SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES (Continued) - PART 12
The past six months have been disciplining months for you. In them you have made two serious mistakes and three real successes in connection with your life activity—exterior and interior. Will you make a study of these, discovering first of all what they are and learning from them? Look life in the face, my brother, and be ready to recognise and admit error; be equally ready, however, to perceive where success has crowned your effort and glorified your way; learn also to look for your failures where the outside world may see only success or some kind of achievement.
Your sense of values is sound, but needs shifting on to a higher arc of the spiral. Your gifts of understanding and of psychological intuition are exceedingly good, but need further use. The claims of your personality life, that may perhaps bring you personality satisfaction, require re-orienting to the present life demand and to the urgency of the present time. You have much to give, my brother, and I would urge you to give it, and in so doing I would also urge you not to become unduly aware of your efficient giving.
There is at this time something in the nature of a stoppage in the flow of life and love in your second ray soul. Can you discover what it is, my brother, and during the next few months, alter and change this condition? Among the members of this group of disciples there are eight second ray souls. Why is this? Because the healing ray, above all others, is the second ray. There are two major healing rays among the seven. They are the second and the seventh. The success of all healing enterprise, therefore, depends upon the ability of the group members to work at will and on demand, under the influence of their souls.
It will be apparent to you also why it has taken so long a time to get this group of disciples ready for active healing service. It was necessary for me to help all of you to achieve a fuller expression of soul force through the medium of your personalities. You have given but little difficulty in this connection, for your soul has an easy line of descent (if I may so express it), via your fourth ray mind and your second ray astral body.
If you will study your rays, my brother, you will note that you are eminently equipped to heal, for you have two streams of second ray energy flowing through you and also two streams of seventh ray energy. This makes for power in healing. [642] It will be found, when we come actively to work, that some of you will be predisposed to mental healing; that others will function more easily along the line of astral or psychic healing; and still others will bring about physical healing. This means that this group should be able to work with the whole person or with groups as a whole. I would ask all of you to ponder upon this statement and see how wide a field of service is opening up. I would ask you to realise your potency in healing, and with care to dedicate yourself to this, seeing that your group-soul ray is in control and dominating your personality. This will render you selfless in all that you attempt to do, and will guard you from undue interest in place, position and success.
During the next few months, I will ask you to stabilise yourself at the centre of your being, to achieve easy contact with the soul, and to build with care the antahkarana, from the heart, via the head to the soul. I would ask you to render all possible psychological aid when demand comes to you, and through those channels which are at this time definitely open to you. I would ask you to bring to the Full Moon approach an intensity of purpose which should carry you to a high point of group fusion. I have asked several of you to take many days for preparation before and after the Full Moon period of five days. For you I would suggest a different technique.
I want from you tensity, dynamic one-pointedness and focussed attention. I would, therefore, suggest that you focus on the Full Moon Approach (owing to the tension and strain which my suggestion may evoke in your vehicles) for only one day prior to the Full Moon, for the day of the Full Moon itself, and for the day succeeding the Full Moon. I would ask you to look for and expect certain reactions—phenomenal and psychological. These may be immediate in appearance, or they may work into your consciousness during the week which succeeds the Full Moon. I refer not here to lower psychic phenomena, but to certain spiritual occurrences and soul intuitions which can be sometimes noted when the point of tension is adequate. Watch for these experiences—intuitive, telepathic and spiritual—and note them in your spiritual diary, attempting rightly to interpret them.
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I give you no special work except that which I am asking of all the group members. I ask from you a task of intensification, and this will permit a greater usefulness in the group.
August 1938
BROTHER OF OLD:
There is little that I have to say to you or to any of the group at this time. The last group instructions given were long and full and will warrant fresh study and consideration. Please give attention to that which I last wrote. The new group work will also suffice to occupy you fully. There is much in what I say which will provide full time study; there is a new meditation to be grasped, mastered and practised; there is definite healing work to be done. You are, likewise, meditating changes in your life. These changes are of an academic nature and not definitely personal and your motive is sound. To them I would like briefly to refer. As I do so, I would ask you, at the same time, to bear in mind that I but make suggestions.
