Commentary on Rule I for Disciples and Initiates

8. A beam of light in a dark room brings to sight the objects in the room which were hidden in darkness. They were present all the time, but they were not registered by consciousness because there was insufficient light to reveal them. Some objects are revealed through an external light source. Some objects reveal themselves through internal luminosity.

9. Upon any dimension—astral, mental, higher mental, and above—an increase of light will bring to sight ‘objects’ (or, shall we call them, ‘perceivables’, for they are not necessarily ‘concrete’ objects) hitherto concealed.

10. Compared to what can be registered by consciousness, the human being registers very little. The other extreme is the Universal Logos, Who registers all within cosmos.

11. We, and all entities, are on our way to becoming (or, re-becoming) omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. These three states represent the finale of universal evolution.

12. Increase of light is related to the growth towards omniscience—knowing all, all knowledge.

13. On the Path of Occultism, the increase of light is considered a positive good.

14. All, eventually, must be brought to light, if we are to understand it (omniscience), be present within it (omnipresence), and have control over it and through it (omnipotence).

15. We read in the sentence under consideration of the “clear, cold light”. How to understand this expression? Is it the light, itself, that is clear, or, rather, are we dealing here with the clarifying light—the light that brings all to clarity.

16. One way to understand the clarifying function of light, is that the light generated by or radiated from the soul and Triad, bring clear vision to and into the worlds below themselves. The light of the soul, shining upon the vehicles of personality, for instance, clarify the nature of those vehicles and both their internal and interactive dynamics (how they interact with each other).

17. The light generated by or radiated from the Spiritual Triad, clarifies the nature of the causal body/Egoic Lotus (and, in general) what we would call the “Transpersonal Self”.

18. The greatest clarification can be expected when the ‘higher light’ shines upon the lower field.

19. However, the light generated within and radiating from any vehicle can not only illuminate and clarify the nature and dynamics of the vehicle/field ‘below’ it, but to a certain extent, can illuminate and clarify the very field in which the illuminating vehicle exists. For instance, mental light can clarify the astral and etheric/vehicles, yes, but it can also clarify the mental field itself. It is, for instance, possible to think about thinking, as well as think about acting and feeling.

20. The light of the mind can also be turned upon fields ‘higher’ than itself, but then it becomes ‘speculative light’ rather than definitely ‘clarifying light’. Through this mental light turned ‘upward’ one may understand how things are ‘above’, but one may also be incorrect. As the fields upon which ‘speculative light’ is turned become increasingly remote from the light source, the likelihood of error increases. For instance, while with my soul-illumined mind I may understand rather well the mental field, if I attempt to shed light upon the nature of the Monad, I will be far less accurate.

21. The light of the mind, in and of itself, is limited, and will not be completely clarifying with respect to the three lower worlds unless it is permeated by the light of the soul and Triad.

22. The light referenced in the sentence under consideration is, essentially, the light of the soul-infused mind—a blend of the lights of the fourth, third and second subplanes of the mental plane—as these lights are somewhat augmented by the light of the Spiritual Triad which begins as the first subplane of the mental plane).

23. On the fourth subplane of the mind, one can, discriminate between phenomena related to the personality and those related to the soul and, as an integrated personality, think in harmony with the soul upon the higher mental plane.

24. On the third subplane one can discern and understand the presence of soul (the subjective unifying factor) within the phenomena of the three lower worlds. “Spiritual Reading” becomes possible. The lower three worlds are seen as symbol.

25. On the second subplane (where only initiates of the first three degrees can think), one can think in concert with ‘other’ souls, within the soul field, and true group mind comes into expression.

26. On the first subplane, telepathic rapport with the “Mind of God” begins.

27. After “the burning ground has done its work” many obscurations and obstructions are removed. Obscurations and obstructions (for those less familiar with English) cover and hide the light.

28. The “heated” personality is not a force-condition in which clarity of consciousness is easily achieved. You have all heard the expression (used when people are engaged in non-productive arguments)—“Let us have less heat and more light”.

29. Before the experience of the burning ground, vision is obscured and obstructed. Upon the burning ground, there is a gradual falling away of impediments to sight, and thus a gradual clarification, but things are still too ‘hot’ and difficult to see really clearly. After the burning ground, when the dust of battle settles, and the smoke from the fire dissipates, there comes a great improvement of the power to see.

30. The burning ground here referenced is the one that releases the disciple (and the discipleship group) from personality control. Before the burning ground, one thought, felt, acted like a personality and ‘saw’ the way a personality would see. After the burning ground, the personality no longer looms so large, and the soul/Triad has established its perspective more strongly in human consciousness. One thinks, feels, acts and ‘sees’, increasingly, as a soul-infused personality.

31. We begin to understand that the “clear cold light” cannot shine forth when one is preoccupied by the task of being a person. One must sacrifice self-centeredness and become sufficiently decentralized, and then, that light can shine forth.

32. The clearness of that light is directly proportional to the coldness of the subdued and chastened personality. The personality has “been through the fires” and can, thus, see.

33. As the Tibetan suggests to us, one way to consider the “clear, cold light”, is to assign the word “clear” to soul light, and “cold” to the condition of the subdued forces within the personality—they are now ‘cold’ to that which formerly ‘heated’ them. We have all heard the expression of the person who fails to be excited by that which he is experiencing. He says, “That leaves me cold”. Well, this is what must be achieved—coldness to the preoccupying excitations of the lunar vehicles.

34. When the clear, cold light shines forth, the world is no longer seen or experienced the way it was when the disciple was more under personality control. At the third initiation (and this Rule is about happenings which occur in the ‘vicinity’ of the third initiation) personality control is relinquished. Personality is not yet vanquished (conquered), but at least it no longer directs and runs the individual. Mars and the Moon (the planets which indicate the animal nature) are now brought under regulation.

35. The very evident ‘lunar’ light in which the human being has lived for ages, gives way to increasingly warm and glowing solar light, and then to a light which is colder and more impersonal than solar light—namely, Triadal light (especially light from the abstract mind and, partially, from the intuition—these being the lower two levels of the triad).

36. Personality, in itself, is related closely to the concept of “heat”. Within the chakra system, the personality can be symbolized by the solar plexus—a chakra which is full of desire. If you check the Table of Creative Hierarchies on pages 34 and 35 of Esoteric Astrology, you will see that the Hierarchy of Lunar Lords (the Sixth Creative Hierarchy, which constitute the vehicles of the human personality) is ruled by Mars (the planet of “heat”—and a planet which {in its lower aspects} is controlled and subdued on the burning ground before the third initiation). Because this Sixth Creative Hierarchy contains the Lunar Lords, it is also, obviously, related to the Moon. Mars and the Moon are, for practical, disciplic purposes, conquered at this point on the Path. Heat (Mars) and instinctual responsiveness (the Moon), give way to clear and increasingly impersonal vision.

37. The clear, cold light is impersonal. The usual desires and attractions of the personality are no longer interfering with perception. Personality (unless is has become a fully functional sub-ray of the soul) is usually biased by its desires. It does not see the whole because it wants the part. The burning ground burns away such consciousness-obscuring desires.

38. When the Old Commentary repeats, “and cold it is”, an emphasis is being brought to the consciousness of the reader—the light is cold, and one had better get used to the idea. Human beings have been driven by personality ‘heat’ for a long time. When the heated condition turns cold, they may feel a sense of loss. Life no longer seems quite so ‘exciting’, and indeed, the excitation of the lunar lords has been reduced. The old attractions fade and normal life in the three worlds no longer seems so interesting.

39. So then, does all the joy and interest go out of life? Is one ‘cold’ to all one sees—cold and indifferent? Under the influence of the clear, cold light, does one live on—uninspired?

40. The Old Commentary is immediate in creating the balance. Yes, there is coldness, but there is also “heat”. We meet “heat” again, in a form different to the “heat” encountered in Rule I for Applicants.

41. This “heat” is “evoked by group love”. “Heat” is “spiritual energy”; no longer the heat of the solar plexus, but impulsed from the heart—the combined heart centers of all group members—the “group heart”. Another meaning for “heart” is, of course, “soul”.

42. Thus, at first sight, we seem to have a paradox. Our consciousness is in a condition of clarity, our personality elementals are cold to their former attractions, and yet, there is a kind of “heat” present. Group love has generated this new heat. The result is, that even though we are, as it were, ‘clear and cold’, we are animated as well. (Animation is the influence of the soul—anima.)

43. So the clear, cold group is in a condition of spiritual animation, and is pervaded by a stimulating group love—not a stimulation which “heats” (over-stimulates) the lunar elementals of the group personality, but a heat evoked by love and demanding the expression of love.

44. Unless the serving group is animated by love, the group soul is still very far from infusing the group personality.

45. It is important to realize that the clarity and coldness achieved as a result of the work of the burning ground, leads to a greater state of spiritual stimulation and manifest group love. The opposites are being united, and a paradox is being resolved.

46. The group is in a stage of high spiritual stimulation demanding action.

47. The group must move out, with “warmth” and in an “energetic” manner towards the field of service. In this kind of group work, the field of service is symbolized by the signs Pisces (the sign of those less fortunate than the server, and, as well, the sign of the impulse to serve and save). Inspired by love, spiritually stimulated, and with full energy, the group moves out to “toil in Pisces”. (See Rule XII for Disciples and Initiates)

48. Again, we are meeting the word “warmth”, just as in Rule I for Applicants. This golden, solar warmth is so important in our work.

