SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES (Continued) - PART 3
The only other thing I seek to do today is to tell you the nature of your personality rays and thereby bring you to a clearer understanding of yourself. As you know, your egoic or soul ray is the second Ray of Love-Wisdom, and your personality ray is the sixth Ray of Devotion. There is no need for me to do more than indicate to you that the following contacts are easy for you to make, owing to this combination.
1. A contact with your soul. This is already made and established.
2. A contact with the Hierarchy, through the medium of your soul.
3. Contact with the astral plane, through your sixth ray personality which functions easily, therefore, on the sixth plane, the astral.
4. Contact with ideas, through an active intuition.
These are definitely assets and are the hallmark of the advanced disciple. This I think you know without my telling you. But all these contacts involve the handling of force and present their own unique problems.
Your mental body is on the fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge or Science. Hence your interest and usefulness in the science of astrology which is in many ways the science of sciences. Hence also your keen mind, your untiring search for truth and your power to achieve light on many matters. The one point you should remember is that the fifth ray is a crystallising factor and (in conjunction with the will and power developed by you in your last life) could tend to make you dogmatic and consequently separative. This must be offset by your second ray soul.
Your astral body is on the sixth ray, as is your personality, and this greatly aids you in your life task, provided that you [438] use the astral body as the medium of soul expression and not as an agent, per se, on the astral plane. This ray force gives you devotion, idealism, a dynamic will to pierce through all glamours and misconceptions and thus achieve truth and freedom, both for yourself and for your group and those you serve. It could give you also, if you permitted it, a tendency to be yourself glamoured and overcome by illusion.
Your physical body is on the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order or Magic; here is to be found the source of much of your ill-health. The seventh plane is the plane upon which spirit must express itself. It is the receptacle of spiritual energy. Your physical vehicle and medium of expression is of such a sensitive and refined nature and so frail a receptacle that your life problem is to handle wisely the spiritual energy which seeks to pour through. This constitutes a very real problem which you have faced for years and must continue to face.
This present cycle or period in your life is one in which you are called upon to face certain definite decisions. For this reason, I give you no work, except that which the group is doing, and no special meditation. Your major work at this time (and the theme of your meditation) is the arriving at right decision as you enter into a new period of spiritual activity. The problem goes deep. But you can solve it if you act with slowness, if you call on your soul to throw light upon your way, and if you bear in mind the two suggestions I made to you earlier in this instruction. Also, my brother, as has often been the case in other lives, I stand by you in love and understanding.
May 1937
MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND:
Our relation has been close for many lives and is particularly close today. Unknown perhaps to you, I have guarded and shielded you from many unhappy world impacts, for you are sensitive in nature and frail in body and are already handling as much of the world's misery and suspense as you can and perhaps more than is good for you—physically and emotionally. You are like so many disciples upon the second ray who are in training for future world salvaging. Like our Great Master, the Christ, you must and do shoulder your share of the world [439] suffering, thereby forming one of the great group of His companions who are pledged to the "fellowship of His sufferings and His patience," as He is pledged to His great Master, the Lord of Shamballa. He, as you know, will not leave His post until the "last weary pilgrim has found his way home." You see, therefore, do you not, the true significance of the three keywords which I gave you when you entered this group —endless patience, with yourself, with others and with erring humanity; dynamic thought, giving you power and usefulness upon the mental plane and teaching you to work there as does the Christ, as does K.H. and all who are serving in connection with the Hierarchy; wisdom, enabling you to reap the fruitage of many lives, spent in acquiring spiritual knowledge.
Your field of service is real. Be not discouraged, my brother. Your physical problem (e'en when you give it a technical name) is far more concerned with the pouring in of vital forces, which make a violent impact upon a frail body than it is with disease, per se. Remember that inner acquiescence with physical limitations is the key to much release for you. When that form of divine indifference is active in your life and consciousness then you are free for a fuller mental service and to that service you are called.
Your problem closely resembles that of A.A.B. whose health is now seriously impaired and who also has to fight an inner revolt against her limitations—as do all active and hard-working disciples whose equipment is not strong enough to handle adequately the forces which are flowing through them to the world. Therefore help each other.
