RULE FOURTEEN - Part 1

In this final rule for disciples and initiates, a great summation is embodied.  I would here point out again (as I have so frequently in the past) that the obvious meaning—no matter how elevated—is not that with which we shall deal.  It is the significance behind the meaning which is ever the concern of the initiate mind.  Students would do well to remember the following sequence of words, embodying ideas:  Symbol, Meaning, Significance, Light, regarding light as the emanating creative energy—the organiser of the symbol, the revealer of the meaning, the potency of the significance.

We have studied the rules and have penetrated deeply into the world of significances.  Most of you have not, however, passed beyond the stage of groping in the world of [286] meaning.  The reason for this is that you have not yet taken the third initiation.  I would ask you also to bear in mind that the world of symbols is that of the personal life, of the phenomenal world as that phrase covers the three worlds of human evolution; the world of meaning is the world in which the soul lives and moves with intention and understanding; the world of significance is the world of the Spiritual Triad, which only confers its freedom fully after the third initiation.

The words dealt with in this Rule XIV are apparently so simple that they can be easily understood.  I will attempt to show you that their real meaning is deep and esoteric to what you call the nth degree.

Rule XIV.

For Applicants:  Listen.  Touch.  See.  Apply.  Know.

For Disciples and Initiates:  Know.  Express.  Reveal.  Destroy.  Resurrect.

The following relationships should be noted, for the first is the seed of the other.

You will note that the applicant eventually arrives at knowledge and begins to know; the disciple or the initiate starts with knowing, and through his ability to express esoterically that which he knows is able to reveal the light, and by that light to destroy all illusion, glamour and maya; he brings about resurrection upon the physical plane—a resurrection from the death which physical plane life inevitably confers.

The five words as given to the applicant are indeed relatively simple.  Most aspirants understand their meaning [287] to a certain extent.  They know that the listening mentioned has naught to do with the sense of physical hearing, and that the touch to be developed has reference to sensitivity and not the sensory perception of the physical vehicle.  They know likewise that the sight to be cultivated is the power to see the beauty underlying form, to recognise the subjective divinity and to register also the love conveyed through the medium of symbols.  The application of soul energy to the affairs of daily life and the establishing of those conditions which permit of soul knowledge are the elementary lessons of the aspirant.  With these I need not deal, except in so far as they give the clue to the significance of the five words as given to the initiated disciple.

Let us take each of these five words and seek to ascertain their significance.  But first of all, I would like to point out that here we are concerned with monadic signatures, with that which synthesises significances, and with that which contributes vital significance to the initiated life.  I would have you, as you read my words, retreat within yourselves and seek to think, feel and perceive at your highest possible level of consciousness.  The effort to do this will bear much fruit and bring rich reward to you.  You will not grasp the full intention of these words, but your sense of awareness will begin to react to triadal impression.  I know not how else to word this, limited as I am by the necessity of language.  You may not register anything consciously, for the brain of the average disciple is as yet insensitive to monadic vibration.  Even if the disciple is capable of some responsiveness, there are not the needed words in which to express the sensed idea or to clothe the concept.  It is therefore impossible to put the divine ideas into their ideal form and them bring them down into the world of meaning, and from thence into the world of symbols.  What I say will therefore have more significance towards the close of this century, when men will have recovered from the chaos and cruelty of war, and when the new and higher spiritual influences are being steadily poured out.  I write, my brothers, for the future.

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1. Know.

What is the difference between the knowing of the aspirant and the knowledge of the initiated disciple?  It is the difference which exists between two differing fields and areas of perception.  The aspirant is told first of all to "know thyself"; he is then told to know the relation of form and soul, and the area covered by his knowledge is that of the three worlds, plus the level upon the mental plane on which his soul is focussed.  The initiated disciple knows the relation of the periphery to the centre, of the One to the many, and of unity to diversity.  The applicant is concerned with triplicity:  himself as the knower, his field of knowledge, and that which is the agent of knowing, the mind.  The initiated disciple is beyond registering triplicity and is occupied with the duality of manifestation, with life-energy as it affects or is related to matter-force, with spirit and substance.  The knowledge of the initiate has naught to do with consciousness as the mind recognises that factor in the evolutionary process; his knowledge is related to the faculty of the intuition and to that divine perception which sees all things as within itself.  Perhaps the simplest way to express the knowledge of the initiate is to say that it is direct awareness of God, thus putting it into mystical terms; the knowledge of the aspirant is related to that aspect of divinity which we call the soul in form.  Putting this in still another way, I might point out that the aspirant is concerned with the knowledge of soul and matter, whilst the initiate is concerned with soul and spirit.

