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2. The Coordination of the Personality - Part 1

We have considered, cursorily I realise, the fact that the ego appropriates to itself forms, through which expression can be made possible upon the various levels of divine manifestation.  We observed that these forms, in due process of time, become embodiments of the will and purpose of their divine Indweller.  This Indweller is the soul.  As the evolutionary cycle runs its course, three developments take place:

1. The forms for expression are developed, little by little as a result of:

a. Successive incarnations.

b. The impulse and consequent activity of desire.

c. The interpretation of experience, intensifying and becoming more correct and adequate as time passes.

2. The self within, or identified with, the form nature,

a. Becomes slowly conscious and consequently intelligently active in the three worlds of human evolution.

b. Shifts its focus of attention successively from one body to another, passing, in consciousness, into higher and higher states of awareness until the Path of Pursuit becomes the Path of Return, and desire for identification with form changes into aspiration for self-awareness.  Later, comes identification with Self on its own level of consciousness.

c. Reorients itself and thus occultly "leaves behind the hitherto desirable and aspires to that which has not hitherto been seen."

3. The aspirant passes through an intermediate stage in the [343] process of evolution wherein "divine attraction" supersedes the attraction of the three worlds.  This stage falls into five parts:

a. A period wherein duality and lack of control are realised.

b. A period wherein an assertion of self-control takes place, through the following process:

1. Decentralisation.

2. Comprehension of the task ahead.

3. An investigation, by the divine Observer of the nature of form life.

4. Divine expression, through the medium of the form, understandingly practised.

c. A period wherein alignment takes place, and (through understanding and practice) the form is gradually subordinated to the requirements of the Self, and begins to work in unison with that Self.

d. A period wherein the forms, aligned at increasingly frequent intervals, are

1. Integrated into a functioning, active personality;

2. Swept by the power of their own dominant, integrated, personality life;

3. Gradually controlled by the Self, and fused into an instrument for effective world service;

4. Unified, in intent and purpose, with the soul.

e. A period wherein the personality ray and the soul ray are blended into one united energy, and the personality ray becomes a quality of, and complementary to, that of the soul, making soul purpose in the three worlds possible.

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It is thus that we progress, and in this manner form and consciousness, appearance and quality, are brought together and divine unity is achieved, thus ending the duality hitherto sensed, which up till this time has handicapped the aspirant.

Two angles of this matter warrant our attention.  One is that covering the processes of the past evolutionary cycle which, as it has transpired, has brought the aspirant to the point of a sensed duality, of consequent struggle, and of a hardly achieved reorientation towards reality.  That period has been adequately covered, for all present purposes, by science, exoteric and esoteric.  The other is the period of ultimate perfection which is finally achieved as a result of the struggle.  One period lies far behind us, and intelligent humanity has travelled far towards the period of realisation; the other period lies far ahead.  We will confine our studies to the task of the aspirant as he reorients himself upon the probationary path, and becomes increasingly aware of the world of higher values, and of the existence of the kingdom of God.  On this path he senses his duality in an almost distressing manner, and begins to aspire towards unity.  This is the task today of the vast numbers of world aspirants.  So widespread is the desire for this reorientation that it has produced the present world upheaval, and is the spiritual source of the specific cause of the ideological conflicts now going on in every country.

We will deal with the work of the disciples of the world as, having endeavoured to bring about the desired reorientation, they learn the basic necessity of integrating the personality, and from that pass on to achieve contact or fusion with the Self, the ego or soul.  It will be wise to keep these three stages carefully in mind, because all the many modern psychological problems are founded upon—

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1. The process of reorientation with its consequences of personality upheaval and disorders.

2. The process of integration which is going on within the lower nature of intelligent humanity, leading inevitably to duality and conflict.

3. The fusion of the personality and the soul in consciousness, with its physiological and personality effects, producing the problems and psychological dilemmas of the highly developed aspirant and disciple.  In this stage, the so-called "diseases of mystics" become pronounced.

