THE GREAT JIHAD

Young adulthood, with its relative freedom from care, is an experimental time of exploration and seeking—a time to gather together threads from past life experience while simultaneously forging ahead into a dimly sensed future. It is a time of transition, a birth into new found freedoms, but also a time of alienation and confusion. As a result of these conflicting forces, the young need guidance to orient them towards the light.

The skillful leaders within the Islamic jihad movement understand this.  They have successfully distorted the truth and enlisted a band of youthful followers, training them in the ways of war. They have offered options to many young people who have otherwise lacked direction in their lives. It is the sense of direction that moves people. But Islamic teaching makes a firm distinction between the “lesser” jihad, understood as the struggle against outside oppressors, and the “great” jihad that relates wholly to a movement or striving within consciousness. This inner striving becomes possible through purification and discipline, freeing the individual to move in concert with the higher self.

Likewise within the evangelical Christian movement we see idealistic young people swayed by distorted doctrines that skew and twist the truth, including the important teaching on the reappearance. But the fact that many of the young are leaving this movement is a positive sign and opens the possibility for new avenues of spiritual approach. 

Perhaps one of the reasons why the fundamentalists have been able to gain such a strong foothold among the young is because there have been few alternatives. Ageless Wisdom teachings have been buried under the plethora of new age teachings flooding the market.  Fundamentalists draw upon the past, whereas many of the ideas contained within the Ageless Wisdom teachings stretch into the future to embrace ideas that are just beginning to precipitate.  It is the release of these ideas that holds out the possibility of stirring a new livingness within the young, stretching the contours of their minds—freeing them from the decaying structures of forms that have long outlived their usefulness. Veils that have long shrouded the Mysteries are finally lifting under the impulse of Aquarius for while the teachings are “ancient,” they continue to meet the need of each new generation of enquirers.

Today we witness Piscean idealism crystallizing under the weight of the passing sixth ray influence, but there is also distortion in many Aquarian ideals which become distorted as they pour into our largely material world. Freedom, for example, suffers under the weight of too concrete an interpretation. Consequently, people mistakenly cast aside rules, viewing them as infringements upon their essential individuality. This is particularly apparent in the predominant youth culture today that has, in many respects, spiraled out of control. And while it is true that there are no outer enforcements of the rules and commandments of spiritual development, nonetheless conformity to spiritual law forms the bedrock of all forward movement into light.

Humanity is leaving behind the kindergarten stage of development and consequently must be free to make its own decisions. The way of devotion to teachers and gurus who provide outer safety nets has given way to the authority of the soul, the master and teacher within. But we can help make the teaching available to those who are coming into incarnation and seeking meaning. Through the steadiness of our own practice we can set the note of the great jihad and encourage the young to take up the path to freedom, in conformity with spiritual Law.