36. Discipleship in the New Age,Vol. I - 15. SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - PART 9 - ALICE BAILEY

SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - PART 9

February 1936

MY BROTHER:

There has been for you a great stimulation of the entire psychic nature during the past six months, due to the close attention you have rightly given to your personality unfoldment; due also to the strenuousness of the experiences to which that personality has been subjected, and due too to the effect of increased integration and to the psychic atmosphere in which you live. Your residence is in a great psychic centre. This all indicates a step forward, provided you continue to hold with care the attitude of the Observer and do not identify yourself with the phenomena which you experience and may experience in the future. These experiences hold, as well you know, the seeds of danger—the danger of the detail and of the phenomenal happenings seeming of greater importance than of the whole and the formless. For you, however, this was a needed step in the integrating process; the sense of the abstract and the formless was unduly developed in you. You were the true mystic and the spiritual visionary, the idealist and the one whose imagination, love of beauty and the sense of inner reality shut you away from the world of practical life, wherein—for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear—the mystic truth ever lurks in its fullness, the vision of colour and harmony is ever to be found, and the ideal can be seen undergoing the process of materialisation. The blending, merging and fusing of the subjective beauty and the outer beautiful reality is your daily task. Those who, like you, are intuitive, must train themselves to be interpreters. The task of the interpreter of reality and of beauty should increasingly drive you into organised and planned activity.

In this last sentence, I have summed up for you the major task which should occupy you for the remainder of your life—an interpreter of beauty and reality. How this is to be done is for you to decide. I but indicate your goal. As one gets older, the method of active expression has perforce somewhat to alter, and the ways of demonstrating the inner recognitions, and the task, should inevitably change, though growing all the time in potency. This implies no lack of potent achievement, but only the using of a different medium in which to work. Of this I feel the need of reminding you. The goal is intensification of the potent life at the centre; that life must inevitably find its outlets.

You have much to give your group—love, beauty, intuition and harmony. These exist as powers of your soul; they are being (and can be) used more and more. To these also I will add a definite creative ability. As before I told you, the development of a time consciousness which will not limit, but which will serve to conserve and organise the fifth gift of days, hours and minutes (those priceless gifts!) is your immediate need. There is a divine aspect to time.

I would like to see your meditation carried forward more dynamically and with a more instantaneous alignment and its consequent results. Seek during the ensuing months to make your meditation periods short and powerful, remembering that at present their objective is the inner organising of the bodies and not so much the realisation of the unseen. That realisation is for you somewhat easy. Its bringing through into the brain consciousness and its wise use in service is what calls for your attention. I can now alter your meditation form, as you have had the one you are now employing for a year. Some of it I will preserve, but I will radically change part of it....

This may be regarded as a mode of intercessory activity, for intercession is a scientific means of relating the idea, the ideal and its outer expression. Give as much time to this as you like, providing your mental attitude remains dynamic and intense.

November 1936

MY BROTHER:

I have not much to say to you at this time. You are afraid (as a personality) of being unduly influenced and of being subjected to an authority stronger than your own and coming to you from a source that is not that of your own soul. I foresaw your present state of mind when last I wrote to you, and it was the realisation of what that would be that coloured all my instruction. It was this knowledge that prompted me to say, "You have much to give." That which I have to say to you today is as follows:

You are free, my brother. No one is seeking to hold you in this group. No one is seeking in any way to gain authority over you. No one wants you to work or study or to serve, where your own soul does not prompt you to work and to express yourself. But remember that there is no freedom except in making free choice and in serving. The idea of freedom can itself constitute a prison. There are no free souls anywhere, except those who of free choice imprison themselves and find themselves within and by the law of service. You can leave this particular group, but if you are to grow at all, you will find yourself inevitably within some other group for service. You can drop the responsibilities which you shouldered when you joined this group, but you cannot escape the shouldering of other responsibilities. You can pass out of this group of brothers, as far as the outer plane linking is concerned, but you have already established links with them which cannot be broken by any personality activity or line of action, for they are soul links and must at some time be recognised. It is the service, the responsibility, and the group work which counts and lasts; the fluctuations and reactions of any personality can delay, but they cannot negate success.

Basically, fundamentally and essentially, you are pledged to the service of the Plan somewhere, somehow, some day. The fluctuations and indecisions and questionings of your personality do not really matter in the long run and in the light of soul activity, but they do matter in time and space and temporarily, where your band of group brothers are concerned.