I want, my brother, to give you a visualisation exercise which may help you somewhat. Breathing exercises are not advisable in your case nor are they particularly necessary. I would ask you for a few minutes each morning (prior to doing the group meditation) to rest quietly back in your chair or bed and, closing your eyes, link up with your soul and with me, your friend. You will thus create a triangle of light between your soul, your head centre and myself. Fix and hold this triangle firmly in your consciousness through the power of the creative imagination. Then see it next as a solid triangle of light and not just as an outline. The base of the triangle is on the [440] mental plane where I work and where dwells and works your soul; the lower point or apex touches the top of your head. Then see, pouring down, via the triangle, a stream of light, golden in colour and not white. It is more light orange than white. See this flooding your whole body. When you have visualised this as perfectly as possible, then rest back in that light and bathe in it as you would bathe in the waters of the sea. See it permeating every part of your physical equipment and let it do its work without your having any definite ideas as to what should be accomplished. The rest of the activity is in my hands and you can safely leave it to me. This exercise will aid you in handling your life problem and your service, until such time as you enter into that light wherein consciousness awakens, free from the bonds of flesh. But that time is not immediate.
The blessing of your co-disciples is upon you and yours on them.
January 1940
BROTHER OF OLD:
Of all the members in your particular group, you are perhaps the freest from any serious glamour and the one which (almost necessarily and protectively) controls you is the glamour of physical disability. This physical difficulty initiates in you a profound feeling of futility and a constantly wearing realisation of incomplete service. This is most definitely a glamour. The power of an unimpeded channel in the hands of the Hierarchy is far greater than you know and, though for you there can be no activity in the front rank of the battle, I would remind you that the Hierarchy Itself stands behind the scene of world affairs and works ever through others; It stands between those who are bearing the burden of the direct contact and the immediate work in the warfare now raging between the Forces of Light and the Forces of Materialism.
Will you so stand, my brother? Will you cease from the constant urging desire to be of greater outer usefulness? The Law of Acceptance is a divine law and releases from glamour, freeing the soul for the reality of service. I stand by you at all times.
[441]
August 1940
MY BROTHER OF LONG STANDING:
I have for you a brief message which I am asking A.A.B. to incorporate in her next letter to you. I would have you know that I have had you in my thoughts, my care and my love; that there is not a moment of the day when my shielding love is not around you. You will remember the three words I gave you some years ago which were to be the keynotes of your life? The patience you have for long years sustained; the service to your fellowmen in giving dynamic thought should be your service today, reaching out to me and embracing your fellowmen. From these two—patience and clear thought—wisdom must come and wisdom is sorely needed in the world today. Your field of service is around you and embraces all who come your way, and the path of this service leads straight to me, my brother....
NOTE: This disciple was an ex-Jesuit priest and a Frenchman. He resided in Holland. The last two communications from the Tibetan were received by him shortly after the Germans entered Holland. This gives great significance to the Tibetan's words. P.D.W. died later in the year, and "ceased from the outer activity," referred to by the Tibetan.
To W. O. I.
August 1936
BROTHER OF MINE:
For some few years now you have been definitely orienting yourself to the life and status of the Path of Discipleship. This has involved, in your case, the careful training of yourself in selfless service, and the speeding up of the stimulation that your soul was imposing upon your personality and applying to your psychic nature. The first discipline you undertook willingly and understood well. It was definitely self-imposed. The second, emanating more directly from the soul, has caused you at times a certain amount of bewilderment, as all entry into the world of psychic events and psychic phenomena inevitably [442] must. The focus of your attention being upon the soul and its life and world of being, it has been difficult for you at times to interpret other phenomenal happenings. With all this, however, be not unduly concerned. The fitting of yourself to be an interpreter is an important part of your training; for this purpose your soul has brought you into incarnation in this cycle. Apart from the fact that you are equipped for your professional duties, the particular field of activity has provided for you a needed forcing ground. The group activity with which you are engaged, the play of adolescent minds and emotions upon your psychic equipment has given you the stimulation needed to evoke certain reactions and responses whereby you, the Observer, can learn. Your weaknesses and equally your strengths will be revealed to you.
The essential attitude for you to cultivate is that of the One Who looks on, that of the Beholder, the Perceiver, and the Observer, leading—upon the Path of Discipleship—to that of the Interpreter. In these words I give you the keynote of your present soul cycle, which will cover several incarnations, but which will eventually release you and send you forth as one who can prepare to tread the Path of the Revealer of Wisdom. I would remind you in this connection that the second ray expression falls into two categories—wisdom and love. For you, it must be the way of wisdom. Ponder upon the significance of wisdom. Your egoic ray being the second and your personality ray, the fifth, you will note how thoroughly equipped you are for your undertaking in this life. This, it is of assistance to know. In the next instructions, when I shall indicate to you the rays governing the threefold personality, you will then have before you the five rays with which you are concerned in this life and which are instrumental in laying the foundation for your next life. You will then understand still more clearly.