49. If I may be permitted a personal note here, when I went to work at Arcane School Headquarters some twenty-two years ago, I was befriended by an older man who was in charge of the Lucis Publishing Company. I was being trained for his job. Somehow, we began discussing impersonality and coldness—in those days, I did not like that word, “impersonality”. I said, “What about warmth?” Well, he looked at me squarely (and I will always remember him for this), and said, “What could be warmer than the loving impersonality of the Christ?” I was transfixed. The point was driven home and I never forgot it. One month later he was dead.

50. So we are given a formula for our work. Our consciousness is clear and cold—we see things are they are. We are to be, in a way, “cold-minded”, and yet—warm-hearted. The group heart must be fully alive and “motivating’ us to move outward in loving service.

51. It sounds like the best of both worlds—but, of course, it is not easily achieved, because the impediments of personality have to be burned away before this group condition is really possible. And while the burning is going on, the group may experience much upset, or even ‘group fatalities’. Perhaps you have been through them.

52. Such a group as this, gives love abundantly, but not sentimentally. No personality motive lies behind the service offered. On its own level, Hierarchy serves in this way. When we fulfil this sentence, we emulate Them.

53. The days of elitism in esoteric groups are gone. Pythagoras’ esoteric school in Crotona, some 2500 years ago, suffered a disastrous end because they were separated from (and, hence, misunderstood by) the community that surrounded them.

54. The Tibetan monks (in the grand scheme of things) may have been driven forth for a similar reason—with very good result for the elevation of global consciousness.

55. Now, we serve, and do not hoard the knowledge and wisdom for ourselves. We translate what we know so the average person of goodwill can understand it and benefit from it. We bridge, just as Hierarchy is bridging towards us.

56. This does not mean we do not aspire. Of course, we do, just as Hierarchy aspires towards Shamballa even as it approaches Humanity.

57. Hierarchically-aligned groups in the New Age will learn this dual mode of activity—not easy to master at first.

58. It is our hope and anticipation that just as the group mind will surely grow over the next seven years, the group heart will keep pace—with the consequence that we will be useful to Hierarchy. Without the group heart, we will not be.

The Themes Included Under the Sentence 3

B. Group love is based upon the egoic aspect of the will to which we give the name ‘sacrificial love’ (cf. RI, p. 32)

The Master’s influence, as He seeks to aid His disciple, always produces transitory turmoil (cf. RI, p. 32)

Aspects of the higher will in some higher disciple are beating upon the personality will and evoking the sacrificial will of the Ego (cf. RI, p. 32)

In these words you have the key to group initiation. The light of the higher initiations can stream in when it is evoked by the group love. That light is clear and cold, but produces the needed "heat," which is a symbolic word used in many of the world Scriptures to express living, spiritual energy. I said "spiritual energy" and not soul force, and herein lies a distinction which you will some day have to grasp.

1. We should study sentence number three in relation to group initiation. The Tibetan tells us, it is the “key”. Each progressive initiation becomes clearer and ‘colder’.

2. Coldness exists below (eventually) in the lunar vehicles, but there is a kind of coldness of the heights’ (a broad perspective and great impersonality) which makes it easier to see.

3. The term “higher initiations” is again, relative. In this context, it means initiations including the third and beyond. Normally, the third initiation is not considered a “higher” initiation, but compared to the “initiations of the threshold”—the first and the second—it is.

4. Note here the relation existing between light and love. Without love—no light. The Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, is the Hierarchy of Love.

5. When thinking of the clearness and coldness of the higher light, it might not seem capable of stimulating energetic response in the soul-infusing personality ‘below’. But such is not the case. When one descends from experiences in the clear, cold light, the form nature is greatly (though rightly) stimulated. A state of agitation is not a state of super-abundant potential; clarity and coldness, conversely, are potent.

6. Three words deserve our consideration: “soul”, “spiritual”, and “divine”.

7. “Soul force”, in this context, pertains to force emanated by the Egoic Lotus, and transformationally effective within the personality.

8. Often, and elsewhere in His writings, when the Tibetan uses the word, “spiritual”, He refers to the dimension of soul.

9. Within the context of the paragraph above, He is referring to the energy of the Spiritual Triad.

10. Note the phrase, “living spiritual energy”. It tells us that, in dealing with the Triad, we have entered the realm of will or of the life aspect. When we enter the Triad, we begin to live.

11. When the word “divine” is used, it connotes that which relates to the Monad.

This group love is based upon the egoic aspect of the will to which we give the name "sacrificial love." This does not connote happy relationships between individual members of the group. It might, presumably, lead to unhappy outer, superficial interplay, but basically it leads to an unalterably staunch loyalty, underlying the surface of the outer life. The Master's influence, as He seeks to aid His disciple, always produces transitory turmoil—transitory from the angle of the soul, but frequently appalling from the angle of the personality. Similarly, the projection of the life and influence of any senior disciple into the periphery or aura of the aspirant or lesser disciple is—in its degree—likewise disturbing and upsetting; this is a point which should be carefully borne in mind, both as regards the disciple's own reactions and training, and as regards any effect which he may call forth in the life of a probationary disciple or lesser disciple in his own sphere of influence. These intrusive influences and their consequent effects which are produced upon an individual or a group by a Master or a senior disciple are usually interpreted in personality terms, and are very little understood. They are nevertheless aspects of the higher will in some higher disciple and are beating upon the personality will and evoking the sacrificial will of the Ego, and hence lead to a period of temporary discomfort. This the aspirant and the inexperienced disciple resent and blame the evoking sources for their discomfort, instead of learning the needed lesson of receiving and handling force.

1. The egoic aspect of the will comes from the so-called “sacrifice petals” of the Egoic Lotus—the third tier of petals (or energy vortices)

2. When the will aspect of the Ego (not the little personal ego) expresses itself, we are moved to sacrifice for the sake of love. For the sake of love we give up what the personality would normally desire for itself. We do this with no sense of deprivation or with a grim sense of duty, but because we are “moved” to do so by the warmth of the heart.

3. “Sacrifice” is said to mean, to “take over”—more so than to “give up”. Another meaning of sacrifice is “giving”. We give of our fulness, and thus take over (or assume) new levels of responsibility. We “master” (take over) the lower personal energies because the higher energies of love simply supplant them.

4. Sacrifice also means to “make sacred”. Nothing makes the energies of the personality sacred like the flow of selfless love.

5. In the flow of group love, the personalities of the members are sometimes sacrificed to group good. This is simply the law and is not engineered by group members who seek to discipline the personalities of their group brothers and sisters.

6. One cannot judge by the criterion of outer harmony. Personality patterns will be disrupted as love flows through. “Perfection calls imperfection to the surface”. (The Laws of Healing, IX)

7. Conversely, superficial outer harmony may conceal a lack of love. On the Path of Occultism, one must see with the “esoteric sense”. Things are seldom what they seem.

8. We all have our comfort zones, reinforced by years of habitual activity. Perhaps it is not so easy to see our comforts (on all three levels of the personality) disrupted. But the energy of a Master or of a senior disciple will do this. Growth requires an initial disturbance. The inevitably disturbing sign Scorpio, follows the sign of achieved balance and harmony, Libra (though many Librans would say they suffer a great deal on the way to that balance).

9. The Tibetan hints at different time-scales—one for the personality and another for the soul. What seems transitory in the eyes of the soul, may seem interminable from the personality perspective. When passing through one of these disturbing periods, therefore, the cultivation of the soul perspective is a wise course of action.

10. In the Rules of the Road we are told, “Some move ahead, he follows after; some move behind, he sets the pace.” The principle of hierarchy is omnipresent in cosmos, and everywhere the greater and the lesser (in realm of manifestation rather than in the realm of spirit) will be met. This means that we must be ready to be disturbed—even if we do not intend the disturbance, and even if the one who disturbs us does so unintentionally. Similarly, we may become the “disturber”. This disruption is not a planned act, but an effect of energies upon forces. It happens automatically.

11. If we seek to advance, we will always swing into the orbit of one who has achieved what we are seeking to achieve. Others will be moving towards the place whereon we stand. The soul lives in “calmness forever unperturbed” (the quality of the second ray). We must learn this occult serenity during periods of upheaval. We can do this if our sense of values is adjusted. “There is a peace which passeth understanding. It abides in the hearts of those who live in the eternal”. Clearly, if we are learning to “live in the eternal”, every passing personality disturbance will not be seen as crucially important. Detachment will enter, and the disturbance will appear to be happening not to “me” but to something else—the “not-self”

12. The Tibetan suggests, however, that the “intrusive influences”, although mostly unintentional, are usually taken personally. This means they are taken emotionally, or as a reaction of the “kama-manas” (desire mind—not the most objective and detached aspect of mind). Even in the personnel of the Tibetan’s own groups, selected by Him for individual training, there was what can only be called “reactivity”. It is the first and long practiced response. For those in training for discipleship and initiation, something more serene must take its place.

13. Note the Tibetan’s explanation for the difficulty—the higher will of the advanced disciple of Master beats upon (Vulcan—the “hammer” and ruler of Spiritual Will) the personality will of the lesser disciple and, if all goes well, evokes the sacrificial will of the Ego, which will flood the personality will loving-understanding and the will to relinquish those personality patterns which stand in the way of the higher will.

14. Of course, one’s own higher will can “beat upon” one’s personality will (another disciple is not needed in all cases), and the results will be just as uncomfortable.

