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SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - Part 3

 

This appeal is one that I make to all in my group of disciples. In all of you are limitations, hindrances and certain obstacles to progress. Were it not so, you would be liberated souls and not upon some division of the Path of Approach and under my tuition, as now you are. The immediacy of surrounding [151] need and of hierarchical request for help in world work should galvanise you into a renewed and sustained effort—emancipating you from the lethargy into which it is so easy to lapse. Disciples are prone to two things (as are all aspirants) and these tendencies they should face with courage and clear vision:

1. Lethargy or the failure to use the advice and information available for practical, experimental use.

2. Self-centredness—in some subtle or obvious form.

You will place yourself, I know, under those who, through lethargy, fail to achieve the utmost possible. I would point out to you that though you may have this liability in a physical or emotional form, you have not got it mentally. You are among those who take the kingdom of heaven by violence and enter therein. B.S.D. needs this mental activity in a dynamic form, even if he recognises not the truth of my remarks.

If you will ponder upon the verse which I am now going to give you for consideration, illumination may pour in. These verses do not refer to your recognised lethargy—of that you are aware and with it I need not deal. These occult phrases deal with things basic and oft unrecognised. If recognised, they are not adequately appraised. Here are the verses:

"One star shone forth within the dark blue vault of heaven. Then another and still another could be seen until around the star were many shining points. The circle of the stars revolved and kept its place and darkness was around on every hand. Each star within its tiny orbit kept its place and slow revolved. Its contacts with the circle's edge proved adequate.

"'There is but one great circle,' came a voice, 'not many little spheres. Some stars are small and time must feed their flame. Some stars are suns and shed their light on every hand. Seek out a sun and feed its life. Shed forth your rays and live.'"

July 1937

BROTHER OF OLD:

In dealing with the rays which control and dominate your life I would remind you that it is your first ray mind that gives you undoubted mental influence. This is felt most strongly [152] by all who contact you. Being definitely in touch with your soul (which is in its turn under second ray influence) you have a combination of forces which is definitely useful, both to yourself and others. Your mental body is governed by the first ray.

Your astral body is as definitely a second ray aggregation of energies and hence the influence of love which you carry everywhere with you. I would remind you, however, that when the soul and the astral body are both on the same ray, there is presented always an engrossing problem of balance. There will be, in such cases, a tendency to a lack of balance in the total effect of the equipment and with this—as well you know—you have constantly to deal.

The physical body is of the seventh ray type but it is so controlled by your fourth ray personality that—in a most peculiar sense—it has little life of its own. It is negative to an amazing extent and this again constitutes a definite problem. Your rays, therefore, are:

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

2. The personality ray—the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.

3. The ray of the mind—the first Ray of Power or Will.

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 or Magic.

I have an idea that the above statement will carry much illumination to you and that it will enable you to make real progress.

January 1938

MY BROTHER:

The past year has seen the many changes which have taken place in the relationship between your soul and your personality. These have now worked through on to the physical plane and have brought about definite outer changes in your life and circumstance. The uprooting to which you have been subjected should be a cheering indication to you of the emergence into a fuller life of service of a much better equipped worker—[153] better, because he is a freer and less clogged channel for soul force. You have now the use of a renewed and more forceful personality in outer manifestation. Upon this thought I would ask you to ponder and carefully reflect. If you do this, you will be enabled wisely to make certain needed changes and adjustments which have been your inner realised goal for some long time and which can be more easily brought about in unison with the many other adjustments which change of environment have made possible.

A period of intensified service lies ahead of you, beginning in September of this year. This, my brother, gives you an interlude wherein to think with clarity, to subject yourself to self-imposed discipline, and to heighten your magnetic vibration. Your task is not to go forth into the difficult places of the earth but to work from your own centre through the magnetic radiance of your soul. This you have always done and I ask of you no new thing but only an increased magnetic radiance, based upon an inner freedom which makes possible the relinquishing of outer shackles and chains, thus gaining a liberty which will extend through every department of your being.

