Energy of Goodwill
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE ENERGY OF GOODWILL
- The Need for Goodwill
- The Role of the Mind
THE PLATFORM OF MEN AND WOMEN OF GOODWILL
PROGRAMME OF ACTION
- Personal Preparation
- Life of Service
- Goodwill Leadership
THE ENERGY OF GOODWILL
We are living in one of the major transition periods of all human experience. This transition is so general that it involves changes in every department of human affairs and thought and is producing fundamental modifications in people's attitudes to life itself. Not only are we changing the physical world, but we are slowly transmuting and altering the quality of our desires and profoundly altering our ideas about science, education, religion and government as well as our standards of social betterment and security.
Every transition period is inevitably one of struggle and difficulty, but it is also one of great opportunity. And since the transition today affects the entire human family in every part ofthe world, it is basically the day of opportunity for every one of us. Suffering and difficulty is universal but human progress and achievement is being made along every line.
The record of human history has been largely one of greed and aggression, of selfishness and ambition, and no race, nation or group is exempt from this indictment. Today, as humanity approaches maturity, the conflict between selfish values, attitudes and ways of life on the one hand, breeding hatred, differences and separation, and the better ways of goodwill and understanding, cooperation and sharing on the other, becomes acute. The struggle is long and hard, and the end is not yet in sight. But there are many powerful indications that good will triumph.
The Need for Goodwill
There are many different qualities and energies impinging on human consciousness today, producing both constructive and destructive effects. The most needed, if we are to move safely into the new age, is the energy of goodwill. The best-laid plans fail if those who implement them lack goodwill to one another. Without goodwill, conferences are empty of any real and lasting results. The existence of a spirit of goodwill is an essential prerequisite for the creative solution of the many problems of humanity. Goodwill is the common platform on which all races and creeds can meet.
Hope lies in the fact that goodwill is far more widespread throughout the world than is recognised. The spirit of goodwill is present in millions of people, and it evokes a sense of responsibility. Men and women of goodwill will sense this new world responsibility and seek to undertake their share. They think increasingly in terms of the whole and their influence is growing as a positive force for good. It is upon this steadily growing goodwill that the hope of the world is based. It is found in the membership of every group which exists for world betterment. It constitutes an unused power which has never yet been organised as a world force.
If the men and women of goodwill in the world are to grasp their present opportunity they must deepen their understanding of this energy they possess, and understand more clearly how it may be applied in practical terms in the modern world.
The Meaning of Goodwill
Goodwill is humanity's first attempt to express the love of God, for goodwill is the lowest expression of true love and the one most easily understood. It is time that people should, temporarily at least, stop talking about love, about loving their fellowmen, and about the use of love in solving problems, and talk instead upon a lower and more practical level-that of goodwill. To many the use of the word love in matters of group and national relationships is meaningless. But goodwill still retains significance and can be understood by all. Goodwill is both an attitude and a harmonising energy. Goodwill is love in action.
It is interesting to note that the meaning of "goodwill", from the angle of an actual dictionary definition, and as it is used today by men and women of goodwill, has never been clearly defined. Webster's dictionary gives the following definition:--
"Good intention or good disposition; benevolence.
Cheerful consent; heartiness; readiness.
Law: The favour or advantage in the way of custom which a business has acquired beyond the mere value of what it sells".
The emphasis is upon the more superficial meanings whether emotional and sentimental or commercial and materialistic. In fact, however, goodwill is an expression of "the will to that which is good and ought to be". It is no longer to be misinterpreted as a sentimental or negative kindliness, but as a practical and dynamic force for constructive action, capable of remaking the world.
The Role of the Mind
Goodwill is without direction if not controlled by thought. It is the mind that gives this direction and helps the individual to discriminate between right and wrong, to choose between what is good and what is evil, and to direct energy into the desired channels.
Energy in fact follows thought. This is as true of the energy of goodwill, generally regarded as an essentially emotional and sympathetic impulse, as it is of any other kind of energy. The mind is a better carrier of the potency of goodwill, and of divine love, than the emotions. Until experienced this is hard to believe for, compared to feeling, thinking seems rather cold to most people. However it is impossible to escape from personal glamours and biases until we move from emotional living to the more impersonal level of the mind.
If goodwill is as much an expression of true love as humanity at its present stage of evolution can express, its use under wise mental direction can be of tremendous potency on every plane of human experience and activity.
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he", is another expression of the truth that "energy follows thought". Permanent changes in the individual consciousness rarely occur overnight. They are a matter of growth and the following of a plan with a fixed mental intent. Thought power is, in fact, the greatest power we have in the world today for transforming individuals and humanity, for the creation and unfoldment of goodwill, and eventually the capacity to express true love. It is no accident that love has been defined as "pure reason".