31. Discipleship in the New Age,Vol. I - 10. SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - PART 4 - ALICE BAILEY

SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - PART 4

You have given your life to the craft of teaching and consequently there is now given to you a more expansive view of the underlying purpose of the planetary, educational movement. In this movement, those of you who have some inner vision and who can grasp the magnitude of the Plan to bridge the gap between the higher and lower mind can contribute much to our endeavour, for you can build on mental levels. I am pointing this out, because, for you, this inner mental work is at present essential—a mental work to be carried on in the egoic consciousness. This is neither the consciousness of the concrete levels of the intellect nor the more abstract levels of the intuition. During the next few months the need, for you, is to work at a more instantaneous and definite alignment. To this end, you will find, at the close of this instruction, that I have given you a meditation which makes this alignment its major objective.

Also, in order to clarify your mind in this connection, I am going to ask you to search for all that I may have said regarding alignment in my various books. Will you write them all down and then, after due study of them, will you write a paper on the nature of true alignment. In this way, you will stabilise your own knowledge and serve your co-disciples by bringing to their recollection in unified form all that I may have said. Write out each passage, my brother, in full, gathering them out of the various books and present them in ordered sequence so that the simpler instruction comes first and the more abstruse last.

You might well ask at the start of your personal work with me, what I consider your major requirement at this time. In the equipment of all disciples there is always much that is lacking and a good deal that should be eliminated. It is, however, needless and useless to attack all points at once and, therefore, I say to you at this time that your major need is a speedier and steadier high vibration. Your progress on the Path has been earnest and steady and your life tendency has been directly oriented towards your goal; but your rhythm, or rather, your spiritual heart beat, is slow and this should be speeded up. You must move more quickly on the Path; this will come through a more active mental attitude. The vibratory rate of the bodies differs. The astral body vibrates more quickly than does the physical, and the mental body has a higher and more rapid vibration than the astral. It is on the mental plane and in the mind consciousness that you must seek to live. This will enable you (after two or three years' work with me) to "stand in spiritual being," a thing which at this time you only do under strong mental stress and strain, for it is not yet a life habit.

My blessing rests upon you in a new way, e'en though for four years I have interiorly worked with you.

March 1937

BROTHER OF MINE:

The implications of the past year, in your particular case, are not hard to read. There has been a steady unfoldment, and yet at times some real discouragement. There has been a renewing of your determination to press forward at all costs and yet some sense of failure, based largely upon physical fatigue and the pressures of life. No one but yourself guesses how tired you have been at times. There have been a few high moments and a good deal of valley experience, but usually the steady monotony of a career which has become an established habit and in which you long frequently for the manifestation of earlier enthusiasms. This is, however, inevitable and is one of the things which occur to disciples who are truly on the Path. The outer plane life is followed almost automatically, and much of it falls, through habit, below the threshold of consciousness, and produces thereby system, regularity, and good discipline. If this becomes the centre of consciousness, there is aridness, a longing for change and for early "excitements" (using that word in its more technical, psychological sense) which would give the sense of reality to the outer work. But this trained responsiveness to environing conditions, leading, as I have said, to right automatic habits of response, should be regarded as a liberation, setting you free for the deepening and the excitation of the inner, subjective life, wherein your centre of consciousness will become increasingly focussed. I am pointing this out to you as I feel (while I study your general condition) that this consciousness of release is one which you greatly need. The deep undercurrent of spiritual aspiration and mental attention to the impact of the soul is much needed by you all, and by you especially.

You have worked for some time at the alignment of the personality. This directed attention to the matter must have, and has, produced results, even if you yourself remain unaware of them. Others are conscious of them even if they cannot express to you wherein they sense the change.

To change your meditation is not my intention but I am going to give you seven seed thoughts and will ask you to concentrate upon them in your meditation period. Otherwise keep the meditation the same as earlier indicated. These seven thoughts are as follows:

1st month—The Power of the Soul pours like a steady current through my life. I sense it in my attitude to life, and in the light it brings as it sweeps through all the aspects of my nature. May that power strengthen my will to serve.

2nd month—The Light of the Soul streams forth like a beacon light upon my way; and in that light I see the light in others. I know I travel not alone.

3rd month—The Love of the Soul wells up within my heart; and understanding, pity, love and self-forgetfulness arise. I carry love to all I meet. I meet men's love with love and remember not myself.

4th month—The Joy of the Soul irradiates my life, and lightens all the burdens which those I meet may carry. The Joy of the Lord is my strength, and I develop strength in joy for others.

