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SECTION FOUR - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - Part 12

I call you this, for never do you cease fighting and struggling, sometimes under the urge of your soul and oft under the influence of a restless and unhappy personality emphasis. Can you not begin to cease from strife and struggle, and thus give opportunity for the evolution of that loving spirit which your first ray isolated personality seeks to hide, and often quite successfully? There is an aspect of the relationship between the first and second rays which is very apt to be overlooked. The second ray is outgoing, inclusive, friendly and prone to attachment; the first ray is isolated, exclusive, antagonistic and prone to detachment. It is the conflict between these two energies—brought together in one incarnation—which has brought about the distorted and unhappy life conditions which have characterised you, which you [699] recognise, and which cause you so much real distress. It is time that this clashing of the two forces should end, and the conflict can only be determined by the subjugation of your first ray personality by your second ray soul. That is a clear statement of fact and indicates your immediate and essential endeavour. Your focus of identification has been the personality, but so strong is your soul quality that it leaves your personality constantly disturbed. Your aim, therefore, should be to cultivate all the characteristics which are the most distasteful to your lower nature—contact with other people, particularly with your group brothers, friendliness to and interest in all you meet, inclusiveness and the development of an outgoing spirit of goodwill to strangers and to friends. I have instructed D.I.J. to learn to work with the Law of Abstraction; I tell you to practise a reverse attitude to all life circumstances and contacts and to lose yourself in the interests of your associates and of humanity. Can you do this, my brother? At least you can try.

How can I help you to bring in the power of your loving, intelligent soul so that it can release your personality from its fever and bring about an ordered quiet in your life? There is so little that I can tell you that you do not already know; you have been under my instruction for many years, and you still are. One of the major linking and blending processes is the creative work of music. I would suggest to you that you bring music into your life far more than you have hitherto done, particularly orchestral music. In these days of radio programmes this is easily accomplished, and the effect of blended instruments and broad sound productions upon your personality will be to break down the opposition which it presents to soul contact and impose a different note and key upon your life.

Does this injunction surprise you, brother of old? You are on the verge of release from the struggle of the past and can enter upon a more constructive and happier phase of living if you permit music to play a major part in your life rhythm; choose only the best music, such as that played by the great symphony orchestras. God created by the power of [700] sound, and the "music of the spheres" holds all life in being (note that phrase). The soul on its tiny scale can create "the new man" by the power also of sound, and a musical rhythm can usefully be imposed upon the personality life by the disciple.

This is what you need—music in your life, literally and figuratively. I have here given you a most important hint. Let the great music of the masters of sound enter (in a new and powerful way) into your consciousness. If you take this advice, in three years, if you insist on subjecting yourself to the musical impact, I suggest great and significant changes will be brought about in your life. Once you get away from self-pity and irritation, there is little that is wrong with your thinking. That, my brother, can be said of few.

I would like to see you enter within the inner place of the Ashram, yet you persist in remaining on the periphery of its sphere of influence. Let love and light and music enter more definitely into your daily life. Spurn not this practical suggestion, but give your mind the opportunity, through the massed sound of music, to break down the personality-imposed barriers between the free flow of soul life and you.

There is little else that I can say. This is a short instruction. I stand unchangingly ready to welcome you to a greater ashramic intimacy, but the moving forward into this closer relation must be accomplished by you—alone and unaided, except by my suggestions. There is naught more that I can do but to stand behind you with love and understanding.

August 1946

MY BROTHER:

There is little I can say to you. For the remainder of your life you have only one thing to do: to prepare yourself for successful spiritual enterprise when again you return to incarnation. Surely you would like to re-enter physical plane existence with a different and more adequate desire nature—a desire nature which has ever conditioned your physical body and militated against higher conditionings? Desire has ever driven you; at the same time, high aspiration has goaded [701] you, and between the two your life has been one of misery and frustration, and frequently of despair.

In spite of the profoundly unsatisfactory demonstration which you register in your consciousness and of which I am also aware, you are still hovering on the periphery of my Ashram; you are still linked to your group brothers and to me, even if you ignore them and me and go your own way, following your inclinations at any cost. It is always hard when two major rays govern both the personality and the soul. It indicates past achievement of a high order, for the transfer from a minor ray is involved, and this is ever indicative of preparation—at some future date—for initiation. It indicates also great struggle, particularly when the first ray personality is strongly linked to the desire nature.

