Navegar por los Capítulos de este Libro

SECTION FOUR - PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES - Part 14

I have spoken to you with directness, my brother. I am, as I have told several of your group brothers, ambitious that all of you in my Ashram may become creative and constructive workers within and for the Hierarchy. I am exceedingly anxious also to see you expressing in fuller measure all that you are, and thus end this time of "flighty service" (forgive me for this word, but I speak to arrest your consciousness) and enter into that full demonstration of the will-to-good which brings always joy and effectiveness.

We have walked the path of life in relation to each other for years now. I have held you safe from harm whilst you got your bearings and tested out your strength, but that time should now be past. I stand by you at all times, but you must now come forth into steadfast ordered work, shouldering responsibility and "growing up" spiritually. The time of spiritual adolescence is past for you. Will you realise that and now work?

August 1946

MY DISCIPLE:

You are of those in this group who are within the Ashram, and that fact carries with it a definite obligation and [746] responsibility. In my last instruction to you (given two years ago) I dwelt much on this, and I would like to tell you that you have made progress, that you have eliminated much nonessential living, and are finding more time for real service. You are becoming—as an occult phrase puts it—"grounded in your place"; that was for you an essential step. Now must come the mastering of the technique or method whereby (from that place) you move forward in any needed direction—along the line of service.

In this connection, no one can help you; you have to find the ways and means, alone and unaided. This effort on your part, this groping here and there for a rightful field of service, is largely responsible for your exceeding sensitivity; you move in one direction and react to a needed opposition; this proves upsetting and may lead to a psychic crisis. You move in another direction and are immediately assailed by that which is to you a phantom of fear; you move elsewhere but the opportunity for service proffered measures not up to your capacity, and this you register and again withdraw, conscious always of psychic atmospheres and conditions. What then to do?

A great experiment is being attempted in the Arcane School. It is an endeavour to lift off the shoulders of the Masters the training of aspirants for discipleship and thus to prepare them to take their stand upon the periphery of an Ashram—in this case mine. I am thus lifting much along this line off the shoulders of other Masters. Masters such as K.H. and M. deal only at this time with trained disciples—such are the exigencies of world work. In the advanced section of the Arcane School this experiment is going on, though as yet only in an embryonic manner; more difficult and specific training should be given to the few who are reacting correctly to the "call of the Hierarchy." I have spoken to A.A.B. upon this matter, and along the line pointed out to her I ask your help and your time; I would ask you also to permit A.A.B. to train you more specifically for this work, and to do so with confidence, as the link between you two is strong and you have ever permitted her to speak to you with frankness.

[747]

You need to learn to protect yourself from people, in a psychic sense. This protection can be applied in several ways. I could myself put around you a protecting shield; I choose not to do so, for you would learn naught thereby. The work must be done by you yourself, and basically involves the transmutation of the sacral centre (not the solar plexus, as you might naturally think) to the throat. In the sacral centre lie the ancient racial fears and deep-seated personal desires. Ponder not upon the sacral centre, for that would bring these ancient inheritances to the surface, but let your work be related to the creative throat centre. Then perform the following exercise:

1. Sound the OM within the throat centre, as the soul focussed in the ajna centre.

2. See (with the creative imagination) the throat centre as a radiant, vibrant, brilliant reservoir and know it to be so.

3. Then send forth from that centre a broad and vital stream of energy, down the spine to the sacral centre in the spine, preserving the stream intact in your consciousness so that no part of it is deflected to the physical counterparts of the sacral centre, the gonads.

4. Then see the sacral centre (in the spine) as a radiant reservoir of energy, but as energy deflected from physical creative activity to the destruction of ancient racial fears in the world. Then project that energy out into the world of men, to aid in the destruction of fear.

5. Next, reaffirming your consciousness positively in the ajna centre, withdraw your attention from the sacral centre and the throat centre and sound the OM—as the directing disciple—seven times, slowly and inaudibly.

Use this exercise as often as needed, but just now and for six months use it every day. You will be surprised what it will do for you.

The meditation I last gave you will serve you for the rest of your life, so I give you no meditation now.

To you, as to others in the group, I say: Go forward with [748] confidence and with joy; establish a closer contact with me, your friend and teacher.

