82. ALICE BAILEY - Discipleship in the New Age,Vol. II - 23. SECTION FOUR - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - PART 2

SECTION FOUR - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO 

DISCIPLES - PART 2

In my last communication to you I stated that "love is thy note and wisdom is thy guide. You need naught else but fire." That fire, my brother, is the residue of the pure fire which is left when you have trodden upon and passed the burning ground, through the Portal into the Presence. That you have done. The fire is there, and on it you can count if you seek to destroy opposition, to burn down barriers (inherent in yourself or presented by others), and also to blaze a trail straight from your heart into the heart of others....

I stand by you, my brother, unalterably and at all times, and on this you can count. Such is also the wish of K.H., my Brother and also my Master, and on that you can also count. I am giving you no set form of meditation. Reflection and deep, considered concentration upon the work which I have outlined to you, and which your Master wants to see you do, is for you adequate spiritual focussing. The deep love of all your group brothers is yours, and many, many people are today sending love to you and many, many minds are thinking of you with thoughts of gratitude, of strength, of faith and hope. On this too you must count. The path of a world Saviour is, as you know, a hard one, but of compensations which far outweigh the difficulty. My blessing is yours and my hand is ever stretched out to you in helping.

November 1944

It is not my intention, my beloved brother, to give you any personal instructions at this time. Those given you during the past three years still need consideration, assimilation and factual demonstration. I simply take, at this time, those needed inner steps which are permitted to the Master of any Ashram in order to draw you into a very close relation to myself and to the group. Such a definite and close relation [467] produces healing and strengthening; it also permits of such a clear vision that the picture unfolds as a unity and the past is seen freed from karma. This sentence may mean much to you, if subjected to the inner insight, or it may mean little. It is, however, of major significance to you personally, and to no one else in this group.

In your question, my brother (about the nature and the function of the counterparts in the head of the various chakras, and how to bring about a better adjustment between the heart centre and its counterpart in the head), you have voiced an exceedingly esoteric inquiry, and one that will warrant the most careful consideration and phrasing on my part. The reason for this is that as yet little is known (even in the esoterically instructed East) in regard to the head centre. This profound ignorance has not been realised, even by advanced students. The thousand-petalled lotus remains a secret, or closed mystery. Though much has been given out in connection with the heart centre, little has been communicated in connection with the head centre. The reason that more is known about the heart centre is due to its being the centre awakened by the highest initiation in Atlantean times. In our Aryan race the head centre is the objective of all stimulation—even the stimulation of the other centres being noted in relation to the effect upon the head centre. The race as a whole, however, is only just beginning to be ready for this awakening. Hence the complete silence hitherto held upon this subject.

Adeptship was achieved in the Atlantean race when the heart centre was alive and its twelve petals unfolded. The fourth initiation, which confers the status of adeptship, produced the mystic realisation, the unfoldment of the lotus of the heart and the deep conviction of the pairs of opposites, yet at the same time the knowledge that the phenomenal reality and the spiritual reality were one and the same reality. Thus the Atlantean attainment established in the consciousness of its adepts, through initiation, the duality of all creation.

The Aryan unfoldment will produce occult identification, the development of the head centre, and the realisation of[468] unity. "I and the Father are One." This constituted the real achievement of the Christ, Who was the first of our humanity to achieve the complete realisation. This point is of vital interest. Our present Masters of the Wisdom have also entered into this same recognition. The distinction between Them and the Christ is that He added to this realisation the capacity to be a channel, pure and undefiled by any form of self-identification, for a cosmic principle—that of Love. Only those Masters, however, Who reached adeptship in Atlantean times are dowered with this occult unfoldment. Disciples are apt to forget that the Masters Themselves are at various stages upon the path of Their peculiar evolution.

You will see, therefore, that the establishing of the significance of the counterparts in the head to the heart centre, for instance, involves one of the great mysteries to be revealed at a certain high initiation. In the next great race, which succeeds upon this one, the goal will be—above everything else—a dual one. It will be:

1. The conscious unity of the lower centres by means of a great awakening of the solar plexus centre. This next race will be buddhic or intuitional, and therefore will embody, as a higher expression upon the turning spiral, the higher mystery of the astral unfoldment in ancient Atlantis. It will vision forth the higher correspondence of that achievement. This consummating development will mark its fourth initiation, and will demonstrate the transmutation of the astral life into the buddhic consciousness.

2. The carrying of all this mobilised energy to the heart centre at the fifth initiation for group purposes, and the achieving of this in full waking consciousness.