In the meantime, work steadily at the assumption of the position of the Observer, making it a habit of your life. To this end, you will find attached to this instruction a review on the attitude of the Observer which may be of assistance to you as you prepare for work in this group and for the gradual development of your psychic powers.
As you work at this problem, will you endeavour to take and hold the position of the "one at the centre," carrying this [443] consciousness with you at all times and dealing with your associates and those whom you instruct from this attitude. This will, in itself, constitute an arduous undertaking and will serve to stabilise your orientation and your direction, using this last word in its esoteric meaning. I would suggest, therefore, that you start your meditation each morning by achieving this position as well as may be, focussing yourself in the head and raising your consciousness to as high a point as possible.
Then, for the next six months, take the following statements for the seed thoughts in your meditation work, thus building in the idea as profitably as you can and—during the day—endeavouring to work out the spiritual concept in your daily life. This effort should serve to link your personality and soul and to coordinate your mind and brain.
First month............ I am the Observer, Who dwells ever at the centre.
Second month....... I am the Interpreter, Who works ever from the centre.
Third month........... I am the Desirer, Who draws all unto the centre.
Fourth month......... I am the Dweller in the High Place, Who sees ever from the centre.
Fifth month............ I am the Lover of men, Who pours out love from the centre of love.
Sixth month........... I am the Educator, Who, learning myself at the centre, lifts thereto all I seek to help.
At the end of six months' application to these ideas and to this vision, you will comprehend the motive that has prompted me to give you these seed thoughts and will then be ready for the more intensive work I propose for you and my other disciples.
REVIEW ON THE ATTITUDE OF THE OBSERVER
1. What constitutes a review?
a. Am I confusing a re-viewing with a re-doing or with a re-experiencing?
[444]
b. Do I understand what I mean when I regard myself as an Observer?
2. What or who is the Observer? What is under observation?
3. Am I capable of learning to observe, and of freeing myself from those results of observation which may not be desirable?
4. Can I observe myself mentally, unbiased by any reaction from the emotional personal self?
5. If I use this review on the attitude of the Observer as it should be used,
a. What will be the effect in my life?
b. What will be the effect in the life of the group I wish to serve?
6. Can I honestly say that I can stand aside and observe with dispassion?
7. If this review work is a definitely scientific method of development, have I ever given the technique of observation a fair trial? Do I feel it now to be desirable? Why?
8. What basis can I find in my studies that this method of reviewing is the way for me, and that it will intensify my capacity for increased usefulness in service?
9. In what way can right observation speed my progress upon the Path?
10. If it is true that the blind must advance by touching but that those with sight move forward by seeing, and by keeping free and unattached, why, then, having sight, do I close my eyes and fail to observe? What is the main hindrance?
11. Is my mind the organ of observation for the spiritual man? Can I offer this organ to the observer to use?
12. Can I hold my mind steady in the light which streams from the Observer? Can I hold it as the searchlight of the soul?
13. As I review today, what part has observation played?
14. How do I define the word "observation"?
15. Observation in the spiritual sense is a faculty which grows out of Self-realisation.
a. Am I able to forget the fragmentary personal self?
b. Can I centre my consciousness in the Self?
16. Observation is a power of the Observer. It works in association [445] with the mind. Do I understand and wield this power?
17. We are told that there is an archetype, a pattern, a ray, a goal and a light which reveals these higher patterns or divine ideas. Do I know anything of this? I mean, practically, in my daily life.
18. What is the archetypal pattern of observation, and how can it be expressed in my personal life?
19. Do I recognise and am I in touch with other Observers of the way of life?
20. Can I draw upon the power of observation and the wisdom of the Observer when others need it?
21. I am the redeemer of the lower nature. In what way does observation aid in this redemption?
22. Does redeeming force, released through observation, pour through me?
23. In what fashion will the observation of the Observer bring changes in my life, my habits, and my attitudes?
24. Through which body do I most easily express myself? Which of my bodies requires the most observation and control?
25. Have I demonstrated the powers of observation today? Have I been in conscious contact at any moment with the Observer?