November 1948

MY BROTHER:

I start today with a word of real commendation to you. Since my last communication to you, you have succeeded in doing two things: stabilised the "grounding in your place" in my Ashram (to which I referred in my last communication to you) and you have also paralleled that by a very definite shifting of your astral polarisation on to higher astral levels—a task that is occupying the attention of a very large number of disciples at this time. The reason for this is that a very great part of the work of the returning Christ will affect greatly the astral plane. Disciples are therefore needed who can absorb, transmute and transfer light. For this task you are peculiarly equipped and hence the psychic difficulties which have for some years confronted you and caused you difficulty. This trouble will greatly lessen from now on, particularly if you proceed to labour at your task ... preparatory to the reappearance of the Christ.

Those disciples who work today in the world and do so consciously in order to aid the Christ and His mission, come within the protecting aura with which the Head of the Hierarchy at all times surrounds certain work undertaken by the Hierarchy in connection with our planet. This work of preparation for His coming is curiously fraught with danger because of the immense and constant antagonism it arouses (and is arousing increasingly) in the opposing forces of evil. The main attack of these forces is upon disciples and particularly those in a position and at the point in evolution where they can act with potency and greatly help in the task of reaching others. This you can do, and along with all disciples are, therefore, marked "for protection," as it is esoterically called. This does not mean that you will be free from attack and—because you are a disciple—attack on all three bodies simultaneously, but it means that such attack will arouse in you no fear. Remember always, brother of [749] mine, that it is fear that permits the entry of wrong potencies, and that such an attack may not be aimed at your weakest point but preferably at your strongest; it is there where disciples are often caught unawares and thus suffer a temporary setback.

The astral plane is in a great state of turmoil today—but that is a theme upon which I will dwell in my next communication to this group of disciples. It is nevertheless something to bear in mind. This turmoil is caused by an increasing descent of the Christ energy from the buddhic plane into the astral plane—a necessary aggregation of spiritual forces of a strength sufficient to create a reservoir of this energy of which the Hierarchy can avail itself as it proceeds towards externalisation. Of that force (which is astral-buddhic in nature) disciples such as yourself can take advantage. It carries the qualities of "embodied light," sensitivity to the new incoming vibration, and protective pliancy—I know not what other word to use. It can only be used by working disciples; therefore work, my brother, and let that penetrating energy find a channel through you.

I have told you these things in order to reassure you, for you have been in the past somewhat prone to psychic fear, though a very great improvement in this respect can be noticed. Those who work in this coming cycle must cast off fear and refuse to register in their consciousness—by an act of the spiritual will—the very existence of that which causes the reaction of fear. It is not the "little wills of men" which must here be used, but the bringing in of the higher spiritual will, via the antahkarana. It was with this in view that I gave out the teaching upon the antahkarana before proclaiming the reappearance of the Christ.

In the reorganisation of the Arcane School, I would ask you to take your full share and to concentrate your major effort upon the work of the senior students. Have in mind always that it is spiritual esotericism that is required; teaching the students to create a line of light between themselves and all circumstances and problems. This is possible because every problem is in reality a vital thoughtform, effective for good or evil. The line of established light can dispel the evil [750] or act as a transmitter of the energy of the will-to-good. In the above few sentences I have given you a potent hint and one which should be taught to all true aspirants.

There is little more that I have to say to you. You might find it of true helpfulness if you gathered together and read at one sitting, slowly and carefully, all which I have given to you in your personal instructions since this group was organised. This will give you (as nothing else can) a synthetic view of the general pattern of your spiritual growth and advancement.

Go forward with a sense of strength, knowing that the power of your soul, the solidarity of the Ashram, and the protective aura which surrounds the work of the Christ can ever be relied upon.

To D. L. R.

January 1940

BROTHER OF MINE:

I find it most difficult to give a name to the glamour which holds back the full expression of your soul. I might perhaps call it the "glamour of continued circumstance." This leads to an almost unavoidable construction of a wall of small and unimportant events, of negligible contacts, of monotonously regulated and determined duties, carried forward year after year because they constitute your duty and life function and also provide the wherewithal whereby the needs of life can be met. These provide a slow moving glamour, behind which you conscientiously and laboriously stand and daily work. Such a state of affairs leads to a static situation and to a constant conditioning of your life expression. To this, your soul at times takes exception and will do so increasingly. For this you must be prepared. You must be ready for a certain feeling of nausea and of frustration as your life goes on and on along its predetermined lines. And for this nausea, you will find no real understanding in your environment. For this also you must be prepared and to accept [751] it without criticism of those who fail to render you right comprehension.