So feel free, my brother, but be quite sure that it is not a freedom demanded because group affiliation irks you. The more your soul grips your personality, the less you will be concerned with the problems of isolation and of freedom. Feel free, but be sure that it is not a freedom demanded because the steady discipline of occult training frets a temperament still essentially mystic. The more your soul grips you, the more your mind will awaken, and feeling (in the personal sense) fades out. Feel free, but be sure that it is not a freedom demanded because the sense of failure to organise your time and reduce your personality to rhythmic living hurts your pride. The more your soul grips you, the more assuredly you will learn to use time as a responsibility.

I did say earlier that in all group effort some would have to slow down their progress and others speed it up in order to balance the group life. You say that you have never ceased to question this, and you bring the analogy of light to bear upon the problem. Your analogy is not really in order. I was not speaking in terms of individual light but in terms of group service and group relationship. There are many in the Hierarchy at this time who have refused further opportunity of progress in order to stay with and help the sons of men. The point of development of everybody in the group is not uniform, and this is a fact that you should recognise and which, when recognised, negates the application of your illustration. Your illustration is entirely true, but has no bearing on the subject.

I suggest that you take until next May before coming to your final decision. I have asked a member of another group in my Ashram to do your work in the meantime. I am therefore assigning you no work, and you are regarded as temporarily suspended from the group. I ask naught of you but that you reconsider your decision from the angle of group good and group progress, and from that of your group brothers, and not solely from the angle of what seems best to you yourself and your own comfort, and your own so-called freedom. Infer not from this that I regard your decision as a selfish one. I know what it has cost you. It is, nevertheless, based on feeling, and feeling is seldom a true indication of right action. I seek only to give you the time to think. I would remind you as you seek decision that your soul is on the seventh ray and that you are working through a first ray personality. Hence, my brother, your problem. A mystic of wide consciousness with a powerful personality ray and with a soul vibration in line with the New Age, seeking to impose upon the personality the rhythm of a "ceremonial order and organisation." I would ask you to bear in mind that group work involves sacrifice and oft the doing of that which might not be preferred and which might not—from the personality angle—be the easier way out and the easier activity. The choice, however, rests with you and the thoughts of the group must be kept away from your decision, so that you can make it freely and unhampered. The group must then abide by your decision.

February 1937

Only my love and understanding go out to you at this time, my brother, but not my words or my instruction. Seek the way of selfless service and all is well.

"As birds fly together to summer realms, so souls unite in flight. Passing through the gate they thus alight before the throne of God."

Thus wrote an unknown saint of the Church, who travelled not alone.

NOTE: This disciple decided for a while to travel alone upon the Way as far as affiliation with the Tibetan's group of disciples was concerned. On the inner side, the group remains intact with all its members affiliated, actively or inactively.

To W. D. B.

August 1934

MY FRIEND AND FELLOW-WORKER:

You have had an interlude of disciplining and of adjustment, and this has not been a time of ease. Those of us who look among the ranks of men for those who can be used, have watched the progress of disciplining. These are days wherein disciples of all degrees—great or small, mental or intuitional—have to be tried and, if in any way available, they must be used. Your measure of detachment to those you love and to the results of work was tried out; your intuition was strengthened, and now the work of the next few years must call for your attention.

Two things I seek to point out to you. The first one is that your work now falls into two main departments—one connected with your own inner development, and the other connected with what service you can render in the world. Yet these two are one. The training of the New Age, and the coming technique to use in fitting disciples for their work is through service to achievement, with the emphasis upon the service and not upon the achievement. Your work in the world and your work in my group of disciples is your mode of future inner development. To your group of students you bring what mental power you have, and develop it thereby; to the group you bring your intuitional capacity, and by constant use it also grows. You are thereby led forward, and the group contribution to other groups is deepened.

Your second line of development is service in the world. What line that service must take is for you to know and decide, and the germ of your decision is already in your mind. I give no definite instructions at any time to govern a disciple's service. Not in this way do servers grow.

Three among your fellow-disciples are sannyasins, and you are one of the three. The lesson of your interlude of deepened quiet training was detachment and the unfoldment of right action through the analysis of motive. Through these tests in your deeper Being, and through your response, you placed your feet upon the path of discipleship. This I think you know. I tell you not what you should know for yourself, but it is always permissible to enhance right thought conditions.