15. The Tibetan’s advice—learn the needed lessons of receiving and handling force.

16. We can see how helpful it would be if our center of identification were elsewhere than in the personality vehicles.

C. The capacity to identify the group with the will or purpose of the Monad (cf. RI, p. 32-33)

The basic attitude of the would-be initiate: it should be one of purpose, governed by pure reason and working out in spiritual activity (cf. RI, p. 33)

The attitude of the initiate-in-training should be one of right spiritual motive – the motive being the intelligent fulfillment of the will aspect of divinity (cf. RI, p. 33)

The merging of the personality self-will into that of the sacrificial will of the soul; and this, when accomplished, will lead to the revelation of the divine Will (cf. RI, p. 33)

The release of the faculty of spiritual perception and of intuitive understanding, involves the negation of the activity of the lower or concrete mind, of the lower personal self, and the subordination of the knowledge aspect of the soul to the clear pure light of the divine understanding (cf. RI, p. 33)

Where, however, real love exists, it will produce the lessening of the personality will, the evocation of the sacrificial egoic will, and a constantly growing capacity to identify [Page 33] the group with the will or purpose of the Monad. The progress of the group is, therefore, from one burning ground to another—each burning ground being colder and clearer than the preceding one but producing sequentially the burning fire, the clear cold lighted fire, and the consuming divine fire.

1. Love is the great solvent.

2. Resistant personality states give may much more easily when they are ‘softened up’ by love.

3. The sacrificial egoic will asks that the group welfare be served even at personal cost. The person identified strictly as a person will find this difficult. The person who has learned to extend the boundaries of his identification and see himself more as a group-pervasive soul, will find the task easier and more natural.

4. The circles keep expanding. Personal identification is the smallest circle and relates to the lowest type of will. Egoic identification widens the circle and leads to group identification; one finds one’s center ‘extended throughout the group’. The will or purpose of the Monad embraces a still wider sphere of identification, until consciousness becomes, in fact, planetary.

5. Then, in beautiful language, a paradox is offered for our consideration, but by now we can solve it. We are asked to go (as a group) from one burning ground to another, anticipating that the each successive burning ground (each necessarily ‘hotter’ and more intense than the preceding one) will, somehow, also be colder and clearer as well.

6. We begin to realize that it is the lower aspects of ourselves which are progressively submitted to the flame, while the higher aspects observe, detached, within the clear, cold light.

7. The sequence of the “burning fire, the clear cold lighted fire, and the consuming divine fire” is important. It is simply the sequence from personality, to soul to Triad/Spirit/Monad. In the “burning fire” we are liberated from personality claims; in the “clear cold lighted fire” we see and understand. In the “consuming divine fire”, we become what we are. That which is less than essence is consumed and no longer obstructs a return to being.

Thus in parables the truth goes out, and gradually the initiate grasps the uses of heat, warmth, light and energy; he arrives at an understanding of self-will, sacrificial will and Shamballic purpose, and only Love (self-love, group love, and finally, divine love) can reveal the significance of these symbolic words and the occult paradoxes which confront the true aspirant as he attempts to tread the Way.

1. This is one of those marvelous little summaries of the foregoing ideas.

2. A whole sequence of training, perhaps covering a number of lives, is encapsulated into one sentence.

3. Such sequences are memorable, and we should remember them. Only by divesting ourselves of what we have been ‘carrying’, can we become sufficiently unburdened to experience and identify with Shamballic purpose. As we do so however, the burden of our service increases. The burden we ‘lay down’ is one of personality ‘baggage’.

4. Again the revealing power of Love is brought to our attention. If we study these Rules with our minds alone, we shall not fathom them. Paradoxes bewilder the mind because they are not conventionally logical. Love, however, has a strange resolving power, and reveals the truth that apparent opposites are really part of the same unity. If we take the Tibetan at His word, we simply have to ‘love and, thus, see’.

5. Some may have thought in this 28 Rules Initiative, that they are getting into a mentally demanding study. This is true only to a certain extent. The demands upon the power to love are far greater and more important. Let us remember this.

As we continue our studies of the rules to be followed by those receiving initiate-training, I would remind you of certain things, some of them already touched upon but requiring re-emphasis. Any usefulness which these Rules may have for you will be dependent upon your grasping a few basic ideas and then proceeding to make them factual as far as in you lies.

1. We are definitely in the midst of a course on initiate training, which does not mean that all of us or any of us are going to be initiate and initiated in this present life cycle, or that the group will become initiated. It may be so; it may not.

2. It is important for us to understand time from a more spiritual—more from the perspective of the soul, which counts one life cycle as very little. That we are in training for events which may climax in a hundred or two hundred or more years, should make no difference for us. We must begin somewhere, and we have a reliable esoteric teaching with which to work. Patience comes with an enlarged perspective. It allows one to “breathe deeply” and to wait. The urgent personality (ruled generically by Mars) is in a hurry. The soul (generically ruled by Venus) can wait patiently, and in beauty, until the hour of fulfillment.

3. The call goes forth to make the Tibetan’s suggestions factual. Master Morya said, “We are tired of castles in the air”. Some of us, having built more than our share, begin to know what he means. What an initiate is, he does. “By their fruits ye shall know them”. One of the major purposes of this group experiment is the ‘factualization’ of this apparently abstruse teaching. We begin and work with ourselves as we are—and do our best, “as far as in [us] lies”.

First, I would call your attention to what should be the basic attitude of the would-be initiate: It should be one of purpose, governed by pure reason and working out in spiritual activity. That is a sentence easily written, but what specifically does it convey to you? Let me enlarge upon it somewhat. The attitude of the initiate-in-training should be one of right spiritual motive—the motive being the intelligent fulfillment of the will aspect of divinity, or of the Monad. This involves the merging of his personality self-will into that of the sacrificial will of the soul; and this, when accomplished, will lead to the revelation of the divine Will. Of this Will, no one who is not an initiate has any conception. It means, secondly, the release of the faculty of spiritual perception and of intuitive understanding, which involves the negation of the activity of the lower or concrete mind, of the lower personal self, and the subordination of the knowledge aspect of the soul to the clear pure light of the divine understanding. When these two factors are beginning to be [Page 34] active, you will have the emergence of true spiritual activity upon the physical plane, motivated from the high source of the Monad, and implemented by the pure reason of the intuition.

1. He encourages us—the “would be initiate”. That is who we are. If we know the requirements, we can more easily intend to fulfill them.

2. The Spiritual Triad is the personality of the Monad. Purpose is related to the atmic plane, pure reason to the buddhic and spiritual activity to the higher manas. The three aspects of the Triad are thus represented.

3. The Tibetan calls our attention to the value of “right spiritual motive”. Perhaps every day in our lives should see a ‘motive check’—even if instantly.

4. If we are to intelligently fulfill the will aspect of divinity or of the Monad, the phrase, “Not my will Father, but Thine be done” warrants pondering. We are so familiar with it, correct? But think of the selflessness and decentralization required if it is to be fulfilled.

5. The sequence is again given—personality will, the sacrificial will of the soul, and the divine Will. How often the Tibetan tells us that we really know nothing of the will—in this case, the divine Will. Why should we be ignorant on this matter? It may be said that our habitual level of identification is too low. We think we are what we are not, and identify with an extension of the Spirit rather than pure being. Of course, this is so, because we are not ‘there’ yet; but our progress can be accelerated under the special testing circumstances now being both presented to and evoked within Humanity.

6. So training for initiation involves the trained use of the will. What else does it involve?

“the release of the faculty of spiritual perception and of intuitive understanding, which involves the negation of the activity of the lower or concrete mind, of the lower personal self, and the subordination of the knowledge aspect of the soul to the clear pure light of the divine understanding.”

This is an important statement but must be approached carefully. There are too many of us ready to negate the mind before it has been developed and used. The so-called ‘mental’ types and ‘sensitive-feeling types’ look at each other with distrust. Of course a balance is needed. The true initiate is both the occultist and the mystic (thus responding to both Uranus and Neptune, respectively).

7. The message here is that knowledge is to be used, but is not allowed to get in the way. It is definitely secondary to love, wisdom and understanding.

8. We may here be reminded of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which calls for the “stilling of the modifications of the mind” so that the chitta (mental substance) can faithfully reflect the higher perceptions.

9. Mind is the “slayer of the real”, yes, but it is also the “revealer of the real”. It all depends on the level of mind to which we are referring.

10. The trouble with lower mind is that it is complex, and, at times, fragmenting (rather than effectively discriminating). This is well and good when it comes to handling the tremendous detail to be found within the three lower worlds, but leads to illusion when we want to experience unity and “straight knowledge”, “infallible intuitive perception”, “spiritual perception”—all descriptions of the kind of ‘knowledge’ to be encountered through the use of the buddhic faculty (cultivated under Mercury and Neptune).

11. Those that begin to pass experience ‘through’ the heart and the heart in the head begin to grasp the nature of spiritual perception. For the average disciple, this is best done after lower mind has done its required work. Eventually, the cogitations of the lower mind will be superceded, the ‘three’ (the normal three aspects of mind—concrete mind, soul mind and abstract mind) will fuse and give place to, or unite with, the ‘two’ (a new duality), and buddhi-manas (intuitive abstract mind) will be established.

12. The disciple who can express buddhi-manas is entering initiate consciousness. This is a definite possibility on a wide scale as we move towards the sixth subrace of the fifth root race. In occultism, buddhi is the sixth principle and manas is the fifth. Numbers tell the story. When certain numbers emerge cyclically, it is time to cultivate the qualities and faculties associated with those numbers. Planetary unfoldment is orderly and carefully timed. The Masters can follow these cycles and we have to learn to do so.

13. Who is effective, spiritually, upon the physical plane? Not necessarily the well-meaning activist. The one who has synthesized divine Will and spiritual intuitive perception—the true initiate—this is the one who brings true spiritual activity to the physical plane. It is interesting that such high faculties have to be developed before one can work with greatest impact upon the lowest level.

