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RULE TWO

In our study of Rule One on Initiation, we gained (or perhaps fixed more clearly in our minds) three major thoughts:

1. That the Path of Initiation is one on which we develop the Will aspect of divinity.

2. We learn also to use consciousness as a jumping off place for the recognition of a new state of realisation, which is not consciousness at all, as we understand that term.

3. We undergo, prior to each initiation, two major tests—that of the burning ground and that of the clear cold light.

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We closed our discussion with the thought of Tension and I defined it as the identification of the brain and soul with the will aspect and the preservation of that identification—unchanged and immovable—in all circumstances and difficulties.  I mention this as the "tension" concept or point of attainment underlies the teaching of the rule which we are now going to consider.

Rule II.

The WORD has now gone forth from the great point of tension:  Accepted as a group.  Withdraw not now your application.  You could not, if you would; but add to it three great demands and forward move.  Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule.  Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group's united life.

A close analysis of this rule will convey to the intuition far more than appears upon the surface, and that is rich enough.  Each of these rules holds in it the seed of that understanding which must be evoked before the next rule can be mastered.  All that is given is ever based on that which has gone before.  The "three great demands" of the initiate are based upon the "triple call" found in Rule Two for aspirants and disciples.  The triple call was earlier sounded forth.  Now its higher significances must be comprehended.

There are only four parts to this rule, which is one of prime importance because it contains the motivating force, the conditioning factors and the place of triumph—all these are indicated.  We will, as is our usual custom, study each separate part sequentially and as far as possible in detail bearing in mind that initiation deals with factors in latent manifestation for which our languages have no words, and with ideas which are not yet to be found among the "raincloud of knowable things" (as Patanjali calls it)—that is, knowable to the masses of men.  The initiate is, however, dealing with a world of meaning and of affairs which are not yet manifesting in any way.  The task of the Master [49] (and of Those higher than He) is to take those steps and precipitate those "waiting events" which will eventually bring them into manifestation.  This, I would remind you, is always done by the use of the will and from a point of tension.

1. The Word has now gone forth from the great point of tension:  Accepted as a group.

I would like here to call your attention to the progressive nature of the esoteric science; it is nowhere better illustrated than in this phrase; nowhere is it more clearly shown and yet, unless the intuition and the sense of correlation are functioning, the idea might escape recognition.

In all the teaching given to the aspirant and to the disciple in the early stages of their training, the emphasis has been upon the "point of light" which must be discovered, brought into full illumination, and then so used that the one in whom the light shines becomes a light-bearer in a dark world.  This, the aspirant is taught, becomes possible when contact with the soul has been made and the light is found.  This is familiar teaching to many and is the essence of the progress to be made by aspirants and disciples in the first part of their training.

We now, however, pass on to another expression and to the next development in the life of the initiate, which is learning to work from a "point of tension."  Here lies the new emphasis, and I am bringing it to the attention of humanity as mankind nears the close, the terrible but liberating finale, of his great test in this modern burning-ground.  Now men can pass on into the clear cold light, and from there begin to hold that point of tension which will be evocative of the needed "understanding will-to-move forward" along the line of human will-to-good—the first phase of the development of the will aspect.  It is the higher sublimation of the aspirational stage which precedes the attainment of the "point of light" through contact with the soul.

The point of tension is found when the dedicated will [50] of the personality is brought into touch with the will of the Spiritual Triad.  This takes place in three clearly defined stages:

1. The stage wherein the lower will aspect which is focussed in the mental body—the will-to-activity of the personality—is brought into contact with the higher abstract mind; this latter is the interpreting agent for the Monad and the lowest aspect of the Triad.  Two things can be noted in this respect:

a. This contact becomes possible from the moment that the first thin strand of the antahkarana, the rainbow bridge, is completed between the mental unit and the manasic permanent atom.

b. This demonstrates in an absorbing devotion to the Plan and is an effort, at any cost, to serve that Plan as it is progressively understood and grasped.

