Navegar por los Capítulos de este Libro

SECTION TWO - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES (Continued) - Part 11

I say not this in other spirit than that of warning you, and I am happy to see you again within the sphere of action of the work. I look to you to aid and help. If you will always act in full cooperation with your fellow workers, and if you will cultivate frankness and open-heartedness and clear speech, the end is sure.

Spiritual radiation holds the key to your successful service, and the careful watching of your lower sixth and third ray tendencies. You must be prepared for tests and difficulties until you have proved yourself; these seldom come the expected way. One of your major safeguards is ever, as I have already told you, to adhere to and carry forward the next duty and to concentrate upon that which has been undertaken. Avoid that which lies outside the periphery of the work, regarding anything else as a sidetrack for you.

My blessing rests upon you, and my confidence in your ability to stand steady and to avoid glamour is always present.

December 1942

MY BROTHER:

Life has been difficult for you since you have again sought to work in connection with my plans. Things have not worked out as you anticipated and you are full of inner distress, questioning [619] and bewilderment. This was inevitable; you entered into this renewed group relationship with the same big ideas which have ever been your downfall in life and this, in spite of the very definite warning your true friends gave you, out of affection and knowledge of you. You had to find that the picture you had, both of yourself as a worker and of the work to be done, was distorted by "wisps of glamour," and that your wishful thinking and idealistic imaginings of yourself had to be revised. Such a process is far from easy and I have done nothing to make it easier. I would have you note that.

The work needs men of consecration and devotion who are pledged to unwavering service—the service of the little things—and you could give much; but you cannot give it until you have completely changed your estimate of yourself. In the past you have succumbed to glamours of various kinds: Glamour about me, the Master, and about the Hierarchy and your relation to that Hierarchy; glamour about certain world disciples and your relation to them; glamour about the magnitude of the work; glamour about a certain sad little aspirant; glamour about your scientific capacity which held you away from my work for years; glamour about money; glamour about people.

Today your glamour is centred around yourself and is concentrated upon what you think you are and can accomplish, upon the soundness of your judgment, and the extent of your devotion. That, my brother, is good, for when that is disrupted and dissipated and completely broken up, you will be free to find your place in the work. This has been duly recognised by your brothers. They have known of your karmic relation to the work and have had no wish to change the situation. Nor have I. But you cannot continue to work under the liability of the present strain, and under the pressure of a deep spiritual discontent and a sense of thwarted and frustrated aspiration. There can be no free inflow of spiritual strength, of wisdom and light, and of material resources when there is such a condition as now exists in your consciousness and which also, inevitably, involves your fellow workers.

Dreams and reality must coincide; you are glamoured by a dream of service. We who serve the Hierarchy and humanity, [620] especially today, know the intense difficulty of service in present world conditions, and the disillusionment of much of it; we know that service frequently runs contrary to much that one would like to see accomplished and to much that has been planned by servers; we know that service means endless disappointment, ceaseless struggle, hard knocks, apparent unaccountable failure—and all because as yet the spiritual strength of humanity is not commensurate to the material pull.

Some day a point of balance will be reached, bringing—needless to say—its own dangers but bringing also a steady growth towards beauty, goodness and wisdom; some day the fight of the material aspect against the spiritual will prove futile and the power of the spirit will dominate; but the time is not immediate, even if it is not far off. The battle today is oft a losing one. Think, my brother, of the ages of hierarchical struggle and the slow, slow growth which the Masters have been forced to watch and foster, the failures They have had to note and the stupidities of some of Their best workers.

Withdraw yourself from your pictures and dreams, my brother, and work with no illusions and with no time for consideration of magnificent possibilities. This is the most difficult moment in human history and its darkest hour. Be thankful you have got a vision but waste not time in pondering it. The reality of the vision is. The work of clearing the way for its materialising is the present task of all disciples. In the dust and chaos and wreckage, the vision disappears from sight though the fact of its existence persists. None of you may perhaps see that vision again, but you have seen it. When, however, it is a fact upon the physical plane, it will be so because you and many others worked down in the inferno of today.

NOTE: This brother was, as you will have noted above, asked to resign. For some years, he was not actively working in the Ashram. His acceptance of the discipline and his steadfast faith, in spite of continued recurrent glamours, brought about his re-instatement eventually and he is now an active part of the group.

[621]

To B. S. W.

