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CHAPTER IV - The Culture of the Individual - Part 1

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CHAPTER IV

The Culture of the Individual

The culture of the individual will be approached from three angles, each contributing to the completed whole which is to make the individual: an intelligent citizen of two worlds (the world of objective existence and the inner world of meaning), a wise parent, a controlled and directed personality.  We shall now proceed to take up these points.

I have not elaborated the teaching of the Aquarian Age nor dealt at all with the educational systems of that time.  It is of no service to you to do so, and I am unable to really aid your thought if I jump you forward two hundred years into a civilisation and a culture of which, as yet, only the faintest indications can be seen.  It is of more value if I lay the emphasis upon the emerging ideas which will govern future procedure in the next generation and carry the world through the most difficult transitional period which it has ever seen.

Certain basic ideals, emerging out of the current ideologies, are beginning to make their impact upon public consciousness.  These ideals in themselves are essentially human reactions to divine ideas; they are consequently not entirely free from error and are necessarily coloured by the calibre of the minds which are formulating them; they are inevitably conditioned by past history, by national tradition and by racial trends of thought.  There is, nevertheless, a curious uniformity about them, even when expressed by the followers [100] of widely diverging world idealism.  If we are properly to understand these ideas and are to lay a right foundation, it would be of value perhaps if we discussed some of these universal attitudes and considered what they indicate in the light of the present world problems, and the indications of the coming world which we can draw therefrom.

THE ANGLE OF CITIZENSHIP

There is a growing feeling amongst the citizens of most nations that the major task of the educational systems is to fit the child for citizenship.  By that they mean that it is the task of the State and of the taxpayers so to train the child that he may be a cooperative, intelligent part of that organised whole which we call a nation; that he may be so disciplined that he can take his part in and make his contribution to the State and thus can be of social value yet play a distinct individual part, and at the same time a group-directed part, in the life of the community wherein he has been born and in which he must necessarily sustain himself; that his individual life and interests count less than the corporate life, and that the preliminary lesson he must be taught is the fact that he is a unit in a functioning group of similar units, each of whom is expected to contribute his quota of good to the whole.

The initial germ of this idea (amazing as it may seem) started when the first school was organised, thousands of years ago.  These schools were very small at first, educating only a favoured few, but leading up gradually (usually via religious organisations) to that mass education and compulsory tuition which distinguishes the modern State schools, whose task it noticeably is to prepare millions of young people in the world for intelligent, but directed, citizenship.

Today, among the so-called enlightened nations, some kind of compulsory education is imposed upon the masses; the children of all nations are taught reading, writing and [101] the rudiments of arithmetic.  They are supposed thereby to have a general idea of world conditions taught—geographically, historically and economically—and are supposed thereby to achieve some recognition, objectively and naturally, of the processes and reasons why the various nations have come to be what they are and where they are, and so to have gained a consciousness of a general planetary picture.  The changing outlines of this picture are today producing mental flexibility in children, and this is, in many ways, a definite asset.

In producing citizens, however, the emphasis up till this time has been twofold.  The aim of education has been so to equip the child that when he reached years of maturity he could take care of himself in the predatory world of modern life, earn a livelihood and become if possible rich and independent of those with whom his life was cast.  In all this tuitional process the emphasis was laid upon himself as an individual, and the point of interest was upon what he was going to do, how he was going to live, and what he could get, make and achieve out of life.

In those conditions where the school bias was religious (as in Church schools of any kind), he was taught that he must endeavour to be good, and the selfish incentive was held before him that if he could do this he might some day go to Heaven and have a happy time.  When these ideas had been instilled into him, when he had been forced by organisational pressure into the desired pattern and mould. when he had absorbed the needed amount of sketchy information about humanity and human achievements, and when his capacity to remember facts (historical, scientific, religious and other) had been developed, even though his power to think remained entirely undeveloped, he was turned loose upon the world and his ordained community to make good and to establish himself.

The above is, I realise, a broad generalisation.  It leaves out of reckoning altogether the innate and inherent capacities [102] of the child, his achieved point of soul development, and any recognition of the powers with which he enters into life as a result of many previous life experiences.  It leaves out also the influence of the many conscientious, spiritually-minded and highly evolved teachers who have—down the ages—set their mark upon the young people they have taught and thus oriented them and led them forward to better things.  I am dealing solely with the institutional aspect of the educational systems and with the proven effect upon the young of every nation who have been subjected to these systems.  The realised goals which the institutional teacher has set before himself have been narrow, and the consequent effect of his teaching and of his work has been the production of a selfish, materialistically-minded person whose major objective has been self-betterment in a material sense.  This has been strikingly aided where any individual ambition has been present which would lead the child to operate willingly with the narrow selfish goal of the teacher.  The natural idealism of the child (and what child is not an innate idealist?) has been slowly and steadily suffocated by the weight of the materialism of the world's educational machine and by the selfish bias of the world's business in its many departments, plus the emphasis always laid upon the necessity of making money.