This expresses itself in the cultivation of goodwill, as understood by the average intelligent human being and put into action as a way of life.

2. The stage wherein the love aspect of the soul is brought into touch with the corresponding aspect of the Triad, to which we give the inadequate name of the intuition.  This is in reality divine insight and comprehension, as expressed through the formulation of ideas.  Here you have an instance of the inadequacy of modern language; ideas are formless and are in effect points of energy, outward moving in order eventually to express some "intention" of the divine creating Logos.  When the initiate grasps this and identifies himself with it, his goodwill expands into the will-to-good.  Plan and quality give place to purpose and method.  Plans are fallible and tentative and serve a temporary need.  Purpose, as expressed by the initiate is permanent, farsighted, unalterable, and serves the Eternal Idea.

3. The stage wherein—after the fourth initiation—there is direct unbroken relation between the Monad, via the Triad, and the form which the Master is using to do His [51] work among men.  This form may be either His temporary personality, arrived at along the normal lines of incarnation, or the specially created form to which Theosophists give the technical but cumbersome word "mayavirupa."  It is the "true mask, hiding the radiant light and the dynamic energy of a revealed Son of God."  This is the esoteric definition which I offer you.  This stage can be called the attainment of the will-to-be, not Being as an individual expression but Being as an expression of the Whole—all-inclusive, non-separative, motivated by goodness, beauty and truth and intelligently expressed as pure love.

All these stages are achieved by the attainment of one point of tension after another, and the work thus carried forward into the realm of the dynamic steadfast will.  This will, as it is progressively developed, works ever from a constant point of tension.

We come now to the consideration of a subject which always proves exceedingly difficult to students:  The nature of the WORD, the A.U.M., and its later developments, the O.M. and the Sound.  Much confusion exists as to its significance or the necessity for its use.  The phase of its recognition through which we are now passing is a purely exoteric one of accustoming the general public to the fact of its existence.  This has been brought about in three ways:

1. Through the constant use in all the Christian Churches of the word "Amen," which is a western corruption of the A.U.M.  The A.U.M. is here the lowest aspect of the originating Sound.

2. Through the emphasis laid in Masonry upon the Lost Word, thus subtly drawing the attention of humanity to the O.M., the Sound of the second aspect, the Soul.

3. Through the growing emphasis laid by the many occult groups throughout the world upon the use of the O.M., its frequent use by these groups in public, and by those intent upon meditation.

The soundest approach is that of the Masonic tradition, because it deals primarily with the world of meaning and [52] with a phase of the esoteric teaching.  The use of the Amen in the ritual of the Christian Church will eventually be discouraged, because it is basically a materialistic affirmation, being usually regarded by the average churchgoer as setting the seal of divine approval upon his demand to the Almighty for protection, or for the supply of his physical necessities; all this is, therefore, related to the life of desire, of aspiration, of dualism and of request.  It involves the attitude of giver and recipient.

The A.U.M. and the Amen are both of them an expression in sound of the principle of active intelligent substance in the divine manifestation, the third aspect, and have served human need in that phase of material and form development.  I refer here also to the development of mind or of the mental form.  The personality as a whole, when perfected and brought under control of the soul, is the "Word made flesh."

The mass of aspirants and of disciples are today learning the meaning of the O.M., which is not the Word made flesh, but the Word released from form, and expressing itself as soul-spirit and not as body-soul-spirit.  It might, therefore, be said that:

1. The A.U.M. (note that I separate each aspect of this triple sound) brings the soul-spirit aspect down on to the physical plane and anchors it there by the force of its outgoing vibration.  Using a symbol to make my meaning clear, it is like "a strong wind that pins a man against a wall and makes free effort difficult."  It vivifies form; it intensifies the hold of matter upon the soul; it builds around the soul a confining prison—a prison of the senses.  It is the "sound of enchantment," the sound that is the source of glamour and of maya; it is the great beguiling and deceptive energy, the note of the involutionary arc.  In it are hid the secret of evil or matter, the uses of form, first as a prison, then as a training ground and as a field of experience, and finally as the expression for the manifestation of a Son of God.