5th month—The Purity of the Soul acts like a cleansing flood and bathes my lower self in the "waters of purification." The body of desire is rendered pure and clean and strong. I can then become a cleansing force to all I meet.

6th month—The Will of the Soul becomes my will. I know no other. That will is love and peace and power and strength to live. It bears me on. It leads me to the Cross and to the Resurrection. Thus only can I raise and lift my fellowmen.

7th month—The Presence of the Soul abides with me. I walk with God by night and day. I stand with God upon the ways of men; the shadow of His Presence which is the Presence of my soul, reveals the God on every hand, in every man. I see divinity on every hand in every form.

I think, my brother, that if you ponder upon these thoughts and if you endeavour to incorporate them into the meditation upon alignment which I earlier gave to you, you will gain in power to do God's will. The two aspects of yourself—the aligned personality and the attentive soul—will march towards unity.

I give you no set work to do this time as I would have you carry out the instructions last given. However, if you care to note each month, the significance which may appear to you in your meditation work, you would crystallise your vague reactions and make the power behind these mantric formulas your own.

One word more I would now give to you, my brother. Stand steady and know that you are not alone. This group of disciples in my Ashram is not as yet an integrated whole; its personnel is not yet complete; but it does constitute already a harbour of refuge upon the inner planes. The love of your co-disciples is yours. May I also tell you: I, too, "stand by" you in understanding strength.

December 1937

MY BROTHER:

I wonder if you have noticed (and when I say "you" I refer to all the disciples in this ashramic group) that nearly all of you are on the second ray egoically.... The reason for this choice of second ray souls to work in this group, is because this ray is pre-eminently the teaching ray, the ray that is sometimes called that of "light-giving influence" or the "ray of the illuminator." The task of all true educators is to bring light to the minds of those they instruct, so that they may walk more securely in the way which leads to the goal for any particular incarnation. It was, therefore, obvious that the major influence, dominating the group, would be that of the second ray. The interesting thing to note, however, is that in practically all the cases it is the soul ray which has this predominating influence. There are no second ray personalities in this group. This requires, consequently, much definitely applied activity on the part of all of you in order to cause its manifested expression.

The next thing to note is that the personality rays are—with one exception—on the line of 1-3-5-7, showing thereby a tendency to preserve balance and to offset the powerfully controlling line of 2-4-6. I want this word balance to be much in your minds as you study the work of the Ashram and the group inter-relation. Only the balanced person can truly meet the need of those entrusted to him to teach or can handle with wisdom the two lines of synthesised force which are brought into conjunction in every teaching process. These two lines are the five lines of energy which compose the teacher's equipment and those which compose the equipment of the one who is to be taught.

In no profession is the attitude of the observer more required than in the teaching profession, and in no profession is the correct handling of one's personal forces of greater importance. This realisation will produce automatically two techniques which later we can study in greater detail: the technique of controlling one's own forces so that there can be no undue or dangerous pressure, and the technique of employing pressure correctly so as to evoke response in the one being taught. This constitutes a definite science and we shall deal with it as we proceed with our study.

One of the things which I seek to do today is to give you an analysis of the rays which determine your personality equipment so that you can balance your development to the best possible advantage, and know with what forces you can work. Another point also will emerge in time and that is the nature of the adjustment you will have to make to relate yourself to your co-disciples. These adjustments will be along the lines of innate predispositions and their utilisation to the best advantage in order to bring about an understanding which will lead to good and creative activity.

Then, my brother, I will give you and all in my group a meditation which will aid you in balancing your problem of interior ray inter-relation and, in this way, we shall gather together some ray meditations which may prove of value not only to yourself but to others, if used with due care. This is a thing which I have long wanted to do.

It is known to you that your major rays are the second and the seventh. The latter gives to you, if you can but understand it and choose to use it rightly, the power to take the light which is in you and in the pupil, and apply it to the enlightening of physical plane living, for the seventh ray is the ray controlling spirit-matter relationships.

