THE WORLD DRAMA



Understanding the history and geography of time

While we may now be rediscovering and expressing our true spiritual identity through the practice of meditation and cultivating our personal relationship with God through the practice of yoga (remembrance, link, connection), how are we to make sense of what appears to be an increasingly chaotic world? How are we to find meaning in events that often seem bereft of meaning? A useful analogy would be to see ourselves as actors and actresses in an epic and complex drama. We, the souls, are actors and our bodies are our costumes. If we can extend this understanding into a larger context, we might see the truth in Shakespeare’s famous phrase ‘all the world’s a stage’. Taking place on the stage of our world is an enormous, unlimited drama, in which each person has the opportunity to play many roles. Each day is filled with many scenes and each scene is an opportunity to create and play the most appropriate role to the best of our ability. Therefore, we are each hero actors with the opportunity to interpret the script of our own life. This the deepest challenge to our creativity – the challenge of creating our own destiny- While it is our destiny to live the day, the year, the lifetime, we have free will as to ‘how’ we will live the day, the year and our lifetime. Each day offers us multiple choices as to how we can respond to the world around us and our ultimate destiny is governed by these choices. Our destiny is decided not by what happens to us, but by how we respond to events and circumstances as we meet them.

We now know who we are (we are souls). We know the laws which govern our relationships (karma) with ourselves, others and God. We can now set about creating the life we choose. Many people do not like this idea of being the masters of their own destinies. Most of us have been taught that life is more about fate and luck, but these are simply ways of avoiding consideration of the potential of our life and taking the necessary steps to fulfil it. By recognising ourselves to a life of luck and fate, we conveniently avoid doing the inner work of becoming awake and aware of who we are as spiritual beings and masters of our own destiny. This is why self-self awareness is the first step towards empowering ourselves, towards taking responsibility for our life.

Some of us are also taught that each of our lives takes a direction which is set according to God’s will, so we should not be so arrogant as to think we can override God’s plan for us by trying to do it our own way. This is a passive response which prevents each of us from using our free will to make any choice at any moment. While there is a master plan which is playing itself out on the stage of the world, a part of the plan is that we each have free will and the opportunity to know ourselves as we truly are. Built into our consciousness is the capacity to discriminate right from wrong, good from bad and to decide how we will act. These are divine attributes when they are used in the right way. They remind us that life is a creative opportunity to be all that we can be and an opportunity to help, encourage and empower others to be the same. If someone were to attempt to take away this right and the freedom to make our own choices, however small, we would probably fight to defend them. We only ignore our rights and freedom when it is convenient, and it is suddenly becomes convenient when we do not want to face up to our responsibilities for ourselves, or the consequences of our own actions within in our own life. The right to choose and the freedom to decide are the deepest responsibilities both towards ourselves and towards others because, every choice and every decision has consequences.

In a world where we learn more about how to incapacitate ourselves, by being ourselves as victims, the beginning of true self-empowerment is when we fully realise that we can write our own script. It is also a moment when we are reminded that we have no right to write anyone else’s script. This insight alone can set us free from one of our most entrenched habits, that of attempting to control others. This habit is always a wasteful use of our own life and our responsibility to create and play our roles in whatever way we choose, and to our highest potential.

The metaphor of life as an unlimited drama, a stage on which we all come to act and interact, create and co-create, and the true perspective it provides, also helps us to understand more accurately the complete history and geography of time.. To the eternal soul, time is a paradox – it exists, and yet it does not. As we play our various roles on the stage of life, we are ‘in time’ and yet we are eternal beings, ‘beyond time’ and its constraints. It is only when the soul enters the corporeal dimension of time and space, movement and change, that creative expression is possible. At its deepest level, our movement from a dimension beyond time into the re-creation of a drama within time and space reminds us of the supreme paradox: we do have free will and yet our destiny is already set. This paradox cannot be understood by logical, linear thinking, but as an intuitive insight into the true nature of time or the true nature of the journey of the soul into the material world and out again. This is a cyclical movement and not a linear one. This paradoxical insight is further clarified when we explore and understand the laws of time which govern our corporeal world.


The Laws of Time

There are two basic laws governing the passage of time in this world. Firstly, time move in cycle, as do the events that give rise to our awareness of the passage of time. Secondly, everything new becomes old. These two laws help us to understand the complete ‘human story’ or the history of time (change) and they shed light on why the world is in its present state.

We use time to attempt to measure change.(that is, our experience of the space between events). Our measurement of time begins with the position of the planets around the sun and a day becomes the basic unit of measurement. One year is measured by the cyclical movement of the planet around its own axis while orbiting the sun. Here lies the key to understanding that the movement of time in our physical world is always cyclical. The cycle of the day, from dawn to daylight to dusk to night, is a movement that repeats with absolute constancy. A larger cycle is that of the seasons – from spring to summer to autumn to winter – which also revolves in the same way. When we stand back from the ‘big picture’ of human history, we see an even larger cycle. But to focus full and see that picture, we first need to understand and integrate the second law of time.