Little by little this disastrous state of affairs (which reached its climax in the early years of this century) has been slowly changing, so that today in many countries the welfare of the State itself, the good of the Empire, the need of the Nation is held before the child from its earliest years as the highest possible ideal.  He is taught that he must serve the State, Empire or Nation with the very best that is in him; it is strongly inculcated into his consciousness that his individual life must be subordinated to the greater life of the State or Nation, and that it is his duty to meet the national need, even at the expense of life itself.  He is taught [103] that in times of great emergency he, as an individual, does not count at all, but that the larger corporate whole, of which he is an infinitesimal part, is the sole factor that matters.  This is a definite step forward in the expansion of consciousness which the human race must achieve.

I would here remind you that it is the expansion of consciousness and the production of increased sensitivity and perceptive awareness which is the goal of all divine and hierarchical effort.  The goal is not for betterment of material conditions.  These will automatically follow when the sense of awareness is steadily unfolded.  The future of humanity is determined by its aspiration and ability to respond to the idealism which is today flooding the world.

At this time also a still further step is taking place. Everywhere and in every country men are being taught in their earliest years that they are not only individuals, not only members of a state, empire or nation, and not only people with an individual future, but that they are intended to be exponents of certain great group ideologies—Democratic, Totalitarian, or Communistic.  These ideologies are, in the last analysis, materialising dreams or visions.  For these, modern youth is taught that he must work and strive and, if necessary, fight.  It is therefore surely apparent that behind all the surface turmoil and chaos so devastatingly present today in the consciousness of humanity, and behind all the fear and apprehension, the hate and separativeness, human beings are beginning to blend in themselves three states of consciousness—that of the individual, of the citizen, and of the idealist.  The power to achieve this, and to be all these states simultaneously, is now reaching down into those levels of human life which we call "submerged classes."

All this is very good and part of the ordained plan. Whether it is the democratic ideal, or the vision of the totalitarian state, or the dream of the communistic devotee, the [104] effect upon the consciousness of humanity as a whole is definitely good.  His sense of world awareness is definitely growing, his power to regard himself as part of a whole is rapidly developing and all this is desirable and right and contained within the divine plan.

It is of course entirely true that the process is spoiled and handicapped by methods and motives that are highly undesirable, but human beings have a habit of spoiling that which is beautiful; they have a highly developed capacity of being selfish and material, and because the minds of men are as yet practically untrained and undeveloped, they have little power of discrimination and small ability to differentiate between the old and the new, or between the right and the more right.  Having been trained in selfishness and in material attitudes while under parental control and in the educational systems of the day, their trend of thought normally runs along these undesirable lines.

In the Piscean Age which is passing, the youth in every country has been brought up under the influence of three foundational ideas.  The result of these ideas might be expressed under the terms of the following questions:

1. What shall be my vocation in order that I may have as much of the material world as my state in life and my wants permit?

2. Who are the people who are above me, to whom I must look and whom I must honor, and who are those below me in the social order and how far am I able to mount in the social scale and so better myself?

3. From childhood I have been taught that my natural inclination is to do wrong, to be naughty, or (if the setting is narrowly orthodox) that I am a miserable sinner and unfit for future happiness.  How can I escape the penalties of my natural predilections?

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The result of all this is to breed in the race a deep-seated sense of material and social ambition and also an inferiority complex which necessarily breaks out into some form of revolt in the individual, in racial explosions or, again speaking individually, in a rabidly self-centered attitude to life.  From these distorted tendencies and retrogressive ideals the race must eventually emerge.  It is the realisation of this which has produced in some nations the overemphasis on the national or racial good and on the State as an entity. It has led to the undermining of the hierarchical structure of the social order.  This hierarchical structure is a basic and eternal reality, but the concept has been so distorted and so misused that it has evoked a revolt in humanity and has produced an almost abnormal reaction to a freedom and a license which are assuming undesirable dimensions.

The widespread demand of the youth of the world today (in some countries) for a good time, their irresponsibility and their refusal to face the real values of life, are all indicative of this.  This is to be seen at its worst in the democratic countries.  In the totalitarian states it is not permitted on the same scale, as the youth in those states are forced to shoulder responsibility and to dedicate themselves to the larger whole, and not to a life of material vocation and the wasting of their years in what I believe you slangfully call "a good time."  This good time is usually had at the expense of others, and takes place in the formative years which inevitably condition and determine the young person's future.

