28 Rules Group

Commentary on Rule XII Part IV of V

R&I (241-247)

 

(All Highlighting, Bolding and Underlining—MDR)

Please read this Commentary with your book open or with reference to an electronic copy of the text. This will facilitate an appreciation of continuity.

 

3. The third great change has been in the relation of the Hierarchy to Shamballa, and of this you can necessarily know and understand little.  I could perhaps express the underlying significance to you in symbolic language.  The energy, emanating from Shamballa, has been divided into two direct and distinctive streams.  One stream, embodying the dynamic of purpose, is now pouring into the Hierarchy and into its seven major Ashrams; another stream, embodying the dynamic of determination or of enlightened enthusiastic will, is reaching humanity direct, via the New Group of World Servers.

 

1.                  Discussion of Shamballa (in any practical sense) is something relatively new to the teaching of occultism in the West.

2.                  We are given an important piece of occult information about two streams of energy emanating from Shamballa. One stimulates the Aquarian Group known as Hierarchy; the other stimulates the Taurean group known as the New Group of World Servers.

3.                  Shamballa itself is experiencing much stimulation due to the new availability of Aquarian energies, but is, itself, very related to Taurus.

4.                  The Wesak Festival is the time when Taurus is most powerful and it is at this time that humanity can make most direct contact with Shamballa. This may also be true of Hierarchy, though for Hierarchy there is also another time of impressive contact.

5.                  Let us look at the two qualities which are carried by these two streams.

6.                  Into Hierarchy pours “dynamic purpose”. This definitely provides inspiration for Hierarchy so They can pass that inspiration along to the disciples and initiates of the world.

7.                  The stream which pours into the New Group of World Servers is interesting. It is comprised both of “determination” and “enlightened enthusiastic will”. Both of these are qualities related to Taurus. Determination is, perhaps, easier to understand. It suggests a resolute fixity of purpose; that which is intended will be done.

8.                  Enlightened enthusiastic will, seems a blend of the second, sixth and first rays—in that order. All these rays are related to Taurus—the second sign, ruled by Venus which planet conveys both the sixth and second rays (from various parts of its energy system) and the first ray coming through Vulcan which can be considered the major ruler of Taurus.

9.                  The true Taurean is inspired by the light and has thus become enthusiastic. But he not only desires but intends.

 

 Hitherto a blended stream of Shamballa force has poured into the Hierarchy and has streamed, in its undifferentiated type and quality, into all the groups within the Hierarchy.

 

10.             The previous method was for Shamballa to stimulate through an undifferentiated stream of energy.

 

  Now the quality of determination, or of what the average person understands by the use of the word "Will," is pouring into the New Group of World Servers, whilst the energy of dynamic purpose, differentiated into seven diverging streams, is pouring into [Page 241] each of the "seven points of reception," the Masters' Ashrams within the ring-pass-not of the Hierarchy.

 

11.             Why the differentiation? Perhaps because will must now be studied and understood to be something other and higher than determination—something more related to purpose.

12.             Shamballa is bringing a new expression of will into hierarchical life; therefore the will must be understood more completely, not only by Hierarchy but by those who represent Hierarchy—the New Group of World Servers. From one perspective, the New Group of World Servers is included within the circle of hierarchical life.

13.             Interestingly, the streaming forth is eightfold, for the stream which inspires Hierarchy divides into seven streams.

14.             This reminds one of the eightfold streaming forth of energy from the Jewel in the Lotus.

 

  These seven types of purpose embody the seven energies which will reorganise and redefine the hierarchical undertakings, and thus inaugurate the New Age.  These seven purposes might be called:

 

15.             Purpose is considered sevenfold. These seven streams of purpose will “reorganise and redefine the hierarchical undertakings”. It is important that we attempt to understand them.

 

a. The unknown, unseen and unheard purpose of Sanat Kumara.  It is the secret of life itself and is known only to Him alone.

 

16.             This is the most powerful purpose and the most obscure. No other B/being in our planetary manifestation completely knows or understands this purpose. The Solar Logos must, however, know and understand it.

17.             DK has often told us that, for the human being, “life”, per se, is incomprehensible. He seems to equate “life” with “pure being”. Life or pure being are not will, soul or matter, but pervade and infuse all three. Life and pure being are not electric fire, solar fire or fire by friction—but pervade and infuse all three.

18.             The full Name of Sanat Kumara is unknown to the Masters. Maybe most of it is known to the Buddhas of Activity. Perhaps when the Name of Sanat Kumara is revealed and known, something of the unknown, unseen and unheard purpose will also be revealed and known.

 

 In its initial phase of this new expression, it works through the Manu and the Master Morya; it is that which veils the central mystery which all esoteric schools—if true to their inaugurating impulse—will eventually reveal.  What that is we do not yet know but it is hinted at in Rule XIII.

 

19.             Usually, all school processes are related to the second ray, or perhaps to the third and fifth—rarely if at all to the first ray.

20.             But so it is when thinking of truly occult schools. The first ray is primarily the ray of occultism and the first ray initiate is the true occultist.

21.             We may infer that the true esoteric school is meant to reveal the mystery of life. What the true esoteric school is to reveal lies far beyond knowledge.

 

b. The purpose underlying revelation.  This may be a somewhat new idea to you for you are apt to regard revelation as a goal in itself.  You seldom consider it as an effect of the inner purpose of Sanat Kumara.