If I say to you, my brothers, that the knowledge of the initiate is concerned with that which is produced by SOUND and not by the A.U.M. or the O.M., I shall have linked up these comments with much else given previously in the analysis of these fourteen rules.  The "listening" of the aspirant has now been transformed into the effectual recognition of that which the Sound has created.  I refer not here to the creation of the phenomenal world, or to the world of meaning which is essentially the Plan or the pattern underlying that phenomenal world, but to the intention or [289] [289] the Purpose which motivated the creative Sound; I am dealing with the impulsive energy which gives significance to activity and to the life-force which the Sound centralises at Shamballa.

It is not the fault of humanity that it is only now possible for the significance of the divine purpose to emerge more clearly in the consciousness of the initiated disciple.  It is a question of timing and of movement in space; it concerns the relation of the Hierarchy, working with the Plan, to Shamballa, the recipient (by means of the Sound) of the creative energy which it is the divine intention to expend in producing a perfect expression of the divine Idea.  It is to the knowledge of this relationship and of its effects that the first word of Rule XIV refers.

It was the dawning of this significance upon the consciousness of the Christ—a consciousness enlightened, purified and divinely focussed—that forced Him to cry out:  "Father, not my will but Thine be done."  He received a vision of the emerging divine intention for humanity and (through humanity) for the planet as a whole.  In the hierarchical stage of development which Christ had attained and which made Him the Head of the Hierarchy and the Master of all the Masters, His consciousness was entirely at one with the Plan; its application to life in the three worlds, and its goal of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth and the emergence of the fifth kingdom in nature, were now for Him simply the fulfilling of the law, and to that fulfillment His entire life was and had been geared.  The Plan, its goal, its techniques and methods, its laws and their application, its phenomenal effects, the hindrances to be met, the energy (that of love) to be employed, and the close and growing relation and interplay between the Hierarchy and Humanity, between the heart centre of the planetary Logos and the creative centre, were known to Him and fully understood.  At the highest point of this consummated knowledge, and at the moment of His complete surrender to the necessary sacrifice of His life to the fulfilling of the Plan, suddenly a great expansion of consciousness took place. [290] The significance, the intention, the purpose of it all, and the extent of the divine Idea as it existed in the mind of the "Father," dawned on His soul (not on His mind, but on His soul).  He saw still further into the significance of divinity than had ever seemed possible; the world of meaning and the world of phenomena faded out and—esoterically speaking—He lost His All.  These are words necessarily meaningless to you.  For the time being, neither the energy of the creative mind nor the energy of love was left to Him.  A new type of energy became available—the energy of life itself, imbued with purpose and actuated by intention.  For the first time, the relation of the Will, which had hitherto expressed itself in His life through love and the creative work of inaugurating the new dispensation and the launching for all time of the Kingdom of God, became clear to Him.  At that point He passed through the Gethsemane of renunciation.

A hint lies here.  This high point of attainment of the Christ—as related in the Gospel story—was reached in Gethsemane, and for a brief moment we are given an insight into an aspect or happening of the Sixth Initiation.  It was this event and spiritual crisis in the life of the Christ (taking place as He overshadowed His disciple, Jesus) which enabled Jesus on His own level of spiritual development to take the fourth initiation, that of the Crucifixion or the Great Renunciation.  The numbers four and six are closely connected, and the lesser renunciation (great only from the human point of view) makes the higher renunciation possible eventually, and vice versa.  Running through many parts of the Gospel story are two paralleling histories; the lesser world of discipleship profits by the achievements of those who take the higher initiations, and thus is demonstrated the close unity which forever exists within the Hierarchy and—focussing through the Christ—the synthesis which is beginning to be formed between the Hierarchy and Shamballa.  This is taking place in this era for the first time in human history.  The recognition of this emerging synthesis between Will and Love produced a definite effect in [291] the consciousness of the Christ and led Him to know much that had hitherto been concealed from Him.

These are deep mysteries.  Their value to the disciple in training lies in the recognised and considered relationships.

These rules are—as you know—the rules controlling group life; they constitute the key to the laws under which all planetary groups work.  The hierarchical life, through its major aspect of Love, was a familiar area of consciousness and well-known to the Masters and to the Master of Them all, the Christ.  But a further "knowing" lay ahead of even this "perfected Son of God"; the nature and the mind of that great Being, embodied in the Lord of the World at Shamballa, was now revealed to Him.

It is this living realisation of Being and of identification with the planetary Logos upon the cosmic mental plane which constituted the unfolding awareness of the Christ upon the Way of the Higher Evolution.  Therefore, experience, perception and Being are the keynotes of:

1. The Path of Evolution.

2. The mode of unfoldment upon the Path.

3. The state of divine focus upon the Way.

In other words, you have the states of Individualisation, of Initiation, and of Identification.