I am not here speaking politically or in defense of any governmental system.  A forced activity and then a forced responsibility, relegate the bulk of those so conditioned to the nursery stage or the child state, and humanity should be reaching maturity, with its willingness to shoulder responsibility and its growing sense of the real values of the standards of life.  The sense of responsibility is one of the first indications that the soul of the individual is awakened.  [106] The soul of humanity is also at this time awakening en masse, and hence the following indications:

1. The growth of societies, organisations and mass movements for the betterment of humanity everywhere.

2. The growing interest of the mass of the people in the common welfare.  Hitherto the upper layer of society has been interested, either for selfish, self-protective reasons or because of innate paternalism.  The intelligentsia and the professional classes have investigated and studied the public welfare from the angle of mental and scientific interest, based upon a general material basis, and the lower middle class has naturally been involved in the same interest, from the point of view of financial and trade returns.  Today this interest has reached down to the depths of the social order and all classes are keenly alive and alert to the general, national, racial or international good.  This is very well and a hopeful sign.

3. Humanitarian and philanthropic effort is at its height, alongside of the cruelties, hatreds and abnormalities which separativeness, overstressed national ideologies, aggressiveness and ambition have engendered in the life of all nations.

4. Education is rapidly becoming mass effort and the children of all nations from the highest to the lowest are being intellectually equipped as never before.  The effort is, of course, largely to enable them to meet material and national conditions, to be of use to the State and no economic drag upon it.  The general result is, however, in line with the divine plan and undoubtedly good.

5. The growing recognition by those in authority that the man in the street is becoming a factor in world affairs.  He is reached on all sides by the press and the radio, and is today intelligent enough and interested [107] enough to be making the attempt to form his own opinions and come to his own conclusions.  This is embryonic as yet, but the indications of his effort are undoubtedly there; hence the press and radio control which is found in all countries in some form or another, for there can never be any permanent evasion of the hierarchical structure which underlies our planetary life.  This control falls into two major categories:

Financial control, as in the United States.

Government control, as in Europe and Great Britain.

The people are told just what is good for them; reservations and secret diplomacy colour the relation of the government to the masses, and the helplessness of the man in the street (in the face of authorities in the realm of politics, conditioning decisions such as war or peace, and theological impositions, as well as economic attitudes) is still pitiful, though not so great and so drastic as it was.  The soul of humanity is awakening and the present situations may be regarded as temporary.

The purpose of the coming educational systems will be to preserve individual integrity, promote the sense of individual responsibility, encourage a developing group consciousness of basic individual, national and world relationships, meanwhile extroverting and organising capacity, interest and ability.  At the same time there will be an effort to intensify the sense of citizenship, both in the tangible outer world of the physical plane and in the Kingdom of God and of soul relationships.

In order to bring this about, and thus completely change the present world attitudes and wrong emphases, the drastic and catastrophic present planetary situation has been permitted.

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THE WORLD SITUATION AND IDEOLOGIES

Before we take up the more technical side of our work, I would have you for a moment reflect upon the world situation and the world ideologies from the angle of education.  I would have you consider it deeply from the point of view of the existing fundamental group relations, envisaging the necessity to prepare the youth of the future for the coming age—outlines of which can only now dimly be seen.  I would like you to achieve if possible a general idea of the present world situation, dealing only with the broad and general outlines and omitting any study of detail or of specific personalities, except by way of illustration.  In my other writings I have laid a foundation for this when I briefly endeavoured to consider the psychological problem of the various nations, its cause or causes, and the peculiar contribution which each specific nation has to make to the world whole.

We will try to recognise certain outstanding facts, though these facts may be more usually considered facts by esotericists than by the world in general.  But we are working, or endeavouring to work, as esotericists.  These facts are:

1. The fact that there are certain basic ideas which have come forth down the ages and have brought humanity to its present evolutionary point.  Ideas are the substance of the evolutionary urge.

2. The fact that there is a hidden control which has persisted down the ages and which can be deduced from the definitely emerging plan, as far as the consciousness of man is concerned.

3. The fact that all growth is through experiment, struggle and persistence—hence the present modern upheaval.  It is significant of a "pushing through" to the light, the light of the world, as well as the group antahkarana.

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It is obvious that a good deal of what I may give in these instructions may not prove of immediate application, but students are asked to ponder and to think along the lines which I may point out, for only as a nucleus of thinkers is thus formed who are responsive to the new educational ideas, does it become possible for the spiritual Hierarchy of Masters to achieve the intended results in Their work to bring into being the plans of God.  The Masters can not and do not work without Their chosen physical plane focal points.  I would ask you again to regard yourselves as outposts of the consciousness of Those Who, upon the inner side of life, are seeking to bring in new light upon the subject of social organisations, the relationship of the individual to the whole, and the new and desirable trends in education.  I would ask you to submit yourselves to thought training with this in view.  Note the manner in which I have worded this request: first, regard; then, train.  First, faith as to contact; then the steps taken to facilitate and develop that contact.