Hitherto, you have regarded such moments of nausea as rebellion to be immediately suppressed; you have thrust from you all aspiration towards change, regarding it as a hindering glamour and seeking always to believe that your choice of the stable, the safe and the familiar is entirely right. Such choice has indeed been right at times, but it has not always been so in spite of the determination evidenced in your environment to hold you to the tried and the familiar.

Seek, my brother, at any cost, to be alive and eager for the future. Hide never behind the thought of past achievement or of achievement in some future life; learn to recognise opportunity when it stands before your thought and be ready to change the stable rhythms of a high grade and adequate personality for the eager forward looking attitude of a world disciple. Changes will then come because your inner attitude has prepared the way.

Sometimes, my brother, I wonder if you will recognise them, knowing them for what they are? Will you see the open door, leading to a fuller and a richer life? I call you to preparedness, and for freedom from the glamours of the familiar, of the family and of your surroundings.

August 1940

There are within you at this time, my brother, stirrings of revolution and rebellion which have in them the seeds of liberation. Does this astonish you? Of their depth and purpose you have as yet but little understanding. You must remember that rebellion may be based on purely selfish desire for a way of life which your personality may demand. But it can also be soul-produced, and such is the case with you. One of the first things which a disciple has to learn is the real nature of that which is directing him and conditioning him. With many it is some aspect of the personality or of the personality as a whole; in a few, it is the soul. With [752] still others, the promptings may come from a sense of inferiority and its consequent reaction of a carefully considered defence mechanism; with still others, it may be circumstance, or the race mind or popular opinion or the people with whom they are associated through ancient ties, karmic liabilities or self-chosen responsibility. I will tell you here certain things which may aid you towards a fuller life and a deepened soul expression.

Your link with your soul is real and it was not achieved in this life. It is therefore one of the stable factors in your life. Your mind is of a high quality and is easily responsive to the intuition and illumination; you have your emotional or astral body well under control. On the inner planes of the personality, your life demonstration is good and you lead a faithful and progressive spiritual life—so much so that your vibration reaches upward so intensively at times as to sound within the periphery of the hierarchical sphere of influence. This is somewhat rare. But outward and downward (these inadequate expressions make the teaching hard to communicate) this is not the case. Your outgoing energy seems short circuited and your radiation is inadequate to your inner spiritual life. You will recall that I gave you the word "radiation" some years ago as your desired keynote. For years I have watched the intensification of your spiritual life upon the inner planes only to see it arrested on the eve of expression upon the plane of daily life. I refer not here to character expression or to being what people ordinarily call good. I refer to effective radiation.

What causes this, my brother? I would say: Outer circumstances, and two people in particular, plus an acutely sensitive receptivity to the mental and emotional life of others. Ponder on this. This sensitivity causes an arresting of physical expression, plus a mistaken interpretation of duty at times. Know you not, my brother, that those who are at the stage of accepted discipleship (as you are) should be radiating centres of light on a relatively large scale. With you this potency of radiation is present but is rendered ineffective by your reaction to the outer details of physical plane living and to the reactions of those less developed than you are. Is [753] this a hard saying? Study it with the detachment you have so ably developed and you will find in due time that I am correct in my diagnosis.

Re-apply and re-interpret this virtue of detachment and much will be revealed to you. I shall not be more explicit. My function is to indicate direction, but it is for you to understand rightly and then react. Your initial interpretation given to my words may not be the right one in all cases. Usually the integration of the spiritual life and of the personality proceeds as follows:

1. The astral body integrates with the physical brain, via the etheric body and the solar plexus.

2. These two then integrate with the mental body and thus complete the personality expression.

3. This is followed after much struggle and time by the definite integration of personality and soul.

You have, however, carried the integration from the astral body to the mental body and from thence to the soul but have not yet succeeded in integrating these three with the physical man, dominating the brain and producing a vibrant expression of the inner man outwardly. This is somewhat rare a condition. Could you see yourself as you essentially are, you would make the acquaintance of a vibrant, radiant, wise disciple. But you hide all that behind a wall which has been built through your conditioning supersensitive nature and circumstances, and also by the influence of several people. Come out from behind that obstructing wall, my brother, and—for the sake of those whom you can serve—be what you are.