2. The O.M. rightly sounded, releases the soul from the realm of glamour and of enchantment.  It is the sound of [53] liberation, the great note of resurrection and of the raising of humanity to the Secret Place of the Most High when all other Words and sounds have failed.  It is not a triple sound as is the A.U.M., but a dual sound, significant of the relation of spirit and soul, and of life and consciousness.  This lost Word, symbolic of the loss in the three worlds (typified by the degrees of the Blue Lodges in Masonry) must be recovered and is in process of discovery today.  The mystics have sought after it; the Masons have preserved the tradition of its existence; the disciples and initiates of the world must demonstrate its possession.

3. The SOUND is the sole expression of the Ineffable Name, the secret appellation of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being, and Who is known to the Great White Lodge through this name.  Remember always that name and form are synonymous terms in the occult teaching, and these two words hold the secret of manifestation.  The goal of the initiate is identification with all forms of the divine life, so that he can know himself to be an integral part of that Whole and can tune in on all states of divine awareness, knowing for himself (and not just theoretically) that they are also his own states of awareness.  He can then penetrate into the divine arcana of knowledge, share in the divine omnipresence and—at will—express the divine omniscience and prepare himself to manifest in full consciousness the divine omnipotence.

I am using words which are futile to convey the underlying meaning of the Word.  Understanding can only be arrived at when a man lives the Word, hearing its soundless Sound and breathing it forth in a vital life-giving breath to others.

The masses are hearing the sound of the A.U.M. and, in their higher brackets, are finding that A.U.M. the expression of something from which they seek release.  The aspirants and disciples of the World are hearing the O.M. and in their personal lives the A.U.M. and the O.M. are in conflict.  This may represent a new idea to you, but it conveys an idea of an eternal fact.  It may help you to gain an understanding [54] of this phase if I point out for you that for this first group the O.M. can be portrayed in the following symbol as expressing the material M nature whereas the second group can be portrayed by the symbol m expressive of the soul enveloped in matter.  You will see, therefore, how the teaching leads man progressively onward and how the occult science brings man in touch with great mental reversals and divine paradoxes.  For aeons the Word of the soul and the Sound of spiritual reality are lost.  Today, the Word of the soul is being found again, and with that finding the little self is lost in the glory and the radiance of the divine Self.

This discovery is consummated at the time of the third initiation.  The initiate and the Master, along with those of higher rank who are approaching identification with Shamballa, are steadily and ever more clearly hearing the Sound emanating from the Central Spiritual Sun and penetrating all forms of divine life upon our planet—via our Planetary Logos Who hears it with clarity and with understanding—the Sound of the lowest syllable of the Ineffable Name of the One in Whom all the Planetary Logoi live and move and have Their Being, for They are centres in the LIFE which is expressing itself through the medium of a solar system.

You can see how little use there is in my enlarging further upon this.  Its sole usefulness is to give an expanding impulse to the consciousness of the disciple and to stir his imagination (the seed of the intuition), so that even whilst occupied in expressing the M and then the m, he will be reaching out after the Sound.

Earlier I pointed out that the sound of the A.U.M., the sound of the O.M. and the SOUND itself are all related to vibration and to its differing and varied effects.  The secret of the Law of Vibration is progressively revealed as people learn to sound forth the Word in its three aspects.  Students would also do well to ponder on the distinction between the breath and the Sound, between the process of breathing and of creating directed vibratory activity.  The one is related to Time and the other to Space and they are distinct from each other; and (as the Old Commentary puts it) "the Sound, the [55] final and yet initiating Sound, concerns that which is neither Time nor Space; it lies outside the manifested ALL, the Source of all that is and yet is naught." (No thing.  A.A.B.)

There are, therefore, great points of tension from which the Sacred Word, in its major aspects, goes forth.  Let me list them for you:

1. The creative point of tension—a tension achieved by a planetary Logos when He responds to the Sound of the Ineffable Name and breathes it forth in His turn in three great Sounds which made one Sound on His Own plane of expression, thus creating the manifested world, the impulse towards the unfoldment of consciousness, and the influence of life itself.  This is the Sound.

