SECTION THREE - TEACHINGS ON INITIATION - PART 2
These are some of the more obvious significances; deeper ones will emerge when these are realities and not speculative theories in your life. It will be apparent to you consequently the need for definite work upon the instructions given you upon the antahkarana. In connection with the above, I would call your attention to some words I wrote in my last instruction to you in reference to Formula Two. I there said that alignment "will be our next consideration when Formula One has brought about certain changes in consciousness. I shall not consider these formulas at present. I will only point out their major implications which will be seldom what you think, conditioned as you are by the terms and the interpretations of the lower concrete mind."
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PART III
In past instructions we have seen that teaching upon the subject of initiation is given by me (as by all the Masters) in three ways:
1. By Hints. These—if seen and followed—will evoke the intuition. Initiation is never taken unless the intuition is becoming active. Spiritual instinct, the lowest aspect of the intuition, indicates readiness for the first initiation; an illumined mind and spiritual intelligence are the definite sign that a man can take the second initiation, whilst spiritual perception or intuitive instinct signifies preparedness for the Transfiguration, the third initiation.
2. By the use of certain great Formulas (one of which has already been given to you) certain definite revelations become possible. These formulas are six in number; they contain the six prerequisites for initiation, and they are sometimes in the form of words and sometimes in the form of symbols. These serve to develop the "initiate hearing" and the "initiate sight." They deal with the six relationships:
Formula One . . . Deals with integration into an Ashram and is concerned with the revelation of group feeling. It is related to the astral nature.
Formula Two . . . Deals with alignment. It concerns the revelation of the group antahkarana and is related to the mind nature, in which the antahkarana is anchored.
Formula Three . . . Deals with certain changes in the soul nature. It is concerned with the relation of time and space, and is therefore related to the Eternal Now.
Formula Four . . . Deals with the Life aspect. It is concerned with the revelation of the nature of life, and is therefore related to the circulation and interplay of energy.
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Formula Five . . . Deals with the Will aspect. It is concerned with the revelation of divine Purpose, and is therefore related to Shamballa.
Formula Six . . . Deals with the nature of death. It is concerned with the revelation of the constructive work of the Destroyer aspect. It is therefore related to the passing Piscean Age and with all processes of "abstraction."
These Formulas have seven interpretations; only three of them are, however, possible of discovery by the disciple in training at this particular time, because only the light from the Spiritual Triad can convey this type of revelation and interpretation.
3. Through the presentation of Points of Revelation:
a. The present vision must become the past experience. Its light of revelation will fade out as the experience becomes a habit, and therefore falls below the threshold of consciousness.
b. A new and totally different recognition must assume control; this will express the initiate-understanding.
c. These points of revelation appear when the disciple realises that initiation is not a process of soul-personality fusion but of Monad-personality integration.
d. These points of revelation assume three stages of recognition:
The stage of Penetration.
The stage of Polarisation.
The stage of Precipitation.
The approach of the disciple to the entire subject of initiation differs today from that of earlier times—even so short a time ago as fifty years. It is essential that you grasp the fact that his approach is now mental, and not as heretofore, devotional and emotional and aspirational. It has hitherto been kama-manasic, which connotes a blend of lofty aspiration, of lower mind attention and focussing, and of attention to the purely physical disciplines. Today, the true [269] disciple who is ready for this great step is in control of his emotional apparatus; his lower mind is keenly alert and focussed, and his higher mind is definitely en rapport with the lower, via the antahkarana. Perhaps clarity of perception will come to you if you realise that the conditional demands of the Initiator (until the period of the year 1400 A.D.) were for conscious soul contact; today, it is for a measure of established relation to the Spiritual Triad, via the antahkarana. This is a very different matter; soul contact is necessarily present, but is not deemed to give all that the initiate of the New Age must have. Love is of course needed; wisdom must be present, but the sense of universality is also required and indicates, when present, a measure of monadic inflow. This inflow comes naturally via the antahkarana or across the "rainbow bridge." Hence, you will see the reason for the emphasis which I have lately been giving to the building of this bridge. A great change in the human consciousness made it possible—in the year 1425 A.D.—to inaugurate changes in the requirements for initiation and definitely to lift the standard. Five hundred years have gone by since then, and the purpose of these changes in discipline and training have proved well warranted. In spite of all signs to the contrary, in spite of the world war with its attendant horrors and in spite of the apparent unawakened attitude of the masses, a very real measure of monadic energy is present. Humanity will increasingly demonstrate this as the insistent demand for unity and the growth of internationalism will demonstrate. The objectives, goals, theories, aims and determinations of the bulk of mankind already testify to this.
