I SEE AND WHEN THE EYE IS OPENED, ALL IS LIGHT

Wesak is a highly anticipated point in the spiritual year marking the annual return of the Lord Buddha to Earth. At this special time, He brings with Him the Shamballa energy of pure spiritual will-to-good. The Buddha is a great Avatar who demonstrates to humanity the second principle of divinity, love-wisdom. This quality of divinity is an energy stimulating divine understanding in people that causes them to reach out and strengthen those who love and serve their fellowmen. Buddha returns each year at the full moon of Taurus in His etheric body to appear before a large gathering of spiritual Beings in a Himalayan valley. They await His great presence knowing He brings blessings from Shamballa that will be released by the Christ to humanity at the June full moon. The Buddha represents enlightenment, pure reason, and love-wisdom and each of us have in essence a "Buddha-nature" that allows us to attune to His energies.

The powerful energies received from Lord Buddha at Wesak require group alignment in order to receive the intended release of energy. We are encouraged to join larger meditation groups subjectively or objectively at this time for that reason. The energy focused through the Lord Buddha comes in answer to the massed appeal of humanity for a response from the Highest Source. Through His Shamballa blessings a dynamic truth and potent thoughtform of divine energy comes to enlighten humanity. Our recorded history is the result of man's reaction to these cyclic releases of inflowing divine energy.

Wesak brings humanity in touch with a great spiritual Intermediary Who is between Shamballa, where the Will of God is known, and the spiritual Hierarchy. The Buddha expresses the Will of God, as He is the epitome of Light and the director of divine purpose. The Festival of Taurus named after the Hindu calendar month of Vaisakha is the ancient name for Taurus. Alice Bailey through her writings brought this Eastern Festival to the West and the three spiritual Festivals are celebrated as a great triangle of spiritual energies.

The following legend of Wesak deepens our appreciation and understanding of the Festival. Wesak according to legend takes place in the Vaisakha Valley in the Himalayas, west of Lhasa and close to Nepal. There are high mountains surrounding the valley, which is oblong in shape and uninhabited. During the days before the full moon of Taurus, people come from many miles with their colorful tents to await the great event. Close to the time of the full moon, spiritual Ones arrive and sit in the front rows in meditation. The Great Lords come in their etheric bodies to join the assembly. On the north side of the valley, there is a narrow passage, which has a very large rock that looks like an altar. At a signal, geometric designs are formed by those in attendance that are deeply symbolic. The Christ appears at the center of the formations and calls Lord Buddha to make His appearance. A few moments before the full moon everyone watches the sky until a light gradually appears becoming greater and greater as it comes closer. The light is the radiance of the Lord Buddha who sits cross-legged with His right hand raised in blessing. He positions Himself over the rock and all bow down. The Great Invocation is sounded creating a gigantic surge of energy that passes through the hearts and minds of all that attend. This is a sacred moment of the year when humanity and divinity make contact.

The Wesak ceremony elevates humanity and the planet to a higher consciousness that connects it to the work of the new group of world servers as Taurus rules this subjective group of servers. The keynote "I see and when the eye is opened, all is light" for Taurus corresponds to the Buddha as the Enlightened One. The goal of the new group of world servers is to provide a center of light in the world to hold the vision before the eyes of men. World servers in all occupations are doing their best to be light stations on Earth as evidenced by Triangles and Goodwill work. Taurus with its symbol of the bull is the desire nature of the deliberate, self-seeking and isolated personality intent on meeting their own personal goal without any concern for the consequences.

What is needed is a channel to receive the inflow of Shamballa Force from the Buddha, and then transmit it to humanity according to their demand. That is the science of invocation and evocation because when we demand spiritual help and energy we are assured it will come. When humanity learns to invoke light, love, and power not for their personality use but for the good of all people then it is received. We keep this channel operating through our sacrifice, responsibility, faith, and creative imagination. The Buddha learned under the Banyan tree the highest truth about this world, which is that at the core of every atom of life there is a speck of pure divinity. This the disciple reiterates in the keynote for Taurus: "I see, and when the eye is opened, all is light."

The Buddha through his own labours achieved enlightenment and taught others how to be lights by saying to them, "Be a lamp unto your own feet." He taught that each must achieve their own light and not wait to have it bestowed on them, in other words we each become our own saviors. The human mind has competed with the emotional nature for aeons of time, while the world of desire and glamour dominated. Man has to learn to use his mind and not look to others to do their thinking for them. When man develops discrimination, dispassion, and detachment from the world of form and the senses he can begin to light his own path and find enlightenment.