All this you know, for there is nothing wrong with your intelligence, my brother. What is wrong is that—in the face of knowledge—you will not use the will to force the spiritual issue and to emerge once and for all into the clear light of the soul. Nevertheless, it should not be hard for you to use the will, once contact can be more firmly established with the soul, for you are a first ray personality, and therefore the will aspect can be more easily contacted and comprehended by you than by those on the other rays.

R.S.W. helps you not, much as she has attempted to do so. She does not accept or recognise you for what you are—a man whose lower nature dominates most of the time, but whose basic intent is identification with the higher nature; she sees you differently and her surety along this line is no help to you.

I, your friend and teacher, know you as you are, and I understand; that understanding forces me to stand by you (with steadfastness) behind the scenes ready, at any moment, to make my presence felt when the higher triumphs and the lower is negated. You might ask me why this is so? I would answer that in the distant past—a past which lies behind all of us—you made, at a terrific cost, a sacrifice which permitted entry of the soul as a thread of radiant light. By that sacrifice much good came to me, and we, the Masters of the Wisdom, lay much emphasis upon gratitude. It—with service—is [702] deeply scientific in nature and closely related to the Law of Karma. Gratitude is something about which you need to learn, or the steady friendship of F.B. and A.A.B., as well as that of your group brothers, would evoke from you some recognition. Their friendship is soundly founded on the mental plane, and there is little that they can do to help in current conditions.

What, then, my brother, shall we do? What shall I say to you in this my last instruction? First, let me say that I am hoping to see, in the next few years of your life, a complete reversal of the past. I look to see you apply, with will and spiritual insight, those physical disciplines which will feed your aspiration and negate and render futile all desire. I look to see you strengthen the tie between yourself and me, your Master.

Do you realise what is the task that confronts me where you are concerned? It is the task of aiding you to transmute your personality nature into such an instrument that your soul can remove you out of my Ashram into that of the Master K.H. Such is my task with several of you in this group; you and they do not essentially belong in my Ashram but stay and work there until the spiritual laws control, the vision is firmly established, and the soul is in control. Will you, with constancy, bear this in mind, and for the remaining years of your life wrestle with the lower nature until it is purified, disciplined, enlightened and integrated?

I give you no set meditation. I enjoin upon you the prime necessity of linking up with your soul, with the Ashram and with me three times a day. I would ask you to do this with a definite act of the will. This triple exercise, carried forward in the morning, at noon, and when you retire at night, will be more potent in transmutative effect than anything else that you can do. Forget not that by means of this exercise you train the will, and you likewise bring spiritual energy into your personality in order to help you with the task, the spiritual task, ahead of you.

On my cooperation you can ever count, but this is dependent upon your ability to "get through" to me.

[703]

To D. E. I.

August 1942

1. As a chela in my Ashram you move through life with all the power which flows out from that centre. Forget it not.

2. The future opens up with much that must be done. Let not the doing intervene between the loving.

3. Love all, as love all chelas, and let pity rule your acts.

4. The noise and turmoil of the way of life is great and you respond with undue pain. Others escape in many ways and build a wall. For you, compassion is the way. Face facts and have compassion.

5. Lift up the weak for you are strong, and strength from many comes to you. Attract that strength, then forward move with power to love and lift.

6. Question not the staunchness of the strength and love which comes to you from three: Myself, your brother A.A.B., and one other, little guessed by you as yet.

September 1943

MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND:

Since you entered the cycle beginning with your forty-second year, life has held for you constant change, many and drastic adjustments and much responsibility. To this must be added the turmoil and the chaos of the war. This has made great demands upon your strength and your judgment. You have responded well. You have helped many and have grown in wisdom. You have shouldered responsibility for some phase of the work initiated in my Ashram or by my co-disciple, A.A.B. She is not a member of my Ashram. You have my understanding and her unfailing support.

Inevitably, my brother, this situation which you have had to handle in relation to the work for which you are responsible, in relation to your personal and family life and to the future which lies open before you, has entailed much strain. To these factors must be added another one which is that you are essentially alone. This basic loneliness is due to several [704] things: First, that you are in training for leadership, and leaders have to learn to stand alone, and can ever do so if they love enough. Secondly, the force of circumstance and the need to work off certain karmic relations has increased your daily contacts, and at the same time has left you far more alone than you were six years ago. Thirdly, because the greater can always include the less is a lesson which all leaders in training have to grasp; the reverse, my brother, is not true, and the result is loneliness. Ponder on all this and accept it; stand free and move forward on your chosen path, refusing to be limited by those who cannot go your pace. This again means loneliness. And finally, a need for a more loving understanding at times isolates you from your fellowmen, particularly from your co-workers, and you need to beware of a growing critical spirit.

