83. ALICE BAILEY - Discipleship in the New Age,Vol. II - 24. SECTION FOUR - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - PART 3

SECTION FOUR - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO 

DISCIPLES - PART 3

You are (as you practice this exercise of withdrawal) only going through an ordinary everyday process. If facility in doing this exercise is achieved, the hour of death will find you automatically and easily—because the physical body is making no resistance but remains quiescent and negative—able to make the Great Transition without concern or fear of the unknown. This is an exercise I would like to see all the group undertake. It involves only the steady preservation of an attitude, a fixed determination to hold on to the point of consciousness which is your persistent Self, plus a live expectancy. I have chosen these words with care and would ask you to study them with equal care.

I would like also to formulate your meditation along these three concepts of Contact, Impression and Relationship. The length of the meditation is entirely dependent upon your own choice or temporary need; it is susceptible of application to all or any circumstances and you could use it for the remainder of your life (many years or few) without exhausting its possibilities or usefulness. The outline is not a rigid form, as are so many which I have given to the group. It is intended simply to be suggestive. You can make your life a rich experience by the use of these suggestions:

[490]

1. Poise yourself at the "door of exit" in the head. Realise that that point is one from which you can look outwardupon the world of physical living, inward upon the world of the emotions or of mental perception, or upwardtowards the soul. These three directions form a triangle of projected sensitivity.

Then sound the OM three times, bearing these directions in mind.

2. Take then the word Contact into your consciousness and ponder upon these three fields of contact in which it is possible for you to move—the physical plane, the kama-manasic plane, and the kingdom of the soul. Study these planes of possible and unavoidable contact (for the aspiring disciple) and study them from the angle of things as they are. When you have somewhat exhausted this work of familiarising yourself with the possible contacts, remembering that this particular work will make your life fruitful in all three directions:

Then again sound the OM and attempt to withdraw to a point of silent contemplation upon the mental plane. Again sound the OM.

3. The fact of the possibility of Impression now must engross your attention. You begin to study the general tenor and the outstanding lessons which physical, astral or mental contact makes on you, what they have done for you during this life cycle or during the past week or day; then definitely and with full concentrated interest and attention—you orient yourself to the soul; you stand consciously ready for impression. What that impression will convey, what thought will come to you or what call to service will sound forth, you know not. Your attitude is one of a radiant, silent, poised expectancy, and nothing else is permitted. This you must work to attain. Note (if it comes) the emergence of some clear thought, the clarification of some bewilderment, the expansion of some mental perception into an intuition, with its consequent expansion of [491] consciousness. You can give as long or as short a time to this as you choose, but never less than ten minutes.

Then orient yourself to me, your Master and friend for many years, and again wait. Perchance there may be something I may have to say to you. You will note that I have used the word "orient" in both cases; I have not said "achieve contact." The task of receiving impression is not an easy one, and you may have to work some time on these different levels before you register any definite response from an achieved contact, for that is what it then will be.

Then sound the OM twice.

4. Having reached as high a point of contact as you can, at any given time, you then begin to reorient yourself to the physical plane and the life of daily experience through a systematised process of Relationships. You assume—as a disciple on the physical plane—responsibility for those relationships (to the Ashram and to me) through service planned and rendered; to the soul through fusion, rendered expressive on the mental plane; to the group emotional expression, and to your fellowmen. Grasp these recognitions of relationships, both as they affect your daily life expression and in relation to others with whom you live and work, down on the physical plane. Again, you bring this concept of essential relationships to the effect you have, as a human being on the Path, to all you meet and seek to aid. Couple ever with this thought the idea of responsibility.

Then sound the OM.

5. Next say the Invocation beginning with the stanza

"From the point of Light within the Mind of God

Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.

Let Light descend on Earth,"

and sound the OM three times. Please note that the OM in this meditation is to be sounded inaudibly.

If you will follow these suggestions, my brother, you will make rapid progress into spiritual objectivity, and your light[492] will shine forth more radiantly. I, your Master, know your inner radiance. Permit the world of outer things to know it too. The wishes, coming from my heart for you, surround you.

To I. A. P.