In connection with the problem of service and the finding of right cooperators, I might endorse your own opinion that up till now no true well-balanced cooperator has appeared. You are asking yourself (and me) if this lack of cooperators is your own fault and if there is anything you could do yourself which would attract the right person and establish a fruitful and enduring fellowship in the work. I would reply to this subjective questioning of yours in the following terms: Decisive action, carried forward and persisted in for the needed period of time is, for you—as yet—only in the formative stage. I refer not to your power to speak with decision to those you seek to help—physically and psychologically—for that you can always succeed in doing. I refer to the ability always to act with a wise, clean-cut decision in relation to yourself and your own immediate problems. You are learning to do this and the next two years will see you making much advance in this matter, but you are only at the beginning of your training. Always has your problem been that of the true second ray disciple. This involves the ability to identify yourself with others, their [154] ideas and reactions and you thereby limit and hinder your own activity from the indecision which arises from too much understanding and too great a sympathy with the personality problems and the form side of expression. When you can stand with greater firmness in spiritual being and when you can work more definitely and consciously with the soul aspect and less engrossingly with the personality, your life will simplify and certain of your unique personality problems will disappear. Then and only then will your soul call to you those who can be your true cooperators.

One hint I will here give you: Look not for those who are potential spiritually but who are not yet expressive, but look for those mature souls who do not need your help but who seek your collaboration as you seek theirs. You have sought for your collaborators among those you help, but there you will not find them.

It was this idea I had in mind when I told you in an earlier communication to "seek out a sun and feed its life." I gave you no suggestion to do more than let time take care of those stars whose size is small and their radiance limited. One of the difficult things for humble aspirants to grasp is that peculiar moment in their life history when they must shift into the realm of discriminating work. This fits them to work as we, the teachers upon the inner side, have learned to work. We work not with all who would demand our aid but leave the "lesser lights" to be handled by our disciples and the lesser teachers. We confine ourselves to training those stronger souls, those more potent people whose lives can be "focussed in radiance" and whose response and effort warrant our endeavour. There are many gathered around you, my brother, to whom you have given much strength and teaching and whose tendency is to confuse acquiescence in your teaching and acceptance of your strength for the more difficult task of achieving divine self-confidence and innate, not borrowed, strength. Let such people go and—standing as a radiant centre of magnetic force—draw to yourself cooperators in the Plan and not consumers of your energy. Go through the lists of those you have sought to help and relinquish them to their own souls. Mind not their criticism but dedicate yourself to more important work—a work [155] which will appear when you have freed yourself from the clinging hands of well-meaning but weak-minded aspirants. Then, around the star which is your soul will be many "shining points." There have been times when I have been hard put to it to find you because of the obscuration brought about by those who surround and well nigh smother you as they cling to you. Stand Free.... Having pointed this out, brother of old, go forward towards the goal and the vision with confidence, sure judgment and the knowledge that I, who for years (longer than you know) have watched over your progress, am standing by with understanding and with confidence in you.

January 1939

You will note, my brother, how you reverse the problem of B.S.D. because your personality ray, your soul ray and your astral ray are all along the same line of force—the line of the second ray. I have already pointed out to you the difficult nature of your problem which is that most subtle one of the right balancing of energies. You have no third ray energy in you at all (the energy of the ray of the intellect) and this in spite of the fact of your physical constitution. It accounts for your intense feeling that you have no racial relationship to the Jews at all in spite of the fact that you are of the Hebrew race. This is a true feeling, and the only thing which relates you to the Jewish race is the fact that your mental body is on the first ray which is the same as the soul of Judaea. The soul knows no distinctions or differences and on soul levels no problem of any kind exists—except the problem of understanding love. Of this you know much.

Your soul ray focusses itself in and through your astral body and your personality ray does the same. Hence your problem and hence the facility with which you can relate the soul and personality rays and can carry through their blended energies to the heart centre. The increasing use of this line of force is one of your practical demonstrations of the future. The second thing which you need to do is to take these energies of the soul and of the personality, add to them the energy of the [156] heart centre and then learn how to carry all three to the head centre and there blend them with the power of your first ray mind. This first ray mental power, you must learn to bring definitely down into the head centre by an act of the creative imagination and hold it steadily there....

I would ask you—as far as you possibly can—to insulate yourself from fear and from the effect of the world situation and its allied problems. The future for you is planned and you can take the right steps through the power of your illumined mind. I would ask you to carry forward this insulation along the line of love, using the ancient method which has been called "the wheel of living fire which burns not but ever heals." This method is occult and safe and constitutes no barrier to relationships as does the building of a separative wall. The method is as follows:

See before you a wheel of fire with seven spokes. See it immediately before your eyes. Then, by an act of the creative imagination, see yourself standing in the centre at the hub of the wheel; there regard yourself as if you were that hub. From that central position, send out the seven streams of living love, radiating upon the world. When you do this you serve and are, at the same time, completely protected. This exercise can become instantaneous and effective. It generates a protective force and at the same time makes you a living centre of light and love.