The mind dominates the emotions when we work with facts, but many times facts are not appreciated by our lower nature because facts conflict with emotional desires and assumptions often of ancient origin. Our lower nature prefers to hold onto emotional prejudices and project them into our lives and current worldview. The Buddha said that attachment causes pain and suffering therefore quite often it takes gargantuan suffering through loss or illness of some sort, to break down the barriers of the lower nature within us, and humanity, in order to clear the way for a new enlightened understanding. The mind can bring us out of deep suffering into a deepening love for all humanity through the recognition of our Buddha nature. Whatever the current world crisis, separated thoughts bring only more suffering and pain, while clear seeking of truth brings one supreme happiness and joy. Humility is a quality of the Buddha that releases the illumining power of the mind because "energy follows thought." Humanity is discovering as a whole, especially in world crisis, that what it thinks it becomes. Man is responsible for the world he has contributed to creating individually and collectively. In the East the word "karma" describes this great spiritual law that says that cause and effect are one because "all is energy" and every form in the world was created by energies we set in motion. We may not be able to choose our present circumstances, but we certainly can determine how we will react to them, thereby determining our karma as we set in motion new causes from old effects.

The good news of the Buddha and other great Avatars is that underlying all substance is a unified whole of perfect synthesis just awaiting humanity's discovery. The unreal physical world encourages the illusion of separation that is the cause of suffering. It is man's personality and sense of individuality that promotes the glamour of superiority over other human beings causing sorrow. Then individuals and countries care only for themselves without thought for those they imagine are unlike themselves. When groups and nations believe they are separate and disconnected from others or better than the rest of humanity it leads to intense suffering through wars and conflict. Is this not the cause of our present world situation? In the year 2000, we will receive the pure will energy from Shamballa that when responded to positively assists humanity by bringing the will-to-good for the whole according to the divine Plan.

May this spiritual opportunity presented us at this time of the year turn our thoughts to higher principles and ideals. By joining with the new group of world servers as a person of goodwill, we assist humanity in creating a channel between humanity as a whole and the spiritual Hierarchy Who work to bring help and life. Use the Great Invocation and your creative imagination while believing with your mind and heart that good will prevail. When we do Triangles, we create a channel of light and love and power for Great Ones to use to bring us all we need for humanity to thrive. Through the light of our souls, we serve by radiating love, seeking that clear vision of world events and circumstances, and doing all we are capable of to serve the whole of humanity.

Please click here for BUDDHA'S WESAK BLESSING AND FAREWELL MESSAGE.

THE CAPTURE OF THE CRETAN BULL

Taurus, April 21st - May 20th

Excerpted from Alice Bailey's book, 'The Labours of Hercules' Lucis Publishing Company, New York.

The Myth

"The presiding One spoke to the Teacher of the man whose light shone forth among the sons of men, who are the sons of God.

'Where is the man who stood with power before the Gods, received their gifts and entered through the first wide open Gate to labour at his task?'

'He rests, Oh, great presiding One, and ponders on his failure, and mourns for Abderis, and seeks for help within himself.'

'It is well. The gifts of failure guarantee success, when rightly understood. Let him proceed to labour once again, enter the second Gate, returning with dispatch.'

The second Gate stood open wide and, from the light which veiled the distant scene, a voice emerged and said: 'Pass through the Gate. Proceed upon thy way. Perform thy labour and return to me, reporting on the deed.'

Alone and sad, conscious of need and worn with deep distress, Hercules slowly passed between the pillars of the Gate into the light which shines where stands the sacred bull. On the horizon rose the island fair where dwelt the bull, and where adventurous men could enter that vast maze which lured them to bewilderment, the maze of Minos, King of Crete, the keeper of the bull.

Crossing the ocean to the sunlit isle (though how we are not told) Hercules entered on his task to seek and find the bull, and lead it to the Holy Place where dwell the one-eyed men. From place to place he chased the bull, led by the gleaming star which shone upon the forehead of the bull, a bright lamp in a dark place. This light, moving as moved the bull, led him. from place to place. Alone, he sought the bull; alone he chased it to its lair; alone he captured it and mounted on its back. Around him stood the Sisters seven, urging him on his way and, in the shining light, he rode the bull across the glimmering water to the isle of Crete unto the land where dwelt the Cyclops three.

These three great sons of God awaited his return, watching his progress through the waves. He rode the bull as if it were a horse, and with the Sisters singing as he went, drew near unto the land.

'He comes with strength', said Brontes, and went to meet him on the shore.

'He rides in light,' said Steropes, 'his inner light will brighter be,' then fanned the light to sudden flame.

'He comes with speed,' said Arges, 'he is riding through the waves.'

Hercules nearer drew, urging the sacred bull upon the Way, throwing the light upon the trail which led from Crete unto the Temple of the Lord, within the city of the one-eyed men. Upon the mainland, at the water's edge, these three men stood and grasped the bull, taking it thus away from Hercules. 'What hast thou here?' said Brontes, arresting Hercules upon the Way.

'The sacred bull, Oh, Holy One.'

'Who art thou? Tell us now thy name,' said Steropes.

'I am the son of Hera, a son of man and yet a son of God. I have performed my task. Take now the bull into the Holy Place and save it from due death. Minos desired its sacrifice.'