That this emergence on your part may bring its own problems is probably true, but with the results of right action (carried wisely and not fanatically forward) you have naught to do.

A brief visualisation exercise and meditation may aid in this process of emergence. It is well to bear in mind that the dramatisation of the spiritual life leads to creative appearance, strengthening the will-to-do, directing the desire nature [754] in the right direction and producing effectiveness in physical plane expression. You will see, therefore, that when humanity can begin en masse to work in this manner, they will enter upon a cycle wherein evil karma will no longer be engendered and past karma will work out in experienced, spiritual living.

This meditation exercise should be carefully thought out before practising so that you can know just what you are attempting to do and can then do it with adequate results. I would ask you to do it twice daily, when convenient. I set no regular time. A year's steady practice (with belief, plus skill in action) may cause almost dramatic changes in your life.

1. Bring about focus in the soul of the potencies of the lower man by the power of the imagination and careful visualisation. This can be done by rapid, right alignment.

2. See the soul as a radiant sun within you (the personality hiding behind its rays). You, the real spiritual man, produce the veiling of the lower man.

3. See the rays of the sun extending first to the mind bringing illumination.

Pause here and focus your consciousness in the mind. The work is done by projecting yourself along the ray of your personality and along your mental ray which is the fifth ray of concrete knowledge or science. This should be relatively easy for you.

4. Then see the rays of the soul (the sun of your life) extending and embracing your astral nature and irradiating the astral plane with which you are in contact, thus bringing an outpouring of love. This again should be relatively easy of accomplishment as your astral ray is the sixth ray of devotion and idealism.

5. Carry the radiation of the sun to the vital body and see it bringing (on the beam of the seventh ray of your physical nature) such a dynamic energising that you will have the power, figuratively speaking, to break through the wall which prevents the inner radiation extending into the outer physical world.

[755]

6.Then sound the OM softly seven times, concentrating upon the picture of this sun (which is you and your solar quality), thus irradiating the outer life.

This process should be fairly easy as all your rays tend to facilitate it. The process is also highly scientific for it is in reality the manipulation of radiant solar energy straight from "the heart of the sun," technically speaking. Work patiently along these lines and take with patience and courage the effects produced. For these you will be eternally grateful.

August 1942

1. Be not afraid of loneliness. The soul that cannot stand alone has naught to give.

2. Cut deep into the roots of all thy life. Seek freedom from the past. Yet move not from the plane where life has placed you in a part to play.

3. The rhythm of all life pulsates in time and space and in that rhythm you must find a note that liberates.

4. Ponder on the work of the Destroyer, why comes destruction and why the loss of beauty that has been. Your task in life should make that knowledge possible. Then build.

5. Be a sannyasin—free, alone with God, your soul and Me. Then work and love.

6. Your major life theme in this coming year is: Search freedom. Ponder on this. It is the goal for all.

September 1943

MY BROTHER:

As a Master studies His chelas year by year, He arrives at certain definite knowledges anent them which are very different to those arrived at by even the dearest or closest earthly friends. The latter are apt to fail in grasping life essentials, because the detail and the minute aspects of the daily expression attract attention and the surface is confounded with the depth. It is the depth which the Master sees; the essential quality which He grasps, and the major need which emerges.

[756]

What, my brother, lies at the very depth of your personality in this life? I refer not here to the deeps of the soul, but to the particular hidden thing which is and has been struggling for expression throughout this entire incarnation. What is your essential quality? Here I refer to the outstanding quality which, given due process of experience, will radiate from your life and thus constitute your major working asset. What is your predominant need this life? Reduce all this to the requirements for initiation (for which you are being prepared) and you come to three fundamental things which must be manifested, prior to that tremendous step forward upon the Path. You will note that I am not preoccupied with your mistakes or failures. These are inevitable and are relatively unimportant, because a disciple at your point of development is ever aware of them and can be trusted to take the needed steps toward adjustment.

