RULE FOURTEEN - Part 2
This destruction is not outwardly so conclusive as is death—on the physical plane—of a man, though that is not essentially the rapidly consummated process as is usually surmised. The physical form may die and disappear, but an inner process of dying of the subtler bodies supervenes and the death process is not complete until the astral and mental bodies have disintegrated and the man stands free in his causal or soul body. So it is, on a much larger scale, with the death or destruction of phases of the divine Plan, engineered by the Hierarchy in conformity with the divine Purpose. There is an overlapping between the building process and the destroying process. Dying civilisations are present in their final forms whilst new civilisations are emerging; cycles come and go and in the going overlap; the same is also found to be true in the emerging and disappearing of rays and races. Death, in the last analysis and from the standpoint of the average human being, is simply disappearance from the physical plane—the plane of appearances.
The form of destruction we are considering however, is more concerned with the destruction of quality than with forms, though the disappearance of these qualities produces the death of the outer form. The withdrawing life of a great expression of the hierarchical plan absorbs the qualities and returns with them, as endowments, later in time and space and manifests anew through the medium of more adequate forms of expression. The soul, however, kills the forms in the three worlds; it is the life aspect (in this higher and more extensive type of destruction) which destroys the innate quality and consequently the form of a civilisation, the type of an ideology and the character of a race or nation, [310] preserving only the essentials but discarding the distortions.
This fourth word is closely related to the fourth initiation in which the causal body or soul vehicle on its own plane is destroyed—that beautiful, intangible, qualitative Identity which has motivated and implemented the man in the three worlds. Does this instance somewhat clarify the difficulty of this subject with which we are concerned? Ponder on this as an illustration of this form of destruction, and seek better understanding.
This higher form of destruction does not manifest under the activity or the non-activity of the Law of Attraction, as does the death which the soul brings about. It is definitely under the Law of Synthesis, a law of the monadic sphere of life, and one therefore most difficult for you to comprehend; it emanates from a point outside the five worlds of human and superhuman evolution, just as the destruction of form in the three worlds emanates from the soul functioning outside the three worlds of the lower, concrete mind, the astral world and the physical plane. This statement again may aid you in understanding.
If this is so, it will be apparent to you that only initiates who have taken the fifth initiation and higher initiations can wield effectively this particular form of death—for monadic potency only becomes available after the third initiation, and its first successful use is the destruction of the causal body of the initiate. It is the reward of Transfiguration.
In connection with the use by the initiate of what we might call pure will, it should be remembered that this pure will works into manifestation through one or other of the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad. This activity is determined by the major ray upon which the initiate finds himself, from the angle of his monadic ray. Every spiritual man is upon one or another of the three major rays, for the minor four rays of attribute are all eventually absorbed into the third Ray of Active Intelligence.
If the initiate is upon the first ray, and therefore working in the Department of the Manu, he will use and express [311] the innate will aspect through the atmic nature or through the highest aspect of the Spiritual Triad, to which we give the inadequate name of "divine Will." Students are apt to forget that the Spiritual Triad, related as it is to the Monad in much the same way as the threefold personality is related to the soul, expresses the three major aspects of Shamballic energy, which three are all of them expressions of the will of the planetary Logos and His essential Purpose. If the initiate is on the second ray, and therefore is working in the Department of the Christ, he will use the will through the medium of buddhi, the second aspect of the Spiritual Triad. If he is on the third ray and in the Department of the Mahachohan, the Lord of Civilisation, he will work through the higher mind, the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad. Forget not, however, that none of these aspects can be regarded as higher or lower, for all are equally divine. Understanding of these ideas may come if, for instance, you realise that the expression of buddhi, or of the intuition, in the consciousness of the spiritual man will lead to the use of the will in working out the purposes of Shamballa in the field of religions, of education, and of salvaging or saving the life aspect in all forms in the three worlds, but it will have no relation to the individual and personal problems of the man himself. If the expression is that of the higher mind, the use of the will will be in connection with civilisations and cultures for which the third department is responsible, and there will be the carrying out of the will of God in the large and general plans. If it is the will as it expresses itself through the atmic aspect of the Triad, it will function in relation to races, nations, and the kingdoms in nature, and to great planetary arrangements at present unknown to man. The synthesis of this picture will be apparent if carefully studied.