In the final race the process will be repeated on a still higher spiral, and all that concerns the higher centre will be unfolded and occultly consummated, again through the medium of two stages:

1. Wherein the massed energies of the solar plexus (the [469] great clearing house) and the heart and throat will be carried—at the third initiation—to the ajna centre, and the complete racial "transfiguration" will take place.

2. The process will then be carried forward and at the fourth initiation the energies will be centralised in the head centre.

This will lead to a happening of such esoteric significance that I cannot express even its dimmest meaning to you because I myself do not know. It lies too far ahead, even for all Who are the Masters of the Wisdom at this time. Only the Christ and the Buddha begin dimly to sense its meaning.

Therefore I cannot answer your question because until the head centre is somewhat more awakened my explanation would be meaningless. All I dare say is that by the use of creative imagination, by a constant application to the way of the head, and constant group activity, with an increasing capacity to be detached, and therefore not so potently identified with the individual consciousness, you yourself can perhaps get a faint glimmer of light as to that vibrant reality of which the heart is the reflection.

One thing I can add. As I told you before, the activity of the heart centre never demonstrates in connection with individuals. This is a basic fact. What devastates most disciples is the solar plexus ability (when purified and consecrated) to identify itself with individuals. The heart centre cannot react, except under group impetus, group happiness or unhappiness, and other group relations. This may give you a needed hint. It is a subject which you will do well deeply to consider, and to discuss with A.A.B. who—like yourself—is also on the difficult path of teaching and of world salvage.

August 1946

MY BELOVED BROTHER:

You will have, by now, read and absorbed the papers and communications which have been held for you until the close [470] of the war and the attainment of physical safety for you. There has been no great need for me to express myself on the situation which has existed, for the closeness of the link between the Master K.H., myself and you ensures understanding and precludes waste of time.

You have come through a period of great difficulty and danger with no loss of your spiritual grip upon essential reality or of your spiritual vision; your strength has been such that you have lifted your family with you and safeguarded them also all the time. Having achieved one pinnacle of spiritual success, another can be glimpsed, and between the two pinnacles lies a field of service, a sphere of danger, a land of glamour and deep morasses through which you must struggle, until the point of attainment planned by your soul for this life is yours. You can achieve, and for your aiding, I and A.A.B. stand ready.

A debate arose between your Master (K.H.) and myself. You had been sent (or loaned if I might call it so) to aid in my Ashram. We discussed the subject as to whether the sufferings of the past few years did not warrant your return to the Ashram of K.H.; the work there would be hard but not of the same kind, and there would not be so much need for contact work on the physical plane. I claimed that you were strong enough for the dual test; K.H. felt that you probably were, but that there was no need to ask a disciple always to drink the cup of sacrifice to its very last drop—not at least until the crucifixion initiation is your right. The task today proffered you, and its incidental strain and suffering, will be of another kind and the pain endured will be largely mental, but "you can take it," as the saying is. It was decided to let you attempt the task demanded for three years or for seven (according to your own choice) and then, if you decide to do no more along the indicated lines, you can relinquish the task ... with no sense of failure. This work can be undertaken only by people who, like yourself, repudiate without any difficulty all separative attitudes and who ever act and think in terms of the one humanity and with inclusive love. You, my brother, meet all these requirements.... This work is most definitely part of my work ... and I shall be in touch [471] with you at frequent intervals. On that statement you can emphatically rely.

Your meditation work must keep pace with your vision. I suggest that you follow the simple outline which I call "The Pinnacles," and give much time for quiet thought and for impression. Know that guidance will be given—given step by step as needed. My love enfolds you, and the way into my Ashram stands open wide for you.

November 1948

MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND:

It is two years since I last communicated with you, via A.A.B., and they have been years of great stress and strain for you. Every disciple in these troubled times carries three kinds of stress; no, my brother, I would say the major stresses are of four kinds:

1. There are the stresses and the strains incident to the disciple's family life or his immediate daily relationships, and of these you have had your full share.

2. There are stresses and strains due to the deep interior life of soul relation; these bring with them their own unique difficulties which can be shared with no one (except the Master, when the disciple has reached the point of unfoldment which you have now reached), and yet which bring about a life of inner tension which can lead inevitably to the next point of revelation.

3. There are the problems and circumstances which arise out of the period in which our modern humanity lives; these today are unique and of disturbing importance; they involve the balancing of values which is going on in every department of human living and which evokes in the disciple an almost unendurable pain and anxiety.

