From Knowledge to Wisdom: Having an effective practice to get there

 Please note that today I am just sharing information, ideas and hopefully, some inspiration.   So, please only accept what I say if you can verify it through your own experience.

Well, here we are in 2025. Yes, we are told of a Hierarchical Conclave occurring only once in a century. There is, however, a risk that we may possibly expect too much, too soon.Their decisions and any adjustments to the Plan, may take years or even decades to manifest.

So, given the state of the world today, we can’t afford to just wait and watch for the results. We have to do the work to make it happen. Purpose arises in Shamballa, the Hierarchy senses it and creates a Plan, and it is humanity which manifests the Plan on earth, with the Light, Love and Power available for us to use.

Thank goodness we have Hierarchy to guide and galvanize us, as well as so many coworkers to join us in the effort! Aquarius is the age of group consciousness and group discipleship, and it’s coming into alignment at just the right time!
Please keep in mind that activities involving meditating, or using the Great Invocation, subject us to the energies evoked by Hierarchy, and by our own soul.

So please be sure to use the energy to serve the Plan, in whatever way you may, no matter how small you think your part is, even if it is only subjective, or even if you can afford to donate only $1 to any organization doing good work.

The books of the Master DK have provided us with a stupendous amount of information and knowledge, to the extent we can retain and begin to understand it. So, what is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?How do we transmute knowledge into wisdom? How do we transmute ourselves?

Wisdom develops as we implement our knowledge through everyday efforts to be useful human beings, and to understand and evolve ourselves. Through our life experiences as souls incarnate, if our eyes are open, we learn a myriad of lessons along the way. When we use our knowledge to effectively manage our daily dharma, and to serve and to Become, we learn the numerous, needed lessons and grow wiser as we progress along the Way. We increase our ability to understand cause and meaning, and to see into the underlying dynamics of both our inner process and outer events.How else can our soul eventually ‘control the outer form’?

As you surely may have noticed, human beings tend to learn the hard way. In those situations of painful lessons learned, it’s very healthy to recognize and appreciate what we have gleaned, rather than criticize ourselves and create a negative state from which we then have to emerge.Isn’t that the setup on this currently imperfect planet of ours?

We could say knowledge is personality based and wisdom is of the soul. Wisdom develops naturally during our life when we work on our goal of self-transformation, which includes enhancing our ability to serve and love. Then, if we do have such a goal, it is incredibly useful to have a method to attain that goal. To have some structure, or rituals, or a particular concrete way we are using the Teachings. It can be virtually any spiritual path we make the conscious effort to tread. It has been said that to tread the path, we must become the path, which happens occultly in our consciousness as we create the rainbow bridge. It’s not waiting there for us to cross.

Besides various doctrines, affirmations and key beliefs, our Practice can include diet, innumerable forms of meditation, hatha yoga, chanting, spiritual reading, classes, creative activity, and a thousand other things we can learn from a thousand types of practices, whether it’s a form of Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, Masonry, an Earth Based religion, Anthroposophy or a Christian denomination. Developing the ability to truly and consciously control what we think and feel every moment is often a given. As we proceed and progress, the methods we use, all together. become one synthesized approach, and this, then, is our practice.

Of course, there are some of you who may be immersed in Karma Yoga, also called the Yoga of Labor, or the Yoga of Service.You may be so heartfully serving that there is not another moment to even think about having a practice – you are doing so to your full extent. Well, that is perfect and thank you for what you are doing. And perhaps there are many of you who are well ahead of what I am talking about and already have a defined practice that works for you, and I certainly hope that to be true.

Several times in the Alice Bailey books DK mentions three fundamental tools on the Path: Meditation, Discipline and Service - a slight variation from the Arcane School guidance of meditation, study and service. I suggest this use of the word discipline here refers to the never-ending effort to transform ourselves, to become soul infused, to move from knowledge to wisdom. The books aren’t just to be read to absorb tons of fascinating information which we can then repeat to ourselves and others – the material is also there to be applied.

I am reminded of the last sentence in the book The Externalization of the Hierarchy: “Work, my brothers.” Actually, that entire last page is truly exceptional, if you have a moment to review it.

In the Agni Yoga books the Master Morya frequently urges us to apply the Teachings. The more we read and study, the greater our self-induced responsibility to apply it in our lives. I’ve heard it said that a Treatise on White Magic is a workbook. Having spent hundreds of hours with that book I can see that it sure can take a long, long while to effectively apply the content there. We can surely be successful using what is given if we truly maintain our effort to strive towards our higher spiritual possibilities, for as long as it takes, no matter how steep the road.

Here's another potent line from the blue books: “Rest not above all from your meditation work. Keep the inner link. Think Truth at all times.”White Magic, page 521. It certainly provides us with a real challenge when we try to actually live that injunction. Those three short sentences comprise the basis of a profound spiritual practice. Perhaps you see why I am giving this talk – to inspire us to have an effective practice. Having a practice speeds up our evolutionary process. Not just for ourselves, but also for humanity. There’s really only one Soul!

About 40 years ago I was chatting with the teacher of a Gurdjieff group. He asked me, Bradley, how’s your practice going? That question was very provocative for me. Afterwards, when I pondered on this, I began to see more clearly the difference between aspiration, with a generalized effort to live more as the soul, versus having an actual self-determined, daily, and even moment to moment, spiritual practice.