August 1940

BROTHER OF OLD:

In the present world upheaval and with its steady approach to the western hemisphere, it is not easy for world disciples—with their unusual sensitivity—to detach themselves from the general psychic condition. Yet the aim of each pledged and obligated disciple (such as you are, my brother, by your own proving—which is the only sure testimony) must be to hold a subjective attitude of detached contact—an occult paradox!—and at the same time to carry forward the life of active service upon the physical plane. This is your problem and one which you will have increasingly to face in the future. The present situation must and will touch all nations and every disciple will be tested and will have to express the utmost that is in him in service. I point this out so that you can comprehend the present and be prepared for the future.

I write to you as a soul and not as a personality and would ask you to study the implications of that attitude which I hold towards you. For the remainder of your life there should be a close application to the establishing of the gained soul contact and the training of the inner attentive man to catch the communications of the soul, plus the dedicated will to forget all personality applications in the meeting of surrounding need—as far as you can in your own country and allied nations. This may come to you as a surprising statement but at the close of the war, the period of rebuilding and the establishing of right human relations may (I do not say it will, for the constant element of freewill must enter in) force each disciple to work in those places where earlier effort, the ties of karma and national heritage, and inclination [493] determine his personal allegiance. This will be true for you too but only time will indicate whether you work with close relationship or from a distance—the first being preferable, if possible. I ask you simply to hold these possibilities in mind, to avoid fanatical conclusions, and to be prepared to work where the opportunity confronts you.

The glamour to which I referred in my first communication to you this year (Vol. I, Page 188) is being handled by you with right attitude and common sense. For this I commend you, reminding you always that soul contact is universal and inclusive in its effects but that the separative mind (even at soul levels) can still differentiate and place imparted truths under categories and sources. It is the imparted truths, the teaching and the inspiration which is of moment and this fact I believe that you are learning. I, the Master D.K., am a member of the Hierarchy and am teaching you through your own soul on mental levels, in the world of glamour at times also, and exoterically upon the physical plane through a much older disciple, A.A.B., who transmits to you my ideas. Through me, however, and through your contact with me (which is based on the recognition and unfoldment of your soul) you are en rapport with a world of spiritual inspiration and awareness which you can appreciate. Appropriate it, my brother, and transmit the teaching to those you serve but be not occupied or interested in the sources or origins of this teaching. They matter not. Nevertheless, the responsibility of the teacher rests upon you. The teacher should be so occupied with the need of the taught and with the clarification of the truth, as it is given to him, in terms that they can comprehend that he cannot be side-tracked through undue interest in the origin of the revelation.

A.A.B. here reminds me that I have not given you the rays which control your personality. Your major rays—I and II—are identical with those of J.W.K-P. and C.A.C., and should lead to a satisfactory understanding between you. This combination of the first and the second rays—governing either the soul or the personality—is the dominating influence in this work which I am attempting at this time to do. They are to be found quite often in this group and this [494] is to be expected owing to the fact that the Masters M. and K.H. are the overshadowing influences behind my efforts. Seven of the group members are conditioned by these energies and most of the others have the second ray present either in their personality or egoic expressions. This should be noted as definitely colouring the group and creating (if I might so express it) the group note. Of these potencies the whole group can, therefore, avail itself for it means that the inflow of understanding, light and love is thereby greatly facilitated.

The rays of your personality are as follows:

Mental body—The fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.

Astral body—The first Ray of Power .

Physical body—The third Ray of Active Intelligence.

This constitutes an interesting combination and produces a close relation and a line of least resistance in connection with the soul ray, through the medium of the brain (embodying the third ray force) and the astral body. I would point out to you that the brain is ever composed of atoms and cell units which vibrate to the energy of the ray which controls the physical body. This is a basic occult fact given out in a definite statement for the first time but ever deducible and implied when the student studies intelligently and has a real grasp of basic esoteric implications. Through the powerful aspiration of your first ray astral body (which is in fact transmuted desire) and its intelligent expression, and through the third ray power of your directing, awakening brain, soul contact is fairly easy of achievement for you at this particular point in your evolution. Your real problem is to free the results of this contact from distortion and glamour by the power of the illumined mind—an illumination achieved through conflict and discrimination and resulting (when the victory is gained) in the harmonising of soul and its form on earth.

I would like, therefore, to give some meditation exercises [495] which will facilitate the achievement of this clear vision and a correct interpretation of emerging facts and relations.

I. Exercise prior to Meditation:

1. Stand erect, facing your soul. Then say audibly, if possible:

"I accept the responsibility of discipleship which my soul has placed upon me."