There is one of your co-workers (L.U.T.) with whom I specially ask you to make contact. Hold him in your thoughts and correspond with him. He is a warrior, scarred in the struggle, yet who persists, and for him you can do much.

As for yourself, my brother of old, I enjoin on you two things, which are the second point to which I earlier referred in this instruction. I would remind you to ever bear in mind that I but make suggestion, and that suggestion is to be followed only if it meets with your own inner approval and coalesces with your own soul's injunction. Your meditation for a while has been that upon the Light. I seek to give you another meditation, which is simpler, but for you more potent, and which will give you, if followed for the next six months, the needed impetus....

In the coming years, my brother, work with ease and eliminate the consciousness of strain and the sense of pressure. You belong to the work to be done and not to yourself. This is true of all disciples of all degrees, probationary, accepted and initiated. You are needed in the pressure of the coming work, and you must keep the instrument in good condition. When I say you are needed, I mean that old relationship and old joint experience enable you to work in this group with facility and understanding, and that means power in the task to be accomplished.

Study the three words which are your life keynote, and with humility go forward, and thus aid in the breaking of the world illusion.

Your rays, brother of mine, are:

Soul ray—the second Ray of Love-Wisdom

Personality ray—the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict

In a previous life your personality ray was the first Ray of Power, and hence the evidence of power which seizes you at times.

January 1935

BROTHER OF OLD:

It is not my intention today to change your meditation work or to alter my instructions to you. You have worked at them for a relatively brief time and I shall not, therefore, change them until after the Full Moon in May, and in the next half-yearly work. You will gain a fuller idea of the group work and of your group brothers if you will take the time to study with care the instructions given individually to them.

I am not interested in much writing, or in the use of words and phrases which will intrigue the aspirant, or give to him a sense of my keen personal interest. I would not help that way. But I do seek to word these instructions—general and personal—so that they may embody a thought and offer food for mature consideration. The time both of teacher and of taught is today so valuable that there is no need for me to explain a necessary brevity.

I will call to your notice for closer attention the instructions I earlier gave you. Quiet concentration upon the life of the sannyasin and the achieving, therefore, of that inner detachment which is his outstanding characteristic, should be your main thought and control your hidden life during the next six months. With the growth of that detachment, a deeper love and a deepened esoteric expression of that love should normally be developed.

The bringing about of a better alignment would also release more fully the love of your soul into your personality life and render you more radiant and attractive in the spiritual sense. This would increase your usefulness in service and supply a need. It is more a need in expression than a need in fact. This release of love will come through alignment, decentralisation from the things of the personality and a more loving attentiveness to the service of others. Continue, therefore, with the meditation work already given, but dedicate two or three minutes before starting to definite work in order to produce alignment. See to it that, as far as you may, you "stand in spiritual being," that you are one with the soul and that there is a clear channel from soul to brain, via the mind. Then forget the differentiations which are mental in their origin and useful in their right place, and do your work as a soul. Work at establishing a close rapport with your group brothers. You are new in the work but are integrating into the group life rapidly and have much to give.

August 1935

MY BROTHER:

We will today somewhat change your meditation work, as the visualisation exercise has done much of its work in stimulating the ajna centre and in focussing your mind more firmly in the head. I have watched the result with attention. The past six months have brought to you three things:

First, much strain, both in connection with your own immediate circle, with the work in your environment, and also in connection with your own inner reactions. I think you will know to which of these latter I specifically refer.

Second, there has been for you an increased field of contact and of service, carrying with it the consequent tests and new opportunities to aid and help. This expansion should continue and should evidence a growing sensitivity on your part to world need.

Third, you are conscious (are you not, my brother?) of a fresh source of illumination and inspiration and that the past year has greatly strengthened your realisation.

Speaking symbolically, the Path of Discipleship is now real to you; the hitherto dim and distant portals of the Golden Gate which lie ahead are not so dim and distant. Their outline is more clear and the "sound which issues forth" conveys now somewhat to your inner sense of hearing.