At the same time it must be borne in mind that the destroying aspect of this pure will, expressing through the Monad, implements the purpose of Shamballa and is one of the major manifestations of the Love nature of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being; it is also [312] the guarantee of our ultimate and inevitable attainment, perfection, illumination and divine consummation.
This destruction wrought by the initiate is preparatory to his responsiveness to the fifth word which he receives at the fifth initiation and to which we give the inadequate name: Resurrect.
Prior to considering that word, I would like to point out that these five words have a clear reference to each of the five initiations; they give the initiate the keynote to the work which he must carry forward between the various initiatory processes. The work indicated has nothing whatever to do with the training and the discipline to which he will (needless to say) subject his personality; they are related instead to the work which he has to render. This work concerns what I might call certain essential realities connected with the purpose of Shamballa and with his ability to react or respond to the will of the Monad. As you know, this ability does not become an established fact and functioning realisation until after the third initiation; nevertheless, the preparatory sensitivity (if I may use this word in this connection) is slowly developing and paralleling the two other activities—Destroy and Resurrect—to which he is pledged:
1. The disciplining of his lower nature so that the unfolding initiate-consciousness may find no hindrances and obstacles.
2. Service to the Plan, under hierarchical impression.
3. The development of monadic sensitivity.
It might be of interest at this point if, in view of this third development—responsiveness to pure will—we considered these five words in relation to the five initiations with which you are all so theoretically familiar.
The word Know, in relation to the initiate-consciousness, concerns the certainty of the initiate, and his profound conviction of the fact of the Christ in the heart; it is at the same time coupled with a reaction which emanates from the sacrifice petals in the egoic lotus—those petals which are composed of the will quality of the Monad and relate the soul to the emanating Monad. The first faint tremor of the [313] impact of monadic "destiny" (I know not how else to express this concept) makes itself felt, but is registered only by the soul of the initiate and on the level of soul consciousness; it is never registered by the man on the physical plane who is taking the first initiation; his brain cannot respond to this high vibration. Theoretically, and as a result of the teaching of the Ageless Wisdom, the spiritual man (in incarnation) has known that he is essentially the indwelling Christ, and the attainment of the Christ consciousness has been and will be his goal; the knowledge here referred to concerns something higher still—the Self-identification of the soul on its own plane and the Self-recognition which relates that Self to the enveloping whole, the Monad. If I might word it symbolically, I would say that the soul, the Christ (after the first initiation), knows that the inevitable processes of Christ-expression on Earth have been started and that the attainment of "the full-grown man in Christ" cannot be arrested. The centre of interest which has hitherto been directed to bringing this about now shifts and the soul on its own plane (not in the reflection of its consciousness on Earth) becomes determined to "go to the Father" or to demonstrate the highest aspect of divinity, the will aspect.
There are in the Gospel story four recorded moments in the life of the Christ wherein this process of development within His consciousness, this monadic centralisation (I know not what other word to use, for we have not yet developed the terminology of the monad, the will aspect) begins to demonstrate and can be traced in a definitely unfolding process. In the past I have incidentally referred to these points, but I would like to gather all four of them together here for your illumination.
1. His statement to His parents in the Temple, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" I would have you note that:
a. He was twelve years old at the time, and therefore the work upon which He had been occupied as a soul was finished, for twelve is the number of completed [314] labour. The symbolism of His twelve years is now replaced by that of the twelve Apostles.
b. He was in the Temple of Solomon, ever a symbol of the causal body of the soul, and He was therefore speaking on soul levels and not as the spiritual man on Earth.
c. He was serving as a member of the Hierarchy, for He was found by His parents teaching the priests, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
d. He spoke as an expression of the substance aspect (He spoke to His mother) and also as a soul (He spoke to His father), but He was controlled by neither; He now functioned as the monad, above and beyond yet inclusive of both.