26. What activities and qualities of my lower nature (good as well as undesirable) need to be observed if I desire to serve more intelligently?
27. What is the major hindrance to my constant practice of observation? How can I offset this difficulty?
28. How does the assumption of the attitude of the Observer assist my fellowmen?
29. In what way can I most truly serve them? And how will observation help me to do this?
March 1937
BROTHER OF MINE:
I fancy, if you were asked the question, that you would regard the past year as one of the most educational and most developing that you have ever experienced this incarnation. [446] Something has happened to you that has "carried right through" from your soul to your brain. The result has been integrating, satisfying (in spite of incidental suffering) and relational in its effects. Such interludes of unfoldment in the life of an aspirant carry with them a high responsibility and, for the remainder of your life, you can—if you so choose—produce a definite effect upon those whose lives you are privileged to contact and to whom you can stand as a tower of strength in a world where adjustments and re-orientation are going on. Because of these adjustments, certain great transitions in consciousness are in order and taking place. Some of the lessons you have learnt have not yet emerged into your waking brain consciousness, but that is of no moment for they can still bear fruit interiorly and, my brother, it is our subjective effort which is the most potent at all times.
I would ask you, in view of the past year's events, to proceed for the next few months with a relative slowness and with a real patience with yourself. I recommend that you do not indulge in any self-analysis, for you will thus give time for the desired unfoldments to stabilise and the processes of spiritual assimilation to proceed, unhindered by the activity of the lower mind.
With you, as with my other disciples in preliminary training, I would like to indicate the conditioning rays of the personality for—if you accept my suggestions and then test and prove them—you will arrive at a better understanding of the intended personality task and be free to participate in the group work as time proceeds. It should always be borne in mind that when I speak of the rays of the various bodies, I am referring to the dominant force which conditions them in any particular life, to the possible effect that the impact of that force—regulated or unregulated—may have upon surrounding people, and to the responsive, sensitive or impressionable substance with which the soul has perforce to work. I refer to what constitutes the material expression. This is perhaps one of the platitudes of the occult position, but it is of value at times to reiterate. In the case of students such as those of you in this group, it is one of the fundamental recollections and upon it all your effectiveness in work depends.
[447]
As you know, you have a peculiar combination of dominant rays, the second Ray of Love-Wisdom being your soul ray and the fifth Ray of Concrete Science being your personality ray. I would have you ponder on the relationship which necessarily exists in your case between knowledge and wisdom. You would find it of value to put a considerable amount of thought into the relation of the three aspects of intelligent manifestation: the higher, abstract mind, the intelligent solar angel, and the lower concrete mind. Intuitive understanding, love-wisdom and concrete knowledge should be and can be developed and related by you in your daily life; to this I call your attention.
Your mental body is on the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict, and hence the pattern of your life has been what it has. With you, however, the major expression of this activity should be in relation to those with whom you have to work in your chosen field of life service; the harmony achieved is the resolution of the conflict in the lives of those around you who are in process of adjustment to life. The conflicts within yourself are understood by you and can be rapidly resolved. It is the effect of your mental body upon others that I would seek to have you most definitely consider. Upon the probationary path, the forces of man's lower nature and their interior interplay is of paramount importance; he must learn to know himself. On the path of discipleship, these same forces must be studied in relation to those with whom destiny, karma and vocational choice has thrown the disciple. On the path of initiation, these same forces are used in conscious cooperation with the Plan, and with adequate skill in action, due to the lessons learnt on the earlier stages of the path.
Your astral body is on the sixth ray. This, I think, you have yourself suspected. This gives you intensity in aspiration and the dynamic will to push forward which has sufficed hitherto to carry you over all obstacles. You have succeeded in avoiding the usual difficulties of personality development where the sixth ray is concerned, and fanatical adherences to people or schools of thought. That is good. The transmuted, reoriented, higher attributes of those qualities should be your goal.
[448]
You have a seventh ray physical body. You will note, therefore, in your personality equipment two lines of force which are in the first ray field of vital effectiveness: The fifth Ray of Concrete Science and the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order or Magic. The other energies which constitute your working material are all on the second ray line: 2-4-6. Along that line you have a full and adequate equipment. You have only one major ray energy working through you in this incarnation, and that is the second. It was the recognition of that which induced me to give you the word "interpretation" as your most important keyword, for it would evoke in you qualities along the line of the third Ray of Active Intelligence, which is closely allied to your fifth ray personality.