You are, as I believe I earlier told you, a pledged sannyasin. That carries with it joy, but responsibility; discipline but realised gain. The work to be done by a sannyasin lies ever in the realm of increasing realisation. He has to become aware and conscious of each step that he takes and its result, of each motive that impels and its effect, and of each objective gained and its consequence. The fruits of discipline have to be clearly understood by him without any attachment to the results of the work. This alert awareness must be fostered by you, my brother. A condition of increased sensitivity in yourself to yourself and to others must be increasingly developed. A conscious approach to the goal must be induced in you so that you are ever aware of contact in two directions: you are aware of the inner subjective life and also aware of the outer objective world; this must be undertaken and developed by you as a synthetic, dual activity. Ponder on this.

Before indicating your meditation work for the next few months, I would suggest (forget not that it is only suggestions that I ever make) that you give the next six months to close consideration of your effect as a worker upon those you seek to help. This is a very valuable exercise for all disciples and involves a self-discipline but little emphasised in the usual books on discipleship. The impact of ray force upon people embodying differing aspects of ray energy will be one of the coming developments in the field of esoteric psychology; you would find it of interest to watch the impact of your second and fourth ray energy upon people, and also of that first ray power which you brought over from a previous incarnation. In this way you will learn the easy way to serve, for it will be that which will evoke the least resistance from those you serve, and you will not have to undo or rebuild; you will also take the first steps in becoming proficient in the science of force.

Now let me give you a simple breathing exercise which has for its main objective the increase of the potency of the heart centre. Remember that the evocation of the rhythm of the heart centre is demonstrated in the early stages by an increasing understanding of individuals and a growing awareness of group problems. Later it produces definite group consciousness and awareness of the Plan. Should you like to keep up the visualisation exercise which you have been doing, you are quite at liberty to do so but do it at another period during the day....

You will note that most of the work I have given you here links the three aspects of your thought life—the creative imagination, the mind and the intuition—and it is the bringing about of this synthetic linking which is my present objective with you. Bear this in mind and learn first of all to discriminate between these three; then to use them sequentially with facility and finally to use them simultaneously. This is not an easy task which I have set you, my brother.

May I ask you to write three short papers on these three thoughts which I gave you for the unfoldment of the intuition, so that others may benefit thereby?

February 1936

MY FRIEND AND BROTHER:

The discipline which always accompanies the accepted disciple for work in the field of the world has been yours most definitely since I last communicated with you. Because you are a disciple, that discipline has taken hold of all aspects of the lower self (the human self) at one and the same time. Those who are not disciples may be exercised in one or another of the lower bodies. A disciple, however, is exercised in all three simultaneously, that is, in the personality as a whole. For you, therefore, there has been renewed physical disability, emotional stress (of two kinds, is it not so, my brother?) and mental difficulty and strain. This latter has been the worst and is partly responsible (though not entirely so) for the other two.

The lessons to be learnt by all disciples (before they can work with power in the world) might be expressed as the need to gain discrimination between

1. Primary principles and secondary principles, or between two rights:

a. A greater and a lesser right.

b. That which is right for you but which may not be right for others.

2. Between one's personal dharma, obligation and individual duties and one's group responsibilities and relationships.

3. Between the needs which group work evidences and demands and those of the individual.

4. Between essentials and non-essentials.

So the task is hard, my brother, and the problems have—as you well know—to be solved alone. There are phases of inner experience upon which no one may intrude, not even the interested and sympathetic teacher, or the Master Himself. Should they so intrude, the richness of the possible experience remains unattained. For you, the keynote to your essential emergence, radiant and free, is silence and patience and not too great a use of the analytical mind. Love reveals far more clearly and definitely (in your case) than analysis. Within the limits of your own horizon, you see clearly. Within the limits of your range of contacts, you must love deeply, and upon loving deeply must your emphasis be set.

For you, as for all your group brothers, must come concentration upon the work of preparation for the Wesak Festival. Pure channels and released minds are the major requirement at this time, and I call you all to a preparatory purification and mental discipline. It is the growing inner momentum of aspiration and devotion and the increasing "lucidity" of the mind which must constitute the goal for all of you during the next few months, for it is the demand of the disciples of the world which will bring in that which the world needs, and the intensification of light in which the real light can be seen. There is occult power in the words: "And in that light shall we see light." The light of the disciples of the world is sorely needed at this time by the Hierarchy. Yes, needed, my brother.

