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SECTION ONE - THE ASPIRANT AND THE MYSTERIES OF INITIATION - Part 7

b. A mental understanding of the task to be carried out.  This involves the use of the mind in two ways:  responsiveness to buddhic or intuitional impression and an act of the creative imagination.

c. A process of energy gathering or of force absorption.  in order that the needed energies are confined within a mental ring-pass-not, prior to the later process of visualisation and projection.

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d. A period of clear thinking anent process and intention.  so that the dedicated bridge-builder may clearly perceive what is being done.

e. The steady preservation of tension without undue physical strain upon the brain cells.

When this has been accomplished there will be found to be present a focal point of mental energy which previously had been nonexistent; the mind will be held steady in the light, and there will also be the alignment of a receptive attentive personality and a soul oriented towards the personality and in a state of constant, directed perception.  I would remind you that the soul (as it lives its own life on its own level of awareness) is not always constantly aware of its shadow, the personality, in the three worlds.  When the antahkarana is being built, this awareness must be present alongside the intention of the personality.

2. Visualisation.  Up to this point the activity has been of a mental nature.  The creative imagination has been relatively quiescent; the disciple has been occupied within the mind and upon mental levels, and has "looked neither up nor down."  But now the right point of tension has been reached; the reservoir or pool of needed energy has been restrained within the carefully delimited ring-pass-not, and the bridge-builder is ready for the next step.  He therefore proceeds at this point to construct the blue print of the work to be done, by drawing upon the imagination and its faculties as they are to be found upon the highest level of his astral or sensitive vehicle.  This does not relate to the emotions.  Imagination is, as you know, the lowest aspect of the intuition, and this fact must be remembered at all times.  Sensitivity, as an expression of the astral body, is the opposite pole to buddhic sensitivity.  The disciple has purified and refined his imaginative faculties so that they are now responsive to the impression of the buddhic principle or of the intuitive perception—perception, apart from sight or any recorded possible vision.  According to the responsiveness of the astral vehicle to the [489] buddhic impression, so will be the accuracy of the "plans" laid for the building of the antahkarana and the visualising of the bridge of light in all its beauty and completeness.

The creative imagination has to be stepped up in its vibratory nature so that it can affect the "pool of energy" or the energy-substance which has been gathered for the building of the bridge.  The creative activity of the imagination is the first organising influence which works upon and within the ring-pass-not of accumulated energies, held in a state of tension by the "intention" of the disciple.  Ponder upon this occult and significant statement.

The creative imagination is in the nature of an active energy, drawn up into relationship with the point of tension; it there and then produces effects in mental substance.  The tension is thereby increased, and the more potent and the clearer the visualisation process, the more beautiful and strong will be the bridge.  Visualisation is the process whereby the creative imagination is rendered active and becomes responsive to and attracted by the point of tension upon the mental plane.

At this stage the disciple is occupied with two energies: one, quiescent and held within a ring-pass-not, but at a point of extreme tension, and the other active, picture-forming, outgoing and responsive to the mind of the bridge-builder.  In this connection it should be remembered that the second aspect of the divine Trinity is the form-building aspect, and thus, under the Law of Analogy, it is the second aspect of the personality and the second aspect of the Spiritual Triad which are becoming creatively active.  The disciple is now proceeding with the second stage of his building work, and so the numerical significance will become apparent to you.  He must work slowly at this point, picturing what he wants to do, why he has to do it, what are the stages of his work, what will be the resultant effects of his planned activity, and what are the materials with which he has to work.  He endeavours to visualise the entire process, and by this means sets up a definite rapport (if successful) between the buddhic intuition and the creative imagination [490] of the astral body.  Consequently, you will have at this point:

The buddhic activity of impression.

The tension of the mental vehicle, as it holds the needed energy-substance at the point of projection.

The imaginative processes of the astral body.

When the disciple has trained himself to be consciously aware of the simultaneity of this threefold work, then it goes forward successfully and almost automatically.  This he does through the power of visualisation.  A current of force is set up between these pairs of opposites (astral-buddhic) and—as it passes through the reservoir of force upon the mental plane—it produces an interior activity and an organisation of the substance present.  There then supervenes a steadily mounting potency, until the third stage is reached and the work passes out of the phase of subjectivity into that of objective reality—objective from the standpoint of the spiritual man.