Your mental ray is that of the fourth, the Ray of Harmony through Conflict, of beauty through order, and of unity through understanding. This, being on the line of your soul ray, will tend to bring about rapid contact with the soul, via the mind, if you apply yourself with diligence to the task involved. Your whole life problem is, therefore, that of relationships, both within yourself and in your chosen field of service. This is naturally true of all, but your particular battlefield in this connection lies in the reconciling of the forces warring within your own nature and in your particular environment. It is not the Kurukshetra of the "pairs of opposites," wherein Arjuna sits in the middle and seeks to balance the warring forces. It is the battlefield of higher relations—those between the soul and the personality, and between what you are in this life and the environment in which you find your chosen field of service. Your personal release lies in the production of harmony through conflict, and your best technique is to produce this harmonising influence within your environment as the result of your inner conflict, silently waged in the shrine of the mind.

Your astral or emotional body is on the sixth ray, so that again you have a line of force direct from the soul. In your case, this sixth ray energy shows itself predominantly as devotion to duty as realised, and to responsibility as recognised, and not so much in devotion to persons or even ideals. This has constituted a paramount balancing factor in your life.

Your problem will appear more clearly to you when I tell you that the ray of your physical body is the second.

1. The soul ray—the second Ray of Love-Wisdom.

2. The personality ray—the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order.

3. The ray of the mind—the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.

4. The ray of the astral body—the sixth Ray of Devotion and Idealism.

5. The ray of the physical body—the second Ray of Love-Wisdom.

This means that your entire equipment is along the second ray line of force and, therefore, much wise balancing is required. But how can this be done? And along what line of difficulty will the problem, which this situation brings about, be expected to emerge? I wonder if I can make it clear to you by pointing out that as the vehicles of the lower nature are on the same line as the soul influence, two difficulties will be present and should be recognised:

1. The influence of the ego or soul will come so easily at your particular point in evolution that the chances are that you will not recognise it; its vibration will be similar to the accustomed notes of your various bodies. You have, therefore, to train yourself in the art of differentiation so that you can recognise at will the various tones of your three bodies and can easily distinguish when there is present the tone of the soul, and react to its note or vibration. The secret of the power to distinguish the nuances of any particular line (such as your predominating line of 2-4-6) is through an increasing, planned sensitivity.

2. Where all lines of influences are related and similar, there will always be a tendency to negativity and a failure (except in moments of emergency) to assume a positive attitude—particularly towards the soul. What is needed in your case is more of the positive vibration of the first ray line of force, and to this line your seventh ray personality is the only open door. The inauguration of a regime of the power aspect of love would greatly help you. The understanding, identifying aspects of love are yours in great measure; much will come to you however if you use the will aspect of love through the medium of your seventh ray personality. I do not here refer to the will-to-love, my brother. That you have. I refer to the power-to-love and, through love intelligently and powerfully applied, to evoke right conditions in your environment. I would have you ponder on this and do the following first ray meditation....

Go forth to the day's work expecting and looking for the results of this first ray meditation. Know that those results are assured just as long as you can "stand with power in spiritual being."

August 1938

BROTHER OF MINE:

It is not my intent to do more than to give you a few brief words, a suggested meditation and a short elucidation of certain words which should embody for you your personality goal. You have so much study, and life today is so intense and full that a multitude of words might fall on ears stunned by the noise and glamour of our modern world.

You have had a year of strain, interior strain predominantly. I believe you realise that you are the better for it. Only in the stress of circumstances can the full power of the soul be evoked. Such is the law. The coming year may show but little relief or lessening of the strain but you are (interiorly again) far better equipped to handle it.

A word upon which I seek to lay stress is alignment. You need to develop a straight and direct contact between soul and brain for that is the distinctive feature in all disciples of experience. You have already brought about an alignment between the mind and the brain. The higher needed alignment has been much bettered and you need not work so hard now at developing that capacity. You need, however, to employ the line of force which you have succeeded in establishing between the soul and the personality with greater frequency and more facility. The result of this would be that the significance of two other words would become apparent and you would radiate light and love and become increasingly an inspiration to others. This second word, radiation, should form the key of your life until next I instruct you. The peculiar type of radiation which I want you to endeavour to express is that light which reaches others upon the wings of joy.

I would remind you here that happiness is the result of achieved personality desire; joy is the expression of the soul's surety, whilst bliss is the consummation which the monad bestows upon the initiate.

Prior to your group meditation, my brother, I would have you do the following brief spiritual exercise—as the Christian mystics call it:

1. Sound the O.M. three times as a personality, achieving alignment; then sound it three times as the soul, conferring inspiration.

2. Then, focussing yourself at as high a point as possible and using the creative imagination to your fullest capacity, see the radiation of love as light pouring from the soul and raying forth as a mental influence to others, as an emotional benediction to others, and as vital life in your aura and physical presence.

