SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES (Continued) - PART 2
You have oft made the remark that you know so little, that you have been forced ahead too fast, and that you have no background of acquired knowledge. But you have been many years in touch with my work and—in spite of all you may think to the contrary—you have the mental ability and the leisure (if you organised your daily life aright) to read and study. But this is a hard thing for you to do, is it not? But, brother of old, the way of the disciple is never an easy one. The tension from which you suffer could have been very largely offset by a quieter life of reading, gentle thought, organised activities, silence and the refusal to take on non-essentials (those things which other people can do just as well as you can) or the ability to see things not done.
I have written thus in frankness, because I seek to release you from your present condition to fuller service, to better health, and truer happiness. I seek to see you a quiet centre of spiritual force. I would like to see you re-arrange your life in such a manner that you can demonstrate that leisured calm through which strength can flow from you to those you love and to those you contact. Can you take enough leisure to grasp at least the purpose of these injunctions? Can you endeavour to profit by them?
Another source of your trouble is to be found in your sixth ray astral body (the ray of idealistic, fanatical devotion) for it produces a real lack of balance, an undue attention to details of process, and of devotion to those details from the emotional satisfaction which comes from this attention; this brings about a failure to understand the larger issues and an inability to move gently on the Way. This your first ray mental nature can offset if you will give it a chance and live more in your mind and less in your feelings and emotional reactions. Your third ray physical body inclines you to great physical activity (such as rapid movement and rapid speech); it keeps you working at something all the time and often at something quite unproductive of good results, and not proportionate to the labour expended.
Anyway, my brother, let us again endeavour to do some [416] work together, and to preserve, at the same time, emotional equilibrium, which will result in a greater measure of glandular balance. It will come more easily if you live a regular, organised life, move with greater gentleness, talk less and endeavour to polarise yourself in your mind nature.
I would ask you to do some meditation each day regularly with a planned lack of intensity carried almost to the point of lack of interest. Just follow the form and look not for results. They will follow automatically e'en if you realise them not. Study what I say to you and meet the group requirements.
NOTE: G.S.S. has resigned with the full approval of the Tibetan. The tension of the group activity proved too much for her. In a later life she will resume her place.
To D. H. B.
January 1934
BROTHER OF MINE:
This is my first instruction to you. I gave it not to you earlier than this because I was testing out your motive and your ability to work without attention from me. It is the sign of real discipleship when a man works alone and apparently unaided and seeks not to intrude his small affairs into the consciousness of his Master, realising, as he does, the pressure of work upon the Great Ones. Those of us who prepare chelas for conscious discipleship, test and try them out in this connection. I had not forgotten that you have worked for six months without any personal word. Today I seek to assign your work and to establish a closer rapport between you and myself.
You are in a position, my brother, both from karma and the present world condition, to be able to give considerable time to the service of your fellowmen and to the helping of aspirants in your environment. This gives to you the opportunity of utilising all the powers you have of mind and of sensitivity, but this necessarily brings its own problems and difficulties. One of the first lessons every chela has to learn is the growth of that [417] inner detachment which will enable him to merge himself in the consciousness of his brother and so know and ascertain the best way to help him and stimulate him to renewed self-effort. He needs also to cultivate that true humility which will force him to give all he has in selfless service, and then to forget that he has thus given of himself. He must have no thought of himself as a factor in the case. Only when detachment and humility are present can a disciple really serve. Cultivate, therefore, these qualities and continue the giving of yourself in service.
These are two of the keynotes which are specially yours, and these qualities should be built into the very fabric of your life with the strictest attention. Your third keynote is being. Learn to stand in spiritual being, remembering ever that to be is a greater realisation than to know or to act. The constant steady effort to dwell in the Secret Place of your own soul and from thence to go forth into the world of men, pouring forth love and understanding, should be your prime endeavour.
Also, my brother, work not under strain or with effort. Bring ease and effortless expression into your daily relations. You will understand to what I refer. The physical body is not too strong, and if there is any sense of drive or of pressure, your work and service will suffer. Conservation of energy and increased inner work will produce a greater magnetic realisation but less physical plane activity. This is for you the part of wisdom. Handle what you have to do more through meditation; see people and talk to them as heretofore but reduce somewhat the time given to each. Intensive spiritual radiation and loving understanding will do more true good than long hours of talk. See as many people but give them less time, not from a sense of hurry but in order to do better and more intensive work.
