a seaside place, in a hotel, and I got to know some of the people. One of them was a young man who had a parent who was very ill, and he was waiting for a message. It happened that he was out somewhere by the seafront when a telegram came. I knew how important it was for him to have that information as urgently as possible. So, I took the telegram, I went down to the seafront to find him. I looked around everywhere. I could not find him at all. Then, I stood still and said to myself: “What a fool you are”! Ask to be taken to him!” And immediately I was turned to a certain direction to the bottom of some steps. I found him in five minutes, I had been looking for him for two hours, simply because I said this is not something of my own control. And this is what we have cultivate. But we must put ourselves in the hands of the Divine. The whole human race has to do this. Because, only when we do that can we learn how to make the world function in the right way. Revelation secured in the Bible, not as a book of religion --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, in the BIBLE, is given to us the story of mankind, of the development of the human race. And then we discover that a Plan of this world according to our story is a plan of many nations that, like individuals, are different from one another. So the purpose of our planet demands nations as the instruments for its achievement. So, let us try to think of such nations as individuals, made of many elements like our own bodies are made of many elements. Each one of us is a world, each one of us is a nation. We must therefore see that the only way in which the world can be brought into harmony must be through a nation which gives an example to others. Il our ordinary life, we look up to a good people to show us a way in which we should order our life for a good purpose. We have great admiration for the great people who have come into this world, who have set up an example of the best way in which we should live. Now, we have to understand that in the Plan of God there has to be a nation which shows all the other nations how to live and how to achieve harmony with one another. And so, the story of the Bible is the story of the choosing of a Nation, that we call the People of God, which has the function of being an example to all the other nations and showing them how God wishes nations to exist. But this has to be something that is voluntary. God does not use force. He does not make people do things. They have to participate voluntarily to carry out their function. Now, the People of Israel was made in this way. We have the story of its growth, of a purpose. And there are extraordinary words in the Bible. In the very beginning of that nation, in the call of Abraham, there is told that he is going to be the father of a nation, and that nation will exist as a means of blessing for all the other nations. Other nations think that they are formed for many purposes, to have a large piece of territory, to have power, to dominate other nations, but a nation to be created not for power, not for its own purposes, but for an example, an instrument of blessing for mankind is something completely different from all the other conceptions, and this is the remarkable thing that we have in the Bible, the history book of that nation. Now, there is no compulsion and any nation as every individual can follow their own way if they wish. And this is what happened in the case of Israel. The People of Israël did not like to be different, to have a different function. They wanted to be like anybody else, to avoid having a personal responsibility. And it is only through a nation which submits itself to be responsible to God that can be carried out the task for all the nations, in setting the example. And so there has to be an extension of the People of Israel for all the individuals from any other nation...[end missing]
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 11:21:49 +0000
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