These expressions of the evolutionary development of humanity are related to the first manifesting qualities of the Will aspect. When I say this I give you a hint, reminding you that the candidate for initiation grows by the recognition and the interpretation of hints, and by extracting from a hint its true significance. The will is not, as so many believe, a forceful expression of intention; it is not a fixed determination to do thus and so or to make certain things to be. It is fundamentally an expression of the Law of Sacrifice; under this law, the unit recognises responsibility, identifies itself with [270] the whole, and learns the esoteric significance of the words: "Having nothing (sacrifice) and yet possessing all things (universality)." I would ask you to reflect upon these words of the great initiate, St. Paul. The full expression of these highest spiritual qualities (from the angle of modern man) comes after the fourth initiation, that of the Great Renunciation. Everything is then relinquished in order that everything may be held in trust and used for the good of all; the will-to-good then dominates. Hence the necessity for the scientific construction of the rainbow bridge; hence the emphasis upon the Monad, the Father aspect which can now be revealed and known, because the work of aeons is culminating in a general soul contact, where humanity as a whole is concerned. This is testified to by the fact that so very many thousands have (as I have several times told you) taken the first initiation. The Christ Child is present in truth, and the human heart and mind are becoming aware of that fact; the goal for thousands everywhere is the demonstration of the Christ spirit, and the exemplification of a life conditioned by love and modelled upon that of Christ or Shri Krishna, His earlier incarnation.
This makes possible, therefore, the next great human unfoldment which grows out of the Christ consciousness and "brings to light" (I know no other way in which to express this concept) the will of God, and points also to the basic distinction between goodwill and the will-to-good. Again I would ask you to reflect upon this distinction, for it connotes the difference between a life ruled and conditioned by the soul and one which is ruled and conditioned by the Spiritual Triad. This distinction is very real, for one quality grows out of love, and the other out of the recognition of the universality of life; one is an expression of the Christ consciousness and life, and the other is a responsiveness to monadic inflow, and yet the two are one. More anent this will be indicated as you study the teaching upon the antahkarana.
One of the tasks which I have undertaken is to awaken the aspirants and the disciples of the world to the new possibilities and to the new incoming potencies which can become available for use, if they will pass on to a fuller grasp of the developments since 1425 A.D. Much that I am giving and [271] shall in the future give anent initiation, its methods, processes and application will appear entirely new. The New Age will bring in eventually a civilisation and a culture which will be utterly different to anything hitherto known. I would remind you here that all civilisations and cultures are externalisations—modified, qualified and adapted to racial and national needs—of the potent, vibrating and planned activity of the world initiates and disciples who constitute the Hierarchy of the time. Their plans, Their thinking and Their living potency pour out ceaselessly and affect the consciousness of Their disciples; these latter step down the inflowing energies so that the thinkers and idealists can grasp these new emerging truths more accurately. Eventually the truths thus grasped change the consciousness of humanity as a whole and raise it—if you like that phrase; thus modes of daily living, civilised methods of conduct and cultural developments eventuate. All this is traceable to the group of initiates upon the inner side who thus serve their fellowmen and carry forward, consciously and with intent, the Law of Evolution. Whilst doing this, They Themselves are preparing to tread the "Way of the Higher Evolution." What that Way is I cannot tell you, for you would be unable to grasp its meaning; it is related to the spiritual condition and purpose of the Monad whose goal is not expansion of consciousness, but of that which such expansions of consciousness will reveal—a very different matter and one which is as yet entirely meaningless to anyone who has not taken the third initiation. Forget not, the Christ and His great Brothers, and all of an even higher initiate-rank than They possess, have a definite goal, but it is one which will only define itself clearly in the third solar system, the system in which the Will of God is the dominant idea, as the Love of God conditions this system in which we now function. But this is not consciousness or awareness; it is a stage of Being which is connected with the Law of Sacrifice—the law which governs those states of being which grow out of the establishment of right human relations.
Purpose can only be revealed and understood when such right relations are the firmly fixed habits of all "points of[272] divine expression." You can see, therefore, why it is not possible for those in process of grasping the need for right human relations to understand more than that a great possibility lies ahead. Of the nature of this possibility only the higher ranks of initiates are aware, and towards it they strive.
THE FORMULAS
We now come to the second of the great Formulas which give the initiate the key to the next stage of his work. These curious and ancient sets of phrases or symbols are endowed with power, owing to the potency of the minds which have reflected upon them, which have constructed thoughtforms anent them, and which have used them as modes or methods of focussing triadal light upon the personality. I would call your attention to the form of words just used. These formulas do not release the light of the soul into the attentive waiting mind. They release the light of electric fire (and therefore not solar fire) into the integrated personality, so that the entire man—now become the oriented mechanism of the Monad—is flooded with this higher form of energy—an aspect of the energy of will and related to the carrying forward of divine purpose. You can appreciate, consequently, how relatively impossible it is for any of you to do more than register the more obvious significances of these formulas and then await the time when your inner growth warrants a fresh approach to their interpretation.