You are naturally a good psychologist and have an intuitive understanding of people. Please bear this in mind without over-estimating yourself, remembering that the academic intellectual approach to humanity which is called modern psychology, should not blunt the edge of that serene understanding, that automatic, unreasoning comprehension which is yours today. Bear this in mind always, because I somewhat fear the academic teaching for you. In many ways, you do not need it. Remember also that, sensitive as you are (and this is your main contribution to the work which we are seeking to do), you may react unduly to the group impact in which you will find yourself as you take academic teaching. If this happens, the true group to which you belong—the group of the new psychologists upon the inner side—may recede into the background of your consciousness. Then you will be of no use in the real and true sense of the word. Mistake me not, my brother. I seek not to deter you from your search for academic knowledge. A measure of that is wise and needed. You are, however, apt [644] to forget that much can be gained by judicious reading and by the instruction of certain carefully chosen psychologists whose knowledge and whose grasp of human essentials is ahead of the rank and file of their collaborators.
One thing I would ask of you: Use as the basis of all your work that which I have written upon the seven rays and accept this teaching as a proven hypothesis; be not deterred from this acceptance by any academic word-phrasing. You belong to the new school which is entrusted with the task of producing the new, esoteric psychology, based upon the five rays which are manifesting through every human being—the soul ray, the personality ray, and the rays of the three bodies of the personality. It is all energy and force and this the modern psychologist does not remember. If you accept and determine this occult hypothesis as your basic premise and apply all you may learn to the touchstone of the occult and spiritual teaching, you may achieve much. But, my brother, let two things take first place: The study of the rays and, secondly, their application to human life. Then will follow the practice and active work with individuals. You will learn much more through personal contacts and service than you will from lectures and books, though these, in reason, have their place.
Your work for the rest of your life must be based upon right perspective (free from false values) and an organised active service. Discipline for yourself (and this you like not) and service for your fellowmen, will release in you the knowledge which you gained in earlier lives and there is, consequently, much that you can do. The only teaching which you need from the orthodox, academic psychologist is an understanding of the nature of the different schools (each of which emphasises some one truth), in their basic premises and their modes of approach.
May I ask you to bear in mind that you do not need to identify yourself with any particular school. Each of them embodies the attempt of the human mind to understand, subjectively and objectively, the nature and purpose of man's evolution. All of them are partially right in their conclusions and largely wrong; all of them are only preparatory to the new [645] and coming school of psychology which will be the distinguishing attitude of the New Age. You can do much, if you will, to reveal this new school to others.
My blessing rests upon you.
NOTE: This disciple is still working in the Ashram.
To E. E. S.
March 1938
MY BROTHER:
You have been asked to join this group, composed of certain of my chosen students. You have been asked to join for three reasons and, knowing your enquiring and reasonable mind, I felt that my best approach to you would be to state what these three reasons are:
1. There is a vacancy in the ranks of my disciples. This vacancy must be filled (in order to save time) by one whose interest in healing has been established, and who has had some experience in healing work. It must also be one who has been trained for some years in right methods of work.
2. You have a definite karmic relation to two members in my group and, needless to say, you have a link with me, your Tibetan teacher and friend.
3. You are free from two faults which have strongly coloured the personnel of some of my groups; a tendency to criticise and to discuss each other and likewise a strong liking for close personality contacts. Neither of these attitudes interests you and you can therefore be of real usefulness in the group as a stabilising force.
In view of these facts upon which I would ask you to ponder and in view of the relationship, I welcome you into this group for special training with the view of special service.
It is no easy matter to interject one's vibration into a group, or to start work in a group which has been functioning for several years and which has established its own rhythm. This [646] group is a difficult one. Some groups have work which automatically confines their attention to mental levels. Other groups are chosen because of their ability to work on astral levels. The task of this particular group is to work with power on physical levels; hence the definite personality tendencies and the desire for outer contact which several of the group members have so strongly demonstrated. I would have you bear this in mind and maintain watchfulness over yourself and helpfulness towards others. I would ask you, therefore, if you would do so, to take this summer for careful and serious study of all the instructions that the group have received so that—by a self-applied forcing process—you can start on an equal basis.
I am giving you no set meditation work until my next communication. This instruction will provide you with more than adequate meditation material, and I would ask you to do no more than read and ponder on it and assimilate as much as you can.
To bring you up to date with the other group members, I would like also to indicate to you not only your personality and soul rays (for this I always do with any new disciple) but also to indicate the rays of your personality vehicles.
Your soul ray is the seventh, which would enable you to work with facility in the new world which is emerging into manifestation with such rapidity. It will aid you also in producing order and rhythm in your environment; in these days of turmoil and difficulty, every rhythmic centre is of value to us.
