Rules X

Commentary on Rule X for Disciples and Initiates

Part V of V

Brief Commentary on an Overview of These Rules

We now come to a brief the synthesis of Rules X. As usual I will focus on a few more practical thoughts and directives.

We are dealing with an area of life which is the ‘next conquest’ for humanity in general. The Aquarian Age will see an increasing understanding of the etheric body and a growing ability to function therein, with the intelligent minority learning to consider it as the principal physical vehicle.

These two rules indicate an considerable responsibility for disciples and initiates as they face the potential developments of the New Age.

Rule(s) X.

For Applicants: For Applicants: The Army of the Voice, the devas in their serried ranks work ceaselessly. Let the disciple apply himself to a consideration of their methods; let him learn the rules whereby the Army works within the veils of maya.

1. The principal thing is to realize that (whether we will or no) we are ceaselessly creative beings. There is an “army” of lesser lives attending us, awaiting the opportunity to respond to our thoughts, feelings, and words.

2. This fact brings with its realization great responsibility. We cannot help but be the creators of forms which will either improve the general condition of humanity and the world, or fail to do so, perhaps even contributing to retrogradation.

3. If we hope to advance spiritually and to see humanity do the same, our life expression must be brought under wise rule and order. We must learn to regulate the expression of our lives so that when lesser beings per force ‘obey’ us, our motives and actions will be such that the automatic obedience of these lesser lives leads to the creation of forms/force configurations which align with the greater Plan.

4. This will entail, on our part, “occult obedience” which, at our stage of development, is primarily obedience to the soul which we have discovered to be our central subjective focus.

5. The many details concerning the “working” of this “army” will be discovered as the centuries slip away. They will be of great interest to us but are not our immediate concern. When we have earned the right to receive the magical formulas which control these lives, we will know more.

6. Our immediate responsibility concerns acknowledging the existence and work of this “army” and an increasing attentiveness to the quality of our thought and speech and, in general, to the quality of energy we release into the world.

For Disciples and Initiates: The rules for work within the veils of maya are known and have been used. Let the group widen all the rents within those veils and thus let in the light.

7. We acknowledge that there is a venerable tradition concerning these rules, which, essentially, are the rules for magical creation.

8. These, again, will be released to us when we can be relied upon to use them wisely.

9. Our task is to build upon the impact of certain great spiritual events which have in some measure opened the ‘door’ to the influx into human consciousness and living of spiritual light, love and power.

10. Three great souls have, through definite and dramatic spiritual ‘acts’, penetrated and ‘torn’ the mayavic force barriers which hitherto had held humanity in ignorance.

11. Those barriers, the “veils of maya” still exist and still resist the illumination of the human condition. The veils are tended and “mended” by the exponents of those reactionary forces who seek to prevent human progress.

12. It is our task to discover the “rents within the veils”, those ‘paths for the incoming light’, which allow humanity to escape the enveloping maya.

13. The ‘acts’ which produced these “rents” or ‘paths of penetration’ are to be understood and we are to act (inwardly and outwardly) in a manner which allows the entrance of even more light (love and power). This we do when our inner and outer acts are similar to or harmonious with the three original ‘acts of beneficent destruction’.

14. Do we truly understand the work of the “Lawgiver”, of the Christ and of Paul in relation to the veils of maya? If we are to follow in Their footsteps, acting in such a manner as to let in a greater measure of the inner light, then the reasons for Their success must be understood.

15. This understanding can come to us if we apply ourselves to an analysis of the spiritual value of Law, Love and Synthesis.

16. Humanity desperately needs a clearer understanding of (and experience of) Divine Law, Love-Wisdom and the spirit of Wholeness which we call Synthesis.

17. To be a “light bearer” is one thing and much needed. To be able to act in such a manner that one can wield the first ray to clear a path for the entry of the light is yet another.

18. This contrast between these two methods is suggested in the following reference:

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. (EP II 359)

19. Many of those who will study Rule X are very much upon the second ray, but they must also learn to work as the first ray works—in a penetrating and beneficently destructive manner.

Let the Army of the Voice be no more heard and let the brothers onward move within the Sound.

20. We are to come to terms with the Voice, the Word and the Sound.

21. Most students of spirituality, long accustomed to the Voice (even if unconsciously so) are now approaching an understanding of the Word. They are attempting to understand what they call the “soul” and, no matter what may be their soul ray, to bring the energies of Love and Wisdom into their life expression.

22. There is little understanding, yet, of the Divine Will represented by what is called the “Sound”. Approach to the “Sound” involves the building of the antahkarana and the ability to live an increasingly impersonal and sacrificial life.

23. Divine Purpose is guided into expression by coherent Will (atma) which propels the Divine Plan.

“In the third case the Spirit employs the will aspect or atma (in man), which has, for its distinctive feature, that coherent force which keeps the purpose of the entity ever in view, working it out through love in substantial form.(TCF 339)

24. Those who respond to the “Sound” have gathered some intimation of this Purpose and are learning to sacrifice everything to make possible the expression of this Purpose within the three worlds of human endeavor.

25. Those who respond to the “Sound” also understand and act according to the principal of brotherhood. This understanding must be accomplished during the second phase of approach—that in which response to the Divine Word is the objective.

26. By the time the “Sound” itself is approached, brotherhood is an established fact.

27. Under the influence of the Divine “Sound”, group consciousness becomes “God-consciousness” and the fact of Oneness is perceived as a reality.

Then let them know the meaning of the O.M. and let them hear that O.M. as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands and waits at the very centre of the Council Chamber of the Lord.”

28. The O.M is the “Word of the Soul”—not just the soul of the human being but the soul of the planet.

29. From one perspective, Sanat Kumara can be considered as the soul aspect of the Planetary Logos.

30. While the disciple and discipleship groups are to know the meaning of the O.M. as it sounds through the ‘individual soul’ (although in the last analysis, there is no individual soul), Rule X calls for a far deeper understanding of the O.M.

31. The O.M. is the Word of the soul of our planet. It is a cosmic physical expression of a still higher Sound:

“If I say to you that the words ‘the O.M., as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands within the confines of Shamballa’ signify that the one Sound, rounded and full, of O is sounded forth, but that the concluding sound of the M is omitted, does that convey aught to your intelligence? (R&I 203-204)

This indicates to us that the O.M. as Sanat Kumara sounds it forth is really the “O”. If the “O” is connected to the “M” forming the O.M., it is so because the sounding is occurring on the cosmic physical plane—cosmically a material plane. “M” is the letter of matter.

32. In many respects the O.M. is the Word of Sanat Kumara Who is a direct disciple of our second ray Solar Logos.

33. We are reminded that although Shamballa is the great first ray center on our planet, its Director, Sanat Kumara, is the greatest Example of the second ray upon our planet—the greatest Exponent of the Teaching Ray and, most significantly, the “Great Sacrifice”.

34. Thus, Shamballa through the instrumentality of the first ray, really serves the Synthetic Ray of our solar system. Thus it is that the O.M. (the Word of the second aspect of divinity) reverberates from the great Council Chamber.