My word for you is: Work more in the light and see all people as in that light with you. All that any disciple or aspirant has to do in relation to his fellowmen is to stimulate the light that is in them, leaving them free to walk in their own light and way upon the Path.
As regards your meditation, I would like to suggest that you reduce the time period of your meditation work but increase the intensity of your focus. For six months I would like to see [418] you do a rapid and intense meditation, and evidence a one-pointed driving forward to a quick alignment and entering into the light.
As regards the rest of your work, conform to group requirements and remember that rapid intense work is for you the indicated method during the coming six months' period.
August 1934
BROTHER OF MINE:
My word to you today is brief. I think you will realise that the reason lies in the fact that the intensity of the stimulation received by you at the time of the Wesak Festival, has so increased your sensitivity that more at this time is not required. I write not to the members of this group for the sake of writing. As time proceeds and they come more and more into line with group purpose, in touch with myself, and in closer union with each other, it should be possible for there to be fewer communications and more inner realisation of relationship.
You are getting the needed results from your meditation, so there is no need at this time to change it.
Recollect in your work that you are always a focal point for spiritual power and should be an outpost of the Master'slove. Serve and work. Conserve your health at all times. Seek to link up with D.L.R. You can serve each other if you will.
March 1935
You have had a time of difficulty, my brother. Such times are growing times and serve to train the disciple. The deeper the capacity for usefulness and the deeper the inner conservation, the more severe will oft be the disciplining. You received a tremendous stimulation during the Conference and it resulted in an inner reorganisation of your subtle bodies, locating for you also those points by which glamour could enter. This is of value. Whilst this kind of activity is transpiring, there is usually produced such an intense activity of the inner bodily forces (that are the battleground of a man's own nature) that the aspirant is temporarily submerged by these forces and by the [419] reaction produced in his own environment. Frequently he can scarcely keep his head above the water (a neat, occult phrase, my brother, and one most applicable to your own experience during the past six months). Two planks of the raft on which the disciple eventually makes his escape can be called service and patience. By a close attention to the needs of his fellowmen and by means of that uncomplaining endurance which is the hallmark of the disciple, he brings to an end the time of difficulty and emerges thence freer, richer and more useful. There come times in the life of every true aspirant when he simply continues to persevere, no matter how disinclined he may feel and no matter how acute may be the inner turmoil.
You are emerging from the condition of difficulty and you are facing—as a result—a life of fuller service and of deepened understanding of others. Freedom from difficulty will never be your lot. Would you have it otherwise? Loneliness grows as the aspirant detaches himself from the world of souls. There comes ever an interlude wherein the disciple senses an intense seeming isolation, but it is only an illusion. You know that you are not alone. You know well how rich your life is today, and how strengthened each and all of you are through contact with your brothers.
I have not much to say to you. You are coming closer to your Master; the greatest help that I can give you at this time is to tell you this. You have the persistence and the will (like tempered steel) of the second ray, and you can dismiss all fear as to your capacity to transcend the difficulties or to make your grade. Nothing can stop you.
Your work in the group and your power in relation to it consists in your compassionate comprehension. You must act in the group for that aspect of the soul which expresses itself in understanding; that quality you can transmit. Be of good courage, my brother, and lose yourself in service.
October 1935
MY BROTHER:
One of the main things which I have to do for you at this time is to give you the kind of meditation which is needed. It [420] should be one that will break down any tendency to crystallise which may be making its presence felt in your mental body, and so keep you free and plastically ready for use.
You have been subjected lately to three things:
1. A tremendous stimulation, as a result of the Wesak Festival.
2. A good deal of immediate environing testing.
3. An increased and increasing field of service.
The first has greatly expanded your mental body. The second has swept your emotional nature into a somewhat subdued tempest. The third has had a dual effect: it has served to show you the futility of glamour and that which you despondingly think is not glamour. It has also fanned into activity a few hidden seeds of self-satisfaction, which still remain in your subconscious mind. I am speaking plainly for you are a worthwhile chela and capable of much service in the world and, for you, individual sensitivity to correction and to suggestion, should have no place. I realise that this is also your point of view and that hence I can speak with frankness.