February 1933

BROTHER OF MINE:

My word to you is as follows: As a disciple, functioning as you do upon the first Ray of Will or Power and working under the Master of that ray, the Master Morya, I would suggest that you ponder on the fact that the first ray is the first sub-ray of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom and that you must, therefore, round out your development with love to all beings. You have succeeded most soundly in avoiding the major destructive qualities of the first ray and your utilisation of energy in the work of service is commendable. Your aim must be to avoid all static conditions. Many first ray people become static or crystallised, as that is the method whereby the first ray destroyers work—and it is all part of the divine work.

To you, my brother, I would say (and you will understand): Strength is yours, because you have steadily trodden the lonely path of the disciple. Wisdom is yours and this you use in the helping of the little ones. Beauty must be now the object of your attention. In meditation, I would have you meditate upon the twelve-petalled lotus of the heart, visualising it as a deep rose in colour with a heart of gold. I choose the colour rose, for it will vitalise the astral counterpart of the heart centre, both in the spine and in its higher aspect in the head centre. My brother need not infer from this that he loves not, but the pronounced first ray type needs what is occultly called "the rose of attachment." They find easily the way of detachment; they create with facility a protecting shell and they cherish—with high idealism—their isolation. But when the lesson of isolation is learnt and detachment is the line of least resistance, then the Rose of the soul should be nurtured and shine forth. Impersonality is easy for you. You must now learn to be personal with complete impersonality—a paradoxical acquirement but one of great value.

I would suggest also, my brother, that you seek to teach (even if it is only one or two people), the Way of the Disciple and that you prepare at least two people during the next three years for the Path of Discipleship. They will be sent to you. [622] One, you already know. Another, you will later recognise. This means leading them to find the link with their group and their Master, for they will be people who have already made their soul contact.

Your ray is pre-eminently the ray of occultism. Your Master, the Master Morya, is the head of all esoteric organisations in the world. I bring this to your attention because there is something you can do, and this work will be possible when you have developed the facility to register the psychological troubles of others with greater sensitivity. Mentally, you grasp a situation rapidly; mentally and by the use of sound speech, you respond to the need. Your head responds and your soul. To that head understanding and that soul wisdom (which you have) add the heart approach also. Go with your brothers into the valley and do not help them only from the peaks of wisdom. You have mental power, clear understanding, the faculty of wise adjustment in solution; if to all that, you add the capacity of reaction to the emotional needs of others, you will coordinate the personality in a new and helpful way and increase your ability to serve. You can work with many groups, if you so wish, and should always work as an energising factor. Your spiritual diary should be kept with care from this angle and the heart motive, underlying your activities, noted with attention. Your field of service will this way be greatly increased, again through being. This can be enhanced through an increased beauty of the outflow of love and increased love of beauty.

July 1933

I have ever the feeling with you, brother of mine, of your being an ancient comrade, who knows right well what I would say and, therefore, that I really need not speak. I hear you laugh at times and say: I know it all. Some day I'll live it all. Some day you assuredly will and you are far nearer to that day than seemed possible ten years ago.

Continue with the meditation last given but use no longer the colour rose but a golden-orange. Blend the rose and orange and keep the meditation entirely in the heart centre, remembering that that centre is in the spine, between the [623] shoulder blades. Preserve ever the attitude of the Onlooker in the head. Thus the detachment of the soul will grow whilst the attachment of the soul to souls will grow and increase. The only breathing exercise which I set you is a series of long normal breaths, saying mentally as you inhale: "I gather life and strength." As you exhale, you will say mentally: "In love I send them forth." Thus the rhythm of the life of service is indicated and expressed.

Your gift to the group is that of illumined knowledge and the providing of a firm basis for action, with the exemplification of skill in action. Later, when I may call upon the group of disciples to take joint action along some particular line, your power to know the cause of what is will be of great usefulness. This group of disciples is a service group and this must always be remembered.

Dissipate not your powers. Centralise your activities and work increasingly with individuals. Thus does the first ray type achieve understanding; thus does he grow in love.

February 1934

BROTHER OF OLD:

This past year has been one of testing and of strain for you and of consistent, faithful, inner work. You have ever been sure of your spiritual relationships and that is right and well but you are fortunately less sure now of the judgments of the personality. When the personality is being relegated to its rightful place as an instrument and the shift of consciousness is away from the exterior life of the form to the interior life of the soul, then true esoteric living becomes possible. In the life of all disciples, there comes the time when there is an interlude of difficulty. During that interlude, discovery is made that the personality will, the personality judgment, and the personality aspiration is a part of the general glamour—a glamour which can only be dispelled as the soul pours its life and light with steady radiance into the instrument.