3. Projection.  The task of the disciple has now reached a most critical point.  Many aspirants reach this particular stage and—having developed a real capacity to visualise, and having therefore constructed by its means the desired form, and organised the substance which is to be employed in this later phase of the building process—find themselves unable to proceed any further.  What then is the matter?  Primarily, an inability to use the Will in the process of projection.  This process is a combination of will, further and continued visualisation, and the use of the ray Word of Power.  Up to the present stage in the process, the method for all the seven rays is identical; but at this point there comes a change.  Each disciple, having successfully organised the bridge substance, having brought into activity the will aspect, and being consciously aware of process and performance, proceeds now to move the organised substance forward, so that from the centre of force which he has succeeded in accumulating there appears a line of light-substance or projection.  This is sent forward upon a [491] Word of Power, as in the logoic creative process.  This is in reality a reversal of the process of the Monad when It sent forth the thread of life which finally anchored itself in the soul.  The soul, in reality, came into being through the means of this anchoring; then came the later process, when the soul in its turn sent forth a dual thread which finally found anchorage in the head and the heart of the lower threefold man, the personality.  The disciple is focussed in the centre which he has constructed upon the mental plane, and is drawing all his resources (those of the threefold personality and the soul combined) into activity; he now projects a line towards the Monad.

It is along this line that the final withdrawal of the forces takes place, the forces which—upon the downward way or the involutionary path—focussed themselves in the personality and the soul.  The antahkarana per se, completed by the bridge built by the disciple, is the final medium of abstraction or of the great withdrawal.  It is with the antahkarana that the initiate is concerned in the fourth initiation, called sometimes the Great Renunciation—the renunciation or the withdrawal from form life, both personal and egoic.  After this initiation neither of these aspects can hold the Monad any more.  The "veil of the Temple" is rent in twain from the top to the bottom—that veil which separated the Outer Court (the personality life) from the Holy Place (the soul) and from the Holy of Holies (the Monad) in the Temple at Jerusalem.  The implications and the analogies will necessarily be clear to you.

In order, therefore, to bring about the needed projection of the accumulated energies, organised by the creative imagination and brought to a point of excessive tension by the focussing of the mental impulse (an aspect of the will), the disciple then calls upon the resources of his soul, stored up in what is technically called "the jewel in the lotus."  This is the anchorage of the Monad—a point which must not be forgotten.  The aspects of the soul which we call knowledge, love and sacrifice, and which are expressions of the causal body, are only effects of this monadic radiation.

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Therefore, before the bridge can be truly built and "projected on the upward way, providing safe travelling for the pilgrim's weary feet" (as the Old Commentary puts it), the disciple must begin to react in response to the closed lotus bud or jewel at the centre of the opened lotus.  This he does when the sacrifice petals of the egoic lotus are assuming control in his life, when his knowledge is being transmuted into wisdom, and his love for the whole is growing; to these is being added the "power to renounce".  These three egoic qualities—when functioning with a measure of potency—produce an increased activity at the very centre of soul life, the heart of the lotus.  It should be remembered that the correspondences in the egoic lotus to the three planetary centres are as follows:

Shamballa . . . . The jewel in the lotus.

Hierarchy  . . . .  The three groups of petals.

Humanity  . . . .  The three permanent atoms within the aura of the lotus.

Students should also bear in mind that they need to rid themselves of the usual idea of sacrifice as a process of giving-up, or renunciation of all that makes life worth living.  Sacrifice is, technically speaking, the achievement of a state of bliss and of ecstasy because it is the realisation of another divine aspect, hidden hitherto by both the soul and the personality.  It is understanding and recognition of the will-to-good which made creation possible and inevitable, and which was the true cause of manifestation.  Ponder on this, for it is very different in its significance to the usual concepts anent sacrifice.

When the disciple has gained the fruit of experience which is knowledge and is learning to transmute it into wisdom, when his objective is to live truly and in reality, and when the will-to-good is the crowning goal of his daily life, then he can begin to evoke the Will.  This will make the link between the lower and the higher minds, between spirit and matter and between Monad and personality a definite and existent fact.  Duality then supervenes upon [493] triplicity, and the potency of the central nucleus in the egoic vehicle destroys—at the fourth initiation—the three surrounding expressions.  They disappear, and then the so-called destruction of the causal body has taken place.  This is the true "second death"—death to form altogether.

This is practically all that I can tell you anent the process of projection.  It is a living process, growing out of the conscious daily experience and dependent upon the expression of the divine aspects in the life upon the physical plane, as far as is possible.  Where there is an attempt to approximate the personality life to the demands of the soul and to use the intellect on behalf of humanity, love is beginning to control; and then the significance of the "divine sacrifice" is increasingly understood and becomes a natural, spontaneous expression of individual intention.  Then it becomes possible to project the bridge.  The vibration is then set up on lower levels of divine manifestation and becomes strong enough to produce response from the higher.  Then, when the Word of Power is known and rightly used, the bridge is rapidly built.