Be not distressed, my brother, but in calmness and in peace pursue your way. There is no life, at this time, without its difficult lot to bear, and what matter what it is? Love all. Serve all. Preserve your mental integrity and be not influenced by those whose hearts are bitter or whose tongues are cruel. Life is initiation and for this you are prepared. The crises in the life of the soul work out along certain lines as major initiations. I am here giving you a hint. For this too you are, as you know, being prepared. I stand behind you with understanding and with strength. I give you my blessing, my brother.

NOTE: Under the most trying conditions, this disciple is steadily carrying on and working with K.H. and serving with the Tibetan's group.

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To J. W. K-P.

November 1931

BROTHER OF MINE:

I would conjure you to face the future with joy and optimism. Courage you always have but joy you lack. With you, as with F.C.D., much of the physical plane activity is hampered by etheric devitalisation, though the causes producing the existing condition differ. During the past years, I have many times conveyed to you a message the summation of which lies in the emphasis I lay on steadfastness in meditation. Etheric vitalisation lies in meditation where you are concerned and the bringing in of energy to your physical body through its instrumentality. Diet, fresh air and freedom from concern all aid the process but the main cure for you and the source of success in all your work lies in your persistence in meditation and your contemplative endurance.

The conservation of energy is wise, yet you have untold reserves upon which to draw and as yet you use them not as you might. As before I have told you, you make not adequate use of the meditation period and your physical body suffers in consequence and therefore your work. There is much to be done and through meditation you can accomplish much. You might ask me, my brother, how to utilise the meditation period so as to benefit from it physically. The physical body will take care of itself when the source of supply lies open to use. A modification—to be made by yourself—of the attached meditation would be in order for you, omitting the detail of the stage of ascent but visualising the inflow of energy to the centres in the etheric body and the vitalisation, above all, of the heart and the throat centres. This should be carried forward in a rapid and definite manner and the rest of the meditation period should be given to group work, and to a consideration of the plans to be followed in the unfolding work of the larger group to which this group belongs.

You will comprehend what I mean, brother of mine, when I repeat to you the ancient formula:

"Out of the lotus in the head springs the flower of bliss.

Its earliest form is joy.

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Out of the lotus in the heart springs the flower of love.

Its earliest indication, wisdom is.

Out of the lotus in the throat emerges the flower of living forms.

The earliest sign is understanding of the Plan."

Joy, wisdom and the Plan! These are for you the three points which must be matured. For B.S.W. it was wisdom, strength and beauty. For you, these other three. You two are very close—closer than either of you have realised. Weakness for you both lies in the failure of one or other of the manifestations of power to flourish. When B. S. W. knows the true significance of beauty and you of joy, release and fuller service will be yours.

June 1933

I have the same word for you again, my brother. I say to you again and yet again, "Let the joy of the Lord be your strength." There is much to be done and in many ways. Steps have been taken to fit you for what you have to do. Go forward as at present. Let the Plan absorb you but remember at the same time that it works out step by step and that the true helper of the Plan is he who visions it as it may be in the cycle of the life but who also sees the small and immediate step ahead. Therein lies the difference between the mystic and the occultist.

You are in much better physical condition and your registration of joy must work out also in happiness and eventually in bliss. For you, too, today I have a mantram which may be of service:

"Joy settles as a bird within the heart but has winged its way from the secret place within the head. I am that bird of joy. Therefore, with joy I serve."

You will know whereof I speak when I say that your personality detachment must develop into a deeper attachment to the souls within the forms. Thus understanding grows. There is a vice of detachment as well as a vice of attachment and the true servant of the Plan seeks the middle way. You have a sphere of potent usefulness within my group. You give stability and [159] you carry the gift of assured belief. Each member of my group has been chosen for what he can contribute to the whole....

June 1934

BROTHER OF MINE:

I would like at this time to make the comment—one of major importance to you—that you are now entering upon the work for which you incarnated. The members of the New Group of World Servers—e'en when they work without mental realisation (not as you do, for you know somewhat of the Plan)—are, nevertheless, working "under impression," as it is called. Their main duty, and the duty to which their souls call them, is to preserve an inner sensitivity. This they do in the majority of cases and, where there is not your background of esoteric knowledge, their intense interest in their work makes them one-pointed and dedicated to their task. Therefore, all personality reactions are subordinated to the work in hand and the lower man presents no impediments to that impression. With you, as with all the members of my group, there is a realisation of the Plan and an inner determination to cooperate and this facilitates the work. For you, therefore, in the immediate future, two things are required. Your sensitivity to inner impression must grow and increase; your will also must be more dynamically used.