The best that I can desire for you, my brother, is that this dispelling light may flood your life and evoke that simplicity which is ever the indication of soul domination. That one word "simplicity" should embody the theme of your thought [624] for the next few months and should constitute the keynote of your meditation.

You are a strong soul and must hew your own way through the jungle of mundane existence. What do I mean by the words "a strong soul"? I mean not only that your first ray quality of power is expressing itself. That, of course. But I mean primarily that you are experienced and this experience of yours enables you to evidence steadfastness and that poise in isolation which conveys to others the feeling that they can depend upon you. This, in the second place, means an increasing capacity to be magnetic and in that word "magnetic" lies the goal of your personality experience. The first ray person is easily strong but not so easily magnetic, for magnetism is above all else either a heart or a solar plexus emanation.

Since your entry into my group of disciples there is a growing evidence of the awakening of the heart centre and this should give you encouragement. Let us work more definitely at that. I seek not to interfere at this time with your meditation but you have recognised that, in the press of work and for the period of the next few years, your work can be directed by me, if so you will, and thus, for a brief period, you have voluntarily submitted to the suggestions of a second ray disciple, myself. The pressure of work on the Masters Morya and K.H. is such that some of us are lifting what we can off Their shoulders. In the same way the Master Hilarion is lifting a good deal of the work of training sixth ray disciples off the shoulders of the Master Jesus. A number of inner adjustments are going on in the exigencies of the stress of this cycle. It is one work, my brother, and all forces are expressions of the energy of love and the potencies of wisdom.

To the wisdom force of the Buddha, you easily respond. To the militancy and devotion of the Master Jesus and to the vibration of His organism, the Church militant, you vibrate also with facility, for the priesthood had long been your chosen field of service. An ancient sannyasin are you. To the understanding and the inclusive love of the Christ aspect, as it expresses itself in the "fire of divine compassion," you only respond in a secondary sense. The awakening of this compassion should be one of your objectives in meditation. It will lead [625] to inclusiveness and the power to "see things as others see them."

Your meditation does not now require the practice of visualisation and the registering of colour. The ancient pomps and ceremonies of a priestly past lie buried in your consciousness and are easily evoked; in the thrill of stately ceremonial and of rhythmic organisation, you find your line of least resistance. The first ray person is conscious of ordered life, the majesty of ordered forces; the glory of the intelligent "arrangement" of the powers which lie behind the manifested world is his rightful field of service. But to this must be added the power to intuit the Plan as it exists in the heart of love, for only love reveals the Plan and the part to be played in it by souls at any given time and place. I am enlarging thus as I seek to enrich your life by two things: by a recognition of the Plan as it exists on the astral plane at this time, close to materialisation, and, secondly, by the recognition of the freedom of all souls to work out that Plan in unison with each other, interfering not with each other's methods but giving to each other the love and cooperation at those points where duty and obligation bring contact. Ponder on this....

December 1934

In my last instruction to you, brother of old, I told you to stand as a tower of strength to your brothers. With your usual prompt acceptance of any suggestions which seem to you intellectually and intuitionally constructive, you have sought to do this. But, my brother, there has been too much of the tower in your attitude and of the highly placed and rather separative Observer in the top of the tower. Perhaps my use of the word "tower" was to blame. Maybe my vision of you as a strong and steady helper, added to your innate isolation, swept you too far apart. The first ray disciple loves isolation. It is for him the line of least resistance. He is, as you know, normally the one who stands alone. This is his strength and it is also his weakness. He glories in detachment, e'en as you gloried inwardly over your power to adapt yourself to me, as the teacher assigned to you by your own Master. You liked the [626] facility with which you made the adjustment, did you not?

It is not easy for the first ray disciple to learn attachment (of the right and spiritual description) any more than it is easy for the second ray disciple to learn detachment. Disciples on both those rays have an extreme lesson to learn in this connection; they have to approach the problem from differing attitudes, for the problem of attachment and of detachment is one. It is the problem of right values. The first ray type loves himself, his power and his isolation too much. The second ray type errs through deep attachment to others and through a too fluid inclusiveness which is expressed before the disciple understands the true nature of inclusiveness. The second ray type errs through fear of not being understood or not adequately loved, and cares too much what others may think of him and say of him. The first ray type errs in not giving enough thought to the reaction of others to what he says and does; he prides himself on his detached attitude and on his immunity from attachment; he likes to have his strength and isolation appreciated. One suffers from fear. The other from pride. You exact frankness, my brother, and give it in full measure; hence my frankness with you.