The lessons of leadership are hard to learn, and with these lessons you will be confronted as the years slip away—if you so wish and can face the music. The music is there and will emerge in full tonal quality once you have resolved the discords and established the theme and the rhythm.

What are the lessons which all true leaders have to learn? It might be of service to you if I put one or two before you—very briefly, so that you can (if truly in earnest to serve your fellowmen, as I believe you are) begin to master them, to understand their need and to apply them to yourself with a view to fuller and more useful service.

The first lesson is the lesson of vision. What are your goals? What is the spiritual incentive which will be and is strong enough to hold you steady to the purpose and true to the objective? No one can formulate the vision for you; it is your own personality problem, and upon the strength of the vision and the beauty of the picture which you paint with your imagination will depend much that you do and become.

The second lesson is the development of a right sense of proportion. This, when truly developed and correctly applied, will enable you to walk humbly on the Way. No true leader can be anything but humble, for he realises the magnitude of his task; he appreciates the limitations of his contribution (in the light of the vision) and the need for constant [705] self-development and the cultivation of the spirit of steady inner spiritual learning, if he is ever to make his proper contribution. Therefore, keep learning; keep dissatisfied with yourself and your attainment, not in any morbid sense, but so that the principle of growth and of pushing forward and onward may be fostered in you. We help others through our own effort to attain; this means clear thinking, humility and constant adjustment.

The third lesson is the development of the spirit of synthesis. This enables you to include all within the range of your influence and also to be included within the range of influence of those greater than yourself. Thus is the chain of Hierarchy established. You still hold a somewhat isolated position, and this with the best intent in the world; but you need to love more deeply and more understandingly. The hindrance here lies in your personality, which is more wise than loving. Let your soul control your first ray personality more, and many of your present difficulties would disappear.

Another lesson which in reality grows out of the above is the avoidance of the spirit of criticism, for criticism leads to barriers and loss of time. Learn to distinguish the spirit of criticism from the ability to analyse and make practical application of the analysis. Learn to analyse life, circumstances and people from the angle of the work, and not from the angle of your personality point of view; analyse also from the angle of the Ashram, and not from the angle of the executive or the schoolmaster upon the physical plane.

In the six statements which I gave you a year ago were three sentences to which I would call your further and close attention. They are:

1. "Let not the doing intervene between the loving."

This has much to do with the distribution of time.

Study the value of the heart at leisure from itself and its problems.

2. "Lift up the weak, for you are strong, and strength from many comes to you."

This has to do with recognition. Be not entirely occupied with helping, but be willing to be helped.

[706]

Study the value of the imagination in this connection.

3. "You move through life with all the power which comes from out my Ashram."

This has to do with the handling of energy—and with energy of great potency which will not only invoke the best that is in you but will also evoke the latent seeds of difficulty, which must perforce be removed.

Study the task of living ever consciously in the Ashram and working from that point of power and peace—going without, yet ever staying within.

I am speaking thus directly to you, my co-worker, because the future holds much of useful service for you, if you continue to be a learner. It takes time, humility and certain recognitions, within yourself, of place and position in the chain of Hierarchy. I cannot too strongly emphasise that to you. Let not the pressures of family life (and no family life is devoid of pressures) and the exigencies of the work, plus the activities of an active mind, interfere with the inner learning process which is so essential to all teaching-leaders. That, my brother, is what you can be.

A.A.B. has spoken to me of you from the standpoint of your place in the work of the School. She has not touched upon the personality angles or the need for special developments and growth, for no trained disciple, such as she is, ever interferes with the relation between a Master and His chela. She knows that your relation to me is that. But she has spoken to me about you from the angle of the future. I asked her what she felt was your major need and one that you must meet as you prepare for a larger field of service when she passes over. She made an unexpected reply. She said: "The need for a more fertile imagination." She is entirely right.

The imagination is a creative faculty. Wherein are you thus creative? Can you picture to yourself by any flight of imagination the task ahead of the Arcane School, for instance, in the post-war world, and your approach to the problem from the angle of what you would like to change or see altered? Changes mean nothing unless they are the result of new vision, for if they emerge out of a criticism of the past [707] and of what has been done, they will prove useless from the angle of the spiritual life, no matter how useful they may be from the angle of the organisation.

Have you the perception to realise what an esoteric school essentially has to be? It is not an organised method of meeting world problems, of organising new orders and ways of living, or of underwriting the efforts of the men and women of goodwill. It goes far deeper than that. All the above are only effects of the esoteric life. Can you imagine your position when—from the teaching angle, the esoteric angle—you may have to be a source of inspiration, and not A.A.B.? From whence will you draw inspiration, and how will you make the world of meaning and the spiritual realities real and provocative to the neophyte?