This formula is seen by the disciple inscribed upon the plates of the unknown metal, described by me on page 249. It is formed of a series of lines which meet at a circle within a square, such as that depicted below:
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Curiously enough, it is this ancient symbol, with its indicated reference to the emotional nature, and therefore to the Atlantean consciousness, which points to a basis for progress, which is the subtle force behind the "flags of all nations." Flags are symbols of the devotion of a people to their national soil and to their national spiritual objectives. They have of course been prostituted to signify national separativeness and selfishness and national patriotism, but behind the flag is a point of power which is the point of inspiration to the soul of the people. Not yet, equally of course, is the "point moving forward into the circle of the people's life"; as yet, you have only the square of the personality reactions of the people and the lines of their evolutionary approach to a deeper consciousness; this developing consciousness we call the "soul of the people." Some day, the point will take its place in the centre of the square and all the lines will converge upon that point; we shall then have a nation, galvanised into activity by interior spiritual energy, and the lines which have hitherto converged inwards towards the centre will become channels or pathways along which spiritual energy will flow into every phase of a nation's civilisation and culture; the nation will then be linked up—through the point at the centre—with the source of divine inspiration, which is one for all types, all nations and all races in time and space.
I have used the exoteric symbol of the flag to convey to you a hint as to the esoteric meaning of this very simple but most potent form. Four words, or rather phrases, are found written, deep in the metal, around each side of the square:
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These words convey the highly inadequate and even unsuitable translation of certain phrases in the ancient Sensa which are intended to convey the essential union, the related synthesis and the cooperative understanding which will some day distinguish a humanity, composed of many aspects which are nevertheless expressions of the One Life. They are, however, related to or expressions of monadic groupings or universal recognitions, and not of soul consciousness. My difficulty in explaining the higher meaning of the external simplicity of these phrases is great; you can only arrive at them yourself as you ponder the only three interpretations possible to you at this time: the individual application of the symbol, its national application, and its human application, remembering always that the clue to comprehension lies in the recognition of a "higher Way," of the existence of the "higher evolution," of the light which is distinctive of Shamballa, and of the use of the antahkarana, as it by-passes (if I may use such a term) the soul and so carries the human, yet spiritualised consciousness into the realms of hierarchical experience in relation to Shamballa.
POINTS OF REVELATION
This almost brings us automatically to the third aspect of preparation for initiation which I called in an earlier instruction the "presentation of points of revelation." These formulas, when rightly studied and eventually somewhat apprehended, at least intellectually, carry the disciple to the point where that which is new, hitherto unrealised and for which no words exist, is suddenly contacted. St. Paul had reached such a point when he referred to "the third heaven as it veiled the seventh" (which was the original wording, deleted by the recipients of his message at that time as utterly meaningless). Eye has not seen nor has ear heard the inexpressible revelation which comes to the initiate who can penetrate into certain high places where the nature of the divine Will suddenly assumes a different and amazing significance, where the purposes being worked out in the Council Chamber of Shamballa are visioned—not in detail but as [275] a suddenly contacted inspiration; then for the first time the initiate becomes consciously receptive to the energy pouring into the Hierarchy from the Great White Lodge on Sirius.
It is at this point of revelation and in relation to this symbol that the initiate eventually stands. Then the "many lines of force within the square become the seven paths of light which claim His choice, leading Him on to the sevenfold Path of initiate evolution." This is the Way of the Higher Evolution of which man knows nothing. The words refer to the seven paths which the Master has to consider and from which He has to choose His future Way. Then the symbol takes on the following form:
"All paths meet at the centre. The many become the seven and the eight. From point to point the lines converge. They stretch from point to point. The outer square, the circle of the One and the point of unity are seen as one, and the Master passes on His way."
He has penetrated to the centre by passing along the antahkarana which He has Himself constructed. There Hepolarises Himself and takes His stand, and from thence—at the centre of the circle and within the square of service—He precipitates the energies and forces which that service demands. From these few hints you can grasp the nature of this symbol and the quality of its meaning, plus the potency of the force which (through its correct apprehension) can carry the initiate-disciple from "the unreal to the Real."