In each of these cycles, we also observe that everything new becomes old. Nothing ever starts old and becomes new. From cars to carpets, philosophies to religious movements – all move from a state of newness to a state of decay. When we translate this principle and process to the world as a whole, we can more easily understand why we live in an ‘old world’: overused, misused, tired and where many areas are simply worn out. This process is sometimes known as entropy. The Law of Entropy describes the movement from order to chaos, where energy is a closed system runs down when it is not replenished from a source outside that system. In the context of our physical planet, the sun sustains and re-energises the systems of nature every day, and so the Earth is sustained. Only in the past century has our exploitation of the natural world started to outspace its capacity for renewal. We now used the trapped energy in our physical world much faster than the sun can replace it through the Earth’s biological systems.

When the Law of Entropy is translated into our values and attitudes, we can perhaps begin to see why, as individuals, we feel worn out, tired and old ‘in spirit’, even while we may be relatively young in physical age. We can also begin to understand why material values hold greater sway those spiritual values, why negative attitudes easily prevail over positive. In fact, the entropy of our values has followed the same pattern as the entropy of our world environment. The outer manifestation of our decaying values can be seen in the decay of our cultures, where our values have become almost totally superficial and transient. They are frequently based on the material and not the spiritual or moral dimensions which used to prevail in almost all cultures. It is the decay in our values which has largely contributed to our exploitation, pollution and general disrespect for the natural world. Stepping back a few hundred years, we can easily see that the so called ‘civilisation’ of any culture or society has, in most cases, marked the beginning of its moral decline.

When we discern and accept this movement from new to old and combine it with the acceptance that we have not been spiritually renewing ourselves, it reveals a very different understanding of the events we have been taught to call history. As we look back down the ages, we find there have been revolutionary moments in human thinking which seem to have transformed life on Earth for the better. Deep philosophical insights, groundbreaking scientific discoveries, thousands of practical inventions and the development of global communication have all contributed to the rise of the illusion of progress. While we may be able to communicate across vast distances instantly at any time or produce mountains of information, smoother cars and smaller telephones, human relationships are in crisis and the wisdom to make better choices is one of the scarcest commodities. While we may be enjoying tremendous technological progress, it seems clear that we are not enjoying the development of healthier, more loving and harmonious relationships with ourselves, each other or the planet – and yet this is in accordance with the law of new to old. The ancients knew and understood these laws. These allowed them to predict the future – not in specific detail, but in general terms. It allows us to understand more accurately where we are now in the context of the cyclic history of the human race.


The Four Ages of Change

In the mythology and legends of almost every ancient race, including the Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus, Mayans, Incas and Aborigines, there extensive references to a period, some or five thousand years ago, when Earth was Paradise. Remembered as the Golden Age, Garden of Eden, Atlantis, the Dream-time, these legends all point to a time when the world was beautiful and new – heaven on Earth. In his book, Memories and Visions of Paradise, Richard Heinberg describes how he came to see and understand the significance of the Paradise Myth. Seeking to understand the true nature of our collective journey to this point in time, he discovered a common theme in world folklore of a vanished Paradise and the quest for its restoration. He called the Myth as follows:

“Nearly all ancient people and traditions of a primordial era have a common memory of a time when humanity lived a simple yet magical existence in attunement with nature. The ancients said that this Golden Age came to an end because of some tragic mistake that forced the separation between heaven and Earth. They said the rupture between the two worlds precipitated a descent into separateness, fear and greed that characterise human nature as we know it today. They said that it was only after the change in the human mode of being – the Fall – that the Earth was subjected to horrendous global catastrophes whose geological, climatic, and psychological impact erased nearly every trace of the former ‘golden’ condition.”

In both Greek and Indian mythology, the cyclical movement of human life on Earth is depicted by four distinct phases or ages.

Golden Age (dawn/spring) – remembered as Paradise, heaven on earth, over 4,000 years ago when humanity was one kingdom and there was complete purity of spirit and harmony in all human affairs. Suffering in any form or at any level is unknown.

Silver Age (day/summer) – still relatively like Paradise, still unity, but the purity of soul and matter are beginning to wane. Suffering is still unknown.

Copper Age (dusk/autumn) – the loss of spiritual awareness and the descent into consciousness of the body, the beginning of separation and fragmentation of humanity, the birth of suffering and conflict. The ego begins to reign in the minds and hearts of men and women. Love is distorted by the ego into fear.

Iron Age (night/winter) – the dark night of the soul and the darkest period of the world, a time of greed and avarice, conflict and war at all levels of human activity.


Where are we now?

In the context of the complete human history, we are now at the darkest period in human affairs. Our spiritual power is at its lowest ebb. We are no longer one world but fragmented into over 180 nation states. We fight over resources, pollute our planet and have lost respect for almost all levels of life, most of all, our own. All this is simply because we have forgotten who we are and why we are here. Like children playing all day in the woods until night has descended, we realise that we don’t know where we are or how to get home. We start to argue and fight each other and small groups break away and go in their own directions. Many of us feel an overwhelming sense of being lost. Our cries for help take many forms, from drugs to crime, dishonesty to deceit, from outright violence to o the inner break down of mind and body.

The entropy of human spiritual values and, as a consequence, human relationships worldwide is now plain to see. There is now a global culture with the predominant characteristics of fear instead of love, vice instead of virtue, sorrow instead of happiness and conflict instead of harmony. These are all symptoms of ill health at the spiritual and mental levels. When they get a foothold within us as individuals, they result in physical disease and, when they become the currency of our relationships, we kill each other (mentally, emotionally and physically). However, it takes more than sunlight to renew and revive the energy of human affairs. The only way we can heal, renew and replenish our spirit is to turn to face the Sun of spirit and, in that spiritual relationship, we open to receiving the pure light and love which reawakens, heals and renews the soul. The healing of our relationships can only happen when we, as individuals, realise that we are sources of love and are ready to simply be ourselves, untainted by any negative experiences of the past.