4. There are also peculiar complications and tests which have their origin in ashramic relationships which the disciple realises through his contact with the Ashram. [472] These are the result of his attempt to lift the burden of humanity and the measure of his understanding of the Plan, in unison with the entire Hierarchy. This produces an inevitable crisis and constitutes a load which—when added to the other three spheres of difficulty—often make the disciple feel that his cross (his vertical and his horizontal life) is more than he can bear. The Fixed Cross becomes a reality, and he begins to learn its true meaning.

All these four types of difficulties are further enhanced when you consider the fact that they are felt in all three aspects of the disciple's personality simultaneously. There is a reaction in his etheric body, in his emotional vehicle and in his mind. This makes what is sometimes called the "seven divine sorrows"; these are symbolically and most inaccurately depicted in the Christian discipline as the seven stations of the Cross. As I told you elsewhere ^[xix]* "from the standpoint of Christian symbolism (even though the interpretation is as yet inadequate) these seven crises correspond to the seven stations of the Cross which mark the way of an advancing world Saviour." Here again you have the four and the three brought together in a synthesis of service, of discipline and of unfoldment.

All these factors have been active in your life, my brother and co-disciple. I would like to commend you on one point. You have proceeded with your Ashram work, your thinking and your service in spite of all that has been going on. This has been noted by us and it is for this quality of spiritual stability that we watch. The field of your work remains the same; it is part of your karmic obligation which may not be avoided, but the mode of work and the nature of the work which should be done will have to be altered for reasons which I am confident you will understand....

I have, as you will have noted, said little to you about yourself and your own spiritual development. The war taught many disciples that it is in serving and in thinking through that true wisdom comes; they came to realise that in [473]enlightening others the radiance of the glory of God can be revealed. This you have learned and from henceforth you enter in a new stage of discipleship and can be regarded as one who can teach himself.

The work outlined for you will require only one discipline for you and that is a hard one. It is the drastic organising of your time, irrespective of personality claims, or the hindrances of an etheric body which is too loosely knit, and a sensitivity which makes life very hard for you. The great need of the service which you can render and the desperate task involved in the reorganisation of your time and plans will do much to offset the above difficulties and—in time—to cure them. You do not, my brother, belong to your family any more. You belong to humanity—a lesson which A.A.B. had much difficulty in learning.

I give you no meditation to follow. You may feel it necessary to make certain changes in the one you are now doing; feel free to change where you deem it desirable and seek constantly and daily a closer contact with your Master and with mine—the Master K.H.

Daily I look towards you, brother of mine, and that is no idle statement on my part. Rest back on my understanding and call on me at need. Develop telepathic sensitivity to my voice—as I have developed it to yours.

To R. A. J.

August 1940

MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND:

For you, as for all disciples at this time of world crisis, life has been exceedingly difficult. This is not a platitudinous truism—in spite of A.A.B. remarking sub rosa that it was. She knows me so well that for years her comments have proved a source of amusement to me and sometimes have proved most helpful in aiding me to understand the occidental mind. I am an Oriental of the fourth root race and although I have had two European incarnations I still at times fail to grasp or understand the occidental reaction. But the [474] remark above is not simply fatuous, but contains in it the clue to your future. Your difficulties at this time stem largely from others more than from yourself; they are instructive more than karmic.

You have led a useful and fruitful life; there is still much for you to do which will enable you to lay the finger of love upon the hearts and lives of others; as you do so, you relate them to yourself and bring them under "the eye's direction." The larger, wider work of a disciple has not, however, been yours this life. Your task has been preparatory to this, and—if you will carry this realisation in mind for the remainder of this incarnation—you will pass on into a life cycle which will reveal to you the path which, as an initiate, you are choosing to tread.

In this connection, forget not, brother of mine, that the teaching ray conditions you and that there is a major difference between teaching as a human being, no matter how good, and teaching as an initiate; it is as a pledged disciple that you will learn this basic distinction. It will also have a definite effect upon your life.

This thought gives me the chance to point out to you (and incidentally to your group brothers) that many disciples today—who, like yourself, are not engaged in any spectacular world work—are engaged in establishing those contacts, here, there and everywhere, which will form the nucleus of that group of aspirants and of younger disciples which every senior disciple and initiate automatically gathers around him. He does not, in any particular incarnation, go out into the world and say: "I will gather a group which will form my future ashram." If he does this, he will fail; if, however, he seeks to aid spiritually and to stimulate divinely those whom he meets in his daily round of duty, that tells a different tale. No one is then unimportant. Deliberately, he gathers people to him because he steadily loves and helps. Some of these may be just passing by to other goals, and with them he has no permanent link; others send out to him a responsive thread of understanding and request and—as his intuition develops—he recognises them as his own; he esoterically "intertwines [Page 475] the thread of his life with theirs," thereby assuming responsibility and forming a more permanent link, both in response and in karmic relationship. Both become indissolubly linked.