2. Seven points of tension on the downward or involutionary arc; these produce the seven planets, the seven states of consciousness, and the expression of the seven ray impulses.  This constitutes the sevenfold A.U.M. of which the Ageless Wisdom takes note.  It is related to the effect of spirit or life upon substance, thus originating form and creating the prison of the divine life.

3. The A.U.M. itself or the Word made flesh; this creates finally a point of tension in the fourth kingdom in nature, at which point the evolutionary cycle becomes possible and the first dim note of the O.M. can be faintly heard.  In the individual man this point is reached when the personality is an integrated and functioning whole and the soul is beginning to control it.  It is an accumulative tension arrived at through many lives.  This process is expressed in the Masters' Archives as follows:

You must remember that these symbols are an attempt on my part to translate ancient signatures in modern occidental type.  The only one which is the same in all languages is, esoterically, the A.U.M.

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4. Then comes a point of tension from which the man eventually achieves liberation from the three worlds and stands as a free soul; he is then a point within the circle—the point indicating the point of tension from which he now works, and the circle the sphere of his self-initiated activity.

I need not carry the story further; from tension to tension the initiate passes just as do all human beings, aspirants, disciples and the lower grades of initiates; from one expansion of consciousness to another they go until the third initiation is undergone and points of tension (qualified by intension and purpose) supersede all previous efforts and the will aspect begins to control.

Here, briefly, is a fresh slant upon the familiar theme of the Word—a theme preserved in some form by all the world religions but a theme which, like all else, has been so materialised that it is the task of the Hierarchy to restore the knowledge of its meaning, of its threefold application and its involutionary and evolutionary significances.  Students would do well to remember that its sounding forth vocally upon the physical plane means little.  The important factors are to sound it silently, inaudibly and within the head; then, having done so, to hear it reverberate there and to recognise that this self-initiated Sound—breathed forth from a point of tension—is a part of the original SOUND as it takes form as a Word.  When a man perfectly expresses the A.U.M., he can then sound the O.M. with effectiveness from progressive points of tension, until the third initiation.  Then the effect of the O.M. is such that the personality as a separate identity disappears, the soul emerges in all its glory, and the first faint sound of the originating SOUND breaks upon the ear of the transfigured initiate.  This is the Voice referred to in the Biblical account of the Transfiguration.  This Voice says, "This is my beloved Son."  The initiate registers the fact that he has been accepted by Shamballa and has made his first contact with the Planetary Logos, the Hierophant, the Initiator at the third initiation, just as the Christ, the Master of all the Masters, is the Initiator and the Hierophant at the first two initiations.

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The Word, however, with which we are now dealing is not the Sacred Word itself, but a signal or sound of acceptance.  It is translated in this Rule by the phrase:  Accepted as a group.  This refers to aggregates and blended combinations through which the Soul in relation to personalities, the Monad in relation to the Spiritual Triad, the Master in relation to His Ashram, and Shamballa in relation to the Hierarchy, can work, expressing plan in the initial stages of contact, and purpose in the final stages.  Bear in mind that the analogy holds true all the way through.  A personality is an aggregate of forms and of substantial lives which, when fused and blended, present a unified sumtotal, animated by desire or aspiration, by plan or purpose, and functioning in its place under the inspiration of a self-initiated inner programme.  Progress, from the larger angle and from the standpoint of Those Who see life in terms of ever enlarging Wholes, is from group to group.