These two points I have in view as I consider the nature of the meditation which I must assign to you. The condition of increased sensitivity is dependent upon a perfected alignment and the other upon the right seizure of opportunity, upon directed skill in action and upon a sustained egoic one-pointedness. Therefore, there must be a preservation of such characteristics—with persistence—throughout the day. Your morning meditation should be of a brief and yet potent character and can best be described by the following words: Alignment. Dedication. Directed thought. Recognition of the Plan. Clear-cut realisation. Steady Will. For you, meditation is an assuming of an attitude and its preservation throughout the work of the day. My brother, we can translate all the above into four stages [160] which definitely relate to your life theme, if I may so call it. Begin always with the fourth or final stage and work through to the first:

1. You live with the idea and you constructively embody it. This is being or realisation.

2. The purpose becomes your purpose and your will is, therefore, the will of the Plan. Towards this higher will, your personal will is steadily directed.

3. This "qualifies" your life in the three worlds and you become potently characterised by the quality of the unfolding Plan. Upon this quality you must meditate.

4. Realisation of the nature, the purpose and the quality of the Plan to which it is your purpose to contribute. This conditions the form which your work will take.

Your task is to work with the Law of Supply. The demand is already there. Your work is to contribute to the success of the New Group of World Servers and to the spreading of the truth and to do this, as ever, with joy. As the demands of the work increase, you must learn to preserve your physical poise and good health, by due attention to food and exercise. You must learn to live increasingly the dual life of the disciple—a life of outer activity and of inner sensitivity. You have but little to fear, for much is already accomplished upon the inner planes. The seizure of opportunity, the recognition of opening doors and skill in activity—to these direct your attention. Your work for the New Group of World Servers is now beginning. There will not be asked of you more than you can accomplish. Use the instructions I give you and strengthen your link with me, for that is for you also an opening door of increased usefulness. Cultivate love for your fellowmen or rather, my brother and my friend, the externalising of that love which you have in full measure. In this will lie the recognition of those who constitute the world group. Here D.R.S. is of service to you for he throws a light on people.

In quietness and in confidence go forward along the Lighted Way and with expectancy as your keynote. Preserve a readiness to handle all that may eventuate. The link between you and your Master strengthens daily.

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January 1935

BROTHER OF MINE:

You face the three most strenuous years of your life and by the time you are forty-nine years old, your work will have fallen into such definite lines that you will see the Plan for future service with much greater clarity and will have acquired the desired momentum. Your work ahead lies now in cooperating with those who are the New Group of World Servers and in organising the financing through which much of their work may become possible. The work as it takes shape on the physical plane must be directed towards the spiritual uplift of the thinking people of the world in the first case and in the second place through them will come the uplift of the masses.

Your work must be largely selective and in the main educational. It will also involve the finding and the training of those who can cooperate. Workers increasingly will be drawn to Great Britain and to the continent of Europe. From the United States of America, the teaching must go out. But Europe is the field for the educating of the world in the ideas of a true world unity and for the wise presentation of the Plan. From that continent can the inspiration go forth to the East and to the West.

Go forward into this work with sure courage and with no sense of pressure. Blend the wise methods of the present organisations with the vision of the newer types of work. This is a spiritual work in which you are engaged and it has educational objectives which have for their goal the dissemination of those principles which must govern world-living and world attitudes during the coming New Age. In the presentation of the work which the New Group of World Servers can do, certain definite and immediate possible programmes can be indicated, such as the educating of public opinion in the principle of non-separativeness. But to do this, much meditation and much clear thinking will be involved.... The technique to be followed and the methods employed to arouse interest and to evoke the needed support are for Western disciples and workers to decide and not for me, your Oriental brother. I can but stimulate your soul to clarity of perception, to wise vision, to [162] true understanding and to right planning. The rest of the work and the materialising of the project lies in your hands and with those who respond to the ideas presented.

As regards your personal development and training, brother of old, I can but enjoin upon you a consideration of the meditation work I gave in my last instruction to you and a renewed effort to meet its demands. You have no idea how a fresh access of power will come to you could you but discipline yourself into giving a dynamic twenty minutes each morning—prior to descending to the day's routine.... This has for years been your problem. Yet this scant twenty minutes, taken each morning with regularity at the hour of 8 A.M. would give you not only the joy you need in your strenuous service, the power and insight you require to stabilise your work, but also a larger measure of physical strength. Your body nature is so constituted that it responds to spiritual healing more than do the bodies of the majority.