The first formula was basically concerned with the monadic significance of the words "from darkness to Light," leading to vision and illumined purpose; the second formula gives the higher significance to the words "from the unreal to the Real," whilst the third we shall find expresses the true [276] meaning of the words "from death to Immortality." Thus this prayer of the ancient past becomes the present effort of the distant future. Can you understand this statement, brother of mine? Into that light, that reality and that life the initiate penetrates. In that light of reality and life, he polarises himself, and from that point of universal life, reality and light he works.
PART IV
As you together study this subject of initiation, I would ask you to keep an open mind. I have told you that changes are imminent in the training of the initiates of the future, and that the techniques of developing a disciple's consciousness will be different to those used in the past. They will not be the same as those hitherto employed in the East. These have motivated the teaching along this line which has gone out in the West. This does not mean that the earlier methods were not correct and right. It means that the intelligent grasp of the disciple and the initiate is now so advanced (relatively speaking) that the old methods would no more apply than do the simple sums in arithmetic, set in grammar school, aid the progress of the college graduate. They were necessary in the early stages; the power or the ability to divide, subtract, multiply and add were conferred, but it is the power and the ability which are now used, and not the exercises.
ON HINTS
The hints a Master earlier gave were concerned largely with the building or changing of character and with the awakening of the chela. These no longer constitute hints to the modern disciple; he knows enough by himself to work on his own character, and he has penetrated to the fringe of the inner world by his own effort and on his own power. Such is the rule for the majority of aspirants today. The hints such as I will give you are superficially easy to understand and have an apparently obvious meaning; but they [277] are concerned with service and with human and planetary affairs, and are capable of several interpretations—according to the point of unfoldment and the ray type.
In my last instruction I gave you three hints, and it might be useful if we briefly considered them. I will indicate to you the line along which light might come to you, as a group, at your particular point of development.
The first hint dealt with the changes wrought by the work done in the Ashrams which are enfolded in the one great Ashram of the Hierarchy. I said that the results of this would be that a closer relationship would be established with Sanat Kumara and His Council Chamber. This will be the result of the work done by the disciples of the world—in or out of incarnation. I wonder how many of you pondered on the significance of the statement that the changes were brought about by the activity of the disciples; by this I mean not the senior initiates, but what you mean when you speak of a disciple. You might naturally have assumed that the needed changes would be instituted by the Masters, or by the Christ, or even by Sanat Kumara. But it is not so. Why is this? What idea lies behind my flat statement? The disciples of the world are the intermediaries between the Hierarchy and Humanity. They are the product ofimmediate human endeavour; they set the pace for human unfoldment; they are therefore closely en rapport with the consciousness of the race of men. It is the quality of the new disciples, the rapidity with which men find their way into the ranks of the disciples, and the demand which the working disciples in the world make on behalf of humanity (which they know) that brings about the needed changes. The Masters are trained in the art of recognition, which is the consummation of the practice of observation; They stand ever ready to make the needed changes in the techniques or curriculum whenever human nature outgrows the old presentations of the ever-needed truths. The need is indicated to Them by Their disciples, and They then initiate the required changes. When these occur at a time of crisis and are far-reaching in effect and are determining of conditions for several thousand years to come, then the entire Hierarchy meets in conclave. Upon [278] the basis of the light in this hint, you can for yourselves infer much.
The second hint I gave indicated that mankind had evolved so well that today the goals and theories, the aims and determinations now expressed in human thinking and writing showed that the will aspect of divinity, in its first embryonic manifestation, was beginning to make its presence felt. Have you followed this hint? Have you realised that the uprisings of the masses and their determination to overcome handicaps and all hindrances to a better world state are indicative of this? Do you grasp the fact that the revolutions of the past two hundred years are signs of the striving of the spirit aspect? That spirit is life and will; the world today is showing signs of new life. Think this out in its modern and immediate implications and see the way that the world is going under the inspiration of the spiritual Will.
The third hint I gave you was intended to suggest that it was the duty and the responsibility of the disciple, working under the inspiration of the Ashram, to "modify, qualify and adapt" the proposed plan of Shamballa (for which the Ashrams are responsible) in connection with the coming civilisation and culture. There is an "art of spiritual compromise" which must be learnt and which it is difficult to master, because it negates fanaticism, requires a trained and intelligent understanding of applied measures and truth, and also negates evasion of responsibility; it involves also a comprehension of the time equation, of differing points in evolution, plus experience in the process of discarding the outgrown and unnecessary—no matter how good it may appear to be.
In these three hints lie much scope for individual education and expansion of consciousness, and it is in the right use of these hints that the disciple learns to serve with adequacy and precision and to render satisfactory service to the Hierarchy. I shall ever indicate to you when I give you a hint, and upon these hints I would ask you to concentrate. I shall not always elaborate as I have done today, for you must grow by solving your own problems.