2. Then pause a minute, endeavouring to realise the full significance of this undertaking. Then dismiss it.

3. Again face your soul and say:

"I accept with joy and with confidence and with a sense of comradeship, my share in the responsibility of making the spiritual work in the world successful."

4. Pause again, trying to grasp the true implications of this pledge.

II. Meditation Work:

1. Sit erect but relaxed. Withdraw the consciousness inward in successive stages, using the imagination in so doing. The imagination is a creative activity, producing definite inner change. Upon this you can depend because it is one of the forces influencing substance itself. Therefore,

a. Withdraw from the physical brain, after definitely focussing your consciousness there. Withdraw to the astral plane.

b. Withdraw from the astral body to the mental body. From that point recognise yourself as an integrated personality.

c. Withdraw from the personality into the soul.

2. As you do this work, try to see the thread of golden light which connects these three aspects of yourself. At the same time keep your consciousness steadily focussed in the head at the centre between the eyebrows, the ajna centre. This thread—dual in nature, like two golden cables intertwined—passes [496] from the heart and connects you, the personality, with the soul.

3. Having achieved this alignment and withdrawing, and having thus related the three aspects of the personality, quietly realise three facts:

a. That you are now face to face with your own soul, standing before the Angel of the Presence.

b. That you, this angelic Being, are essentially Reality, manifesting through three aspects.

c. That therefore separation does not exist.

4. Then say with emphasis and understanding:

"Having pervaded this world of the little manifested self with one fraction of my greater Self, I remain, greater, wider, inclusive and therefore overshadowing all my daily living."

Ponder on this for five minutes.

5. Then add to the above the following statement:

"I, the manifesting Self, through the magical power of my nature, redeem, reabsorb and revitalise this fraction, dwelling in my form."

6. Then sound the OM three times:

a. Sound it mentally, breathing forth radiance on to the mental plane.

b. Sound it next in a whisper, breathing forth the dispelling power of Light on to the astral plane.

c. Then sound it audibly, breathing illumination on to the physical plane.

7. This is followed by a period of listening or what is called esoterically "egoic conversation."

I have, my brother, in this instruction given you much food for thought, also the basis for real encouragement and an indication of your needed line of approach to reality.

[497]

August 1942

1. The disciple has to learn a discrimination for which the discriminative personality has prepared him.

2. Gigantic thoughtforms dominate the sons of men, speak through a nation, focus through a group. Lean on yourSoul.

3. Your field of service has been real, but older threads of service must later be re-grasped. Prepare.

4. Sensitivity to Those Who guide and know may indicate a mental interplay. You reach Their "forms of thought." Discriminate.

5. There is a triangle of force with which you should remain in closest touch—Myself, F.B., and A.A.B. Stay close.

6. Learn to use others in your work and train them so that they too may serve their fellowmen. This you can do. It is your Soul's behest, your personality's denial.

September 1943

MY BROTHER:

I have seemed to you perhaps to have been silent and to have left you somewhat to yourself. Such is not, however, the case in reality. You have walked ever under my watchful eye, but there was little that I could do until you had somewhat broken the "intent to loneliness" with which your personality has so constantly met the advances of your soul. This personality reaction you are learning rapidly, as a conscious soul, to repudiate. Loneliness, isolation, a sense of being deserted and a separativeness (based on sensitivity in most cases) distinguish the first ray disciple, until he learns to preserve his divine sense of "unified identity" whilst merging, at the same time, with others. This again you are learning to do.

You have had by no means an easy time, my brother. You have tuned in on world distress and are discovering yourself doing so with increasing and oft distressing frequency. Thus are the sons of God trained and brought to the point of detached and spiritually oriented servers.

I would like to take this opportunity to express to you my appreciation (if such an inadequate word is aught but[498] meaningless!) of the constant and untiring service to the Plan which you have so ceaselessly rendered. You have for years—ever since you first returned to Spain, and later in the place of your present abode—undeviatingly followed the path of ceaseless, constant service. You have reached and have helped many. I would have you know that we are not unmindful; I would have you realise that the work which you do is planned by us and that your task is to render yourself sensitive to our "impression." This developed sensitivity is ever a difficult task for the first ray person. They prefer to stand alone and to generate within themselves the plans which they consider fitted for the type of service which they seek to render. But today disciples are learning that a fused and organised and blended plan or scheme of world-wide service is required, and that a master Plan of the Hierarchy must be carried out, and that into this Plan all disciples, including you, must endeavour to fit.