July 1935

I have but little to say to you, my brother, as last year I wrote to you in detail and outlined to you the work of the coming years. I change not that work or my suggestions, for if I did so there would be no true synthesis in the output of this group. I am working on a pre-arranged Plan of my own which was the result of several years' close observation of the members of my group. I have seen no reason to change my original ideas or plan, because you have all developed as I foresaw, though one or two of the group are learning more slowly than the rest whilst one member of my group has unexpectedly leaped ahead.

Your work is being steadily consolidated and, as you lay the foundations deep and begin the superstructure, you must guard the original idea and the initial thoughtform from all possible deterioration. The difficulty of the spiritual builders and the architects of the Plan only really begins when that which they are constructing becomes public property and subject, therefore, to criticism and outer help. Then the task of preserving the original purity of idea and of purpose becomes onerous.

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Be prepared for expansion of the work. But expand according to plan and not according to emergency, for you are building in collaboration with the inner Builders and the two structures must be counterparts. Ponder on this, yet be not rigid on non-essentials.

Take the tensity of your inner pressure off the work for awhile, my brother. The momentum at this time is adequate to carry the plans forward. Therefore, hold steady, brood deeply but drive not.

January 1936

BROTHER OF MINE:

Every perfecting organism must have in it those elements of life and power which embody the energy of the three aspects of divinity. It must likewise have those force channels through which the other four types of divine energy may express themselves. This may be provided by those disciples who are on each of the seven rays indicated, or by those disciples who can, through their purity and consecration, carry any type of energy which the Hierarchy may choose to project into an organism through their agency. The New Group of World Servers is a rapidly developing organism which must be preserved from undue crystallisation and over-organisation. It must, however, express itself through all the seven ways of divine manifestation. You and your associates have—if you so choose and because we have offered you the opportunity—much to do with the right organisation of the outer expression of the New Group of World Servers. After the initial, preparatory period is over, what has been done subjectively and objectively will be so definite in its effects that the future lines of emergence and the policies and activities will be relatively stable and unalterable. This is a responsibility which must be faced.

The task is, however, complicated because the New Group of World Servers has in it so many aspirants and some disciples of whom you can know nothing; these are also working actively and under the new impulses, frequently without being aware of their affiliation as cooperators.

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It is necessary, therefore, for you and other members of my group of workers to hold yourselves sensitive to the new factors and to the people whose task it is—equally with the group to which you belong and recognise—to precipitate the new group activities, the new attitudes and the new techniques. Hence, again, the necessity for a trained inner attentiveness, not only to the voice of your own soul, to my voice and to group impression but also to the voices of those who will be attracted to the group whom you recognise by similarity of purpose, of method and of attitude. This, my brother, is not easy.

This year should see you achieving a greater inner freedom and a clearer spirit of true liberation which will express itself in an attitude of real, and not assumed, joy and peace and a less weighed down spirit of responsibility. It must be remembered that this is a group responsibility. Your task is the attaining of a keener and more sensitive reaction to subtle and spiritual impression and to the group impulses of the New Group of World Servers.... As you go forward with this task, the right method of approach to those working in the New Group of World Servers will appear, the needed doors will open and the correct way of evoking interest will easily become apparent. The work upon the inner planes is already done and only the awakening of the brain and of the objective mind remains to be accomplished in connection with these individuals.

One other point remains for me to touch upon. Your orientation to the Plan is right, and you have wisdom and strength. Conserve, however, your strength and remember that right relaxation is just as much a part of the service you can render as the strenuous, unremitting work which leads to enforced and perhaps inconvenient interludes of gaining physical strength. The steady, unbroken, inner push, carried forward through right organisation of the outer factors of time and physical strength is essential. It is not possible, unless there is a balanced life of service, of recreation and again of service.

June 1936

BROTHER OF OLD:

You are in process of gathering together your forces for another cycle of activity in connection with the New Group [165] of World Servers. Forget not, all creative processes proceed with a cyclic rhythm. The rhythm set by the New Group of World Servers is a three year cycle and to this rhythm you will find yourself conforming. The end of one such cycle came in May, 1936. Another towards which we will proceed in a mounting crescendo of work and of success will be in May, 1939. The third will come in May, 1942. Have these dates carefully in mind and thus lay your plans for the future. Thus will you be working with the law and along the lines of least resistance. Make each three year cycle conform to the rhythm of creation. In the first year, lay your emphasis upon the activity of the manifesting principle, using that which appears and with which you have to work. In the second year, let the clarity and the quality of the note to be sounded by the manifesting form appear and be heard. In the third year, behind the form and expressing itself through the quality, let the livingness and the work of the indwelling life emerge for all to see. Bear this in mind as you consolidate the work. The keynote of the first year's work is consolidation, that of the second year must be expansion whilst the keynote of the third year must be the making of a definite impact upon the public consciousness, by the sounding and the emphasising of some one clear note. If this cyclic measure is kept thus in mind, no serious mistakes will be made.... The New Group of World Servers must work in these three year cycles and the foundation of cyclic attainment must be laid. This cyclic rhythm will release from strain and yet enable the workers in the Group to feel that there is no failure. It is impossible to do good work where a sense of failure or lack of attainment is found.

One thing I would like here to point out and that is that there are many in other countries, scattered all over the world, who have a close and intimate work to do because they are actively associated with the New Group of World Servers. They have not yet made their contact with you or with those in my particular group of disciples. You must learn, as must the other members of my group, to recognise them. Where there is a recognition of principles, of impartiality in service and pure intelligent goodwill, then give freely of your time and help. Hold out the hand of fellowship. Where there is life and the [166] type of seed is one, then the same flower will appear throughout the world in all lands. Naught can alter the expression of the type and the genus of the manifestation. Bear this in mind.

As for you, my brother, keep close to your own soul. Walk carefully and guardedly. Tread fearlessly and joyously in the light of your soul and in the blended light of your group brothers.

January 1937

BROTHER OF OLD:

With true first ray brevity, you have replied to certain questions which I have put to you and yet these replies are—from my point of view—most disclosing. With you, as with F.C.D. and R.S.U., the main difficulty is lethargy, based on a genuine physical disability. It is not my intention, therefore, to urge you to a greater activity but to a greater organisation upon the inner planes and greater intuitive reflection. This group of disciples has undertaken to do two things:

1. To assist the work of the New Group of World Servers in linking them, widely and consciously, to the men of goodwill throughout the world. This has to be done in order to bring in right and new conditions upon the earth.

2. To find and organise the needed funds for this task. The last is in many ways the outer expression of the first, for just as money has been in the past the instrument of men's selfishness, now it must be the instrument of their goodwill. I commend this to you as a real thought and so to continue to use it (employing an American phrase) as a talking point.

The above is simply a summation of the task immediately ahead of all of you who are seeking to aid in our work and to this task I urge you and all associated with me. The walls of difficulty must go down and success must follow effort—the united pressure of determined souls pushing through to victory in spite of real odds. This united and definite effort must be carried forward without discouragement or questioning—with due attention to the time factor and with a sense of urgency. This will [167] negate all lost motion and will permit no opportunity to slide. There are, my brother, many who will give their cooperation but who, at this time, sidetrack their cooperation, owing to fear or to the over-emphasis of non-essentials. I refer here to those men of goodwill who are today aware of the urgency of the Master's work but still hold back assistance in full measure. There are those also who do not realise the urgency and are unaware of the immediacy of the Plan or even that there is a Plan. They, however, when faced with the issue will give.

It is not for me to deal with this problem, as we shoulder not the responsibilities of the World Servers. I present it to you, my brother, and to my group, and I throw behind you the weight of my strength and the stimulation of my love. One-pointed, directed effort can achieve results in spite of world conditions, misrepresentation by those who do not understand and the failure of responsive interest on the part of one's co-disciples—throughout the world or close at hand.

Brace yourself, therefore, and with the other members of my group push through. Stand steady and do not be so seriously troubled as to the progress of the work which seems not yet to move as rapidly as desired. When the movement does come, it will be rapid....

The following three sentences may aid you in handling your problem and help your progress as a worker:

1. The sense of responsibility shines forth in flickering flames from every soul which has sought and found alignment. Fan those flames into a steady fire in every soul you meet. Ponder on this.

2. The sense of sacrifice is faintly seen in every soul that loves the Plan. Teach them that sacrifice must touch the depths of giving and not call forth that which upon the surface lies or that which can be known. The unseen sacrifice must go with that which can be seen. Teach this.

3. The sense of comradeship is surely known by each and all of you but needs the deepening of service shared. Shew this and draw it forth. The comradeship of burdens shared, the sense of deep response to need, the comradeship of service rendered, the urge to sacrifice—teach these to those who seek to work within the Master's plan and show all three yourself.