 

22.             It is true that revelation is often considered a goal in itself. We have not looked deeply enough.

23.             Revelation is the disclosure of Reality, but to what end? This disclosure makes cooperation in the implementation of Purpose through Plan a possibility. There is more to Creation than sight and light. Action is needed—taken in sight of the light.

24.             Obviously, revelation leads to some possibility which is rarely understood, if at all, by humanity.

 

  The emphasis hitherto has been on the aspect of revelation, making it an effect of what the disciple has done with himself and by means of which he is enabled to be the recipient of revelation.

 

25.             This is the standard approach and is not altogether incorrect.

26.             Yet all revelations are necessarily partial. Towards what do they tend? What does revelation, itself, reveal?

 

 Yet behind all the successive revelations of divinity down the ages is to be found one significant purpose; all of them are and will prove themselves to be aspects of the Great Revelation. 

 

27.             What can this “Great Revelation” possibly be? Must not even it be relative?

 

It is through the processes of revelation that divinity is slowly dawning upon the human consciousness.  It is a sevenfold revelation; each of the seven kingdoms in nature reveals one aspect of it, and each of these seven reaches revelation in seven or fourteen lesser revelations or phases.

 

28.             There are seven kingdoms of nature and each of them reveals one aspect of the Great Revelation.

29.             We might say that each kingdom has its secret which be revealed:

    1. The Secret of the Mineral Kingdom
    2. The Secret of the Plant Kingdom
    3. The Secret of the Animal Kingdom
    4. The Secret of the Human Kingdom
    5. The Secret of the Kingdom of Souls
    6. The Secret of the Kingdom of Planetary Lives
    7. The Secret of the Solar Kingdom.

30.             The divisions by seven or fourteen suggests the Manus Who work in relation to any planetary chain or scheme. There are two manus per globe and thus the number fourteen. There are probably two Manus per chain and, thus again, the number fourteen.

 

Ponder on this and learn to distinguish between vision (which is as much of the divine current revelation as a disciple can grasp in time and space) and revelation which is the synthesis of the divine expressive purpose.

 

31.             There appear to be three phases in this process of revelation of the Purpose:

    1. Vision
    2. Revelation
    3. The Great Revelation

32.             Vision is distinctly a limitation upon the process of revelation.

33.             The lesser revelations are only aspects of the great and encompassing Revelation.

34.             There is a “divine current revelation” which suggest that the revelation possible at any one time is only partial.

35.             There is a possible “synthesis of the divine expressive purpose”. Is it time-bound or complete? It seems that it is conditioned by time, though revelation is also possible in completeness and, as such, will be called the Great Revelation. The Great Revelation, it seems, will not be conditioned by the limitations of time and space.

 

 This is related to the will-to-good which is, in its turn, a complete expression of the love nature of Deity.

 

36.             Revelation as the synthesis of divine expressive purpose is related to the will-to-good which is a complete expression of the love nature of Deity.

37.             Let us carefully examine this sentence:

    1. Revelation is a synthesis of divine expressive purpose.
    2. Divine expressive purpose is related to the will-to-good.
    3. The will-to-good is a complete expression of the love nature of Deity.

38.             We come to the conclusion that revelation is intimately related to the love nature of Deity.

 

c. The (as yet) unrecognised purpose which evoked the creative activity of our Planetary Logos.  

 

39.             The concept of “creativity” is related specifically to both the third and fourth rays.

 

This brought the [Page 242] third aspect of the divine Trinity into play.

 

40.             Purpose brings into expression the various aspects of divinity. There is a parallel here to the manner in which the Monad brings the various principles into expression through the permanent atoms, the vehicles and the chakras.

 

 The usual reasons brought forward by the finite mind of man to account for what is called by us "manifestation," and to explain the dualism of all existence and the relation of spirit-matter, are by no means the real explanation of the divine purpose;

 

41.             Our human ideas are greatly limited. We entertain ourselves with inaccurate formulations of the truth and tend to search no further.

 

 they are based on man's own essential dualism;

 

42.             Mans essential dualism biases his formulations of the true cause of creativity. We project our dualism on Reality.

 

they are the highest explanation of his own divine nature which he can achieve at this time.  This is a point to be remembered.

 

43.             Man’s explanations of Reality are always limited by his equipment and his evolutionary status.

 

 They are his response to the second Ray of Mutual Attraction, which the Ray of Love-Wisdom is sometimes called.  They are not an expression of his response to the Will of God, and only indicate the limitations of his definition of divine purpose.

 

44.             Man does not yet understand the will. Being subservient to the second ray, he offers second ray explanations of first ray and third ray processes. Hence the inaccuracy.

45.             Under the second ray, man’s explanations will be dualistic.

46.             We note one of the important names of the Ray of Love-Wisdom. It is called the “Ray of Mutual Attraction”.

 

 As you will note, they really define nothing.  Nor can I help you to recognise this third aspect and the eternal purpose of the Lord of the World.  Just as a soul seeks incarnation in order to carry forward some fixed design and to take one of the higher initiations, so Sanat Kumara came into incarnation through the medium of this planet in order to carry forward His fixed designs (known to Him as a cosmic Soul on cosmic mental levels),

 

47.             Where does Sanat Kumara manifest as a soul? On the cosmic mental plane. We know that Planetary Logos also manifests on the cosmic mental plane, on its third level. Is Sanat Kumara the same as the Planetary Logos and is His (Sanat Kumara’s) place on the cosmic mental plane the same as that of the Planetary Logos?

