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SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES (Continued) - Part 13

Such moments of crisis and of intensification, added to renunciation, have been your lot for years, have they not, my brother? They have swept your whole personality into an attitude of withdrawing from the things of the senses and to an earnest approach to the world of reality. In your life, since you came into incarnation this time, there have been four such moments, in the major sense—each of them preceded by a period of one-pointed aspiration, of painful and oft agonising detachment from all that the personality held dear. Each of them produced a subsequent reaction wherein it seemed that all was dark, and that aridity and stern struggle were the curious and undesirable result of sacrifice and of a recognised high point of illumination.

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For you, as for so many disciples in this particular life cycle, the lesson has been to learn to move forward in spite of the activity of the pairs of opposites, paying no attention to the reactions of the senses and standing free and unafraid whether the experience being undergone is one of high import and of spiritual satisfaction, or is one of the "dead-level" happenings, where nothing brings joy and where only pain, fear and suspense are to be found. You must learn to move forward steadily between the pairs of opposites, saying to yourself: I am not this; I am not that; eternally, I am the Self.

These lessons you are learning (and learning with rapidity). You have now reached a point where you can learn them in a group—a group of fellow disciples who are undergoing the same experiences, who are oriented in the same direction, who are occupied with the same problems, and who are motivated by the same desire to serve. This means that you travel not alone, but are supported and sustained and strengthened by your group brothers. Those working in these groups will tell you that in spite of the difficulties and oft the increased problems of the spiritual life—the results of a renewed consecration and a more clearly defined service—the "comradeship of the Path" and the inspiration and love of the group do most certainly constitute a powerful help and bring a sense of life and love which negatives the ancient loneliness, and offsets the old solitary suffering.

Carefully follow the work of the Full Moon Approach, for it will bring you much and you should enter, through its means, into closer contact with the inner spiritual Sun, the soul, and with all of us who, in our varying grades of discipleship, seek to serve our fellowmen. This Full Moon work involves the use of the creative imagination, the cultivation of the power to visualise, the intensification of the magnetic vibration of the ajna centre, and consequently of the pituitary body. This establishes a magnetic field for the interplay of the currents and energies which are brought into action by the activity of the head centre and of the pineal gland. These higher forces are brought in and utilised in the meditation processes followed by all the group.

I have nothing to say in connection with your life of service and activity. That will go on naturally, and as ever in the case [665] with all true aspirants, must be rendered with no thought of self but in an effort to meet the need of those within your environment who look to you for help—physical, emotional and mental—but always with a spiritual intent.

I will make some suggestions as to your personality problem, and I will outline for you some meditation work. I use the word "suggestions" advisedly, for I would have you realise from the very beginning of your work that I never give more than a hint or a clear suggestion, or point out a possible line of action. I suggest a mode of training and of meditation and then leave each of you free to accept the suggestion and to conform to the outlined ideas as may seem best to you.

I seek to give you a hint as to your ray influences, so that certain attitudes of mind and expressions of feeling-perception may be clarified for you. The five ray potencies which constitute your problem (and, with the soul, constitute also the mechanism of service through which the monad manifests), provide your field of opportunity and your main avenue of knowledge in the world of human expression.

Your soul ray is the second ray.

Your personality ray is the sixth ray, as you may have often suspected. This will link you closely by similarity of vibration with your brothers, D.H.B. and D.I.J.

Your mental body is governed by the fourth ray, producing that love of art and literature which distinguishes you, and providing also that field of conflict which characterises your entire life. Harmony through conflict is the keynote of your life, with the soul ever aware of the basic harmony, but with the personality registering the conflict more definitely and more aware of the strife and the difficulties. Ever the mind has sought to control; ever the soul has endeavoured to carry increasing illumination, through the mind; ever the personal lower self has resisted that illumination and control. Is this not so, my brother?

Your astral body is closely linked with your soul and governed by the second ray, thus making for you the line of least resistance in this life. For you, the line of feeling-intuition, of astral-buddhic approach has been the way. It is right here that the fourth ray problem of your mind has its major difficulty [666] and this for the following reason: In this life your major vibration runs along the line of 2-4-6, producing the intensification of your second ray qualities and indicating the need for some balancing factor. The difficulty is helped, however, and the problem aided towards solution by the fact that your physical body is on the seventh ray, which brings in the vibration of the first ray line of energy, 1-5-7. This is of great assistance to you. Upon the physical plane, therefore, you have the task of balancing this preponderance of second ray attributes, qualities and rhythm.

Your rays, therefore, are:

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

2. The ray of the personality—the sixth Ray of Devotion.

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

4. The ray of the astral body—the second Ray of Love-Wisdom.

5. The ray of the physical body—the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order.

You will find this of deep interest and, if rightly appreciated, it will produce fruitful development in your life.

I suggest that you do the following meditation for a period of three months and then take up the group meditation. I have made your personal meditation very brief so that when you take up the group meditation it can constitute a preliminary exercise.

1. Continue with the simple breathing exercise you are now doing. It is of value to you in producing inner alignment and the harmonising of your bodies.

2. Then, by an act of the will, withdraw the consciousness into the head and there visualise the inner radiant sun, formed by the merging of the lesser life of the personality with the radiant light in your soul. At the very centre of this life see the Self, the inner Christ or Buddha. Then focus your thought, without effort or strength, in this centre.

3. Next sound the O.M., breathing it out through the personality and carrying:

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a. Light to the mind.

b. Peace to the astral body.

c. Strength to the physical body.

4. Finally, as the soul and the personality together, sound the O.M. again, once audibly and once inaudibly, thinking as you do so of the need of the world and the power of the soul to meet that need, through the medium of aspiration and discrimination.