For years I have watched you. You have made steady progress in all directions but have reached a point which it is necessary that all disciples reach, where a supreme effort, based on clear perception and insight, is essential. To aid you in making this supreme life effort, I would like to touch upon these three points. I must touch upon them in such a way that only you will comprehend the implications. There is no need for your group brothers, or any one else who may come across and read your papers, to grasp my meaning. Two factors of interest emerge here. In veiling (from the point of definite personal application) the truths I seek to have you grasp, I present to you a compromise between the Eastern method of hinting and the Western method of plain speaking! I am, at the same time, endeavouring to convey to you the attitude of all disciples in training for initiation. This attitude is one of extreme personal reticence and of withdrawing from those verbal contacts which reveal too much of individual soul growth. This is one of the first lessons in the silence which initiation entails. It is also one of the first steps towards comprehension of that "isolated unity" which is distinctive of the Master. In the Hierarchy there is complete unity, based upon a recognised isolation of spirit from matter. [757] This thought should provide you with a theme for much profound thinking.

What, therefore, brother of mine, should be the unique realisation which this particular incarnation should help you to express? What lies at the depths of your being, seeking revelation? What is the essential quality which you should radiate? What is your outstanding need? I will tell you the truth as I see it, reminding you however that it is the truth as you see it which changes and conditions your life. You must therefore regard my suggestions as valuable, but regard them primarily as the subject of a defined spiritual investigation—to be carried forward with an open mind and a willingness to recognise them as correct and just when your own conclusions and your intuitive response justify your agreeing. Here are my conclusions:

1. The hidden beauty seeking expression in your life is the power to use words to arrest others and to put them, as a consequence, upon the Path of Return. This will undoubtedly surprise you, but your apparent inability to write, for instance, a fluent letter or an eloquent appeal, or to evoke the words of arresting power which you feel seething within you, are only indicative of a pronounced personality inhibition which you can overcome, if you so wish. Words are the expression of the soul, when rightly employed. You do not use those words. You can, if you determine to do so. The art of spiritual letter writing will release this inner beauty and enhance your service.

2. The essential quality which you should radiate is an understanding holding of those for whom you are responsible. I said "holding," brother of mine. A.A.B. has called my attention to the interesting fact that it is the rarest thing for you to lose a student out of your secretarial group, yet at the same time you write less and (apparently) upon the outer plane, do less, than the other secretaries. Why is this so? It is indicative of the quality which you radiate. This quality is in the [758] nature of a potency. It is the power to hold others steady by the nature of your understanding; this they feel, even if you do not consciously express it. It remains still basically subjective. A quality such as this—binding, forceful and enduring—carries its limitations as well as its benedictions. People can be held too closely to you for their own good, and it is ever the weaker who are thus held and the less advanced. People in this way can become dependent upon the one who holds, and thus fail to express themselves, and thus again their weaknesses are developed and a tendency to negativity. You can develop this theme yourself. But the beneficent aspect of this radiation is predominant in you and must be increased and this deliberately.

3. Your major need (and this you know) is freedom, is liberation. I do not mean freedom from incarnation or liberation from the pressures of life, but the freedom which the sannyasin knows as he roams free in the three worlds—unsupervised or unintruded upon by aught but his own soul. It is the freedom which gives mental help, emotional response and physical time as and when the disciple chooses. These are not evoked by habit or by the demand of others, but are the free contribution of the soul to a current need. Your response is not always to need, is it, my brother? Ponder on this.

In the six seed thoughts which I gave you a year ago, this theme of liberation, of a desirable divine loneliness, and of a search for a note that could bring freedom was a dominant one. They still should be the major subject of all your meditation work. I would suggest that for the coming year you take them as the seed thoughts for your definitely planned morning meditation. I am leaving you to do the planning, but would make one suggestion. These six thoughts will need to be taken one each month for six months, and then repeated for another six. For the first six months reflect upon them from the angle of your subjective realisation as a soul; [759] for the second six months study them from the angle of practical expression in your daily life.