Can your imagination picture to you your reaction when—because you are the leader—you have to shoulder all the blame for any failure, even when not personally responsible; you have to accept without retaliation the attacks of those you are trying to help, who expect too much from you and who force you to live in the blaze of public opinion; what will you do when your chosen workers fail to understand or prove disloyal or criticise without warrant or pit their ambitions against you, and wilfully refuse to see your point of view, and talk about you among other people and whip up resentments against you—resentments which are probably without foundation? These are not the kind of things that your personality easily accepts, and your creative imagination had better begin dealing with these problems so that the emerging principles of conduct may stand clear before you. Have you the inner grace of heart to admit error and weakness or to say that you made a mistake in technique or method or approach, in judgment or in speech, should need arise to heal a breach and in the interests of the work? That has never come easily to you either, my brother. It is a thing you seldom do.

And having said all this, let me point out your assets and the valuable gifts which you can bring to the work and have for years contributed; they are the qualities which make A.A.B. your loyal friend and ambitious for your progress. [708] You have a recognition of principles which is vital and somewhat rare, and on principles all true work is securely founded. You have a gift of impersonality, as a general rule, which is a great safeguard; and in those times when your personality impulses have controlled, the phase has not been lasting. You have a gift of teaching, clear insight and executive ability and a loving heart when it is sparked into compassion. You have a steadfastness of purpose and an unswerving adherence to duty and dharma and a capacity to shoulder responsibility which has, in the past, and will in the future, prove invaluable to the work required. You have the gift of the written word and an increasing ability to speak, and these are valuable assets indeed when wielded by the soul on behalf of others. You are impulsive, and this at times creates temporary difficulties, but the general trend and tendency of your impulses is right and truly oriented. This is a major asset in your life. You are a pledged and accepted disciple, with the power of your Master's Ashram behind you and the love of your co-disciples with you.

You have the understanding and loyal affection of A.A.B., and will—from life to life. Against her wishes, I ask you to give her in some small measure what she has so largely given you. At times you fail to grasp the strength of her belief in you. Her health is precarious and she counts much on you. Fail her not, and seek to understand the problems with which she is faced.

You have also my belief and trust, my confidence that you will carry on—learning and living and loving—and again I repeat, on the strength coming from my Ashram you can count, but it reaches you through your soul, and therefore a closer soul contact is increasingly needed by you as the work grows and develops.

November 1944

MY FRIEND AND CO-WORKER:

I intend to be in touch with you with constancy, and you must train yourself to an increased sensitivity to my presence and to the contact of my mind. Contact with me will affect [709] your heart centre; contact with my mind will bring about changes in your head centre—probably (at this stage of your development) in the ajna centre. Sensitivity is one of your major needs. That involves a freer use of the imaginative faculty, as I told you in my last instruction. You need badly to develop sensitivity not only to me, your Master (for that you yourself desire), but a greatly increased sensitivity to your co-disciples. Above everything else, you must develop a much more sensitive response to all you contact in your life of service. That is primarily what you lack; it is based upon a definite lack of true love in your nature. You earnestly, and usually successfully, do your duty to all you meet, with certain exceptions where your personality is almost violently antagonistic; but more than this is needed in a leader upon the second ray line of teaching.

You are one of the people (relatively few) who have a sound and beautiful group effect, but your individual contacts are not so constructive, and it is along this line that you must work. You must learn to set up a helpful and an understanding relation with all who come your way—high and low, rich and poor, the socially important and the under classes, the likable and unlikable. The need to develop this was one of the reasons, plus incorporation in national karma, which has temporarily removed you from an active participation in the work you have done so well for years. You are being given an interlude wherein you can enrich your life, add something needed to your equipment, and then return to your previous work and service with far more to give than heretofore. This I know would be your own desire; I have here given you the clue to its fulfilment.

One of the ways in which you can arrive at this deeper comprehension of humanity lies in the unfoldment of the creative imagination; this will enable you to tune in upon the background and the consciousness of people contacted. You are a man of strong likes and dislikes; you have also prided yourself upon the fact that no matter how much you might dislike a person, you would endeavour to do right by him and you usually succeed in so doing, with the exception of three people—dislike of whom renders you unreasonable [710] and often unkind. Who they are you well know, and it is not my intention to mention their names, as this relationship is entirely your own affair.

