Few of us, I dare say, would recognise the name of James Branch Cabell, the American essayist and novelist who died at a ripe old age in 1958; but some of us would undoubtedly have come across his most famous epigram: "The optimist proclaims that this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears that this is true."

Beyond question, this is a world of ups and downs, comforts and discomforts, prosperity and poverty, goods and bads, and the distributions of them are uneven and largely inexplicable. It is not obvious that, in the words of our Act of Faith, that "Perfect justice rules the world". For those of us who are Theosophically minded, it is all a working out of karma, and they may well be right, but it is indeed an act of faith to accept that proposition, and I'm not sure that I can.

The most convincing analogy that I can see for this world's uneven distribution of abilities and comforts is what the Army puts its new recruits through in Basic Training. Some are sufficiently gifted to get through those twelve weeks without too much difficulty. For others it is sheer hell (and I think it would have been for me, but I was lucky enough to avoid it).

The aim of Basic Training is to bring everyone up to a certain level of discipline and competence. There are those to whom discipline comes easily, and already have the required competence. They only need to demonstrate it. They are the lucky ones. But there are others to whom Army discipline is anathema, and who are also incapable of reaching that level of competence. For them, Basic Training is indeed sheer hell, but mercifully, it only lasts twelve weeks. It seems to me that life is like that, except that each week gets stretched out to five years or more.

What can make Basic Training tolerable for those unfortunates who are not cut out to be soldiers? A sense of humour helps a lot, I'm sure; but even more important is the determination not to let it get them down: to turn what to one cast of mind is intolerable into something that is tolerable, by each changing the cast of his own mind accordingly.

Jesus warned his followers from the beginning that life would not be easy for them, but also told them that if they looked at it with the fixed intention of doing the best they could with it, all would be well in the end. I'll try to show you how he went abou it.

St Luke's Beatitudes are less familiar to most of us than St Matthew's, but they are probably closer to the original. (For instance, Luke's Jesus says "Happy are you who are poor now." In Matthew's Gospel this becomes. "Happy are you who are poor in spirit," an easier line to push with those who are not suffering literal poverty.)

Here, then, are St Luke's Beatitudes, from his Chapter 6:

"Happy are you who are poor now; the Kingdom of God is yours.

Happy are you who now go hungry; your hunger shall be satisfied.

Happy are you who weep now. You shall laugh.

Happy are you when men hate you, when they outlaw you and insult you, and ban your name as infamous, because you follow me. On that day be glad and dance for joy, for you are certain of a rich reward in heaven; your persecutors are the descendants of those who treated the prophets the same way."

Then Jesus goes on the tell the rich and well-fed that they are going to have a miserable time later on! It seems as though everyone has to undergo the whole gamut of human experience. And then he comes out with his most startling and seemingly impossible demand of all:

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for them who treat you spitefully."

The new and incompetent recruit is to love the army sergeant whose job it is to make his life hell. He is to pray for him, bless him, and do all that he can do to make him happy!

Make no mistake. This was radically new teaching. There was nothing like it in the Jewish Bible. Admittedly there were a couple of hints in this direction–in Proverbs 24 and 25–but those amounted to no more than, "Treat your enemy decently: it's the prudent thing to do." The regular teaching in the Old Testament was, "Love your neighbour and hate your enemies." Look up "enemy" and "enemies," in any decent concordance and you'll see what I mean. The idea that one should love one's enemy for the sake of it came first with Jesus of Nazareth.

Immediately after delivering this unsettling injunction, Jesus rubbed the message in:

"If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Again, if you lend only when you expect to be repaid, what credit is that to you? [Sinners do that much.] But you must love your enemies and lend without expecting any return...Be compassionate as your Father in Heaven is compassionate."

Be compassionate as your Father in Heaven is compassionate? Well, that the key to the whole issue, isn't it? This world is a training camp in which we have to learn to become Godlike. That is a hard road, and we all have to tread every step of it. We should count ourselves lucky if we have the opportunity to learn the hardest lessons in this life, for if we don't we shall have to meet the same challenges again and again until we do. Might as well get as much as possible over and done with while we can.

Is this indeed the best of all possible worlds? I'm afraid that might be true!

I'll close with the chorus of a song that Sir Harry Lauder wrote when his son was killed in action in World War I:

Keep right on to the end of the road; keep right on to the end.

Though the way be long, let your hearts be strong; keep right on round the bend.

Though you're tired and weary, still journey on, till you come to your happy abode.

And all the love you've been dreaming of will be there, at the end of the road.

Added Comment: One of my good friends in commenting on this article wrote, "We need to realise that we ARE God, in the most basic sense. That realisation seems to free people up to take the whole thing a lot more playfully than the 'training camp' idea would seem to allow."

On reflection, I guess he's right; but in order to be aware, in that most basic sense, that we ARE God, we need to be enlightened beyond the point that I have so far achieved. In the meantime, life for me is a training camp. When I'm appreciably more God-like, I trust I shall enter into that level of enlightenment. But at 74, I'm probably too old to make it this time round. I'll need to wait for the next, or maybe some later reincarnation.

October 2005