It is this inner "isolation," deeply loved by you and fostered by early training and present circumstance which militates against your being telepathically sensitive to other people. Instead of so much "will to love," why not just love more simply? You and F.C.D. are extreme types on your specific rays. In him, the heart dominates, e'en though his wisdom is deep and his understanding rare. In you the head dominates, and you sit on the summit of your tower, whilst all the time the call of the heart sounds throughout your being and in your ears. Yet you fear to descend and walk among your fellowmen in loving identification with them. It is only through walking the dusty street of life with our brothers that we find ourselves passing eventually through the portal of initiation.

And yet, brother of old, I have noted that, in moments of stress and of possible misunderstanding, you choose the heart way. Were it not so, I would not thus write.

I would like to set you the task of writing an article on the use of love as an interpreter of men. I commend to you that [627] theme for meditation. You have power in writing and ability in the expression of the deeper truths through the medium of words and your field of service can be increased in this respect. Write, therefore, for the many who will listen to your words, and write with that understanding heart which is yours in full measure when you descend from your tower and give love both time and scope.

May I point out to you also that a recognition of those ray problems and liabilities which exist in your own life and in the lives of those around you involves no criticism on my part or any on yours. The facts of nature exist; the wise man faces them, knowing them for what they are and he then endeavours to transcend them....

May I ask you also to study again the last instruction which I gave you, for it still embodies much needed work. This new instruction is in the nature of a frank talk with a highly valued brother. And I do value you, my friend.

June 1935

MY BROTHER OF OLD:

You are halfway down from the altitude of your tower and that is good. In my last instruction, I spoke to you with frankness and you recognised the justice of that which I said and started to make the needed re-adjustments. That work must be continued for another year.

Have you any idea, my brother, with what care I watch the work of this group of disciples? I watch with patient attention, not because of any personal interest where the personalities of the disciples are concerned but because of the potency latent in such consecrated groups. If the personnel of the group can be sufficiently purified and trained and if the disciples who compose it can be sufficiently welded together into one functioning unit, then much can be accomplished. All is yet in the trial stage with many of them and only the coming few years will show the Masters which of Their groups can stand pressure and yet preserve the soul link which underlies all the differing personalities.

The problem of group integration is always a difficult one; it has been particularly difficult for you to integrate into [628] my group of disciples because of your much cherished and deeply rooted sense of isolation. This was developed in your last life as a defense mechanism for a very sensitive personality. This attitude you are, however, learning to relinquish. For other disciples, the reasons which militate against integration vary. For some, it is largely based upon submergence in personality problems; these hold the disciple fast in prison just as you have been held in your tower of isolation. For others, the problem is to be found in the powerful will-to-be at the centre, both in its right and noble sense and in its personality and wrong sense. This attitude produces a sense of identity and of selfhood which hinders integration. Other disciples are hindered by the reverse of this attitude and by their second ray power of attachment and of inclusiveness. This has to be negated in the case of attachment and necessitates a focussing where the tendency to expansion is constructively possible.

With these ideas before you, you can realise the need I felt for right understanding on the part of all in this group of disciples as to the rules for group work and a right comprehension as to the place each of you had to play in the future work. If all my disciples take hold of the present opportunity with fresh endeavour and enthusiasm, they will then discover what it is that the disciples in a Master's Ashram can achieve.

I have several times told you that your function in this particular group is to give strength and power to your fellow disciples. Can you do this with pure detachment and with deep attachment? Such is your problem. Each of them needs what you have to give, but needs it in a different manner. I commend this to you as your theme for study for the next few months and propose to you the following work. Study those of your fellow disciples whom you know and seek to get into close rapport with them. Study what they say and write and try to tune in on their souls and to understand their personalities. The result will be partially correct and partially wrong. If they discover what you are doing, you will find that they are all impersonal enough to permit you to learn some psychology from a study of their characters, their temperaments and their tendencies. It will also enable me to give you some training as a practical psychologist—never an easy thing for a first ray ego....

[629]

February 1936

MY BROTHER OF OLD:

It has been a year of interesting inner development for you, has it not? You have learned much and, fortunately for your progress, your ivory tower of beauty and of isolation is rocking to its very foundations. Your soul has seriously undermined it. It still stands, but you are suspicious of it and have lost interest in it and that is a great step. Continue the good work and see to it that this year your ivory tower—erected with care during the past six incarnations—disappears and that you are down among men, sharing with them all that concerns humanity. You will not have such a comfortable time but you can—and will—become yourself a tower of strength to others.