48.             Where is “fixed design” to be known? Apparently within the causal body. This would apply to a human being and to a Planetary Logos or Solar Logos.

49.             Creativity exists in order to carry forward a purpose, or “Fixed Design”.

50.             The Word of Power for the creative third ray enters here: “Purpose itself am I”. Every creative act is to be a purposeful act.

51.             Creativity is not merely a playful and inconsequential process. It is a definite, purposeful act which expresses the purpose or Fixed Design behind the act of creativity.

52.             “Being descends to manifest”.

53.             The first and third aspects of divinity cannot be separated.

 

 and to take one of the higher initiations which mark the Path of Initiation for these great informing Lives of planetary spheres.

 

54.             Sanat Kumara, it seems, is being called a great informing Life of a planetary sphere. This would equate Him with the Planetary Logos.

55.             The fourth initiation taken through the fourth chain is a higher initiation.

56.             We have to proceed carefully as sometimes Sanat Kumara is said to be different from the Planetary Logos and sometimes He is exactly equated with this Logos.

57.             We do have to question, however, whether the initiations which face the Planetary Logos are exactly the same as the initiations which face Sanat Kumara. The question is much veiled.

58.             Let us tabulate the two purposes for which Sanat Kumara took incarnation:

    1. To carry forward His fixed designs
    2. To take one of the higher initiations (in the series of initiations taken by great Lives such as Planetary Logoi)

 

 He could take this particular initiation through the experience to be gained in a vehicle constituted, expressive and at the special state of consciousness of our entire planetary manifestation.  It required an instrument in which the cells and atoms of His body (all lives in all kingdoms), and the integrated organisms within that body (the various kingdoms of nature), were at the peculiar point in evolution at which they are all now to be found.

 

59.             The initiation of Sanat Kumara now under discussion needed exactly the conditions which now exist on our fourth chain and our fourth globe in order to be taken.

60.             It is clear that the Tibetan’s reference is veiled. In fact, it is a hint.

61.             The Planetary Logos about to take the particular initiation under discussion needed to be assured that the tiny lives (the cells in His body) and the “integrated organisms within His body” were at a certain point of evolution.

62.             We are living in a time when these cells and these integrated organisms have, apparently, attained the requisite level to make the Planetary Logos’ next initiation possible.

63.             But is there some similarity regarding the state in which all kingdoms of nature find themselves? Perhaps they are all moving towards some sort of resonance with the number four. This would make the fourth initiation of our Planetary Logos possible even though it is not one of the major cosmic initiations.

64.             It is interesting and important to consider the kingdoms of nature as integrated organisms within the body of the Planetary Logos. Each such organism is informed by a great Life.

 

That is as far as I may go in giving you a hint, and you can see from this that in order to grasp more and comprehend more of His divine purpose you also will have to be in preparation for that particular initiation which for you—on your tiny level of awareness of fixed design—is the microcosmic parallel of His cosmic intention.  Which that initiation is I may not state.

 

65.             Well, we do know that the Planetary Logos is preparing to undergo a fourth initiation in a series of seven. Can this be the initiation meant? Will we have to be at the fourth initiation in order to understand what is here said?

66.             If the Planetary Logos and Sanat Kumara are to be considered equivalent (and often They are) then Sanat Kumara is undergoing a kind of fourth initiation on a planetary scale.

67.             It would seem that planetary logoic purpose is related to the planetary logoic Monad which only makes its conscious impact at the third initiation and beyond.

68.             We should also note that Sanat Kumara is called “the Great Sacrifice”, an appellation which say much about which initiation He is in the process of undergoing.

 

 The only service which these hints can render (as to the sevenfold divine purpose and [Page 243] the consideration of them) is to develop in you, the disciple, the power to think abstractly—a much needed capacity before you can begin to tread the Way of the Higher Evolution; for this the five initiations open to humanity (as today constituted) prepare the human spirit.

 

69.             Abstract thought is not something that will be transcended by One Who reaches the stage of Master.

70.             Hints are to be unfolded not only by the intuition but by the immediately preceding stage of abstract thinking.

71.             It is quite interesting that Those Who tread the "Way of Higher Evolution" are utilizing the abstract mind. If they do not retain the spiritual triad on their ‘journey’, they retain something which is its sublimation.

72.             This will mean that the abstract mind is a quality inherent in the Monad (perhaps as Intelligent Activity) for it is the threefold Monad Who treads this higher Way.

73.             Amazingly, five initiations prepare the human spirit for the power to think abstractly. This means that such a capacity almost certainly exists ‘above’ the level of the spiritual triad.

74.             Abstract manas in the triad is simply a reflection of the same capacity (at a much higher level) in the Monad.

 

d. The mysterious purpose which has necessitated the calling into activity the Principle of Pain.

 

75.             The necessity for the existence of pain is a great mystery. Many think of it as entirely useless.

 

 Suffering and Pain are essential requirements in order to carry this purpose to completion.

 

76.             Yet the purpose is definite and, apparently, from the perspective of Sanat Kumara, necessary.

 

 The capacity to suffer, which is distinctive of humanity, is the outstanding conscious reaction to environment of the fourth kingdom in nature, the human.

 

77.             DK tells us that the capacity to suffer is distinctively human. Animals also suffer, but not in the same way. As far as the recognition of inharmony which exists in kingdoms higher than the human, it is not clear that it can be called suffering, per se.

78.             Interestingly, we are told that our Planetary Logos found the task of assuming redemptive responsibility for this planet disagreeable, even painful

 

The Old Commentary says:

 

"He entered into life and knew it to be death.