Students need feel in no way discouraged by this picture.  Much can happen on the inner planes where there is right intention, as well as occult intention (purpose and tension combined), and the bridge reaches stages of definite outline and structure long before the disciple is aware of it.

4. Invocation and Evocation.  The three preceding stages mark, in reality, the three stages of personality work.  The remaining three are expressions of response from higher levels of the spiritual life; beyond briefly indicating them, there is very little that I can put into words.  The task of Invocation, based on Intention, Visualisation and Projection, has been carefully undertaken by the disciple and he has at least some measure of clear perception as to the work he has done by the dual means of spiritual living and scientific, technical, occult work.  He is therefore himself invocative.  His life effect is registered upon the higher levels of consciousness and he is recognised as "a point of invocative tension."  This tension and this [494] reservoir of living energy, which is the disciple himself, is set in motion by projected thought, the use of the will and a sounded Word or Phrase of Power.

The result is that his developed potency and its radius of influence are now sufficiently strong to call out a response from the Spiritual Triad.  There is then a going forth towards the aspect of the antahkarana, constructed by the disciple, along which the life of soul and body can travel.  The Father (Monad), working through the thread, now goes forth to meet the Son (the soul, enriched by the experience of personality life in the three worlds), and from the higher levels a line of responsive projection of energy is sent forth which will eventually make contact with the lower projection.  Thus the antahkarana is built.  The tension of the lower evokes the attention of the higher.

This is the technical process of invocation and evocation.  There is a gradual approach from both the divine aspects.  Little by little, the vibration of both becomes stronger reciprocally.  There comes then a moment when contact between the two projections is made in meditation.  This is not a contact between soul and personality (the goal of the average aspirant), but a contact between the fused soul and personality energy and the energy of the Monad, working through the Spiritual Triad.  This does not constitute a moment of crisis, but is in the nature of a Flame of Light, a realisation of liberation, and a recognition of the esoteric fact that a man is himself the Way.  There is no longer the sense of personality and soul or of ego and form, but simply the One, functioning on all planes as a point of spiritual energy and arriving at the one sphere of planned activity by means of the path of Light.  In considering this process, words prove completely inadequate.  At this stage, when very advanced, there is no form attracting the Monad outwards into manifestation.  There is no way in which the call of matter or of form can evoke a response from the Monad.  There remains only the great pull of the consciousness of humanity as a whole and to this, response can be made via the completed antahkarana.  Down—or rather [495] across—this bridge, descent can be made at will, in order to serve humanity and to carry out the will of Shamballa.

This is a statement of the final consummation.  But before that can take place in its perfected completion, there must be a long period of gradual approach of the two aspects of the bridge—the higher, emanating from the Spiritual Triad, in response to monadic impulse, and the lower, emanating from the personality, aided by the soul—across the chasm of the separating mind.  Finally, contact between that which the Monad projects and that which the disciple is projecting is made, and then come the fifth and sixth stages.

5 and 6.  Stabilisation and Resurrection.  The bridge is now built.  Thin and tenuous may be its strands at the beginning, but time and active understanding will slowly weave thread after thread until the bridge stands finished, stable and strong and capable of being used.  It must perforce be used, because there is now no other medium of intercourse between the initiate and the One Whom he now knows to be himself.  He ascends in full consciousness into the sphere of monadic life; he is resurrected from the dark cave of the personality life into the blazing light of divinity; he is no longer only a part of humanity and a member also of the Hierarchy, but he belongs to the great company of Those Whose will is consciously divine and Who are the Custodians of the Plan.  They are responsive to impression from Shamballa and are under the direction of the Heads of the Hierarchy.

The "freedom of the three Centres" is Theirs.  They can express at will the triple energy of Humanity, the dual energy of the Hierarchy, and the one energy of Shamballa.

Such, my brothers, is the goal of the disciple as he begins to work at the building of the antahkarana.  Reflect upon these matters and proceed with the work.

(In some Talks to Disciples, the Tibetan makes the following remarks which apply here with peculiar force.  A.A.B.)

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"Your major need is for an intensification of your inner spiritual aspiration.  You need to work more definitely from what might be called a point of tension.  Study what is said about tension and intensity.  It is intensity of purpose which will change you from the plodding fairly satisfactory aspirant into the disciple whose heart and mind are aflame.  Perhaps, however, you prefer to go forward steadily, with no group effort, making your work for me and for the group an ordered part of the daily life, which you can adjust pretty much as you like, and in which the life of the spirit receives its reasonable share, in which the service aspect is not neglected, and your life presentation is neatly balanced and carried forward without much real strain.  When this is the case, it may be your personality choice or your soul decision for a specific life, but it means that you are not the disciple, with everything subordinated to the life of discipleship.