Your major spiritual activity must now be turned into work at the time of the Full Moon. Each month spend your periods of inner recollection in getting ready for the work of the five days of the Full Moon period:

1. The two days of preparation and introspection.

2. The day of the Full Moon with its opportunity to tune in with your fellow disciples in my Ashram.

3. The two days of attempt to capitalise on that which has been subjectively gained—making it objective in your consciousness.

The gain of this exercise, if successfully carried out, in the development of your inner sensitivity would be immeasurable and its usefulness to your fellow disciples would be greater than you know.

The next few months are intended to be (for all disciples in all Ashrams) a period of preparation for fuller service. No cost is too great to pay in order to be of use to the Hierarchy at the time of the Full Moon of May, the Wesak Festival; no price is too high in order to gain the spiritual illumination which can be possible, particularly at that time.

August 1936

It has been a year of change for you, my warrior brother, and the result has been that there is less of the warrior in you [630] and more of the disciple upon the Way of Light. Your ivory tower is still there and stands in beauty real. Perhaps it will never be destroyed and maybe it will turn into a haven of refuge for others. Its doors stand wide open and you are often not to be found within your tower but are busy elsewhere in the service of your fellowmen. Keep the door open and pass and re-pass with freedom, using your tower as a "Tower of Silence" for the lower self, as a place of entrance into the "Secret Place of the Most High," and as a "Temple of Refuge" into which the tired, the bewildered and the lonely may pass—there to be aided and strengthened. You have much wisdom and also the first ray capacity to take a stand upon principle. For decades, these two (wisdom and principle) have expressed themselves as far as your personality will permit. But within you, you have much deep innate love which must—under the process of balancing to which all true disciples are subjected—have more definite expression. Before you speak the words of power and of wisdom (which you speak with such facility and truth from the storehouse of a long experience), you must pour out the love of your heart upon those who turn to you for light and strength. Men today have need of love. Had I told you this five years ago, you might have believed, but you would not have understood. Now you understand.

As I have often pointed out to this group of my disciples, the tendering of constant personal advice cannot go on forever. There is a limit to what can be assimilated and much remains yet to be worked out in daily unfoldment. I can, however, give to you and your fellow disciples much that is of group import and significance and by this means familiarise disciples with the rules of that group activity which must govern unfoldment and service during the coming New Age. I can give the techniques of the future. I would ask you to brood much upon the work of the new groups of disciples as they form the seed groups wherein the technique of the New Age may be expressed. Endeavour to get the picture of the future work clearly in your mind in its threefold aspects. Brood on the mental purpose behind all Ashrams, and on my plan for my Ashram. I say "my plan" advisedly, my brother, as I am asking for your understanding of the thing which I am seeking [631] to do. I am planning for the future and in line with the Plan. I, your friend and teacher, am definitely preparing you and your co-disciples for certain possible and even imminent expansion of consciousness. Later I will ask you to tune in on the heart life of this particular group in my Ashram, upon its desire-aspiration life and this, through the medium of your desire-astral body. When the purpose and the desire of the group (as it endeavours to tune in on my plan) begins to mature in your mind, then there will be inevitably produced, upon the physical plane, certain cooperations and activities which will appear with clarity to your vision. What these will be, will later emerge, but the time is not yet.

January 1937

DEAR BROTHER:

Your replies to the questions which I set you entertained me. They were so like you—earnest, sincere, mental, logical and with the impersonality of the first ray type. Your answers could have been foreseen. They should prove helpful to all who read them. Was the task helpful to you? Did the answering of those questions bring you illumination and those moments of self-revelation which are not easy for men of your type? When they come, they come on the wings of blinding light. A study of St. Paul, his revelation and his way of truth, his logical tenacity (no matter what its disastrous effects on Christianity may have been) and his impersonality should give you much—of encouragement, of warning, of truth and of necessity. You could, my brother, with ease have written the Epistle to the Romans. Will you find out why?

The work of this group of disciples with whom you are associated is growing and your balanced judgment and clear vision may be needed in time to come. Give full measure of advice and aid, tempering all with a more vitally disclosed love. A "mental body as hard as nails" will some day have to be destroyed. Why not begin preserving intact the principle of mind, thus permitting it free function but using it with the wings of love and on errands of compassion. The ordinary man works from emotional levels, unaided by the mind and without the illumination of the soul. The advanced man and the aspirant [632] work from mental levels, producing the integration of the personality, and, therefore, power. The disciple works from soul levels which are the levels of divine love. He motivates the mind with love, subduing personality sentiment with universal love, worked out in practice and not preserved in theory. Could I aid you, my brother, did I not love you that way?