As I look at you, my brother, and study your aura, I ask myself, what are the two things which you most need at this time? By this I mean: What two things, dealt with at this time, would give you the maximum measure of release and so increase your power in service? There is, first of all, an increased reticence in thought anent your environing conditions. This involves two subsidiary factors: firstly, freedom from criticism of those with whom you are daily associated, and silence as to yourself. Ponder on this, for in its practice lies for you much liberation. Secondly, thecultivation of a spirit of happiness, of joy—which is based on an inner assurance as to the Plan and your future work in relation to it.
You are at a critical point in your career as a disciple. The present, rightly handled, will open up for you new fields of service. This, however, will only be the case if you adjust in yourself those weaknesses of character which call for reticence and joy as their remedying agents. There is for you at this time no immediate drastic action or change. You are temporarily [421] marking time, but you can steadily increase the tempo or rate of vibration and so be ready to proffer fuller service and emerge into fuller usefulness; or you can continue marking time—adequately and usefully—and make no further definite progress for some while. Yet reticence (which is after all conservation of energy) and joy (which produces right magnetism) will inevitably quickly "speed you on your way."
You will note that I have been lately using the phrase the "lighted Way" in many of my communications. This is because I am seeking to evoke in all my disciples the recognition that the light which is in each and all of you will, and can, and ofttimes does, light your path of life.
The meditation which I would give you has in it these two thoughts of silence and joy, for these, rightly fostered, mean strength conserved and magnetic service. Continue the breathing exercise as heretofore, and then proceed as follows:
1. Withdraw your outgoing consciousness from the periphery to the point of silence within the head, to the place where the "gold and the blue meet, blend and merge."
2. Then endeavour to feel that utter silence. When you have entered into it and are aware of it, then
3. From that point send forth blessing
a. To your immediate circle of family and friends.
b. To your co-disciples.
c. To your group of students.
d. To the outer world.
e. To me, your Tibetan Brother.
f. To the New Group of World Servers.
g. To the Hierarchy.
4. Then visualising a vivid golden yellow, ponder on the true significance, value and reward of silence.
5. Next, visualising a vivid electric blue, ponder on the true significance, value and reward of joy.
6. Sound the O.M. three times audibly, with the thought in mind as you sound it, of
a. The cleansing of the aura.
b. The silencing of all discords.
c. The expression of joy.
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I would like also to suggest an interlinking (which you should keep in mind, and which will constitute a service to me and to the group) of four people whose names will be sent to you.
February 1936
MY BROTHER AND FRIEND:
The past six months have been for you months of battle—a battle with glamour, with a tired and worn body, as well as with environment and home conditions. You have indeed had a battle with your entire lower integrated personality. The Path of Purification, like a silver thread, runs through the golden path of Discipleship. The cleansing of the personality and the attaining of more light upon one's way is ever the preparation for increased and more adequate service. It appears to me, an older brother on the Way, that the law of non-resistance holds for you the promise of success. Just stand with steadfastness, my brother, and let the turmoil of life and the noise of affairs pass over you unheeded. Establish within yourself a point of quiet and learn to retreat there and, in forgetfulness of outer happenings, live the life of spiritual tranquillity. The words, detachment and service, have for you much real and deep meaning, but perhaps their very familiarity, as expressions of your spiritual objectives, militates somewhat against their usefulness. Joy and tranquillity are the two words that I would seek to add to the content of your thought. Joy is one that I have already called to your attention. The other, tranquillity, I seek to see interjected now into your life. There is little else that I need to say to you at this time. You know; you need no telling but, like all pledged disciples, you need interludes of stabilisation before passing on to greater knowledge.
August 1936
MY BROTHER:
Again there is little that I need to say to you at this time. Much that is found in the personal instructions of your group brothers must be also deeply studied by you and applied; but the Technique of the Way, the particular need which you may [423] have for a particular re-arrangement—either of your life or of your desires—and the specific next step is, for you, adequately clear, is it not? A long period of learning and of recognitions directed toward the soul and the life of the soul in its own world, has been yours. An interlude of assimilation and of recognition directed towards the world of men is again—for you—an equal necessity. In this way a closer integration can be set up between the two major aspects through which you have to express yourself—the soul life, aspiration and nature (whose major attribute is love) and the personality life, aspiration and nature (whose major attribute is intelligence). The unfolding of the united life of these two must now go forward, with your predominant focus in the astral body. Does this seem strange to you? Here in the astral body (as you well know and as all true disciples know) is the battleground for those who are preparing for initiation. The weapon whereby the battle will be won is that of intelligent, loving service. Had you ever regarded service as a weapon for use? This statement is, as you will see, a simple and clear indication of the situation. It covers the work to be undertaken by you during the next six months and for which the difficulties and the pain of the past year have prepared you. Think not, my brother, that I regard service as a new thing for you or as something to which I am summoning you. Such is not the case, for your life is oriented thereto. But the strenuous aspiration and the active fight which you have waged over glamour and your personality, must cease for a while, so as to give your tired nerves and the temporarily disturbed nervous system time to recuperate.