Your personality ray is the sixth. This gives you power upon the astral plane and, in consequence, it gives you a powerful and sensitive astral body with all the implications of success and failure which go with that situation.
The close juxtaposition of your soul and personality rays is an asset, not a hindrance. This leads to quick results on the physical plane when both types of energy are simultaneously applied. Ponder on this.
Your mental body is definitely on the fourth ray and it is through this fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict that you can establish a rapid rapport with your brothers. It makes for understanding, intelligently applied, and for the emergence of beauty through that established rapport. It is [647] the quality in you which gives you an ordered sense of colour, proportion and of harmony in your planned environment. It also evokes in you at times a violent reaction to that which seems incorrect, inharmonious and out of tune or line.
Your astral body is upon the sixth ray so that it will be obvious to you that through that vehicle your personality will find the least resistance; there also lies the need for watchful supervision. This I think you know and there is no need for me to elaborate this theme.
You have a first ray physical body. This is the only vehicle or energy of expression in your equipment which is on one of the major rays. Curiously enough, this fact indicates to those of us who watch on the inner side that your monadic ray is the first and that later, in your next life, it will be necessary for you to shift the centre of your egoic or soul attention on to the second ray. The shift of emphasis has in it the main objective of this present incarnation and hence your possession of a sixth ray personality and astral body. This devoted, idealistic one-pointedness is an aid to you in your soul's enterprise. I know that this will give you much food for thought and instigate you to renewed purpose in your life endeavour.
1. The soul ray—seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order.
2. The ray of the personality—sixth Ray of Devotion.
3. The ray of the mental body—fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.
4. The ray of the astral body—sixth Ray of Devotion.
5. The ray of the physical body—first Ray of Will or Power.
The qualities which you should cultivate are persistence, expansion, and strength, applied with love.
March 1939
BROTHER OF MINE:
This instruction is necessarily brief; you have had two from me during the past twelve months and these two, with this brief word of encouragement and cheer, must be studied and assimilated. They will thus form part of your mind's knowledge and of your soul's expression.
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I would say to you that the guarding of your physical health for another eighteen months, is most desirable; the tension, incident upon your inner contacts and your spiritual work, takes ever its toll of the physical body and time must be allowed for adaptation and assimilation. This I think you definitely understand and accept.
Proceed with the work which we discussed and which I assigned and sanctioned—both the group work and that which I sanctioned individually. Experiment with that which has been suggested and to which I make no new indicative reference because the matter lies between yourself and me. Give expression to the thoughts which I gave in my first instruction to you.
And that is all, my brother.
January 1940
BROTHER OF MINE:
The coming three years will be those in which you will have to fight glamour with care, preparatory to clearing your aura for increased service. You must seek to walk with accuracy in the light, for the path of the mediator cannot be trodden until the glamour of the mystic vision has been dissipated and the vision itself has been lost to sight in accomplishment and identification. You will note how frequently I am using the word identification in my various instructions. The reason is that it connotes the goal held before all disciples who are being trained for certain major expansions of consciousness. I seek to have your help and this you know. Clarity of definition releases the vision and clarity in word and language is a symbol of this release (from vision) into identification. Ponder on this. It is this clarity, resulting in occult certainty and not in mystical belief, that I seek for you and hence my reference to the glamour of the vision. It (the vision) evokes its own aura and its own atmosphere, and the disciple must penetrate through this to reality. I have here, in the above carefully phrased paragraph, given you enough to engage your attention until May.
I would tell you also that the stimulation of the solar plexus and of the heart centre (which will be the inevitable result of the meditation I have assigned) will give you an ability to tune [649] in on "things as they are" in the world today—the undesirable aspects and tragedies, via the solar plexus, and the human reactions and the good purposes through the medium of the heart. Be ready for this through the activity of an illumined mind, an intelligent appreciation of true values and a deep and true love of your fellowmen which will enable you to sacrifice for the good of the whole. Seek to see humanity liberated, free and able to live their daily lives in the light of love and do your share in bringing this about on all the planes whereon you can consciously function.
As you meditate during the coming months, much knowledge and many readjustments may come to you. In the group stimulation, you must look for a fusion and an expansion leading to a growing identification; this will change you from a securely placed server and worker into one who is willing to take risks for the cause of humanity and through love of his fellowmen. Love each other. Think with clarity, free from the effects of prejudice and propaganda. Serve with all that is in you these days of world agony, and remember that if you are not suffering with your brothers throughout the world who are in the midst of the strife and turmoil (I mean a participating suffering and not a struggle to understand and to be sympathetic, such as the world is at present rendering to Finland), you are missing one of the greatest revealing agencies of all time.