The Fifth Age

Although some parts of the world have never been more physically comfortable and materially prosperous, we are now at the darkest point in the cycle of all humanity. Winter winds of greed, conflict and exploitation now blow through all aspects of life on Earth. It is at this time that our spiritual Parent hears and responds to our collective cries for respite and relief form the pain and the fear that we ourselves have created. Like a good Parent, He intervenes at this, the only time during our entire journey, to tell us the whole story – who we are, what has happened to us and how to find our way home. He reveals the complete picture and, as a consequence, sets us free from our illusion and collectively created delusions.
One of these deceptions can be found in our understanding of freedom. While we think we live in a free world – free to fly, buy, say almost anything, anywhere, any time – it is not real freedom. It is only physical freedom. The source of our personal pain, and the darkness that permeates our relationships, is within our own spirit. The pain is there because we make ourselves slaves to people, circumstances, objects and ideas – even our own expectations. We build our own prisons and the bars are defined by our attachments, false beliefs and misconceptions. If we are to live in a better, more harmonious world, something which most would want, we have an opportunity to play our part in that process. That means letting go of our limited supports and our dependencies on the transient thins in life, like our possessions, position and prestige. That is not to say we give everything up and find a cave in the hills! It means changing our relationship with these things, awakening to who we really are as imperishable souls on a grand adventure, and allowing ourselves to be guided back to our spiritual home and our spiritual Parent. It means allowing the healing of our own spirit to take place.


The Past is the Future and the Future is the Past

A circle is not a circle unless the line turns perfectly and consistently to join up with itself. A cycle of time is not a true cycle unless it repeats itself identically. The repetitive cyclical movement of time, that we cal human history, means the past is also the future and the future is the past. From such a perspective, we can become aware of a fifth age, the age we are now in – the Confluence Age – a time of transformation and transmutation from old to new, from night to day, from Iron to Gold, from vice to virtue, from fear to love. From the end of one cycle to the beginning of another. This insight into the significance of this time period now releases us from wondering why the world seems to be so full of pain, sorrow and suffering, as we now understand that karma is being cleared at both the individual and collective levels, debts are being paid and atonement (at-one- ment) has begun. Knowing this, we find it easier to detach from the numerous scenes brought to us by the media, while staying focused on settling our own karmic debts. At the same time we are available to those around u when they need a little help to their own karma in the easiest way possible.

When we recognise the precise and exact nature of cyclic time, we can also joyfully expect and work for a new dawn. For this to happen, great changes must take place in the context of human affairs. It is a process of change that can only begin from within the individual. Just as we have been responsible for the degradation of the physical environment of our world, so it is we who must initiate the repairs. When we understand that all causation is downward (from spirit to mind and then to body or matter) we realise that it is our own spiritual awakening and purification which can transform our world at all levels – first our identity, then our state of being, then our intentions, then our attitudes and then our actions. As we turn to face the Source of love and light, the degenerating process of entropy is halted and reversed. The soul returns to its original pure and loving state. The consequence is a transformation of the inner world of consciousness which, in turn, is reflected in the transformation of the outer world that we all share. When we change, the world changes.

When we see and realise the significance of this current age, the fifth age or the Confluence Age, we also find greater clarity in our life’s purpose. It becomes obvious that the world will not become a better place through more resistance or conflict; this only adds to the sum of fear and anger in the world. To fight for peace is one of the most blinding contradictions which grip the human mind. To think peace comes from conflict, or that conflict is necessary to achieve peace, is to think right comes from wrong. Deep transformation is an incognito process within individual souls. Through meditation/reflection, we awaken and restore our true, peaceful selves. Through he practice of yoga (union, link, connection, remembrance), we absorb the light of truth and love from the Source and we are spiritually empowered. This we can then share with others. As we radiate our spiritual energy and reflect the light of the Source into the world in gentle and unassuming ways, the effects of our self-transformation reach out to others as an invitation to do the same.

The nagging questions which must enter most minds at least once in a lifetime (such as “Why me?”, “Why here?” and “Why now?”) are answered – our highest purpose is nothing more than to be ourselves and available to serve others and our natural environment. The greatest service is to help others know themselves as they truly are and to assist in reconnecting them to the Source. All energies in the world ultimately dance to the tune of spirit. This is why simply sitting in meditation, generating and radiating vibrations which are peaceful and loving, can help to heal others and the world itself.


Meditation – spinning the Wheel of Eternity

We are not separate from. Time is life and we are time, because we are life. In meditation, it is possible to get a deep sense of our journey through time, and perhaps many lives, not as individual images or specific scenes, but as an intuitive sense of a long distant past which, by virtue of its being invoked into the ‘here and now’, will also be the future. We are each a participant in the cycle of life, while at the same time, as immortal and eternal beings, the cycle of all time is within us. Here are some thoughts to meditate and reflect on, which may assist you to create an awareness of times past and you own unique journey into the future.