We will also touch very briefly upon the efforts of the initiate as he works through and with the subdued mechanism of the personality in the service of the Plan.  He in his turn—as a functioning soul and body, united, aligned and used—becomes gradually aware of a still higher synthesis.  After the third initiation, he enters upon a renewed effort to produce a more inclusive fusion and integration,—this time with the monad or life aspect.  About this later stage, little can be profitably said.  Teaching which would be intelligible to an initiate of the third degree would be profitless and unintelligible even to the highly integrated and intelligent disciple, especially as such teaching is given necessarily through the use of most abstract and complicated symbols, requiring careful analysis and interpretation.  None of this higher teaching is given through the medium of words, either spoken or written.

a. SEVEN TECHNIQUES OF INTEGRATION

Let us now proceed to a consideration of the seven techniques of integration, bearing in mind that we shall here be dealing with the integration of the threefold lower nature into an active, conscious personality, prior to its fusion into a unity with the soul.  We must remember that we are here [346] dealing with the consciousness aspect of manifestation and its apprehension and appreciation of purpose and of truth.  We are so apt always to think in terms of form and form activity, that it seems necessary again and again to reiterate the necessity for thinking in terms of consciousness and awareness, leading to an eventual realisation.  This purpose and truth, when grasped, brings into direct conflict the will of the personality (the separative individual, governed by the concrete, analytical mind) and the will of the soul, which is the will of the Hierarchy of Souls, or of the Kingdom of God.  In the fourth kingdom, the human, the controlling factor is that of desire, ending in aspiration.  In the fifth kingdom, the spiritual, the controlling factor is that of divine purpose or the will of God.  Then we find this purpose, though free from what we call desire, is actuated by love, expressed through devotion and service, wrought out into full expression upon the physical plane.

As may be naturally surmised, there is a technique for each of the seven rays.  It is the ray of the ego or soul, slumbering in the early stages within the form, which occultly applies these modes of integration.  The soul is essentially the integrative factor, and this shows in the early and unconscious stages as the coherent power of the life principle to hold the forms together in incarnation.  In the later and conscious stages, it shows its power by applying these methods of control and unification to the personality.  They are not applied, nor can the man avail himself of them, until such time as he is an integrated personality.  This has often been forgotten, and men have claimed the rights of discipleship and the powers of initiation before they have even become integrated persons.  This has led to disaster, and the falling into disrepute of the whole problem of discipleship and initiation.

It is difficult to make easily comprehensible the nature and [347] purpose of these techniques.  All that it is possible to do is to indicate the seven ray techniques as they are applied to the rapidly aligning bodies of the lower man.  We will divide our theme, for the sake of clarity and for an understanding of the significance, into two parts.  The first one is that in which the first ray aspect of the technique is applied to the form nature, producing destruction through crystallisation.  This brings about the "death of the form" in order that it may "again arise and live".  The other is the second ray aspect of the technique, wherein the rebuilding, reabsorption, and recognition of the form takes place in the light which is thrown around, over and upon the personality.  In that light, the man sees Light, and thus becomes eventually a light-bearer.

What I have to say concerning each ray and its work with the individuals upon it in integrating the personalities, will be conveyed by means of a formula of integration.  This will itself be divided into two parts, dealing with those processes in time and space which bring about the integration of the personality.

The words, covering the process in every case, are Alignment, Crisis, Light, Revelation, Integration.  Under the heading of each ray we shall have therefore:

1. The formula of integration.

2. Its dual application of destruction and rebuilding, with a brief indication of the process and the result.

3. The final stage of the process wherein the man

a. Brings the three bodies into alignment.

b. Passes through a crisis of evocation, thus, as the Bhagavad Gita says, becoming "manifest through the magical power of the soul".

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c. Enters into a phase of light, wherein the man sees clearly the next step to be taken.

d. Receives the revelation of the Plan and of what he has to do in connection with it.

e. Integrates the three bodies into one synthetic whole, and is therefore ready for the Technique of Fusion, which is suited to his ray type.

This will bring us to our second point which concerns the Technique of Fusion and the emergence into activity of the personality ray.

Just what do we mean by Integration?  We are apt to bandy words about with unthinking lightness and inexactitude, but, dealing as we are with a development which is becoming increasingly prevalent in the human field, it might profit us for a moment to define it and seek to understand one or two of its major implications.  It has to be regarded as an essential step, prior to passing (in full and waking consciousness) into the fifth, or spiritual kingdom.  We regard the physical body as a functioning aggregate of physical organs, each with its own duties and purposes.  These, when combined and acting in unison, we regard as constituting a living organism.  The many parts form one whole, working under the direction of the intelligent, conscious Thinker, the soul, as far as man is concerned.  At the same time, this conscious form is slowly arriving at a point where integration into the larger whole becomes desirable and is finally achieved—again in the waking consciousness.  This process of conscious assimilation is carried forward progressively by the gradual integration of the part into the family unit, the nation, the social order, the current civilisation, the world of nations, and finally into humanity itself.  This integration is, therefore, both physical in nature, and an attitude of mind.  The consciousness of the [349] man is gradually aroused so that it recognises this relation of the part to the whole, with the implied inter-relation of all parts within the whole.