During the next few weeks, I would suggest that you concentrate upon "holding the mind steady in the light." This will involve renewed work in alignment, and in the conscious refocussing of the mind towards reality. It is the activity of the inner, conscious man which ceaselessly turns its attention to the soul, seeking identification with that soul. The alignment usually carried forward is that of the personality with the soul. This you have largely achieved and the result is that of the calling in of the power which flows from the outer petals of the egoic lotus (speaking symbolically), the knowledge petals, to the brain. It is the energy of the second tier of petals which must now be evoked—those of love-wisdom. It is the inflow of this energy to the personality which I seek to evoke, and which must be the objective of your attention during the coming months. You have knowledge, my brother, and your spiritual experience is rich. Let this demonstrate now as wisdom, expressing love.

To this end I will outline to you the following suggested meditation, upon which you can work, unless I see fit to change it later....

Will you also, my brother, write down what may come to you concerning "radiation" and concerning "magnetic service"? These two papers will constitute your individual offering to your group brothers. Should you not have the strength and time for both this and the group work outlined by me earlier, then choose the elucidation of these two words—Radiation and Magnetism—in preference to the group work.

August 1936

MY BROTHER:

It is difficult for me to know just what to say to you at this difficult half year period. The past few months have been times of difficulty to you, but they have nevertheless been times of real growth, even if you yourself sense it not. Yet, regarding yourself as a member of your group you have offered but little to the united group life of your brothers. This may perhaps be somewhat due to a misconception as to the true significance of my purpose. It is so difficult for a person who has sixth ray qualities predominantly present (either as the result of this life's direction, or as carried over as predisposing influences from another life, as is your case), to realise the one-pointedintention (using this word in the sense in which the Catholic uses it) of a group. One's own point of view, one's own dharma, one's own problems and one's own unfoldment are followed so one-pointedly and—complicating the difficulty—with such truly right and high motives. When to this is added an intensely critical mind, the problem is doubly hard. But, brother of old, your intense inner loyalty to truth, your truly developed selflessness, your strong link with the Hierarchy as a pledged disciple, and your clearsightedness are contributions to the group life of such value, that I ask you today to attempt to reintegrate yourself into the group in a true and selfless manner.

This particular group of my disciples has the problem of arriving at an understanding of glamour—a glamour in which all human beings move who are as yet below the grade of an initiate of the third degree. The tests, therefore, to which the group members have been subjected, have been many and great, and several times the life of the group as a unit has been nearly wrecked. I.B.S. could tell you much, were she to speak with you face to face, of the time when it seemed well nigh impossible to save the group life. L.T.S-K. realises today how glamour has him in its clutches, yet sees not the point of entrance. D.A.O., too, as you will see from her correspondence, is bewildered—though she realises it not, and would deny the implication—by the glamour of independence. And yet the group goes on and will go on, as long as the spirit of love continues to prevail among the members and there is freedom from truly selfish purposes.

Part of the great temptation of our Master, the Christ, in the wilderness was based upon the three aspects of the world glamour—illusion, glamour and maya. These all threatened to bewilder Him and He met each of them in turn with the enunciation of a clear-cut principle, and not with the wordy arguments of an analytical brain. From that field of victory, He went forth to love, to teach and to heal. In these days of world pain, let love and joy equally be the keynotes of your life —as a group and as individuals—for they carry the healing vibration of the Hierarchy.

I change not your work. I have little, my brother, to say to you today. You have not done the work earlier assigned. Why, therefore, should I assign more or different work? That earlier given is still needed. Think less and love more. This is the keynote for you during the coming six months. Then light will be released and will shine upon your way. Consider the welfare of the group by becoming an integrated part within it. You will naturally demand: "How can I do this? Questions and problems of various kinds fill my mind, and how—troubled as I am—can I be of service to the group?" With most aspirants, the need is to train them to think and reflect, to ponder and to analyse, but you do these with a rare facility. Frequently you analyse yourself into a cul-de-sac. Is it not so, my brother? There is no way out of that cul-de-sac for you except by rising; you cannot go back, for retrogression is not the way of the disciple. But you can rise on the wings of love and the motive of service into the freedom and the light where the Great Ones walk and live and work.

In the assigned meditation given in the last series of instructions, I give you the following to incorporate:

1st month—Orientation.

2nd month—Lucidity. Clarity.

3rd month—The Peace which passeth understanding.

4th month—Integration.

5th month—Group Life.

6th month—The radiant Way.

We shall otherwise leave your work to be completed, if you so will.