One of the difficulties which is associated with inaugurating [279] a new and more advanced attitude towards initiation is the offsetting of the idea that the initiate always knows all there is to know. You need to remember that knowledge is associated with the factual world; it concerns the accumulated information of the ages; it is closely connected with memory and its subjective counterpart—recovery of past knowledge. This means regaining again, consciously, all that the Ego has stored up as the result of many incarnations and many different experiences; it is related to the "knowledge petals" in the egoic lotus and to the concrete lower mind. Knowledge is that which brings about an effective working relation between this outer tier of petals, the concrete mind and the brain. It embodies the "intelligence equipment" of a soul in incarnation during any one life, dealing largely with the ephemeral, the transitory and the passing. The factor which is enduring in knowledge is simply its power to relate the past and the present, and thus produce effective, phenomenal living today.
Wisdom is the hallmark of the initiate, and this he possesses even if his practical knowledge of mundane details—historical, geographical, economic, and cultural—may leave much to be desired. The disciples within a Master's Ashram can provide Him with what knowledge He may require, for they are drawn from different cultures and civilisations and among them can summarise the sum total of human knowledge at any one given time. This must not be forgotten. A Master of the Wisdom always knows where to go for knowledge. Knowledge and intelligence or mental polarisation must not be confounded in your minds. I might add to the above that knowledge deals with the ascertained and the effectual on the physical plane and in the three worlds; wisdom deals with inherent capacities and possibilities of spiritual expression. Knowledge can be expressed in concepts and precepts; wisdom is revealed through ideas against which (very frequently) much mundane knowledge powerfully militates. The concrete mind often inhibits, as you well know, the free flow of ideas intuitively impulsed; it is with this free flow of the new ideas that the initiate is basically concerned, because it is ideas, their right application and interpretation, [280] which determine the future of humanity and of the planetary life.
The first thing, therefore, that the disciple in preparation for initiation has to learn is the nature of ideas and their distinction from contacted thoughtforms—to express it simply, and therefore, from the complexity of the subject, inadequately. The primary task of the Master is to aid the disciple to develop the intuition, and at the same time, keep the mental perception in an active and wholesome state. This is done, first of all, by enabling him to arrive at a right relation and correct evaluation between the abstract and the concrete realms of thought—those higher and lower aspects of the mind which are to the soul what the lower mind and the brain are to the personality. Think this out. A true recognition of this distinction produces a new focussing of the life force within the soul which will, in the earlier stages of discipleship, work through the abstract mind and the concrete mind. But the abstractions with which the disciple in training is then dealing are not in the nature of intuitions, and here is a point where confusion oft arises. They are merely the broad, general and universal perceptions and world inclusions which the gradually developing intelligence of mankind has registered and recognised and which the foremost thinkers of the race grasp with facility, but which seem so amazing to the neophyte. They appear to him of such magnitude and importance (as objects of his enhanced vision) that he confounds them with ideas and their intuitive perception. He has not learned to discriminate between abstract thoughts and intuitive ideas. Here lies the crux of his problem.
Ideas are other than this, as far as the initiate is concerned; they deal primarily with that which will eventually be, and are those formative new spiritual and creative impulses which will supersede the old and build the "new house" in which humanity will live; cycle after cycle and civilisation after civilisation, the fresh stream of inflowing ideas have conditioned the dwelling places of man and his mode of life and expression; through the medium of these ever-living and ever-appearing ideas, humanity passes on to [Page 281] something better and greater and more appropriate to the life of the slowly manifesting divinity.
Ideas, when intuitively contacted by the disciple or initiate, via the antahkarana, must be brought consciously down to abstract levels of thinking where (expressing it symbolically) they form the blueprints, prior to the institution of the creative process which will give them phenomenal existence and being. I would have you, therefore, remember the three factors:
1. The Intuition........................ which contacts and reveals new ideas.
2. The Abstract World............. in which they are given form and substance and which is to the thoughtform eventually created what the etheric body is to the dense physical vehicle.
3. Concrete Thought................ producing the concretising of the thoughtform and thus making the idea available to mankind.
Here, in this simple summation, is expressed for you the process which the disciple will be able to follow when he is initiate; as each initiation is taken, the scope of the idea steadily increases, and its potency also, so that it might be said that the initiate—as he progresses upon the Path of Initiation—works first with the idea, then with ideas, then with the hierarchical Plan in a wide and general sense, and finally reaches the point where he comes under the influence of the purpose of Sanat Kumara. Then the will of the Lord of the World will stand revealed to him.