Our theme is the study of the educational organisation of humanity, involving as it does (in its later stages) responsibility and right action.  We shall consider, on broad lines, the development of man from an isolated personal unit, through the stages of family life, tribal life, national life, to the present stage of aspirational idealistic humanity. This idealism and this prevalent enquiry are responsible for the present world chaos; they have produced the conflicting ideologies, and the dramatic emergence of the national saviours, world prophets and workers, idealists, opportunists, dictators and investigators on all sides, in every department of human thought and in every land.  This idealism is a good sign.  It is also responsible for the seething unrest and the urgent demand for better conditions, more light and understanding, deepened cooperation, for a security based on right adjustments, and for peace and plenty in the place of fear, terror and starvation.

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It is not my intention to handle this subject from the angle of the many modern textbooks on government, on law, or on the many schemes (economic, political, etc.) which are today so dominantly engrossing attention.  I do not intend to go into details or definitions.  The exponents of the differing creeds can provide the needed literature and present their case far more successfully than I can.  The protagonists of an ideology can express their beliefs and objectives more fervently and hopefully than is possible to me.  I shall write for you as one who sees the pattern emerging more clearly than you, because I can see it both from the inside and the outside, and also from the blueprints in the custody of the Hierarchy.  I shall write as one who has, in conference with workers in the Hierarchy, sought to comprehend the objectives and to cooperate with the immediate plans in this time of planetary crisis and upheaval, of drastic changes, and of the stepping up of humanity to new levels of living and higher states of consciousness; as one who has studied somewhat deeply into the records of the past and into the modes of meditation, and has achieved thereby a measure of inclusiveness of past, present and future which is naturally not possible for you at this time.

Some of the plans and ideas controlling hierarchical action I will seek to lay before you, leaving them to ferment in your minds, thus bringing to you either rejection or conviction.  I but seek to suggest.  It is for you to make deduction, to draw intelligent inferences, and to think along the lines indicated.  I seek to have you steep yourselves in this line of thought so that my work with your minds may be facilitated and the group building of the needed bridges of light may go on apace.  Forget not that I, too, have to make an effort to render my thought and ideas intelligible to you, and this can only be possible if I demonstrate wisdom and you demonstrate intelligence and perseverance.  Where the [111] teacher is wise and the pupil intelligent, much then becomes possible.

I would ask that your attitude should also be (for a time at least) non-critical; that you discard temporarily your preconceived ideas; that you cultivate a willingness to consider and to weigh, not evidence this time, but an inner structure of esoteric happening of more import than the outer events, and thus grasp somewhat of the purpose of the new education.  Ponder on this last phrase and deeply consider my meaning.  I would have you achieve a vertical position, with a horizontal outlook.  Ponder too on this phrase.

As we study the way of man as he gropes his way out of the animal condition to his present increasingly intellectual attitude, and as he presses forward into a future of widest possibility and opportunity, let us always remember that to the Custodians of God's Plan and to Those Who are working out the new developments, the form side of life, the outer tangible expression, is of entirely secondary importance.  Your vision is oft distorted by the pain and suffering to which the form is subjected (either your own or that of others, individually or en masse), so that you do not see clearly the purpose and the urgency of the life within the form. To many of you, for instance, the World War was a supreme disaster, an agony to be averted in the future at any cost, a dire and dreadful happening indicative of the wickedness of man and the incredible blind indifference of God.  To us, on the inner side, the World War was in the nature of a major surgical operation made in an effort to save the patient's life.  A violent streptococcic germ and infection had menaced the life of humanity (speaking in symbols) and an operation was made in order to prolong opportunity and save life, not to save the form.  This operation was largely successful.  The germ, to be sure, is not eradicated and makes its presence felt in infected areas in the body of humanity.

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Another surgical operation may be necessary, not in order to destroy and end the present civilisation, but in order to dissipate the infection and get rid of the fever.  It may not, however, be needed, for a process of dissipation, distribution and absorption has been going on and may prove effective.  Let us work towards that end.  But at the same time, let us never forget that it is the Life, its purpose and its directed intentional destiny that is of importance; and also that when a form proves inadequate, or too diseased, or too crippled for the expression of that purpose, it is—from the point of view of the Hierarchy—no disaster when that form has to go.  Death is not a disaster to be feared; the work of the Destroyer is not really cruel or undesirable.  I say this to you who am myself upon the Ray of Love and know its meaning.