But, my brother, a working disciple entrusted with a definite task by his Master, and working from within the Ashram (as you do), must work not only from a sense of duty and deep intense devotion, not only from a sense of karmic responsibility and a knowledge that the task undertaken is, by reason of soul injunction, obediently followed, but he must work also under the inspiration of true Love. You have a second ray soul, and when it is in control, your attitude is all that could possibly be desired; you have (which is unusual) a second ray mental nature. This enables you to realise theoretically what should be your attitude and to know exactly when and where love does not control. Your first ray personality and astral vehicle provide barriers to the free flow of love and impede a constant contact with the soul, imposing themselves between the soul and the three lower vehicles. They also come between the soul and the physical body, stopping or hindering the downflow of the energy of love into the vital or etheric body, from whence it would automatically control and actuate the physical life expression.

The existence and the possibilities inherent in the concentration of these two first ray energies in your personality should have the effect of adding strength and potency to the inflow of the love factor, and they should enable you to isolate the energy of love with facility and apply it one-pointedly. I tell you this for your encouragement.

One other thing I would point out. It should be recognised by you that your entire ray equipment is so well balanced that your capacity to serve the Ashram and humanity is very great, provided that you unify all these forces into one intelligent, serving and constructive unity. You are singularly well equipped; you have a dual capacity to use second ray energy to enhance and implement the use of the teaching ability; you have also a third ray contact with the physical plane which should enable you to focus and utilise all this inherent capacity upon the physical plane in outer effective human service. You have made great strides in so doing, [711] and it is only when your first ray isolationism, implemented by your personality and emotional natures, obliterates for a moment (in relation to other human beings) your second ray qualities that your physical plane output is affected, and it is sometimes affected quite seriously. Unless you consider this matter and remove the impediments to the free play of your love nature, you will always be a trusted server, but your field of service will be needlessly circumscribed and you will not be able to serve as generously and successfully as you otherwise might. Always you will serve; always you will have the freedom of the Ashram, and always you will have access to me, earning my confidence, and always you will persist. But I seek greater things for you, and so does A.A.B.

The work of the Arcane School holds in it much of promise—far more than at present appears. Workers will emerge who will be entrusted with wide responsibility, and A.A.B. will give them a free hand as she has ever given you within the limits of the School's principles and objectives. The leadership of the Arcane School must be that of a group, when A.A.B. is not with you and has passed on to other and more important inner work; this group will necessarily be under the general direction of F.B., but certain of you will have much responsibility and power, provided there is potent and correct motivation, and that you work with self-effacement; love ever produces the retirement into the background of the personality and its attitudes.

I would thank you, my brother, for all that you have done, your influence has been good and useful to many, and I am well aware of it; A.A.B. has also expressed her appreciation to you on several occasions.

The interlude of work upon which you are now engaged should give you the time for much inner reflection; it should deepen your power to live the dual life of a disciple. Get ready, therefore, for a resumption of my work when the right time comes, returning to it with a wider understanding, a more expressive love, and a more enthusiastic dedication to the principle of service. A.A.B. (if I may again point this out) has a deep appreciation of you and love for you, both personality and egoic in origin, and you can do much to lift [712] burdens off her shoulders, if you so desire. She never troubles about the inevitable and unimportant mistakes that her workers make. She has made them herself and knows their relative unimportance. She troubles greatly when there is a misinterpretation of principles, a side-tracking of major issues, or a general inertia. Stand by her. With the unfailing love of F.B. and the developed understanding of yourself, of R.S.U. and F.C.D., she can round out this life cycle with satisfaction to her Master—which is all that she cares about. She has earned this from all of you. She has, I may add, refused to take down this last sentence (as she thinks not in terms of reward or recompense), but has done so when I enjoined upon her the need for impersonality.

The three Arcane School centres, New York (the major centre), London and in Switzerland, must become more potent and should constitute three major points of light in the world. At the centre of each should work a disciple. Later, I shall suggest that the work in Australia be extended, and that in Sydney another centre or power station should be opened.

Your meditation during the coming year should be focussed around the effort to bring through second ray energy—the energy of your soul and of your mind—into the physical brain, via the etheric body. You must do this through the power of the creative imagination; you must act "as if"; you must see this energy pouring in, literally, to the head centre and from thence to the brain. You must work out your own way of doing this, for that will be for you the best way. Two suggestions only will I make: See this energy of love as a great descending stream of light substance, pouring down from the soul into your threefold lower equipment, and from thence out into the Arcane School, enveloping its membership. Secondly—and here you must endeavour to understand my meaning without any elaboration from me—you must take the people you do not like, particularly the three who so painfully disturb you, into your heart, thinking of them (as far as in you lies) in their own terms and from their own point of view and not from yours.