Will you, during the coming months, take the theme of Interpretation as your most important meditation task?
November 1937
BROTHER OF MINE:
There is little need for me to say much to you at this time. Your spiritual life during this past year has been vivid and alive. See that it so remains in spite of any interludes of aridness and of reaction which might come your way. All life is cyclic and this is a point which disciples are apt to forget and overlook; they then find themselves discouraged when the intensity of feeling leaves them. The initiate walks ever a straight course between the pairs of opposites, serene and unafraid. Are you not all upon the path of discipleship with the inevitable goal of initiation sometime, some immediate living moment, just ahead?
I gave you some keywords which should be for you a source of inspiration during the coming year. I would ask you to study them and to ponder deeply their significance. Take one word each week for a few minutes' careful consideration (prior to the group meditation) and make it the keynote of your week's endeavour in the practice of spiritual living. Do this with the point in view of externalising these concepts in your service in your chosen field of work. You will gain much practical and experimental experience thereby. During the fourth week review your life in the light which these three words can throw [449] upon it. You will never regret doing this exercise. There is no further need for you to do the review on Interpretation.
And this is all I have to say to you, my brother, at this time. The service which your group can render, as outlined by me in this instruction, must engross your attention and will give you much. The inner link upon the spiritual side between all the group members is growing firm and clear and I am encouraged it is so.
January 1940
MY BROTHER:
How shall I make clear to you the nature of the glamour which at this time can hinder your close integration into this group of brothers? It is of so subtle a kind that, perhaps, I cannot make it present as a fact in your consciousness; only where glamour is recognised and seen for what it is, is it possible to dissipate it. It is not the glamour of criticism or of undue analysis that is your problem. It is in some way a result or sequence, growing out of these two aspects of mental activity and yet it is neither of them exactly. Perhaps I might call it the "glamour of the Judge"—trained, wise, experienced but forever exercising (as a life habit) the prerogative of the judgment seat. A case in point, my brother, which may serve to illustrate my point was your reaction to the ——. For several days I watched your inner turmoil and distress until you escaped by the door of decisive judgment distributing the blame, exonerating some and resting back upon the assumed correctness of your decision. Yet you knew not enough—even about your own group.
At the same time, your rays are such that they constitute a deep pool or well of loving understanding; it is only your fifth ray personality that stands in the way of a full expression of the love which is truly your major and outstanding quality. This, your mental and astral vehicles (being both along the line of the second ray) will aid you in expressing. But it is the task of the fifth ray (when dominating the personality) to dissect, to analyse, and to come to conclusions and this is a glamour, requiring most careful handling or a barrier will be set up—in your case—between the soul and the three vehicles through the medium of the synthesising of personality energy. Ponder on [450] this. Think it out, for when you have clarified the issue in your own mind, you will have cleared away one of the most potent of the relatively few things which hold you back from a very important step forward.
It is not easy for disciples or initiates to identify themselves with weakness or with failure, and yet that must be done. They constitute just as much a part of the expression of humanity as does strength or success, and there can be no separation in attitude or failure in identification. Disciples have to learn to identify themselves with the whole.
June 1940
BROTHER OF MINE:
In dealing with you as an integral part of my Ashram, I have for the first time since you were admitted into this group relation a sense of freedom in approaching you. You have learned much and unfolded much during the past two years. There are still areas of unresolved doubts and the presence of many questions in your mind, but your attitude towards them is definitely changed. You are not so sure and you are entirely willing to wait for, and later to put to the proof, the answers and the solutions. That is much to have achieved.
Matters in the world today are in great confusion, owing to the appalling disturbance and condition of the astral plane. Though world affairs seem to be bad enough upon the physical plane, they are nothing to be compared to the present level of awareness where glamour rules, where desire and aspiration are rampant and where those on the inner side (who possess the eye of vision) can see the turmoil and the whirlpool of terrific forces, seeking violent outlet upon the physical plane.
Broadly speaking, these forces can be met in three ways. There is the long and almost endless process of letting things work themselves out under evolutionary law, leaving to the inevitability of evolution and of law the stemming of the astral cataract and the quieting of the hurricane. In the meantime, millions would suffer needlessly and for too long, which is perhaps the most important point. That the process of patient waiting in idealistic and prayerful idleness would finally triumph is incontrovertible but to what avail, if humanity is too [451] worn out and too exhausted and too retarded and hindered by a retrogressive materialistic civilisation to profit by the long awaited turn of the tide in human affairs?