There are two lines of destruction: that which is meted out by human beings with no understanding of the life purposes, who act blindly and ignorantly, prompted by selfish desire, by love of power or by hatred; there is also that which is permitted by the soul in due and right time, and it comes when a new vehicle of expression is demanded by the indwelling life.  Therefore, there is much destruction permitted by the Custodians of the Plan and much evil turned into good, because the end is seen from the beginning, and the consciousness is ripe enough in experience to relinquish the form because of the sensed benefits to be gained.  This is true of individuals, of nations and of races.  Sensitivity to world suffering is a great and divine characteristic; when, however, it is qualified by emotion, it becomes separative in interpretation and focussed in partisanship and personalities, and thus develops into a glamour and an illusion, confusing the real issue and blinding men to the divine facts.

I would remind you that the esotericist always argues from universals to particulars.  This I shall always do, and thus offset the detailed point of view, the distorted foreground [113] and the myopic vision of the student.  We will study the major trends, the wide sweep of the emerging human consciousness, demanding—as it ceaselessly does—a change in education, religion and social organisation commensurate with its unfoldment.  Civilisations, cultures, races and nations appear and disappear, but the same individualities come and go with them, garnering the fruits of experience, and progressively marching on to fuller Self-government and group organisation and synthesis.

I would remind you also that there is a peculiar quality in every human being—an innate, inherent characteristic which is inevitably present—to which one might give the name of "mystical perception."  I use this term in a far wider sense than is usually the case, and would have you regard this quality of mystical perception as inclusive of:

1. The mystical vision of the soul, of God and the universe.

2. The power to contact and appreciate the world of meaning, the subjective world of the emerging reality.

3. The power to love and to go out to that which is other than the self.

4. The capacity to grasp and to intuit ideas.

5. The ability to sense the unknown, the desirable and the desired.  The consequent determination and persistence which enable man to seek, search for and demand that unknown reality.  It is the mystical tendency which has produced the great mystics of world renown, the large number of explorers, discoverers and inventors.

6. The power to sense, register and record the good, the beautiful and the true.  It is this that has produced the writer, the poet, the artist and the architect.

7. The urge to discover and to penetrate to the secrets of God and of nature.  It is this which produced the scientist, and the religious man.

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From a study of these definitions you will see how inclusive the term "mystical perception" is.  It is no more and no less than the power, innate in man, to reach out and to grasp that which is greater and better than himself, and which has driven him on, through progressively developing cultures and civilisations, until today he stands on the verge of a new kingdom in nature.  It is the power to appreciate and to strive after the apparently unattainable good.  Let this broad and general thesis therefore be in your minds as we study man's developing power of self-expression, self-determination and self-government.

What are the basic ideas (beginning with the recognised instincts) which have led man, step by step, to his present struggle for world betterment, group evaluation and natural self-determination, with a view—unconscious for the most part— of providing a better organ of expression within the living organism, humanity?

I dealt with this elsewhere when discussing the present Ray Plan for humanity in the field of politics, of religion and of education, and I should like to repeat part of what is there said for it has a direct bearing on our theme:

"In the final analysis, the main problem of world government is the wise use of ideas.  It is here that the power of speech makes itself felt, just as in the department of religion or of education the power of the written word, of the printed page, is felt.  In the field of politics, the masses are swayed by their orators, and never more so than now through the use of the radio.  Great ideas are dinned into the ear of the public without cessation—theories as to dictatorship, communism, nazism, fascism, marxism, nationalism and democratic ideals.  Methods of rule by this or that group of thinkers are presented to the public, leaving them no time for consideration, or for clear thinking.  Racial antipathies are spread, and personal preferences and illusions find expression, bringing about the deception of the unthinking.  [115] The man who has a golden tongue, the man who has the gift of playing with words and can voice with emphasis people's grievances, the juggler in statistics, the fanatic with a certain and sure cure for social ills and the man who loves to fan race hatreds, can ever get a following.  Such men can with facility upset the balance of the community and lead a body of unthinking adherents to a transient success and power, or to obloquy and oblivion.