2. His statement to His disciples, "I must go up to Jerusalem," after which we read that He steadfastly set His face to go there. This was an intimation that He had now a new objective. The only place of complete "peace" (the meaning of the word Jerusalem) is Shamballa; the Hierarchy is not a centre of peace in the true meaning of the term, which has no relation to emotion but to the cessation of the type of activity with which we are familiar in the world of manifestation; the Hierarchy is a very vortex of activity and of energies coming from Shamballa and from Humanity. From the standpoint of true esotericism, Shamballa is a place of "serene determination and of poised, quiescent will" as the Old Commentary expresses it.
3. The exclamation of the Christ, "Father, not my will, but Thine be done," indicated His monadic and realised "destiny." The meaning of these words is not as is so oft stated by Christian theologians and thinkers, a statement of acceptance of pain and of an unpleasant future. It is an exclamation evoked by the realisation of monadic awareness and the focussing of the life aspect within the Whole. The soul, in this statement, is renounced, and the monad, as a point of centralisation, is definitely and finally recognised. Students would do well to bear in mind that the Christ never underwent the Crucifixion subsequent to this episode, but [315] that it was the Master Jesus Who was crucified. The Crucifixion lay behind Him in the experience of the Christ. The episode of renunciation was a high point in the life of the World Saviour, but was no part of the experience of the Master Jesus.
4. The final words of the Christ to His apostles, gathered together in the upper chamber (in the Hierarchy, symbolically) were, "Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age," or cycle. Here He was speaking as Head of the Hierarchy, which constitutes His Ashram, and also speaking as the Monad and expressing His divine Will to pervade or inform the world continuously and endlessly with His overshadowing consciousness; He expressed universality and the ceaseless continuity and contact which is the characteristic of monadic life—of life itself. It was also a tremendous affirmation, sent forth on the energy of the will, and making all things new and all things possible.
If you will carefully study these four statements you will see what is the knowledge referred to in this command given in Rule XIV to the initiate at the first initiation, the command to Know. It is the order to reorient the soul to the monad and not an order to reorient the personality to the soul, as is so oft believed.
The word Express, in its deepest meaning and when given at the second initiation, does not mean the necessity to express the nature of the soul. It means (behind all other possible meanings) the command to express the will nature of the monad and to "feel after" and embody the Purpose which lies behind the Plan, as a result of the developed sensitivity. Obedience to the Plan brings revelation of the hidden Purpose, and this is a phrasing of the great objective which impulses the Hierarchy itself. As the initiate learns cooperation with the Plan and demonstrates this in his life of service, then within himself and paralleling this activity to which he is dedicated as a personality and soul, there is also an awakening realisation of the Father aspect, of the nature of the will, of the existence and factual nature of [316] Shamballa and of the universality and the livingness of whatever is meant by the word "Being." He knows and is beginning to express that pure Being as pure will in activity.
When the third initiation is taken the initiate becomes aware, not only of the significance of the command to Know and of his innate ability to Express the will nature of the monad in carrying out the Purpose of Shamballa, but that (through his fused personality-soul) he is now in a position to "make revelation" to the Hierarchy that he is en rapport with the monadic source from which he originally came. He can now obey the command to Reveal, because the Transfiguration is consummated. He is not now revealing the soul only, but all the three aspects now meet in him and he can reveal the life aspect as will and not only the soul aspect as love or the matter aspect as intelligence. This is, as you know the first major initiation from the angle of the greater Lodge on Sirius, because it is the first initiation in which all the three aspects meet in the initiate. The first two initiations—oft regarded by humanity as major initiations—are in reality minor initiations from the Sirian point of view, because the relation of the man "under discipline and in training" is only a tendency; there is only a developing recognition of the Father and a slowly growing response to the monad, plus an unfolding sensitivity to the impact of the will aspect. But in the third initiation these developments are sufficiently present to merit the phrase, "revelation of the glory," and the Transfiguration initiation takes place.