I, a member of the Hierarchy who necessarily knows more than you do, tell you today that humanity as a whole (distributed over the entire planet) has endured already its full quota of karma and that what may come now of grief, sorrow and pain is that which may prove too much. Just as there is a point in the life of the individual where he can stand no more but lapses into unconsciousness, loses his reason, or dies, so it can be equally true of mankind as a whole. Bear this in mind. It is to this that those who would take no steps to arrest disaster (because they believe in what they call the will of God or karmic retribution or some beloved ideal) would condemn humanity. I am endeavouring here to give you the wider picture as We see it and so to answer some of the problems of your rightly questioning mind. There is a general principle of timing involved and of the right moments for action as well as those moments in which inaction is the correct approach.
Then there is the second possibility in which the world situation can be handled and solved in terms of force—the force to be applied being evoked under the law of action and reaction, and then utilised by those who see the vision of the future and the larger picture and issues, and who are pledged to the releasing of humanity. It is not force (as applied upon the physical plane) which is at any time wrong; it is the motive and method used, leading to and governing the use of force which are the factors of momentous import. Though no person or group of persons or nation at this time knows the meaning of motive (for that is only really known and comprehended by those who have advanced beyond the third initiation) yet there are persons, groups of persons and nations in the world today who can be permitted to use force against forms and materialism because of the preponderance of pure motive to be found present in their consciousness. The right use of obstructing and of death-dealing energy can be trusted to those who are consciously endeavouring to help humanity and to liberate it, as a whole and not as a part. This must naturally include themselves and is safe, provided that the voices of those who see the [452] vision of the future are given free expression and permitted a hearing. There is, therefore, in this method the probability of a quicker ending of the present conflict and world crisis and the consequent release of the new order.
The third way has in it much of danger to the unfolding consciousness of humanity and that is the way of divine intervention. With this I do not intend to deal as I said all that I find it possible to say in connection with the new Invocation.
My brother, there are points which revolve in your mind and which, in spite of the application which is obvious, can all three be applied to situations and conditions which exist between individuals, families and groups or to the larger unit, the world.
Those of you who are in a position to aid unfolding minds, as you are today, and who possess fifth ray personalities as you do, can affect many minds and lay the foundation for lives and activities based upon right thought. It is in your field of activity that the world must eventually find the instruction which will lead to right action, based on right understanding of the Plan, and to a right handling of the younger generation (a thing hitherto totally unknown). In this way, the world may be remodelled by wise planning, placed will (if such a phrase means anything to you. Itinvolves conscious focus) and increased activity and momentum. But such right activity will only be possible and the desired ends hastened when people of your generation and opportunity can—in this interlude between the old order and the new—think with clarity, see the issues clearly and in their true relativity, and can inspire the young ones also to see.
The process of expanding your consciousness to grasp the larger issue is never easy, particularly with a fifth ray personality and a sixth ray astral body. That is why you have a mental body which is conditioned by the fourth ray; your battle for vision and inclusiveness must be fought out in the mind and on realised mental levels; that is for you definitely a mental issue. Your task is to link the emotional and the intuitional nature and so evoke spiritual sensitivity to revelation. To that, you must add the conscious bringing through of the unfolding light into the area of the physical brain, thus making what [453] you know and see available to others. This must be done in three ways:
1. By evoking the intuition more potently.
2. By stimulating the mind to greater scope for recognition.
3. By throwing the light of the intuition and the knowledge possessed on to the future as well as on to the coming world order.
You will see, therefore, why I have dealt with the world problem; you can only achieve a steady, forward-looking attitude and really work at future stabilisation and reconstruction from the vantage ground of your own ascertained and controlled beliefs.
I am not going to give you an ordinary, set meditation to follow. I am going to ask you to give fifteen minutes intensive thought each day to the problem of the future, asking you, first of all, to achieve as stable a measure of alignment as you can, to raise your consciousness to as high a level of awareness as possible, and then to take the three following topics into your reflections, dealing with them in two ways:
1. As they grow out of the past, seeking to note what should be rightly destroyed.
2. As they should evolve, from your point of view, in the future, giving their contribution to the coming period of reconstruction, and providing that bridging new thing which will be in line with the requirements of the New Age—again as you sense and interpret these.