"He took a form and grieved to find it dark.

"He drove Himself forth from the secret place and sought the place of light, and light revealed all that he sought the least.

"He craved permission to return.

"He sought the Throne on high and Him who sat thereon.  He said 'I sought not this.  I looked for peace, for light, for scope to serve, to prove my love and to reveal my power.  Light there is none.  Peace is not found.  Let me return.'

But He Who sat upon the Throne turned not his head.  He seemed not e'en to listen nor to hear.  But from the lower sphere of darkness and of pain a voice came forth and cried:  'We suffer here.  We seek the light.  We need the glory of an entering God.  [I can find no other words except these last two to express the ancient symbol from which I am translating.]  Lift us to Heaven.  Enter, O Lord, the tomb.  Raise us into the light and make the sacrifice.  Break down for us the prison wall and enter into pain.'

The Lord of Life returned.  He liked it not, and hence the pain." (EP II 98)

 

79.             The Planetary Logos is a cosmic Being, far higher than a human being. Yet, apparently, He suffered in taking the form of this planet and we, in reflection of Him, suffer as well.

80.             Something is said of Him which may shed light on the nature of His suffering in contrast with our own:

 

The cells in His body—those cells through which He feels, and senses, and experiences,—are, in this world period, rent by pain and suffering, for His is the consciousness at the centre of the Body, and theirs is the capacity to suffer, so that by means of them He may learn the meaning of systemic dispassion, be dissociated from all forms and material substance, and upon the cross of matter eventually find liberation and the freedom of the Spirit. (TCF 384)

 

81.             We return to the idea that it is something distinctively human to suffer.

 

  It is related to the power to think and consciously to relate cause and effect.

 

82.             It would seem that the capacity to suffer is related both to self-consciousness and the power to compare past, present and potential future.

83.             We learn, in this respect, that the fifth ray (which systematically relates cause and effect) is necessary if there is to be present the power o suffer.

 

 It is a process on the way to something undreamt of today. And when I say this, my brother, I mean just exactly that.

 

84.             We are learning that there is a very great and beautiful purpose behind suffering. DK is telling us that we have no idea where this tendency is leading us—or, presumably, our planet, since our particular Logos informs the planet characterized by the greatest amount of pain and suffering of all planets in our solar system.

 

This same ability to respond through pain is not to be found (in the sense in which the human being comprehends it) in any of the subhuman kingdoms, nor in the superhuman kingdoms, any more than it was found in the previous solar system or will be found in the next.

 

85.             This is an important statement. Apparently, the capacity to respond to pain does exist in the lower and higher kingdoms but not in the same way that the human being comprehends this response.

86.             The greatest amount of suffering occurs on the soft-line rays which are the rays most affected by duality. Duality and suffering are inescapably connected.

87.             In this solar system our planet is meant to be conditioned primarily by the second ray of Love-Wisdom. This conditioning is reinforced by the present conditioning of our Solar Logos which is primarily along the second ray line. In the next solar system, both our plane and our solar system which be characterized by far more of the first ray than is presently possible.

 

 It is related to an aspect of the creative intelligence, an aspect and characteristic peculiar to humanity.

 

88.             It is as if one must know that one exists, and further, that one is oneself alone (i.e. both individualized and human), if there is to be a capacity to suffer in the sense that human beings understand suffering.

89.             Animals do not know they exist, and members of kingdoms higher than the human (while they know they exist) know that they do not exist in isolation. They know “there are no other selves”. This higher knowledge alters tremendously the attitude towards the inharmonies which normally cause suffering within humanity.

 

This aspect was not found in the previous solar system, in which the other aspects of the creative intelligence functioned. 

 

90.             We continue to speak of an aspect of creative intelligence which was not active in the previous solar system and which, in this system, has been brought from latency to potency.

91.             To some degree, suffering is related to Mercury and the fourth ray. Our planet is called the “Star of Suffering” (TCF 1197) and Mercury is called the “Star of Conflict” (EA 357)

92.             How many aspects of creative intelligence are there? DK is not specifying, but it seems very likely that the aspect of creative intelligence related to suffering is also related to the fourth ray—humanity’s predominant ray.

93.             Yet we cannot say that in the previous solar system the fourth ray was not expressive as human beings existed then, we have been told.

94.             We do know that in the previous solar system the second ray was not strongly in expression. It is the second ray which confers the ability to "agonise towards the goal, carrying the burden of the world, learning—through identification with others—a detachment which, as time proceeds, negates all pain.” (DINA I, 149)

95.             As regards suffering and the fourth ray (humanity’s present soul ray), the following is pertinent:

 

This has been called the "ray of struggle" for on this ray the qualities of rajas (activity) and tamas (inertia) are so strangely equal in proportion that the nature of the fourth ray man is torn with their combat, and the outcome, when satisfactory, is spoken of as the "Birth of Horus," of the Christ, born from the throes of constant pain and suffering. (EP I 206)

 

In this solar system, it has been developed and brought from latency to potency in connection with the substance of the human bodies through which the human soul is gaining experience.

 

96.             Human physical bodies are found on a vibratory level related to the number four. Of the four lower planes, the level which includes the substance of the human bodies is the fourth—mental, astral, etheric and dense-physical.

97.             This solar system is related to the number four for our Solar Logos (at least at this time) is a Logos of the fourth order. Such “orders” may change as the focus of the Solar Logos ‘rises’ on the cosmic planes.