I visualise a wheel . . .
I am at the centre of the wheel . . .
It is the wheel of all time . . .
I am completely calm and totally still as I watch the wheel of time rotate around me . . .
Like a revolving screen, it shows me many scenes, evoking the feelings of many deep memories within me . . .
It’s as if I can feel what I was like when I first came onto the stage of this world . . .
I was a pure and loving being . . .
My innocence of spirit meant my nature was playful and pure. . .
I danced and laughed naturally with everyone . . .
I created beauty in all that I did and in all my relationships . . .
And then, very slowly, imperceptibly at first, the dance of life began to lose the spring in its step . . .
As the wheel of time continued to rotate, I became more conscious of the physical world around me . . .
More aware of the shape of my physical body . . .
With the passing of time I was drawn and attracted to my own physical body and then to the physical forms of others . . .
As my soul consciousness ebbed away it was replaced by consciousness of the body . . .
As my sense of mortality grew I began to build barriers and create fear, and the first moments of suffering arrived . . .
The dance of life began to lose its harmony and rhythm . . .
The lightness of my spirit faded and my heart slowly became heavy as I filled my tired mind with lazy and troubled thoughts . . .
The I began to search outside myself for some relief . . .
I prayed, I cried out to God, I searched, and I could find no solace in external and limited comforts . . .
The conflict within me began to find its way out into the world . . .
A darkness prevailed my consciousness as many forms of sorrow and suffering became residents of my mind and heart . . .
I begin to live through the ‘dark night of the soul’ . . .
My energy levels are depleted, for the first time my mind knows despair and my body becomes ill . . .
Then, just as the lowest point is reached there is a sudden glimmer of hope . . .
The light of truth responds to my soundless cries and comes to awaken and enlighten me . . .
I see myself now, bathing in the light of the love of the One . . .
The lost energy of my long and tiring journey is being
replenished . . .
I feel the deepest spiritual comfort as the Comforter of all hearts nurtures and empowers me back to my original state . . .
I am reunited with God, my eternal Friend and dearest
Companion . . .
My heart soars again as I gradually remember who I am, and rediscover the truth of why I am here . . .
Laughter and love return to my thoughts and feelings . . .
I can now see my own return to this point from where it
all began . . .
And I cab sense the wheel beginning to turn…once again.


I am Frequently Asked these Questions

Q. What is the simplest way to understand time?
A. Essentially we create time in our attempt to measure our experience of the space between perceived events. Time passes only because we perceive and experience change. Change is only a series of events. So time is our experience of the speed of events. This explains why time seems to be moving faster today, because both the speed and the quantity of events are increasing. And it seems even faster if we participate in those events. Modern media allow us to observe hundreds of events from all over the world, every day. To observe it is to participate. If you want to slow time down, learn to detach and be the observer of events. If you want to stop time, meditate and be in your original, timeless consciousness. Today, however, it is as if we fear time when hear ourselves say, “Quick, time is running out!” or “Hopefully, there will be more time tomorrow!” or “Hurry up, we need to save time!” Ultimately time is our life: it cannot be saved or lost, but must be lived now. This is where free will begins – we can choose exactly how we spend our time at any moment.

Q. Why do we find it so hard to recognise and transform ourselves, to awaken to who we really are?
A. One reason is we all have the tendency to spend most of our time in the past, reliving our memories and succumbing to nostalgia. Look back on your average day and you may find around 80% of your attention went into the past. Not only do we try to relive the past, but we also attempt to change it! We attempt the impossible and, in so doing, we live in very small cycles where tomorrow turns to turn out similar to yesterday, and then we wonder why we do not have the power to change our lives. It feels like we do not have free will. The past cannot be relived; it cannot be changed. The past is like a filing cabinet. When you arrive at work every day, do you step into the filing cabinet and spend the day there? The past is a great resource only for learning and an occasional resource for useful information, but it is not a place to live. We can build on the old, but we cannot rewrite it. The future is the result of what we think, feel and do today. If today is the same as yesterday then tomorrow will look and feel like yesterday and in this way we feel we are stuck in a rut. We need to let go of the past if we want the future to turn up! The past is past. Drop it and keep dropping it. This inner exercise will eventually allow you to be present here and now. And life only happens now!


My Personal experience

At first I found it hard to understand the concept of eternity and then a spiritual colleague said, ‘Why don’t you experiment and imagine that everything you do and say today is eternal?’ The most amazing day unfolded where everything intensified and became more significant. I had such an awareness of the role I was playing and I was careful to play each scene in the day’s drama to the best of my ability. I was a joy to be alive and at this instance I remembered Prem Rawat who said to me that ‘You should be joyful to be alive.’ His very statement gave me an understanding of what living was really about. I forgot about the past as I focused totally on the present moment. Doing this made me realise that I had been playing an old record over and over again in my mind. That day gave me the chance to try something new and appreciate where I was at that moment. I can never thank my colleague and Prem Rawat enough if I were to live a hundred for opening my eyes. Not only did I find transformation in that one day, but I have tried to continue the experience as often as I can each and every day. This has helped me to progress. I used my experiences of the past to build my present with the awareness of the consequences in the future. I no longer feel depressed, And even look forward to waking up each day, I can assure you of this.


Journal Exercises

A. Spinning the Cycle
Go back over the meditation practice above. This time, without reading or even trying to remember the written ideas, simply sit quietly and create the sequence for yourself – new to old to new again- fall and rise and fall and back to rise. Play with the cycle in your intellect, as if you are spinning the history of time. What do you ‘see’? What do you feel? What does it show you? Note down your experience. As you make your notes, stop occasionally to reflect and allow yourself to see deeply.