You have touched many lives in your lifework as teacher, and you know and understand in some measure those who have responded to you—to you as an individual and as someone to whom they can look for some measure of understanding. For the remainder of your life, I would ask you to have these thoughts in mind and begin to lay a planned foundation for the future. This is my definite work instruction for you at this time. It will entail a task of watchful observation, of a determined going out to help wherever that help may be needed. You have, in many ways, what I have referred to in my own mind as I have watched you, as a very well-managed inferiority complex—so well managed that you do not permit it to be a real hindrance; it is one which nevertheless exists and at times presents to you a problem. I would also ask you to ignore it increasingly, and in the decisions which you will have to make during the next twelve months please act with a positive belief in yourself and, without questioning, choose the field of largest opportunity.

August 1942

1. The note sounds clear for you today, my chela and my friend. It is the hidden note of sacrifice. But sacrifice is not the thing you think it is.

2. The wisdom of the eye is yours. Let the radiation of your heart follow the eye's direction.

3. Live not upon the surface of events; you dwell deep at the centre and the springs of life.

4. The next ten years will hold for you three crises. Make them opportunities for expansive work.

5. The diadem, the robe of rose, the sandals on your feet and staff in hand—these are your proud possession.

6. Draw near to me in closer personal touch, devoid of personality. This paradox is clear.

[476]

September 1943

MY BROTHER:

I wonder if you drew out of the six statements what they were intended to convey to you of direction and instruction? To the fifth statement I seek to draw your attention. Reference is there made to the "diadem, the robe of rose, the sandals on your feet." What did these symbolic words convey to you? I mention them because I want to build your meditation for the next few months around the concepts hidden by these word forms. The first three statements were fairly simple for you to comprehend. The fourth conveyed a prophecy. The fifth contained some Words of Power and were intended to instruct you as to the nature of your life-orientation and the desired quality of your service during the coming ten years. They intimate that which you at this time possess but which needs increasing appreciation by you. Let me give you some idea as to their significances:

1. The Diadem. This is a dual symbol. It signifies accomplishment or the crowning period of your life (and this you now face, if you so choose), and it also conveys the idea of a more definite and steady use of the head centre. You are, of course, a "heart" person. The task ahead of you in your meditation work is to lift the energy of the heart centre into its correspondence in the head and begin to live more in the head than in the heart; you should begin also to fuse and blend the energy of this higher heart centre with that of the ajna centre, thus bringing the "directing eye" into greater service, prominence and usefulness. It is toward this objective that the meditation here suggested by me is planned.

2. The Robe of Rose. The symbolism here, my brother, is obvious. Rose is the colour of devotion, and of that quality you have a full supply. It is however to its magnetic attractive quality, as it affects others rather than yourself, that I seek to draw your attention. People of pledged devotion are those who have reached a point where that devotion is in no way a hindrance; it is seemingly a safeguard, [477] simplifying their lives. Because of that fixed devotion, they can walk undeviatingly upon the Way. But they are apt to forget that—equally because of that devotion—they ray forth a quality which stimulates its correspondence in others. That is why sixth ray people can easily form a group around themselves. But they seldom succeed in holding those thus attracted for very long, because they do not understand the reason for this facility and ascribe it ever to wrong causes. Only your astral body is upon the sixth ray of devotion, but that makes it potent indeed and, in your case, produces that sense of inferiority to which I referred above. I would ask you to change your point of view and to regard your sixth ray astral body as a powerful piece of equipment to be used in service.

In these two symbolic phrases we have related the heart centre to the head centre, and likewise the heart centre to the astral body.

3. The Sandals on the Feet. Here, in other words, you have a simple reminder of the underlying and motivating power of your entire life. This can be summed up in the flat statement of three truths—unalterable and fixed because imposed upon your personality by your soul:

a. You are treading the Path of Discipleship.

b. You have arrived at a certain Ashram or centre of power upon that Path.

c. You are intelligently aware of these facts and they are the major conditioning factors in your life.