February 1937

MY BROTHER:

You have been so personal, my brother. You have insulated yourself behind a wall of silence, and cannot be reached. The karmic opportunity was offered you, but you recognised it not. My definition of the type of glamour from which you suffer with facility drove you behind this wall in hurt pride and resentment that your brothers should know your weaknesses. My brother, this should not be. It is all a part of the environing illusion. What matters it if each knows the weaknesses of his brother on the Path, and if all are aware of an individual's frailty? Are you yet so imperfect and are you yet so unloving that knowledge need evoke criticism and resentment, instead of love and understanding? This you could not face and hence your retreat. Thus, you work out your problems in solitude away from your esoteric group which you will again find at a later date, though probably—not inevitably—in another life. Who can set a pace to a soul's destiny?

NOTE: The above statement by the Tibetan will explain why—for the rest of this incarnation—this disciple is not working in His Ashram.

To D. L. R.

July 1934

MY BROTHER AND FRIEND:

I am asking you to work in this group of students and aspirants for two reasons: First of all, because, through this technique of instructions, you can receive some aid in the treading of the Path if you choose to avail yourself of what I may have to offer, and secondly, because your particular type of mind and your trained experience will give to this group that balancing factor and that patient stability which it needs.

The group has passed through a crisis as a group. Certain of its members have likewise had peculiar testing and difficulties. These they have surmounted and from them they are learning the needed lesson. The subjective potency of what you have to give will help—if I may so express it—to bring the whole group up to par, and enable me more rapidly to integrate it, and fit it for an instrument for service. I begin this communication by stating this clearly, as the service you can render is to you of more value than the service that can be rendered to you. But the group and the training to which it subjects itself can give you much if you will try out the work for a year or so.

No attempt is made authoritatively to impose restrictions on the students and their work, and all can cease from the endeavour at any time. A third reason for my putting you into this group is to put you in touch subjectively, as well as on the physical plane, with D.H.B. as he and you make good travelling companions. This is but a suggestion and a hope to be tested out by both of you, if you so will.

You have passed through one of those periods of quiet and of controlled inner growth which from time to time is part of the training of the disciple upon the Path. Now the fruit of that subjective experience, known only to you and to those who guide and watch the footsteps of all aspirants, must work out in exoteric service, rendered progressively on each of the three planes until it emerges into fruitful action on the physical plane. Bear this in mind as you attempt to work with this group of my disciples; make your mental rapport first, then your astral contact and leave the physical plane expression to take care of itself, for the lines it will take will depend upon the inner continuity of contact, and upon your sensitive subjective realisation. This will take time, my brother. But there is no hurry in the realm of the soul.

The meditation work to be done by you should be for a while dynamically extroverted. I use these two words because they express the process to be followed by you for the next few months. Should you care to do so, I would suggest the following breathing exercise, to be followed by the meditation process below. All the work done should be controlled by the consciousness, centred and held steady in the head....

We will, at this time, refrain from using the highest head centre in the breathing exercise, beyond recognising it as the point from which you are working. The objective of this exercise is to integrate the three centres above the diaphragm, and so make the personality more magnetic, and more definitely responsive to the radiation of the soul.

For your meditation work I suggest the following procedure:

1. First of all, do the breathing exercise, outlined above.

2. Then, focussing the consciousness as high in the head as possible, sound the Sacred Word.

3. Then do the following brief and intensive visualisation exercise:

a. Imagine a path of golden light, leading from where you stand to a vast two-leaved door.

b. Then see, rolling along this path a disk or wheel of rose, which you send forth and which eventually disappears through the door.

c. Then send along the same track a disk of vivid green, and follow it by a disk of golden yellow, both of which disappear the same way.

d. Then send a disk or wheel of a radiant, electric blue, which rolls along the golden Path but which does not enter through the door but remains there, hiding the door from sight.

e. Picture then yourself as standing before the electric blue disk, having traversed the golden path and there meditating upon the following words:

"I am the Way myself, the door am I. I am the golden Path and in the light of my own light I tread the Way: I enter through the door. I turn and radiate."

4. You can then carry forward your own meditation, though refraining from any use of mantrams and from visualisation exercises other than those indicated above by me.

5. Sound the Sacred Word again, breathing it out upon the world from the highest point in your consciousness that seems to you possible.

Attempt this meditation once a day for the next few months as it will form the basis of the meditation which I can later give you.