"I would like here to point out two things.  First:  if you can so change your tension that you are driven by the life of the spirit, it will entail a galvanic upheaval in your inner life.  For this, are you prepared?  Secondly:  it will not produce any outer change in your environing relationships.  Your outer obligations and interests must continue to be met, but I am talking in terms of inner orientations, dynamic inner decisions, and an interior organising for service and for sacrifice.  Perhaps you prefer the slower and easier way?  If that is so, it is entirely your own affair, and you are still on your way.  You are still a constructive and useful person.  I am simply here facing you with one of the crises which come in the life of all disciples, wherein choices have to be made that are determining for a cycle, but for a cycle only.  It is pre-eminently a question of speed and of organising for speed.  This means eliminating the non-essentials and concentrating on the essentials—the inner essentials, as they concern the soul and its relation to the personality, and the outer ones as they concern you and your environment.

"I would give you three key thoughts for deep reflection [497] during the next six months; will you ponder on them, one each month for three months, within the head, and during the second three months brood on them in the heart.  These key thoughts are:

1. The necessity for speed.

2. The reorganisation of standards of thought and of living.

3. The expression of:  Sincerity, Sacrifice, Simplicity." [xi]*

In the many strands of light, woven by the aspirants, disciples and initiates of the world, we can see the group antahkarana gradually appearing—that bridge whereby humanity as a whole will be able to abstract itself from matter and form.  This building of the antahkarana is the great and ultimate service which all true aspirants can render.

The immediate Task ahead

What I have now to say is in the nature of a generalisation.  I would like to indicate, as far as possible (asking you to remember that all generalisations are basically sound but erroneous in detail), the point where humanity stands in relation to the antahkarana.  It might be said that the whole goal of normal evolution is to bring humanity to the point where a direct line of contact is established between the personality and the Spiritual Triad, via the soul—or rather, through the medium of using the soul consciousness to achieve this awareness.  This is consummated at the time of the third initiation.  We will now for a minute consider the Monad.

I would remind you that there is an analogy in the relation between personality and soul, to that between the Triad and the Monad.  This is an analogy that is essentially complete, from the standpoint of consciousness, but not from the standpoint of form.  What finally takes place at the most advanced stage of development is the complete fusion of the unified personality and soul with the unified Monad and Spiritual Triad.  Only when this has been truly [498] accomplished is there the complete release of the Lives informing our solar system from all form control.  Bear this carefully in mind, realising the significance of the word Service, used so frequently in the occult science, and realising also the fact that, for aspirants and disciples, the immediate task ahead is:

1. To bring about the at-one-ment of soul and body, through the medium of alignment.

2. To build the antahkarana, using the six modes or means outlined by me previously, and thus evoke response to the Triad.  The thought of Alignment-Invocation-Evocation are the three major ideas for you to hold in mind as we proceed with this study.

The reason that I am giving out what was earlier regarded as some of the preparatory work prior to the third initiation is due to the fact that the race is now at the point of development which warrants complete change in the approach to divinity as taught by the Hierarchy.  This does not mean that past teaching is abrogated, but it is shifted back to the earlier stages on the Path of Discipleship, whilst the teaching given in those stages now becomes the work done by the aspirants upon the Probationary Path.  Emphasis has been laid upon purification, upon the need for the development of the Christ life, upon the mystical vision and upon philosophy.  Occult truths have been given to the race and have evoked much interest, criticism and discussion; they have appealed to all types of mind; they have been distorted and misapplied.  Nevertheless, they have been instrumental in aiding advanced aspirants to move forward on to the Path of Discipleship, with a paralleling moving forward of accepted disciples.  Once firmly established upon the Path, the truths become self-evident and individual application and verification can be made, leading the disciple inevitably to the Portal of Initiation.

The race as a whole stands now at the very entrance to the Path of Discipleship.  The racial gaze is forward to the vision, whether it is the vision of the soul, a vision of a better way of life, of an improved economic situation, or of [499] better inter-racial relationship.  That this vision is oft distorted, that it is materially oriented or only partially seen is sadly true; but in some form or another there exists today an appreciable grasp of the "new and desirable" by the masses—a thing hitherto unknown.  In the past, it was the intelligentsia or the elect who were privileged to have the vision.  Today, it is the mass of men.  Humanity, therefore, as a whole stands ready for a general alignment process, and that is the spiritual reason which lay behind the world war.  The "sharp shears of sorrow must separate the real from the unreal; the lash of pain must awaken the sleepy soul to exquisite life; the wrenching away of the roots of life from the soil of selfish desire must be undergone, and then the man stands free."  So runs the Old Commentary in one of its more mystical stanzas.  Thus it points prophetically to the close of the Aryan Race—not a close in the sense of completion, but a closing of a cycle of mental perfecting, preparatory to a cycle wherein the mind will be rightly used as an instrument of alignment, then as the searchlight of the soul, and as the controller of the personality.