You have consequently established a thought rhythm which naught can change and which will be a powerful incentive in deciding the time of your return when this incarnation comes to an end, the type of vehicle which you will, as a soul, construct, and the nature of the race, nation and type of service to which the overshadowing soul will commit the personality. Energy follows thought. A definition of the personality might be expressed as follows: The personality of a disciple is a focal point of energy, established by the soul.

The "eye of direction," therefore, referred to in Statement 2, relates primarily to the long-distance view the soul [478]is taking of you and your preparation for fuller service in the next life. A study of these three phrases will carry you into the realm of quality, and not simply of symbolism; the concept of heart radiation, attractive power, and the responsibility of preparation emerge clearly in the three ideas underlying the meditation suggested below. My proposal to you is that you do this meditation only twice a week—on Sundays and on one day in the middle of the week. On the other days you will simply carry forward the group reflective assignment with your group brothers. In this way the days of your personal orientation in meditation will be gladly anticipated events. Will you try out this plan, my brother?

Stage I. The Diadem.

1. The establishing of relation between:

a. The heart centre and the head centre.

b. The heart centre in the head and the ajna centre.

Thus a lesser triangle of energy or of "lighted, living relation" is established: heart, head and ajna centres.

c. The waiting, dedicated, devoted personality and the soul.

Thus a greater triangle is established: soul, head and heart.

Visualise these triangles as relating and focussing your consciousness as far as may be in the head, midway between the soul and the heart centre up the spine—and therefore using as that midway point the heart centre in the head. Avoid concentrating upon location. Just imagine the point of attainment as that of the Diadem.

2. Then reflect quietly upon the directive power of the soul:

a. Working within the symbolic "diadem of attainment."

b. Using the impelling "eye of the soul" as a directing agent; i.e., the ajna centre, or the centre between the eyebrows.

[479]

c. Then say the following words with full intent:

"May that soul of mine whose nature is love and wisdom direct events, impel to action, and guide my every word and deed."

Stage II. The Robe of Rose.

1. The next undertaking is a conscious establishing of relation with others through:

a. The focussing of the power or energy of devotion within yourself so that it becomes:

1. A radiation affecting others.

2. An attractive force relating them to you as their temporary source of spiritual light.

3. A magnetic influence, stimulating a new activity of their soul in connection with their personalities.

b. An act of service, wherein you flood the personalities of those you are seeking to help, with the pure rose colour (most carefully visualised by you) of spiritual devotion. This stream of warm rose and radiating light will esoterically drive them in devotion to their own souls and will not attract them to you—a thing which is never desirable.

2. Then say with all the outpouring love of which you will increasingly find yourself capable:

"Let the love of the soul attract and the light of the soul direct all whom I seek to help. Thus will humanity be saved by me and all affiliated with the Hierarchy."

Stage III. The Sandals on the Feet.

1. Reflect more now in relation to yourself, and ponder upon the Path in three ways:

a. The Path which you have travelled to my Ashram. This will involve the Past.

b. The Path of Service which you seek to travel now, moving freely in and out of my Ashram. This involves thePresent.

c. The Path of Initiation for which you are being [480] prepared. This involves the Future—your future and its goal. You begin to realise yourself as a pledged, devoted servant.

2. Then in your own words, and aloud, you will dedicate yourself in a threefold manner to an increased conscious activity as an accepted disciple.

3. Seek now—definitely and quietly and with a spirit of waiting anticipation—to contact me, your Master and your friend. Expect results, though not at the time you anticipate.

4. Sound the OM softly seven times.

May peace and courage abide with you, my brother:

November 1944

As I give you this personal instruction (one which can suffice you for this life) I ask myself: What is the thing of greatest moment that I can say which will indicate the point of future emphasis, which will convey strength and positive assurance, and which will enable you to prepare for the next great step which immediately confronts you? Disciples seldom realise the responsibility that a Master shoulders as He seeks to prepare a group of people for world service; seldom do they understand the problem with which He is faced, even when dealing with the least advanced or dynamic among His neophytes. What are the factors which He has to consider and which are potent enough to negate much of His effort (as has been the case in this group), and which frequently condition a disciple to such an extent that he takes no definite steps to meet ashramic requirements, even when, technically and theoretically, he admits responsibility? Let me tell you one or two of these for your guidance and the guidance of the group:

1. The karma of the disciple. Of this, the disciple knows little and the Master much; with that karma He may not interfere, because growth and development eventuate as the disciple meets the inevitability of events, [Page 481]accepts his karma and works to offset it, actuated by right motive. Let me illustrate. The Master knows that it is the destiny of, and within the capacity of, a disciple to carry out a certain piece of work and thus to serve humanity in a particular manner. He knows also that it is His duty to bring the disciple to the point of comprehension and to aid him in the accurate performance of this duty. But as He considers the disciple's karma, He finds that mortal disease will, in a few years' time, lay the mechanism of accomplishment low and prevent both effort and accomplishment. He therefore refrains from an educational process which would otherwise be obligatory upon Him.