In the last meditation outlined by me, I gave you two exercises to do with colour, and it is this particular work which precipitated the crisis of the past year. Such was my intention, hard though that may seem. The meditations which I give to my disciples are full of purpose and are planned to produce certain effects, if faithfully carried out. I would have you think this out, and ponder upon the effect of the imposition of tranquillity upon the astral body. May not the early stages of such imposition work out in potent agitations which can, in their due time, produce definite physical effects? Tranquillity is the imposition of a quality of energy upon an agitated force, but—[424] when these two types of force first come into touch with each other—a result, differing from that expected oft ensues. The achieving also of a tranquil centre in your environment comes to be recognised by your associates. This, in the early stages again, may call forth turmoil. I give you these hints, because when you have absorbed the implications they will lead to the higher understanding. So little do disciples, even the most intelligent, realise the effect, in the early stages, of the higher forces upon the lower! They realise much more clearly the ultimate goal and ideal, but the intermediate steps remain sealed to them.
Go on, therefore, with your life of service and act as a wise helper to all you contact, including your co-disciples. Your major asset at this time is a dedicated influence and radiation. See to it that its medium of expression is love. You are predominantly on the wisdom side of the second ray. See to it that the love side is equally developed. That will not be a hard task for you.
I seek to change your meditation quite radically. All disciples who are steadfast in their orientation entered, at the Full Moon of May, 1936, into a new cycle. This you also did. A most definite sifting and testing went on at that time, on subtler levels—a testing which had for its objective the discovery of those who had essentially the New Age characteristics, and could therefore be trusted to tune in on the newer and higher rhythms. Follow, therefore, the procedure outlined until I again tell you to make a change. Breathing exercises are necessary for you and aid you much. Attempt, therefore, the following....
Be not deterred or discouraged by pain and by difficulty. You are not alone. Carry the work forward as indicated by me in the group instructions but add to it the further work which I assign you.
March 1937
MY BROTHER:
I have studied with care the replies sent in by this group of aspirants. I have studied yours with special care for a reason which you know, but which may not be stated here. Your replies indicate a glamour out of which you should at once [425] emerge—the glamour of depression, based on a sense of spiritual inferiority which is not warranted, being not based on facts. As an instance of this—read the list of failings which you give. My brother, even if there is some basis of truth in your enumeration, still your replies remain untruthful, for you omit all recollection or reference to the other side of the picture. You are centred in your mind in the involutionary reactions of the personality vehicles. Yet, you are, as you well know, in preparation for certain steps forward upon the Path. A clear vision of yourself is needed, and at each turn upon the Way you have to face three realities:
1. The little or lower self.
2. The Dweller upon the Threshold, in cases such as yours.
3. The Angel of the Presence.
Be not so occupied with the personality self, seek more frequently the company of the Angel, which hides and veils (and yet reveals) the hidden glory of the spirit. Your faults are there, as are the faults of all upon the Way. Many pass much time and thus slow down their active spiritual expression by an undue interest and a too intent focussing upon the liabilities and limitations. Recognise this, my brother, and then pass on. They are not all you have to show; they do not give the entire picture.
Five years ago you evidenced much spiritual pride; you had a strong sense of separativeness, and a highly developed critical mind. Today these demonstrate far less than formerly, and you are now quick to see any emerging wrong tendencies, and equally quick to repudiate them.
Humble love is for you the goal this year together with the expression of a loving, understanding heart, thus aiding all you meet. Have no other aim. The practice of this will balance and round out your undoubted head development.