3. Sound the O.M. again three times as an integrated personality and soul, fused and blended into one.

My blessing rests upon you.

January 1939

You have one glamour, my brother, which to you is well known. I will not give it a name for that is needless, and you will know whereof I speak. It is allied to fear and tunes you in on that potent and well developed world glamour. It is connected with your astral body and your emotional desire nature. It is very potent and of long persistence, constituting therefore, a powerful thought habit. Live as if it existed not. As you seek to function as a soul and to act as from soul levels, you will learn that things which are potent and apparent in your personality consciousness arein fact non-existent; they enter not into the consciousness of the soul. You will know to what I refer. I would, using a phrase with a modern significance, advise you "to forget" this glamour once and for all. Let not this glamour limit the impression which you are in a position to make as you serve within your particular sphere of usefulness. Be not discouraged (which is an aspect of your particular glamour) at failing to see the results (in this life) of the conditioning which you are imposing on other lives. Remember, as a disciple, that in this life you are establishing those relations which may not manifest in their true importance until you—as a Master—gather around you your group for instruction; you are preparing for service many lives hence.

You are entering with renewed strength and vigour into the coming winter's work. Like many today, relief and release appear to lie in concentration upon your life-appointed task; in the performance and the perfection of duty is to be found a sense of contributing to the assuagement of the world need. Nevertheless, that does not suffice for a disciple, as you will have discovered; yet it constitutes for you a problem.

In teaching you, I seek to do three things:

1. Give training in the initial steps of technical discipleship so that a good foundation of knowledge in preparation for initiation is laid for future use.

2. Stimulate you to such an extent that the inner urge to express the spiritual reality (which is your true self) may overcome all the inertia which holds you down—as it does so many—to a restricted spiritual expression.

3. Integrate you more closely into the group life. I would remind you that in this group (if it is to be a true nucleus of the group life of the future) the disciple must recognise that it is the united group thinking, the unified group desire and the blended group activity which conditions its expression. This, in its turn, is the manifestation of the simultaneity and the synthesis produced by the sum total of the similar thoughts, desires and plans of the majority. It is for this reason, therefore, that I give you your instructions, in the hope that they may pronouncedly condition the group thinking and in this way produce the needed subjective changes.

I have told you that you were establishing those relations which may later manifest. I wonder if you are proceeding in any way consciously to do so? These relations are of a nature different to those existing between you and your associates in your chosen field of work or between you and your group brothers. A disciple and later the initiate of some degree or other—from the highest to the lowest—has a twofold relation to establish and to hold:

1. With those of like degree with whom he is associated in the work. Then their united relation enables them (as a result of their group unity) to be en rapport with levels of consciousness and of activities higher than their own. This is, therefore, a group relation, dependent upon the established inter-relation of group members.

2. With those to whom he is related karmically; or by his own choice which may not be karmic at all but a newly instituted decision; or by the choice of others opening to him avenues of contacts which he, himself, working alone, would never have made but which are the result of the drawing power of the group soul.

It will be of real value to you particularly to attempt to distinguish between these relations; to recognise and regulate those relations which are unavoidable and which are those definitely emerging from the past. These cannot be evaded and frequently constitute—through their interplay in the life of the disciple—a major life problem. The inter-relation between a disciple and the Ashram has also to be handled intelligently by him so that, by the subjective interplay, group fusion may proceed without hindrance and with dispatch. It is here that I would like to see closer integration and keener interest on your part. Your group attitude to your group brothers is somewhat negative, is it not? A more positive contact would be desirable.

I do not here refer to a personality contact such as the word "friendship" connotes but to an outgoing on your part to them and a receiving from them which is the higher spiritual connotation of the trite words "give and take." What do you give the group? What do you take from the group? Unless both exist there is no free circulation of the united thought and desire to which I referred above. Where these do not exist there is apt to be obstruction and blocking. It happens automatically without intention and is the result of a particular state of consciousness. This "gentle, unrecognised withdrawing" (as it has been termed) has its basis in many things. It can be a mode of self-protection, necessitated by long years of extreme sensitivity; this eventually must give place to the guarding of the group interests. It may be the result of shyness and of an inarticulate nature which longs and seeks for the companionship of the Way but knows not how to bring it into functioning process. It may be the result of a critical nature, for it is the critical mind which separates and divides, as you well know. It may again be caused by a habit of loneliness, induced by inherent natural tendencies, or by executive position and the circumstances of the individual life, or by sorrow or shock in early life experience. This must be balanced by an outgoing on the part of the soul which then shifts the whole problem of relations to a higher level of contact and brings release and the power to communicate, which is the hallmark of group life.

