May 2010

Sustained effort is the seed of synthesis, the cause of achievement and that which finally overcomes death. Death is really deterioration in time and space and is due to the tendency of matter-spirit to isolate itself, whilst in manifestation (from the standpoint of consciousness). This sustained effort of the Logos is what keeps all forms in manifestation and preserves even the life aspect as the integrating factor in form building and—which is equally an act of the sustaining will—can abstract or withdraw the life consciousness intact at the close of a cycle of manifestation. Death and limitation are synonymous terms. When the consciousness is focussed in form and identified entirely with the principle of limitation, it regards freedom from form life as death; but, as evolution proceeds, the consciousness shifts increasingly into awareness of that which is not form and into the realm of that which is transcendent or into the world of the abstract, i.e., into that which is abstracted from form and focussed in itself. This, by the way is a definition of meditation from the angle of goal and achievement. A man can truly meditate when he begins to use the mind, the reflection of the will aspect, and employs it in its three aspects: as initiating his entrance into the world of souls, as conditioning his personality life and as enforcing and eventually bringing about a full expression of soul purpose. This results [Page 616] in the complete overcoming of death. I am bringing this whole concept down into terms of the microcosm even though it will be obvious that only the pledged disciple in preparation for initiation can begin to grasp some of the significant implications. (Esoteric Astrology, pp. 615-616)