D. These Rules are in reality great Formulas of Approach, but they indicate approach to a specific section of the Path and not approach to the Initiator (cf. RI, p. 34)

After the third initiation, the initiate is not concerned with consciousness at all, but with the fusion of his individual will with the divine will (cf. RI, p. 34)

The initiate after the third initiation is not then occupied with the increasing his sensitivity to contact, or with his conscious response to environing conditions, but is becoming increasingly aware of the dynamics of the Science of Service of the Plan (cf. RI, p. 34)

It will be apparent to you, therefore, that these higher spiritual faculties can only be brought into play when the bridging antahkarana is beginning to play its part. Hence the teaching which I am giving on the construction of the rainbow bridge.

1. The work on the antahkarana may seem intangible and difficult to grasp—not an especially ‘practical’ type of meditation.

2. But this is not so, if the higher and more distant objectives are to be achieved.

3. The faculties we possess as spiritual-soul on Triadal levels are simply not available to the personal energy system unless the antahkarana is built.

4. Thus, in this building, a groundwork is being laid for the possibility, one day, of functioning as an initiate.

5. The Ageless Wisdom helps put the human being back together. Osiris has been cut into fourteen pieces by His enemy Typhon, and Isis must find the way to reconstitute Him. Isis is the Ageless Wisdom. We can think of HPB’s book “Isis Unveiled” as the Wisdom revealed.

6. Cleavage and fragmentation are everywhere to be found, and the Ageless Wisdom leads us to reunification.

7. Under the second ray and Jupiter (a planetary god of wisdom and perspective) we are involved with the force which “brings all together”.

These Rules are in reality great Formulas of Approach, but they indicate approach to a specific section of the Path and not approach to the Initiator. I would have you reflect upon this distinction. The "Way of the Higher Evolution" lies open to the aspirant to the Greater Mysteries, but he is oft bewildered in the beginning and frequently questions in his mind the difference between the progress or evolution of the personality towards soul consciousness and the nature of the progress which lies ahead and which is essentially different to the unfoldment of pure consciousness. Had you grasped the fact that after the third initiation, the initiate is not concerned with consciousness at all, but with the fusion of his individual will with the divine will. He is not then occupied with increasing his sensitivity to contact, or with his conscious response to environing conditions, but is becoming increasingly aware of the dynamics of the Science of the Service of the Plan. This distinctive realisation can only come when his fused and blended personality and soul expression of will has disappeared in the blazing light of the divine Purpose—a purpose which cannot be frustrated even if at times delayed, as it has been during the past fifty-five years. (Written in February, 1943.)

1. Our attention is not to be focussed on how to approach the Initiator. This can become a selfish preoccupation and actually lead away from the possibility of initiation. But if the requirements of a section of the Path are held in mind, the work to be done in preparation for initiation, will be done.

2. “Formulas of approach”—the phrase bears pondering. There is a right way to approach; it has been tried and tested over millennia. We might as well learn from the experience of those who have gone before. It has been said in Ancient Greece, that “the beginning is half of all”. The approach is the beginning. If we approach correctly, we stand a better chance of performing well as we stand before the door.

3. Occultism is a science, and tries to remove, to a degree, the element of the unpredictable. Unpredictabilities there will always be, by why complicate our way when certain Rules, if followed, have been proven to lead to success?

4. The Teaching of the Tibetan stands out for its vast scope, greatly extending the detail of what was offered in The Secret Doctrine, in the preparation of which He also participated.

5. The concept of the “Way of the Higher Evolution” is one of the newer teachings offered to Humanity. A little about this “Way” was given in Initiation Human and Solar; more in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire; and much later, the teaching was expanded in The Rays and the Initiations. (When the first material was given, the extension offered in Rays was not anticipated; but the Tibetan was later authorized to give more. Humanity had progressed.)

6. Not that the information given upon the Way of the Higher Evolution is attainable by us. It will be many lives for most of us before this “Way” becomes relevant in any practical sense. But even now we are in preparation for those eventualities.

7. Thus, before we have effected the complete unification of soul and personality, we are presented with the ‘curriculum of the Spirit’, the furthest extension of which is the Way of the Higher Evolution. No wonder, at times, we stand bewildered.

8. We are, thus, learning to think about two types of progress—the first, progress in the development of consciousness, but also a type of progress in which consciousness, as we know it, is not the objective.

9. Of course consciousness is soul, and soul is a universal principle which exists throughout cosmos and, even, on its very highest levels. Far beyond even the ninth degree of initiation, there exists the consciousness of the Planetary Logos, or the consciousness of the Solar Logos.

10. But the Tibetan is trying to make a point here about the system of identification (characteristic of the higher initiations a human being make take). The modus operandi of this system if fundamentally different from a system which emphasizes a constantly heightening sensitivity to impact (though one can imagine that sensitivity also increases with increasing identification with the will and life aspect).

11. As the initiate begins to merge more and more with the Divine Will, he is not occupied with cultivating increasing sensitivity to contact. His attention is focussed otherwise, but the increasing sensitivity must accompany the ever-increasing sense of Oneness which identification brings.

12. So the Tibetan is alerting us to a “distinctive realization” which lies ahead of us all, and of which we can grasp only glimpses at best. He tells us what we must do to achieve it—transcend our “fused and blended personality and soul expression of will”. Since all of us are currently working on the very thing which must be transcended, we realize that identification with Life (on any consistent basis) must be for us, at this time, largely speculative.

13. That the “blazing light of Divine Purpose” may mean something increasingly real to us, is one of the objectives of our work together, but we must be realistic. Such a realization pertains far more to the fourth degree and beyond, rather than to any level of penetration we can realistically achieve. Still, at this time in the unfoldment of Humanity, the first aspect of divinity is being increasingly emphasized, so something of its nature must begin to penetrate our energy systems.

14. Notice that this Divine Purpose had been frustrated since 1888—according to the numbers given by the Tibetan in the last sentence. Every once in a while he will give such hints which point to certain conditions in humanity or inner energy/force conflicts between the Forces of Light and the Forces of Materialism. In this regard, one thinks of the simultaneous rise of materialism and militarism which was an evidence of the offensive undertaken by the Black Lodge, and which culminated in World War II.

Much of what I have said above will seem meaningless to you because the finished contact between soul and personality has not been brought about and the will aspect in manifestation is not yet understood in its three phases: Personality, Egoic and Monadic. But, as I have earlier told you, I write for those disciples and initiates who are now coming into incarnation and who will be in the full flower of their [Page 35] consciousness and service at the latter end of this century. But the effort you make to understand will have its effect, even if the brain registers it not.

1. This paragraph illustrates one of the Tibetan’s principle methods—offering us that which lies beyond our grasp, yet encouraging us to make the effort to understand. Often, He assures us that we will not truly understand, but that the effort to do so will enhance our capacity to think abstractly, which is a desirable development. It is the capacity for abstract thinking which will be distinctive of the coming sixth subrace of the fifth rootrace.

2. Notice that the time period of which the Tibetan speaks is now with us. Many of us should be in the “full flower of [our] consciousness and service”, or moving into such as the twenty first century unfolds. The times, therefore, are critical and the spiritual possibilities considerable.

E. These Rules are the only Formulas or embodied techniques at present extant which have in them the quality which will enable the aspirant to understand and eventually express the significance of the words of Christ, “Life more abundantly’ (cf. RI, p. 35)

When, therefore, your life is fundamentally invocative, then there will come the evocation of the will. It is only truly invocative when personality and soul are fused and functioning as a consciously blended and focussed unit. (cf. RI, p. 35)

Only the group is capable of invoking Shamballa (cf. RI, p. 35)

In the last analysis, these Rules or Formulas of Approach are primarily concerned with the Shamballa or life aspect. They are the only Formulas or embodied techniques at present extant which have in them the quality which will enable the aspirant to understand and eventually express the significance of the words of Christ, "Life more abundantly." These words relate to contact with Shamballa; the result will be the expression of the will aspect. The whole process of invocation and evocation is tied up with the idea. The lesser aspect is ever the invoking factor, and this constitutes an unalterable law lying behind the entire evolutionary process. It is necessarily a reciprocal process, but in time and space it might be broadly said that the lesser ever invokes the higher, and higher factors are then evoked and respond according to the measure of understanding and the dynamic tension displayed by the invoking element. This many fail to realise. You do not work at the evocative process. That word simply connotes the response of that which has been reached. The task of the lesser aspect or group is invocative, and the success of the invocative rite is called evocation.

1. Of the seven presentations of truth for which the Tibetan had made Himself responsible (see R&I, 251-255), He deemed the “Teaching on Shamballa” the most important. Throughout our studies on the Rules, it is the Shamballically related life that is constantly being emphasized, for the Rules, themselves, emphasize Shamballa.

2. Therefore, although these particular teachings were given out some sixty years ago, they represent something fundamentally new in the presentation of the Ageless Wisdom to humanity.

3. The Christ has promised humanity “Life more Abundantly”. We have all imagined expectantly what this may mean. Here we are told that these Rules, apparently abstract and remote from the considerations of mundane life, are the very techniques which will lead us towards the understanding and expression of “Life more Abundantly”. That “Life” is Shamballic in nature.

4. We are learning that “Abundant Life” is not just about some sort of abundant satisfaction, but it intimately related to the full expression of the will aspect. Since the will is an instrument of sacrificial love, it is also related to the acquisition of all things. “To those who give all, all is given.”

5. There follows one of the most clarifying explanations of the invocation/evocation process. There can exist some confusion is this regard and misuse of the concepts. This paragraph sets things straight.

6. Notice the important fact that the extent of the evocative response depends upon the “dynamic tension displayed by the invoking element”. This puts the responsibility upon us—for we are, for practical purposes, the “invoking element”—at least “in time and space”.

7. It is also true, however, that the higher forces are constantly invoking humanity and looking for the correct evocative response. Perhaps it can be said that we begin our invocative approach to the higher forces as part of our evocative response to Their invocation of us.