The way into the Ashram stands ever open to you and I [713] am ever accessible to those who, like you, have worked and served in difficulty and distress and under the drastic circumstances imposed by this world war. You have served without any deviation from the path of duty. Forget this not, and avail yourself of "the privilege of entrance." You will ever find me at the inner point.

To H. S. D.

September 1943

MY BROTHER:

This year has seen certain liberating processes taking place in your life. You stand much freer from entanglements than heretofore; you face fresh opportunity for service and for growth. My problem is how to help you to capitalise on the past, thus enabling you to make the future a more fruitful period than ever before. You have been connected with my Ashram for some time now and have been readmitted into the new seed group. The reason that I mention this is because I want to emphasise to you the word "seed." It is the germ, and only the germ, of the spiritual life with which you have to deal, and I want you to withdraw your thinking and your emphasis from the concept of the flowering of your life in the coming years to the concept of nurturing and fostering the seed or germ of the new life which is just beginning to emerge. The Old Commentary says:

"The seed develops five flowers and five only. One flower long precedes the others. The second flower is hard to grow, the third is harder still. The fourth flower dies and, dying, gives forth light and in that light the fifth flower blooms."

I leave you to interpret this for yourself.

The future which lies ahead of you—be it long or short—must be approached by you now in a different manner to the past. You stand alone. You stand, however, with your brothers in the Ashram, and are therefore not alone. What [714] lies ahead for you? How can the coming years be constructive, organised and creative? These three words—Constructive, Organised, Creative—have been chosen by me with care and I would ask you to reflect upon them. What is the constructive contribution which you can now make to the work that your chosen co-workers are doing? How can you organise your life so that there is a definite result and something to show for any activity instituted? How can the intense activity of your mind be slowed down and channelled so that something creative and worthwhile may emerge? These are the problems which must be faced, and these are the points where I can be of service to you, my brother, if you will accept my suggestions and carry them through.

It is the carrying through of any one settled project which has always been the major weakness with your group service. You work a little bit in some department of the group activity, and then you turn to something else; your basic purpose is steadfast and true and your steadiness in adhering to my work in some phase or another is unbreakable and real, but the surface effort is unstable, and from the angle of time, never persists long enough to show results. Why is this?

The answer lies in two directions: Your overactive mind flits from this to that and back again, and over-organises everything it touches. Secondly, the physical body under this intense mental tension and constant movement is necessarily very nervous and constantly depleted, for seldom is anything carried through, and the carrying through of a project and adherence to a plan bring through energy on to the physical plane and consequently into the physical body. Your vital body feels the constant pull upwards of mental force, but that mental force is not expressed through activities which are carried through to concluded expression upon the physical plane. Your mind is like a whirling humming-top which is constantly toppling over and has to be set in motion again, accomplishing nothing of value.

This, brother of mine, is not your intent or desire. What then is wrong? Let me tell you simply what the fault is. [715] There is a constant overstimulation of the mind, of such a potent nature that there is no time or energy left for physical plane expression. What is the cure and what shall we do to prevent this overstimulation and slow things down so that there will be time for accomplishments? My answer is: Complete cessation from all meditation work for a year at least, or until I again give you permission to resume. You are constantly withdrawing and escaping into the meditation process, and you do it so successfully that the result is that all the energies you contact become focussed in the mind. You do not need to do this. You need now to garner the results of past meditation work through active service, chosen with deliberation and carried through steadily without any meditation at all but on the strength of the stored-up knowledge you have, and which you have never used.

I am asking you, therefore, to stop all meditation, even the group meditation. You can give fifteen minutes to dedication, consecration and contact with your soul and with me every Sunday morning and at the full moon period. You can participate in the group meditation at the School, but see to it that the group meditations are regarded by you as acts of service and not as means whereby your own nature is stimulated and refreshed. You can take part in the group held by A.A.B. on Friday evenings, for there is much that you can there learn. But I do not want you otherwise giving any time whatsoever to meditation—particularly in connection with any work you may be doing. I want your active cooperation on the physical plane along some particular line connected with my activities, and I want that work adhered to at any cost so that a finished something emerges. What that work shall be, what phase of the undertaking you can do, and what responsibility you can shoulder should be, I feel, talked over with A.A.B., but only if you so desire.