This pronouncement, issuing from a point of tension, is the Word of the soul as it integrates with the threefold personality when that personality is consciously ready for such a fusion.  The hold of the soul upon its instruments of expression, the network of the seven centres and the subsidiary centres, becomes intensified and energy pours in, forcing the acquiescent personality fully to express the ray type of the soul, and therefore subordinating the ray of the personality (and its three subsidiary rays) to the dominating soul energy.  This first great integration is a fusion of force with energy.  Here is a statement of deep import, embodying one of the first lessons an initiate has to master.  It is one which can only be properly comprehended through life experience, subject to interpretation in the world of meaning.  Some understanding of what this implies will come as the disciple masters the distinction between soul activity and the action of matter, between emotion and love, between the intelligent will and the mind, between plan and purpose.  In so doing he acquires the capacity to find his point of tension at any given moment, and this growing capacity eventually brings him consciously to recognise group after [58] group as units with which identification must be sought.

He finds his soul through the fusion of soul and personality; he finds his group through the absorption of this fusing soul-form with a Master's group, and finally he is absorbed into the Master's Ashram; there he, in concert with his group brothers in that Ashram, is fused and blended with the Hierarchy and hears the extension of the Word, spoken originally by his soul:  Accepted as a group.  Later, much later, he participates at that august recognition which comes when the Voice issues forth—as annually it does—from the centre at Shamballa and the seal is set on the acceptance of the Hierarchy, with all its new associates, by the Lord of the World.  This acceptance involves those initiates of the third degree who have been integrated more closely into the hierarchical life than ever before.  This is the signal to them (and to their Seniors Who have heard it year after year) that they are part of the instrument whose purpose is to fulfill the plan.  Thus the great syntheses are slowly taking place.  It has taken many aeons, for evolution (especially in the earlier stages) moves slowly.

In the post-war period and when the new structure of the coming world order is taking shape, the process will be speeded considerably; this will not, however, be for a hundred years, which is but a brief moment in the eternal history of humanity.  From synthesis to synthesis the life of God passes.  First the synthesis of the atomic lives into ever more perfect forms until the three kingdoms of nature appear; then the synthesis in consciousness, enabling the human being to enter into the larger awareness of the Whole and finally to enter into that mysterious event which is the result of the effect of all preceding developments and to which we give the name of Identification.  From the first identification, which is the higher correspondence of the stage of individualisation, progressive absorption into ever larger wholes takes place, and each time the Word goes forth:  Accepted as a group.

Have I succeeded in giving you a somewhat wider vision of the significance of initiation in these brief expositions? [59] Do you see more clearly the growing beauty of the Whole and the goodness of the Purpose and the wisdom of the Plan?  Do you realise more deeply that beauty, goodness and wisdom are not qualities, as their inadequate nomenclature would imply, but are great facts in manifestation?  Do you grasp the truth that they are not descriptive of Deity but are the names of Lives of a potency and activity of which men can as yet know nothing?

Some understanding of this must slowly seep into the mind and consciousness of each disciple as that mind becomes irradiated by soul light in the earlier stages, and later responds to the impact of energy coming from the Spiritual Triad.  Only when this is visioned, even if not understood, will the realisation come to the struggling disciple that the words:

2. Withdraw not now your application.  You could not if you would; but add to it three great demands and forward move

are a living command conditioning him whether he will or not.  The inability to withdraw from the position taken is one of the first true results of hearing the Word spoken after passing the two tests.  There is an inevitability in living the life of the Spirit which is at once its horror and its joy.  I mean just that.  The symbol or first expression of this (for all in the three worlds is but the symbol of an inner reality) is the driving urge to betterment which is the outstanding characteristic of the human animal.  From discontent to discontent he passes, driven by an inner something which constantly reveals to him an enticing vision of that which is more desirable than his present state and experience.  At first this is interpreted by him in terms of material welfare; then this divine discontent drives him into a phase of the struggle which is emotional in nature; he craves emotional satisfaction and later intellectual pursuits.  All the time this struggle to attain something ever on ahead creates the instruments of attainment, gradually perfecting them until the threefold personality is ready for a vision of the soul.  From that point of tension the urge and the struggle become more [60] acute, until Rule One for Applicants is understood by him and he steps upon the Path.

Once he is an accepted disciple and has definitely undertaken the work in preparation for initiation, there is for him no turning back.  He could not if he would, and the Ashram protects him.