The man who has awakened to full consciousness in the various aspects of his nature—emotional, mental and egoic—realises himself first of all as a personality.  He integrates his various bodies with their different states of consciousness into one active reality.  He is then definitely a personality and has passed a major milestone on the Path of Return.  This is the first great step.  Inevitably, the evolutionary process must bring to pass this phenomenal occurrence in the case of every human being, but it can be produced (and is increasingly so produced today) by a planned mental application to the task, and an intelligent consideration of the relation of the part to the whole.  It will be found that the purely selfish, material personality will eventually arrive at the condition, wherein the man will be conscious of integrated activity and power, because he

1. Has developed and integrated his own separative "parts" into one whole.

2. Has studied and used his environment, or the whole of which his personality is but a part, in such a way that it contributes to his desire, his success, and his emergence into prominence.  In doing this, he necessarily has had to make some living contribution to the whole, in order to evoke its integrating power.  His motive, however, being purely selfish and material in objective, can only carry him a certain distance along the path of the higher integration.

The unselfish, spiritually oriented man also integrates the various aspects of himself into one functioning whole, but the focus of his activity is contribution, not acquisition, and, by [350] the working of the higher law, the Law of Service, he becomes integrated, not only as a human being within the radius of the prevalent civilisation, but also into that wider and more inclusive world of conscious activity which we call the Kingdom of God.

The progress of humanity is from one realised integration to another; man's basic integrity is, however, in the realm of consciousness.  This is a statement of importance.  It might be remarked—speaking loosely and generally—that

1. In Lemurian times, humanity achieved the integration of the vital or etheric body with the physical body.

2. In Atlantean times, humanity added to the already achieved synthesis still another part, that of the astral nature, and psychic man came definitely into being.  He was alive and at the same time sensitive and responsive to his environment in a wider and more specialised sense.

3. Today, in our Aryan race, humanity is occupied with the task of adding still another aspect, that of the mind.  To the achieved facts of livingness and sensitivity, he is rapidly adding reason, mental perception and other qualities of mind and thought life.

4. Advanced humanity upon the Probationary Path is fusing these three divine aspects into one whole, which we call the personality.  Many hundreds of thousands stand at this time upon that Path, and are acting, feeling and thinking simultaneously, making of these functions one activity.  This personality synthesis comes upon the Path of Discipleship, under the direction of the indwelling entity, the spiritual man.

This integration constitutes alignment and—when a man has achieved this—he passes eventually through a process of reorientation.  This reveals to him, as he slowly [351] changes his direction, the still greater Whole of humanity.  Later, upon the Path of Initiation, there will dawn upon his vision, the Whole of which humanity itself is only an expression.  This is the subjective world of reality, into which we begin definitely to enter as we become members of the Kingdom of God.

5. Upon the Probationary Path, though only during its later stages, he begins to serve humanity consciously through the medium of his integrated personality, and thus the consciousness of the larger and wider whole gradually supersedes his individual and separative consciousness.  He knows himself to be but a part.

6. Upon the Path of Discipleship, the process of integration into the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Souls, proceeds until the third initiation is undergone.

All these various integrations work out into some definite form of activity.  First, there is the service of the personality, selfish and separative, wherein man sacrifices much in the interests of his own desire.  Then comes the stage of service of humanity, and, finally, the service of the Plan.  However, the integration with which we shall primarily deal as we study the seven Techniques of Integration is that of the personality as it integrates into the whole of which it is a part, through service to the race and to the Plan.  Bear in mind that these ray techniques are imposed by the soul upon the personality after it has been somewhat integrated into a functioning entity and is, therefore, becoming slightly responsive to the soul, the directing Intelligence.

Ray One

"The love of power must dominate.  There must also be repudiation of those forms which wield no power.

The word goes forth from soul to form; 'Stand up.  Press [352] outward into life.  Achieve a goal.  For you, there must be not a circle, but a line.

Prepare the form.  Let the eyes look forward, not on either side.  Let the ears be closed to all the outer voices, and the hands clenched, the body braced, and mind alert.  Emotion is not used in furthering of the Plan.  Love takes its place.'

The symbol of a moving point of light appears above the brow.  The keynote of the life though uttered not, yet still is clearly heard:  'I move to power.  I am the One.  We are a Unity in power.  And all is for the power and glory of the One.'"