The relation between the listening of the aspirant and the knowledge of the initiated disciple has been expressed for us in a certain ancient writing as follows:

"Dimly the one who seeks hears the faint whisper of the life of God; he sees the breathing of that whisper which disturbs the waters of his Spatial life.  The whisper penetrates.  It then becomes the Sound of many waters and the Word of many voices.  Great is the confusion but still the listening must go on.

Listening is the seed of obedience, O Chela on the Path.

More loudly comes the voice; then suddenly the voices dim and listening now gives place to knowing—the [292] knowledge of that which lies behind the outer form, the perception of that which must be done.  Order is seen.  The pattern clear emerges.

Knowing is the seed of conscious doing, O Chela on the Path.

Listening and knowledge also fade away and that which they produce can then be seen.  Being emerges and union with the One.  Identity is known—not on this plane but on that higher sphere where move and speak the greater Sons of Life.  Being alone is left.  The work is done."

2. Express.

We come now to the second word of the fourteenth rule for disciples and initiates—the word Express.  This cannot be correctly understood apart from the earlier word imparted to applicants—the word Touch.  I would have you note that all the words given to the neophyte refer basically to something he must do in reference to himself, some task he must undertake which will make him more fit for advancement, or some process of apprehension which will enable him to function in a better and more sensitive instrument.  This might be called the "introverted stage" of training because it brings the would-be disciple to a better knowledge of himself; he grasps the fact that he himself, the microcosm, is the key to the Macrocosm; he is the clue to the future, and he holds within himself the revelation which must precede esoteric action.  In contradistinction to this, the words for the disciple and the initiate mark the attainment of a capacity to work from a most deeply esoteric centre in a pronouncedly occult way.  By this I mean that the initiate, working as we have seen from a standpoint of knowledge, is at the same time no longer self-centred, but is now preoccupied with that in which he lives and moves and has his being.  His interests are with the Whole and not with the part; his interests are those which will affect his environment (an aspect of that living vibrant Whole) and not himself; his task is the hierarchical one of the salvaging of others, and not his own salvation.

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If you will note your own present attitudes and actions, you will discover that primarily (I might add almost necessarily) they centre around yourselves, your own recognitions, your own grasp of truth, and your own progress upon the Path.  But—as you achieve initiate status—self-interest declines until it disappears and, as an ancient Word has it, "only God is left"; only that remains in consciousness which is THAT, which is beauty, goodness and truth; which is not form but quality, which is that which lies behind the form and that which indicates destiny, soul, place, and status.  Ponder on these words, for they convey to you where (as evolution goes on) you will later lay the emphasis.

In considering the word Express I can, I believe, make this distinction somewhat clearer.  When the beginner on the Path ponders the significance of expression, he is occupied with his ability to express the truth which he theoretically recognises but to which he cannot as yet give form.  This is valuable because it feeds his aspiration, centres his attention upon himself and increases his naive self-interest.  This, frequently, presents its own problems, such as a sense of failure or an undue registration of success, or it fails to develop a sense of proportion.

When, however, the initiate takes into his consciousness this injunction to express, it signifies to him not his own needs or requirements, but the need of others for those expressions of truth which will guide them on their way.  This word, therefore, is to him an injunction to be creative.  The initiate creates outside himself that which is his individual contribution to the totality of the creative forms whereby the Hierarchy is attempting to create "a new heaven and a new earth."  He is not occupied with what he himself expresses as a soul within a personality; he has developed the habit of right soul expression in the three worlds, and the appearance of his quality (to revert to the use of our original words—life, quality and appearance) is automatic and without any planning on his part.  He is, however, occupied with the sequence of activities which I will list as follows:

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1. The preservation of hierarchical contact, of which direct, conscious soul contact is now an incident because it is now a habit.

2. An awareness, unbroken and consistent, of his ashramic place; I refer not to location but to status—a very different matter.

3. Reflective concentration upon the hierarchical Plan as his particular Ashram has assumed responsibility for a measure of it; that responsibility he seeks to share intelligently and effectively.

4. Recognition of the immediate contribution of the Ashram and his immediate contribution as an integral part of it.  This does away with visionary mysticism and produces the practicing occultist.

5. A study of the creative methods of his particular Ray and an imaginative visualisation of that which will be expressed when the desired creative work has taken due form.

6. Conscious projection of his contribution onto the outer physical plane.  A tangible creative project is undertaken and eventually produced.