I would ask you to consider these thoughts with care and to ponder upon the establishment of group relations and their recognition in your brain consciousness, for it is your problem in connection with the group of which you are a part. To the exoteric relation must be added the inner. This I think you know. Such a contact should be relatively easy for you as you have four rays out of the seven active in your nature and because those rays which are apt to produce separative attitudes in the early stages of expression (the first, third, and fifth) are lacking in this incarnation.

I wonder, my brother, if you have noted the relation which exists between joy and radiation—two key words which I gave you years ago for your guidance? Radiation is a tangible substance and potency, producing effects. Your radiation or "quality of effective auric contact" is recognised and evokes reaction upon the objective plane in your immediate environment and by those who contact you. It is the subjective, consciously focussed radiation to which I here call attention. This should produce effects without physical contact, and this should constitute your joyfulservice. Joy is the most powerful impulse behind the right kind of radiation.

I would ask you: How does a Master reach his group of disciples? Through direct radiation. It is the basis of all telepathic communication, group interplay, and potent usefulness.

As an exercise to foster this desirable process of effective radiation, I would ask you for the next few months to endeavour to reach two of your group brothers through directed thought, joy and outgoing love. Choose any two you like and seek to establish contact. I would suggest two that you do not know personally, if possible, for that will make the exercise more directly useful, and, therefore, constitute a more adequate test.... There is need for some physical care, brother of mine, and also for the cultivation of a trained poise. Much you already have as training, but much will be demanded of you in the coming months and for this you must be prepared. Your life quality in expression is good. Intensification is all you need.

NOTE: This disciple is still actively cooperating with the Tibetan.

To I. A. P.

June 1938

BROTHER OF OLD:

The last few years have been for you years of strenuous activity and service, of personal discipline and difficulty and of hard work, accompanied by much external and interior upheaval. This you realise. It may be of some help and comfort to you if you realise also that this is known on the inner side and that none of it has been lost motion or waste of time. It has been for you a time of release and of liberation, little as you may grasp this fact.

Since 1917, I have watched your progress and your work. This will indicate to you how slowly we, who seek to help and guide our chelas, work. But it is by standing alone that all disciples grow and by feeling their way and discovering their own peculiar line of approach to the centre from which light streams out, and also by responding steadily and in realised loneliness to the call of duty and service. Now, however, the time has come when you can work with clearer vision, with a closer cooperation with and from the inner Centre and with less loneliness. You have now become a part of my group of disciples and these, a chosen band of brothers, are standing by you; I, too, seek definitely to make myself known to you and to draw closer to you in helpfulness and understanding. My Ashram and those of you who are being affiliated with it are becoming closely connected and esoterically form one group.

I would ask you to realise that in this work which we are planning to do together, we work with complete and open frankness, seeking to hide nothing from each other. We will bring into the open the successes, the failures and the weaknesses and look at them together in the clear light which comes from the Centre and in each other's presence. Such is the method of the New Age groups. The utmost impartial impersonality is our goal, for such an attitude sets us free for deepened service.

I am communicating with you, my brother, as with a trained worker and as one who has proven his willingness and his ability to serve and to make sacrifices for his fellowmen. Our objective is to function as a group, pledged to a united service in which all personalities are submerged and only the light of the soul shines forth. In that light, you will see light on your problems, both individual problems and those arising in connection with the group or in your chosen field of service. Two things I would like, however, to bring to your attention at this time and only two:

First, that as you work and serve and strive to train yourself, you must learn to "go out" more definitely to others, offering them the opportunity to serve and help in the work you are endeavouring to do, no matter how inexperienced they may be or how full of faults. Ponder on this and seek to work our way, for this is ever what we, the teachers and guides on the inner side, have to do. We offered you opportunity and you must also offer opportunity to others.

Secondly, be not weighed down or over-distressed by the weight of the ignorance and the lack of development of the masses whom you see around you. The psychic atmosphere of the countries in which you work is peculiar and most difficult for the disciples who are working in connection with us, the workers in the Great White Lodge. It is easier for chelas who work in connection with the . . . . . . Brotherhood (a branch of our activities). Such chelas do not, however, work with the intelligentsia or with the pioneers of the race or with the thinking aspirants. They work with the quality of spiritual aspiration to be found in the herd, in the mass, and not with or in the individual. They do not work with the type of person whom you can reach. I mention this because I know well the deep discouragement which can assail you as you react to the massed psychic impression. Release yourself from it in the assurance that the Great White Lodge is working for the aspirants and that the . . . . . . Brotherhood is working with the illiterate and ignorant masses. It is one work but delegated to different groups who work in the closest possible association.

