The Great Hierarchy of Teachers

The Great Hierarchy of Teachers

In the book The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, he writes ‘I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.’1

Gibran is highlighting the important fact that everyone in our environment, everyone we meet, the good and the less-good are our teachers. In understanding this in our hearts we then approach everyone with reverence, with gratefulness. Not just the good, the beautiful and noble, but also those that offend, irritate and hurt us. When we see all people as our teachers and seek to enter intelligently, sympathetically, and understandingly into their consciousness, to tap into why they think as they do, we come to understand why they act in a particular way under a particular condition. In other words, we seek to put ourselves in their shoes and learn what it is that they are suffering and in so doing we find that judgement and criticism are then lost in the desire to understand. And this, of course, teaches us much.

Alice Bailey writes ‘Let us be as fair as we can with the light we have. Let us cultivate the Aquarian spirit of non-separateness, love, understanding, intelligence, free from authority, drawing out of every human being we meet the best that is in them. And if you do not draw out of them the best in them, blame yourself and not them. That is the truth. If a person mis-interprets you, it is because you are not clear.’2

It is through our speech and actions that we act as teachers to others, but we must also always be aware of that which others are teaching us. If someone is upset, irritated or hurt by our words or actions it is not because they are too sensitive, or responding badly to the truth as we see it, as we are inclined to think in defence of ourselves. It is a sign that we have misinterpreted the situation, that we have not met the interests of the other person. The quote “Be hard on yourself and easy on others. Carry your own cross but never lay one on the back of another,” 3 is a wonderful dictum for the aspiring disciple seeking to bring about right human relations with those contacted.

We are each the sum of our relationships with others, and our consciousness is an ever-changing reflection of the people we spend time with. We exist within a great interconnected whole, within which is a great hierarchy of teachers, both on material and subtle levels. And we read that the animal kingdom exists within the consciousness of Humanity and human beings are destined to teach and lead the animal out of their present darkness. Humanity will provide the area of mind within whose ring-pass-not the subhuman kingdoms will find the correspondence of the Universal Mind which they need for their unfoldment. This is the goal of all human service.4

As it says in Esoteric Psychology I ‘Let it ever be borne in mind that the sign of man's spiritual unfoldment lies in his ability to include in his consciousness not only the so-called spiritual values and the power to react to soul contact, but also to include the material values, and to react divinely to the potencies which lie hidden from him in the custody of the other forms of divine life, found in the three sub-human kingdoms. 5

The idea of the Russian Dolls comes to mind whereby the consciousness of the lower kingdoms exists within the consciousness of a higher kingdom. The animal exists within the consciousness of the human kingdom which similarly exists within the consciousness of the divine kingdom.

Spiritual aspirants are of course, concerned with contacting the divine kingdom. We are therefore not only concerned with our teachers in material manifestation but also those on the inner planes. In aspiring to soul consciousness, the indwelling Christ becomes the predominant teacher and the attainment of Christ consciousness becomes the goal. As we strive in this way, we become aware of the great hierarchy of consciousness that exists within the soul realms, the many Teachers that abide on these levels.

Just like the material realms the higher states of consciousness always include the lesser, and the many individualities that exist in these heavens, are various emanations of the One Life. So, if the aspirant imagines in his meditation one individuality, such as his own soul (the Master in the Heart), a Master such as DK, the Christ himself, the Buddha or other great Teacher, he is bringing himself into contact with them all. There is no separation, they are One. This is true of the material planes when we seek to connect with a serving group such as Triangles, for that physical plane group is an emanation of the New Group, that is an emanation of the Hierarchy. Group within a greater group, a buddha within a greater buddha, a sub-ray within a ray that is a sub-ray of another, The Master in the Heart within the Christ, Who exists within the Cosmic Christ.

The indwelling soul, an emanation of the soul ray on which the disciple has come into incarnation, leads him to the ashram in which it is his destiny to work. The ashram, with the Master at its centre, is an emanation of the combined consciousness of the Hierarchy, that is an emanation of the Cosmic Christ. There is always a greater teacher, a greater recognition, for we read that the path of evolution eventually gives place to the Way of the Higher Evolution, and that ‘planetary recognitions eventually expand into solar contacts; the Christ-consciousness eventually unfolds into something so all-inclusive that we have as yet no word for it or any need of words’ 6

As we go into our meditative visualisation let us focus on the integrated nature of the Whole, of the great hierarchy that exists within the One Life. And let us remember that the New Group of World Servers is made up of many teachers that have the responsibility to lead humanity to cultivate the Aquarian way of thinking. To bring widespread awareness of the need to widen consciousness to become more inclusive of others, to seek to bring the best out of others, not just human others, but the lower kingdoms also.

1 Khalil Gibran Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/khalil_gibran_125408

2 The Labours of Hercules pgs. 192-194

3 A.W. Tozer, Man: The Dwelling Place of God

4 Telepathy and Etheric Vehicle pg. 62

5 Esoteric Psychology I pg. 231

6 Externalisation of the Hierarchy pg. 560