7. He thus plays his part in bringing into objectivity the creative undertaking of his Ashram.

The seed of this creative work is that which the Ashram has planned for the exact moment of humanity's presented need, correct as to timing and placement.  This may not be what humanity believes it needs; it is essentially what the Hierarchy recognises as the needed factor, leading to the needed progress for the race at any specific moment in time.  For instance, humanity believes today that its major need is peace and material comfort and is working vaguely for both; the Hierarchy knows that its major need is the recognition of the folly of past separateness and the cult of goodwill.  Towards these ends, workers in the Ashrams are bending every effort.  The creative task, therefore, of working disciples and initiates is to produce that presentation (appearance) of the necessitous truths in such a manner that the recognition of humanity may be so sound that right action can duly be [295] taken.  Hierarchical workers must therefore express the true need in form, appropriate to the registering capacity of humanity at this moment.

The creative work of expression does not consequently concern the development and personal progress of the initiate.  He has been taken into the Ashram because of his development and because of the contribution he should be able to make to the ashramic creative purpose.  What, as a neophyte, he "touched" because of what he could gain spiritually for himself (and this with sound motive) has now become that which must be expressed in the field of service of the initiate, exacting from him all that he has and leaving him nothing for the separated self.

A great creative activity involving all Ashrams—major and minor—is now being planned in the hierarchical assembly, and the work of all waiting and attentive disciples is to make that creative plan successful through its full expression upon the physical plane.  This they must do through their grouped and blended activities, which will embody the full expression of all that they have achieved and gained in the earlier stages of their individual unfoldment.  Thus you will see that from God the Creator of all that IS, down to the humblest disciple in the hierarchical centre, the theme of creativity dominates and is the expression (again occultly understood) of the divine intention.  At present, what is called creative work by men is in reality an expression of themselves and of their appreciation of beauty as they see it, of truth as they grasp it, of psychology as they interpret it, of nature as they scientifically interpret it.  According to their spiritual development and their intelligent perception, so will be the quality and the nature of their expression—but it will be theirs.

In the case of hierarchical workers however, the situation is different.  They work to express that which the Ashram, through its group of workers, is seeking to express they seek to express the Plan, or as much of it as they can grasp; they are occupied with the expression of soul as that soul should be known in the culture and the civilisation [296] immediately to be developed.  They can work entirely free from self-interest; that which they create is not claimed by them but is regarded as an expression of hierarchical activity; they are free from the spirit to identify themselves with that which they expressed, but—having created that which their ashramic impulse has indicated—they pass on to a fresh expression of the dynamic, ever-moving purpose.  They are not occupied with form, but with life, with organism rather than organisation, with ideas rather than ideals, and with essential truth rather than with carefully formulated theologies.

Christ expressed in Himself and refrained from putting it into form; He Himself was the truth, yet inevitably (because of its inherent life) that which He expressed took form and has greatly modified and coloured human thinking and planning, and this will be increasingly so.  As the essence of Christianity emerges into expression (and in so doing destroys Churchianity) you have again a striking illustration of the truth of what I am seeking to emphasise.  In the Christian Church, men have expressed themselves, not the Christ; they have imposed their interpretations of truth on truth itself; they have created a massive organisation in every land but a living organism is non-existent.  In the new world religion which is on its way, Christianity will be expressed through the creative activity of the Christ spirit through the medium of the world disciples and initiates; we shall then see the full expression of hierarchical truth—of which the Christ today is the symbol and exponent.

Neophytes and aspirants have "touched" that for which the Christ stood, and have then attempted to impose their comprehension of that which they contacted upon the rest of the world.  Knowers, disciples and initiates express that which He represented (love-wisdom).  This they do automatically and by force of habit, first in themselves and finally by a definitely planned creative activity in the outer world.

Therefore, my brothers, there lies ahead of all true aspirants an intermediate stage of decentralisation, of automatic spiritual living and of absorption into the Hierarchy [297] through the medium of an Ashram; therein the Plan can be learnt.  When this phase of development is completed the disciple can then begin to work creatively in line with hierarchical activity.

As we consider the next word on our list, we must hold in our minds what we have discussed anent the words Touch and Express.  It might be said that the words which are given to aspirants and applicants are the seed or germ of the concepts indicated in the words for initiates and disciples.  Until the earlier significances are mastered in the earlier phases of discipleship, the later illumined service—based upon the later words—is not possible.  Always in the fresh attitude to the developing esoteric understanding of the initiate there is implicit the fact of transition from individual self-interest to a universal state of consciousness; this in time becomes the directing agent for individualised service—as rendered by the individual disciple upon the physical plane.  The fusion of the two attitudes—inclusive realisation and specialised service—renders the task of the initiate peculiarly difficult.  He has to hold two attitudes simultaneously, whilst at the same time subjecting himself to the training required in order to enable him to take his next step forward upon the Path.  It is only whilst this condition persists that the initiate has any sense of triplicity.  This is an important point to note.  Bear this in mind as we discuss our next two words:  See and Reveal.