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July 1937

Your mental body, my brother, is upon the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict. Hence your power to harmonise, to unify and to comprehend. At the same time (thus indicating soul purpose), it took a fourth ray mental nature (with its love of harmony through conflict) to handle the particular task which your soul assigned, and the undertaking upon which you are engaged in the aiding of the Plan.

Your second ray astral body greatly facilitates your work, giving you understanding and harmlessness; your emotions thus do not interfere with your judgment and your decisions. But the combination of a fourth ray mental body and a second ray emotional vehicle requires careful watching so as to preserve the first ray balance as you grow older and tendencies crystallise into habits. The only way to do this is to deepen and establish the soul contact which (although of the first ray) is, as you will remember, the first subray of the second ray.

As you have already guessed, your physical body is on the seventh ray. Hence your Masonic opportunity and your ability to organise and to rule. I would remind you all that when the statement is made that the physical body is upon the seventh ray, it means that the atoms of the brain, in particular, are coloured and motivated by seventh ray energy. So it is with all the rays upon which a physical vehicle may be found. This provides a definite opportunity to those so constituted at this time in connection with the seventh ray, as it is coming into influence so rapidly. At the same time it provides a problem—that unending problem of the balancing of forces which is the major task of the initiate or of those in training for initiation. Viewing you, therefore, as a complete unit, your rays are:

1. The soul ray—the first Ray of Power or Will.

2. The personality ray—the second Ray of Love-Wisdom.

3. The ray of the mind—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.

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January 1938

Three words I gave to you, my friend and brother, in my last communication. They were: Responsibility, Sacrifice and Comradeship. I urged on you the task of awakening the aspirants by whom you are surrounded to an understanding of their significance. You comprehend them yourself, but they must be exemplified, explained and nurtured in all whom you draw into the circle of group influence as collaborators and cooperators with the Plan. Responsibility you can shoulder and have always shouldered. Sacrifice you have always rendered and understood. Your values are sound on this and you want nothing for the separated self. Comradeship, you are learning and it is not an easy lesson at any time for first ray souls to master and express. The littleness of the personalities and the pettiness of individual points of view are irksome to the server of the Plan who stands, serene and detached, upon a first ray pinnacle of vision and resultant comprehension.

I have three points to take up with you and my message to you is brief. I seek not to impose upon you a definite meditation, beyond suggesting that, as you face and shoulder an increasingly wide financial responsibility, you persist in that brooding meditation in relation to the problem which I gave you a while ago. You are coming—as a first ray disciple who is proving himself—under a closer supervision by your Master. My task is now only to stand by. The three points which I would impress upon you are as follows:

1. Waste not time in backward looking nor in futile consideration of the wisdom or the non-wisdom of past undertakings. Go forward with confidence and intensity. Months of focussed and intense action lie ahead of you and, rightly carried forward, success awaits you in the gathering of the needed equipment to do the Master's work and aid the Plan.

2. Handle with care the force which flows through you as you shift increasingly into the consciousness of your first ray soul and into a first ray Master's group. See to it that your second ray personality can rightly deal with that force, blending it with love and tempering its power with [170] understanding. The first ray force must deal with circumstance and must not make its impact upon personalities. It is needed to force issues and determine results (note that phrase) but not to shatter and to hurt. True impersonality must be borne in mind and your personality must note its effect upon other personalities and offset its innate and oft most useful destructive work.

3. Ponder on joy, happiness, gaiety and bliss; these release the channels of the inner life and reach—in a wide circle—many kinds of men. They heal and cleanse the physical body and help you do your work with little effort, a proper sense of values and a detachment which is based on love and not isolation.

In closing I would say: I am not dissatisfied with the work which has been done by you and the workers in the field but I call you all to deeper understanding and increased activity.

For you, my brother, I have this word. Let not the glamour of fatigue and of disappointment over world conditions lead to abortive work. Fight not the glamour which seeks to impose itself upon you with your first ray indifference—a potent attitude easily assumed by you as by all first ray types. Fight it by non-recognition and by complete absorption in the immediate task; I refer to a wise absorption which neglects no due physical care nor due time for relaxation. The work goes forward in the world along the correct, indicated inner lines. The disciple who has achieved a measure of sensitivity to the Whole must learn to discriminate between aspects of that whole. You are too sensitive to the desire and feeling aspects of the world personality and the glamour of your own reaction to this. Learn to register with equal sensitivity the mass of the world idealisms and aspiring thought; then the glamour of fatigue and of innate disgust will give place to a keen interest and understanding of the glamour-free disciple.