For the masses—under the slow processes of evolution—the next step forward is the aligning of the soul and the form, so that there can be a blending in consciousness, following on a mental appreciation of the Christ principle and its deep expression in the life of the race.  This is something which can be seen quite clearly emerging, if you have the eyes to see.  It is evident in the universal interest in goodwill, leading eventually to peace; this desire for peace may be based on individual or national selfishness, or upon a true desire to see a happier world wherein man can lead a fuller spiritual life and base his efforts on truer values; it can be seen in all the planning which is going on for a new world order, based on human liberty, belief in human rights and right human relations; it is demonstrating also in the work of the great humanitarian movements, the welfare organisations, and the widespread evocation of the human mind through the network of educational institutions throughout the world.  The Christ spirit is expressively present, [500] and the failure to recognise this fact has been largely due to the prevalent human effort to explain and interpret this phrase solely in terms of religion, whereas the religious interpretation is but one mode of understanding Reality.  There are others of equal importance.  All the great avenues of approach to Reality are spiritual in nature and interpretive of divine purpose, and whether the religious Christian speaks of the Kingdom of God, or the humanitarian emphasises the brotherhood of man, or the leaders against evil head the fight for the new world order or for the Four Freedoms or the Atlantic Charter, they all express the emergence of the love of God in its form of the spirit of Christ.

Humanity in the mass has therefore reached a point of emergence from darkness; it has itself evoked the reaction of the powers of evil, and hence their attempt to arrest the progress of the human spirit and to stop the onward march of the good, the true and the beautiful.

Aspirants and probationary disciples are occupied with a definite process of focussing their consciousness in the soul.  This process falls into two parts:

An intensification of the personality life, so that it is developed to its highest individualistic powers.

A process of moving forward into the light and of conscious soul contact.

This involves the earlier stage of the alignment process, which is a mode of focussed, concentrated effort, according to the ray and life purpose of the soul.  This may take the form of a profound application to some scientific endeavour or a deep concentration on the spiritual work of the world, or it may be a complete dedication to humanitarian effort; it matters not.  I would call your attention to that statement.  In every case the motivating power must be betterment; it must be carried forward by extreme effort; but—given right motive and the effort to develop simultaneously a good character and a stable purpose—the aspirant or probationary disciple will eventually find that he has succeeded in establishing a definite soul relation; he will have discovered that [501] the path of contact between soul and brain, via the mind, has been opened, and that he has mastered the first stage in the needed alignment process.

When this has been accomplished, the man passes on to the Path of Discipleship and can undertake the work I am outlining for you in this treatise.  Thus you can see how the entire human family has reached a central and most important point upon the evolutionary path.  The immediate path ahead for all—each in his own place—is to stand with right orientation, undeterred by circumstances, and then unflinchingly move forward.

I have given you the six methods of building the antahkarana, and as we proceed to take up our next point, I would have you refer to them at frequent intervals.  The ray methods with which we shall be concerned are the methods, uniquely possible on the seven major lines of emanatory energy, which differing ray types will bring to bear on these six stages of the building process.  All disciples on all these seven rays use the same building technique of Intention, Visualisation, Projection, Invocation and Evocation, Stabilisation and Resurrection.  Of these the first two are uniform in technique for all the rays, but when the stage of Projection is reached, then the ray techniques begin to differ, and it is these techniques or methods of ray work, coupled with the seven Words of Power, which we shall now proceed to consider.

The Seven Ray Methods used in the Construction Process

Until the stage of projection is reached, the methods employed by all disciples on all rays are identical.  Their intention is one, and they all have to attain the same measure of tension and of preparation for the construction of the bridge by gathering the needed energy from two sources—the personality and the soul.  By this focussing and its resultant tension, by thus evoking the Spiritual Triad and starting the dual process of building from both ends of the bridge (if such a phrase is possible and permissible), the work goes forward uniformly.  The use of the creative imagination [502] is now called forth and this forms the second stage.  This presents a real difficulty for the first ray and the seventh ray aspirants.  Neither type can with facility organise the material energy, orient energy currents, and see their objective clearly in the mind's eye pictorially.  It is a process which is profoundly difficult for them.  It must, however, in some way be done, because the use of the visual imagination is an essential factor in the building process and one of the major means of focussing, prior to projection.