3. Reveal.

The objective of the strictly human evolution in this planetary cycle is sight, culminating in that spiritual perception which is the major gift of the soul to the personality when contact is made; this conveys the sense of attractive love, indicates the nature of things, reveals the world of meaning, and gives the great gift of light, knowledge and ultimate illumination.  Such are the goals for the mystic, the aspirant and the pledged disciple.  The greatest physical gift is that of sight, and it is the same upon a higher turn of the spiral within the world of the soul.  When the disciple has achieved a measure of vision and is "in sight" of his goal, he [298] can then be admitted to an Ashram wherein the nature of revelation can be made known to him.  Men are apt to confuse vision and revelation, and I seek to clarify your minds somewhat on this matter; therefore, the preceding sentence is of major importance.  Aspirants are prone to think that the goal towards which they move is that of soul contact, with a secondary goal of hierarchical position, and a third goal of service.  This, however, is not correct.

The goal ahead of the aspirant is the consciousness of non-separateness and the recognition of a universal inclusiveness; the secondary goal is the ability to reveal the nature of that reality, Unity; the third goal is the ability to take those measures in the three worlds which will facilitate mankind's apprehension of these fundamentals.  You will note how this last definition of the goal removes inevitably the factor of self-interest in its entirety.  It might therefore be said that revelation concerns Oneness and nothing else.  The practical nature of this truth is only recognised when the disciple attempts to do two things:  to realise it individually, and to bring the nature of planetary unity and of non-separateness to the minds and into the lives of men everywhere.

The work of the aspirant is to see the light; only when this has become a fact in his consciousness can he begin to grasp the hidden revelation which that contacted and utilised light can reveal.  Here is another key sentence for your consideration.

With the theme of light, of vision, and of illumination, I seek not here to deal.  I have covered these subjects at length in the books which I have written, and they have also constituted the earnest search of the mystics of all time; and also the Scriptures and the literature of all nations give much information.  It is the subject of revelation and the task of the initiate to reveal with which I am concerned.  The disciple, who represents the Ashram, must reveal to humanity the essential unity underlying all creation.  This he does, first of all, by acting like a clear sheet of glass through which all may see the reality of Oneness as it [299] demonstrates in practicing operation.  When he has, through his own life and words, demonstrated his conscious participation in this basic unity, he passes on to practice ashramic methods of making this fundamental truth still more apparent.  You can here see why—as a hierarchical technique—we brought to the attention of the general public the fact of the existence of the New Group of World Servers.  They offer a practical expression of an existent unity, based upon oneness of motive, of recognition, of orientation (towards the spiritual world and towards the service of humanity), of methods and of ideas; and all this in spite of the fact that the physical plane relationship is usually non-existent and outer organisation and recognition lack.  The unity is subjective, and for that reason is impervious to every taint of separateness.

The inner organisation, to which we have given the name of the New Group of World Servers for the sake of recognition and identification, cannot be broken or in any way diminished, for it is constructed around a major principle of evolutionary growth which—when attained—indicates a registered consciousness of unity; this is something which, once recorded and known, cannot be lost or disproved.  Once seen and realised, it becomes as much a fact in its possessor's consciousness as the recognition and utilisation of his own physical body.  This he knows to be a complex organism which constitutes a functioning unity through the medium of the life principle; it is an incontrovertible fact in the realisation of the intelligent man.

When, therefore, sight has been attained and the light streams forth, revelation of the oneness of all life is a simple and immediate occurrence; it comes first of all to the disciple as a flash of wondrous informative and instinctive realisation and then steadies down, as progress is made, into a constant apprehension and appreciation; it eventually produces the motivating impulse of all action.

What is the immediate revelation which the initiates and the disciples of the world are seeking to bring to humanity?  What aspect of this essential unity are they [300] endeavouring to make simple and apparent?  One of the easiest things in the world to say (as has, for instance, Krishnamurti) is that life is one; that there is nothing but unity.  That is a trite formulation of a very ancient truth, and one which is today an occult platitude.  But life is not yet one in consciousness, however true it may be in fact.  The reason for this is that life is loving synthesis in action, and of that there is little today in demonstration.  We have life in activity but love, based on realised unity and leading to expressed synthesis, is still absent.  The vision of it is, however, upon the horizon of many, for in these days many are attaining sight and light is pouring in.  Revelation will come when the world disciples and initiates have perfected the art of revelation.