I shall not change your work greatly. Continue to ponder upon the thoughts I earlier gave you as seed ideas for meditation. Take them now, however, as the theme of your daily recollection and not as seed thoughts for meditation. Follow the group meditation with care for it will give you what you need. For you, during the coming year, the cultivation of a poised [426] recollection and of a reflective attitude (held with constancy) is of more importance than half an hour of intense meditation. Bear this in mind. Reflect upon your last instructions; they are full of thoughts which you have not yet "inferred" or sensed. Ponder upon them and seek the higher inferences. Clear away the glamour of depression and enter upon the new cycle with joy.
September 1937
MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND:
I have much to say to you today but it must be said in a short space of time. Study, therefore, my words with an awakened intuition and with a glad willingness to learn. You have already received an exceedingly brief line which I do not wish to be incorporated in any book, having for you much understanding and a recognition of your sensitivity. There is no need for others to read it. It is in connection with this very sensitivity of yours that I seek to speak today for I think that I may thereby be of help and save you much future difficulty. That is, my brother, if you accept what I say and let not any reaction to spiritual pride negate the import of my words.
In my last Instruction to you, I pointed out the three realities in time, space and this incarnation, which you have to face. I warned you against the deep sense of inferiority which sometimes handicaps your life expression. I told you to dwell more constantly in the light which streams from the face of the Angel of the Presence. This you have sought to do. But you forgot one thing and this has come powerfully to light. The light which streams from the "face of the Angel" (which is the face of the soul), reveals. How does it reveal, my brother? It reveals by bringing to the surface the hidden things, and the germs of weaknesses, thus revealing defects and liability. I would here point out that when this happens, the sum total of that which is revealed can contribute a glamour, a rising fog, a miasma of poisonous nature. It is like the effect of a dawning sun in the early morning on a hot day which draws upwards the mists and thus temporarily forms a fog between itself and the earth. Such was your case. The fog is fast dissipating for, as I said, its appearance is only temporary.
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Two questions I will ask you here, which I shall not answer for you but which, if answered by you with truth and in the presence of the Angel, will serve to dissipate the last traces of this glamour. I have told you that "the expression of a loving understanding heart" was the goal that you must set yourself. Has this loving understanding been your outstanding quality this last half year? Secondly, is there a possibility that there has been (unrealised by you) an emergence of the spiritual pride which you were so fast overcoming? Certain knowledges that have come to you from me might tend to foster that pride if exceeding watchfulness were not your major care.
One other point I would seek to make. You have a very frail and delicate body and the force of the Angel pouring through it will always produce in you quicker reactions than in the average person. Recognise these evoked reactions and then pass on. Waste not time in too close a self-analysis, or in the agonies of disappointment. Forget not what you have been told of the goal which you may set yourself and pass on.
Let me tell you the rays of your threefold lower nature. It is needless for me to remind you that your soul ray is the second and your personality ray is the sixth.
Your mental body is on the first ray, and I think if you will study this with care, much of your present problem will become clear to you.
Your astral body is also governed by the first ray. This is an exception to the general rule that the second and sixth rays govern the astral bodies of all humanity. This rule varies occasionally in the case of disciples. This combination of a first ray mental body and a first ray astral body is interesting and provides you with a definitely difficult problem, for the necessity to balance and to achieve equilibrium, is enhanced in your case. However, it also makes possible an easier control of the astral body by the mind, if you so choose—and you do.
The ray of your physical body is the seventh. This I presume you have already guessed. Your rays therefore are:
1. The soul ray—the second Ray of Love-Wisdom.
2. The personality ray—the sixth Ray of Devotion. Idealism.
3. The mental body—the first Ray of Will or Power.
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4. The astral body—the first Ray of Will or Power.
5. The physical body—the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order or Magic.
One of the interesting things to be noted (as one studies your ray tendencies) is that all your three bodies are on the line of 1-3-5-7, yet your personality ray is on the 6th, on the line of 2-4-6. Why is this? The reason is that the control of your soul is, in this incarnation, of sufficient power to evoke a reaction in all the three vehicles of the personality, and the sixth subray of each of the governing rays of the three bodies is so active that it becomes a dominating factor. Hence you have a sixth ray personality.