I am assigning you no special work at this time, for your time is fully occupied in service. I suggest a meditation to you....

January 1940

BROTHER OF MINE:

I would suggest to you that your major danger at this time lies in a glamour which is the result of loneliness. There are certain glamours which work out as the result of a too close and restricted inner, spiritual life and an imposed introspection. Having no one to whom to talk and being far from your spiritual brothers, you are much alone; and being in a position of the one who teaches and who gives, you stand somewhat isolated and have withdrawn yourself—perhaps unduly, even if unavoidably—from the personality angle. This results in your creating a potent thoughtform of aspiration, of spiritual interpretation and of spiritual aims and goals. But this constitutes a thoughtform, my brother, no matter how lofty in nature, and can result in a pronounced glamour and a glamorous control in some form or another. It can speak to you and condition your psychology and of it you should be aware and so on guard; you should recognize it as your own creation, to be conditioned and controlled by you and not vice versa. You will, I think, know to what I refer.

Free yourself from this glamour for the sake of the service you have so efficiently rendered to us. Learn to recognise that the time limit is brief and that for you (as for your fellow disciples and for A.A.B.) only those things must be done which are of service to the whole and which are already set in motion. The initiating of new endeavours when the time in which to complete those for which you are responsible is relatively brief can constitute a glamour of a most handicapping nature. I thank you for what you have done in our service and I ask you to go forward along the lines you have already so firmly established.

NOTE: This disciple is still struggling, under conditions of great loneliness and in one of the Latin countries, to carry out the Tibetan's work and doing so most successfully.

To S. S. P.

May 1934

MY BROTHER:

We are to work together for a while and I seek to help. Your first objective is to set up an understanding relation with your group members and with myself. No groups belonging to the Masters or affiliated with Their Ashrams, such as are now planned under the new impulse emanating from the inner side, can function adequately unless there is willing and voluntary cooperation between the units who compose the group. This is not always easy.

You have been asking yourself on what grounds have you been chosen out of the many possible aspirants to do this particular work? Partly for karmic reasons, my brother—a karma that has touched mine at various points, and partly because the inner light has been fanned to a flame by your faithful adherence to the ordained duty. This warrants a further fanning of that flame by those of us who are seeking helpers in the outer world. Your objective is and has been service. This we know and to increase your capacity to serve is my objective. Are you willing to be taught and will you voluntarily attempt to conform to my suggestions? You can at any time cease to work and can drop out at will. There is no compulsion in this work of service which love of humanity and of the Great Ones calls forth.

Your attention has not primarily been fixed on the art of healing, yet you can—if you will—heal with potency those emotional ills which are deep-seated in the astral body; this latent and unrealised power of yours must be developed and brought to usefulness. Some people heal those afflicted with physical ills. Some work in the field of psychology and deal with those troubles which have a more mental basis. Others (and you amongst them) can aid in stabilising the emotional or astral bodies of those distraught. This I can teach you to do. But first of all, we must get you into a better organised condition so that you can present to your soul an aligned and clear channel through which spiritual force may flow.

For a while the focus of your attention must be upon the heart centre. To this end, a meditation which you will find in this instruction will be of service to you if you will work at it for the space of six months....

Your main difficulty and the main hindrance to your usefulness lies in the over-activity of your mind; this does not make you especially critical of other people but it does keep you yourself in a constant state of questioning and of bewilderment about the fundamentals by which humanity lives. A questioning of the unanswerable is a waste of time, my brother. The attempt to define the undefinable and to measure the mind of immensity is futile. Work, therefore, at the production of that inner mechanism of contact which exists as yet only in embryo within your personal ring-pass-not. Remember that only through right meditation, useful thinking, and the practice of harmlessness can this mechanism be duly developed. When developed, the futility of your questioning will be seen, for you will know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Think with simplicity.

I give you, my brother, a special piece of work to be done during the next six months. In my various books and writings I have referred much to healing and to the new developments in relation to the etheric body. Will you go through all of them and cull from them passages which have reference to healing in any form and to those passages which deal with people connected with the healing art. Thus will you serve me and my group of disciples and make that which I have said more easily available in compact form for the group use. This will be a real service.