"In the aggregate of this play with ideas, and in the constant impact upon the human consciousness of the great concepts which lie back of our evolutionary process, the race is developing the power to think, to choose, and to build a sure foundation.  Through the evolutionary presentation of these ideas there is a steady march towards a liberty of thought (through the old method of experiment, of discard, and of renewed effort with ever newer concepts) which will enable mankind to build true to the great thought patterns which underlie the outer structure of our world.  The attentive minds of the age are constantly being made sensitive to these patterns, so that the individual mind can recognise them and wrest them out of the darkness into the light of day.  Thus will the true patterns be made available, to play their part in leading the race towards its destiny, towards those deeper realisations which mould the racial types, and to that synthesis of understanding which will result in a realisation of Brotherhood.  Thus thoughts play their part, and the problem of ideas will be increasingly understood, until the time may come when we shall have our trained intuitives and thinkers who will be able to work directly in the world of concepts and bring through (for the use of the race) the pattern ideas upon which to build.  In saying this I realise that I may be accused of romancing and of communicating the impossible; but time will demonstrate the truth of that which I predict.  The world structure emerges from and is built upon certain inner thought patterns, and it is these thought patterns which are producing [116] the present flood of governmental experiments among all nations.  But today there is no training given upon the process of contacting the world of patterns and upon the true interpretation of ideas, and hence the problems.  Later, when the race sees its problem with clarity, it will act with wisdom and train with care its Observers and Communicators.  These will be men and women in whom the intuition has awakened at the behest of an urgent intellect; they will be people whose minds are so subordinated to the group good, and so free from all sense of separativeness, that their minds present no impediment to the contact with the world of reality and of inner truth.  They will not necessarily be people who could be termed 'religious' in the ordinary sense of that word, but they will be men of goodwill, of high mental calibre, with minds well stocked and equipped; they will be free from personal ambition and selfishness, animated by love of humanity and by a desire to help the race.  Such a man is a spiritual man."

A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Vol. I, p. 179-181.

REASONS FOR THE PRESENT WORLD UNREST

Let me list for you some of the reasons for the present world unrest, reminding you that many of them are based upon causes which lie in so remote a past that history knows nothing of them, and they appear meaningless to you because you have no clear idea of the nature of early humanity.  Some grasp of the essential situation will be of value if you are to follow development in the future intelligently.

First, the point reached by humanity itself is one of the major and primary causes.  This evolutionary status has brought mankind to the threshold of a door upon the great path of evolution and has indicated an unfoldment which necessitates drastic changes in man's entire attitude to life and to all his world relations.  These changes are being self-initiated by him and are not imposed upon him by an outside [117] force or by the coercion of humanity in any form.  This is an important point to be grasped.  It might therefore be stated that;

1. Man is now at the point where the principle of intelligence is so strongly awakened within him that nothing can arrest his progress into knowledges which would be dangerously misused and selfishly applied if nothing were done to call a halt and thus safeguard him from himself—even at the cost of temporary pain.  He must be taught to react to a higher and better sense of values.

2. Millions of human beings are now integrated or at the point of integration.  They are beginning to function as a unity within themselves, preparatory to a higher process which will enable them consciously to integrate into the greater Whole.  From the form side of manifestation, mind, emotion and brain are working in unison.  Now the higher correspondence of these lower forces—wisdom, love and direction—must appear; the more subtle energies must be enabled to express themselves.  Instinctively and mystically, humanity perceives that need with a clear definiteness.  The instinct to go forward to higher achievement, to enquire and to search for that which is better, remains potent.  Humanity can be trusted to push onward and to make progress.  The Hierarchy of Love is, however, endeavouring to hasten the process, thereby taking the risk of complications in so doing.

3. Certain men and women in every field of human thought are expressing the potency of the unfoldment of their achieved integration and (if you will but believe it) the reality of their soul contact, by emerging out of the dead level of humanity.  They stand forth above their fellows through the very force of their personality-integration and because they can [118] function as high grade and idealistic persons.  From the altitude at which they stand (relatively high from the human standpoint, and interesting from the hierarchical point of view), they are seeking to mould the racial thought and life to a certain pattern which seems to them—according to their inclination, type and ray—to be desirable.

These individuals in the fields of government, religion, science, philosophy, economics and sociology are having a united powerful effect, some of it of a high and good order, some of it not so good.  They affect their civilisation materially if their emphasis is there; they produce a cultural effect subjectively and spiritually if that is the impression they seek.  Their motives are often sound and good, for they all have a touch of true idealism, but—being as yet inexperienced in the ways of the soul—they make many mistakes, are sidetracked in dangerous ways and lead many people into error and trouble.  In the long run, the result will be the awakening of the public consciousness, and that is ever good.

Second, the emerging of a new racial type.  The subjective outlines of this type can already clearly be seen.  So glamoured are we by the form side that many claims are made today that the new race is to be found in America.  The new race is forming in every land, but primarily in those lands where the fifth or Caucasian races are to be found.  Among the fourth race peoples, however, a few, such as those to be found among the Chinese and the Japanese, are being discovered by the Hierarchy and are making their real and esoteric contribution to the whole.

Let me also make one definite statement at this point which may cause some surprise.  The fifth kingdom in nature, the spiritual, will emerge out of the fifth root race.  Such is the esoteric control of the Law of Correspondence. I would [119] remind you nevertheless that the only fourth root race people to be found upon our planet are the Chinese, the Japanese, the various Mongoloid races in Central Asia (and they are somewhat intermixed with the Caucasian race) and the hybrid groups found in the many islands in the southern waters in both oceans and hemispheres, as well as the descendants of the races which a million years ago made the South American continent famous for its civilisation.  I am necessarily widely generalising.