In this Rule for accepted disciples and initiates we are faced with a similar condition on a higher turn of the spiral, but with this difference (one which you can hardly grasp unless at the point where the Word goes forth to you):  that the initiate stands alone in "isolated unity," aware of his mysterious oneness with all that is.  The urge which distinguished his progress in arriving at personality-soul fusion is transmuted into fixity of intention, ability to move forward into the clear cold light of the undimmed reason, free from all glamour and illusion and having now the power to voice the three demands.  This he can now do consciously and by the use of the dynamic will instead of making "application in triple form" as was the case before.  This distinction is vital and significant of tremendous growth and development.

The initiate has heard the Word which came forth to him when he was irrevocably committed to hierarchical purpose.  He has heard the Voice from Shamballa just as he earlier heard the Voice of the Silence and the voice of his Master.  Occult obedience gives place to enlightened will.  He can now be trusted to walk and work alone because he is unalterably one with his group, with the Hierarchy, and finally with Shamballa.

The key to this whole Rule lies in the injunction to the initiate that he add to his application three demands, and only after they have been voiced and correctly expressed and motivated by the dynamic will, does the further injunction come that he move forward.  What are these three demands, and by what right does the initiate make them?  Hitherto the note of his expanding consciousness has been vision, effort, attainment and again vision.  He has therefore been occupied with becoming aware of the field—an ever-increasing [61] and expanding area—of the divine revelation.  In terms of practical occultism, he is recognising an ever widening sphere wherein he can serve with purpose and forward the Plan, once he has succeeded in identifying himself with that revelation.  Until this revelation is an integral part of his life it is not possible for the initiate to comprehend the significance of these simple words.  Identification is realisation, plus esoteric experience, plus again an absorption into the Whole, and for all of this (as I have earlier pointed out) we have no terminology.  Now a master of that which has been seen and appropriated, and being conscious of and sensing that which lies ahead, the disciple "stands on his occult rights and makes his clear demands."

What these demands are can be ascertained by remembering that all that the initiate undergoes and all that he enacts is the higher and esoteric correspondence of the triple manifestation of spirit-energy which distinguished the first and earliest phase of his unfoldment.  That is the personality.  I would like to call attention to the word "unfoldment," for it is perhaps the most explicit and correct word to use anent the evolutionary process.  There is no better in your language.  The initiate has ever been.  The divine Son of God has ever known himself for what he is.  An initiate is not the result of the evolutionary process.  He is the cause of the evolutionary process, and by means of it he perfects his vehicles of expression until he becomes initiate in the three worlds of consciousness and the three worlds of identification.

According to ray type this unfoldment proceeds, and each triple stage of the lower unfoldment makes possible later (in time and space) the higher unfoldment in the world of the Spiritual Triad.  What I am doing in these instructions is to indicate the relation between the threefold personality and the Spiritual Triad, linked and brought together by the antahkarana.  Each of these three lower aspects has its own note and it is these notes which produce the sounding forth of the three demands which evoke response from the Spiritual Triad and thus reach the Monad in its high place of waiting in Shamballa.

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In 1922, in my book Letters on Occult Meditation I laid the foundation in my first chapter for the more advanced teaching which I am now giving.  There I was dealing with the alignment of the ego with the personality, and this was the first time that the entire theme of alignment was brought definitely into focus, for alignment is the first step towards fusion, and later towards the mysteries of identification.  Let me quote:

"As time progresses, and later with the aid of the Master, harmony of colour and tone is produced (a synonymous matter) until eventually you will have the basic note of matter, the major third of the aligned personality, the dominant fifth of the ego, followed by the full chord of the Monad or Spirit.  It is the dominant we seek at adeptship, and earlier the perfected third of the personality.  During our various incarnations we strike and ring the changes on all the intervening notes, and sometimes our lives are major and sometimes minor, but always they tend to flexibility and greater beauty.  In due time each note fits into its chord, the chord of the Spirit; each chord forms part of a phrase, the phrase or group to which the chord belongs;  and the phrase goes to the completion of one seventh of the whole.  The entire seven sections, then, complete the sonata of this solar system—a part of the threefold masterpiece of the Logos or God, the Master-Musician."  (Page 4).