Such is the pattern of the thought and the process of the life of the man upon the first ray who is seeking first of all to control his personality, and then to dominate his environment.  His progress is that of "achieved control; that of being controlled, and then again controlling."  At first, his motive is that of selfish, separative achievement, and then comes failure to be satisfied.  A higher achievement then takes place as a result of the service of the Plan, until the time eventually comes when the first ray man can be trusted to be God's Destroying Angel—the Angel who brings life through the destruction of the form.  Such integrated personalities are frequently ruthless at first, selfish, ambitious, self-centered, cruel, one-pointed, implacable, undeviating, aware of implications, of significances, and of the results of action but, at the same time, unalterable and undeviating, moving forward to their purposes.  They destroy and tear down in order to rise to greater heights upon the ruin they have wrought.  They do thus rise.  They trample on other men and upon the destinies of the little person.  They integrate their surroundings into an instrument for their will and move relentlessly forward upon their own occasions.  This type of man will be found expressing these qualities in all walks of life and spheres of action, and is a destroying force in his home, business or in the nation.

All this is made possible because the first ray has at this [353] stage integrated the personality vehicles and has achieved their simultaneous control.  The man functions as a whole.

This process and method of work brings him eventually to a point of crisis,—a crisis based upon the unalterable fact of his essentially divine nature or being, which cannot remain satisfied with the gaining of power in a personality sense and in a material world.  Power selfishly used exhausts its user and evokes a display of power antagonistic to him; he is thereby destroyed, because he has destroyed.  He is separated off from his fellow men because he has been isolated and separative in his nature.  He walks alone because he has cried forth to the world: "I will brook no companion; I am the one alone."

This crisis of evocation brings him to an inner point of change which involves an alteration in his direction, a change of method, and a different attitude.  These three changes are described in the Old Commentary (in which these techniques are to be found) in the following terms:

"The one who travels on a line returns upon his way.  Back to the centre of his life he goes, and there he waits.  He reaches out his arms and cries:  I cannot stand and walk alone.  And standing thus, a cross is formed and on that cross he takes his place—with others."

The change of direction takes him back to the centre of his being, the heart; a change of method takes place, for, instead of moving straight forward, he waits in patience and seeks to feel.  A change of attitude can be noted, for he reaches out his arms to his fellow men—to the greater whole—and thus becomes inclusive.

Standing thus in quietness at the centre, and searching within himself for responsiveness to his environment, he thus loses sight of self and the light breaks in.  It is as if a curtain were raised.  In that light, the first thing which is revealed to him is the devastating sight of that which he has destroyed. [354] He is subjected to what has esoterically been called "the light which shocks."  Slowly and laboriously, using every power of his aligned personality and, in his realised desperation, calling in the power of his soul, he proceeds one-pointedly to rebuild that which he has destroyed.  In rebuilding, he lifts the entire structure on to a higher level than any he has hitherto touched.  This is the task of the destroyers and of those who work with civilisations and who can be trusted to act as agents of destruction under the Plan.

It is interesting to note that when this stage is reached (the stage of rebuilding as the first ray man understands it), he will usually pass through four incarnations in which he is first of all "the man at the centre," a focal point of immobile power.  He is conscious of his power, gained whilst functioning as a selfish destroyer, but he is also conscious of frustration and futility.  Next he passes through a life in which he begins to reorganise himself for a different type of activity, and it will be found that in these cases he will have a third or a seventh ray personality.  In the third incarnation he definitely begins rebuilding and works through a second ray personality until, in the fourth life, he can function safely through a first ray personality without losing his spiritual balance, if we might use such a phrase.  Through this type of personality, his first ray soul can demonstrate, because the disciple has "recovered feeling, gained divine emotion, and filled his waiting heart with love."  In such cases as this, the astral body is usually on the second ray, the mental body upon the fourth ray, and the physical body upon the sixth ray.  This naturally tends to balance or upset the intensity of the first ray vibrations of the personality and soul.  It is in the third life of reorientation that he gains the reward for the arresting of his selfish efforts, and aspects of the Plan are then revealed to him.

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Ray Two

"'Again I stand; a point within a circle and yet myself.'

The love of love must dominate, not love of being loved.  The power to draw unto oneself must dominate, but into the worlds of form that power must some day fail to penetrate.  This is the first step towards a deeper search.