Can I ask you to do one piece of work through and in yourself? Will you study the theory of the transmutation of mental attitudes through the processes of love—processes which in no way negate the holding of these attitudes but which motivate and universalise them. Through these processes, a mental concept can become a fact upon the physical plane through the activity of love, rightly used. You could do much with this thought and teach much to those who read your words.

I have no special occult exercise for you to do, save that you pay close attention to your spiritual sensitivity at the time of each Full Moon and do this from three angles:

1. Seek to draw near to me and endeavour to sense my vibration.

2. Try to realise at the same time the vibration of my group of disciples.

3. Register any phenomena, if present.

July 1937

MY BROTHER:

There is little need for me to do more than give you the facts; you can and will make your own adjustments. You have the faculty of regarding facts clearly and then acting upon what you discover or deduce.

Your mental body (and this may surprise you!) is on the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict and hence the intensity of your mystical interior life. Of this interior life, few are aware. It is the sweetening, inclusive aspect in your life and your polarisation is largely there and should be so increasingly. It is the factor in your life which makes you magnetic and loved. You have a non-separative mind.

Your astral body is under the influence of the sixth Ray of Devotion and hence your early interest in things Piscean and [633] your strong Christian tendency. Hence, also, your strong emotional nature which is, however, well controlled, largely because in this life you have a masculine body.

As you might well imagine, your physical body is conditioned by the seventh ray. Upon this I need not enlarge. You are, therefore, a composite aggregate of forces, as follows:

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

2. The personality ray—the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order.

3. The ray of the mind—the fourth Ray of Harmony.

4. The ray of the astral body—the sixth Ray of Devotion.

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

January 1938

MY BROTHER:

I wonder if you will be able to grasp my intention or if I shall be able to reach you. With disciples in my group, I work not on the astral plane. I work on mental levels, seeking to aid you all in the building of the bridging link between your personalities and your soul, between each of you as co-disciples, and between the Ashram and the Brotherhood to which I belong and which your soul, on its own level, consciously seeks to serve. But—you have been away from home for some time now.

You are not particularly intuitive, my brother, nor has your contact with the "inner brotherhoods" anything to do with the intuition or with inspiration. There are no brotherhoods on the plane of the intuition. The brotherhoods are group forms and are in the nature of being the personality aspects of the egoic groups. The expression or term, Hierarchy, is only a word applied to the transfigured personality aspect of all these egoic groups of liberated egos or souls which function on the higher levels of the mental plane, and from there seek to aid the sons of men. Your contact with the Hierarchy is, therefore, on mental levels. Your contact with what you call "inner brotherhoods" is astral, with all that this word implies. There is not necessarily anything wrong or undesirable in this contact, provided that you recognise the plane whereon you function, with its obvious limitations.

[634]

Have you ever noticed that I am training you to come out of your tower of isolation, and yet at the same time I am training C.D.P. to stay up on the summit of her tower? But yours has been a tower of isolated personality, and she has had to learn (and is still learning) to create a tower of strength and of resistance to calls of a lower kind. Her tower has naught to do with the personality. Forget not, my brother, that when you have learned to leave your tower it does not mean that you must range the levels of personality life with no true direction.

If you will look back upon the training which I have given you during the past few years, you will note that I have had a twofold task:

1. To reveal to you that you were a first ray type and needed, therefore, to learn attachment of the right kind. You had to learn to integrate into my group of disciples and to love with inclusion and not exclusion.

2. To set you free from a tower in which you have secluded yourself. This last task has been successfully accomplished. The first task yet remains to be carried out to a satisfactory conclusion.

The group of disciples to which you belong, my brother, is upon the mental plane and exists in two parts: There is the group of disciples to whom you belong, assigned to specific work by me; there is also the hierarchical group, my particular Ashram, to which you are affiliated and into which you must be absorbed by soul dedication and later, as the years slip away, by initiation. Only one thing prevents your rapid integration into your true place; that is your ancient love for astral wandering and for psychic phenomena.

This tendency to astralism is a heritage from other lives and has its basis in old monastic trends and in the dream world in which you wandered in olden times to relieve the monotony of life within the four walls of the cell in which you lived, dedicated to the contemplative life. Your consciousness was then mystical, visionary and imaginative, veering off into realms of astral hallucination. This means that in this life, your astral body easily reverts to ancient ways, to ancient thoughts, to control by ancient thoughtforms and is consequently subject to facile deception.