We now arrive at a point which it is difficult for disciples to grasp.  The initiate or disciple has reached a point in his evolution in which triplicity gives place to duality, prior to the attainment of complete unity.  Only two factors are of concern to him as he "stands at the midway point," and these are Spirit and Matter.  Their complete identification within his consciousness becomes his major goal, but only in reference to the whole creative process and not now in reference to the separated self.  It is this thought which motivates the service of the initiate, and it is this concept of wholeness gradually creeping into the world consciousness [63] which is indicating that humanity is on the verge of initiation.  Therefore, it is the material aspect, "the perfected third of the Personality," which makes possible the activity of the initiate as he sounds out his three demands.  The "dominant fifth of the ego" makes itself heard at the third initiation, marking the attainment of at-one-ment, and this fades out at the fourth initiation.  At that time the egoic vehicle, the causal body, disappears.  Then only two divine aspects remain; the perfected, radiant, organised and active substance through which the initiate can work in full control, the matter aspect, and the dynamic life principle, the spirit aspect, with which that "substantial divine Reality" still awaits identification.  It is this thought which underlies the initiate's three demands which (according to the Rule earlier given to aspirants and disciples) must sound forth "across the desert, over all the seas and through the fires."

It is not possible for me explicitly to give an understanding of the nature of these demands.  I can only give you certain symbolic phrases which, intuitively interpreted, will give you a clue.

The first demand is made possible because "the desert life is passed; it flourished and it flowered, and then the drought arrived and man removed himself.  That which had nourished and contained his life became an arid waste and naught was left but bones and dust and a deep thirst which naught in sight could satisfy."  Yet to the initiate consciousness it remains clear that the desert land must be made anew to flourish like a rose and that his task is the restoration (by the distribution of the waters of life) of its pristine beauty, and not the beauty of its false flowering.  He demands, therefore, upon the note of the lower aspect of the personality (I am talking in symbols), that this flowering forth should take place according to the Plan.  This involves upon his part a vision of that plan, identification with the underlying purpose, and the ability—through the medium of the higher mind, which is the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad—to work in the world of ideas and to create those forms of thought which will aid in the materialising of the [64] Plan in conformity with the Purpose.  This is the creative work of thoughtform building and that is why, we are told, that the first great demand "sounds forth within the world of God's ideas and towards the desert, a long time left behind.  Upon that great demand the initiate who has pledged himself to serve the world returns into that desert, bringing with him the seed and water for which the desert cries."

The second demand is related to the earlier cry of the disciple, which was sounded forth "over the seas."  It refers to the world of glamour in which humanity struggles, and to the emotional world in which mankind is sunk as if drowning in the ocean.  We are told in the Bible, and the thought is based on information to be found in the Archives of the Masters, that "there shall be no more sea"; I told you that a time comes when the initiate knows that the astral plane no longer exists.  For ever it has vanished and has gone.  But when the initiate has freed himself from the realm of delusion, of fog, of mist and of glamour, and stands in the "clear cold light" of the buddhic or intuitional plane (the second or middle aspect of the Spiritual Triad), he arrives at a great and basic realisation.  He knows that he must return (if such a foolish word can suffice) to the "seas" which he has left behind, and there dissipate the glamour.  But he works now from "the air above and in the full light of day."  No longer does he struggle in the waves or sink immersed in the deep waters.  Above the sea he hovers within the ocean of light, and pours that light into the depths.  He carries thus the waters to the desert and the light divine into the world of fog.