The work of the initiate is carried forward within the ring-pass-not of the Universal Mind; this is only a phrase expressive of the range of thought, planning and purpose which is that of a planetary or solar Logos. The quality of the approach which the initiate brings to the work is drawn, as pure energy, from the heart centre of the planetary Logos; it is pure love with its inevitable corollaries, wisdom and [282] understanding. These give him insight into the plan. The power which he can bring to the task is drawn from his comprehension of the purpose of the planetary Logos and this expansive and all-inclusive work is entered into in graded sequences and carried forward under the influence of the initiate's expanding awareness and his growing sensitivity to impression.
I am seeking here to divorce your minds from the idée fixe that the initiate works because he knows. I would reverse the statement and say he knows because he works. There is no point of attainment at which the Initiator says to the initiate: Now you know, and therefore you can work. Rather it is: Now you serve and work, and in so doing you are embarked upon a new and difficult voyage of discovery; you will discover reality progressively and arrive at whole areas of expression, because you serve. Resulting from this service, certain powers and energies will manifest, and your ability to use them will indicate to you, to your fellow initiates and to the world that you are a worker, fully conscious upon the inner side of life.
The initiate works from his place upon that inner side. During the early stages of the initiatory process he works in the world of meaning. After the third initiation he works consciously in the world of causes, until such time as he is advanced enough to work in the world of being. The aspirant is endeavouring to grasp the purpose of the world of meaning and to apply the knowledge gained to his daily life with understanding. The disciple is endeavouring to comprehend the significance of the world of causes and to relate cause and effect in a practical manner. The initiate of higher degree utilises the potencies of these three worlds of meaning, cause and being to implement the purpose of Sanat Kumara.
These differences are not hard and fast, with clear lines of demarcation; life is fluid and moving and the points of attainment are myriad in number and progressing forward all the time, but the general picture will serve to carry your thoughts away from the "trappings of initiation," from the colouring and the unimportant, so-called facts (actual and [283] imagined) which have been so much emphasised by the occult groups and leaders and which have been held out as inducements to would-be disciples. I would have this group which I am training forget the details about initiation as presented so oft by the mystery monger and the emotional person, and concentrate upon the far more factual realities of meaning, cause and being. The old and outworn presentations were the product of the concrete mind, and are therefore crystallising in their effects and distorting in their results; they are also evocative of spiritual selfishness and isolation, as well as of astral curiosity. The new approach which I seek to indicate makes its appeal to the abstract mind and to the soul, whose values are sound, and eventually to the intuition; it is not so colourful an appeal as far as the personality is concerned, but it will produce more creative results and lead the neophyte along a safer road, with fewer disappointments and failures.
THE FORMULAS
The idea of meaning, cause and being underlies the symbology or the significance of the formula with which we are concerned in this instruction. I have pointed out to you before the difficulty of putting these ancient symbols or symbolic writings into such form that they can convey meaning through language. This difficulty is well-nigh insurmountable in connection with this third formula. The reason for this is that this formula has been preserved assounds or (if I may use so ambiguous a phrase) as trumpeted words. It has not been committed to inscription as have the two previous symbolic formulas which you have already received. All that I can do is to give you a meaning (as far as I myself can understand and you can grasp) of these great sounds or chords, massed together and interspersed with certain very ancient phrases. You know yourselves how difficult it is to express the significance of the sound OM. This is a still more difficult task; little human thinking has been applied as yet to this Formula but much has been given to the Sacred Word. Until some thought has been applied to what I shall now attempt [284] to give you, it is no easy matter to find the words to express the underlying idea—the idea you can contact at your present point of development.
This third formula concerns Time and the consciousness of the spiritual man who is unaware of separation, of divisions in time and space or of the spell of the Great Illusion. It deals with the fact of immortality and with the unshatterable continuity of consciousness and life. It is this formula which—at the third initiation—produces the transfiguration which comes when the Eternal Now is realised and when the continuity of awareness and of identity is seen as an aspect of Being. This formula has been called by one of the Masters "the seed of all philosophies," and in that phrase you may find light on the subject—provided you know what philosophy is!
To the initiate who uses this formula, creating the necessary sounds and enunciating the ancient words in due place (and these I may not give you), the following six thoughts are emphasised in his consciousness; these six thoughts will give you the intent of the formula as clearly as is possible. It is not possible to convey to you the true beauty of the concepts, but if you will have in mind the thought of meaning as light on life, of cause as the breath of experience, and of Being as the initiator of all that is, then some vision may come, some dream arise in your consciousness, and some power of accomplishment pour in. The Masters use this formula when faced with death in some form or another (and these words must be used literally). I refer not to death as it may affect Them, but to death as it affects God's created universe, producing release or finality, or opening the door to new life and closing the door on a cycle of manifestation, a civilisation, or a race or nation.