If you will follow out these instructions, you will be surprised to discover how much easier life will be for you. Your mind will gradually become your instrument and not your master, as it is at present; your etheric body will stabilise and your general health will improve; your interests will grow [716] and your usefulness increase, and that I know, my brother, is what you yourself desire. I am only attempting to help you to measure up to your own idea.

One other exercise I will permit. I give you below certain sentences or statements, one for each month of the coming year. Every morning before you rise out of a recumbent position say the one for that particular month aloud—just once—thus striking your keynote for the day. But do not proceed to meditate, ponder or reflect upon the sentences.

1st month . . . In quietness and in confidence shall be my strength as I walk today the ways of earth.

2nd month . . . I descend in thought unto the plains whereon men walk, and there I work.

3rd month . . . In spiritual being I stand upon the Way. It is the way of men. I am. I neither think nor dream, but work.

4th month . . . With my brothers I dwell within the Ashram. I issue forth and carry out the Plan as best I can.

5th month . . . Let love stream out today—from out my eyes, my hands, my feet, because my heart beats with the love of God.

6th month . . . Within my hand I hold the keys of life. I unlock the door for others and they pass through—yet see me not.

7th month . . . As I am strength and power and love and understanding, I bring these gifts into the haven of my work. Thus strength goes forth to others and love to all I meet, and to these gifts I add an understanding heart.

8th month . . . The cry goes out for workers. I answer, Master of my Life, and stand within the ranks of those who serve. What shall I do? The answer comes: The thing before thine eyes.

9th month . . . I climb the mountain top with others and watch the sun. I descend into the valley [717] with my fellowmen and therein walk. The dark is great, but I am with my fellowmen.

10th month . . . I think no thought, I speak no word, I do no deed that hurts another. This means I use a guarded brain against myself—the little personal self.

11th month . . . The chain of Hierarchy reaches from heaven to earth and in that chain I am a part. Above me stand the Ones I seek to serve; below me stand brothers demanding help.

12th month . . . The cross is mine. The sword of love is mine. The word of Power is mine because I love—my Master and my brothers on the upward Way and on the lesser way, my fellowmen.

This change is not going to be easy for you, brother of mine. It will appear to disrupt and to disturb the rhythm of your life, but it will net you good results and you will never regret acceding to my request. The best lies ahead for you. You are needed, and there is service you can render along with your group brothers and with me.

November 1944

BROTHER OF OLD:

This is the last specific and individual instruction I shall give you. It is not my intention to continue repeating what I seek you—and all of you—to be, to become or to do. You have had much given to you over the years which still needs to be worked out in practical effectiveness. I wonder if you have noticed how frequently, in this series of group and individual instructions, I have used the word "effective"? This has been deliberate upon my part, for the word conveys something which I would see each of you express. True effectiveness is the result of a merging of soul energy with personality force, and through this etheric merging, the physical [718] demonstration becomes adequate to the demand and commensurate with the forces blended. Each of you who have been admitted in the Ashram has already established a measure of definite contact. The way into the inner circle of the Ashram is through a still closer rapport with the soul, and upon this rapport you must definitely concentrate.

You are making a real effort to cooperate and to carry out my instructions; this has not been easy for you. It has taken you a long time to get down to work since receiving the last instruction I gave you; it has taken you long to arrive at a point of focus upon some definite activity, as I enjoined you some time ago. This again is the result of your over-rationalising mind which in dealing with all life circumstances is—in your case—prone to make complicated and intricate the simplest of physical plane matters. You are apt to make important, things which are not of the slightest importance whatsoever.

Your goal for the remainder of your life should be simplicity in all affairs and in all relationships. To this simplicity I would have you add a greater sense of personal dignity—a dignity which will work out as a physical reticence; of this, you as yet know little, but it will reveal itself to you as you reflect upon the word. To these two necessities of your physical plane expression I would have you add understanding—an understanding based upon love and not upon any mental process. This will be hard for you, for it involves being guided by your heart, unprompted by your versatile and fluid mind. If you will develop these qualities—simplicity from the mental angle, understanding from the emotional and astral angle, and dignity from the physical angle—and will work at these qualities during the rest of this incarnation, you will start your next life equipped for fuller service and with a more reliable physical instrument.