98.             DK, however, is speaking of all the bodies through which souls express. They express through personalities and the personality is also correlated with the number four.

99.             On the bridging fourth ray, those processes are put into effect which will assist the pattern of first solar system substance to be re-pattered in such a way as to accord with second solar system purposes. This repatterning brings about suffering.

100.         When considering the number four and its relation to suffering, we must remember that the four Lords of Karma (whose beneficent work imposes much suffering upon humanity) are also conditioned by the number four.

 

 It holds the secret of beauty in manifestation, and its first expression can be seen in the creative perfection of certain phases of art for which man, and man alone, is responsible.

 

101.         We are still referencing an aspect of creative intelligence which is “peculiar to humanity” and may well be associated with the fourth rah. This aspect is related to the emergence of “beauty in manifestation”. It is the exercise of this aspect which allows the human being to achieve “creative perfection” in relation to certain phases of art.

102.         All of Creation is an artistic creation. The Planetary Logos and the Solar Logos are great Artistic Creators, but DK seems to be speaking of a different kind of art which arises out of the capacity to suffer.

103.         Suffering may be the experience of an energetic-interplay which occurs as man moves from disharmony to harmony, and from imperfection to perfection. It may also be called the experience of the tension which exists between the actual and the idea. Man holds both states simultaneously and in their dissonance, suffering arises.

104.         From the musical perspective, suffering is the experience of dissonance without the anticipation of harmonious resolution.

105.         There may also be a secret of ‘beauty outside of manifestation’ but it is the task of man to bring archetypal beauty into manifestation.

106.         When man attempts to do this, he experiences pain due to the resistance of substance to the pattern of beauty which he intends to impose.

107.         The fourth ray is the “Corrector of the Form” (EP I 71) and there is cognitive pain in the correction process. This cognitive pain transfers itself also to the lower vehicles of the personality.

 

 No other kingdom in nature creates forms, produces colour and sounds in harmonious relation, except the human; all of this type of creative art is the result of aeons of conflict, pain and suffering.

 

108.         Perhaps the word “produces” is to be examined. As stated, Archetypes of planetary and solar Beauty exist, but perhaps we cannot say that they are produced. They are conceived and their conception renders them existent.

109.         Man, on the other hand, has to labor in a vibratory domain apparently separated from the archetypal worlds. He must bring the patterns of those worlds into relation with the substance which is conditioned by patterns other than the archetypal patterns which he seeks to impose.

110.         Man ‘holds the discrepancy’ of the two worlds in his consciousness. This requires the fourth ray and in this holding, he endures suffering. Man ‘holds the difference’, or ‘holds the contrast’.

111.         Perhaps the aspect of creative intelligence we have been discussing is that which allow him to ‘hold the difference’ and adjust substances (within and without) until there is no difference, discrepancy, no contrast between the archetypal and the actual.

 

 The Jews, as a product of the humanity of the previous solar system,

 

112.         Let us remember the important fact that the previous solar system what the fourth in order (just as ours is the fifth).

113.         The Jews are a (not the) “product” of the previous solar system. The humanity of that solar system comprised more than the Jews. The Jew are simply an aspect of that earlier humanity.

 

 and as constituting the incarnating residue from that solar system,

 

114.         “Laggards” in that system and the avant guard in this. We are not necessarily speaking of all the present Jews, but of the Jews as DK reveals them—present on our planet even before individualization occurred.

115.         It must be realized that not all those who are presently Jews are Jews in the sense that DK here discusses. Some of the “incarnating residue” from the first solar system may be incarnated in bodies which are, racially, not Jewish, and others, of course, will be presently found within bodies which are part of the Jewish hereditary stream (much intermixed with other racial groups, it must be stated).

 

 have run the gamut of suffering and are in the forefront of the creative arts at this time, particularly [Page 244] in group production such as certain of the great motion pictures and in the field of scientific discovery.

 

116.         The implication is, the greater the suffering, the greater that artistic capacity (or the capacity to appreciate art born of suffering). The Jews are characterized by a fourth ray mode of expression filled with dramatic contrasts—tragedy and comedy. In the art for which they are responsible, they replay ages of experience.

117.         The great motion pictures (as DK calls them) present the panorama of life (as experienced through the ages).

118.         Another implication is that the Jews may not always be in the forefront of the creative arts. Is the trend already on the wane? And yet, “who is the Jew”? The subjective Jew may not be the same as the objective Jew. Bodies can change but psyches do not sever themselves from their aeonial experience.

119.         The field of scientific discovery is inserted here. It is not directly related to the arts which are under discussion. It is an interesting piece of information none-the-less. This information links the Jew not only to the fourth ray but to the fifth and third rays.

 

There will be, as you can well see, a close relation between this fourth purpose of Sanat Kumara, the fourth kingdom in nature, the human, and the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.

 

120.         We have been exploring this relationship. As well, Sanat Kumara is sometimes called the “fourth Kumara”.

121.         In this discussion the following is of importance:

 

A touch of this freedom from the limitations of pain and sorrow can be found among the more advanced sons of men on Earth, who know the ecstasy of the mystic, the exaltation of the initiate, and the exquisite agony of sacrifice or of any feeling which is carried forward to the point of sublimation.  When this point has been reached, the mechanism of suffering and the ability to register sensuous perception is transcended, and momentarily the man escapes on to the plane of unity. (EP II 102)

 

122.         There is much in this excerpt about Neptune in relation to the power to suffer, the astral plane and the buddhic plane. It is upon the buddhic plane (the initial “plane of unity”) that the power to suffer begins to cease.