My blessing rests upon you as always and for all time.
NOTE: This disciple had a peculiarly close place to the Tibetan and some very definite work had been planned for him, but temporary considerations and the influence of another person usurped his attention and at present he is not working in the Ashram.
To R. R. R.
January 1936
MY BROTHER OF OLD:
You have handled life with courage, with inspiration and with temper. Is this not so? If you will endeavour, in thefuture, to leave the last named quality out, your life of service will flow with greater freedom, and with less impediments and hindrances, and consequently lost time. I realise that there have been times when the temper has been a great relief. You have now reached the stage of the pledged worker and of the sannyasin, and you have proved your mettle in the fire of difficulty. Much dross has been burned out. Your courage has carried you through and the inspiration of your soul (which you can with such facility touch) has held you steady and sweetened your personality. See to it, for the sake of the service which you can render, that you add to these two fine capacities, the sense and power of Rest, for that is what you need.
Study the keynotes of your life. They should and can be your outstanding characteristics, and that for which you can be known before your term of service ends.
There is so little that I can say to you that you do not already know, where character building is concerned. There is so little that is new and fresh that I can indicate to one who is so experienced upon the Path. Theoretically, you know so much. It remains to render theory into more adequate practice, and at this you are already working. What therefore can I say or do, but stand beside you, occasionally speak a word, oft times smile with you and be busy with my many duties when the flare of temper comes! That I wish not to see, and so will symbolically turn my back. Is not this what you wish, my brother?
Your contribution to the work of my disciples is reflective thought and the writing of that which will be constructively helpful, for this you can so well do. Have patience as you watch this group work unfold, for as yet you see not the real purpose or the coming integration or group relation.
There are two people, my brother, whose influence upon your life is destructive and who oft have hurt you much. (I refer not to your feeling.) Until your inner relation to them is one of complete yet loving detachment, they will be apt to hinder your unfoldment. I say no more, save that it hurts you e'en if you realise it not, but you are hurt because there is no love in your thought life where they are concerned. Loving detachment is the method which should govern your [651] approach to the majority of people you will contact. You evoke as yet too violent a response from others. This is due to your mishandling of the force which flows through you. Get this matter adjusted and your present sphere of service will provide a fine training ground in the matter. Then your power to help will be greatly increased. I and your group brothers on the inner side are looking for your help in world service. May I say, for your encouragement, that you have made a good beginning.
I would like to suggest that you add to your usual diary notations, a registering of Ideas. You will find it fruitful and constructive. Every six months, list those ideas so that they can be shared by your group brothers. Add to them any thoughts as to their enriching and their materialising. This is one way wherein the new ideas will be disseminated and spread. Some one must think them and some one speak them and some one must respond to them.
Follow the meditation outline here suggested until April or until further notice:
1. After a short breathing exercise, achieve alignment and self-forgetfulness.
2. Sound the O.M. audibly.
3. Say the following invocation:
"May the Holy Ones Whose pupils we aspire to become so strengthen us that we may give ourselves without reserve, seeking nothing, asking nothing, hoping nothing for the separated self; may we be content to be in the light or in the dark, to be active or passive, to work or to wait, to speak or to be silent, to take praise or reproach, to feel sorrow or joy—our only wish to be what They need as instruments for Their mighty work, and to fill whatever post is vacant in Their household."
4. Then meditate for 15 minutes upon the following seed thoughts:
1st month—Restfulness—"The Place of Rest is on the mountain top whereon I stand detached. Flooded I am by the life and love of God. That love I send to all my fellowmen."
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2nd month—"Rest has its centre in activity."
3rd month—Refinement—"The fires of God, electric and dynamic, burn out alloy. They leave the pure gold untouched."
4th month—"The burning fire blazes forth in all three worlds and all three bodies pass into the flame. Divinity remains."
5th month—Radiance—"The Rest of God underlies all life. The fires of God blaze forth. Men warm themselves before my fire. The radiance divine shines forth through me."
6th month—"May I be lost to sight, and only the radiance and the rest reach forth to men."
5. Hold the mind then steady in the light and carry your plans and service into the Presence.
April 1937
BROTHER OF MINE:
You stand today at a critical moment in your inner life and on the threshold of great opportunity. Upon the progress made during the next two years will depend whether you enter into a life of widely expressed usefulness, or whether you simply continue into the future as you are now, leaving to another life the lesson which you need and which you can learn now.