The task ahead is simple.  The important aspect, at this time, of the basic oneness underlying all forms, and which the workers of today must immediately emphasise, is the fact of the kingdom of God, of the planetary Hierarchy.  The citizens of that kingdom and the members of that Hierarchy are gathered out of every nation, every political party, every social group, every religious cult or sect, and every organisation—no matter what their expressed objectives—and the universality of the field from which these people emerge, demonstrates their underlying unity.  When this unity assumes adequate proportions in the eyes of mankind, a real synthesis will follow.

Therefore the call goes out at this time for hierarchical workers to reveal with greater emphasis the fact of the Hierarchy.  This—if done on a large scale and through proper organisation—will destroy on a large scale the present world structure in the field of religion, of economics, and of politics; it is already doing so.  An increase of pressure on the part of all who recognise the factual nature of the inner subjective kingdom of God, will produce amazing results.  This kingdom, through its major power (a quality of synthesis, could you but realise it), is gathering together into itself men and women out of every nation and out of all parts of the Earth.  It is absorbing them into itself not because [301] they are orthodox or religious in the generally accepted sense of the term, but because of their quality.  Simultaneously, as their numbers increase, a reverse movement is taking place.  Men are moving outward on to the physical plane, and doing this as a group in order to prove the factual nature of the world of unity into which they have succeeded in penetrating.  They, therefore, are demonstrating oneness and synthesis in such a simple way that men everywhere can grasp it.  The New Group of World Servers is the vanguard of the kingdom of God, the living proof of the existence of the world of spiritual Oneness.

To all applicants the call has gone out to see the Christ as He is, in order (as The New Testament puts it) that "as He is, so should we be in the world."  To disciples and initiates the call goes out to reveal to the world the grouped formation of all spiritual workers, the nature of the Christ consciousness which knows no separation, which recognises all men everywhere as Sons of God in process of expression.  This is all desired because of the need to emphasise the all-inclusive approach of divinity to humanity.  These working disciples and initiates regard all as essentially one and as brothers, which repudiates all man-made theologies (religious, scientific, political or economic) and says to all men everywhere:  "We are all the children of God; we are all equally divine; we are all on our way to the revelation of divinity, and this upon the physical plane of existence; it is what we reveal that is of importance; what is revealed to us is of lesser importance, though it has its due place in the process of training and perfecting."

There is an old catechism which seeks to make clear to the neophyte upon the verge of acceptance the distinction and the difference between vision and revelation.  It is falling somewhat into disuse, owing to the fact that the applicant today starts on a much higher turn of the spiral than he did at the time the "form of interrogation" was compiled.  I would like, however, to quote one or two of the questions and answers for the instruction of present-day aspirants.

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A CATECHISM

What dost thou see, O disciple on the Path?

Naught but myself, O Master of my life.

Look closer at thyself and speak again.  What seest thou?

A point of light which waxes and which wanes and makes the darkness darker.

Look with intense desire towards the dark and, when the light shines forth grasp opportunity.  What now appears?

A horrid sight, O Master of my life.  I like it not.  It is not true.  I am not this or that.  This evil selfish thing, it is not me.  I am not this.

Turn on the light with will and power and fierce desire, and then recount the vision that may come.  What seest thou?

Beyond the dark, revealed to me by means of light, I see a radiant form which beckons me.  What is this Being, standing gracious in the dark and in the light?  Is it and can it be my self?

What dawns upon the sight as thou standest on the Way, O worn and tired disciple, triumphant in the light?

A radiant shining form which is my Self, my soul.  A dark and sombre figure, yet old and wise, experienced and sad.  This is my self, my lower self, my ancient tried appearance upon the ways of earth.  These two stand face to face and in between, the burning ground....They move and merge....The Path comes to an end.  The Way stretches before.  Sight is attained, and in the light reality appears.

What canst thou now reveal, O Server on the Way?

Revelation comes through me, O Lord of Life.  I see it not.

Why canst thou see it now?  What hinders apprehension?

Naught hinders me.  I seek not sight for I have seen.  My task is revelation.  I seek naught for myself.

What comes thy way for revelation?  What hast thou to reveal?

Only that which has for aeons long existed and has for aye been here.  The Oneness of the Presence; the area [303] of love; the living, loving, wise, inclusive One, enfolding all and being all and leaving naught outside.

To whom must come this revelation, O Server of the world of living things?

To all enfolded in the living, loving Presence; to those who all unknown to them maintain that Presence and for ever shall endure—as doth that Presence.

And who are those who live within that Presence but know it not?