I am anxious for you to make the grade this life, my brother, and here I am speaking technically. I am anxious for you to take the initiation planned by your own soul, and to take it this life, so that you can enter into your next incarnation with the initiate consciousness (of the grade desired), and thus start with greatly increased assets for service. I would remind you that initiation is taken alone; hence my emphasis to you during the past few years upon the need for you to travel alone—spiritually and mentally speaking. From other angles you travel not alone. The spiritual life is full of paradoxes. We set out to develop a sense of unity and of oneness with all beings, yet at times we must learn the lessons of loneliness and of isolation. A great "aloneness" is the supreme test of the fourth initiation. Remember this. Yet never, my brother, will you be alone, and this too you must have in mind. It is, in the last analysis, a question of recognitions. Let me assure you: I recognise you and, my brother and close friend on the inner side, I know you and love you.

November 1944

BROTHER OF MINE:

In what sense do I call you this? For this appellation conveys no idle statement but is of deep significance. It is particularly so in your case and in reference to your individual relation to me. My last instruction should have indicated to you how deep is my comprehension of you and your nature, and how well I understand your problems, your limitations and your assets. Every Master needs to have such an understanding and to know infallibly what is in a disciple's heart and mind; He must understand what motivates his action. When also there is a karmic tie as well as a spiritual one, when there is a recognition of unity of purpose, plus a past history of close relationship when the Master was also only a disciple and the disciple was only an aspirant, then the words "Brother of mine" take on a deeper meaning. They [760] might indicate a steady moving forward, side by side, of a younger and an older brother, resulting in a consequent close relationship, easy contact and a deep comprehension. In this sense, therefore, my mode of addressing some of you is not simply significant of an occult truth but of an existent fact in the three worlds. There are four of you in this group who have such a relationship to me. It is—between us—an old story. Others in this group, as you know, are temporarily under my instruction until such time as they have fitted themselves to fill vacancies in other Ashrams; still others are, for the first time, making contact with me in my Ashram, having had no previous contact with any Ashram. I bring these points to your attention because I would have you utilise a possibility which remains as yet a hoped-for event in your case—the possibility of a realised, easy contact with me. It has always been possible for you to contact me with facility but you have seldom realised it. I want you now to realise it and to develop into outer expression what has always interiorly existed.

How, brother of mine, can you do this? One definite means of intensifying this inner recognition would be to avail yourself more fully of the period of the Full Moon approach. For years you have all been utilising this monthly opportunity but with relatively little results; this has somewhat surprised me for, on the side of the Ashram, there has been a great readiness for such an approach and an eagerness to stimulate "the process of absorption," as it is called. This is a process which serves to integrate the disciple regularly and cyclically into the consciousness of the Ashram, with subsequent and consequent results to the disciple.

I would ask you, therefore, each month and for the rest of your life to follow for three days a definite procedure.... I ask this because I believe you have that persistent staying power which is characteristic of all those whose personalities are on the ray which is yours. The procedure will involve putting yourself en rapport with my Ashram and to register it in your physical brain consciousness. You may not and probably will not succeed in this endeavour immediately, but in due course of time and with persistent effort you [761] inevitably will. Think of me as you know me to be; let not your sixth ray devotional nature play any part in this process or contact. Bear in mind that first ray disciples are in my Ashram, and that there are aspects of my nature which are of first ray origin, but when you remember this, bear also in mind that the aspect to which I refer is Triadal.

The Masters have no personalities as you understand personality. Their conditioning factors are the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad, and these aspects, being creative, build the phenomenal apparatus or mechanism by means of which a Master makes contact with the three worlds. This means, consequently, that disciples will need to study with greater attention the teaching on the antahkarana, for it is via the antahkarana that they make contact with the Ashram and with the Master. Forget not that I have assured you that such a contact is relatively easy for you; the implications of this statement are clear. Let your reflection be upon the purpose of such a contact. Realise also that the intention of this work is to facilitate a great possibility which confronts you, that the urgency of the time demands "accomplished servers" and wise disciples, and that this urgency warrants an intensified training given disciples such as you. The contact with the Ashram will serve to emphasise in your mind the concept of yourself as the serving disciple. You are strong and able to take what the process requires; you can rest back on your own strength when it is implemented by an increasing clarity of vision. You see people and life more truly than you did when you were first affiliated with my group, and the last two years have brought about much change in this connection. Count on yourself and on your soul with greater confidence; move forward with surety towards the consummation of this life's effort.