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B. Life Cycles
Cycles can be found at all levels of life. Even in your own life you will find cyclical patterns. On a separate sheet of paper, draw a cycle, divide it into 4 equal parts with a cross – note down the characteristics of each stage as you contemplate the cyclical process of each of the following:
Phases of your own life
A relationship
An organisation
A community


THE TREE OF LIFE


Spiritual understanding of how the dance of life on Earth has evolved

Our perception can either cloud or clarify our understanding. At this point in time, within the story that is human history, we need a perception which provides us with both clarity and accuracy. One effective way to perceive and understand the drama of human life in its completeness is through the metaphor of a tree. A tree symbolises the process of growth and expansion – from a tiny seed to a huge, solid structure of trunk, branches, twigs and leaves – and then decay and renewal. The seed of the tree of all life is the Supreme Soul, or God. He is the only one who knows the whole story from His vantage point in the incorporeal dimension. He has a complete and continuous awareness of all time and space. Just as the whole blueprint of a tree is contained within the seed, so the whole knowledge of how the drama of life on Earth unfolds is contained and known by Him.

The initial stage of growth is the sapling, or the Golden-aged phase, when the drama begins to unfold. It is a time when spirit (soul) and matter are pure. As in nature, when new growth is full of vital energy, the soul is also in its most powerful state of consciousness. Souls are arriving or coming down to Earth to take on a physical form (invisibly enter into the womb) in a pure, new world. There is complete balance and harmony within each individual and between people. It is the age of gold. It is heaven on Earth. It is Paradise within the consciousness of the soul, which is reflected within the world itself. Both human nature and world have a perfect beauty.

As the sapling expands and strengthens, the firm trunk symbolises the Silver-aged phase. While the number of souls taking birth increases gradually, there is still a feeling of oneness and unity of all (unlike the separateness that will manifest with increasing overpopulation in more recent times). It is still heaven on Earth and yet its inhabitants do not say, “This is heaven!” as they have no lesser experience to compare it with. It just is. The purity, innocence and unfettered happiness is a radiance emanating from every soul. However, as the soul plays its part within the expansion of the drama of life, the sparkle of this pure innocence wanes imperceptibly through action and interaction, and through the accumulation and weight of experience. This accumulation of karma gradually weighs so heavily within all souls collectively, that once again, there is that most significant moment in all of human history – the descent into negativity brought about by a startling shift in consciousness.

Often documented in biblical terms as the ‘falls’ or referred to in literature as ‘Paradise lost’, this is the time when innocence is lost. It signifies the moment when there is a loss of natural spiritual expression and exchange, and a transition into body-consciousness. The self or soul begins to identify with the form that it occupies and animates. Spiritual amnesia sets in and the soul succumbs to the illusion that it is the body. This is the end of the Silver. Aged phase and the beginning of the Copper-aged phase, when we lose our true consciousness of the self and the mastery of our physical senses. We begin to indulge in physical sensation. We lose the joyful impulse behind all that we create. We begin to believe we are mortal and to think like mere mortals. We become conscious of death as a real probability, as something terminal rather than transitory. Mortality becomes a fearful reality and love is distorted into fear, clouding our capacity to see and think in harmonious ways. Confusion is known for the first time. Dilemmas develop between right and wrong, good and bad. The dualities, which were once only a feature of our external environment, become a reality within our consciousness. Sensual experience becomes the source of “happiness” and, as a consequence, external ‘things’ take on a greater value than inner spirit, giving birth to attachment and greed, the impulses which lie behind all division and separation. Our unity is shattered. Suffering and sorrow enter human experience, where before there was only harmony and love.

At this point, some souls begin to wander and search in different directions to find answers and solutions to this new, strange malaise. The quest for truth begins, and does the search for a special Being, through different religious beliefs, dimly remembered as the Supreme One or God. While some races mistakenly invest both the sun and nature with divinity and look towards both for salvation, it is during this period that special messenger souls incarnate to play their part in this, our corporeal drama.

At different times and places, the ‘prophet souls’ – Abraham, Buddha (in Sidharta Gautama’s body), Christ (in Jesus of Nazareth’s body), Shankaracharya and Mohammed (in Mustafa’s body) – take birth in physical bodies. Each brings a specific message of a spiritual quality, and aspect of truth, need at that point. Their role is to demonstrate this quality through the example of their own lives. Their intention, as ‘leaders by example’, is to help restore harmony and humankind. While their actions are their message they also remind those around them of the eternal truths, where truth is defined as that which never changes. As the story of humanity unfolds, almost every soul will follow, at some stage on their journey, the legacy and teachings of one of the messenger souls. Abraham provides us with moral and spiritual laws; Buddha’s focus is on non-violence and detachment; Christ emphasises the importance and power of love and forgiveness; Shankaracharya demonstrates the power of spiritual and physical purity; while Mohammed reminds others to remember only the One. Some listen, some follow, but it is only at the end of their auspicious roles that what they said and did is recorded in what will become religious scriptures. These scriptures, and the philosophies which they contain, became the basis of the different branches of the tree of life. Each branch becomes a religious path, with its own set of beliefs and interpretations of universal truths.