The new racial type is far more a state of consciousness than a physical form; it is a state of mind more than a peculiarly designed body.  In time, however, any developed state of consciousness invariably conditions and determines the body nature and produces finally certain physical characteristics.  The outstanding type of awareness of the coming new race will be the widespread recognition of the fact of the mystical perception.  Its primary quality will be the intuitive understanding and control of energy; its contribution to the development of humanity is the transmutation of selfish desire into group love.  This can be seen working out noticeably even today in the attitudes of great national leaders who are not, as a rule, animated at all by selfish ambition, but are controlled by love of their nation and thus by some definite form of idealism—hence the great emerging ideologies.  Ponder on this point, get a wider picture of the growth of the human consciousness, and grasp somewhat the goal of the new and coming educational system.

Third, the ending of the Piscean Age, which has brought to the point of crystallisation (and therefore of death) all those forms through which the Piscean ideals have been moulded.  They have served their purpose and done a great and needed work.  It might be asked here: What are the major Piscean ideals?

1. The idea of authority. This has led to the imposition of the different forms of paternalism upon the [120] race—political, educational, social and religious paternalism.  This may be either the kindly paternalism of the privileged classes, seeking to ameliorate the condition of their dependents (and there has been much of this); or the paternalism of the churches, the religions of the world, expressing itself as ecclesiastical authority; or the paternalism of an educational process.

2. The idea of the value of sorrow and of pain.  In the process of teaching the race the necessary quality of detachment, in order that its desire and plans shall no longer be oriented to form living, the Guides of the race have emphasised the idea of the virtues of sorrow and the educational value of pain.  These virtues are real, but the emphasis has been overdone by the lesser teachers of the race, so that the racial attitude today is one of sorrowful and fearful expectancy and a feeble hope that some reward (in a desirable and usually material form, such as the heaven of the various world religions) may eventuate after death, and thus compensate for all that has been undergone during life.  The races today are steeped in misery and an unhappy psychological acquiescence in sorrow and pain.  The clear light of love must sweep away all this and joy will be the keynote of the coming new age.

3. To the above thought must be coupled the idea of self-sacrifice.  This idea has lately shifted from the individual and his sacrifice to the group presentation.  The good of the whole is now held theoretically to be of such paramount importance that the group must gladly sacrifice the individual or group of individuals.  Such idealists are apt to forget that the only true sacrifice is that which is self-initiated, and that when it is an enforced sacrifice (imposed by the more powerful and superior person or group) it is apt [121] to be, in the last analysis, the coercion of the individual and his enforced submission to a stronger will.

4. The idea of the satisfaction of desire.  Above everything else, the Piscean Age has been the age of material production and of commercial expansion, of the salesmanship of the products of human skill which the general public is educated to believe are essential to happiness.  The old simplicity and the true values have been temporarily relegated to the background.  This was permitted to continue without arrest for a long period of time because the Hierarchy of Wisdom sought to bring the people to the point of satiety.  The world situation is eloquent today of the fact that possession and the multiplication of material goods constitute a handicap and are no indications that humanity has found the true road to happiness.  The lesson is being learnt very rapidly and the revolt in the direction of simplicity is also rapidly gaining ground.  The spirit of which commercialism is the indication is doomed, though not yet ended.  This spirit of possession and the aggressive taking of that which is desired has proven widely inclusive and distinguishes the attitude of nations and of races as well as individuals.  Aggression in order to possess has been the keynote of our civilisation during the past fifteen hundred years.

Fourth, the coming into manifestation of the Aquarian Age.  This fact should provide the grounds for a profound and convinced optimism; nothing can stop the effect—growing, stabilising and final—of the new, incoming influences.  These will inevitably condition the future, determine the type of culture and civilisation, indicate the form of government and produce an effect upon humanity, as has the Piscean or Christian Age, or the earlier period governed by Aries, the Ram or Goat.  Upon these steadily emerging influences [122] the Hierarchy counts with assurance, and the disciples of the world must likewise learn to depend upon them.  The consciousness of universal relationship, of subjective integration and of a proven and experienced unity will be the climaxing gift of the period ahead of us.