8. One can see how a “virtuous circle” can be instituted.

When, therefore, your life is fundamentally invocative, then there will come the evocation of the will. It is only truly invocative when personality and soul are fused and functioning as a consciously blended and focussed unit.

1. An important point is made here. Invocation is not only an act; it is a way of life.

2. We have studied the idea of “application” to the mysteries of initiation, and will continue to do so. That application is also not simply a formal act; it is a sustained energy pattern held at a required point of tension.

3. The characteristic condition of our energy system is, itself, an application and invocation.

4. The point is further made that only the soul-infused personality is truly invocative. When a personality merely desires something for itself and prays for that something, it is a kind of invocation, but a lower kind. The life of the personality has not yet become fundamentally invocative. The quality of soul is the magnetic, invocative factor. When soul life is flowing through the personality, the higher energies are necessarily summoned.

5. All this is another way of saying that if we want to know what the will really is, we must first be pervaded by the quality of soul—which is essentially (regardless of the ray of the soul) the quality of love-wisdom and loving-understanding. Although love and will can appear so different, the approach to the latter is through the former.

The next point which I seek to make is that these Formulas of Approach or Rules deal with the unfoldment of group consciousness, because it is only in group formation that, as yet, the Shamballa force of the will can be tapped. They are useless to the individual under the new initiatory dispensation. Only the group, under the proposed new mode of working and of group initiation, is capable of invoking Shamballa. That is why Hitler, the exponent of the reversed reaction to Shamballa (and consequently the evil reaction) had to gather around him a group of like-minded people or [Page 36] personalities. On the upper arc of the evocative cycle (Hitler being the expression of the invocative arc of the Shamballa force) it requires a group to bring about evocation.

1. The necessity of group-approach to Shamballa is fundamentally important.

2. The days of individualistic approach to the mysteries is now superceded by a “new initiatory dispensation”. Humanity has matured somewhat, and Hierarchy has changed its presentation of initiatory methods.

3. This does not mean that one has to form a group on the outer plane in order to approach Shamballa. The inner group affiliations are more important. When an inwardly affiliated group is also outwardly coherent, a potent condition for group progress exists.

4. As the antahkarana is built, the sense of inner group affiliation grows.

5. Even when the disciple is isolated from an outer group and meditating apparently “on his own”, according to his inner alignments, his approach may yet be a group approach.

6. The members of the Hierarchy, are, as a group, engaged in a most concerted approach to Shamballa. Yet, in terms of their major geographical focus, they are, for the most part, much separated from each other. Yet Their factual awareness of inner energic affiliation is so great, that in fact, Their approach is always a group approach.

7. Shamballa deals with great wholes and “planetary arrangements”. Only the group can possibly contain the energy which would be contacted if even the periphery of Shamballa were occultly ‘touched’.

8. Whether Hitler was overtly conscious of the need to approach the Shamballa Force in group formation is debatable, but instinctively he seemed to know.

9. This question of group approach is one of “co-measurement”. The Shamballa Force is so great that any energy center in Humanity hoping to receive and contain it, needs the combined force of more than one individual. It is a question of numbers and relative force magnitudes. Nor is it recommended that a few people gather in meditation and make a concerted effort to contact the Shamballa Force. When approach in meditation is made, imagining and ‘feeling’ the presence of the entire world group is useful and safeguarding.

10. Of course, the monadic aspect of each individual, can be approached by that individual in meditation. But Shamballa, itself, as an energy center is far greater in its point of tension than the Monad (which is but a tiny aspect of the Shamballa Force).

11. So great is this Shamballa Force, that it is said that the Hierarchy itself finds it safe to make full and direct contact only once a year, with its entire ‘personnel’, at the time of the Wesak Full Moon.

12. Notice the idea of reversal. The materialistic group reverses the approaches sanctioned by the Forces of Light. Right procedure is so important for spiritual success. The forces of obstruction reverse right procedure and, thus, achieve their objectives. They deliberately choose a pattern exactly contrary to correct spiritual procedure.

13. Notice also that those gathered around Hitler were not called “souls”, but rather “people” and “personalities”. The soul aspect (the love-wisdom aspect) was greatly deficient in their expression, while the first and third aspects were emphasized. Evil on our planet has much to do with the alignment of will and intelligence without the mediating influence of love.

14. In this paragraph the importance of our group affiliations is being emphasized. We begin by fulfilling the Leonian injunction to “Know Thyself”—as an individual. This allows us to know the group with which we may properly and wisely affiliate. After we have passed through these adjustments, approach to higher centers of energy and points of tension can be made.

F. These Rules are concerned — above everything else — with group initiation (cf. RI, p. 36)

We now come to my third point in relation to the Rules or Formulas and their objective. They are concerned—above everything else—with group initiation. They have other applications, but for the present here lies their usefulness. What, you may ask, is group initiation? Does it involve the taking of initiation by every member in the group? Can one person have so extensive an influence that he can hold up or delay or even prevent (in time and space) the group initiation? The group need not necessarily contain members who have all taken the same initiation. By this I mean that the necessary initiation of all the members simultaneously into the same group development is not required. Basically, what I am endeavouring to say anent these Rules has relation to the third initiation—the initiation of the integrated personality. They necessarily, however, have a correspondence to the second initiation, and are consequently of more general interest, for it is that initiation which faces so many aspirants today—the demonstration of the control of the formidable emotional nature.

1. The theme of “group initiation” is of great interest to the modern disciple. People always become more alert and attentive when the subject of initiation comes up because initiation, ultimately, means freedom and the full expression of the Spirit—which is a deep and fundamental desire in the hearts of all human beings.

2. There is, however, not so much clarity about what group initiation means, for it is (exoterically) a new experiment.

3. At this point we have to be clear and careful in our understanding.

4. The theme of initiation has surrounding it much glamor because it almost automatically evokes personality effort, individualism and egotism.

5. The ambitious disciple thinks, “if I do this, I shall be initiated”, and the group and service demands and requirements are overlooked or insufficiently emphasized.. Obviously, initiation is not approached through selfish ambition. The Tibetan, at one point, reminds His students that they found their way into such a spiritual group as His largely through the wish for their own advancement.

6. These selfish attitudes (so instinctive in the personality) have to be reversed, and the newly instituted dispensation of group initiation will assist with this reversal. Group initiation is the sanctioned initiatory approach for the Aquarian Age—the Group Age.

7. DK here gives us important information about the group which seeks to take group initiation. Questions concerning the relation to of the individual to the group immediately arise. Do all applicants in the group have to be at the same level of development? You can well imagine what would happen in groups if the Tibetan has said, “Yes”. But in fact, a range of levels of development in the members of the group is expected. These differences, however, must be handled harmoniously, lovingly, appreciatively, and with no personality competition. (Elsewhere, DK enlarges on this problem.)

8. Some groups might contain individuals who all stand at the same developmental level, but DK is assuring us that it is not a necessity (and in my estimation, not a probability).

9. The personality issues (competitions, jealousies, envies, animosities, belittlements etc.) among group members simply must be eliminated, and this in itself will constitute an intensive burning ground. (Rule XI will bring us directly into such a consideration). Only then, can real group work begin.

10. The group itself has a “Dweller on the Threshold”—the group “shadow”. The question of individual spiritual “status”, will almost inevitably cause this “Dweller” to emerge. The personality, instinctively, seeks to be “Number One”; soul-infused group process requires the emergence of the “we” rather than the little “I”. One day, when the group is a Shamballically related group, the “I” will again emerge, but it will be the ‘I-that-is-We’.

11. The paragraph closes with information about that section of the Path to which the Rules largely pertain—the third initiation—the initiation of the integrated personality. No so many stand ready for this initiation. In the Tibetan’s groups there were perhaps two or so who had “made the grade” and another few who were making application. The majority of the Tibetan’s students were applicants to the second initiation (an initiation that would not necessarily be taken in that particular incarnation, preparation for initiation is a long-term process). Why should we be any different?

12. Thus, as we interpret these Rules, we will realize that their foremost application is to the third degree, but we shall also try to find applications to the second degree—that which is, for so many, immediately relevant.

13. Note the phrase, “the demonstration of the control of the formidable emotional nature”. We have learned that the only unified vehicle within the personality is the astral vehicle. The physical nature is divided into dense physical and etheric-physical, and the level of mind is similarly divided into lower, concrete mind and higher mind. The second initiation, especially for those essentially upon the soft-line rays (2-4-6, where most students of the Tibetan are to be found), is one of the most difficult to take. (If my memory serves me, first ray disciples are also challenged by this initiation, with third and fifth ray types finding is somewhat easier.)

14. Mars is the great “rebel” and Mars is the generic ruler of the astral nature (with Moon and Neptune also included). This is the nature which is most difficult to subdue, and most resistant to mental guidance.

15. The Rules, basically, can have many applications. The foremost applications are to the subjects of group initiation and the third degree. However, higher initiations are certainly referenced (even the fifth), and, on a lower turn of the spiral, guidance can be gathered for understanding the processes of the second. The Rules for Applicants have reference to the first initiation, but clearly can be applied to the second and, in some instances, to third as well.

16. Note the use of the word “aspirants”. The terms “aspirant”, “disciple” and even “initiate” have a flexible range of application. Technically, any candidate to the second initiation is a disciple, and, perhaps, an “accepted disciple”. Yet at the same time, any applicant is an “aspirant”, aspiring to the next higher level of unfoldment. As well, an applicant to the second degree is also an initiate (albeit, a probationary initiate—a term applied to both initiates of the first and second degrees.) It is always interesting to see when DK uses these three words. Even Masters of the Wisdom are, in a sense, aspirants to the stage of unfoldment which lies immediately before Them.