The word goes forth from soul to form:  'Release thyself from all that stands around, for it has naught for thee, so look to me.  I am the One who builds, sustains and draws thee on and up.  Look unto me with eyes of love, and seek the path which leads from the outer circle to the point.

I, at the point, sustain.  I, at the point, attract.  I, at the point, direct and choose and dominate.  I, at the point, love all, drawing them to the centre and moving forward with the travelling points towards that great Centre where the One Point stands.  What mean you by that Word?"

In reference to this second ray, it is advisable to recollect that all the rays are but the subrays of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom.  The One in the centre, Who is the "point within the circle" of manifestation, has three major qualities:  life or activity in form, love and the power of abstraction.  It is these last two qualities of Deity with which we are concerned in these formulas and (in connection with the second ray) the dualities of attraction and abstraction emerge, both latent and both capable of perfected activity in their own field.

There comes ever the moment in the life of the aspirant when he begins to consider with wonder the significance of that familiar reaction of finding no satisfaction in the familiar things; the old life of desire for well known forms of existence and expression ceases to attract his interest.  The pull or attractive power of the One at the centre (Who is his true self) also fails.  It is not yet a familiar "call."  The aspirant is left, unsatisfied and with a deepening sense of futility and emptiness, "pendent upon the periphery" of the divine "ring-pass-not" [356] which he has himself established.  It is at this point and in this situation that he must reflect upon and use this formula.

The question might here be interjected:  What should now be the procedure and right use?  Upon this it is not possible here to enlarge, beyond pointing out that all the meditation processes connected with the Raja-Yoga system are intended to bring the aspirant to a point of such intense inner focussing and alert mental detachment that he will be in a position to use these formulas with understanding, according to his ray type, and to use them with efficacy and power.  His meditation has produced the needed alignment.  There is therefore a direct way or line (speaking symbolically) between the thinking, meditative, reflective man upon the periphery of the soul's influence and the soul itself, the One Who is at the centre.  The crisis of evocation succeeds, once this line of contact, this antaskarana, has been established and recognised, and a crisis of intense activity ensues, wherein the man occultly "detaches himself from the furthest point upon the outer rim of life, and sweeps with purpose towards the central Point."  Thus speaks the Old Commentary, which is so oft quoted in these pages.

It is not possible to do more than put these ideas into symbolic form, leaving these mysteries of the soul to be grasped by those whose soul's influence reaches to that periphery and is there recognised for what it is.  This crisis usually persists for a long time, a far longer one than is the case with the aspirant upon the first ray line of activity.  However, when the second ray aspirant has understood and has availed himself of the opportunity and can see ahead the line between himself and the centre, then the "light breaks in."

It is this period of crisis which presents the major problem to the advanced aspirants of today and evokes consequently [357] the concern of the psychiatrist and psychologist.  Instead of treating the difficulty as a sign of progress and as indicating a relatively high point in the evolutionary scale and therefore a reason for a sense of encouragement, it is treated as a disease of the mind and of the personality.  Instead of regarding the condition as one warranting explanation and understanding but no real concern, the attempt is made to arrest the difficulty by elimination and not by solution, and though the personality may be temporarily relieved, the work of the soul is for that particular life cycle arrested, and delay ensues.  With this problem we will later deal.

Light reveals, and the stage of revelation now follows.  This light upon the way produces vision and the vision shows itself as:

1. A vision, first of all, of defects.  The light reveals the man to himself, as he is, or as the soul sees the personality.

2. A vision of the next step ahead, which, when taken, indicates the procedure next to be followed.

3. A vision of those who are travelling the same way.

4. A glimpse of the "Guardian Angel," who is the dim reflection of the Angel of the Presence, the Solar Angel, which walks with each human being from the moment of birth until death, embodying as much of the available light as the man—at any given moment upon the path of evolution—can use and express.

5. A fleeting glimpse (at high and rare moments) of the Angel of the Presence itself.

6. At certain times and when deemed necessary, a glimpse of the Master of a man's ray group.  This falls usually into two categories of experience and causes:

a. In the early stages and whilst under illusion and glamour, that which is contacted is a vision of the astral, [358] illusory [358] form upon the planes of glamour and illusion.  This is not, therefore, a glimpse of the Master Himself, but of His astral symbol, or of the form built by His devoted disciples and followers.

b. The Master Himself is contacted.  This can take place when the disciple has effected the needed integrations of the threefold lower nature.