This process of projection falls into three main activities:

1. After due focussing and after careful, sequential and systematic picturing the "rainbow bridge," the disciple—by a distinct and separate effort—calls in the will aspect of his nature, as far as he can in this incarnation.  It is in this connection that the differing ray methods make their appearance, the difference being determined by the quality of the ray life.

2. The disciple has to preserve steadily the triple consciousness, not simply theoretically but also factually, so that three paralleling lines of thought, or three streams of active energy, are used by him simultaneously:

a. He is aware of himself, personality and soul, as occupied with the process of bridge building.  He never for one second loses his sense of conscious identity.

b. He is aware of the point of focussed tension which he has succeeded in producing and that three streams of energy have contributed to it—the focussed energy of the personality, poised in the lower concrete mind, the inflowing magnetic energy of the soul, streaming out from the twelve petals of the three tiers plus the innermost tier of the egoic lotus, and the energy of the "jewel in the lotus"—all streaming into the centre of tension on the mental levels of the lower mind.

c. He is aware of as much of the consciousness of his ray energy as can enter into his awareness; this is his egoic ray energy and not personality force.  He endeavours to see himself as a point of particular energy [503] coloured by his ray life, and carefully bears in mind that the energy of his egoic ray is the major energy through which the Monad is attempting to express itself, and also that his threefold egoic vehicle is a reflection of and closely related to the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad.  It is this relation (and its conscious interplay and effect) which is evoked by the building of the antahkarana, and which eventually (when it is powerful enough) brings into radiant activity the "jewel in the lotus."

3. When these three stages of realisation have been completed as far as the disciple feels he is capable of carrying them, then and only then does he prepare himself for the distinctive use of his ray method in preparing for the "projecting sound" or Word of Power.

You can see from all the above that this constitutes a definitely planned process of a basic scientific nature, and requires as careful following as the procedure of any scientist in search of some advanced chemical formula.  The only difference, scientifically speaking, is that the whole process is carried forward upon subjective levels and in the realm of consciousness, thus requiring a consciousness and a concentration not needed when working more tangibly on the outer plane of awareness.  At first it seems complicated, as the disciple tries to master the different stages of the process, but it all becomes entirely automatic when once mastered.  Here is a summary of process up to the point of definite projection:

I. Intention, producing focussing and tension.

II. Visualisation, produced by:

1. The buddhic activity of "impression."

2. The tension of the mental body.

3. The imaginative processes of the astral body.

III. Projection:

1. The calling in of the Will aspect.

2. The preservation of a triple state of awareness in order that:

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a. The disciple is aware constantly of his own identity.

b. He is conscious of a fixed point of tension.

c. He is aware actively of his soul ray or his soul energy.

3. He starts in to use that distinctive ray energy correctly.

4. He then, when all the above is completed, uses the Word of Power which is the agent of his Will.

This short tabulation should aid in the process, and you can see how stage grows out of stage and how, once familiarity has been established, it should be possible for the preliminary work to be rapidly carried forward.

When, however, the distinctive methods of the ray energy of the disciple reach the point of definite use, it is not so simple as it sounds.  Success in the building process is dependent upon the ability of the disciple to do three things:

1. Hold the mind steady in the light, i.e., preserving the point of tension at its highest possible point at any given time in the disciple's unfoldment and building activity.

2. Register consciousness of soul contact, thus bringing about an increasing fusion between the soul and the personality, so that complete at-one-ment is increasingly attained.  Technically, this means that the energy of the soul ray and of the personality ray merge together, with the soul ray dominating always.

3. Hold in mind, specifically and in detail, the method to be employed in building the bridge, according to the particular ray technique, and with the objective in view of relating (in a new and significant manner, factually and not just theoretically) the Spiritual Triad and the personality.

The soul, therefore, as a separate entity, is fading slowly out of the picture because it is being absorbed into and by the personality, which is becoming more and more the soul in incarnation.  Eventually the relation is established between [505] spirit (Monad) and personality (form or matter), with a tiny point of consciousness eternally present which is aware of both these factors and yet preserves inviolate its own identity.  This latter realisation is the result of aeonian work, carried forward by the soul.  Paradoxically, we say that the soul fades or drops out, yet in the last analysis it remains, for in this solar system there is naught else but only this consciousness of being.