5. Continue then with any meditation such as you may feel the need of doing.

Have in the background of your consciousness the three words: joy, stability and the Plan.

March 1938

MY BROTHER AND MY COMRADE:

I have not much to say to you at this time for I gave you full and long instructions and several suggestions in the last communication. I would ask you to continue to study them and to go on pondering on their significance and their implications. There is much in them which you have not had the time to assimilate, for I gave you much, knowing that you could stand the pressure of my suggestion.

You have made good progress in linking up with your group brothers. It is not an easy task to work in a group which has been functioning for some time and has already achieved a measure of subjective integration, but your group brothers are close to you and the consciousness of this fact is steadily growing in your mind.

It may be of assistance to you and complete the information given in your first personal instructions, if I were to indicate the points of contact through which your soul and your personality primarily work:

1. In this incarnation, your ego or soul is seeking expression through your astral body. There lies for you the line of least resistance. This established contact will rapidly transmute sixth ray devotion into universal and non-critical love. It will give you what I might call horizontal inclusiveness as well as vertical one-pointedness. Ponder on this.

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2. Your personality force is focussed in your seventh ray brain. This gives you the power to plan, to organise, and also the power to give form to ideas. Ponder also on this.

I would call your attention anew to the three key words, Joy, Stability, and the Plan; during the past year there have been many occasions when the Way of Joy has been for you a hard way to go. Yet it is one of the needed characteristics of discipleship, leading—as it does—to soul strength; it is an essential quality for all those second ray people who are oriented particularly to treading, at some future date and after initiation, the difficult way of all world saviours. It is valuable for you to distinguish between a World Saviour and the world saviours. I have given you here a deeply esoteric hint.

Stability or steadfastness, which is the power to stand unmoving in the centre of your environment and in the midst of changing circumstance, will be tested out in you this year. To stand this test, your soul is challenging you. When, therefore, the need for quiet and poised strength arises and there come those moments when powerful action seems desirable or violent protest or words are deemed advisable, stand in steadfastness and recollect the need for poise, for patience and the desirability to await right indication of the way to go and the need for speech or for silence. This waiting will often change the direction of your intent and no action will then be taken but only that steady vision which sees the inner side and not the outer happening.

Go in peace, my brother, and learn anew the comradeship of the Path.

February 1939

MY BROTHER:

The tension of fear is great in the world today. People everywhere are living under great strain. Forget not that it is the few in every land (and when I say "in every land" I make no exception) who bring about world evil. But I would have you remember also that the will of the masses of the people unless misled, is towards good and understanding. I am talking here in connection with world affairs. Stand steady, therefore, and permit no thoughts of hatred and fear to find lodging in [669] your mind. Stand firmly for good, looking for it in all peoples and races and thus seek to swell the rising tide of those who aspire to right human relations, knowing that the potency of love rightly expressed is great and is—at this time—the only factor that can offset hate.

In connection with this point, I would call your attention to the instructions given to D.I.J., for in them I refer to the similarity of your problems with hers and with those of D.H.B. You can, through this similarity (which is induced through the similarity of your rays), reinforce and strengthen each other and produce a triple unit of energy which will be of service to your group brothers. You three can from certain aspects meditate together each day.

I would ask you that you take as your special work that subject which is today of such interest to you—the idea of death and proving the fact of immortality. Survival, my brother, has been proved. This has been the great task and the real achievement of the spiritualistic movement throughout the world. Immortality, however, has not been proved.

When you have further steeped yourself in the subject, approaching it in happiness and in the spirit of service, I will give you later some ideas upon which you might work. I will not do so now as I want you to read and think through into a greater clarity of vision and a clearer perception of what it is you are seeking to undertake. One reason why you can do this work is that all your rays are along the line of building and of religion. You can, therefore, approach the scene in a far more detached manner than if your rays were purely mental or along the line of the first ray which is the ray that always brings withdrawal and abstraction and is the ray of the destroyer or of death itself. Ponder on this. There is a connection with the first ray aspect which is will, and that of death. Death is now the result of the will of the soul. Eventually it has to be the result of the united will of the soul and the personality and when that happens there will be no fear of death. Ponder also on this.

One of your problems in connection with all spiritual and meditational work is to avoid becoming too abstract; spiritual achievement for you in this life will come through the blending [670] of the highest possible point of spiritual recognition with your enlightened mind and your physical brain consciousness. The keynote of this is, of course, alignment. Have this thought of alignment in your consciousness as you proceed with the following meditation:

1. Sound the Sacred Word audibly, regarding yourself as the physical man and holding the thought of physical coordination.

Interlude wherein you take six long slow breaths, thinking as you do so about coordination.

2. Sound the Sacred Word then inaudibly, regarding yourself as the astral-emotional man, holding whilst you do it the thought of the purification and the transmutation of desire.

Interlude wherein you seek definitely to raise your consciousness higher and, whilst you are doing this, taking seven long slow breaths.

3. Sound the Sacred Word inaudibly again, pondering this time upon the mind as the reflector of the light of the soul and endeavouring to hold the mind steady in that light.

Interlude wherein you aspire to soul consciousness whilst taking ten long slow breaths, raising your consciousness as high as you can.

4. Sound the Sacred Word this time as the soul, realising that the attention of the soul is definitely turned to the personality and that it seeks to control and dominate the personality.

When doing the slow breathing, endeavour to sit erect without tension, and see to it that at no time, when inhaling, you inflate the abdomen, but that the abdomen is held drawn in towards the spine below the diaphragm.

My blessing rests upon you, my brother. In these hard days remember with joy that the Hierarchy of spiritual forces stands.

NOTE: This disciple is still presumably active in the Tibetan's Ashram and close to Him, but has disappeared in the chaos of the European war.