It is at this moment of "integration as the result of revelation" that there comes the fusion of the personality ray with the egoic ray.  This we will consider later, but at this point a fact should be mentioned which has not hitherto been emphasised or elucidated.  This point is that the personality ray is always a subray of the egoic ray, in the same sense that the seven major rays of our solar system are the seven subrays of the Cosmic Ray of Love-Wisdom, or the seven planes of our system are the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane.  We will suppose, for instance, that a man's egoic ray is the third ray of active intelligence or adaptability, and his personality ray is the second ray of love-wisdom.  This personality ray is the second subray of the third ray of active intelligence.  Then, in addition, there might be the following rays governing the three personality vehicles:

Egoic Ray—3rd Ray of Active Intelligence

 

 

|

|

 

 

 

 

1

 

2

3

4

5

6

7

 

 

|

 

 

.

.

.

 

 

Personality

 

 

.

.

.

 

 

 

 

 

.

.

.

 

 

 

 

 

.

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mental Body

.

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Astral body

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        .

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Physical body

 

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This is a valuable point for all who are real students to remember and to grasp.  Ponder upon it, for it is self-explanatory and an understanding of it will make it possible to solve the problems of:

1. Alignment

2. The lines of least resistance.

3. The processes of substitution.

4. The alchemy of transmutation.

5. The fields of

a. Service

b. Avocation

c. Vocation.

The lack of balance will also emerge if the chart is studied and man can then arrive at an understanding of what he has to do.  A study of the two formulas of the first and second rays will make it clear why in humanity (and in the solar system also) these two major rays are always so closely associated, and why all esoteric schools throughout the world are predominantly expressions of these two rays.  At a certain stage upon the Path all the rays governing the mental body shift their focus onto rays one and two, doing this via the third ray.  This ray holds the same position to the other rays that the solar plexus centre does to the other six centres, for it constitutes a great clearing house.  The first ray penetrates, pierces and produces the line along which Light comes; the second ray is the "light-carrier," and supplements the work of the first ray.  A study of the activities and the cooperative endeavours of the Master M. and the Master K.H. may serve to make this clearer.  Their work is indispensable to each other, just as life and consciousness are mutually indispensable, and without them form is rendered valueless.

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Ray Three

"'Pulling the threads of Life, I stand, enmeshed within my self-created glamour.  Surrounded am I by the fabric I have woven.  I see naught else.

The love of truth must dominate, not love of my own thoughts, or love of my ideas or forms; love of the ordered process must control, not love of my own wild activity.'

The word goes forth from soul to form:  'Be still.  Learn to stand silent, quiet and unafraid.  I, at the centre, Am.  Look up along the line and not along the many lines which, in the space of aeons, you have woven.  These hold thee prisoner.  Be still.  Rush not from point to point, nor be deluded by the outer forms and that which disappears.  Behind the forms, the Weaver stands and silently he weaves.'"

It is this enforced quiet which brings about the true alignment.  This is the quiet not of meditation but of living.  The aspirant upon the third ray is apt to waste much energy in perpetuating the glamourous forms with which he persistently surrounds himself.  How can he achieve his goal when he is ceaselessly running hither and thither—weaving, manipulating, planning and arranging?  He manages to get nowhere.  Ever he is occupied with the distant objective, with that which may materialise in some dim and distant future, and he fails ever to achieve the immediate objective.  He is often the expression and example of waste energy.  He weaves for the future, forgetting that his tiny bit of weaving is an intrinsic part of a great Whole and that time may enter in and frustrate—by change of circumstance—his carefully laid plans, and the dreams of earlier years.  Therefore futility is the result.

To offset this, he must stand quiet at the centre and (for a time at any rate) cease from weaving; he must no longer make opportunities for himself but—meeting the opportunities which come his way (a very different thing)—apply himself to the need to be met.  This is a very different matter and [361] swings into activity a very different psychology.  When he can do this and be willing to achieve divine idleness (from the angle of a glamoured third ray attitude), he will discover that he has suddenly achieved alignment.  This alignment naturally produces a crisis which is characterised by two qualities:

a. The quality of deep distress.  This is a period of difficulty and of real concern because it dawns upon his consciousness how useless, relatively, are his weaving and his manipulations, and how much of a problem he presents to the other Weavers.

b. The quality which might be expressed as the determination to stand in spiritual being and to comprehend the significance of the ancient aphorism, given frequently to third ray aspirants:

"Cease from thy doing.  Walk not on the Path until thou hast learnt the art of standing still.

Study the spider, brother, entangled not in its own web, as thou art today entangled in thine own."