One point I would touch upon here before taking up the seven ray methods of projection.  The bridge to be built is called frequently the "rainbow bridge" because it is constituted of all the colours of the seven rays.  Speaking specifically and from the angle of the disciple, the bridge which he builds between the personality and the Spiritual Triad is composed of seven strands of energy, or seven streams of force; he uses all the seven rays, having gained facility in so doing because again and again his personality has (in the long cycle of incarnations) been on all the seven rays many times.  But his soul ray dominates eventually, and in the rainbow bridge the "colours of his rays are heard vibrating; the note of his ray is seen."  The bridge built by humanity as a whole is one bridge composed of the multiplicity of individual bridges, built by the many disciples.  It is therefore formed eventually of seven strands or streams of energy coming from the seven egoic groups (one group of each ray type).  To this bridge the creative work of all human beings who reach the stage of soul contact contributes.  Their dominant strands of light fuse into one whole and their lesser strands are lost to sight in the radiant light of the sevenfold bridge which humanity will eventually complete.

Even in this finally completed bridge—at the end of the world cycle—one ray light and colour will predominate, the second ray, with the fourth ray as the subsidiary ray.  The fourth ray might be symbolically called "the main cable" for humanity, because it is the dominant note of the Fourth Creative Hierarchy.  Now let us take up the seven ray methods, one by one.

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As we consider these seven ray techniques with their accompanying Words of Power, you must bear carefully in mind that we are dealing entirely with the Will aspect.  This necessitates a higher process of alignment and the evocation of a divine aspect hitherto relatively quiescent, except in so far as the will finds its reflection in the activity of the sacrifice petals of the egoic lotus, plus its distorted shadow in the mind nature.  This consequently posits a fairly high stage of spiritual unfoldment upon the part of the builder of the antahkarana; it means that there are indications of it (to say the least) between the mind, the sacrifice petals and the atmic principle.  This may be simply the most tenuous thread imaginable, a thousand times finer than a gossamer web, but it must inevitably be present.  When, from the angle of the esotericist, this is a tangible fact, you will then have the following direct contact:

(See Diagram)

This contact, when completed, marks an entire unit of spiritual work, if I might so word it, bringing the man upon the physical plane into complete alignment; this unity is consummated at the time of the fourth initiation, the Great Renunciation at which time the first aspect begins to dominate the other two.

Then the soul life—as hitherto understood—fades out and the causal body disappears.  The sum total of memory, [507] quality and acquirements is then absorbed into the Monad.  The words "I and my Father are one" become true.  The astral body also vanishes in the same great process of renunciation, and the physical body (as an automatic agent of the vital body) is no longer needed, though it persists and serves a purpose when so required by the Monad.  From the form aspect, you then have the Monad, the sphere of the Spiritual Triad and the etheric body upon the physical plane.  I would here remind you that the levels of conscious existence which we regard as formless are only relatively so, because our seven planes are the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane.  The centre of consciousness is now in the Will nature, when this point of attainment is reached, and is no longer in the love nature.  Activity and love are still present in full measure, but the focus of the initiate's attention is in the will aspect of divinity.

It has been said in an ancient book belonging to the Masters' Archives that:

"The preservation of values is the task of the initiate of the first ray; the attainment of positivity is the goal of the initiate of the second ray.  He who works upon the third ray must reach the path from here to there.

The initiate of the fourth ray arrives at the will aspect when conflict steps into its rightful place and causes no undue concern.  These four attainments mark the goal for men and sway them all upon the lower point of consciousness.  The ray of vision and of application indicates the way direct, evokes the will to follow, and welds the love of God, the love of man and all that breathes into the purpose underlying all, and towards that purpose and its earthly consummation the seventh ray gives all it has."

It has not been easy to put these abstruse ideas, expressed in the most archaic language and symbolism, into modern terms and words.  I have but conveyed the general idea—the collaboration of all the seven rays in the building processes of Deity and their planned interaction, on a tiny scale, [508] infinitesimal in comparison with the great Whole.  Man responds within the circle of humanity, enclosed within the greater circle of the Hierarchy, and becomes conscious of this fusion and uses the potencies of both groups of lives, through the medium of the antahkarana.  The moment the disciple approaches that point in consciousness and the antahkarana is firmly anchored (even if as yet but a tenuous structure), he becomes aware of the factor of the greater circle which encloses the other two—Shamballa, the Secret Place where the will of God is formulated for the immediate present and for the long range future.

With this vision and suggested preamble let us now ascertain the seven techniques to be employed at the projection stage of the building process.