 

 It is the balanced relation of these three, consummated at the fourth initiation, which produces the full beauty of the creative fixed design of the individual soul, or—on a different level of initiatory process—of the fixed design of the universal soul of the Lord of the World.

 

123.         The beauty of the human soul is revealed at the fourth initiation. This initiation, interestingly, is ruled by the fourth ray.

124.         What are the factors balanced at the fourth degree?

    1. The Fourth Purpose of Sanat Kumara
    2. The fourth kingdom in nature
    3. The fourth Ray of Harmony Through Conflict

 

 The fourth ray being temporarily out of full incarnation at this time

 

125.         DK did not say that it was entirely out of incarnation. The suggestion is that many souls still upon the fourth ray have not taken incarnation, but that some have.

 

Within the United Nations is the germ and the seed of a great international and meditating, reflective group—a group of thinking and informed men and women in whose hands lies the destiny of humanity. This is largely under the control of many fourth ray disciples, if you could but realise it, and their point of meditative focus is the intuitional or buddhic plane—the plane upon which all hierarchical activity is today to be found. (DINA II 220)

 

At this time, the effect of this ray is predominantly of a group nature, and there are—except in the ranks of disciples of the Great White Lodge—no fourth ray souls in incarnation. (R&I 605)

 

126.         Is DK speaking perhaps of fourth ray souls who are to found working in this way? There are some fourth ray souls, but they will only be found among advanced individuals.

 

 is the reason for the relative interlude in the production of human creative art of a very high order.

 

127.         We may assume that during the nineteenth century, when so much great music was composed, a number of fourth ray souls were expressing.

128.         Elsewhere in the teaching it is suggested that these souls were brought into incarnation under special dispensation.

 

 The cycle of suffering is nearing its close, and we shall later see—when the fourth ray again swings into full objective activity—a recurrence of the arts on a turn of the spiral far more exalted than any lately seen.

 

129.         This is a great and beautiful promise and offers us the anticipation of a new Renaissance.

 

e. The fifth great secret underlying the purpose of Sanat Kumara is related in a peculiar sense to the cyclic manifestation of all that is found in the three worlds of human evolution.

 

130.         This cyclic manifestation is part of the process of rebirth or reincarnation.

131.         We must remember that one of the chief and coming lines of service of the scientific servers will be to study the cyclic process of reincarnation.

132.         We must also remember how much of the fifth ray will be brought into expression through the presence of the energies of the sign Aquarius.

 

 It concerns that which is working slowly into manifestation through the medium of the lower concrete mind as it controls desire and brings substance and matter into conformity with the divine thought along this line.  

 

133.         This is an important function of the fifth ray—to bring “substance and matter into conformity with the divine thought…”

134.         For this to occur it is necessary that desire be controlled, because if desire is unleashed without disciplined supervision, that which is created through matter will not be in conformity with divine thought.

 

The sumtotal of the highest phases of human thinking along all lines, materially affects what appears on the physical plane in all the kingdoms of nature,

 

135.         In relation to this fifth purpose of Sanat Kumara we are reminded of the aphorism, “energy follows thought”.

136.         We are dealing, actually, with the process of embodiment or incarnation. Through the processes of embodiment or incarnation that which is thought takes physical form.

137.         The personality, itself, is a thoughtform created by the soul (on its own plane).

138.         The shape of form and relationships between forms change because of the thinking process.

 

what precipitates civilisations and cultures, and which expresses the best response at the moment of human sensitivity to cosmic impression.

 

139.         DK is speaking of the “highest phases of human thinking”. The low will also precipitate, but its results in matter/form are not noteworthy.

140.         Interestingly, human thought affects all kingdoms of nature. Man is the macrocosm for those kingdoms.

 

This is all that can be said as we attempt to sum up the fixed desire and the pattern or purpose of divine activity down the ages.

 

141.         We recall that the fifth systemic Law is called the “Law of Fixation”.

142.         The mind and the process of thinking (the power of concretion) is integral in the manifestation of God’s “fixed desire” and purpose.

143.         “Fixed desire” is obviously related to the carrying out of the divine “Fixed Design”.

 

 We know it to be profoundly inadequate as yet to express or to produce in manifested form the beauty of that design and to create in conformity with God's thought;

 

144.         We are being told that, thus far, human thinking is profoundly inadequate to truly manifest the beauty of God’s thought.

145.         We are being presented with the goal of thought.

    1. To produce in manifested form the beauty of God’s fixed design
    2. To create (in matter/form) in conformity with God’s thought

146.         It is obvious that we are being asked to help improve the quality of human thinking.

 

 but—age by age—the thinking capacity of man and his creative imagination have wrought out the slowly unfolding design, and will continue to do so;

 

147.         DK links mans thinking capacity with his creative imagination. The purpose of this union of capacities is to bring forth the “unfolding design”.

148.         Let us fix in our mind the thought of the fifth ray and this fifth purpose as gradually creating conformity to the Fixed Design in matter/form.

 

every [Page 245] great world cycle sees the emergence of greater beauty,

 

149.         We see how the fifth ray is being linked to the fourth and how the fifth purpose of Sanat Kumara is being linked, also, to the fourth.

150.         Let us remember that the present rays of the human kingdom are the fourth (soul ray) and the fifth (personality ray).