Gradually, as time passes, as more souls come down and take birth and the population increases, the number of followers on each branch increases. The original message of the ‘prophet souls’ and the belief systems which are created through the interpretations of their followers are institutionalised. Organisational structures and systems begin to grow, taking a greater importance than the original truths which they enshrine. The purity of the original message is diluted and polluted. Like everything else, the growth and expansion of each branch of each religious philosophy is taken through its own Golden/Silver/Copper-aged stages. As one of these laws of time demands that everything new becomes old, each religion begins to fragment and separate into sub-branches as individuals interpret the original truths ‘their way’, leading others in differing directions. This growth continues into the Iron-aged phase, the night of each religion. This is the time when each religious philosophy and its foundation begin to fragment into what will be hundreds of schisms, sects and cults from Catholics (and its sub-branches).
In our metaphor of the tree of life these schisms/sects/cults can be likened to twigs, rather weak and delicate compared with the branch and trunk, and sensitive and susceptible to the slightest breeze of different ideas and beliefs. Hence the divisiveness and the conflict we see within modern sectarian religion today.

When the soul lost its true self-awareness and fell under the spell of body-consciousness, the energy of spirit became polluted. The natural love and peace of the soul was distorted into fear and anger. Virtue became vice. In contrast to the truth of love and peace as expressed by the prophet souls, we now see a thousand forms of irreligiousness. Unspiritual behaviour and the vices of ego, anger, greed, attachment and lust pollute every soul to some extent. As a consequence they are now rampant in all areas of life on Earth, including our institutions and governments.

So here we are now in the Iron-aged phase of our world drama. A steady stream of new souls has continued to enter the corporeal world. The world population has increased gradually over several thousand years, eventually exploding exponentially during the last hundred years. The consequence of an increasing world population, combined with the entropy of human virtues and values, means there are now tremendous social and economic tensions, alongside an increase in mental and physical disease. The natural resources of the world strain to sustain over six billion people.

And yet, it’s just fine. It’s exactly how the drama of life is meant to unfold. It is already written in the script!


Evolution or Creation?

When we perceive and understand the growth and development of humanity in this way, that is, from new to old, from light to dark, it throws a new light over the concepts of evolution (a relatively new theory initiated by Darwin) and creation. When we recognise, either rationally or intuitively, that we do not come up from the Stone Age, but down from Paradise, we begin to awaken to the truth of our journey. We do not evolve to a higher consciousness. In fact the opposite is true. In our fall from grace, we gradually lose the purity of our consciousness, our spiritual awareness dims and it becomes an effort to discern what is right from wrong. When we understand the cyclical nature of this process, we also see that ‘creationism’ is also not totally accurate. Instead, we see the process of recreation and renewal, as the Source of spirit, the Seed of the human tree, steps in to initiate the process of purification and transformation, which marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new cycle. Everything in life proceeds in cycles.


Progress or Regress?

As a metaphor for the way that human life on Earth has developed to inhabit the planet, the tree allows us to hold the ‘big picture’ in our awareness. Using this big picture as a reference, we can see and understand why things have happened the way they have, and why the world is the what it is today: from one world to over 180 nation states; from pure loving beings to fearful and aggressive beings; from a harmonious relationship with matter, in which we respect and care for the physical environment, to a relationship when we are slaves to material experience and try to control the physical energies of the world; from a world where we used to have all the time in the world for each other, to a world where we prefer to spend time with our technological toys; from a world where our hierarchies reflected their true meaning as a ‘sacred order’, held in place by love and respect for each other, and, most especially, for our elders, to a world where all forms of hierarchy are challenged and anarchy often reigns; from innocence to corruption; from joy to depression; from day to night; from love to fear; from heaven to hell. Contemplate the tree as a dynamic symbol of life on Earth and you may find it awakens deep insights into the human story – at the same time explaining why things are the way they are today and will be again tomorrow.

When we begin to realise the significance of this time now, some of our deepest beliefs, prejudices and judgements begin to disappear. As we see the deterioration of human behaviour over time, we see our regression and we might not hold so fast to our belief that we are progressing. It is much easier to believe in progress than admit that the quality of life and living is slowly decaying. This inability to recognise the entropy of energy at all levels of energy (physical, mental and spiritual) in the world is a sign of a kind of collective denial, another symptom of our sleepiness at the level of awareness. Under close examination we might also see how our belief in competition as the sustainer of human progress is actually responsible for much of the fear and conflict in our modern world. In a more awakened state we might realise that the only way to restore unity and live together in peace is to choose not to compete with anyone for anything but to offer the hand of co-operation.

When we see the nature of the expansion of humanity, as symbolised by the growth of a tree, we not only understand why the movement from new to old, from strength to weakness, prevails around us, but we can also see how recreation and renewal takes place. And the old tree is fully grown, destined to die, but not before its seeds release potential new life. And, in the tree of life, this is the role of God, the eternal Seed. The new tree is a spiritual one; its creation and emergence are not out of nothing but out of re-creation, renewal and replenishment of the present spiritual energy within the old tree. We are that energy. As we turn to face the Sun of spirit, receive the light of love and truth, we are renewed and replenished. Through our connection with the Seed, the Supreme Soul we become ready to create and serve the new growth.