2. Faulty equipment. Oft a disciple, in a particular incarnation, lacks some needed characteristic, or some desirable quality, either in his emotional nature or in one or other of the bodies. He may, for instance, have a fine physical vehicle, great devotion and a brilliant intellect, but along with these, the quality of persistence is not present; the Master knows, therefore, that a steady cooperation and continuous effort is not yet possible. He dare not, consequently, incorporate the disciple (along with other members of His Ashram) in some designated piece of work and of service, because He knows that he will imperil the success of the joint endeavour. The group has therefore to proceed without the help which the disciple is otherwise competent to give.

3. A blind spot. This is one of the most frequent deterrents which confront a Master as He seeks to lead His disciples along the Way of Service. The disciple has some one great outstanding weakness of which he is entirely oblivious and completely unaware. If told of its existence, he flatly, conscientiously and sincerely denies its presence. He violently affirms the opposite virtue or strength. Yet all the time, this affirmation simply indicates the effort of his soul to build in a quality which, when adequately strong, will result in the expulsion of the deterring fault. As long as this [482] condition exists, it is not possible for the disciple to be fully integrated into the Ashram, nor is it possible to convince him that—in this specific connection—he is totally blind. Vision will eventually and inevitably come, but it will come as a result of the disciple's own effort and his self-initiated awakening; once awakened, never again will blindness be possible.

4. An over-enthusiastic nature. This induces the disciple to rush wildly forward in an effort to accomplish the indicated task, to prove to the Master his staunch determination, and to his fellow members in the Ashram his great usefulness. This enthusiasm can wreck designated projects, shorten the life of the disciple, and thus interfere with his karma and make him a source of amusement and concern to his group.

All these factors, and several others still more subtle, have to be taken into account by a Master, as well as the age, the background and the time cycles of the disciple.

I would point out to you, therefore, that it lies entirely in your own hands to increase your usefulness in the Ashram. If I were asked by you today what phase of your development should receive your attention, I would reply: Seek consciously and strenuously to overcome negativity. For you, a cultivated and conscious negativity has been an escape mechanism from the executive and administrative nature of your life. Your soul has forced you for decades into the position of an executive, superintending and administering agent. Basically, this ran counter to your natural inclination. Yet it was supremely necessary and educational. Once however you had fulfilled the duties and obligations entailed, and had successfully and adequately carried out your task (which you always did), your personality—shrinking and sensitive—took refuge in a negative attitude to people as a whole; you developed an insulation which made it difficult for you to set up any major relation with other people.

Yet, my brother, little as you may realise it, those relationships with others, and a positive interplay with those you contacted, were ever desired by the people you met; people [483] have always wanted to get closer to you; they have longed to know you better and to be of service and of moment to you. As an executive, you were ever available; as a soul, within a personality, you have lived your own life apart from others; you have not been easy to contact or to know; you were never responsive to approach, and your reactions to those who desired contact have been negative, and this at times when you yourself wanted closer rapport. Herein lies your task and your problem for the remaining years of your life. Learn, please, my brother, to be individually outgoing towards the people you meet and with whom life and circumstance bring you into association. Break loose—hard though it may be—from the thoughtforms which so powerfully condition you, based frequently upon an inferiority complex; refuse to permit the factors which so powerfully condition the trained, cultured person and the man who is the product of tradition, of good heritage and generations of civilised forbears to control you.

Your work with children has also tended to set you apart and make you the victim of an enforced loneliness. You could ever be free and magnetic with them but they intruded not upon the entrenched and enforced fortress of your being. You must now fit yourself to teach adults in your next incarnation, and this will necessitate a different approach and one which will invoke and involve every aspect of your being. The disciple teaches principally by what he is and by giving all of himself to all whom he meets. He moves outward spontaneously when someone comes within range of his possibility of contact. This is almost unknown to you. The lesson, therefore, which the trained disciple has to master is one of discernment. He needs to learn discrimination in contact if he is to avoid a useless, if well intentioned, promiscuity.