Have you studied with care the six statements I gave you a year ago? I want today to call your attention to the third statement; this set of words should condition your planning for the future, particularly the sentence: "Older threads of planning must later be re-grasped." You started work for us in another country. Your major karmic destiny lies there, even if you return not there physically or for any length of time. The Plan must be served. I would ask you to prepare to re-establish the work you started, once the war in Europe is over. I would ask you to prepare to locate there again, if necessary, and to begin by communicating with as many as you can who earlier worked with you, seeking again to get in touch with all of them and along the original spiritual lines. I did not say along the original organised lines. I would ask you to do so at first in a definitely personal manner, writing friendly and personal letters and ascertaining the news and the condition of those who earlier worked with you as members of the Arcane School. They will form the nucleus of the spiritual work we seek to do and which you can aid greatly in re-establishing.

The work of salvaging Europe, spiritually and psychologically, which is our main preoccupation, must go on. It [499]must be entirely divorced from politics and partisanships, and I am asking all of you who are my pledged workers to move forward in this spiritual undertaking. Your link with the Master R. should help you much in taking adequate action in cooperation with A.A.B. and F.B. The triangle of force thus formed is strengthened by its link with my Brother, R. Where Spain is concerned, the picture is as follows:

* . . . . Master R.

* . . . . Master D.K.

* *. . . . A.A.B., F.B.

* . . . . I.A.P.

You will note here the direct line of spiritual force descending from the Master R., via D.K. to yourself, with F.B. and A.A.B. standing by as protecting agents on either side. They aid and sponsor all your efforts.

Much will be opening up rapidly now in the field of European assistance, and for this, in your place and sphere, you must begin to prepare. The spiritual demand of humanity is great and the need to be met is gigantic, but you have the equipment and enough surviving links in that ancient peninsula (where your work began) to salvage some remnants of the School and thus reconstitute a spiritual focal point in that land. Begin, therefore, to lay your plans. Write letters. Locate your students. Establish contact, and step by step, the way will open up before you and the work to be done will clarify. Count on your inner strength and rely on your inner spiritual contacts. Feel not futile or inadequate to the task, for in these days of urgent distress the aid given to—and consequently by—one disciple is greatly intensified and increased.

One suggestion I would here make to you personally. On receipt of this instruction, will you take a full month for the establishing of such a close contact with your own soul that love, enthusiasm, wisdom and certain fundamental spiritual [500] recognitions (which must ever condition the life of an accepted disciple) will flood your whole being? Day by day link up with your soul; day by day pledge yourself to the work to be undertaken; day by day seek a deepened relation with me, with my Ashram, and with your group brothers; day by day investigate your service as rendered up to date in the searchlight of the soul, and then, my brother, with my aid and blessing go forward, recognised by us as one of our spiritual assets. Work to bring the light of love and of spiritual orientation to those whom you are called to serve—in the place where you now are, and increasingly in the future in the place of your earlier service. Again, I recall to you the closing words of the second statement: Lean on your soul.

I assign to you no particular meditation. I believe that the group meditation will give you all you need along this line, and the reflection upon emerging opportunity and the planning for the reopening work will suffice to provide due expression for thought, for holding the mind steady in the light, and for the required meditative concentration.

My instructions to you are occupied with the theme of work, are they not, my brother? But that, to you, is life. It is needless for me to tell you that the success of the coming reorganisation and the success of your spiritual effort will be largely dependent upon the depth of your individual spiritual focus, the closeness of your link with your own soul, and the recognition of your "attachment" (technically speaking) to my Ashram. These are the A B C of your relationship to me as an accepted disciple.

Until such time as your outer course of action appears clearer to you, and until the way opens up for a resumption of work, earlier started, you have two things therefore to do. I am but summarising.

1. Deepen the content of your own inner spiritual life by mature, profound daily reflection, carried forward on all levels of thought and in every interlude in your daily life of service and of work. Endeavour to sense the note or the vibration of the Ashram and to establish [501] a much closer link with your group brothers. They value you and must also do their part.

2. Lay your plans for increased School activity, and concentrate also upon the work of the Triangles. Prepare definitely for the future, and seek also for those who can aid in your planned work.

