Whatever the months to come may bring, we intend to make the following thought our daily meditation: However things may appear on the surface, what we are facing is not an outer process, but an inner one. It is an initiatory test or a ‘growing pain’, through which we will find our way, not with the tools and weapons of the outer human being – worry, fear, defense, attack; condemnation, blame, anger, self-preservation – but by yielding to the promptings of the inner Human Being, whose compassion, harmlessness, acceptance, humility and trust are infinite and never-failing.
In the mystery schools of old, candidates were often placed, for initiation, before some great fear or temptation, and the test for them was always: would they react from the lower mind or from the Higher? If they succeeded in choosing the wisdom of the Higher mind as their guide, they would then find themselves admitted to a higher level of vibration than any they had previously experienced, a level on which that which was previously dark became abundantly clear, and on which all sorrow turned to joy.
Many of these initiates must have thought, at the time, that they had achieved something permanent by passing tests like these, Well, perhaps they had, but not necessarily in the way they had imagined, not in the sense that they would never have to go through such tests again. For, in a way, they were only a kind of ‘Trial Run’, a means of etching into their soul-memory a certain energy pattern that could be re-activated later, perhaps in some other incarnation, in a test presented by Life itself.
Life is the only real initiator. And at this time, after centuries of preparation – if what many spiritual teachers are saying is true – our greatest teacher, Life, is presenting the whole human race with an initiatory test, and therefore, with a choice. Here is a poem about it, which we hope will help you find your way through the labyrinth.
Ann Napier © 2002
The Narrow Gate
Life’s Burdens, be they big or small,
Are not supposed to be a wall
Impassable, unfair, un-meant,
But by the hand of Love are sent,
To balance, test and purify,
And help us through the needle’s eye.
At Dark times, then, when you’re alone,
Don’t let yourself be turned to stone.
But look within, and see what’s there,
How bright the light! How clear the air!
Your friends are, truly, all around.
Helping higher powers abound.
It only seems as though it’s night.
The test is: will you still see Light,
And in It trust, though all seems grey,
and keep faith in the coming Day?
This is the narrow gate, my friend,
The journey’s start, the journey’s end.
You will pass through?
The leave behind
The outworn clothing of your mind:
Attachments, fears, obstructions all,
That keep you in illusion’s thrall.
‘Surrender’ is the password here:
to Life, to Love, to Wisdom clear.
You think this will be hard to do?
A burden that’s too great for you?
Then just have courage! Do your best!
And higher powers will do the rest.
The smallest effort to choose Love
Is met with help from Those above.
For thus we carry our life’s task:
Through choosing Love, to break the mask
Of separation, death and fear
Imprisoning those dwelling here,
So that, as One, we may ascent
To Life abundant, without end.
– Ann Napier