The stage of the world is so set at this time that there is full opportunity for you to find a wide sphere of contact, to work in full cooperation with other people and with co-disciples, and thus to force yourself to release the magnetic power of your soul-infused personality. Your inner development is greater by far than your outer expression; you need not, consequently, work with perseverance at interior unfoldment; [484] you need to strain after outer ability to contact, to influence and to evoke response from all and sundry with whom your lot may be cast. Rebuffs, misunderstandings and lack of response will be natural at first until your "technique of contact" is discovered by you and established in action. Each disciple develops his own technique. You have yet to discover yours.

As with some others, I give you three words upon which I would ask you to reflect as time elapses, and from which you can expect definite results if there is any truth in the aphorism that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

The first word which I would suggest is Contact. Much soul contact and contact also with your group brothers on interior levels is easy for you and presents no difficulties, even if you believe it not. You have a well established contact along these lines, but your physical brain does not yet register it adequately. That is due entirely to conditions of insensitivity, inherent in your brain cells, and is of no great moment. From the standpoint of your daily meditation, I would ask you to go forth to each day's work with the intention of magnetically attracting (in order to help and serve) at least three people—either known to you or unknown. You might find it useful (at least for a time) to keep a diary of contacts; you should enter into it a conversation by means of which you got close to someone, a contact with some stranger which seemed fruitful and interesting, or a joint piece of work which you carried out in full comprehension with someone else. This will develop in you an outgoing spirit and an interest in the whole process of contact. It is through contacts and the development of a resultant mechanism, plus a habit of magnetic rapport, which is the secret of all expansions of relationships, and this is preliminary to initiation. Think on this, for it has its major importance to you.

The second word which I want to give you is Impression. This word gives you much scope for reflection, invoking as it does the entire problem of sensitive response to inner contacts and outer relations. It is the key to the development of a trained psychologist and is a branch of that aspect of the universal mind which we call truth. The power of correctly [Page 485] registered impression, the ability rightly to interpret it and then to draw from it correct deduction, is the secret of all diagnosis where psychology is concerned. When this is taken into consideration by a disciple in relation to people contacted, it is of enormous usefulness; impression—when analysed and the results of analysis are employed—presents a most useful study, particularly to people like you.

Finally, I would ask you to reflect upon the word Relationship. I would have you do this with the specialised objective of understanding how you, as a disciple in training, can set up those relationships which will bring aid and strength to others and thus sustain the work of the Ashram. I do not intend to enlarge upon this as I want you to arrive at your own conclusions and knowledges.

What I am really doing, my brother, is indicating to you the field of your future training—a training which will engross the remainder of your life. This training must be self-initiated and it must ever be undertaken in order to fit you to work in the Ashram, as a branch of the great Ashram of the Hierarchy. You are peculiarly fitted for this work; you need only to release the magnetic quality of your already developed nature and thus break down the barriers which may exist; thus you will find your field of service tremendously extended and your potency brought into the field of a realised inclusiveness.

August 1946

MY BROTHER:

It is in no way your fault that this group on the physical plane is being disbanded until the next life cycle of the majority of the members has arrived. It is distressing that the work on the physical plane has to end, but a close and honest analysis on the part of the group itself would probably show that the major reaction is a blend of two reactions: first of all, that they could not integrate and, secondly, a sense of loss because my communications with all of you have exoterically ended. Both of these are personality reactions. From the standpoint of a Master Who knows the unimportance of [486] years, both of these reactions are of small importance. Few of you are really young; some of you are quite old, though none of you are as old as I am; in a relatively short time all of you will drop the outer handicap of the physical body and be ready for a fresh spiritual enterprise. Esoterically (if any of you so wish it), the situation remains unaltered, provided you keep it so yourselves. The inner contact is still there, exactly as it was before; the goal ahead for each of you is just the same and the door into my Ashram stands wide open to those who fulfil the requirements.

What, my brother, is basically your goal? Taking into consideration your ray and type, it is to infuse your personality with soul energy. This is in the nature of a platitude and you may well respond that this is true of all aspirants. This is assuredly so, but your particular soul-objective in this life was to bring this soul energy down from the subtler bodies into the three worlds so that they can charge the brain. This charging will result in a hastened development of soul quality as it can be demonstrated upon the physical plane.