The future ahead of my workers and the work to be done which will emanate from my Ashram is one of great activity. The plans are outlined and the work assigned is clearly proposed. I receive my instructions from a "joint committee" of the spiritual leaders behind the world scene; They are the senior members of the Hierarchy, working under the Christ. They arrive at Their decisions after due consultation with senior workers, such as myself—Masters and initiates above the third initiation. Thus the work becomes fused and blended, and the entire Hierarchy, at a time of crisis such as the present, is swung into one unified activity. From that point of focussed intention each then proceeds to carry out the Plan, via Their Ashram, and thus the work makes its impact upon the outer world.

I explain this to you as you are preparing to become an ever more intimate member in the "circle of the Ashram" which guards the heart of the hierarchical life.

With courage and with determination, my brother and my friend, move forward upon the Lighted Way.

November 1944

MY COMRADE AND MY BROTHER:

These are two appellations which are sincere and intended. You are at this time facing changes. The choice with which you are confronted is not so much where you will work, but whether you have arrived at a high water mark in your developed life of service and can therefore go no further, or whether there are still to be found in you those springs of interest and those inner urges which will enable you to reach outward and further into the life of the spirit. [502] Such is oft the choice with which the disciple is faced who reaches close to the three score years and ten of ordinary human enterprise, as you do today. The difficulty lies in the fact that, fundamentally, either decision is right. Few, however, face the choice consciously or intelligently or, having made it, abide by the decision made. From the standpoint of the ordinary aspirant, the choice is relatively unimportant because the time equation is of no great moment at this stage; a few years more or less are of no import in the eternity of soul reaction. Therefore, a decision to relax, to hold the point gained, but to refrain from further struggle, has in it no room for criticism. Remember this.

From the standpoint of the accepted disciple—such as you are—there may be more to the choice than at first appears. It might be of service to you, and to all who may later read these instructions, if I dwelt for a moment upon the inevitable problem of the working disciple, upon the problem of the man who reaches the age which you have reached. Shall he rest back upon his laurels (and you have laurels, my brother, as I pointed out in my last instruction to you) or shall he—to use a Biblical phrase—"gird his loins" anew and go forward with a fresh impetus and to a still higher summit of attainment? Shall he demonstrate the power of the seventh wave which will carry him forward much further upon the beach of life expression or will the strong undertow of ordinary human frailty pull him back from renewed effort?

The reasons why a disciple must at least endeavour not to relax unduly and should push on in spite of fatigue (the fatigue of years of living), in spite of the increasing "creaking" of the human apparatus and the inevitable tendency which comes from constant service and constant contact with others, might be enumerated as follows:

1. He must endeavour to carry the rhythm of service and of fruitful living with him when—free of the physical body—he stands upon the other side of the veil. There must be no gap in that service.

2. He must endeavour as far as in him lies to preserve the [503] continuity of his consciousness as a working disciple and should allow no gap to emerge between his present point of tension and that point of tension which supervenes after the death experience.

3. He must endeavour to close the episode of this life experience so that it is apparent that he is a member of an Ashram; he must permit no break in the established relationship, or any cessation to the flow of ashramic life through him to the world of men. This activity, on account of the natural and normal deterioration of the physical vehicle as it grows older, is not so easy a task; it requires a definite concentration of effort, thus increasing the tension in which a disciple ever lives.

4. For any disciple in my Ashram, the problem in this time of world crisis is peculiarly urgent, and this for the following reasons:

a. My Ashram is the main affiliated Ashram with that of the Master K.H. To Him, my Master (as I am yours), is given the task, on a large scale, of world education along new lines. Through my Ashram, working under the inspiration of His, the newer, esoteric presentation of truth is to be given out. The work that I have already done—through my books and through all the teaching which you have attempted to embody—is to render the teaching of the other and older esoteric schools and groups entirely exoteric. There is little left to them that is new; they must now link up with the sources which I represent if their leaders are to present fresh and vital information to their students, or they must take what I have conveyed to the world, via A.A.B., and thus again reintegrate into the esoteric whole.

b. Disciples in my Ashram have a dual responsibility to stand steady in a preservation of realisation—if I may use such a phrase. This steadiness must not be relaxed in any way as old age draws near, and it must not be permitted to disappear through the transition of death itself. It is through the unbroken [504] conscious thinking of a welded group of disciples that the Master of an Ashram works. It is not so much the active outer service of a group of disciples which is of major importance (though it has necessarily a vital purpose) as the coherent, integrated group thought which is so potent in effecting changes in the human consciousness.

c. The peculiar problem of the present world crisis and the terrific readjustments in the human consciousness, incident to the inauguration of a new culture, civilisation and world religion, warrant my presenting the members of my Ashram (even affiliated groups, such as yours) with the opportunity to preserve intact and free from all deterioration their "state of mind" throughout the remaining years of this life, through the process of dissolution, and on into the freedom of the other side of the veil. This preservation of conscious integrity is no easy task; it requires understanding and most deliberate effort.