Here, therefore, are the six conditioning thoughts which the initiate holds in his consciousness when using the formula—a formula which is older than the Stanzas of Dzyan:
1. God IS. The Lord for aye stands firm. Being exists alone. Naught else is.
2. Time IS. Being descends to manifest. Creation is. [285] Time then and form agree. Being and time do not agree.
3. Unity IS. The One between comes forth and knows both time and God. But time destroys that middle One and only Being IS.
4. Space IS. Time and space reverberate and veil the One who stands behind. Pure Being IS—unknown and unafraid, untouched, for aye unchanged.
5. God IS. Time, space, the middle One (with form and process) go, and yet for aye remain. Pure reason then suffices.
6. Being cries forth and says: ... (untranslatable). Death crumbles all. Existence disappears, yet all for aye remains—untouched, immutably the same. God IS.
Each phrase out of the six has its own symbol at the close of each unit of thought, if I may call it that. These I may not give you or the chords upon which the phrases go forth. I have tried to indicate one of the meanings of the formula, but have not given a translation or a paraphrase. Bear this in mind and as you ponder these six sentences, try to give them an interpretation which will come to you from the world of meaning, producing a practical application, from the world of causes, producing an enlightened understanding, and (if you are far enough along) from the world of being, producing inclusiveness. These formulas have naught to do with personalities or with souls in deep incarnation, identified with form in the three worlds; they concern world movement, great and universal developments, and human progress (as a whole) towards the divine. You cannot yet think in those terms, but you can at least attempt to do so and grow thereby.
POINTS OF REVELATION
In the earlier part of your last instruction, I pointed out two most necessary requirements which the disciple in training for initiation must grasp. As they are closely connected with this third point (referring to the revelations which the [286] initiate can expect), I would like to touch upon them here. The first statement I made was to the effect that the will is fundamentally an expression of the Law of Sacrifice; the second was an attempt to emphasise the necessity for grasping and accepting two initial premises:
First, that energy follows thought.
Second, that the eye, opened by thought, directs that energy.
Why, I would ask you, is the will an aspect or an expression of the Law of Sacrifice? Because the will, as considered and understood by the initiate, is essentially that monadic essence, qualified by "fixed determination," which is identified with the Will or Purpose of the planetary Logos. It is the highest divine aspect which the initiate finally manifests, prior to entering upon the Way of the Higher Evolution. In this connection it is useful to remember that one of the appellations of Sanat Kumara is that of "the Great Sacrifice," and also to attempt to recognise some of the factors which have earned Him that name. These might be stated to be as follows, among others which you could not grasp if there was the language available to express them:
a. The basic sacrifice which the planetary Logos made was when He decided to incarnate or enter into the form of this planet. This was from pure choice, motivated by His "fixed determination" to function as the Saviour of the planet, in the same sense as the world Saviours come forth for the salvaging of humanity. Sanat Kumara is the prototype of all world saviours.
The initiate, on his tiny scale, must learn to function also as a saviour, and thus express the Law of Sacrifice through the medium of the developed, pure, reasoning will, and not simply from that of impulsive love and its activity. Here lies a basic distinction. Sacrifice must not be regarded as a "giving-up," but rather as a "taking-over." It has a mysterious relation to the Law of Karma, but on [287] such high levels that only the advanced initiate can grasp it.
b. This sacrifice was imperative in the fullest sense, owing to the ability of the planetary Logos to identify Himself in full consciousness with the soul in all forms of life, latent within the planetary substance. When He "took over" this task, He, esoterically, had no choice, because the decision was inherent in His own nature. Because of this identification, He could not refuse the invocative appeal of the "seeds of life, striving within the substance of the form, and seeking added life and light," as the Old Commentary puts it. This striving and reaching forth evoked His response and the going out of His divinity, as expressed in will, activated by "fixed determination" to meet the deeply hidden divinity within these seeds. What He initiated then still persists and—under the Law of Sacrifice—He will complete the task, no matter how many aeons it may take.
The initiate, on his tiny scale, has to learn to work as a nourisher and saviour of the seeds of life within all forms with which he may achieve a measure of identification. His will must go out in response to the invocative demand of humanity, and his "fixed determination" must motivate his ensuing activity.
c. Under this Law of Sacrifice, Sanat Kumara (to express the idea in occult terms) "must turn His back upon the Central Spiritual Sun, and with the light of His Countenance irradiate the path of the prisoners of the planet." He sentences Himself to stay for as long as may be needed, "acting as the Sun and light of the planet until the Day be with us and the night of pralaya descends upon His finished task." Thus and only thus can the light of the Central Spiritual Sun begin to penetrate the dark places of the Earth; when this happens all "shadows disappear"—an occult reference to the all-embracing radiance of the Monad as it absorbs both its reflection, the soul, and its shadow, the personality.