To you I give this message: Seek not the reason yet for all that does appear, but learn to love and do. Work from the heart and not from the head and balance your unfoldment. With heart and head aligned, the healing force can flow with power through you to others.

November 1934

MY BROTHER:

I have but little to say to you this half year, so brief a time have you been working in this group. The doors of opportunity have opened wide for you, for your increased stimulation (through your group affiliation) has so enhanced your potency that your vibration attracted attention where your words on occult matters would have fallen on deaf ears. Herein is your field of service and herein lies your test. Particularly for you the word magnetismshould be considered. You have some definite magnetic power. This you know. But through which centre will it flow, and via which body? I give you here a thought and I indicate to you a field of awareness, concerning yourself, that you should learn to master. Some day you will be forced to face the issue and decide from what plane and through which body you will work. Will you be mentally magnetic, and stimulate the mental bodies of those you serve, or will your magnetism be astral and feed the emotional nature of those you contact? Animal magnetism isnot what interests you, but that which you have can be consecrated, through reticence and control, to service. Egoic or soul magnetism should be your goal, and from that point of soul influence you can some day work. But as the soul makes magnetic all three bodies, you must learn control and right use; otherwise soul force, pouring through that which is uncontrolled, will inevitably destroy.

Keep on with the same meditation. Later I will give you an entirely new mode of meditation, if you proceed with this as desired. I would ask you to keep careful monthly records. They need not be long but must be sincere. Note specifically and accurately your emotional effect upon:

a. Your family.

b. Your associates.

c. Those to whom you lecture or preach.

d. The lives you touch each day.

Note this, brother of old, and enter on your record in your spiritual diary. Thus will you learn to work and understand.

Study again with care what I said to you a few months ago and may the clarity of light guide your heart, your thoughts, and aspiration.

June 1935

MY BROTHER:

During the coming six months I am going to ask you to do two things: First of all, concentrate your energy each day and do not dissipate it in so many unrelated activities. A wise conservation of energy and the elimination of non-essential activity is for you desirable at this time; it will bring about an inner organisation of your forces which in a year's time will greatly increase your usefulness in service.

Secondly, I want you to lay emphasis in your meditation on the simple, and apparently elementary, stage of alignment. The work of watching each day your use of energy, and your meditation practice in alignment will produce in you a greatly increased efficiency. Your alignment is weak. Your motives are all that could be desired from the angle of your knowledge; your devotion to the cause of humanity is equally right; your liking for your fellowmen is very real. Your mind is active and alert, and you are deeply interested in life and in all that concerns human relations. But your coordination and your alignment are not good. The coordination factor is that which governs the integration of your personality—mental, emotional and physical—whilst the alignment factor is related to the control by your soul, and the establishing of a direct line of contact between your soul and your brain, via your mind.

Figuratively speaking, there is a lack of steady contact between the mind and the astral body. Here is the weak place in your alignment. When you are mentally alert, which is quite often, a temporary coordination is set up and there is what one might call a momentary alignment. But the moment your mental activity ceases there is a complete break. You then function as a sentient, emotionally vital and active person, with the mental nature remaining outside the lower alignment.

I told you earlier that you could work as a psychological healer. This is true. But your knowledge of modern psychology is as yet weak; you should read and think more definitely along academic lines for that will aid in bringing about the needed integration and coordination.

In the production of alignment during meditation, I will ask you to do the following exercises, in breathing and in focussing. You know well, do you not, my friend and brother, that the more disciples are aligned and coordinated, the greater will be their power in service.

Therefore, attempt the following breathing exercise, paying particular attention to the interlude, and to the line of thought which you carry forward during these interludes. This is, for you, a somewhat difficult task, yet the interlude should be the easiest and most effective part of the meditation work. An interlude, properly held and utilised, is one of the preparatory steps towards that occult phenomenon, called by the oriental teachers, samadhi....

Then meditate deeply during the next six months on the following six phrases, holding the consciousness as high in the head as possible, and attempting to hold the mind steady in the light and aligned with the brain.

1st month—May the light of the soul illumine my mind, and shed a light upon the way of others.

2nd month—May the love of the soul control my lower nature, and guide me in the way of love.

3rd month—May I act as a soul in all my ways, and thus awaken others to a right activity.

4th month—I teach the way to others. I seek to contact souls, not minds.

5th month—As a soul, I serve my fellowmen.