 

 and sees the subtle effects of man's thinking upon the subhuman kingdoms in nature steadily bringing the unknown to the surface, altering the nature of the flora and the fauna of the planet, and preparing the way for that time of wonder when the Hierarchy will again be exoterically directing the Plan upon the earth and aiding mankind to work with a fuller understanding of the divine design.

 

151.         In today’s study of genetic engineering (and, in general, the manipulation of the genetic structure of plants, animals and humans) we see a trend which could (if rightly guided) lead to a beatification reflective of the Fixed Design.

152.         The power of human thought is determining when related to the lower kingdoms.

153.         The Hierarchy belongs largely to the fifth kingdom of nature (the Kingdom of Souls). Through hierarchical thought the shape of things in the lower worlds and the relationship of those things to each other is being profoundly altered. Man is beginning to participate intelligence and wisely in this alteration.

154.         The seventh ray is a ‘Ray of Design’ as the fourth is a ‘Ray of Beauty’. The fifth ray works closely with both of these rays. The power to bring about conformity of the actual to the archetype is a fifth ray ability and is related to this fifth purpose.

155.         God, the Thinker, has thought. Now that thought has to be brought perfectly into expression in the lower worlds, utilizing the method of cyclic impulsion (rebirth and reincarnation). The fifth purpose is behind this process.

 

Here again is another reason for the changing plans of the Hierarchy.  The Masters have to prepare Themselves for this intended and imminent emergence.  They are faced with the necessity of changing Their techniques of work in order to meet adequately the demands upon Them.

 

156.         The Masters, too, are seeking to think and act in greater conformity with God’s Thought.

 

 It is far easier for Them to work, as illumined Minds, upon the mental substance of Their disciples than it will be for Them to work down upon the physical plane, relating the minds and the brains of advanced human beings.

 

157.         DK speaks of a condition of activity which entails, for the Masters, sacrifice.

 

 People are apt to forget that with each forward advance of humanity, the demands upon the Hierarchy change, new needs must be met, new techniques used, new and experimental methods must be employed.

 

158.         Many of these forward advances of humanity have been brought about through the use of the fifth ray.

159.         The power of Uranus and Aquarius are also involved in promoting these advances. Both of these energy sources are related to the fifth ray.

 

 As I write for disciples and initiates, I call this to their attention.  Their work of mental training does not end as they attain certain spiritual initiatory goals.

 

160.         One day disciples will be members of the Spiritual Hierarchy, but even then they will have to use their minds and the creative power of the fifth ray.

161.         The mind is forever under cultivation. Does one suppose that the Planetary Logoi and the Solar Logoi do not continue to train Their minds—though this training is a cosmic cultivation!

 

This fifth purpose is therefore closely related to the whole theme of "the garment of God" and to the emergence into manifestation of His "robe of beauty" as it is created and brought into being by humanity,

 

162.         Here we have an important and definitive statement. How shall the “garment of God” be rendered God’s “robe of beauty”? Right now that “garment” is not as beautiful (nor as functional) as it should be.

163.         Through the processes of cyclic reappearance, the garment will be brought into ideal conformity with God’s Thought.

164.         We see how closely related are the fifth and fourth rays.

 

acting as the medium for ideas from the superhuman kingdoms, and then influencing and swinging into creative cooperation the subhuman kingdoms.

 

165.         Humanity is manas. It utilizes manas to tap superhuman ideas and then intelligently engage the cooperation of the lower building forces of nature. This requires the use of occult science. This fifth purpose of Sanat Kumara is inseparable from the development and expression of occult science.

 

f. It is difficult for me to give any idea whatsoever of the purpose with which we are now concerned, because it is expressed in the relation existing between the significance of Desire, Will, Plan and Purpose.

 

166.         These terms must be carefully discriminated to the extent we have the capacity to do so.

    1. Desire reaches towards fulfillment. From the periphery, consciousness reaches increasingly towards completion and eventual centralization.
    2. Will originates form the center and not the periphery. It is the power which brings Purpose into expression.
    3. Plan creates a method in time and space for the actualization of Purpose (driven by Will).
    4. Purpose is the pattern of things in the Heavens which must be actualized “on earth”.

 

 All these words are symbols evolved by man in his attempt to grasp logoic purpose.

 

167.         There is a Great Conception, a Fixed Design, held in the Mind of God. It is intended that that Purpose will manifest. The Purpose already is; it already exists on higher planes. But it must compel all relationship in the lower worlds into conformity with itself.

 

 He recognises the impulses of desire, and in the course of the evolutionary process learns to transmute them [Page 246] into aspiration;

 

168.         Through aspiration man learns to desire that which is more beautiful, more “goal-fitting”, more in accord with the Divine Thought.

 

 he passes on to a vague groping forward in an effort to understand and acquiesce in the "will of God," as he calls it;

 

169.         There is a great Directing Power. At first man does not sense it, but later He discovers it and realizes that it is an ‘Irresistible Force’.

 

 as long, however, as human approach to that will remains negative, submissive, and acquiescent (as it does under the influence of the theological approach and in the manner inculcated by the Churches), no real light on the nature of that Will will be seen.

 

170.         The Will of God, demands not only submission; it demands understanding. Theology has often advised man to avoid the attempt to understanding the Divine Will. This is not the illumined way of occultism.

 

 It is only as human beings enter into relation with the Hierarchy and are gradually absorbed into the hierarchical life and begin to take the higher initiations that the true nature of the divine Will will be grasped and the purpose of Sanat Kumara be revealed by an appreciation of the plan, followed by a consequent cooperation with that Plan.