January 1935

BROTHER OF ANCIENT DAYS:

I can indicate to you the line of activity by which you can best aid in this group activity, and this is the development of telepathic rapport. It was for that latent capacity in you that you were originally asked to be a member of the initial group of disciples. Though your karma and circumstances at that time temporarily militated against that happening (and your action then was entirely right) that in no way negates your latent capacity. I am pointing this out as I would like you—if you will—to work towards establishing a telepathic rapport with the group, beginning with D.H.B. and D.A.O. Seek to contact them in this way and get into touch with them on the matter. By so doing you will help in establishing a group interplay and integrity which is one of the main objectives before all groups of disciples. When all are formed, then a member will be chosen from each of the groups to form another group whose work will be to preserve a group interplay between the groups. If you can give five minutes each day to an effort to get into touch with these two, you will find success at the end of the way. You will probably find (as you are a first ray soul) that you can make an impression upon their minds more easily than they can impress yours, but your fifth ray personality will offset some of this, as you function more easily on the mental plane than on the astral on account of your ray polarisation.

Continue with the breathing exercise as outlined in my last instruction. I seek to make no change in this. You have only done it for a few months and the rhythm of the work must be definitely established so that it becomes automatic, thereby permitting freedom of thought within the limits of the work. I will, however, change your meditation outline in the following particulars:

1. The breathing exercise.

2. The sounding of the A.U.M.

3. See before your mind's eye the same two-leaved door, standing wide open. Through it you see a radiant sun of golden light.

4. Instead of sending forth the disks of coloured light, visualise yourself as standing before this open door.

5. Then say: "May the energy of the divine self inspire me," and feel your entire nature vitalised by the spiritual energy, pouring through the open door upon you and through you.

6. Next say: "May the light of the soul direct," and visualise that light pouring upon your daily path. Bring into that light your group problems which you may have to solve and face, and face them and handle them in the light.

7. Finish the rest of the invocation, saying the words with all the power of your soul behind them. Add the mantram I earlier gave you:

"I am the Way myself, the door am I. I am the golden Path and in the light of my own light I tread that Way. I enter through the door. I turn and radiate the light."

8. Sound the A.U.M. as before.

Let not the things of the personality upset in any way your equilibrium, my brother. Preserve as heretofore that inner silence that guards the secrets of the soul, and the way your soul has indicated—the way that you should go. Detachment from the thoughts of others and steadfast radiation hold for you the secret of your ultimate liberation.

August 1935

BROTHER OF MINE:

I seek to give you some personal work to do in connection with me that will not be easy. You have ever been interested in that inner subjective work which might be called telepathic clairvoyance. This work you would have done had it been possible for you to work with my first planned group. Would you care to work with me, my brother, along this line for a while? I have placed in your "way of vision" in meditation (a phrase which perhaps means little to you but which nevertheless embodies an existent fact) two symbols which I seek to have you contact as a training in inner sensitivity. See if you can contact them and the word for which they stand. This work will form part of your meditation.

1. Achieve a sense of inner poise and quiet, yet at the same time, hold a positive attentiveness to the establishing of a contact with me. Seek to sense my aura and to tune in on my group, of which you are a part.

2. Then register what seems to appear to you, and any word connected with the registered symbolic form which may emerge in your consciousness. Try to contact the first symbol in the first three months, and the second in the last three. Record each day what you feel you contact and summarise your results. Be not unduly anxious.

3. Sound the Word, the O.M. three times; once for your group brothers, then for your immediate circle of family and friends, and finally for the group of students which you are training for me. Realise that as you do this two things happen: First, that you are vitalising them, and secondly, that you are establishing links whereby you can reach them and the group life can flow.

4. Say the mantram of the Disciples' Degree: "May the energy of the divine self inspire me and the light of the soul direct. May I be led from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real, from death to immortality."

5. Proceed with your meditation as you yourself shall choose but do not give more than ten minutes to this period.

6. Then do the breathing exercise as hitherto, but place it this time at the end of your meditation for this will set in motion the energies which you may have succeeded in contacting.

It will be obvious to you that I am seeking to establish a closer link between yourself and the group on the inner planes of which I am the focal point. This I am definitely endeavouring to do. With this in mind, carry forward your spiritual life during the next six months and integrate yourself more closely and consciously into this group of mine on the inner planes. Of this group, your co-disciples are a part. Have ever in your consciousness the fact of the group, the purpose of group service at this time, and the intention that should underlie the life pattern of every disciple—that the Plan must be served.