6th month—I place the torch of truth in other hands, and from my torch they light their light.

If you follow these simple suggestions, my brother, you will be surprised at the results which will appear in a year's time. Simplicity is the way of soul growth. Be simple.

Each month, write a simple summation of your thoughts and service as you work with the monthly seed thoughts. Endeavour to make these six papers of real mental value to others, and also see, if possible, that they have a magnetic value and that they breathe out, not only mental understanding, but also an emotional appeal. Attend likewise to the form in which you cast them for that will be the symbol on the physical plane of your inner alignment.

January 1936

I have very little to say to you this half year, my brother. The meditation work and the exercises assigned to you in your last papers were intended to cover your work for the period of one year.... I would ask you to study your last instructions with exceeding care. All I intend to do is to give you a new series of seed thoughts. Your coordination is better, but your alignment is still weak. One of the objectives, which you should have steadily in view, is the constant cultivation of the attitude of the observer, of the one who assumes and holds the position of the perceiver. This you are beginning to realise, for I note in you a closer attention to the daily duties of the disciple, and a more observant attitude towards yourself, and towards what you do and say and think. This reaches, likewise, to your life on the astral plane, and you are becoming aware of the dreams and experiences in the hours of sleep. Remember ever, however, that these also are a part of the great illusion. The goal is to develop the powers of observation which are those of the soul, and the cultivation of the power to register, through the medium of the brain, the thoughts of that divine Perceiver.

In order to achieve this attitude there is no need for you to subject yourself to constant criticism. Each day, however, subject yourself to a brief and exact analysis. I suggest for your personal use a form of evening review.... Have the thought of the divine Perceiver as you work over it each day, and seek to see yourself in the light of that spiritual perception. It is not necessary, my brother, to do this at night, if the hour, fatigue or your duties should render it inconvenient. Do it once in the twenty-four hours and do it with care.

Disciples everywhere have to work hard at the task of self-perfecting for the world situation demands trained and skilled workers. No group can be used in world service that is not working in perfect accord and this harmony must be attained as a group. It must be brought about, not through the process whereby people withdraw within themselves and thus inhibit that which upsets group equilibrium, but by the process of loving self-forgetfulness. You have within yourself a good deal of steady staying power, and you have also a definite capacity to radiate. Use these powers as a contribution to your group life, and, by means of your loving radiation, strengthen the group structure, and stimulate the group love. This is something I ask you definitely to do.

My brief instructions to you can be summed up as follows:

1. Keep your meditation as heretofore.

2. Follow carefully the review work assigned you.

3. Above everything else pay close attention to reaching me, if possible, at the time of the Full Moon and give to the five days thereof your constant thought. I am anxious to see a greater emphasis built up this year in connection with your contact with me, your teacher and your friend.

One other point I seek to make, my brother, whom I hope to see drawn into a closer relation of service. This point may be regarded by you as in the nature of a criticism. From my point of view and lucidity, it is the pointing out of a hindrance to your progress; it is in the nature of a stone or rock over which you might stumble as you tread the pathway towards the light. You have, as you know and as I have told you, a very critical mind; you are full of response to, and recognition of, the weaknesses and frailties of your family and associates. Let not this grow upon you, but let it cease, for it builds a barrier between you and them, and obstructs and hinders your service.

The seed thoughts on which I would ask you to meditate are as follows:

1st month—The heart as a radiating centre of love.

2nd month—The radiance which shows itself as joy.

3rd month—The will, as directed by love and expressed in freedom.

4th month—Speech as an expression of a heart at rest.

5th month—The power to dwell, unmoved, at the centre.

6th month—The personality, as a reflector of the light of the soul.

December 1936

MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND:

One of the secrets of true life, which is beginning to emerge in your consciousness, is that of being. It must take the place of doing. Life has so arranged itself for you that activity is the way of expression and the line of least resistance. The pressure of the times in which you live and the need of the world have definitely forced you to be active in a fairly large environment. So do our souls arrange for us the major ways of life! But there is slowly dawning upon you the realisation that by "standing in spiritual being" (more than by any specific activity) you can express the deep basic trends of your life, and make yourself of value in your surroundings. This is predominantly your life lesson and, my brother, you are just beginning to learn it.

For you, radiation is the keynote. And you can radiate. For you, the goal is to be a channel and no more and no less. This is the outstanding requirement and demand of your soul from your personality. This, I believe, you already know, and a study of your soul and personality rays should make clear to you why, in this life, this is so.