17. In general, and most commonly, the term “aspirant” applies to those who have not taken the first degree. The term “disciple” refers to a range of levels (from those who are preparing to take the first degree, all the way to those who are preparing for the third degree. The term “probationary initiate” refers to initiates of the first two degrees, and the term “initiate” refers to those who have taken the third degree.

I would ask you to think much about this point which I have just made. Group initiation means that the bulk of the members are correctly oriented; that they are proposing to accept the discipline which will prepare them for the next great expansion of consciousness, and that none of them can possibly be deviated from their purpose (note that word with its first ray or Shamballic implications), no matter what is happening in their environment or their personal life. You need to reflect on this if you desire to make the needed progress.

In these short instructions, which aim only at a "tentative indication" (note that phrase), it is not necessary to enter into explicit details. In any case, if the Formulas or Rules are not intuitively clear to your minds, anything I could say would only hinder and frustrate my purpose.

1. In this paragraph, DK gives us the more global requirements: correct orientation, acceptance of discipline and the impossibility of being deviated. Each of us can question our readiness by examining our lives with respect to these three criteria.

2. We find both the second and first rays in the requirements. Through the second ray we are facing the light and have right orientation. Through the first ray, we submit ourselves to discipline and persist “no matter what”.

3. On the Path of Occultism there is a lot of “no matter what”! Note the word “matter”. We persist despite the changing conditions of matter and of what might be called, our ‘matters’).

4. First ray motion is characterized by “progress onward” and “driving forward through space”. There is much of the straight line in it.

5. Our group contains some who have been persisting for years, and some newer students, younger in their experience with the esoteric teaching, who are relatively new to this approach. Those who have persisted can help those who have yet to demonstrate persistence. But all will face the meaning of the phrase—“no matter what”. When one has passed through “no matter what”, one has proved detachment to oneself (and incidentally to the higher disciples on the inner planes who may be ‘watching’ and ‘guiding’.)

6. Notice that the Tibetan considers his explication of the Rules, “short instructions” and “tentative indication(s)”. However profound these Rules may seem to us, He is not going into detail. Thus, He is depending upon our intuition to grasp with understanding. We can fill in the detail for ourselves.

7. He states an important principle: “if the Formulas or Rules are not intuitively clear to your minds, anything I could say would only hinder and frustrate my purpose”. The mere accumulation of knowledge does not lead to understanding. These Rules cannot be grasped by the concrete mind alone. All that the Tibetan is telling us, and all that is being explored in these commentaries, depend for understanding on the unfoldment of the intuition. Something in us already knows the nature and truth of these Rules, and that something must be evoked.

G. Physical application of the Rule (cf. RI, p. 37)

Emotional application of the Rule (cf. RI, p. 37)

Finally, these Formulas or Rules are susceptible of [Page 37] three forms of application or interpretation and I would have you remember this, because you can thereby discover where your individual focus of attention is and if you are consequently functioning as an integrated personality. Remember always that only an integrated personality can achieve the needed soul focus. This is a fundamental requirement. These three forms of application are physical, emotional and mental in nature. But those words in their simplest connotation have true reference to the task of achieving one or other of the higher initiations. The only way their significance can truly appear is by grasping the following meanings:

1. The instruction in the Tibetan’s earlier books help us achieve the stage of integrated personality. Esoteric Psychology II, and A Treatise on White Magic, are particularly good for this purpose.

2. If being an integrated personality is a “fundamental requirement”, we should ascertain if this condition exists within our energy system.

3. An integrated personality is not at war within itself. It may, however, be at war with soul impulse, but that is another matter.

4. Within an integrated personality, mind, emotions and body, function harmoniously and under right direction to achieve that which is desired and purposed.

5. If the body is subject to inertia, if the emotions are full of turmoil and if the mind is chaotic or unclear, the condition of personality integration does not exist.

6. In the Tibetan’s work the question of “levels” is always arising. The three levels of application (physical, emotional and mental) are said to refer to the higher initiations. When studying the Rules for Applicants and the Rules for Disciples and Initiates in pairs, we shall always see analogy and the raising of level at work. The more advanced Rule is always a higher correspondence of the more basic Rule. In tracing the correspondences we shall learn much.

1. The physical application refers to the usage by the group of the given knowledge and intuitively perceived information in such a way that the needs of the larger group, of which the group itself is a part, are constructively served. The consummation of this ideal is to be found in the activity of the Hierarchy itself which, from progressive point to progressive point, finds itself in the position of intuitive interpreter and force transmitter between the centre of Shamballa and Humanity. The individual initiate, on the way to one or other of the higher initiations, has in his lesser degree to achieve the same dual function and thereby fit himself for the wider cooperation.

1. The physical application refers to the Law of Service, the third soul law, related to the third aspect of divinity. (The second soul law, the Law of Magnetic Impulse, relates to the second aspect, and the first law, the Law of Sacrifice, to the first aspect.)

2. The physical application is active and relatively external. The knowledge is used to meet the needs of the larger group. We serve by thinking in ever-larger wholes and acting in terms of the welfare of these wholes.

3. The physical application is certainly not to ourselves alone. It is an inclusive approach, and relates to appreciating the reality of groups within groups within still larger groups.

4. We are asked to function in a dual mode (as Hierarchy does). Hierarchy mediates between Shamballa and Humanity. This type of advanced mediation is not open to us, but we can learn to mediate between Hierarchy and the New Group of World Servers. Note that our scope would be much smaller. Hierarchy’s service would relate the extremes; ours would not.

5. Simply, the physical application of these Rules fits the disciple and the discipleship group for “wider cooperation”.

2. The emotional application has definite reference to the world of meaning, interpreted in a group sense. At present, well-meaning aspirants are satisfied if they are able to interpret their personality conditions, events and happenings in terms of their real meaning. But that still remains an individual reaction. The aspirant who is seeking to comprehend these Rules is more interested in seeing the situations which he contacts in terms of a world whole, and in searching for their meaning in terms of their group significance. This serves to decentralise him and to convey into his consciousness some aspect of that larger whole, and this in its turn contributes to the expansion of the consciousness of humanity as a whole.

1. The emotional application is, as we would expect, more interior than the physical application.

2. We are to enter the “world of meaning”, but not just in terms of our personality and personality events. It is assumed that, increasingly, we will develop the faculty of “spiritual reading”, and will be able to discern the higher meaning of the events and states of our personal life.

3. The student of the more advanced Rules, however, is thinking in broader terms. Consciousness is becoming increasingly decentralized and “planetarized”,

4. When we think of ourselves, we no longer think of ‘ourselves’ in the usual sense. We are the group. We are humanity—not just in theory, but in the factually-felt sense.

5. Initiations are a series of expansions of consciousness. The expanded consciousness thinks increasingly in terms of the whole.

6. We should test ourselves and see, during the day, how much of our thought is directed to the condition of the greater group in which we function and the greater whole in which we “live and move and have our being”.

“15. Speak not of self. Pity not thy fate. The thoughts of self and of thy lower destiny prevent the inner [Page 475] voice of thine own soul from striking upon thine ear. Speak of the soul; enlarge upon the plan; forget thyself in building for the world. Thus is the law of form offset. Thus can the rule of love enter upon that world.” (TWM 474-475)

7. It appears that decentralization is important not only for ourselves, but for humanity as a whole—helping to expand its consciousness. Self-concern and obsessive self-consciousness are limitations, as we well realize. Self-forgetfulness is one important key to effectiveness in service. “And may I fulfill my part in the Divine Plan, through self-forgetfulness, harmlessness and right speech”.

8. What do we really care about? What do we value most? Care about the greater whole is a definite, progressive step from identification with the third divine aspect to identification with the second. As Master Morya suggests—if we work for the “Common Weal” (the Greater Good), we are with Them (i.e., with the Masters).

H. Mental application of the Rule (cf. RI, p. 38)

3. The mental application has to be grasped and considered in terms of the "great light." It must be remembered that the mind is the organ of illumination. Therefore it might be asked: Do the united mental processes of the group as a whole tend to throw light on human problems and situations? How much does the light of the individual group member aid in this process? How much light do you, as an individual, register and therefore contribute to the greater light? Is the group light a dim flicker or a blazing sun?

1. These Rules lead us, eventually, to “See the Greatest Light” (the Word of Power for the Second Ray).

2. We are slowly entering the great Light of Wisdom which is found within Shamballa (at the heart of the One Fundamental School of Occultism in Shamballa).

3. Meaning will give way to significance. When during the group process we encounter certain experiences and realizations, we shall inquire about their significance for the whole.

4. There is no need to ask questions about this paragraph. The Tibetan is asking the questions, and they are good ones. Let us pause for a moment and address these questions to ourselves. We take stock and see where there is room for improvement.

5. We begin as a group which meditates and studies. We become informed and contact a greater light. But one day, soon perhaps, we will share the light we contact, and increase the illumination in the mental body of humanity. The Master takes an interest in a group when it begins selflessly to serve.

Such are some of the implications lying behind the use of these familiar words, and the careful consideration of their meaning might bring about a definite expansion of consciousness. This expansion normally follows certain clear and definite stages:

1. The Tibetan tells us how our consciousness might expand—through pondering on and careful consideration of these familiar words and ideas. If these words and ideas are taken at face value, there will be no expansion. When the mystery within the familiar is detected, then progress begins. Otherwise, our minds are numbed by the customary.

2. Five phases in the expansion process are now discussed: recognition, approach, arresting of the steps, testing and entrance.

3. A “door” is a ‘threshold of opportunity’. The Spirit within demands ever larger scope for expression—its birthright. We seek to pass through all portals until none remains—except for the portal which leads from finitude to infinitude (the last and final, though ever recurring, universal portal).