You are in a place of wide possibility for service. Your opportunity to make a real impact upon the consciousness of those around you is far above the average. The need of the world today has never been so great, nor the responsibility resting upon those who are treading the Path of Discipleship so deep, real and urgent. We need all who are working upon this Path and who are aspiring towards release. We need those who are seeking close contact with their souls and with Us Who are seeking to guide the race today. We need cooperators of dedication and selflessness as never before in the history of the race. Situated as you are now in a key position and meeting people [653] of every nation, your opportunity to fire other lives, to hand the torch of living love to others, and to send people forth as agents of the light to their own countries and spheres of influence can be great. Its extent depends upon your willingness to make certain changes and adjustments within yourself and to reorient yourself. These changes are simple, but are of so wide-reaching a nature and are so drastic in their scope that I ask myself if you are sufficiently aware of the world need to sacrifice your potent personality—in all sincerity and loving willingness—to that need. Are you?
These are days when the unit either counts for very little and simply has a normal collective value in the presence of the pressure in the world and the current turmoil, or else he can count for a very great deal.
At present you count for very little when measured up against the world need, but you could count for much. You make very little impact upon the public consciousness in spite of your opportunities, and your natural equipment. But you could be one of the most useful of the world disciples in your particular grade and sphere of service, if you so chose.
Everything in you is however short circuited and your light and radiance, therefore, is of the personality and not of the soul; your power to stir others and to move them forward is futile. Its truth is apparent to me all the time, and if you will consider the implications of my words, you will also see their justice. It is yourself as the worker, yourself as the one who is handling situations and dealing with people, yourself as the dramatic centre of all that happens around you, yourself as the one who talks and teaches and writes, yourself as the one who yearns and struggles and is tortured and misunderstood and faced with constant crisis (of no moment whatsoever in the larger picture) which is the preoccupation of your mind. You are the one who is being happy and unhappy, who is anxious or not anxious, who is acting wisely or learning frightfully drastic lessons—everything short circuited and arrested by yourself and, therefore, no clear radiant light, unimpaired by the clouds of self, the little self, and unimpeded by the reflections of the personality.
Do I sound harsh, my brother? I am not feeling so. What [654] I am endeavouring to do is based on a knowledge of you as a Soul, and an appreciation of what you—as a soul—could do. You are gifted, wise and powerful, but all this is relatively negated because you cannot step out of the centre of your own picture and off your own stage, and be simply a self-forgetting channel of love and light. This, however, you are not. You are struggling furiously to be such a channel, but you are so preoccupied with your struggle and are so aware that you are struggling that the reality for which you thus struggle is oft forgotten. It is lost to sight in the dramatic picture you have of yourself as a tortured disciple, with phenomenal difficulties in your life.
But your difficulties and problems are not phenomenal, my brother. There is nothing dramatic about your experience and it is far less trying and difficult than is the experience of many. This is the message which I have for you. Your life is cleared for service, for you are free to serve, and the opportunity so to serve is given to you. You have gifts of mind, and brain and heart above the average—bound up in your personality, to be sure, but there for release and for use. They can be employed to give you much influence and the power to lift others. Your physical liabilities are of no importance, because they have no real physical basis; they are related to the emotional nature, and are expressive of the inner storms in which you so constantly live. Once you have decided to decentralise yourself and cease poisoning your body with the astral activity which sweeps you so constantly, your physical difficulties will gradually disappear.
You have a gift for words in speech and writing, which is rare and valuable, and you have a sincerity of purpose that evokes my admiration, and upon which I am depending at this time. It is, however, largely used in portraying yourself to the people around you. You are the theme of all you say. Had you realised this, my brother? I think not.
We need you in our work. You are, as I have already pointed out, in a position of responsibility. The place where you find yourself is, for you, the place of revelation and illumination. It is also the place where your best service can at present be rendered. Your problem is not at all subtle or [655] obscure. This makes it easier, therefore, to grasp, to solve and to handle. It is simply the problem of self-forgetfulness. When you have forced yourself out of your picture, and have learnt to be silent as to yourself and what you think, and feel and do, my brother, the richness of the contribution you will have to give will be so great that your field of service and your power to cooperate with the Hierarchy will be greatly expanded. You are needed. You are needed where you are. Will you make the necessary adjustments in cooperation with me in what I seek to do to bring about your release?