February 1938
BROTHER OF MINE:
I have for three months been seeking a closer contact with you and perhaps of this you are aware. The unit of disciples with which you are affiliated has always interested me, due to the importance of its task, and because of the personnel of the group and their individual problems. In spite of changes and difficulties, a group of you within this group have stood steadily from the very start despite the difficulties interjected by the defection of certain members and the constant state of glamour in which another brother is habitually to be found; yet, in spite of these changes and difficulties, the group persists and moves forward in strength. There is no need for discouragement. You, my brother, have done your full share in the preservation of group integrity; I should like to take this opportunity to tender to you my gratitude for your unfailing cooperation, undertaken in the face of physical liability, home difficulties, personal glamour and deep depression. No matter what has been eventuating in your personal life and environment, you have stood with steadfastness and have thereby won much for your group.
It is not often that I thus commend a brother. More often have I chided or indicated place for improvement and in no case have I ever over-praised. But I seek today to indicate that your steady service has been noted and I assure you that progress has been made by you.
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One hint I would give you also for your encouragement: Much that is regarded by you as faulty and wrong, much that seems to you of hindrance to your group, much of the depression and of glamour in your life has a purely physical or physiological reason and is, therefore, upon the plane of superficiality. It leaves the real inner man untouched and leaves your influence, consequently, free to work and move among your brothers. Ponder on this, for it should bring you renewed assurance of the Plan and of your part in it. Live, therefore, always above your physical body, ignoring how you feel and seeking to dwell as far as is possible, with your waking consciousness blended and fused with that of the soul. Even if you feel it not, then know that it is there.
I wonder, my brother, if it is possible for me to indicate to you the life of spiritual insulation which is in no way the life of personal isolation? In this state of "insulated being" lies, for you, the solution of many of your problems. This insulation is brought about by emotional indifference to your environment and to people, but it is a spiritual indifference, founded on spiritual detachment and dispassion. When it is present, there comes the fulfilment of obligation and the performance of duty, but no identification with people or circumstance. The soul stands free, unattached, unafraid, and is not controlled by that which exists in the three worlds. This is the true spiritual indifference and—for your own release and for greater usefulness in service—I would have you meditate onindifference, during the coming six months as the method to be followed, in order to produce spiritual insulation. I give you no other theme for meditation and no set form. I would suggest that each morning, when you awaken, that you give five minutes to an intensive consideration of spiritual insulation, after a brief alignment and dedication, and that throughout the day you brood and reflect upon this theme. Then at night, or earlier in the evening if more suitable, use divine indifference as a theme for review.
Will you sometime summarise what you have learnt on "Spiritual insulation through indifference," writing a paper upon the subject for the helping of others? This constitutes my only assignment of work to you.
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Your first ray mental body should definitely aid you in this work, provided you ever bear in mind that insulation does not mean isolation and that indifference does not connote an attitude of cold detached separativeness. Your first ray mental body forms a good cooperating point for your second ray soul and this too would I have you bear in mind. It gives you the strength of will to persist, and it should also give you the strength of will to understand, not only the laws of life, but people and their need of love.
1. Your soul expresses its energy through your mental body.
2. Your personality force is focussed in your astral body.
This year, my brother, should see much growth, for you have learnt and mastered much already.
REVIEW ON INDIFFERENCE
1. What constitutes a review on divine Indifference?
a. Am I confusing it with dispassion, or with a refusal to suffer?
b. Does it signify in my mind separation and consequent pain?
2. Am I capable of seeing myself with indifference, detached emotionally from any event?
a. Can I see mentally, unbiased by any reaction from the emotional personal self?
b. Do I ever do this?
3. If I use this review on indifference as it should be used, what will be the effect in my life?
a. How would this affect the group in which I seek to work?
b. Would this effect be desirable, and do I desire it?
4. Is this review a scientific method of achieving indifference?
a. Have I ever worked in such a scientific way to achieve this quality of discipleship?
b. Do I feel it a desirable thing to try out now?
c. Can I be indifferent in a divine way whilst using it?
5. What are the reasons for any belief that divine indifference is the way for me to tread today?
a. What basis for this do I find in my reading and my studies?
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b. Does my soul lie behind this urge or pressure towards indifference which is brought to bear upon me?
6. Would indifference intensify my capacity for increased usefulness in service?
a. In what way?
b. How does it help my progress on the path?
7. If it is true that the blind must advance by touching, by keeping attached, and by keeping hold; but that those with sight, by seeing and by keeping free and unattached; why then, having sight, do I close my eyes and hold on and feel my way instead of seeing it?
8. Is the mind the organ of vision for the spiritual man? If so,
a. Is my mind an organ of vision?
b. Can I hold my mind "steady in the light" and see life truly and free from any blinding attachments?