I would call to your attention that in the instructions I gave you last year and in this one, you have a complete unit of teaching which can suffice you for the remainder of this life. Read both these instructions over once every month regularly, thus renewing your interest and your enthusiasm. It is interesting to observe that initiation is often taken (I might say it is usually taken) after passing the milestone of [762] half a century. The reason is that if the disciple can produce the needed staying power and the required enthusiasm—by which I mean dynamic purpose—he can then be trusted to handle the powers conferred with wisdom, to display the needed poise, and to proceed upon his outward way with humility and caution.

I have told you much in these last two instructions; they consummate the teaching which I have given you since 1933. Ponder on them. Act upon them and then strengthen the Ashram and present to the Masters a wise server and a trained companion on the Way.

August 1946

MY DISCIPLE:

I would have you note the change in the manner in which I am addressing you. It has significance and my word to you in this instruction is simply this: Give to the years ahead a deep study in order to ascertain the implications and the opportunities that this word—given you at this particular time—implies; study the consequent effectiveness in contact (upward, inward, and outward, if one may use such inadequate terms!) that will result.

Occultly speaking, you stand alone; you lead a lonely life, for there is no single person in your environment who shares with you the same quality or grade of spiritual perception. This you may deny, for your life is very full. Life has its constant points of revelation, some of which we recognise, and others pass by unnoted. The revelation of a certain type of spiritual loneliness is one through which all disciples have to pass; it is a test of that occult detachment which every disciple has to master.

This solitariness has to be faced and understood, and it results in two realisations: first of all, a realisation of your exact point on the ladder of evolution, or on the Path; and secondly, an intuitive perception of the point in evolution of those we contact along the way of life. For quite a long time every disciple refuses to do either of these two things. A false humility, which in reality borders on a lack of truthfulness, [763] keeps him from clear-eyed recognition of status—a recognition which necessarily involves more intelligence and sounds out no call to pride. Few too dare trust themselves to see their fellowmen as they really are, for fear of a critical spirit—so hard it is to develop the true practice of loving understanding which leads to the seeing of all people in truth, with their faults and their virtues, their pettiness and their grandeurs, and still to love them as before and even more.

This occult solitariness must be consciously developed by you, and not left to circumstances. It is a solitariness which rests on soul attainment and upon no spirit of separateness; it is a solitariness which boasts of many friends and many interruptions, but of these many, few—if any—are admitted to the point of sacred peace; it is a solitariness that shuts none out, but which withholds the secrets of the Ashram from those who seek to penetrate. It is, finally, a solitariness which opens wide the door into the Ashram.

This is the factor you need the most to cultivate at this time. It will necessitate a conscious and definite withdrawal of yourself, and at the same time will lead to a still warmer expression of love upon the outer plane of life.

The closing of this outer group may enable you the more easily to do this, and may deepen your inner life immeasurably. Welcome, therefore, this opportunity. As regards the outer group, I would ask you to keep in close touch, however, through correspondence, with J.S.P.; she is a group brother who sorely needs your strength and knowledge. She has suffered far more than any of you and sorely needs lifting into a sense of security and peace. I commend her to you, and she will be good for you as you for her.

As for your meditation work, my brother, I would have you adhere to the Full Moon procedure outlined earlier by me, and I would ask you to keep this practice up for the remainder of your life. I would have you add to this monthly work a daily practice, founded upon the theme of a chosen solitariness. Note the word "chosen." It is wiser to cultivate the quality of spiritual solitude than to have it forced upon you—as so often happens to so many. I will suggest only the themes for your meditation, leaving you to work out the form [764] or procedure to suit yourself, or to do without any form if it seems better to you.

Themes For Meditation. One for each month, to be reviewed year by year.

1. The nature of solitude.

2. The difference between solitude, loneliness, separateness and isolation. I would refer you to Patanjali [xxi]* who speaks of "isolated unity."

3. Solitude and the daily life.

4. Solitude and the soul.

5. Solitude as a quality of the interior life of an Ashram.

6. The solitude of spiritual perception.

7. The solitude necessitated by the service of the Plan.

8. Solitude as the background of a radiant life.

9. Solitude and contact with the Master.

10. The rewards of solitude.

11. The voices heard in the silence of solitude.

12. The silence of the Spheres.

In this solitude there is no morbidness, there is no harsh withdrawing, and there is no aspect of separateness. There is only the "place where the disciple stands, detached and unafraid, and in that place of utter quiet the Master comes and solitude is not."

[767]