Goodwill is one of the most basic spiritual qualities of the human being and the great untapped resource at the heart of every human community.
People of goodwill are those who think and act with a measure of loving understanding and of concern for the well-being of all. The energy of goodwill is potentially a powerful force for social change – yet its power remains largely unrecognized and underutilized. World Goodwill fosters understanding of this energy and the role it is playing in the development of a new humanity.
It is the thoughtful, planned action of networks of goodwill that is driving the response to all the problems of our age: from poverty, poisoned race relations and environmental destruction through to sentimental spirituality, despair in thinking about the future, and the crises of materialism and selfishness. People of goodwill from all cultures, faiths and professions are creating, through their words and actions, a new world where sharing, cooperation and right relations are taking root and spreading. Never before in the history of the planet has goodwill been so active.
The diversity and variety of initiatives means that the people of goodwill can never be organized into one unitary movement or network. Every community has its people of goodwill. It is goodness and love, in their most basic human expressions, that are driving the momentum of change, challenging all of the habits of separative thinking and action. Recognition of the sheer abundance of goodwill action as it exists today and the countless movements drawing on the energy of goodwill changes the way we see what is happening in the world. It is empowering and it gives us grounds upon which hope and faith in the future can grow. Truly, goodwill has the potential to become the keynote of a new civilization of wholeness.
To bring in the new day and the human well-being which is our spiritual birth-right, we need a deeper sense of reality based on spiritual values, and a new perception of humanity as a unit of divine life within an ordered and purposive universe. The following six recognitions can provide a basis for this deeper understanding:
1 Humanity is not following a haphazard or uncharted course – there is a Plan. This Plan has always existed and is part of the greater design of the Cosmos. The Plan has worked out through the evolutionary developments of the past, and because of the special impetus given it from time to time by the great leaders, teachers and intuitives of the human race. This leads to the second key recognition.
2 There exists an inner spiritual governance of the world led by enlightened beings whose ideas inspire all forward-thinking evolutionary progress in human consciousness. They are known under such different names as the spiritual Hierarchy, the society of Illumined Minds, or Christ and His Church, according to various spiritual traditions. Humanity is never left without spiritual guidance or direction under the Plan.
3 There is a widespread expectation that we approach the “Age of Maitreya”, as it is known in the East, when the World Teacher and present head of the spiritual Hierarchy, the Christ, will reappear among humanity to sound the keynote of a new age.
4 There are millions of mentally alert people in all parts of the world who are in touch, either subconsciously or consciously, with the Plan, and work to give it expression. In them, the consciousness of humanity as one interdependent unit is alive and active. They regard the many differing national, religious and social systems in which they serve as modes of expanding human consciousness and ways by which humanity learns needed lessons. Through their living example, they give humanity a new and better vision of what life should be.
5 The heart of humanity is sound. Our era is notable for the growth of goodwill and altruistic endeavour. All the crises, wars and catastrophes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have been unable to crush the human spirit.
6 The Plan for humanity is based on the principles of sharing, co-operation, practical brotherhood, right relationships between all people and between nations, and goodwill in action.
These recognitions give a new perspective on spiritual reality and place our present crises in a wider context. They provide opportunity for co-operation with the spiritual evolution of humanity and increase our capacity for freedom.
There is no group so likely to ensure that humanity achieves this most difficult goal as people of goodwill. Provided they can overcome inertia, they are in a key position, requiring only courage to express goodwill, and to initiate action to prepare for a new global civilisation.
Organisation
Founded in 1932, as an activity of Lucis Trust, World Goodwill programs and publications are administered by an international group operating through headquarters in London, New York and Geneva. There is no membership and programs are available to all people of goodwill without charge. The work is funded entirely by donations.
Alongside countless other groups, World Goodwill is an accredited Nongovernmental Organization with the Department of Public Information at the United Nations. It maintains informal relations with a wide range of national and international nongovernmental organizations. The Lucis Trust is on the Roster of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. World Goodwill strongly believes that the UN should be supported as the main hope for humanity’s future.
Objectives
In promoting recognition of the power of goodwill in our time, World Goodwill has three primary objectives:
- To help mobilize the energy of goodwill through education, and through subtle action with programs that draw on the power of thought. At the heart of every human being there is a reservoir of goodwill accompanied by deeper warrior-like qualities: the will to good and the will to love.
- To foster a universal spiritual perspective on the future, centered on the idea that all faiths throughout history have anticipated an age of peace and justice, ushered in by a World Teacher Who embodies divine principles. The rising tide of goodwill in the world today is a sign that the appearance of such a teacher, expected by different traditions under such names as the Christ, the Kalki Avatar, the Bodhisattva, Lord Maitreya, the Imam Mahdi, and the Messiah, is now imminent.