9. As I review this day, what part has divine indifference played in it?
a. Have I spoken from the angle of a divinely indifferent viewpoint?
b. Have I practised an indifferent attitude to myself when circumstances arose which threatened my emotional poise?
10. We are told that self-realisation is our immediate goal; in view of this, what do I know about:
a. The indifference of the soul or self to the fragmentary self?
b. The illusion of identification of that self with the little self?
11. Again we are told that there is an archetype, a pattern, a way, a goal, a light upon the Path.
a. Which of these words expresses my personal objective and why?
b. How far is the archetypal pattern reflected in my life?
c. What attachments prevent its full expression?
12. I am the redeemer of my lower nature. Therefore:
a. How much part does divine indifference play in this redemption process?
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b. In which of my three aspects—physical, emotional or mental—is it felt the most?
c. Does redeeming force play through me to others?
13. My nature in truth is love.
a. How can this truly manifest and yet with indifference?
b. Through which body do I most easily express this love ?
c. To what am I the most attached and how can I deal with it?
14. What attitude and qualities will have to be developed in me if I am rightly to practise indifference?
15. What is the objective of such a practice? Can I express it formally to myself?
a. In terms of my three bodies or aspects?
b. In terms of discipleship?
Take each of these questions for two days at a time and give them concentrated thought each month for a year.
February 1939
BROTHER OF MINE:
I would like, first of all, to point out that this newly opened door for service has been earned by you, by your strenuous effort to meet the requirements of your soul and to subordinate your personality to these demands. You have made much progress along this line and will find release and the reward of opportunities to serve in this new development which has come your way. Shoulder it lightly, my brother, remembering that it is your task to set things in motion and to aid others by your poise and your wisdom so that they can carry on. Let not the glamour of time, of sensed need and of feverish activity descend upon you. Your task is to fill the hours of other people with indicated service, which is suggested and outlined by you; it is to meet the needs, one by one, as they arise but not to meet all the need at once. You must build for the immediate future and should engineer those controlled activities which will demonstrate success because they work through from the mental plane, via the world of evoked desire, and so into physical plane manifestation. This process you must demonstrate. Therefore, work through others; this is the way the Hierarchy works, [433] watching and suggesting and developing the innate faculty of prevision—a thing which you can easily do. This faculty is being developed in the race of men through the foresight required in meeting business needs. Train others to do the detailed work and work yourself behind the scenes—as we work.
You have made such a close study and analysis of your rays that there is no need for me to elaborate the theme. You have studied them in the light of your soul and have grasped the peculiar danger inherent in your two first ray personality vehicles. They are a real source of difficulty if not mellowed and motivated by a loving spirit and qualified by that divine indifference, the acquiring of which has been your major lesson this life.
Be of good cheer, brother of mine. You are needed by us.
NOTE: This disciple has never wavered from his determination to work in the Tibetan's group and is there actively engaged.
To P. D. W.
January 1936
MY BROTHER:
With patience you have handled life. Your moments of deep depression (mounting at times in the past almost to crises of despair), are well nigh over. You are becoming more and more immersed in the service of your fellowmen, and are drawing closer to the goal which has been set you.
One of the problems which all sincere disciples have to solve is to learn to live as if the physical body did not exist. By that I mean that its limitations and the hindrances which it imposes upon the expression of the free, spiritual consciousness are negated by an inner attitude of mind. It is the cultivation of a detached attitude to life and to circumstances which has constituted your major lesson in this particular incarnation. You are learning it. With a sense of inner freedom, you must learn to function as a Messenger, despite all handicaps and the demands of a physical vehicle, too frail really to handle the force [434] which must flow through. Some people, my brother, are so constituted that they become servers and centres of light publicly before their fellowmen. Their influence and their power are great. Others work (with equal power) from a quiet centre of relative retirement, and they wield, if I may again repeat myself, an equal force. For them comes the practice of that spiritual discrimination which does not separate, and yet which wisely chooses where the available strength, effort and light must be placed. Put your strength and light behind that of the workers who serve the Hierarchy upon the open battlefield of life. That is my word for you this day. Let the workers and those who wield influence find in you an understanding comrade, and, withal, one who knows. In the heat and pressure of the fight and the fatigue incident to the strain of active service for the Hierarchy, let them feel that in you they have someone to whom they can turn—detached and consecrated. Let them find in you someone whose eyes see clearly because they are not dimmed by the fog and smoke of the outer world battle. Such is your service, and for it I ask on behalf of those who (as time elapses) I shall send to you. Watch for them; recognise them and help them. This I can trust you to do.