I call you, therefore, my brother, to exactly this effort. The consequences to you will be a much harder life of service from now on; the results will be the carrying out of your plans for work with greatly intensified effort.

You should now work in closer cooperation with A.A.B. and F.B. The task of carrying esoteric truth into Latin and Catholic America and southern Europe is no easy undertaking. It will be slow. Your foundation must be well and truly laid. The quality of those reached by you in the future is of more importance than the quantity. Bear this ever in mind. Relinquish not the various phases of the work you have so successfully launched, but proceed with them as heretofore—no matter where may be the place of your physical plane enterprise.

One of the many things which you need at this time to learn, and which you must initiate during the next few years, is how to gather people together and work through them. This, as you have been taught, is very difficult for a first ray disciple to master, particularly when the soul ray [505] and the ray of the astral or emotional nature are both first ray. It is easy for the first ray disciple to withdraw into his soul consciousness, far easier than for any other ray types, and your problem (as it is also the problem of J.W.K-P.) is to give the second ray personality fuller sway, and thus balance the first ray ability to demonstrate detachment by the functioning of the opposite quality of attachment—so distinctive of the second ray nature. Ponder on this.

As I told J.W.K-P. some years ago, a "detached attachment" (paradoxical as it sounds) is the goal of the first ray working disciple. This is equally true of you. You and he have the same egoic, personality and mental rays. Hence the close link with him which you have ever realised. He is a disciple of the Master M., temporarily working in my Ashram. You have been admitted into the ranks of accepted disciples in my Ashram and by me, but you will eventually be transferred into the Ashram of the Master M. The free interplay thus established between my Ashram and that of the Master M. is due to the fact that He is the inner Head of all esoteric groups, and in the interest of the coming new world order, the teaching Ashrams are being strengthened by the inflow of first ray disciples. This should be a point of real interest to you.

What, my brother, shall be the type of meditation and interior work which you should be doing during the coming years? I would like to have you meditate upon the "three activities": Outward moving, persistent orientation, and interior withdrawing or abstraction. The relation of these three activities or three attitudes should form one aspect of your reflection upon these phrases; the relative activity involved in each attained position should constitute another; the effect produced by each of them in the three worlds, and also upon soul levels, demands careful and concentrated thought. What, for instance, is the nature of "outward moving" upon the astral plane? How would "persistent orientation" appear or express itself upon the mental plane? Or "abstraction and withdrawal" upon the physical level of consciousness? How can you, as a disciple, display these attitudes simultaneously? I think you will admit, my brother, that in these three concepts [506] and in their working out in the daily life within the ring-pass-not of the three worlds and in the life of the soul upon its own plane, I have given you the theme for much thinking during the coming years. Take each of these phrases, therefore, and think each of them out in relation to each of the three planes in the three worlds, and to each other; carry the same directed thinking on to soul levels and shift the theme then into the three worlds of the Spiritual Triad, regarding the lower three worlds then as reflections of the higher, triadal three. Keep notes of all the thoughts of reality which come to you; watch the reactions produced in your vehicles of expression, and become increasingly aware of the changes which conscious, deliberate thinking will bring about in you. Think—if I may so express it—in your heart, and also in your mind, and endeavour to comprehend the distinction between these two modes of thought.

This reflective work should constitute your meditation work in the future; it will condition your interior development and will also inevitably make your outer work more dynamic.

One reason why I have emphasised the need for attachment in this instruction is that right attachment releases the love of the soul, and only love, consciously, intelligently and deliberately applied, can make for successful work, both in Europe and South America—your two recognised fields of service. Only your second ray personality will have the capacity to reawaken contact with your students in Spain or hold steady those already working in South America; it is through individually re-found, re-awakened and re-inspired realisation that the work, planned and intended by me, can be successfully carried forward. Such is your immediate task. Only your second ray personality can have the patience to cover the mass of detail needed and to persist in the face of apparent nonsuccess. Much skill in action will also be required. The Catholic Church is governed by the first ray as its soul ray, and by the third ray as its personality ray. Hence its love of politics and of temporal power; hence also its intensely commercial and financial preoccupations. The mental ray of this Church is sixth ray. Hence its narrow one-pointedness; [507] its emotional body is also sixth ray in quality, whilst the physical ray of the outer organisation is seventh. These are points which should interest you and which you need to bear in mind as you work. A realisation of this peculiar combination of rays will demand of you, and of all workers along esoteric lines, great skill in action.