They are myself and thou, and still they are myself and still are all I meet.  It is the one in every form who think mayhap that form is all; who living thus in time and space, see not the light or life within the form, who hide within, behind the veils, between the four and five (the four kingdoms in nature and the kingdom of God.  A.A.B.) and see naught else.  To them I must reveal the truth.

How will you do this hardest of all tasks, O triumphing disciple?

By letting it be seen I am myself the truth; by living as a fragment of that Presence and seeing all its parts.  And thus is revelation brought into the four and by the fifth.

This is all that I can give you at this time upon the word and the injunction given to the initiate:  Reveal.  I would point that it is not his task to reveal the world of symbols.  The five senses and the mind principle are adequate to bring that about.  It is not his task to reveal the world of meaning.  That, the disciple arrives at and interprets as he develops soul consciousness.  His is the task to reveal the world of significances, the world of reality and of essential truth.  Because of the success of the evolutionary process, this latter task is growing, and more and more initiated revealers will be needed during the period immediately ahead.  Forget not that the invocative appeal of the mass of men, and the intelligent voicing of demand by those prepared intelligently to move forward, will inevitably [304] call forth the needed response and the needed revealers of reality.

The next word which we are to consider is one of the most difficult for me to explain.  The reason for my difficulty is that you are all imbued with the ordinary ideas anent these familiar words, and therefore it is well-nigh impossible for me to convey their significances to you from the angle of the initiate-consciousness.  Identified as you are with the form aspect and with life in the three worlds, it is hard for you to comprehend the state of mind and the type of awareness which distinguishes those who are free from these all-compelling forces in the three worlds which condition human beings, thus bringing about erroneous orientation and preventing what is really meant by spiritual perception.  The attitude of the average man, and even of the average disciple, is that of one who looks in from the periphery towards the centre, of one who is preoccupied with the shell of life and is not conscious of Reality as is a member of the Hierarchy.

Therefore, when I tell you that these words for initiates which constitute what I have called Rule XIV have a connotation quite different from that to which you are accustomed, I am propounding for you a most difficult problem.  The true understanding is, I realise, not possible for you but much can be gained by your effort to comprehend.  What you mean when you speak of the abstract mind is not exactly true to the facts; the effort to think abstractly is really an effort to think as far as possible as an initiate thinks who has transcended the concrete mind and thinks, or rather is aware, in terms of life and not of form, of being and not that which anchors being on the physical plane—or even in terms of consciousness, as you understand it.  Forget not that I have elsewhere told you that consciousness (as grasped by the personality and the soul) has little relation to that form of living awareness which distinguishes the initiate who is essentially an expression of the Monad through the medium of the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad.  This is peculiarly so in connection with the two [305] words Which remain for us to consider:  Destroy and Resurrect.

4. Destroy.

What is this destruction which the disciple and the initiate (under instruction from this final rule) is asked to bring about?  What is he required to destroy?  Why is this destruction ordered?

Let me start with a basic statement:  Destruction or the power and the wish to destroy which is characteristic of the undeveloped man, of the average man and of the probationary disciple is based upon the following impelling influences:

1. Lack of self-control along some line.

2. Desire to attain one's wishes by the removal of all obstacles.

3. Violent emotional reaction.

4. Revenge, hate, acquisitiveness and similar faults, based on lack of spiritual unfoldment.

5. The effort to remove hindrances within oneself, such as those implied in the rule for probationary disciples:  Kill out desire.

6. The deliberate destruction of all that prevents contact with the soul.

7. The destroying of all links which hold the spiritual man in the three worlds.

These motives for destruction are all related to desire, to emotion and also to aspiration, implemented (towards the end of the cycle which leads to the treading of the Probationary Path) by the lower concrete mind.  They cover a familiar case history and one which is well known to every sincere aspirant, or one which is realised for what they are at a lower level of life expression by the man who pays the penalties involved by this type of destruction.  I feel no necessity to enlarge on this mode of destroying to students such as those who read this Treatise.  This type of destruction is concerned mainly with form life in the three worlds, with individual aspiration and enterprise (from the lowest [306] groping physical desire up to the aspiration for conscious soul life), and with experiment and experience upon the three planes of ordinary human living.

But in this word "destroy" given (as an expressed command) for those who are members of the Hierarchy or who have moved or are moving from an affiliated relationship on the periphery of that Hierarchy toward the centre of activity and into close contact with some Ashram, the significance is very different.