I have given some thought to exercises which may aid you and some measured consideration to your meditation work. I have kept you waiting for your personal instructions, because you were capable of carrying on the process of integration alone and unaided, and it is always better so. I have decided to give you no breathing exercises for the space of six months, but I will ask you to do two things: First, lay the emphasis of your attention upon the full moon work. Prepare for the work to be done at that time throughout the entire month, working with deliberation and scientifically each day with the thought in your mind of those five climaxing days of esoteric work each month. Build towards the full moon moment, when, in company with your fellow disciples, you make your "approach" and can be the recipient of certain forces which you must learn to wield. Will you shoulder responsibility in connection with a certain piece of work? You will know to what I refer. Secondly: Follow each day the meditation outlined below, keeping careful record of all that may transpire. At the end of six months, prepare [435] a digest of your spiritual diary and an analysis of progress and of events. This need not be seen by anyone unless you so desire. But keep the diary and analyse results.
The meditation work and thoughts suggested are to preface the group meditation which I would be glad to have you do, along with your group brothers. After due composure and a clearing of the mind in any manner which may be to you familiar and adequate then proceed as indicated....
The following seed thoughts can be used by you in your meditation, if you so desire:
1st month—Joy—Like a bird on the wing, I fly towards the sun. I sing in my soul so that all I meet can hear.
2nd month—Strength—Like an ox that is yoked to its fellow, I carry the load of life. Yet I am not alone. With my brothers and Master, I share the load.
3rd month—Impulse—Like a child that calls forth the love of those around, I too evoke the love of my brothers. That love I render back, unthinking and unattached.
4th month—Power—Like a cistern that gathers and stores that which is needed by man, the water of life that nourishes, I, too, store that which is needed by others. I store not for myself. Power is needed for their work; therefore I gather and store, seeking the source of supply.
5th month—Beauty—Colour is mine. I claim it for my own, for colour and quality are one. Yet I share with my fellows.
6th month—Understanding—Sorrow is mine, but it is the fruitful seed of wisdom. Like a sage, I endure and garner the fruit of wisdom for others.
I add no more to the above outline of meditation. Incorporate the group meditation and any work that you yourself choose to do. Only one thing I ask: At each meditation, pour out love and wisdom on your group brothers, making your link with your soul, with me, and with the group, and regard yourself only as a channel through which help may come. My blessing rests upon you.
[436]
Your rays are as follows:
The egoic ray—ray 2, the Ray of Love-Wisdom.
The personality ray—ray 6, the Ray of Devotion, of Idealism.
In your last life your personality ray was the first, which fact may explain much to you anent your reactions in this life.
November 1936
BROTHER OF MINE:
I am giving you only a short instruction this time. We are often in touch and you are occupied now with fresh adjustments to life. These adjustments are necessary and right, and I do not seek to interfere or to complicate your mind in any way. The past three years have brought to you many changes—some of them in circumstance, environment and in the field of human contacts, but most of them of an interior nature and in the realm of consciousness.
You are entering into a period of intensive work. Two things, however, I would say to you, my brother and my friend, at this time:
1. Guard with care the physical body. You are one of those people who must learn to work through the medium of a frail and delicate physical body and you could greatly hinder its usefulness if you forced it to do too much active external work. It is not capable of much outer physical contact or of rapid and frequent change and of hard work. Guard it well and cherish it with care.
2. Remember that it is not where you are but what you are that matters and which is of importance. From the quiet spot where you have lived and where you can rightly care for the physical body (your instrument of service on the outer plane of life), there can emanate such spiritual force and living wisdom that you can serve a multitude. You can serve them from there without the rough outer contacts that more physically robust workers can endure. Serve from the centre within yourself by pen and thought and interview, but go not out into contact with the world.
[437]
If you can do these two things, there is much that you can accomplish for us and much service that you can render to the Hierarchy which you love and serve, and you can do it over your full period of time. But if you forget these two suggestions, it will not be easy for you to carry on and you will not be able to fulfil your intended task for us with the desired perfection. Your work is along the lines of radiation and interpretation.
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