Yet he never leaves the place of identification, and all that he now does is carried forward from the levels attained at any particular initiation.  All that he does "upon the desert, and over the seas" is undertaken through the power of thought, which directs the needed energy and certain destined and chosen forces so that the Plan (let me repeat myself) may go forward according to divine purpose through the power of the dynamic spiritual will.  When you can [65] appreciate that the initiate of high degree works with monadic energy and not soul force, you can understand why he finds it necessary ever to work behind the scenes.  He works with the soul aspect and through the power of monadic energy, using the antahkarana as a distributing agency.  The disciples and initiates of the first two degrees work with soul force and through the medium of the centres.  The personality works with forces.

The third great demand has in it a different implication, and sounds forth, we are told, "through the fires."  In this solar system there is no evading the fire.  It is found at all levels of divine expression as we well know from our study of the three fires—fire by friction, solar fire and electric fire, with their differentiations, the forty-nine fires—of the seven planes.  Always, therefore, whether it is the cry of the disciple or the demand of the initiate, the sound goes forth "through the fire, to the fire, and from the fire."  Of this technique, underlying the potent demand, there is little that I may say.  From the highest plane of the spiritual will, what is technically called "the atmic plane," the demand goes forth and the result of that demand will work out on mental levels, just as the earlier two demands worked out on the physical and astral levels.  I would interject here that even though there is no astral plane, from the standpoint of the Master, yet thousands of millions recognise it and labour in its delusive sphere and are there aided by the initiated disciple working from the higher corresponding levels.  This is true of all the planetary work, whether accomplished by initiates and Masters, working directly in the three worlds, or from higher levels, as work the Nirmanakayas (the creative Contemplatives of the planet), or from Shamballa from the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World.  All the efforts of the Hierarchy or of the "conditioning Lives" (as They are sometimes called) of Shamballa are dedicated to the furthering of the evolutionary plan which will finally embody divine purpose.  I keep emphasising this distinction between plan and purpose with deliberation, [66] because it indicates the next phase of the working of the intelligent will in the consciousness of humanity.

More anent these three demands I may not imply.  I have told you much, had you the awakened intuition to read the significance of some of my comments.  These demands refer not only to the evolution of humanity, but to all forms of life within the consciousness of the planetary Logos.  The directing mind of the initiate indicates within the three worlds the goal of attainment.

3. Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule.

This is not a contradictory statement.  Perhaps I can convey to you the right idea as follows:  The initiate wastes no time in looking backward towards the lessons learned; he works from the angle of developed habit, instinctively doing the right and needed thing.  Instinctual response to environing forms builds, as we well know, patterns of behaviour, of conduct and of reaction.  This establishes what might be called unconscious memory, and this memory rules without any effort at recollection.

The habit of goodness, or right reaction and of instinctual understanding is distinctive of the trained initiate.  He has no need to remember rules, theories, planes or activities.  These are as much an established part of his nature as the instinct of self-preservation is an instinctive part of the equipment of a normal human being.  Think this out and endeavour to build up the right spiritual habits.  In this way the Master wastes no time on soul or personal plans.  He has the habit—based on divine instinctual memory—of right activity, right understanding and right purpose.  He needs not to recollect.

4. Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group's united life.

This is not, as might appear, the effort to do the work for humanity as it is planned or desired by the group with which the initiate finds himself associated.  The mode of working covers an earlier phase and one in which the accepted [67] disciple learns much.  First, he finds a group upon the physical plane whose ideals and plans for service conform to his idea of correct activity, and with this group he affiliates himself, works, learns, and in learning, suffers much.  Later he finds his way into a Master's Ashram, where his effort is increasingly to learn to use the will in carrying out the Plan and to accommodate himself to the group methods and plans, working under the law of occult obedience for the welfare of humanity.

The initiate, however, works in neither of these ways, though he has acquired the habit of right contact with organisations in the three worlds and right cooperation with the Hierarchy.  He works now under the inspiration of and identification with the life aspect—the united life aspect of his ray group and of all groups.  This means that the significance of the involutionary life and the evolutionary life is fully understood by him.  His service is invoked by the group or groups needing his help.  His response is an occult evocation given in unison with the group of servers with which he is affiliated on the inner side.  This is a very different thing to the mode of service generally understood.