A.A.B. tells me that it distresses you that you are what you call "behind" the others in the new seed group, as far as the reception of the series of group instructions is concerned. She asks me what she should do, as she would not withhold them from you if it is my wish for you to (using your own [719] words) "catch up." Catch up with what and whom, my brother? A reception of the written instructions is no indication of capacity or status, for in the spiritual life and in all life free from physical brain awareness (as you understand it) such a "catching up" is non-existent. From the angle of esotericism, which is concerned with the soul aspect of life, time is simply a sequence of states of consciousness as registered by the physical brain. It does not in reality affect the inner spiritual man. Could you but know it—and this is a point which all disciples need to grasp—you, the true Being, needs no instructions. The task of any Master is only to bring to the attention of the man, working through the medium of a physical brain, that phase of the Ageless Wisdom which his own soul is seeking to have him register. In reality, you have had the instructions at closer and more rapid intervals than have your group brothers, because of your importunity and the grasping demand of your agile, unsatisfied mind. But you have by no means mastered what has been imparted, nor have you done the needed meditation; you will therefore only receive the current group instructions after the sun has moved northward, and I will intimate to A.A.B. the right time.

As regards your meditation work, you may now begin to follow the meditation outline given in the last series, but you must do it with no undue pressure; you must do it without any eager expectancy, but simply as a demanded duty. I would have you watch yourself with extreme care and I would ask you to refrain from using the Sacred Word, except when in group meditation, when the aura of the group will absorb the incoming energies and you will not then be unduly stimulated. The mind, when awake and active, is the great transmitter of the energies loosed by the Sacred Word. When sounded by the emotional type, it fortunately proves ineffectual in the majority of cases, and no energy is drawn into the mechanism of the personality. But when the mind is active and en rapport with the soul at certain points of evolution, it can and does draw out soul energy, and relates it [720] rapidly and immediately to the brain. Hence much of the difficulties connected with overstimulation of which you are the victim. Adhere strictly to this injunction.

One of the factors in ashramic relations which you need to find and express is the assured peace and inner confidence which characterise its vibration. There is too much fever in your life. You ascribe it to a delicate body, my brother, but this is not so. It is due to a feverish mind; until calm and peace and tranquility distinguish your mental processes, it will not be wise for you to penetrate any further into the Ashram than the point where now you find yourself. So endeavour to keep the mind quiet. The physical vehicle is far stronger than you think, and a much larger measure of real health will be yours if your mind can be better regulated.

An Ashram is a place of quietly confident, regulated effort. The plan and the immediate service-activity are known, and disciples and initiates—each aware of his task and equipment—proceed to carry out the phase of the One Work which is theirs. Each senses its relationship to the phases of the work undertaken by his group brothers; it is in learning to see the picture whole (as the Master ever sees it) that confidence and security are developed.

In the place of your Sunday morning dedication, I want to give you four pictures upon which to reflect, seeking to read behind their symbolism the message of your soul to you, the personality.

I. A quiet sea of midnight blue. Above, the shining, round-faced moon. Across the sea, a path of light, and moving slowly down that path a little boat and—smiling, with the oars in hand—H.S.D. is seen.

II. A pillared cloister, dappled with the sun and broken by the shade cast by the pillars. A garden spreads on either side, redolent with the smell of many flowers and noisy with the hum of many bees and gay with butterflies. Ten times a bell rings out. Its tone is deep and clear and musical. But the one who sits and writes and thinks beneath the cloister's shade [721] moves not. He writes, and measures to the task assigned.

III. A room in shadow, full of peace and calm, of books and enterprise. And at the desk, the Master sits and works and thinks, projecting thought, working within, above and all around, whilst through the room pass many. It is their right to pass.

IV. A golden door, wide open to the sun. Before the door lie rocks and bits of stone. A path winds towards that door, and o'er its lintel are the words: Enter with calm; speak low and only if a need is there. Enter the stream behind the door and wash away the stains of travel. Then face the Master, but only when the quiet of evening light shines forth and all is still within.

Take these pictures—one each Sunday in the month—and work creatively with them. At the close of a year, send in to A.A.B. (for the helping of the group) your interpretation of these symbols. Speak truth through them and fear not criticism.

You are making progress, my brother, and can—if you so will—be of service to your fellowmen. Forget not that at the centre of the Ashram I can be found at all times, but only when you can penetrate there with simplicity, understanding and dignity.

August 1946

MY BROTHER:

In my last instruction to you I stated that it was the last which I would give you. At that time, I had no intention of closing the outer ashramic affiliation. Today it is closed, and I give you, therefore, a parting word of practical import upon the physical plane, along with those of your brothers.

I approach you with much concern because your physical plane life is now as fluidic as your mind has been, and you know, brother of old, that that restless, grasping, unsatisfied mind has given both you and me much trouble over our years [722] of association. Let us look at your situation clearly, and I would like to indicate to you the wise procedure for the future.