This problem must be handled through meditation and through constant daily observation. It must be dealt with through right thought; the first thing to be done is for you to discover yourself, and realise the impression you make on people. You must find out and decide for yourself whether my analysis is justified, and whether truth lies behind what I have written. Thus you can be helped to enter upon a voyage of discovery about yourself which (if you handle it with humour, detachment and sincerity) will end by enabling you to enter upon a closer relationship with the Hierarchy and pass into a higher state upon the Path of Discipleship. I do not mention this as in any way constituting a reward, but as indicating a possibility which will greatly enrich your service.
Your meditation can, for the next three months, follow the lines indicated below. During these months, you can follow this suggestion and then resume your meditation as last outlined by me for the remaining three months.
MEDITATION OUTLINE
1. Achieve comfort, alignment and control. These I need not elaborate to you. You know.
2. Sound the O.M. as the soul, breathing it out in benediction upon the personality.
3. Sound the O.M. as the personality, responding to the soul.
4. Sound the O.M. as the synthesis of personality and soul.
5. Then, relaxing, deal each day of the week with the following seven questions:
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Sunday.................. Did I work as a soul in my service yesterday, or as a personality? Was my interest in myself, as a server? Or was I engrossed with the need of those I served?
Monday................ In helping others, or in speaking with anybody, did I speak (yesterday as I served) about myself at all?
Tuesday................ What was the general tenor of my thoughts during the day—the work I had to do, other people or myself?
Wednesday........... What was the centre of my life yesterday—the soul whose nature is impersonal love, or the personality whose nature (at my point in evolution) is that of the "one at the centre," the dramatic self, expressing consistently the lower nature?
Thursday............... How often did I refer to myself yesterday, either in pity, or as an illustration, or to evoke interest?
Friday................... What was my major preoccupation yesterday? Was I happy? Why? Was I unhappy? Why? Was I dramatic? Why?
Saturday . . . What effect did I have on people? Why did I have it? Did I speak of myself to them?
6. Then, humbly, gratefully and happily, make the following affirmations:
a. I press forward towards the goal of fuller service; I am the soul, whose nature is light and love and selflessness.
b. I orient my mind towards the light, and in that light, I see the soul. I am the Plan, and am at-one with all that breathes.
c. I purify my astral life and know myself to be nothing but a channel for the love of God. And, in this potent body of the lower self, naught can exist which blocks the outgoing love of God to all I meet.
d. I stand erect through love and strength divine. I manifest the nature of a Son of God. Thus can I [657] salvage those who suffer on the way of life, and lift the little ones.
Can you adjust yourself to this indicated need, my brother? Is your love of the work and of your group brothers adequate to enable you to face your problem? I believe that it is, and you know and must realise that, in love, I stand by, and will not fail you if you need me, and if you call. More than this I cannot say.
October 1937
I wonder, brother of mine, if you have ever really grasped the truth that the sense of being at the centre of the stage in your life is a first ray characteristic? In your case, it is dominantly a personality trait, for second ray people are not prone to this dramatic ego-centric attitude. When, therefore, your second ray soul really dominates, that sense which now controls (the sense of being always at the centre, the focal point of interest) will begin definitely to fade out.
The above statement will indicate to you what you have to do, for—at the present time—your life, your thoughts, your work and service, and your relations to others are all built around yourself. Never, my brother, for a single second do you really disappear from the picture, even in what you regard as your highest spiritual moments. You are still a personality working, and not a soul working, for your theory outstrips your performance. Hence your really profound unhappiness and disappointment.
What shall be done? How can you change all this? Of what use is it for me to point out to you a condition unless I, at the same time, point out the remedy or the way of release? And, at the same time, can I tell you anything you do not know? Is there any aspect of the truth in connection with yourself of which you remain as yet unaware?
All that I can say is that, for you, release must come through the substitution of the Plan for your plans, of human need for your need, and of the Work for your task. Ponder on that word Substitution. At present, it is your plans, and not the Plan; it is your needs—financial and physical, emotional and mental—and not the needs of the New Group of World Servers; it is your [658] work and what you have to do and not the expectant daily meeting of the needs of others. Those who come to you, you see in the light of your own personality, and in terms of their reactions to you. You see them not as souls or as our agents.