As I have told you before, you are well developed on the inner planes, but your exoteric expression of this inner unfoldment is not adequately dynamic; it does not make adequate impress on the outer conditions of living. This you know. You have, I feel sure, pondered and studied the three words—Contact, Impression and Relationship—I gave you in my last instruction. I am equally confident that your approach was along the line of strengthening yourcontact with me, the Ashram and the group; to render yourself sensitive to spiritual impression, and also to see that your relationship was right in two directions: towards the Ashram and towards your fellowmen. That is all to the good but—for the sake of your own development and increased usefulness—I would have you take those same three words and (for the remainder of your life) direct your thinking towards contact with your fellowmen, towards the type of impression which you can establish—an impression which will enable them to impress others with the desire to discover truth and to persevere until the end. It will also involve your establishing with them an [487]educational relationship evoked by the quality of your approach to them and the "satisfying tincture" of your life, as one of the Masters has expressed it.

Therefore for you, until I see you on the other side of the separating veil, there must be the expression of the three types of work—expressed in two directions: the stabilising of that expression towards the Ashram (and that, with you, is well-nigh a habit and need not, therefore, form a drive), and also an intensified effort to work out the meaning of these words with your fellowmen. That will be very much harder. There is so much dammed up spiritual power in you; if you released it whenever possible and in all directions, you would be surprised at the result. You could then make the last years of your life fruitful and rewarding, far more than they have ever been in the past. Your life has been a life of loveliness, though somewhat dimmed by negativity.

You are in process of stepping over the periphery of the Ashram towards its centre. It needs only a little dynamic effort on your part to give you the unquestioning assurance that you are within the ring-pass-not of the Ashram and are functioning as a conscious disciple. Most of the group are not yet at that stage. The Ashram enfolds you all, but the next move is for each and all of you—without aid or help—to step over the mental barrier which keeps you from conscious knowledge and which (when accomplished) will enable the Ashram to give you "the freedom of the city."

One of the ideas which disciples would find it helpful to grasp is that the process of passing over to the other side involves no discontinuance of the three processes of Contact, Impression and Relationship. These being the three words with which I earlier impressed you and which seem to me today to be of major importance in your life, I would have you grasp, if possible, somewhat the permanence of their importance. With the mass of ordinary humanity, focussed in all their activities and their thinking upon the physical plane, the period after death is one of semi-consciousness, of a failure to recognise location, and of emotional and mental bewilderment. With disciples there is still contact with people (usually those with whom they have been associated) in [488] the hours of sleep; there is still the reception of impression from environment and associates, and there is still the recognition of relation with (as on earth) the assumption of responsibility.

One of the students in this group asked me a question some time ago which I have been long in answering. As it has a bearing on the subject we are considering, I shall answer it here. After a few subsidiary comments the student said: "I can still the outer shells or bodies, but have not dared to let go the connecting cord. Is it safe? Can you see my condition and can you tell me?" My reply is quite simple and I know he will understand:

Were you twenty years younger, my brother, with perfect safety you could break the connecting link, but owing to your age it is not, at this time, right so to do. There are some you have yet to help and one or two threads as yet to gather up. Undue strain upon the physical vehicle—no matter whether one is young or old—is never necessary and often of a harmful nature. Many aspirants in this group, in the Arcane School and elsewhere, are in training for work in the New Age and in the next life cycle, and their realisation is often bigger than the present equipment of brain cells warrants. Therefore, knowledge and registered expansion of consciousness is temporarily withheld until a better physical vehicle is available. I mention this because some suffer from discouragement when, after years of work and the achievement of old age, they find themselves registering a static condition, or what they deem to be static. There is no need for such a feeling, but there is need for care and the progression of the interior work, e'en when the external recording is apparently lacking.

To resume with your own instruction, if you would care to increase the capacity of the three activities—contact, impression, relationship—you might follow a simple exercise when going to sleep at night.

After achieving complete comfort, as far as may be possible, attempt to assume an inner attitude of planned, quiet discarding of the physical body, keeping the whole concept upon the mental plane, yet realising it to be a simple brain [489] activity. The heart is in no way to be involved. Your objective is to preserve consciousness as you withdraw it from the brain and pass out on the subtler levels of awareness. You are not discarding the physical body permanently, therefore the life thread anchored in the heart is not involved. The aim is, for a few hours and whilst clothed in the astral and mental vehicles, to be consciously aware elsewhere. With determination you become a focussed, interested point of consciousness, intent on emerging from the casing of the physical body. That point you hold, refusing to look backward at the physical vehicle, or at the worries, interests and circumstances of daily life, fixedly waiting for the moment when your negative attitude to the physical plane and your positive attitude to the inner planes will bring a moment of release, perhaps a flash of light, the perception of an aperture of escape, or the recognition of your surroundings, plus the elimination of all surprise or the expectation of any phenomena.