[635]

With first ray disciples, I can ever speak with clarity and frankness, knowing that they will take my words in the right spirit. I tell you, therefore, with truth and understanding, that you are wandering into the delusions of astral phenomena. There is no true reality in what you are now doing. You are a soul and not a seeker of astral phenomena.

Three or four of those with whom you work on the astral plane are genuinely deluded and they are in danger, for you are holding them back from progressing on to mental levels. For the majority of the group with whom you work, there is no reality at all; they are but shells of ancient astral workers, held together in form-activity by the few people who are on their way through the astral plane to higher levels. They are also held by those on the physical plane who are enticed by astral phenomena and temporarily sidetracked by the glamour.

The astral plane is not for you, my brother. I suggest that you relinquish this activity and begin again to function as a soul. The soul in its true nature does not identify itself with phenomena; it is the centre of spiritual force through which the plans of God come into being. Your excursions into the world of maya and illusion have held back the group of disciples with which you are working and have postponed their united group activity. You have observed none of the rules governing my disciples, for months; this means, brother of old, that the group integrity has been infringed and that the group is not at this time functioning as a unit. Until it is again one functioning whole, our planned work cannot be undertaken. You are in the difficult position of holding your co-disciples back from a specific task to which they have been assigned.

Will you ponder upon these matters and during the coming months free yourself from this tendency to phenomenal enterprise? They have sidetracked you with frequency during the past ten years.

March 1939

BROTHER OF MINE:

If you can grasp clearly the implications of what I now seek to tell you, you will make real progress. I shall leave you to find out for yourself what the implications are. You are at a [636] point in your development where—unless you emerge into a more mental type of realisation—you will crystallise into a high grade astral magician and arrest your own true development for this life. Three things I would like to point out to you in this connection:

1. You spend the greater part of your subjective life upon the astral plane.

2. You endeavour—largely unconsciously—to work as an astral magician works, using words to bring life and form together. You do not use the Word.

3. The work you do is done on astral levels and not from soul levels so that the Word of Power which the soul would use is stepped down to the many, many words the astral magician finds necessary. Your emphasis is now upon the form and not upon the spirit aspect.

This is due to two things: First, the fact that your personality ray is the seventh and you have likewise a seventh ray brain. Secondly, you brought this tendency over from a previous life; your task has been to transcend it all and free yourself from all magical work of every kind until you are established in soul consciousness. But at present you love this type of thing and believe that all you contact is a reality. As long as this is the case, your soul life is blocked at astral levels.

Another difficulty, growing out of this, is the fact that because of this astral impasse, your soul is focussed in the astral body. It can get no further into expression, i.e., on the physical plane, on account of the glamour which surrounds you. Your personality energy is focussed in the mental body. This brings the influence of the magical seventh ray to bear upon your mind, so that you are caught by glamour in two directions. Your brain being also an expression of seventh ray force facilitates this work of magic.

Until, my brother, you are polarised in the soul, you are playing with fire and the magical work of the astral plane is full of danger for you. Even your intense interest in Masonry is for this life unwise, for the Masonic Work is magical work, being a reflection of the processes of initiation whereby the power of the spirit and the power of substance are brought together through the "magical work of the soul."

[637]

I am speaking with frankness because I want to see you released from this condition and from the impasse at which you have arrived. I would ask you, therefore, that —whether you accept my conclusion or not is immaterial—you give ten minutes each morning to achieving the attitude and altitude of the soul and from that point (or as high a point as you find it possible to attain at any given time) to think through the arguments for and against your present life attitude and interests. Endeavour to see, as you so do, that soul and brain are brought en rapport—a thing which seldom happens with you. If you can do some clear thinking along this line, you will rapidly free yourself from glamour. Forget not, your sixth ray astral body intensifies your problem for it leads you to be devoted to the superficial phenomena which you regard as realities....

My blessing rest upon you. I would particularly ask you to make the period of the Full Moon each month one of true spiritual tension and interest. I would beg you to try to hear and see what I say. I have worded this with definite intent. You will gain much from the effort.

NOTE: The Tibetan stated in January 1938 that "only one thing prevents your rapid integration into your true place and that is your ancient love for astral wandering and for psychic phenomena." This proved true and this disciple is still sidetracked and hence is not working in the Tibetan's Ashram.

To R. S. W.

March 1936

MY BROTHER:

This is my first instruction to you and my first communication; it is entirely of a preliminary nature. Until the next instruction becomes due, this group of serving brothers must wait for a more complete indication of their individual work—an expression which will only be possible if the group shows greater integration and if the response to the Wesak Festival outpouring has been adequate.