The type of destruction here dealt with is never the result of desire; it is an effort of the spiritual will and is essentially an activity of the Spiritual Triad; it involves the carrying out of those measures which will hinder obstruction to God's will; it is the furthering of those conditions which will destroy those who are attempting to prevent divine purpose from materialising as the Plan—for which the Hierarchy is responsible.  Therefore, it is connected primarily with the relation of Shamballa to the Hierarchy, and not with the relation of the Hierarchy to Humanity.  This is a formidable esoteric statement and its implications must be considered most carefully.  This type of destruction has only a secondary relation to the destruction of form life as you know it.  When steps are taken to implement divine purpose, the resultant effect may be the destroying of forms in the three worlds, but that is an effect and only a secondary destruction; something else has been destroyed on a higher level and outside the three worlds.  This, in due time, may produce a form-reaction to which we may give the name of death.  But the death of that form was not a primary objective and was not even considered, because it was not within the range of awareness of the destroyer.

The higher destruction which we are considering is related to the destruction of certain forms of consciousness which express themselves in great areas or extensive thoughtforms; these may have, in turn, conditioned human thinking.  Perhaps the simplest illustration I can give you of this type of destruction would be concerned with the major ideologies which down the ages have conditioned or may [307] condition humanity.  These ideologies produce potent effects in the three worlds.  This type of destruction affects those civilisations which condition the human family for long periods of time, which concern climatic conditions that predispose the forms in the four kingdoms to certain characteristics in time and space, which produce effects in the great world religions, in world politics and all other "conditioning forms of thinking."  Does this convey much or little in connection with the concepts which I am attempting to make clear?

That which is destroyed, therefore, are certain group forms and these upon a large scale; this requires an exercise of the spiritual will to bring about, and does not require simply the withdrawing of the attention of the soul, the decision to vacate the form and the failure of the basic desire to perpetuate, which is what we imply when we speak of death in the three worlds.  The lack of the will-to-live of which we so glibly speak has little relation, in reality, to the will itself; it refers only to its faint or distorted reflection in the three worlds; this is much more closely related to desire and aspiration than to pure will, as spiritually comprehended.

The Purpose of God (to use a familiar phrase) is that which implements the Plan.  This purpose is the motivating life behind all that emanates from Shamballa and it is that which impulses all the activities of the Hierarchy; the task of the Hierarchy is to formulate the Plan for all forms of life in the three worlds and the four kingdoms in nature.  This Plan, in time and space, is not in any way concerned with individual man or with the life of any microcosmic entity in any of the kingdoms of nature, but with the wholes, the cycles of time, with those vast plans of livingness which man calls history, with nations and races, with world religions and great political ideologies and with social organisations which produce permanent changes in types, constitutions, planetary areas and cyclic manifestations.  It will therefore be obvious to you that from the standpoint of man's little mind, these plans are well-nigh impossible to [308] grasp.  From the standpoint of the vision of the initiate who has developed or is developing the wider grasp and who can see and think and vision (I care not what word you choose) in terms of the Eternal Now, the significance is clear; at times, the initiate creates and then anchors a germ of livingness; at times he builds that which can house his living idea with its conditioning qualities; at times, when these have served their purpose, he definitely and deliberately destroys.  The reference is necessarily ever to form; with the initiate it is, however, to the "formless form" which is always the subjective aspect of the tangible world.  It must be remembered that from the point of view of esotericism, all forms in the three worlds are tangible, in contradistinction to forms in the two higher worlds of the Spiritual Triad.

The destruction considered is that of the formless structure on which the grosser structure is built.  Some understanding of this will come if you consider the relation of the four subplanes of the physical plane, the four etheric levels, and the three subplanes which we call the dense physical planes.  These constitute our physical plane in its two aspects.  This is only a reflection of the three planes of the three worlds and the four planes from the buddhic plane up to the logoic, which constitute the cosmic physical plane.  The destruction considered by the initiate is connected with the subjective worlds of the four higher planes and the three worlds of human living, and of other forms of life such as the three subhuman kingdoms.

In the human family, death supervenes when the soul withdraws its consciousness thread and its life thread; this process of death is contained, however, entirely within the three worlds.  The soul has its station on the higher levels of the mental plane, as well you know.  In connection with the forms of expression to which I have referred above—cycles, civilisations, cultures, races, kingdoms in nature and so forth—their destruction is brought about from still higher sources than the three worlds in which they manifest.  This destruction takes place under the direction of Shamballa as it evokes the will of the Hierarchy or some particular [309] Ashram or some member of the Hierarchy in order to produce a predetermined result in the three worlds in line with the purpose of God.  It might be said (accurately to a certain esoteric extent) that the destruction brought about in obedience to this fourth word in Rule XIV is the destruction of some aspect of the plan as it has been functioning in the three worlds, and this under divine purpose and intent.