Ray One...Will or Power

To understand the first ray technique, the basic quality of the ray must be grasped.  It is dynamic.  The point at the centre is the First Ray of Power, and its technique is never to move from the centre but from that point to work dynamically.  Perhaps the word that would best express its mode of work is Inspiration.  The Father inspires response from the material aspect, or from the Mother if you like that symbolism, but it accomplishes this by remaining immovably itself.  From the point where he is, the Builder (human or divine) works, not by the Law of Attraction, as does the second ray, but by the Law of Synthesis, by a fiat of the will, based on a clearly formulated purpose and programme.  You will see, therefore, that the first ray personality has to ascertain (as in fact do all disciples) which aspect he himself is of a particular ray.  It is not possible for any disciple who has not taken the third initiation to ascertain his monadic ray, but any disciple building the antahkarana, and who has reached the stage of projection, should know his soul ray and his personality ray, and should remember that their fused or blended potency must perform the act of projection.  The energy of the Monad can be evoked, but it results in a down-pouring towards its [509] working agent and it is not an act of projection per se.  The act of projection is the work of the "shadow and the reflection."  The Old Commentary says in this connection, when dealing with the Word of Power for each ray:

"When there is no shadow, for the Sun is clear, and no reflection for the water is no more, then naught remains but the one who stands with eyes directing life and form.  The threefold shadow now is one.  The three of self exists no more.  The higher three descends and all the nine are one.  Await the time."

When, therefore, the ray of the soul dominates the ray of the personality, then the self becomes the acting agent, aided by the ray of the lower self.  The rays of the three vehicles are no longer active, but only the basic duality of soul and personality remains, and there is no lesser differentiation.

In considering all these seven rays, I seek to do three things in every case:

1. Give the technique of projection.  This technique falls into four stages:

a. The preparatory stage in which the consciousness becomes focussed in the soul ray.

b. An interlude in which the projecting agent realises with intensity the existence of the "point of tension" and the finished product of the visualisation process.

c. A focussed activity of the will, according to the ray, in which a line of light or of living substance is imaginatively and creatively sent out or projected from the mental unit, as far as possible towards the Spiritual Triad, using constantly the creative imagination.

d. This line of light (this strand or bridge) is then pictured as coloured by the two ray qualities, and it is held stably aligned in the light of the Spiritual Triad—not the light of the soul.  This corresponds to the much earlier stage of development in which the mind was held steady in the light.  The mind still is held in this manner, but the mind (as the agent of the soul and the [510] personality) is no longer quiescent, but itself becomes an active holding agent.

2. Indicate briefly the effect of the Word of Power.  When adequate stability has been acquired, the disciple utters a Word of Power which serves to carry the light still further on and up.  When correctly uttered, this Word produces three effects:

a. It keeps the channel for the descending light of the Spiritual Triad clear of all impediments.

b. It reaches (by means of its vibratory activity) the centre of power which we call the Spiritual Triad, focussed temporarily in the manasic permanent atom, and evokes a response in the form of a thread of descending triadal light.

c. It causes a vibration throughout the antahkarana which in its turn evokes response from the "rainbow bridge" as built by all other disciples.  Thus the work of constructing the racial antahkarana is furthered.

I am here doing two things—speaking to you in symbols.  There is, literally speaking, no up or down or higher and lower, as you know, nor do any of the separative actions as outlined by the occult sciences exist.  Yet the truth has to be thus presented owing to the mind consciousness of the disciple.  I have also been giving in human terms the outline of a process which, if adequately followed, will enable you to make real progress in the preparatory understanding required by all who hope some day to take initiation.

3. This brings us to the third point, the nature of initiation.  Initiation falls really into three major expansions of consciousness.

a. The expansion of consciousness of the dedicated personality into that of the soul; this is completely consummated at the third initiation.

b. The expansion of this fused and blended consciousness [511] into that of the Spiritual Triad, completely consummated at the fifth initiation.

c. The expansion of consciousness toward which the Masters are working, which is consummated at the seventh initiation.

Students today have made much progress towards the control of the personality, and the disciples in the world are now so numerous that the hierarchical emphasis is today upon the states of consciousness which follow the third initiation.  Hence the giving out to the public of the teaching upon the antahkarana.

You will find below, in tabulated form, the teaching anent the six stages so that you may have a visual picture of the intended process.  The following of the process is, of course, another matter and its success is dependent upon more than a theoretical grasp of process.  It is dependent upon your ability to live more definitely in the world of meaning than hitherto, upon your knowledge of your soul and personality rays and upon your capacity to focus in your blended consciousness, and from that point—holding the mind steady in the light—utter the Word of Power which will carry your created thread of light forward towards the Spiritual Triad.

OUTLINE FOR REFLECTIVE CONTEMPLATION

ON CONSTRUCTING THE ANTAHKARANA

I. Points to have in mind.

This work of construction concerns the handling of energy.  Students should ponder upon the distinction between energy and force.

It is dependent upon the use of the creative imagination.  Students would do well to reflect upon the relationship of the imagination to the intuition and of both to the mind.

The work of building the antahkarana must be done with as much conscious understanding as possible.

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II. The six steps or methods of building the Antahkarana.

1. Intention.