4. Incidentally, an important statement is here made concerning the “door” which is “left behind”. “Behind the group there stands the door”. There is certainly one door we have all left behind, and that is the Door of Individualization. This door admitted us into the fourth kingdom—Humanity. Another door must also be left behind. It is the door into the fifth kingdom—the Kingdom of Souls. In this Rule, we could say that this door is passed at the first initiation, for that is the initial door into the fifth kingdom. More probably, however, there is a technical reference here to the door passed at the third initiation. Only after the third initiation can one begin to think, realistically though tentatively, about the Way of the Higher Evolution—the Seven Paths

5. Presently, we in this group, are in phase two:

“The approach, under regulated and imposed and well-tried rules, of the entering one towards a visioned goal. This involves conformity to that which has been tried, known and demonstrated by all previous initiates.”

We, in this group, are approaching, regulating our lives, seeking to conform—and we have rising Saturn to help us do this. We work with trust—trust in the Tibetan’s statements, and trust that other disciples and initiates have gone before us and successfully proved the merit of these Rules.

6. It is amazing how much trust must enter into such a process. We are not in a position to ascertain the veracity of all that DK has said—but, He impresses us as eminently trustworthy, and so we proceed on that basis.

7. Then, in stage three, we arrest our steps and prove ourselves. It is the only safe way. We remember that the Way must be protected from us! Too much is at stake. If we should enter unproven and unready, we would not only destroy ourselves (and be set back for, perhaps, many lives) but bring harm to the progress of others.

8. With our own strength, knowledge and love (and without the reinforcement of the power conferred by the Initiator) we prove that we have reached the standard required and that we can “hold” that standard—“no matter what”. This stage will require patience and continuity. Here we are undergoing the “test of time”.

9. Then comes a more active stage. We have sustained our point of tension with continuity, and apparently, are of the standard that could be called “initiate”. Now our abilities are actively engaged, and we demonstrate our readiness in activity. In the ancient temples, the tests applied were sometimes life-threatening, and only the candidate who could use his initiate capacities would survive them to become the true initiate. In the modern era, we demonstrate our readiness in active service to the world—sustaining the necessary point of tension all the while.

10. Then, at last, the stage of entrance—stage five. Due and set rules govern this entry and yet freedom is conferred. The paradoxes are always with us in this process of occult development. Saturn is the regulator, and yet the Hierophant (Sanat Kumara) is, in this process, the representative of Uranus (the conveyer of freedom). In the study of Saturn and Uranus in relation to the process of initiation, much of value would emerge. Note that in the Central Group Chart of the 28 Rules Initiative process, Saturn and Uranus are both powerful (Saturn rising and Uranus conjunct the Sun)

11. These five states merit pondering. They are meaningful to us individually, and will have, as the years progress, meaning to us as a group.

I. One major test prior to each initiation: ‘the burning ground’ (cf. RI, p. 39)

One major test prior to each initiation: ‘the clear cold light’ (cf. RI, p. 39)

The clear cold light reveals two things: the omnipresence of God, the omniscience of the divine Whole (cf. RI, p. 39-40)

Before proceeding to study the final phrases of Rule [Page 39] One, I would call your attention to the fact that the initiate has faced two major tests, symbolically described as "the burning ground" and the "clear cold light." Only after he has successfully passed these can he—or the group, when considering group initiation—move forward and outward into the wider reaches of the divine consciousness. These tests are applied when the soul grips the personality and the fire of divine love destroys the loves and desires of the integrated personality. Two factors tend to bring this about: the slow moving forward of the innate conscience into greater control, and the steady development of the "fiery aspiration" to which Patanjali* makes reference. These two factors, when brought into living activity, bring the disciple into the centre of the burning ground which separates the Angel of the Presence from the Dweller on the Threshold. The burning ground is found upon the threshold of every new advance, until the third initiation has been taken.

1. The by now familiar ideas of the “burning ground” and the “clear cold light” are framed as two major tests. The first leads to detachment and freedom from personality centered forces; the second leads to expanded consciousness (plus a further assessment of the personality condition, accompanied by a revelation of the higher states to be entered).

2. These tests are the prerequisites for progress into the “wider reaches of divine consciousness”.

3. The tests can be seen as purification by fire and by light. Even if we pass the first, and are freed from the attachment to and lure of a certain segment of lunar life, can we stand the blinding revelation conferred by the second? The old adage says “ignorance is bliss”—not true, of course, but understandable in this context. The Tibetan has spoken of the difficulty of standing the “strain of knowing”. Probably, this strain is related to the “exquisite agony” experience by the members of the Hierarchy Who, observing human progress, intimately know humanity and know how much is at stake.

4. As the Vulcanian grip of the soul upon the personality strengthens, these two test are applied. Divine love begins its destructive work. Can higher Love destroy lower loves? It does so all the time, and even within our normal personality life, we recognize the principle at work. New love replaces old—though such “love” is often merely desire.

5. Then, some very important teaching follows. “Initiate conscience” and “fiery aspiration”. We should focus on the implications of these two factors. They contribute to the triumph of the greater love over the lesser. They also lead us to the center of the burning ground.

6. Have you seen in your own lives how conscience and fiery aspiration have brought you to the burning ground? Conscience is ruled by regulatory Saturn, which demands that we square our personal lives with spiritual Plan and Purpose. Fiery aspiration is Martian, and redirects the fires of the emotional body into spiritual usefulness. Note that these two planets are considered, in ordinary astrology, the “malefics”—“evil” planets. Obviously, to consider them so is a prejudice of the unenlightened human mind which overvalues form life. Saturn and Mars are great “benefics”, and right here is an example of how they help the candidate to initiation.

7. “Conscience” may seem to some an old-fashioned word, associated with the Christianity of the past 2000 years. Really, it is a most occult factor. By insisting upon the enactment of a certain pattern in the face of a lower pattern, it creates the friction which ignites in flame. The one who follows conscience will put himself in the fire.

8. Fire, we know, tends to separate those things which adhere to each other—especially those which wrongly adhere.

9. Is it not interesting that upon the burning ground one of the major separations to occur (on the way to essentialization) is the separation of the Angel of the Presence (the Solar Angel) from the Dweller on the Threshold? It is a separation in consciousness. It is not easy to ‘see’ either the Angel or the Dweller, and only at the third degree does one catch even the “first glimpse” of the Dweller as a whole. Before that we see what we might call the ‘fragmentary evil’ within our natures. This separation (for the sake of perception) is essential if we (the disciple “between the two”) are to learn how to identify with the Angel and reclaim the Dweller, for ultimately, the Angel and the Dweller must be reunited—but, on the Angel’s own terms. Upon the burning ground, then, there occurs a moment of great objectivity with respect to the Angel and the Dweller.

10. We are told that the burning ground is found at the threshold of every new advance until the third initiation is taken. This applies to the burning away of lunar patterns, for at the third degree, the Moon is vanquished as is Mars.

11. Other kinds of burning grounds lie beyond the third degree, but that which is burned, and thus reduced to essence, is no longer the lunar conditioning. Other and higher impediments have to be submitted to the flame. The most significant of these, as far as we are concerned at our particular stage of evolution, is the causal body, the ‘shroud of the soul’.

The "clear cold light" is the light of pure reason, of infallible intuitive perception and its unremitting, intensive and revealing light constitutes a major test in its effects. The initiate discovers the depths of evil, and at the same time is enticed forward by the heights of a growing sense of divinity. The clear cold light reveals two things:

1. What thoughts come to our minds when we read the words, “unremitting, intensive and revealing light”. One may think of the “hash glare of truth”. “Upon that Road the hidden stands revealed. Each sees and knows the villainy of each”. (Rules of the Road, II)

2. The revelation is of the extremes—in oneself and in the world. One can imagine that it would be hard to ‘contain the contrast’. This split is an extreme form of “cognitive dissonance”, and surely the fourth ray is required to reconcile the poles revealed. One realizes degradation and divinity simultaneously—and within the same energy system.

A. The omnipresence of God throughout nature, and therefore throughout the entire personality life of the initiate or of the initiate group. The scales fall from the eyes, bringing about—paradoxically—the "dark night of the soul" and the sense of being alone and bereft of all help. This led (in the case of the Christ, for instance) to that appalling moment in the Garden of Gethsemane, and which was consummated on the Cross, when the will of personality-soul clashed with the divine will of the Monad. The revelation to the initiate of the ages of severance from the Central Reality, and of all its attendant implications, descends upon the one who is attempting to stand "in isolated Unity," as Patanjali (to quote him a second time) calls the experience.**

1. The Tibetan here describes an amazing and paradoxical revelation. God is sensed in His omnipresence. It should be an ecstatic revelation (and, at times, must be). Yet, the revelation reveals a tremendous contrast as well. The “whole is seen as one” and yet the tiny individual in all his isolation and impotence is also revealed. The greatness dwarfs the individual, who must find a way to reclaim his strength in the face of the awesomeness of divine light.

2. What follows is a very interesting mixture of the “gold and silver threads” of the story of Christ-Jesus. The test in the Garden was largely the test of the Christ as He faced the sixth initiation. His united soul-personality (really, Triad-personality) we are told, had conceived of a certain way of saving Humanity, yet Shamballa and the divine will demanded a different approach.

3. What was consummated upon the Cross was not just the death and liberation of the Master Jesus (the fourth initiation) but a great penetration into Shamballic ‘darkness’ by the overshadowing Christ at the sixth. These are surely mysteries to us, and we can be eternally grateful to the Tibetan for lifting even a little of the obscurity which surrounds the actual truth.