With renewed endeavour, enlightened understanding and courage, go forth again, my brother, in the service of the light. I stand ever behind you. On that point, have no doubts. I shield and protect, but I leave you free to work.

August 1946

MY DEAR BROTHER:

This is a new way for me to address you, but you have endeared yourself to me by your patient persistence and your undeviating adherence to the service of the Hierarchy. For many years you have done our work in a most difficult sphere. I say this to you because I would not have you spend time (or should I say, waste time, my brother?) in wishing you had done the work better or differently, or in the unrewarding task of self-depreciation. I would tell you quite simply that we are not ungrateful and we are not dissatisfied. The Latin field—by that I mean the sphere in which the Latin race predominates, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese—is one of the most difficult in which to work. The narrowness of thought induced by Roman Catholic Church control, the crystallisation which comes from a very ancient development, and (in South America) the wide mixture of races, make the task of bringing spiritual liberation one of peculiar difficulty.

Do you realise, my brother, that you have been drawing the plough over the ground in preparation for the New Age teaching for the first time, and that that ground is very hard, very stony, and at present relatively unproductive?

So be of good cheer. Your work is more fruitful than you realise and in some life you will see the results of the apparently unrewarding toil of the years of your spiritual enterprise.

[508]

I have few instructions to give you. Proceed as heretofore, but deepen persistently your own inner life; give more time to quiet reflection and study than to the technicalities of the task; let others deal with the mechanics of the work whilst you seek to act as a spiritual reservoir from which they can draw strength and wisdom and understanding. The recognition of this phase of your work is perhaps the most important lesson you can learn at this time. You will experience a new power, the upwelling of new spiritual fervour, the joy of seeing others competently handling the mechanics of the work whilst you teach and aid them in their spiritual undertakings. Above all else, endeavour to reach and interest the young people. They are the hope of the future and are coming into incarnation subjectively aware of their predestined task of world reconstruction; you will find them acutely responsive to spiritual contacts, particularly if presented in non-religious terms. Count, therefore, on this and try to reach them.

I am going to give you a somewhat brief meditation exercise to be done by you twice a day—on arising in the morning and the last thing at night, prior to going to sleep. It should not take you long to do, but—if done correctly and with as much of your first ray soul integrated into it as you can invoke—it will greatly aid you.

1. Sound the OM inaudibly three times.

2. Then, having achieved inner quiet and relaxed mental focussing, seek, with an alert consciousness, to contact:

a. Your soul.

b. My Ashram.

c. Me, your Master.

You thus, through the imagination, create a triangle of energy:

Ashram. * * D.K.

* Yourself.

[509]

As familiarity with this meditation is developed, you should eventually arrive at a contact, at a registered sense of spiritual power (expressed through your second ray personality) and at such an increase of love and light that your sphere of service will recognise it, even if—at first—you do not.

3. Then, after quiet acceptance and a period of silent reflection, you will deliberately pour out the inflowing spiritual power into:

a. Your immediate environment,

b. The Arcane School, of which your work in South America is an integral part,

c. The Goodwill Movement you have aided in starting in South America.

This type of meditation constitutes a definite act of service and should—when done in the morning—prove pronouncedly strenuous. It involves some practice in visualisation and (where I and the Ashram are concerned) the use of your confident, creative imagination.

4. Then say the Great Invocation, slowly and with much mental intention, pausing after each of the four stanzas for quiet thought and reflection.

5. Then again link up in thought with me, your Master. Sound the OM inaudibly again three times, and then proceed about your daily work.

My blessing continues to rest upon you.

November 1948

MY BROTHER OF LONG STANDING:

It had not been my intention to send you a communication, since the personal communications have been largely discontinued. I am, however, prompted to do so today because as I contacted you in my thought life this morning, I decided that a word from me and the touch of my hand [510] (symbolically speaking) would give you strength and comfort.