This is especially important to those of us who may have some of the 6^th Ray of Devotion and Idealism in our make-up. The 6^th Ray can be associated with emotions, which have their home on the astral plane. The risk here is that our idealism and emotional enthusiasm remain on the emotional plane, and don’t get precipitated and manifested in the physical world. Like Jesus said, we are known by our fruits. So, don’t leave your aspiration as a bud that blooms, but never ripens to become edible fruit. Live your aspiration. Make it manifest, in your own way.

Whatever particular practice you follow, now or later, is totally up to you. I have no recommendations for any particular one.

There is one common feature found in so many practices, and that is having an inner state from which we can live as the Observer; one where we are in the world but not of the world. This does not suggest being cold and aloof. Its more about being fully present in the moment and being able to consciously respond to external stimuli, rather than having automatic, emotionally based reactions. Hopefully, we are all already working on this one and doing well with it. Living as the Observer is easy to say, yet exceedingly difficult to attain, especially if we have busy or complicated lives. Of course, it’s the soul that is the Observer, and in this state of being the life of our personality becomes transparently visible to us. Then we can make the needed adjustments.

A relevant line from the Agni Yoga books is “practice constant vigilance.” Easy to say, and exceedingly hard to do, but we can strive toward that level of soul presence.  It really requires being polarized in the causal body.  Sometimes, just pausing for one good breath with a full, slow exhale, can ease us back into our inner center, from which we can live in the world, consciously.

Having the intention to develop and use a particular practice can start with  brutal honesty, as we recognize where our starting point truly is.  This helps us choose the methods we need to implement in order to move from knowledge to wisdom, from a personality centered life to a soul centered way of being in the world.

 Recalling the ten commandments from the Old Testament, Let’s look at the first one: “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” An exoteric view of this is that it merely refers to monotheism and the existence of just one God, not Gods of the sun, moon, weather, harvest, etc.…   However, an esoteric interpretation tells us that “I am” refers to the Self - to the Absolute, to All.  At the individual level the Self is the spark of divinity within. Om mani padme hum, where the monad (mani) is the jewel, and the lotus (padme) is the soul. 

Having no other Gods before me means not allowing any attachments or distractions to impede us from fully living as the Self, with no encumbrances getting in the way. It is avowing that our true nature is divine.  In the New Testament, it was said “Be ye perfect” - a truly tough task, yet we are being told it is possible.  The Buddha gave us a practice to do this, which we find in the fourth of the four Noble Truths.  It is called the eightfold path.

Another technique you can apply no matter what your practice, can be found in astrology.  In mundane, or exoteric astrology, the first house represents the self, yet that is self with a small s.  In the book Esoteric Astrology, DK tells us the sun sign is basically an expression of our personality, while the ascendant sign – the one rising in the first house (and I am about to paraphrase here) - “indicates the intended life or immediate soul purpose for this incarnation.  It holds the secret of the future and presents the force which, rightly used, will lead….to success. It represents the sattvic or harmony aspect of life and can produce right relationship between soul and personality…. It thus points the way to the recognition of the force of the soul.” 

 So, the guidance here is to embrace the energy and qualities of your rising sign, even if you are just ‘acting as if’ - which is often all we can do.

Another tip to enhance your practice is to be watchful and observe how you use your energy, every moment.  This leads to exploring what you really pay attention to.  We notice which aspect of our nature the energy is being distributed through – mind, emotions or another vehicle.  It leads to understanding where we are polarized: is it on the mental, astral or physical plane?  And if it is on the mental plane, are you primarily thinking concretely, or is your mental energy on more subtle and abstract levels?  It makes the difference between thinking and feeling ultimately clear, especially as it is the thought which produces the emotion, even if the thought lasts just a nanosecond.

 Then, we can explore what quality of energy is flowing through our nature, which for some can lead to considering our Rays.  When we make a serious long-term study of our ourselves and the 7 Rays, we can come up with a working hypothesis. It might help to study what DK calls the vices of the Rays, as well as the virtues, which can be a very humbling process.   And please keep in mind that the personality Ray is the sub-ray of the soul.

 That said, I encourage you not to tell others what you think their Rays are.  If I tell you I think you have a second Ray soul, and you believe I am wise enough to know, but you actually have a soul on the 3^rd Ray, I may be the cause of decades of your distorted sense of self. 

 Two last tips for transmuting knowledge into wisdom: start the day with a clear intention to implement your practice.  Remind yourself of it frequently during the day, if only for a moment, and check in with yourself at bedtime to see how it went.

 And whenever possible – depending on the current phase of your life - work with others. Remember the circle of groups within which you live and move and have your being, and know that we are moving forward together, serving together, and that the Hierarchy stands.

One final quote, from page 189 of Esoteric Psychology Vol. 2:

“I challenge you above all to a deeper life, and I implore you for the sake of your fellow men to strengthen your contact with your own soul so that you will have done your share in making revelation possible; so that you will have served your part in bringing in the light, and will therefore be in a position to take advantage of that new light and new information, and so be better able to point the way and clear the path for the bewildered seeker at that time.  Those who are not ready for the coming events will be blinded by the emerging light and bewildered by the revealing wonder; they will be swept by the living breath of God, and it is to you that we look to fit them for the event.”

I wish you Godspeed in your great Journey on the Path of Becoming, and Serving.

Thank you.