4. The light reveals that appalling “severance from the Central Reality”—a severance which has persisted for ages. It must be an awesome moment. One is identified with Humanity and with the Planetary Life, and one realizes what suffering the ignorance of one’s true nature and origin has inflicted upon all the “Sons of Men” throughout the ages. The glorious fact is revealed, as well as the great ‘distance’ of human consciousness from the realization of that fact.

5. In the paragraph above, the Western and Eastern approaches are united. The experience(s) upon the Cross are related directly to Isolated Unity (the Eastern approach). The revelation in the clear cold light through “infallible intuitive perception and its unremitting, intensive and revealing light” isolates the whole, and simultaneously shows the individual his relation to that whole.

“Isolated Unity is that stage of consciousness which sees the whole as one and regards itself, not theoretically but as a realised fact, as identified with that whole. It is a whole which is "isolated" in the consciousness of the man, and not the man himself who regards himself as isolated. The word "isolated" [Page 392] refers to that complete organised organism of which the man can feel and know himself to be a part. The word "unity" expresses his relationship to the whole. It will be apparent therefore that this whole is something progressively realised.” (EP II, 391-392)

6. The true Dark Night of the Soul, is the stage which precedes the full attainment of the stage of Isolated Unity described immediately above. The perceived isolation of the individual during the Dark Night, is relieved through the attainment of Isolated Unity. “The dew drop slips into the shining sea”. (The Light of Asia—Sir Edwin Arnold)

J. The sense of being bereft, deserted and alone descends upon the disciple as he realises that the control of form and soul must also disappear. Here lies the agony of isolation and the overpowering sense of loneliness. (cf. RI, p. 40-41)

Pure identification with divine purpose; this is made possible because the self-will of the personality and the enlightened will of the soul have both equally been relinquished. (cf. RI, p. 41)

The omnipresence of divinity within all forms pours in upon the consciousness of the initiate, and the mystery of time, space and electricity stands revealed. The major effect of this revelation (prior to the third initiation) is to bring to the disciple a realisation of the "great heresy of separateness," as it focusses in him, the separated fully conscious individual—aware of his past, conscious now of his ray and its conditioning power, focussed in his own aspiration, and yet part of the great whole of nature. From that moment onward he knows that divinity is all there is, and this he learns through the revelation of the inherent separativeness of the form life, through the processes of "the dark night of the soul" and its culminating lesson of the significance of isolation and the freeing process which brings about the merging into unity through the emission of the sound, the cry, the invocation, such as the cry of the Christ upon the Cross symbolised. His exact words have not been transmitted to us. They vary for each ray, but all bring about the recognition of divine merging, in which all separating veils are "rent from the top to the bottom" (as The New Testament expresses it).

1. These are tremendous revelations. Omnipresence is the first of the ‘omnis’ to dawn.

2. It is clear that at this revelation, the mysteries of the third aspect of divinity are revealed.

3. The Third Ray Lord is called the “Divine Separator”. The negative reflection of this “Discriminating Essential Life” is to create separativeness within the worlds of form.

4. Although a far fuller realization of Isolated Unity dawns at the fourth degree, the initiate (immediately before and after the third degree) is already exposed to its implications. The one great “sin”, the “Great Heresy of Separateness”, is revealed to the candidate for the third degree—separateness as it manifests in his own life.

5. He is merging with the unity of life, and to do so, must see and remove the impediments of separativeness within his own nature.

6. It is revealed to the initiate that “divinity is all there is”. “The Macrocosmic Whole is all there is” (Rule V). “Let the group know there are no other selves” (Rule IX).

7. The initiate, however, learn this the “hard way”—through recognizing his own separativeness, the separativeness inherent in the life of the form, through the painful processes of the “dark night of the soul” and, eventually, through the moment of the most profound isolation experienced on the Cross.

8. The Tibetan gives us a profound occult hint about the cry from the Cross. The cry is really a Word of Power, which liberates the apparently isolated and bereft initiate (hanging pendant between heaven and earth) into the greater unity.

9. In Rule XI the group is seeking to the Word which will “move the fire within the Jewel in the Lotus into the Triad”. This eleventh Rule is related to the fourth initiation. In that Rule the Tibetan tells us, again, that the word is more the effect of the united group life, than a specific word which is discovered and then “empowered”.

10. Here, however, there is the hint that there exist ray formulas which liberate the initiate from appalling isolation into Isolated Unity. Certainly the words for such formulas would not be given in a text such as this. Like the formulas for magic, these words will probably have be inwardly ascertained.

11. These Words of Power promote not only identification with the larger life, but destruction of veils (which are “rent from the top to the bottom”). The veils are the very fabric of our life in the three lower worlds. Thus, it is clear to see why the formulas have to be withheld.

12. Presumably there are seven formulas, just as there are seven soul rays, seven soul ray methods for destroying the causal body (cf. Letters on Occult Meditation, beginning p. 15), and seven “Last Words” uttered from the Cross.

13. This paragraph is tremendously rich and deserves prolonged pondering.

B. The omniscience of the divine Whole is also brought home to the initiate through the medium of the clear cold light, and the phases of "isolated experience," as it is sometimes occultly called, is forever ended. I would have you realise what this can mean in so far as possible to your present consciousness. Up till the present, the initiate-disciple has been functioning as a duality and as a fusion of soul-energy and personality-force. Now these forms of life stand exposed to him for what they essentially are, and he knows that—as directing agencies and as transitory gods—they no longer have any hold over him. He is being gradually translated into another divine aspect, taking with him all that he has received during the ages of close relation and identification with the third aspect, form, and the second aspect, consciousness. A sense of being bereft, deserted and alone descends upon him as he realises that the control of form and soul must also disappear. Here lies the agony [Page 41] of isolation and the overpowering sense of loneliness. But the truths revealed by the clear cold light of the divine reason leave him no choice. He must relinquish all that holds him away from the Central Reality; he must gain life and "life more abundantly." This constitutes the supreme test in the life cycle of the incarnating Monad; and "when the very heart of this experience enters into the heart of the initiate, then he moves outward through that heart into full life expression." Such is the way that the Old Commentary expresses this. I know no other way in which to bring the idea before you. The experience undergone is not related to form, nor is it connected with consciousness or with even the higher psychic sensitivity. It consists of pure identification with divine purpose. This is made possible because the self-will of the personality and the enlightened will of the soul have both equally been relinquished.

1. Another paragraph of extraordinary profundity—worthy of a book in itself.

2. First, omnipresence was revealed; now, omniscience.

3. The phase of “isolated experience” is forever ended. When we are members of the animal kingdom, we do not experience isolation. There must be self-consciousness for isolation to be experienced. Entry into the fourth kingdom, the Human, at individualization, introduces us to millions of years of ‘isolation in consciousness’. Factually, isolation never exists at all as there is no factual separation.

4. The initiate is in the process of ending dualistic living. He has been both personality and soul, and the union of the two, but something new is emerging within him.

5. The Tibetan calls soul and personality “transitory gods”—an interesting term. A “god” is a great source of power and, like a king or queen, has control over its subjects. In the Secret Doctrine all gods are transitory—even Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Only the One Absolute Deity is permanent and eternal throughout duration.

6. For the initiate at this stage of development, a new energy center is poised to become the next “god”—that “god” will be the Monad.

7. The time for “graduation” has come. Form and consciousness are to be left behind—but, of course, they are universal factors in cosmos and can never, really, be left behind. It is simply that form and consciousness are to be his subjects rather than he, theirs. There comes a time in the life of the advancing initiate when time and space become his “divine playthings” (R&I, 107). He is reaching that point.

8. Note the word “translated”. The first initiation is concerned with transmutation; the second with transformation; the third with transfiguration; and the fourth with translation. His language is changing; all that has been accumulated in the worlds of form and soul is being converted/translated into what might be called ‘Triadal terms’. And, unlike the experience of so many who would render the Alice Bailey Books from English into their own language, “nothing is lost in translation”!

9. It is always agonizing when we have to leave behind that which is familiar, that which has worked for us, and which we trust. At this point the familiar patterns of millions of years of evolution are about to be left behind. Whether one individualized some eighteen million years ago, or more recently returned to the physical plane (already individualized), in Atlantis some, perhaps, ten million years ago, many many years are involved.

10. For the average person, death means leaving behind everything known and loved. This spiritually expansive experience is certainly a second death.

11. Why then, does he go ahead? The Tibetan tells us, that though bereft and feeling isolated, he has “no choice”.

“the truths revealed by the clear cold light of the divine reason leave him no choice. He must relinquish all that holds him away from the Central Reality; he must gain life and ‘life more abundantly’.”

Such is the compelling, irresistible magnetic power of truth revealed. Really, it is the Spirit within the initiate which forces him to go on. In the realm of Spirit, “like attracts like” and Spirit demand a merging with the greater demonstrations of Spirit which loom ahead. Spirit is relentless in its pursuit of Itself!

12. The Tibetan tells us,

“This constitutes the supreme test in the life cycle of the incarnating Monad; and ‘when the very heart of this experience enters into the heart of the initiate, then he moves outward through that heart into full life expression’.”

Although this Rule is focussed upon the third initiation, this particular discussion is about the fourth. At the fourth initiation, the center stimulated is the heart center. As well, the life principle is anchored in the heart. Knowing these two facts, we are in a position better to interpret the words of the Old Commentary. The only way into the fulness of “Life” expression is through the heart.

13. The Tibetan tries to explain this experience through what it is not, ending in the statement that “it consists of pure identification with divine purpose”. The great experiences upon the Path of Return come through renunciation and relinquishment. Sacrifice bestows all. These facts are so contrary to conventional wisdom within the worlds of form that considerable training is required to make us “fools for God”.