There comes a time in the training of any disciple when he must stand alone and feel sometimes that he has been deserted by his Master and by the other members of the Ashram. It is the higher and occult correspondence of the mystical experience of the true mystic and to which he has given the name of "the dark night of the soul." All this is nevertheless only a part of the great illusion and has to be overcome and dissipated. When this victory has been achieved and there has been evidenced the willingness to work alone and apparently with no ashramic direction—except a general knowledge of the Plan—then the disciple has demonstrated that he can be trusted; he becomes available for a higher rating and more responsibility can be placed upon him—if not in this life then in the next.

You are not young, my brother, but you can have the rare joy of looking back (when the time comes to pass through the Portal into clearer light and life and know) to know that you have served and helped thousands, through the radio and through the translated material of the teaching I have tried to give; what you have sown has not fallen on sterile ground. This remains true, even if you do not register the fact. Since first you responded to my vibration, you have not turned back; this has been recorded and recognised by us.

Praise and commendation is an unusual line for me to take but a disciple has to learn to respond correctly to that as well as to correction. You have earned commendation and we withhold from no one their just due.

Go forward, my brother. These are troubled times, and steady centres of light in every land are sorely needed.

May the strength of your own soul and the knowledge that your place in the Ashram is secure enable you to complete the work which you have begun.

NOTE: This disciple has persisted faithfully to serve as a steady centre of light, and in September, 1951, he passed into clearer light and life in the inner Ashram.

[511]

To I. S. G-L.

August 1940

MY FRIEND AND BROTHER:

For several lives we have been associated, though this is only the second incarnation wherein you have been definitely regarded by me and by my Associates as a pledged disciple. I am pointing this out to you as it infers a consecration and a dedication which you have preserved inviolate and evokes a response which only increases as time goes on.

You are pledged as a disciple to further our plans and to occupy yourself with definite group work. Our disciples learn the processes of initiation in the fire and heat of the daily life battle in the world of the present. They grasp eventually the processes also of group work and the rules which govern group endeavour. These rules govern the Hierarchy. They recede increasingly into the background as the group grows in function, purpose and usefulness but this withdrawal into the silence of the Hierarchy is not based and never will be based upon any outwardly imposed silence by the initiate or disciple upon either himself or his group. The silence concerns himself, and is based upon a humble appreciation of the whole of which he is simply a part and is not based upon a silence and a technique which simply emphasises mystery. The only true mysteries are those points of revelation for which the mechanism is inadequate and which, therefore, find no response in the one whom the initiate or disciple contacts. Of these mysteries you, the teacher and leader, may be aware but the pupil remains unmoved when presented with them. He simply does not recognise them. The outer imposition of silence and mystery is focussed consequently around the teacher in the mind of the taught and only serves to distract his attention from the reality to an imposed glamour surrounding the teacher. I would have you ponder on this, my brother, for your service is needed, but is today—if you will permit me to say so—handicapped by the intensity of your devotion and the psychic pulsation of your solar plexus. [512] You will recognise the condition to which I here refer. It affects also at times the quality of your impact upon people and occasionally the fruitfulness of your service. The careful and considered following of the group meditation should do much to relieve the situation and so release you for fuller service.

You would find it useful also, once and for all, to face up to the complexities of your own nature and to do so joyfully. You could also try to simplify your own approach to truth, to me and to humanity. There lies your immediate problem—simplification. This involves the elimination of imaginative reactions, all hinted implications and a withdrawal from the centre of your group life (I refer here not to the group which I am here teaching) just in so far as you feel yourself a centre. It involves also the effort to become a potent living influence radiating from above and not from the centre and yet without any sense of being above.

I wonder, my brother, if I am making my meaning clear. It is not clear to A.A.B. who is taking down my words but it should be clear to you, for it concerns your established technique of service and your group activity. You have accomplished a good and fruitful life service. You have aided many towards the light and have demonstrated a physical plane selflessness which has been powerful in releasing others. You need now to demonstrate an equal selflessness upon the plane of aspiration and of devotion. There lies for you the battle ground, and victory must be yours prior to taking the initiation for which you are being prepared. Your capacity for suffering is abnormal; this must be ended through the cultivation of that divine indifference which changes or shifts the present almost too violent emotional reactions into that calm, understanding, compassionate wisdom which—through identification with the soul of those you seek to help—inevitably aids suffering personalities. I think you realise the significance of my remarks. Your intense desire to serve Us and your deep love for humanity must be preserved but not forgotten in the strenuous activity of your life.