This, my brother, must change and can change, if you so desire. A study of your personality rays may serve to throw light upon your problem. You are needed in the work and have much to give. You have strength and can strengthen others when your own strength is deflected away from yourself and your dramatic sense of self-pity. You have great wisdom and can use it, once you lose sight of yourself as a teacher. You do not suffer from an inferiority complex, as that much misused word is oft employed, nor are you the victim of a defeatist complex. To believe so at times and to comfort yourself with the idea is only a form of self-illusion and a way of escape from the responsibility of bringing about right interior attitudes. Your physical condition, your likes and dislikes and your emotional reactions and your own ideas loom so large that your wise, loving, intelligent soul has a hard task to make its presence felt. There is almost a chance that your sense of drama and of self-pity will cause you to lose the significance of the lesson I am seeking to give you. Is this not so?
When you can realise that in these days of human crisis (when the call has gone out to all disciples and aspirants to rally to the helping of mankind) that none of these personality things matter and that a lot of them will fade out when your preoccupations are of a higher standard of values, then your work will take on fresh life, and your service will become a dynamic, magnetic, focal point of spiritual force which at present I know you realise it is not.
Your mental body is on the fourth ray of Harmony through Conflict, and not on the first ray as you have sometimes believed. Had it been on the first ray, it would have dominated your astral body and your personality would have been of a very different calibre. But it is of the fourth ray type. This means that harmony appeals to you and the bringing together of opposites into an intelligent unity. But it is a harmony interpreted in terms of emotion; to this fact I would call your attention. You must ponder on harmony as the mind understands it, and remember that only those succeed in resolving discord [659] into harmony who themselves work from a stable centre of adjustment.
Your astral body is definitely sixth ray and hence predisposes you to Piscean attitudes, emotional idées fixes, violent astral storms, great devotions which call your emotional reactions into play on matters and subjects which, in this day of world suffering and crisis, do not warrant attention and constitute an easy tuning-in on glamour and illusion.
Your physical body is first ray in type and this gives your first ray personality an easy line of least resistance, for the predominating colour of your brain cells at this time (if I may speak symbolically) is first ray. Think this out carefully.
You should, however, feel encouraged as you study your ray combinations, because second ray energy definitely predominates, 2.4.6, and though the first ray characteristics are strong and powerful, they are not complicated by any of the subsidiary attributes, such as 3.5.7. It is not so difficult for you, therefore, to tune in on the Love-Wisdom line of energy in manifestation. It is your line of least resistance. Your problem is the linking up of this triangle of force (2.4.6) so that there is free interplay and circulation of energy. Thus will your soul assume control. I have stated in the above few words both your problem and its solution. I would remind you, nevertheless, that it is a soul problem and not a personality problem. If you approach this problem from the angle of the personality, you will not succeed in solving it for your personality will become the centre of the triangle, whereas there should be no centre, but you should be living in the experience of humanity as a whole at all times.
I am going to ask you to study for six months the words "a trained indifference" and each morning to do the Review on Indifference, prior to assuming the duties of the day. For you, indifference holds the key to release—release from personality control and reactions, release from self-pity, release from physical and emotional limitations. Your problem is not to get rid of difficulties but simply to be indifferent as to whether they exist or not.
Have I given you a "hard saying," brother of mine? If I have, the reaction to hardness is on your side and not mine. I only seek to help you and to release you to fuller and more [660] joyful service, to a self-forgetfulness which eventuates in the power to identify yourself with others, and, therefore, to a life of loving service which will obliterate the strenuous ways of the past.
May 1938
MY BROTHER:
Changes are coming your way but only as preparation for fuller service. Before, however, that fuller service becomes possible there must be an interlude of stock-taking (is not that the right business word?) and a period of review and of renewed consecration. A physical readjustment is also needed but it may not be as serious as you anticipate (in spite of brave words, my brother). Many of your difficulties are psychological and caused by an inner tension and tautness which is really quite unnecessary. To offset that, I would ask you to ponder on one of the keywords I gave you when you entered this group of disciples in training—the word restfulness.
Do not work so hard, strenuously and furiously at the spiritual life. It is a state of being and not so much a state of achievement. It is a condition of correct orientation and direction and not so much a painful and oft dramatic effort to measure up to a standard which you think your soul sets you, or I for instance set you, or which your group brothers are expecting you to achieve and which you have accepted. Yet it seems to elude you and you do not feel that you have made the grade. Yet you have not failed as badly as you are apt to think in moments of depression.
Why think so much about yourself at all, my brother? Have you never had quoted to you the lines "Rule out the good self as well as the bad self and let only Christ be seen and heard"? You hear so much coming to you all the time from the struggling personality. It speaks to you so clamorously that the quiet and gentle voice of the soul, bringing radiance and rest, fails to make an impact upon your life.