I will, therefore, give you three such topics:
1. The coming nature or type of world government, considering what should emerge out of the present, major, world ideologies.
2. The coming world education and what should develop in that field of training. What are the needs of the coming generation?
3. The coming world religion and what should constitute its major and universal tenets.
I would like you to give nine months to this work, giving three months to each of these world topics. If I might suggest, my brother, I would like to see you give two months to reflection, meditation and mental activity on the theme of the period, and then (during the third month) I would have you reduce your ideas to form and on paper. Will you do this nine months' work for the aiding of your group usefulness in the world, for use and aid by many others and for me? I put these incentives in the order of their importance.
There is an unusual depth of love and understanding in your nature. Give of it freely to all.
NOTE: This disciple severed his relation with the group because he felt that the Tibetan failed to appreciate what the group was doing. It was his own doing and the door stands open for his return whenever he so desires.
To D. I. J.
July 1933
MY BROTHER:
The possibility of a definite step forward is yours—a step which will enable you to take up your life's burden, when it is next imposed upon you, in full consciousness of what you are and of what you must do. The period of groping along the path with only the dim light of an illumined aspiration, is slowly giving place to the sure knowledge of an illumined mind. You ask me at times: "What prevents fuller light and understanding?" I reply: "A sensitivity which renders you so constantly self-conscious (by that I mean conscious of the personality) that your very assets as an aspirant seem to you sometimes to stand in your way."
Forget not, brother of old, that a consecrated personality must not loom so large that it shuts out, at times, that to which it is consecrated; neither must a realisation of your failure to achieve your high ideals afford you a handicap.
The time comes now in your life wherein you must conform to the ancient rule and become the sannyasin, the detached follower of the Way. You are now in the world but are not of the world; you must now dwell in that high and secret place where [455] divinity is ever sensed. Some call this the practice of the Presence of God; others regard it as walking in the light of the soul; still others term it the conscious treading of the Path. It matters not the name. For you, it is the steady transference out of the heart into the head and this, I think, you know.
Follow the breathing exercises with care and with attention. Seek also to strengthen the physical body. For you I suggest also the following exercise, to be performed at some time convenient to you, though not at the morning meditation.
1. Take seven long deep breaths, though hold not the nostril.
2. At each breath, as you inhale, say the following words: "Power and strength is mine." During the interlude, gather in as much of the golden-orange prana as you can; then, as you exhale, send it by an act of the will to the throat centre at the back of the neck.
3. In the interlude, between exhalation and the next inhalation (whilst the throat centre is subjected to golden-orange prana) say: "Let the Word sound forth through me."
4. Then sound the O.M., very softly.
Be attached to souls, my brother, but detached from personalities. Souls heal and aid each other's personalities. Personality relationships drain and devitalise. I shall have more to say in six months time when you are further adjusted to the work.
January 1934
BROTHER OF OLD:
The past six months have been for you a period of change, of readjustment and difficulty. The testing of the intuition to which you and others were subjected has not constituted for you, the chief problem. Your intuition functioned and you saw clearly the group implications, as you did also in the matter of Dr. .... For you there has been the long test of endurance, and that is for you—as for many—a test of real importance and significance. The power to persist when physical liability and [456] disability call aloud for cessation of the effort, the ability to stand steady when the sense of futility seems to overwhelm, and the capacity to function as a soul detached from personal reactions—this is for you the desired achievement. So be it, brother. This you have demanded for yourself; but remember that the incentive, leading to success, must be achievement for the group. Freedom from personality problems does not interest you basically. Such problems provide not for you sufficient or adequate motive to warrant the strain and effort. But usefulness to the group and the providing of a channel whereby spiritual light and love may enter into the living organism of the group, that must be for you the requisite motive, and this must be borne in mind when the strain and effort is at its height.