Living within us there is a deep memory of our arrival for our first physical birth, the first chapter of our corporeal adventure. While this memory lies in the past, when we understand the true nature of time in a cyclical movement in time and space, it also lies in the future. In this sense, to remember this deep past, this original experience, is to invoke our future. To remember the time when we were pure, loving and totally content is to bring that state of consciousness back to life and into our consciousness awareness now. When we restore and sustain the purity of this consciousness, we influence not only our own attitudes and behaviour but also our relationships with each other and the world around us right now. In this way each of us has the capacity to influence the world in a positive way, simply by altering our state of consciousness. The methods to ‘allow’ this to happen are meditation and yoga (remembrance, link, connection with Source). Meditation is the method to access the deepest levels of our own spirit where we find our original peace and purity. Yoga is the method to open the heart of our self/soul and allow the Sun of spirit to enter, awaken and heal. It means that we stand on the brink of a new world, a new beginning, if we so choose – if you so choose. We can choose to stand and live in the Iron Age, to deny our own light and live in these dark times according to dark ways, or we can choose to stand and live in the Confluence Age, the age of transition, the age when the light of truth re-enters the world. When we do, we may see that what looks like utter chaos in the world today is simply part of the inevitable process of renewal. The old house must be torn down with all the dust and dirt involved, before the new house can be built. And as the old house is being flattened, the architects yogis or meditators) are quiet working (sitting in a meditative state) out of sight (incognito), designing and perfecting the plan for the new dwelling.
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1 While the terms ‘sects’ and ‘cult’ are often lumped together, there is a difference. A sect is used to refer to an off-shoot of an existing religion, usually with a religious leader at its head, whereas a cult is a gathering of people who usually follow the beliefs and instructions of a charismatic leader. It is often the case that cults are led by strong, dominating personalities who frequently negatively influence their followers. Sects, on the other hand, are more often than a group of deeply spiritual/religious people who are following a ‘diluted’ or ‘variant’ message to the one brought by the original religion they have moved away from.
We have the choice to stand and shout and complain at all the dust and noise, resist the developers and the decay in the faint hope that the cracks can be filled and what is broken can be patched up. Or we can stand with the architects of renewal, co-creators of a completely new world. Spiritual architecture is deep, invisible, incognito work, and only God, the Chief Architect, knows precisely how the new dwelling will emerge. Why? Dodd and sensible question! Because He has seen it all before and He remembers very clearly! If, in your meditation/reflection, you can be quiet enough, still enough, you can do the same.


Meditation/Reflection – In the Beginning

Life is an eternal interplay of three energies – soul, God and matter. Soul and matter are not created as they are eternal, but they do lose their purity over time. God’s role is to purify and renew. The Creator, in the truest sense, is the ‘re-creator’, the purifier. The role of the soul is to assist. This is made easier when we understand the whole of creation and see our place within it. We each have a deep subconscious and memory of our arrival in this physical world. It is a special time for the soul as the world is a new and novel experience. Like the experience of an innocent child each moment is filled with delight and discovery. The following meditation/reflection may help you to invoke a memory of that time when every feeling was pure and powerful and when you, the soul, were the same master of your mental abilities and physical senses.

With your body relaxed, remind yourself that you are a soul, a being of pure, spiritual light . . .
With your soul-consciousness restored you are now at peace within yourself . . .
On the vehicle of one pure and powerful thought, you return to the incorporeal home of silence and peace . . .
You are aware of being in the presence of the Supreme Soul, the One who is the Seed of the tree of life, the One who not only knows you, but who knows the whole story . . .
For a brief moment you too are able to hold the complete history and geography of the human world drama in your awareness . . .
It is an unlimited story created by the players themselves . . .
You see yourself with Him at the moment, just before the first moments in time – the first moments of a new performance of ‘the drama’ of life on earth . . .
In that moment you feel the overwhelming urge to go towards the physical, corporeal world . . .
It is as if you know that it is there that you will fully express your self and know yourself . . .
You intuitively sense that life awaits you in another world . . .
And in one thought, in one second, you are there . . .
You are in a new physical form . . .
The world around you is bright and beautiful, a rainbow of vibrant colours . . .
A pure delight cascades through your whole being . . .
What you see and hear and feel is a wonder to behold . . .
Your form is also radiant and beautiful…it is your perfect form . . .
Your whole being is awash with a rainbow of vibrant energies - the energies of greatest happiness in life . . .
You feel an incredible lightness…a serene contentment…a pure joy to be alive . . .
You see around you your companions for the journey . . .
Though you have not met before you recognise everyone you meet . . .
The meeting of eyes is also the meeting of hearts . . .
The echoes of this world are made only of laughter . . .
Every moment, every interaction with another, is filled with the magic
of pure play . . .
We are woven together in a tapestry of life that is perfect
and beautiful . . .
This is paradise . . .
In every face of every encounter you see the radiant beauty
of spirit . . .
There is only light and warmth and love and joy…and it is everywhere at all times . . .
Each one plays their own special note . . .
Hearts and minds dance in an effortless harmony with each other . . .
Together we create the symphony of life . . .
Together we dance the dance of our eternal tale . . .


Words on paper are the least effective way to describe the possible experience that you may have with this meditation. It is less about words and images and more about feelings and experiences. Deep within our consciousness we all retain the first pure and perfect feelings of our first birth. This meditation is less about thinking accurate thoughts of who and what we are, and more about being so quiet, so still inside, that we are receptive to the deep memory of those original moments. As you allow those moments to emerge and experience those original feelings, they have the effect of transforming both your understanding and experience of what it means to live now.