So rest, my brother, and cease this violent struggle. Fall not into the snare of many words when again you resume old contacts. Enter into a period of happy silence and inner recuperation. [661] But be as far as possible a self-forgetting person, bringing joy and inspiration to others and ignoring your reactions with a divine indifference.
May 1939
BROTHER OF MINE:
You may here rightly ask me: In what way do I hinder? I am not ambitious. I do not make trouble of a group kind; I only make trouble for myself. I try to be loving and kind. I work as hard as I think I should. I love the truth and I endeavour to meet requirements.
All of this may be true, my brother, but these statements do not constitute an alibi for what is wrong. The thing that can wreck the building work, which your group is intended to do, is the violence of your reactions and vibrations when you are emotionally upset (and this is of frequent occurrence) and the furious self-assertion whereby you endeavour to justify such violence, and your dramatic self-pity. Unless you can learn to decentralise yourself, and cease this constant self-thought and self-commiseration under all circumstances, and stop visualising yourself at all times as in the centre—yourself as the worker, yourself as the group member, yourself as the sufferer from others' misunderstandings and mistakes, yourself as of importance—and learn to see yourself as you truly are, you can and do hinder the work and imperil the future constructive work of the group. This you know.
You love no one truly but yourself. If you loved truly and impersonally, you would not cause the pain you do to those who love and believe in your capacity; you would be more magnetic and this on a wider scale, for, as yet, you are only magnetic to those who recognise your personality and love your personality. It is from this lack that your work suffers. Yet it could so easily all be changed, if you learnt that divine indifference which you need—indifference to yourself and to your personality interests, likes and dislikes, indifference to your cares, anxieties and successes. You would then be in a position, really, to sense the importance of the work, the uniqueness of your opportunities at this time, and your really strategic position. But you are too full of fear and of self-interest and so fail to [662]make the needed impact upon those who need your help. They get the impact of your cares and fears and your demand to be liked. Can you change this? I am telling you nothing new. Among the chelas in my Ashram, you are in the position of the naughty, wilful child, for your errors and faults are those of a child and are not adult faults at all. You dream in a child's dream world.
You must grow up, my brother, for the world needs adult workers at this time and you can meet the need; you can do great and good work; you can make a soul impact upon those around you; you can cease from being a destructive agent and become a constructive worker. But this will only be possible if your likes and dislikes, your personality determinations and affections, your feeling and your physical ailments fade out of the picture and only the world's need remains and the longing to meet it—as you can. As, I repeat, you can. I and the group need you.
I offer you neither suspension nor the opportunity to resign. I ask you to face the issue and make good. Fight this matter out and fight it out alone. Learn to keep the things which concern yourself to yourself—a thing you have never yet learnt. Do not let your group brothers down by resigning or by a violent explosion—the repercussions of which must hurt and damage. Face life steadily, like an adult who has learnt in the school of wisdom, that the trend of all things is good. Handle life with love as a member of the New Group of World Servers.
NOTE: This disciple is still fighting out the battle but no indication has yet come from the Tibetan that the victory is sufficiently gained to warrant more active work in the Ashram. R.R.R. is still outwardly inactive in relation to the group.
To J. S. P.
September 1937
BROTHER OF MINE:
I have deferred giving you your personal instructions until this time as the quiet process of your integration in my group has been going forward with success. I felt it wise to wait. You [663] have had the difficult task of being admitted into a group which has been functioning as a unit for some time, and the amount of reading matter which you have had to master and the rhythm to which you have to adjust yourself has made your task a most difficult one. Your experience in group work, your open-minded attitude to other people, and the fact that (subjectively) you have belonged to this group ever since its inception has greatly helped. You have stepped into a position which has been yours subjectively for a long time. I am mentioning this persistent inner relation to me and to your group brothers so that you may realise that you have only to establish the outer links. The inner are already forged.
The life of the disciple moves forward through moments of crisis. These crises produce two results:
1. The intensification of aspiration, if the disciple is still upon the Probationary Path, or the intensification of illumination if the disciple is nearing the Path of Accepted Discipleship, or is upon the Path itself.
2. The achievement of a more stabilised attitude of detachment, based upon conscious personality renunciation, upon a right orientation of the personality to the soul (who is the one Master, the Light of Life) and to the Hierarchy of Servers. They will, therefore, produce an increasing power of control by the soul—the One Who knows no attachment and Who stands at-one with all souls in all forms.
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