In the coming world state, the individual citizen—gladly and deliberately and with full consciousness of all that he is doing—will subordinate his personality to the good of the whole.  The growth of organised brotherhoods and fraternities, of parties and of groups, dedicated to some cause or idea, is another indication of the activity of the coming forces.  The interesting thing to note is that they are all expressive of some grasped idea more than of some specific person's determined and imposed plan.  The Piscean type of man is an idealist along some line of human development.  The Aquarian type will take the new ideals and the emerging ideas and—in group activity—materialise them.  It is with this concept that the education of the future will work.  The idealism of the Piscean type and his life upon the physical plane were like two separate expressions of the man.  They were often widely separated and were seldom fused and blended.  The Aquarian man will bring into manifestation great ideals, because the channel of contact between soul and brain, via the mind, will be steadily established through right understanding, and the mind will be used increasingly in its dual activity—as the penetrator into the world of ideas and as the illuminator of life upon the physical plane.  This will ultimately produce a synthesis of human endeavour and an expression of the truer values and of the spiritual realities such as the world has never yet seen.  Such again is the goal of the education of the future.

What is the synthesis which will later be thus produced?  Permit me to list a few factors without elaboration:

1. The fusion of man's differentiated spiritual aspirations, as expressed today in many world religions, into [123] the new world religion.  This new religion will take the form of a conscious unified group approach to the world of spiritual values, evoking in its turn reciprocal action from Those Who are the citizens of that world—the planetary Hierarchy and affiliated groups.

2. The fusion of a vast number of men into various idealistic groups.  These will form in every realm of human thought and they in turn will gradually be absorbed into ever larger syntheses.  I would call your attention to the fact that if the various educational groups found in the world today, in every country, were to be listed, certain underlying and analogous trends would appear: their wide diversification, their basic foundation upon some idea of human betterment and their unity of goal.  Their many ramifications and subsidiary groups constitute a vast interlocking network throughout the world which is indicative of two things:

a. The steadily growing power of the man in the street to think in terms of ideals which are founded upon certain ideas and which have been put forward by some great intuitive.

b. The gradual upward shift of man's aspirational consciousness by these ideas, his recognition of the idealism of his fellow men and his consequent training in the spirit of inclusiveness.

This growing trend towards idealism and inclusiveness is, in the last analysis, a trend towards love-wisdom.  The fact that men today misapply these ideals, lower the vision and distort the true picture of the desired goal, and prostitute the early grasp of beauty to the satisfaction of selfish desire, should not prevent the realisation that the spirit of idealism is growing in the world and is not, as in the past, confined to a few advanced groups or one or two great intuitives.  The discussions of the man in the street are today [124] connected with some political, social, educational or religious philosophy, based on some school of idealism.  From the standpoint of Those Who are responsible for man's evolutionary development, a great step forward has been made in the last two hundred years.  What were the themes of the intellectuals and the philosophers in the middle ages are today the points for animated discussion in restaurants, railway carriages, or wherever people consort, argue and talk.  This is apt to be forgotten, and I would ask you to ponder on its implications and to enquire what is liable to be the final outcome of this widespread ability of the human mind to think in terms of the larger Whole and not only in terms of personal interest, and to apply forms of idealistic philosophy to the life of practical affairs.  Today man does both these things.

What, therefore, does this indicate?  It signifies a trend in the consciousness of humanity towards the fusion of the individual with the whole, without his losing, at the same time, his sense of individuality.  Whether he joins a political party, or upholds some form of welfare work, or joins some of the many groups occupied with forms of esoteric philosophy, or becomes a member of some prevalent ism or cult, he is increasingly aware of an expansion of consciousness and of a willingness to identify his personal interests with those of a group which has for its basic objective the materialising of some ideal.  Through this process it is believed that the conditions of human living will be bettered or some need will be met.

This process is going on today in every nation and in all parts of the world, and a census of the world educational groups and the world religious groups (to mention only two out of many possible categories) would prove the staggering number of such bodies and affiliations.  It would indicate the differentiation of thought, and at the same time substantiate my conclusion that men are everywhere turning towards synthesis, fusion, blending and mutual cooperation for certain [125] visioned and specific ends.  It is, for mankind, a new field of expression and of enterprise.  Hence the frequent misapplications of the newer truths, the distortion of the values sensed and the perversion of the truth to suit individual aims and ends.  But as man gropes his way along these lines, and as the many ideas and the various ideologies present to him points of choice and indicate emerging standards of living and of relationship, he will gradually learn to think with greater clarity, to recognise the differing aspects of truth as expressions of a basic subjective reality, and—relinquishing no part of the truth which has set him or his group free—he will learn also to include his brother's truth along with his own.

When this attitude has been developed in the field of practical education we shall find nations and individuals developing the ideas which seem to suit the national or personal psychology, yet recognising the reality, potency and usefulness of the point of view of other individuals and nations.  When, for instance, the ideas contained in the teaching on the seven rays are of general recognition, we shall find the growth of psychological understanding, and the nations and the world religions will arrive at mutual understanding.