You are at the point in your development where the helping of others must be your constant outlet, beginning with your home circle, and reaching out to your fellow disciples and your environment. It is not for you the adding of increased work but the constant inner pressure of constructive thinking. In all groups, each unit contributes somewhat to the group thought content. Your contribution must be the pouring in of mental devotion, thus stimulating the clear shining of the group aspiration and love. That which you have to give must be brought down from the levels of consciousness which are abstract, mystical or egoic. Contact must be made with the physical plane and through physical brain awareness. Work, therefore, for the next few months at strengthening your alignment, linking consciously brain-mind-soul, and producing a deepened and more stabilised inter-relation and awareness. Use the imagination whilst so doing, and for three minutes each morning stand before the window and visualise your head (the area around it and in it), as a centre of force into which is streaming a ray or beam of light from the soul, the Oversoul. This is seen as pouring down into the head centre from the soul, via the mind, gathering thus mental intensity; through the astral body, gathering to itself high aspiration and devotion; and through the etheric body, vitalising it in every part; thus it streams into the head. Then, holding this stream there, divide it into two streams and send one, by an act of the will, to your splenic centre. (Note: This is found a little to the left and [457] below the heart centre, above the solar plexus and somewhat under the left hand ribs.) Send the other stream of force, by an act of the will, out into the world through the hands held out in blessing.
August 1934
MY FRIEND AND FELLOW WORKER:
All periods of stress and strain end when the experiencing soul learns to live within itself and to serve and work, to think and feel with the consciousness ever withdrawn to the "secret place of the Most High." You will know whereof I speak, because that is one of the lessons which your soul has been teaching you during the past twelve months. Physically, mentally and emotionally, you have been tried and tested and the trials which are applied to aligned personalities have been applied to you. The mark of the true aspirant is that all the three parts of the lower nature are linked more or less to the higher, thus producing a unity. This results in two things:
1. All the three parts of the personality can react simultaneously in some measure to the life and energy of the soul.
2. All the difficulties and trials (karmic or educational, testing or purifying) are felt in all the three bodies at once.
This is good, but it complicates the disciple's progress for he has to fight on all three battlefields at once. I tell you this for your encouragement....
That is all I have for you today, my brother. Go in peace.
January 1935
BROTHER OF OLD:
Have you realised how intense has been the testing time to which the members of this group of disciples have been subjected? Have you any idea how active has been the discipline to which they have all, including yourself, willingly submitted themselves?
First there was the glamour which descended temporarily upon the group, and the effects of this are only now beginning [458] to pass away. This has been succeeded by a period of personality difficulties through which the bulk of the members have been passing. You would be surprised could you see it all as I see it; it might be of value to you all if I stated the type of discipline which has overtaken several of the group. They were subjected severally to:
The discipline of recovery.
The discipline of adjustment.
The discipline of physical disability.
The discipline of inner isolation.
The discipline of astral purification.
The discipline of recovery of truth.
The discipline of light.
I have enumerated the above disciplines in order to show three things:
1. The variety of discipline to which an aspirant can be subjected.
2. The reality of the group life with its similarity of inner activity and training.
3. The emerging fact that none of you is really alone. All of you are seen and watched and, on the inner planes, you walk together; your outer circumstances may differ but the training and the objective are one. Loneliness will end when the inner group continuity of consciousness is established.
Your work for the next few months, my brother, must have for its objective a decentralisation which will set you free from yourself. It should also be directed toward a wise care of the physical body and its fitting for better service. Can you combine these two apparently contradictory objectives? You will note that in a subtler way I hinted at these two objectives in your last instruction. Your physical body has called for attention. Give to it all that it needs but be not anxious. Your environing circumstances and the pressure of your daily life have militated against detachment and this you know. But you have learnt much these past two years, both about yourself and others, and emphatically I tell you that the work of the next six months [459] should render into your hands the high results of the process of discipline—if you approach your problems in the right spirit and consecrate your life anew to service.
One practical suggestion I would make, my brother, anent the study work assigned to the group. Might not the ideas underlying the Lord's Prayer unfold to you with greater clarity if you took it for the theme of your study and teaching work. In teaching we learn. It would profit your pupils much (and you also) if you together were to give some thought to the magical formula which that ancient prayer embodies. The deepest esoteric significance which may emerge in your mind need not necessarily be imparted to your group but much may be given. In so teaching, your thoughts may take shape and these when later embodied in words may carry real benefit to your group brothers. This is but a suggestion. I would seek to reiterate at this time, as always, that my work with this group is never to be regarded as authoritative or dogmatic. From my wider knowledge of truth and from my capacity to know you all on the inner plane, I but make suggestions for fear that I may unduly influence.
In my last instruction, I pointed out that the battle ground in your case was to be found in all three bodies simultaneously. This increases your problem but it also increases your opportunity.
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