At the fourth initiation the destroying aspect of the will can begin to make its presence felt; the soul body, the causal body, the Temple of the Lord, is destroyed by an act of the will and because even the soul is recognised as a limitation by that which is neither the body nor the soul, but that which stands greater than either. The awareness of the perfected man is now focussed in that of the monad. The road to Jerusalem has been trodden. This is a symbolical way of saying that the antahkarana has been constructed and [317] the Way to the Higher Evolution—which confronts the higher initiates—has now opened up.
The three aspects of the will, as focussed in the Spiritual Triad, are now in full expression; the initiate is animated by Purpose, but faces still greater evolutionary developments; of these I do not need to speak, as they concern divine aspects as yet unknown and unregistered by man. The reason for this complete ignorance is that the vehicles of any man below the third initiation contain too much "impure matter" to record the impact of these divine qualities. Only the "created body" (the mayavirupa) of an initiate of the fourth initiation can begin to register these divine impacts; it is therefore waste of our time to consider even the possibility of their existence. Even I, a Master, and therefore an initiate of a relatively high degree, am only faintly sensing them, and that because I am learning to obey the fifth word which we will briefly, very briefly, now consider.
5. Resurrect.
One of the greatest of all distortions, and one of the most misleading of the theological teachings, has been the interpretation put upon the word "resurrection" in the Christian approach. This resurrection has been applied in many cases to the resurrection of the body; it is also applied to the fact (the selfishly motivated wish) of immortality; it is applied also to the physical resurrection of the Christ after he supposedly died upon the Cross. Resurrection teaches essentially the "lifting up" of matter into heaven; it does not teach the eternal persistence of the physical body of a man, as many Fundamentalists today suppose, looking for the reappearance of the discarded physical body; it does teach the "livingness of Life" and the state of "unalterable Being." This unalterable Being constitutes the nature of the Monad, and it is to this condition of awareness that Christ attained when He functioned as a World Saviour and thereby guaranteed, by the force of His achievement as a personality-soul, the same point of attainment for us, for we are equally and essentially sons of the Father or expressions of the Monad, [318] the One. It does not, however, signify the resurrection of some personality in a particular vehicle used in a particular incarnation.
The whole concept of resurrection is the new and most important revelation which is coming to humanity, and which will lay the basis for the new world religion.
In the immediate past, the keynote of the Christian religion has been death, symbolised for us in the death of the Christ, and much distorted for us by St. Paul in his effort to blend the new religion which Christ gave us with the old blood religion of the Jews. In the coming cycle, this distorted teaching on death will assume its rightful place and be known as the disciplining urge to relinquishment and to the ending by death of the hold by matter over the soul; the great goal of all religious teaching will be the resurrection of the spirit in man, and eventually in all forms of life, from the lowest point in evolution to the highest monadic experience. The emphasis in the future will be upon the "livingness of the Christ nature"—the proof of which will be the Risen Christ—and upon the use of the will invoking this "living display." The glory and the radiance of the Transfiguration initiation will eventually be relegated to its destined place, and what is meant by the "display of life" will dimly be sensed in its unimaginable beauty.
The line or the path or the Way of Resurrection is the "Radiant Way" to which we have given the cumbersome name of the Antahkarana; this Way leads straight and directly from one great planetary centre to another—from Humanity to the Hierarchy and from the Hierarchy to Shamballa. This is the Way of Resurrection. It is a Way which is composed of the light of intelligent substance, of the radiant attractive substance of love, and the karmic way which is infused by the essence of inflexible will. Forget not that karma is essentially the conditioned will of the planetary Logos as He orders all things toward the ultimate goal of life itself through the process of livingness, of loving understanding, and of intelligent activity.
Therefore, the order to resurrect, as understood by the [319] initiate, concerns solely the application of the will nature and the aspect of Shamballa to the impulsing of hierarchical attraction and activity. It does not concern the individual life of the upward-moving aspirant or disciple, no matter what his degree, except incidentally and because major divine macrocosmic impulses must have lesser microcosmic effects. All these stupendous words with which we have been dealing relate to the cooperation of the initiate with the Will of Shamballa, and therefore, my brothers, are only dim hints to you.