The initiate, on his tiny scale, achieves a paralleling [288] expression of the Law of Sacrifice; he eventually turns his back upon the courts of Shamballa and upon the Way of the Higher Evolution as he retains his contact with the Earth and works as a Member of the Hierarchy for the extension of the will-to-good among men, and therefore among all the lesser evolutions.
d. Under the Law of Sacrifice, the Lord of the World remains ever behind the scenes, unknown and unrealised by all the "seeds" He came to save, until such time as they have reached the stage of flowering forth as perfect men and, in their turn, become the saviours of humanity. Then they know Him to exist. From the standpoint of the forms of life in the four kingdoms of nature, Sanat Kumara is non-existent. In developed humanity, prior to moving on to the Probationary Path, He is sensed and dimly sought under the vague word "God." Later, as the life which the "seeds" have manifested reaches the higher layers or brackets in the human hierarchy, there emerges in the consciousness of the disciple, the assurance that behind the phenomenal world is a world of "saving Lives" of which he may eventually form a part; he begins to sense that behind these Lives there stand great Beings of power, wisdom and love Who, in Their turn, are under the supremacy of Sanat Kumara, the Eternal Youth, the Creator, the Lord of the World.
The initiate, on his tiny scale, likewise has to learn to work behind the scenes, unknown and unrecognised and unacclaimed; he must sacrifice his identity in the identity of the Ashram and its workers, and later in the identity of his working disciples out in the world of daily life. He institutes the needed activities and brings about the required changes, but he receives no reward, save the reward of souls salvaged, lives rebuilt and humanity led onward upon the Path of Return.
These few thoughts upon the significance of sacrifice or upon the "taking over," through identification, of the task of salvage, of revitalising and of presenting opportunity, are important to all disciples, as a goal and a vision.
[289] The second point made, based upon the occult platitude that "energy follows thought," should carry inspiring implications to the earnest disciple, if he truly considers the statements made and regards them of practical application.
Two things, I told you, are the result of thought, and though these may be mentally grasped by the intelligent disciple, they are very seldom understood. They are:
1. Thought generates energy commensurate with the potency of the thinking, and qualified by the theme of the thinking. You will see from this, therefore, some of the implications contained in the meditation I have assigned you. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" is a statement of the Christ. From that demonstrating personal centre of thought, energy will stream down into the physical brain, via the etheric body. It will then condition the type of living, the expression and the influence of the man upon the physical plane.
2. As a result of focussed thinking "in the heart" the spiritual eye opens and becomes the directing agent, employed consciously by the initiate whilst doing his work under the Law of Sacrifice. What is meant here by the words, "in the heart"? The soul is the heart of the system of the spiritual man; it is the seat of the life and consciousness which animate the personality, and it is the motivating potency in every incarnation, according to the experience conditioning the expression of the spiritual man in any particular rebirth. In the early stages of experience, this "eye" remains closed; there is present no capacity for thought and no ability to think in the heart: i.e., from soul levels. As the intellect develops and the power to focus upon the mental plane grows, the fact of the soul's existence becomes known and the goal of attention changes. There follows the ability to focus in the soul consciousness and so to fuse the soul and the mind that an at-one-ment takes place and a man can then begin to think "in his heart." Then also the "eye of the soul" opens and energy from soul levels, intelligently utilised, becomes directed from those levels and pours into what is now [290] ambiguously called "the third eye." Immediately the personality in the three worlds begins to express itself as the soul upon the physical plane, and will, purpose and love begin to control.
These two paragraphs are of importance to the disciple and warrant careful attention. As these developments take place, the spiritual will steadily grows into the directing agent, using the right eye as the distributing agent for the energy of love, animated with will. This is why the right eye has been called, in the esoteric teaching, "the eye of buddhi." This directing agent uses the left eye as the instrument for the distribution of the mental energy of the personality—now illumined and sublimated.
Having these thoughts in mind, I would call your attention to the entire theme of vision, which necessarily underlies our consideration of the points of revelation. It is simple to recognise that in the head of the developing aspirant there is a mechanism of great potency, capable of controlling the life of the personality. There is:
1. The third eye, not the pineal gland but its etheric correspondence. This is the responsive mechanism to the directing eye of the soul.
2. The right eye and the left eye, which take the incoming energy, symbolically speaking, and divide it into two streams which are the correspondence in etheric matter of buddhi-manas.
a. Right eye . . . spiritual energy. Buddhi. Pure reason. Understanding.
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