- To study the causes of major world problems in such a way as to reveal universal principles, spiritual practices and actions that contribute to the healing, transformation and resolution of the problem.
Mobilising Goodwill
Focussed enlightened public opinion can be a major factor in world reconstruction, but it has been little used up till now. The major need today is to educate world public opinion in the significance of goodwill as a powerful creative energy and way of life; and to mobilise people everywhere to establish goodwill as the keynote of the coming new civilisation. World Goodwill aids in this task by:
Advising individuals and groups on how to increase their effectiveness in service.
Co-operating with the world service activities of other groups
Supporting the work of the United Nations and its Specialised Agencies as the main hope for humanity’s future, including a blog and Facebook page on World Goodwill at the UN.
Meditating on the energy of goodwill (Goodwill Meditation Group); the Cycle of Conferences (helping create a positive mental climate for conferences taking place on specific world problems); and the Twelve Spiritual Festivals (focusing on the spiritual energies available within the annual lunar cycle)
A Worldwide Educational Program which includes:
A Website and Publications in many languages presenting the principles underlying right human relations, and the fact of a divine Plan as a spiritual reality working out in crucial areas of human affairs, including education, religion, economics, politics, etc. Publications are available for distribution.
The World Goodwill Newsletter, Commentaries and World View articles, highlighting the energy of goodwill in world affairs. A universal spiritual approach is presented to topics of current concern.
Study Papers dealing with some of the world’s major problems.
World Goodwill Seminar, an annual meeting in London, New York and Geneva. Through meditation, talks and discussion the work of groups and individuals actively meeting world need is highlighted. Broadcast globally on video.
The Reappearance of the Christ
This is a time of preparation not only for a new civilisation and culture, but also for the coming of a new spiritual dispensation.
At the end of an age human resources and established institutions seem inadequate to meet world needs and problems. At such a time, the advent of a teacher, a spiritual leader or avatar, is anticipated and invoked by the masses of humanity in all parts of the world.
Today the reappearance of the World Teacher, the Christ, is expected by millions, not only by those of Christian faith but by those of every faith who expect the Avatar under other names – the Lord Maitreya, Krishna, Messiah, Imam Mahdi and the Bodhisattva.
Distortion and mis-understanding surround this central fact of divine response to human need. This is inevitable but unimportant. The fact of transition into a new age is important. Preparation by people of goodwill is needed to introduce new values for living, new standards of behaviour, new attitudes of non-separateness and co-operation, leading to right human relations and a world at peace. The coming World Teacher will be mainly concerned, not with the result of past error and inadequacy, but with the requirements of a new civilisation and with the reorganisation of the social structure.
World Goodwill distributes literature on these themes. A world prayer, the Great Invocation, is distributed on a world-wide scale in many languages and dialects.
World Goodwill also co-operates in organising the annual World Invocation Day, with special focus on the use of the Great Invocation worldwide.
The problem of establishing right relationships between people and between nations is of urgent concern in a world in crisis. The immediate spiritual problem is that of offsetting selfish separateness by the technique of trained, imaginative, creative and practical goodwill.
World Goodwill provides a series of study papers on the major problems of human progress. Emphasis is placed upon underlying causes and emerging trends rather than on a factual survey of events. The use of the trained mind in reflective thought and meditation is encouraged.
The problems dealt with include:
• The Psychological Renewal of the Nations
• Children, Youth and Education
• Capital, Labour, and Employment
• The Racial Minorities
• The Churches and Organized Religion
• International Unity
There are many lesser problems but these are the major ones with which humanity is at this time confronted and which must find solution. This will be done by the establishing of right human relations.
The formation of study groups is encouraged so that through study, discussion and meditation a “thoughtform of solution” may be generated and local forms of service activity initiated.
Practical Aims
To encourage people of goodwill everywhere to establish right human relations between races, religions, nations and classes
To assist people of goodwill in their studies of world problems, and in the effective application to these problems of goodwill, co-operation and sharing for the common good.
To co-operate with other organisations in constructive activities contributing to world unity, stability and right human relations.
To make available up-to-date information on constructive current action in the main areas of human life through regular publications on issues of world interest.
To aid in establishing goodwill as the keynote of the new civilisation.
To create a worldwide contact list of people of goodwill.
To support the work of the United Nations and its Specialised Agencies as the best hope for a united and peaceful world.
World Goodwill is an activity of the LUCIS TRUST, which was founded in 1922 and is a registered educational charity in Great Britain. (Charity Nº 216041)