January 1940

MY BROTHER:

The pressure of the work is heavy upon you and it still remains. I have no particular instruction to give you at this time because what has been initiated will achieve its own momentum and travel towards its inevitable conclusion. I will [171] only add that the effort you are making to meet the demands of the work which I have outlined, draws forth my approval and—if persisted in—should prove of prolonged service to humanity. I would ask you to note the word "prolonged" because you are building for the future and, in the future, the true significance of accomplishment will be yours. Proceed, therefore, with patience, with skill in action and with an unmoved persistence.

In reference to the work of fusion at which you must arrive in connection with your bodily forces and your soul energy, I would call your attention to the fact that your soul energy is focussed in your physical equipment, thus bringing together the energy of your soul and the force of your seventh ray brain. There is, consequently, a direct alignment between soul and brain and this must be deepened, understood and utilised. Your personality energy (which is of the second ray) is focussed in your fourth ray mind. This leaves your astral body as a unity—by itself, from our standpoint of consideration—and this is, in your case, as it should be. You have a powerful astral body of sufficiently poised control to proceed with the task and the solution of personal relationships, without the undue pressure of personality reactions. Some day a study will be made of the fact that practically all reactions are of an astral or emotional nature, except the reactions of the physical mechanism to the outer tangible environment. This is not yet sufficiently noted by orthodox psychology. The reactions of the personality to the soul and of the astral body to the subjective life are of vital interest to the esotericist.

The fusion must, therefore, be made between the mind and the brain, each of which expresses one of the two major energies. That fusion already partially exists. When it is consummated, the mental goal of harmony through conflict will be superseded by the inflow of love, working with power through the brain and (incidentally) your general physical health will speedily improve. How shall this be brought about, my brother? The first stage is one of real difficulty, particularly to first ray people. It comes through the power of visualisation. That is why ritual is of value to such as you and Masonry—being on the first ray and emanating, consequently, from Shamballa—aids the process of visualisation. It gives colour and performance [172] of a tangible kind to inner, subjective activity. Visualisation is a powerful agent in the evocation of the creative imagination. Let me here give you a hint. If you use this idea in the planning of the work which you seek to do for the Hierarchy and for which we are seeking to hold you responsible, and if you carry into all that work the ideal of ritual, of rhythm and of energy distribution, you will evoke a synthetic pattern, a unified procedure and a harmonious working out of the Plan.

Therefore, I would ask you to give ten minutes each day to the pictorial visualisation of your entire work and programme. See each phase of it as a lotus of living beauty, connected with all the other phases by lines of fiery energy, thus bringing all parts of it into one whole. All the different phases will form a great unity of light and love, expressing itself through the will-to-good. Be not side-tracked when doing this. Use the building energy of your second ray personality and the seventh ray energy of your brain, because through your brain, your first ray soul energy is expressing itself. You do not here consciously work as a soul. You work with as much soul energy as can express itself at any given time through your brain. If you worked with pure soul energy and from soul levels, you would bring in too much of the Shamballa force for the delicate structure with which you are dealing.

Precede all that you do with a definite effort to bring about the following alignments and in the following order:

1. The alignment of all personality forces with the energy of the personality, focussed in the mind nature. This means an aligned personality with the focus of the attention in the intellect.

2. The alignment of the personality with the soul. This means bringing the mind—which is focussing all the lower energies—into direct relation with the soul.

3. The alignment of soul and brain. This is brought about by dropping the personality and all its forces out of your consciousness altogether and relating soul and brain by an act of the will.

When you have done this, then swing back into the mind nature and, focussed there, proceed with the work of visualisation, as I have above suggested. Build your picture stage by stage.

[173]

Go forward with courage, hope and joy, plus understanding, my brother. Train those who work with you with painstaking care, for much depends upon them. Remember always that you do not work alone.

NOTE: This disciple is still actively engaged in the Tibetan's work.

To R. A. J.

August 1936

MY BROTHER:

The press of work has led to some delay in my writing my personal instructions to you. I realise, however, that you have much real patience and hence have felt no sense of pressure. Those of us who teach from the inner side have usually to deal with two extreme positions where our disciples are concerned. We have to protect ourselves from the importunities of those who are spiritually selfish (oft unconsciously) and over-eager for development and teaching; we have also to stimulate those disciples, who are slow and cautious and doubtful to a more ready and "approaching" attitude. Those aspirants and disciples, who stand ready to be taught when opportunity offers, ought to continue steadfastly with their work even when apparently there is no inner contact. These disciples offer no strain to the inner teacher and, in the last analysis, make the most progress.