"The last twenty years or so, spiritual/new age authors have sent this message
to readers: "You have something broken about you and I can fix it."

Now a newer, truer message must be heard: "You are here to deliver a beautiful gift to
the world - and it's a gift that benefits everyone. Remember it, and get on with it."

I'LL NEVER FORGET the first time I heard James Weldon Johnson's poem, "A Negro Sermon." I was at church camp. I couldn't have been more than 10 years old. Another camper read it at one of our worship services. She was about my age, a redhead, freckles galore, a bit of a lisp. Yet, she was charismatic and her presentation was unapologetically dramatic. I was mesmerized from the moment she started.

And God stepped out in space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely / I'll make me a world."

And far as the eye of God could see,
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights,
Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side
And the light stood shining on the other,

And God said, "That's good!"

The poem goes on to portray the whole creation story of Genesis. It's moving. It stirs. It creates in the reader/listener resonance and deep understanding of "Goodness."

The last verse describes a God who, after He lit the sun and flung the stars and created the earth and all its creatures was lonely still.

This Great God
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image.

"In His own image" is the key to understanding Goodness. Humans hold special privilege in the animal kingdom, for humans, made in the image of God-ness (Goodness), are the companions of Creation and Creator.

From The Invisible Garment:

Goodness is very similar to "Godness." Goodness is a knowing that one is made and carried by God's loving kindness. Humans are expressions of God. Each human is one of the many faces that God wears. To be contracted with Goodness is to live in the constant awareness that one is made in God's image. Real Goodness requires a profound connection to the level of soul that connects spirit to matter.

The 30 spiritual principles which function as the focus of my teachings may be studied in sets of ten. The first ten, numbered 0-9, constitute what we call the ascending principles. They are associated most closely with nature and the natural order, striving to rise toward higher levels of expression. The second ten, 10-19, are the containing principles - those more closely associated with the human realm. The last ten, 20-29, are called the descending principles. They represent the galactic energies that reach "down" into the realm of form in order to experience themselves.

Each of the principles has a point of focus within the human body, and also one outside the human body. Studying these focal points helps us understand the interconnections of the inner/outer realms.

This month's principle, Goodness, principle #8 of the ascending group, shows us clearly how the external focus (the animal beings) interweaves us as humans with the realms of nature. Goodness is said to be focused in the animals. If you wear Goodness in your garment, you are connected to the animal kingdom, and in addition your own "animal-ness" influences you in interesting ways.

Ironically, the "animal-ness" in humans is not the gross, harmful, uncivilized parts of us. Indeed, man's inhumanity to man appears to come from the "humanness" side of the equation. The animal-ness to which I refer is the aspect of ourselves that can be in alignment with is-ness, present in the present, without need to analyze or abstract situations. The animal-ness to which I refer is the instinctive and spontaneous aspect of humans.

I remember seeing a story on the news a few years ago. A young boy had fallen into the gorilla habitat at a zoo. The fall apparently knocked him unconscious. His parents and crowd gathered round watched, holding their breath as the female gorilla approached the child. To everyone's amazement, rather than harming him as they feared, she picked him up tenderly, and took him into her living quarters where she tended him until the zoo keepers (with whom she was familiar) came to take him. Who among us watched that story without shedding just a few sweet tears? I wondered, if she hadn't known and trusted the zoo keepers who came for the boy, would she fiercely have protected him? Did we anthropomorphize the gorilla, projecting human maternal qualities onto her? Or did we simply bear witness to Goodness, emerging in the animal kingdom? I think it was the latter. I think that, when we see Goodness, it moves us to the core of our being. Perhaps more than any other principle, it reminds us of who we are.

This month as you contemplate Goodness, think of it as instinctual. These are the dictionary definitions of the word instinct.

• A natural or instilled pattern of response
• An intuitive way of acting or thinking
• A natural propensity or skill toward specific deeds
• Imbued or filled with a quality
• An involuntary drive toward certain patterns of behavior

We don't often look at the spiritual principles from this perspective - as if they were instincts woven into our fiber. However, the ascending ones in particular, are just that. They program us. They influence us toward certain responses, reactions, perspectives, and behaviors.

If you have Goodness in your pattern, look honestly at your history. How has Goodness influenced you? When have you (metaphorically) picked up the unconscious child and carried him to safety? Think of the many times that your first impulse was toward "doing good."

And also look honestly at how society has trained you not to be so "good." It's considered naïve or even dangerous to just, as the Bible asks, "Go about doing good." I think that's why we rush to "ground zero" whenever there's a natural or manmade disaster. Our desire to allow Goodness to live through us stays pent up behind social restrictions and cynicisms. When the floodgates open, so to speak, we just want to be a part of the healing.

The amount of money that poured into Indonesia and the other affected countries after the tsunami of 2004 testified to people's desire to help. We long to create a world of peace, a world of safety, a world in which every being has the right to live in security and sanity, don't we? Goodness oozes in our veins.

The American government's failure to address the catastrophic events after the hurricane season of 2005 horrified us. We sensed the corruption, the incompetence, and the ghastly human error behind every mistake that was made. Again, we poured millions of dollars into what we desperately hoped would be avenues of healing for our brothers and sisters of the South.

Unfortunately, we Americans often wear money blinders. Our first tendency is to throw money at a problem and hope that it will solve itself. Perhaps we missed the Goodness that flowed in those flood waters. Perhaps we failed to see that the energy behind the heroic actions of some was more important than the news we were witnessing on TV.

Meister Eckhart preached an inspiring sermon about Goodness once, in which he said, "What do good people do? They praise good people."

The dreams which brought this material to me also spoke to this aspect of Goodness:

If one is truly connected to Goodness, then one is deeply moved by the Goodness in other people.

Goodness sees goodness; Goodness praises goodness; Goodness is augmented by goodness.

Animals are better at beingness than humans. Goodness involves not judging but simply being.

That's what I encourage you to do this month. Look for Goodness. Recognize it. Praise it. Glorify it. I don't mean just actions that you judge to be "good" - I mean the flow of Goodness as it runs through our societies.

Our media blind us. Through the news we are shown the actions of our governments, most of which are corrupt and misguided. Behind every corrupt government, however, good people exist. Find them. Love them. Praise them. Bring Goodness to the table this month. Let it show itself in you and to you.

This may be a monumental task, actually. As we watch our world be torn by hatred, religious fundamentalism, greed, and our beliefs in separation, it becomes almost impossible not to polarize into one camp or another. Seeing Goodness rise like a phoenix out of the ashes requires opening the eyes of the heart.

In closing, let me remind you of a story I'm sure you've heard many times:

An elder Cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, 'A fight is going on inside me...It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride, and superiority. The other wolf stands for goodness, joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too.' They children thought about it for a minute and then one asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied...
"The one you feed."

Feed Goodness.

© Connie Kaplan, 2006