'Who told you thus to seek and save the bull?' said Arges, moving towards the Holy Place.

'Within myself I felt the urge and sought my Teacher. Told by the great Presiding One, He sent me on the Way, and with long search and many pains, I found the bull. Helped by its holy light, I rode it through the separating sea unto this Holy Place.

'Depart in peace, my son, your task is done.'

The Teacher saw him coming and went forth to meet him oil the Way. Across the waters came the voices of the Sisters seven, singing around the bull, and nearer still the chanting of the one-eyed men within the Temple of the Lord, high in the Holy Place.

'You came with empty hands, oh, Hercules,' the Teacher said.

'I have these empty hands, because I have fulfilled the task to which I was assigned. The sacred bull is rescued, securely with the Three. What next?'

'Within the light shall you see light; walk in that light and there see light. Your light must brighter shine. The bull is in the Holy Place.'

And Hercules reposed upon the grass and rested from his labour. Later the Teacher turned to Hercules and said: 'Labour the second is performed, and easy was the task. Learn from this task the lesson of proportion. Strength to perform the arduous task; a willingness to do the task which taxes not your powers; such are two lessons learnt. Rise soon and seek the country, guarded by Gate the third, and find the golden apples. Bring them here." The Tibetan (Djwhal Khul)

The Labours of Hercules, by Alice A. Bailey, pp. 39 - 41, Lucis Publishing Co., New York.

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The Meaning of the Labour by Alice Bailey

"In spite of all initial partial failure, Hercules has made his start. In line with the universal law he has begun his work oil the mental plane.

In the working out of the creative plan, thought-impulse is followed by desire. That state of consciousness, which we call mental, is succeeded by the state of sensitivity, and this second labour deals with the desire world and with the potency of desire. It is one of the most interesting labours and one that is told us in fullest detail. Some of the accounts given of the various tests to which Hercules was subjected are exceedingly sketchy and brief in outline, but the tests in Taurus and Gemini, in Scorpio and Pisces, are related at greater length. They were drastic in their application and tried out every part of the aspirant's nature.

The key to the labour in Taurus is the right understanding of the law of Attraction. This is the law that governs that magnetic force and that principle of coherence which builds the forms through which God, or the soul, manifests. It produces the stability which demonstrates in the persistence of the form throughout its cycle of existence, and concerns the interrelation between that which builds the form and the form itself; between the two poles, positive and negative; between spirit and matter; between the Self and the not-Self; between male and female, and thus between the opposites.

Four Symbolic Words

We find that this test concerns predominantly the problem of sex. There are four words in the English language which are ideographic and symbolic. They consist of three letters each and are as follows: God, Sex, Law and Sin. In these four words we find expressed the sum total of all that is.

God, the sum total of all forms, the sum total of all states of consciousness, and the energising Life. Sex, that Life in operation, attracting spirit and matter and instituting the interplay between the objective and the subjective and between the exoteric and the esoteric. Sex, desire, attraction, the instinctive urge to creation, the pull of the soul, the urge to divinity, desire of the male for the female, the lure of matter for spirit: all these phrases can be piled up to express some of the activities of Sex in its various relations. Law, the thought-impelled response of God to form; the habits instituted by the timeless interplay between the polar opposites which have been recognised by humanity as the inevitable laws of nature; the imposition of the will of God and the impress of that will upon form and its recognition by man. Sin, according to its connotation, signifies 'the one who it is,' the uprising of the unit against the whole, individuality versus the group, selfishness instead of universal interest.

Thus is the story of the universe written for us in these four words. God, the Whole; Sex, the attraction between the parts within that Whole; Law, the habit of the Whole; and Sin, the revolt of the unit in the Whole.

The Story of the Labour

Minos, King of Crete, possessed a sacred bull, which he kept on the island of Crete. Eurystheus sent for Hercules and told him that it was necessary to capture the bull and bring it from the island to the mainland. No instructions were given as to how this was to be accomplished, and all that Hercules knew was that the bull was sacred, that it was born from the sea, and that its destiny was to be offered in sacrifice to Minos. Hercules, therefore, travelled to Crete and searched all over the island, pursuing the bull from place to place until at last he cornered it. Then, we are told, he rode the bull, like a horse, across the island and through the waters which separated Crete from the mainland, and so brought it into the city of the Cyclops. These Cyclops were peculiar beings of whom it was claimed that they possessed only one eye, set in the middle of the forehead. They were ruled over by three outstanding figures, whose names were Brontes, meaning thunder, Steropes, meaning lightning, and Arges, meaning whirling activity. When Hercules arrived with the bull at the gates of the city, he was met by the three Cyclops, who received the sacred bull from him and took charge of it. And thus ended the second labour.

Written by Alice A. Bailey in "The Labours of Hercules," by Alice A. Bailey, pp. 41 - 43, Lucis Publishing Co., New York.