 

171.         There is a sequence here—a sequence meant to aid in the revelation of Divine Purpose:

    1. Enter into relation with Hierarchy
    2. Be absorbed into hierarchical life
    3. Take the higher initiations
    4. And in this process—appreciate the Plan
    5. And cooperate with the Plan.

 

All this will be done through the transmutation of desire into aspiration, and then into fixed determination.

 

172.         Again, we have a threefold process:

    1. From desire
    2. To aspiration
    3. To fixed determination
    4. And may we add—to “enlightened, enthusiastic will”

173.         We note that these are all Taurean themes. Taurus (with its principal ruler Vulcan) is closely related to Shamballa and, hence, to Divine Purpose.

174.         The transmutative process begins with an adjustment of values, over which factor Taurus rules as well.

 

 When, however, the initiate has related these phases of consciousness in his own inner experience, and has permitted those inner realisations to affect his outer experience and daily living, then the underlying Purpose will shine forth and he will no longer be working in the dark.

 

175.         Only inner changes in our own consciousness will reveal the “underlying Purpose”. It all begins with the right handling of our desire nature. According to the nature of what we value so we will undertake the necessary transmutative elevation or not.

 

  You see, my brother, that all that I can do in these abstruse matters is to indicate what you can do, as an individual, to fit yourself to grasp divine purpose, and thus see the divine design and patterns as they are in reality.

 

176.         Our consciousness does not yet grasp the real, but with proper preparation it can and will.

 

 Once you have taken the needed steps and complied with the requirements, the mystery disappears.

 

177.         There is no way to appreciate the Real unless we meet the requirements. To the untrained, unsensitized consciousness there is the registration of a  mystery; to the trained, sensitive consciousness, “the mystery disappears”. Illumination takes its place.

 

g. The final phase of the divine purpose is the most difficult of all to indicate, and when I say indicate, I mean exactly that, and nothing more definite and clear.

 

178.         The seventh purpose should, it would seem, be the most concrete, and yet it is elusive. We are dealing with the unsuspected tangibility of many subtle occult phenomena.

179.         We may judge from the following that the great symphony being composed by Sanat Kumara is ‘taking form’ (true form) within the formless worlds of the cosmic ethers.

 

 Does it mean anything to you when I say that the ceremonial ritual of the daily life of Sanat Kumara, implemented by music and sound and carried on the waves of colour which break upon the shores of the three worlds of human evolution, reveal—in the clearest notes and tones and shades—the deepest secret behind His purpose?

 

180.         This ritual also reveals the Beauty which Sanat Kumara intends to manifest and is in process of creating.

181.         Sanat Kumara creates ritualistically. All proceeds under law and order and respects the daily rhythms of the planet.

182.         The ceremonial ritual is occurring within the cosmic ethers. Using the analogy of the ocean, these subtle worlds are as an ocean of light in which waves of color are in ceaseless, orderly movement. The lower three worlds are dense by comparison (probably we mean the lower eighteen sub-planes) and the subtle cosmic etheric waves break upon this density just as the ocean waves would break upon the shore—a level of density greater than the density of the ocean.

183.         What we usually call colors and tones are unclear and even muddy when compared with the “notes and tone and shades” which are generated in the ritual of Sanat Kumara.

 

 It scarcely makes sense to you and is dismissed as a piece of symbolic writing, used by me in order to convey the unconveyable.

 

184.         Such is the vague consciousness of the presently constituted human being.

 

 Yet I am not here writing in symbols, but am making an exact statement [Page 247] of fact.  

 

185.         DK has often told us that sometimes He speaks symbolically and sometimes factually, but that (to protect the real Teaching) He will not tell us when He is doing which.

186.         We are invited to consider the forms taken by color and sound in the formless worlds of the cosmic etheric planes.

187.         These waves are as emanations of the Fixed Design, of the Archetypal World. They determine that which must be and will be ‘below’ when the lower worlds have responded properly to the cyclic impulses of Heavenly Beauty.

 

As beauty in any of its greater forms breaks upon the human consciousness, a dim sense is thereby conveyed of the ritual of Sanat Kumara's daily living.  More I cannot say.

 

188.         What happens to a wave as it breaks upon the shore? Its integrity as a wave is destroyed, but its influence “pounding the shore” or more gently washing over the shore, gradually brings about changes on the shore—the area of density is slowly changed by that which is both rhythmic and subtle.

 

Here are hints, therefore, as to the divine purpose; each of the seven supplements and completes the other six.

 

189.         We cannot consider these seven divine purposes in isolation.

190.         If would be profitable to take these purposes, two at a time, and examine their possible modes of interrelation.

191.         We remember these purposes arose from one of two streams of force emanating from Shamballa. One stream enlightened the New Group of World Servers. The other stream divided into seven streams each of which demonstrated as one of Sanat Kumara’s Seven Purposes.

 

 Only by attempting to grasp the whole inner synthesis will we arrive at the merest hint of the nature of that exalted consciousness which has brought our planet and all that is within and upon it into being.

 

192.         We are speaking here of the consciousness of Sanat Kumara (probably in His role as Planetary Logos) for Who else but the Planetary Logos “brought our planet and all that is within and upon it into being”?

193.         These abstruse purposes cannot be fathomed with the mind alone. They are revealed in that state of consciousness which contains synthesis. Their understanding is a revelation of the spiritual triad and is dependent upon the ability to touch and appreciate triadal states of awareness. They are initiate realizations.