You are probably asking yourself why I have put you into the work of this group. Is there something of major value which [638] [638] you can contribute? Two questions are arising in your mind. What can you bring to the group? What has the group to give you? I have put them in their proper order, for service must ever be the keynote.

You bring to this group an understanding heart. You are a sound and good psychologist, not only from academic training but from a full experience in other lives and a natural intuitive grasp of people's problems. You know people because you love them and because you are endeavouring to be harmless.

What will you receive and why have I put you here? One of the reasons that you are in this group is because you need a larger measure of stabilisation and this the group will enable you to gain. Your function in the group will become more apparent as time goes on. You have an over-active mind and an ability to grasp all sides of a question and to do many things fairly well. This is both a danger and an asset. You need to focus that mind and that understanding heart in one direction now, which is that of psychological healing; here work will be given to aid you; at this point I can begin to teach you; and here you can begin to do the life work that is really yours. Have patience, therefore, for a year or so. You are young. Later it will appear more clearly to your perception wherein you best can serve. I know your field of service, but I will never tell you; each disciple must freely come to an understanding of his destined service. When you know for yourself what it is, then I will help you to express your aspiration.

One hint, symbolically, I will give to you. The musical wandering hither and thither of the little stream as it emerges from its source and runs over the stones and rocks, responding to the sunshine and the rain, has to give place to the calm, deep running of a river, as it pours down to the sea, fertilising the fields through which it runs and making many human activities possible.

Now I will give you my specific instructions for this present time. They are in the nature of preparatory work, of a preliminary re-orientation, and of a clearing of the ground for later activity.

The thoughts below, my brother, if rightly used, have in them the seeds of the needed strength and wisdom which your [639] [639] life in the next year will require. They are simplicity itself and yet of a profundity which will exact its utmost from your intelligence.

1st month—The Way of Intelligence leads to light.

2nd month—The Way of Meditation leads to the gate.

3rd month—The Way of the Presence leads to the innermost centre.

4th month—The Way of Introspection leads to revelation.

5th month—The Way of Service leads to liberation.

6th month—The Way of Discipleship leads to the Master.

Steadfastness and changeless understanding is your contribution at this time to your group. Be not swayed by personalities, but take your stand upon your own individually acquired wisdom; preserve the group integrity by definite effort. Do the work which I have assigned to you. Work for the preservation of the group integrity. I ask this of you.

January 1937

MY BROTHER:

You will have noted that your major rays are the same as those of P.G.C. Wherein lies the difference between you, for difference there is, is there not? This difference is not entirely due to the fact that you are in a feminine body and he is in a masculine, or that astrally you differ. It is due primarily to the fact of environment and orientation. Ponder on this. You are at a point in your evolution and in your daily life (as I think you know) wherein you can make, by the time you are forty-nine, such rapid progress that your entire life will become directed towards your chosen and indicated service. What is the choice which you have to make? Formulate it clearly to your self, and know what it is you seek to do.

I am not going to alter your seed thoughts for this next few months. You have by no means exhausted their significance, have you? I would suggest that you go over them again and that this time you write a thesis upon the Six Ways to the Centre of Life. Write one paper each month as fully as you can for the helping of others. Give of your best in sacrifice in the acceptance of this assigned task.

[640]

Now let us briefly consider your rays. Your soul ray and your personality ray you already know.

Your mental body is upon the fourth ray, which gives you your love of the arts and sciences; it is, however, for you basically the ray which brings—and which should bring—conflict into your life and your relationships. This idea has much value and usefulness to you, for it has been the conflict in your life (and often, my brother, a battle well fought and successful in its issue) which can make you a strong hand in the dark to others. Forget this not, but battle on, remembering that you travel not alone.

Your astral body is on the second ray, and this fact much facilitates the task of your soul, and will account for the ability which you will discover in yourself to be a transmitter of light and love to others. It is this alignment between your soul and your astral body which gives you the intuitive insight you can use, if you remain humble and continue loving.

Your physical body is upon the seventh ray, and this will be easily apparent to you, accounting, as it does, for your interest in music, ritual, psycho-analysis. The goal of all these three methods of expression is to bring together and relate harmoniously the soul and the form, which is the major task of the seventh ray upon the seventh or physical plane. This I know will interest you. Your rays, therefore, are:

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

2. The personality—the seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order.

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

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

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

November 1937

BROTHER OF MINE: