The preservation and perpetuation of grievance in the form of tribal conflicts, ethnic wars, and other unresolved, deep-seated conflicts is a continuing problem for humanity. How can we move towards a world in which racial distinctions and national identities will be recognised as enriching the whole?
Embedded in almost every culture and society are memories and myths which make up an essential part of that society’s traditions and worldview.
These are passed on to the children early in life by their parents and community, and reinforced by the educational system throughout the children’s formative years.
In many instances this is a relatively harmless means of fostering a cohesiveness that the society needs in order to maintain its unique identity. However, in some cases ancestral memory crystallises into a skewed perception of reality, enhancing a sense of isolation from the larger world through a perceived victimisation which can fester and become the source of potential future violence. Sometimes this pervasive sense of injustice harkens back to ancient battles fought and lost, or to longer running conditions of oppression by more powerful forces, expressing itself in a mixture of victimhood, unique and unparalleled suffering, and of a specialness that sets the members of that group apart from the larger humanity.
Today’s world is witness to the dangers of this preservation and perpetuation of grievance in the form of tribal conflicts, ethnic wars and other unresolved, deep-seated conflicts based on mistrust and hatred. The writings of Alice Bailey provide some thoughtful insights on this problem, which essentially calls for a form of psychological rehabilitation through the instilling of a new world view based on the commonality of the one humanity and the nature of rebirth, which is fundamentally and most importantly a group experience.
History is the depiction of returning groups of souls, brought together cyclically by an affinity of astrological and ray factors, she points out. On the subconscious level, this group affinity was studied in depth by Joseph Campbell whose probing of the mythological traditions of different cultures revealed the underlying common ground that is preserved in the shared myths and lore even of widely varying societies.
On a more scientific level, this common ground is also being borne out. The effects of migration and the intermingling of races, which has been documented from earliest human history, have been accelerated over the past century. Through world wars which brought the invasion of "foreign elements" and caused the displacement of vast populations, as well as the contacts made possible by increased travel and global communications, any illusions about "racial purity" are rapidly falling away. New knowledge about DNA support this, validating the admixture of different races and ethnicities found in many individuals even though they may "self-identify" with one particular group or race.
A vision of this new world is given us in the writings of Alice Bailey, which affirm that a new mode of living hovers over humanity and will materialise when selfishness is defeated, right human relations become the vision, and when the ideal of this newworld is freed fromall nationalism and group separativeness. It will be a world, based upon the recognition of equal educational opportunities for all peoples, races and nations, and upon the fundamental realisation that "God hath made of one blood all the peoples upon the earth." It will be a world, she says, in which racial distinctions and national identities will be recognised as enriching the whole and as contributing to the significance of humanity. Such distinctions and nationalitieswill be preserved and cultured, not in a separative isolation, but in the realisation that the many aspects of human expression and differentiation produce one noble whole, and that all the parts of this whole are interdependent. "Allwill comprehend their relation to each other in one progressive, synthetic, human endeavour, and the enterprise of united living will produce an interiorworkwhich will flower forth in the production of a beauty and a richness which will distinguish humanity as a whole. In this all will share, with wisdom and a planned efficiency, offering to the planetary life and to each other that which they have to contribute. This will bemade possible because the whole of mankind will be recognised as the essential unit and as being of greater spiritual importance than the part", Bailey says. (Externalisation of the Hierarchy pp.241-2)
With this understanding, a space is made possible for forgiveness and acceptance of the past. An ancient rule of the spiritual path decrees, "Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule." When the emphasis of educational systems and of parental and communal values is placed on world history and on the contribution that all groups, all cultures, races and nations can make to the enrichment of the whole, the focus will shift from preserving the sense of past glory and/or injustice to the building of a future world, a world in which the value of each individual and group contribution is recognised as indispensable to the whole.