I am Frequently Asked Questions on this theme such as the following:

Q. Can you tell me more about the transition from the Silver Age to the Copper Age to the Iron Age?

A. The end of Paradise (the fall) is the beginning of the Copper Age. It would have been marked by the beginning of philosophical enquiry and the search for the truth of how life and the world functions. This enquiry is motivated by the loss of inner and outer harmony. Imagine yourself in an ancient Greece, sitting around the blazing fire under the stars late at night with friends and family. The young ones are listening to the old ones as they pass on the wisdom of the ages through myth and legend. It is this wisdom of right understanding, right thinking and right living that maintains the balance and harmony of society. Not far away, there is another group discussing why the world is the way it is, why people do what they do. This group is trying to work out why there is an increase in sorrow and suffering. They are the philosophers in a process of inquiry. They are trying to understand how the universe works. One day, a few philosophers become tired of all the talk and intellectual enquiry and they decide to ‘do something. They begin to study the material world in all its forms and variety of phenomena. They start to fathom the rhythms of nature and movement of the planets in an attempt to find mechanisms, meaning and purpose. Scientific enquiry is born and wisdom gives way to the gathering of knowledge. Over one hundred elements, the development of electricity and, several hundred years later, the appliance of science spawns technology. Knowledge gives way to information. In a matter of a few short decades, everything that can be quantified and measured is reduced to sets of digits and fed into a machine for lightning transmission in massive quantities across vast distances. Information gives way to data. Take a moment to reflect and ask yourself at which level do you currently share wit others, converse with others? Is it at the level of wisdom, knowledge, information or data? For most of us it is at the level of information. Information is mostly gossip with little or no value. What we all need more than ever is truth and wisdom, the two commodities is shortest supply today. You can now clearly see the absolute dilution of our values as we now evaluate the worth of many modern organisations according to their data resources. The more data rich they are the greater the value they have, isn’t? From wisdom to knowledge, to information to data – this is supposed to be progress, huh! This is, to me, a ‘so-called progress’. ‘So-called’ because, this is not progress at all! This is rather regress.


Q. What is the Confluence Age exactly?
A. The Confluence Age is more of consciousness. It is an awareness of how all worlds – spiritual, mental and physical – are renewed and recreated through the transformation of the self/soul to the soul’s original pure qualities of peace, love and truth. To make a personal commitment to this renewal and purification of the self, and to bring the light of truth into the world, is to stand in the Confluence Age. To decide to continue sustaining the mistaken identity that the self is a physical body, and all the behaviours and suffering which that brings, is to remain in the Iron Age. The simplest way to see it as an interplay of energies. When the soul loses its purity of consciousness and falls under the illusion that it is a material body, the vibrations of the soul changes. They become slower and heavier. The energy of matter flows. The energy of molecules and atoms change frequencies and become heavier and more solid. In time this increasing heaviness of spirit is what sustains the increasing heaviness of matter. Enter the Source of spiritual energy to rejuvenate the soul and restore its purity of being. This can occasionally feel a little chaotic internally. Matter follows with a process that appears to be equally chaotic, but is simply a reordering and returning to original forms. The Confluence Age is the meeting of these three energies – soul, God and matter – in a process of transformation and renewal.



My Personal Experience

OK, I wasn’t on the streets throwing stones at the government; I wasn’t an activist, but I was a hater, a resister. And then one night I got it! The big picture suddenly crystallised. I suddenly saw that it’s all happening exactly as it should, and that resistance is not only futile, it is very unenlightened, spiritually naïve. Apart from the fact that you empower whatever you resist, you are trying to interfere with the outplaying of a natural process, not to mention trying to write (as most do) other people’s script. I could see the environmental protesters making two vital mistakes, two wrong assumptions. Firstly, they assume the planet could come to an end and that they themselves will lose their home, which really means their efforts are essentially selfish. And secondly, they assume themselves are mortal. These two wrong assumptions generate the fear which motivates their actions of resistance. But the truth is that we never ever end and the planet never ever ends. This was a big realisation for me – we are eternal and the planet is eternal. We might try to wipe each other out, but Earth abides and it has unlimited power to heal itself. The sun is the source of that power. Suddenly I was able to drop the fear, end the inner struggle, even though it was largely mental, and begin to live in love, live from love, live through love and live with, from and through good wishes and elevated feelings. And just as suddenly I saw that that’s the only energy that can bring positive change, regardless of all the ‘apparent’ injustices around us we are shown and see each day.



Journal Exercises

A. Seeing the Big Picture
Meditate on the symbol of the tree and contemplate its meaning. See if you can read the drama of life. Visualise the growth of the tree of life from a seed to sapling to a mature robust tree. See the tree of life go through its seasons until it is fully grown and at the end of its life. See the process of final decay and the new tree emerging. Can you see your place in it? Can you see your role and purpose during this particular phase of intense, significant change and transformation? Note down your most interesting insights and realisations.

B. Inside Out
Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a tree of life (or find a picture of one. Come on! Go and get one! And then label the various parts of the tree (roots, trunk, branches, twigs, leaves, etc.) with what you think are the specific spiritual qualities which emerge from within the soul/spirit at different stages/phases of its journey through the time and space of the drama of life on earth.