I have but little more to say to you now, except that I desire deeply that you may emerge into greater freedom of life and expression and liberate yourself from any chains which may hold you back from the life of full and loving service—I speak of inner habits of thought and not of any external responsibilities and contacts.

February 1936

MY BROTHER OF OLDEN TIMES:

I seek today to emphasise to you the need to recognise and re-interpret your inner life pattern, or, in other words, the inner programme which your soul undertook to follow when you first set your foot upon the Path of Accepted Discipleship. This you did two or three lives ago and you have followed this path slowly and with caution. There is now, however, need for a more dynamic following of your soul purpose and a definite negating of all the impediments which seek at this time to obstruct your progress. I would call your attention to the fact that I do not here refer to outer relationships and contacts. They exist and have their purpose and, as you well know, all right responsibilities must always be met by disciples. I refer to that inner, active, spiritual life which you should increasingly cultivate, and to that dual activity which every disciple has to follow simultaneously. This dual life embraces the world of inner relationships and of recognised subjective attitudes, but it also embraces the life of outer service and of those relationships which you have assumed as your physical plane dharma. Clear vision as to these outer relations in the world of professional activity, of friendships and of family relations is a necessary requirement in treading the Path, and until a disciple sees these relations in their true and right proportions, his mind is frequently disturbed and his service handicapped. I give you here a hint. Every link that one makes on earth does not necessarily entail the recognition of a soul link. We make new and fresh links and start new lines of karma and of dharma. One of the first things that a disciple has to learn is right judgment as to the relative soul age of his associates. He soon discovers that these vary. He learns then to recognise those whose wisdom and knowledge surpass his own, to cooperate with those who stand with him upon the Path and to work for those whom he can help, but whose evolutionary status is not on an equality with his own. The ordered pattern of his life can then take on definite forms and he can begin to work with intelligence.

These points you need to study, remembering that truth and clear vision are of greater value than blind loyalty and curtailed understanding. When grasped, they lead to increased happiness and to power in all relationships. A right sense of proportion does not necessarily involve criticism.

I seek to change your work and meditation considerably this next half year. My objective in so doing is twofold: I seek to see you bring about a more rapid alignment and a more dynamic intensification of your life of aspiration. Your mental polarisation is good and your work in the world greatly aids you in this respect. Its integration with the life of feeling could be stronger and more dynamic, and for this we will work for a little while. I seek, secondly, to aid you to be more sensitive to the forces which should pour in on the world during the month of May if the world disciples measure up to their opportunity.

Continue with the breathing exercises as heretofore. Then meditate as follows:

1. Focus the consciousness as high in the head as possible.

2. Sound the O.M. three times inaudibly and, with the power of the creative imagination,

a. See the physical body dedicating itself to the service of the soul.

b. Retreat still further inward as you sound the O.M. and visualise the emotional nature pouring itself forth in aspiration towards the service of humanity.

c. Retreat still higher and still more inwardly and dedicate the mind principle to the service of the Plan.

3. Then, holding the consciousness on this high plane, seek to lift your consciousness higher still and, by a definite act of the will, see three things occur: complete alignment, definite integration with the personality, and the dynamic focussing of your consciousness in the soul.

4. Then sound the word audibly, but sound it this time as the soul, breathing forth light, understanding, and love into the waiting, attentive, integrated personality.

Make this a dynamic, quick and conscious activity.

5. Attempt then, as a soul, to link up with your co-disciples. Having done this, seek then to see the symbol which blazes forth from the brow of each of them. Each symbol is different. Endeavour to see these symbols by definitely linking up with and pouring out love to your brothers. Note down each day the symbol that seems to you to be related to them.

6. Having done this, repeat rapidly the process of alignment given in points 1, 2, 3, and then sink back into the stage of contemplation, holding it as long as you can. Assume imaginatively (if you cannot in reality) the attitude of a soul as it lives the life of contemplation in its own world, and endeavour then to see in connection with the following monthly themes what the soul sees and knows.

1st month—The nature of contemplation.

2nd month—The necessity for integration.

3rd month—The technique of alignment.

4th month—The inspiration of the personality.

5th month—Association with the hierarchical endeavour.

6th month—The service of the Plan.

7. Insert here what intercessory work you seek to do.

8. Sound the O.M.

For your own personal work I would ask you to write one paragraph which will embody your highest thought concerning the six themes which I have given above for contemplation.