Commentary on Rule VI for Disciples and Initiates
Part III of V
Focus for the Fourth Month of Study on Rule VI
3. For the fourth month we will focus upon the
second sentence of Rule Six for Disciples
and Initiates (from September 29th to
We might choose as theme for our meditation
a. Either the second sentence of the Rule:
“Let the group know the vivid, flaming, drenching life that floods the fourth when the fifth is known. The fifth feeds on the fourth.” (RI, p. 128-129)
b. Or sub-themes, DK is referring to in His commentary to the Rule (RI, p. 128-129), such as:
i. The knowing of the fifth kingdom in nature through the medium of the consciousness of the fourth and the sacrifice of the fourth kingdom to the fifth, of the human being to the soul and of humanity to the kingdom of God, is the parallel (on a higher turn of the spiral) of the sacrifice of the third kingdom, the animal kingdom, to the fourth, the human kingdom. (cf. RI, p. 129)
ii. Thus it proceeds down the scale—sacrifice always of the lower to the higher. (cf. RI, p. 129)
iii. The individual disciple has to decide whether he regards himself as an applicant, and consequently to be controlled by the "rules in time and space," or as a candidate for initiation who knows that life is one and that the form is of no material significance, except as a field of experience for the soul. (cf. RI, p. 129)
Rule VI: Paragraphs for the Fifth Month: (pp. 128—129)
Paragraph 1
A. The words:
2. Let the group know the vivid, flaming, drenching life that floods the fourth when the fifth is known
are of prime importance to those who would and can profit [Page 129] by what I am seeking to convey, as I interpret—as far as may be—these Rules. The knowing of the fifth kingdom in nature through the medium of the consciousness of the fourth and the sacrifice of the fourth kingdom to the fifth, of the human being to the soul and of humanity to the kingdom of God, is the parallel (on a higher turn of the spiral) of the sacrifice of the third kingdom, the animal kingdom, to the fourth, the human kingdom. Thus it proceeds down the scale—sacrifice always of the lower to the higher.
1. Although sentence #2 is part of Rule VI, it seems to apply to an understanding of all the Rules for Disciples and Initiates. We can see why this would be the case, for all these rules focus upon creating a more living relationship between the Kingdom of Souls and the Human Kingdom.
2. This is a remarkable sentence: we are speaking of the quality of life which emanates from the fifth kingdom of nature. That quality, compared to the qualities characteristic of the normal life of the fourth kingdom, is “vivid”, “flaming” and “drenching”—words which suggest a remarkable state of “enlivenment”.
3. No wonder, then, that we all seek to enter and live within the fifth kingdom of nature! Every unit of life innately ‘wishes’ to be ever more alive. Evolution proceeds from one stage of intensity to the next. The Path of Life is the path of intensification. For every universe there is a state of maximum intensity which is the essence of life for that particular universe. We proceed from intensification to intensification, heightening our vibration, learning, thus, to live to an ever increasing degree. For units of life of our kind, the ‘end’ is not in sight, but the principle of progression is understood.
4.
The term “knowing” is here associated
with the fifth kingdom. The
5. What is the “knowing of the fifth kingdom in nature through the medium of the consciousness of the fourth”? The normal human consciousness is not that of the true knower. It is the consciousness of the observer, the perceiver, the thinker, the reasoner—but not of the knower.
6. Human consciousness can deepen greatly, however, when the human being begins its transition into the fifth kingdom of nature. When soul contact is established a new factor enters the human consciousness. Incipient knowing arises.
7. What is the difference between being a knower and a thinker? Thinking is the process and knowing is the result. Thinking moves towards light; knowing is the registration of the light. The fifth kingdom in nature sees; the fourth kingdom attempts to see.
8. Each kingdom permeates and pervades a lower kingdom; the higher is present within the lower kingdom. The greater interpenetrates the lesser, but the lesser does not interpenetrate the greater.
9.
The Tibetan points to a parallelism
we must ponder: “the sacrifice of the fourth kingdom to the fifth, of the human
being to the soul and of humanity to the
10.
The group parallel to the individual
human sacrifice of the fourth to the fifth, is the sacrifice of humanity as a
whole to the
11. It is fairly easy to understand the sacrifice of the third kingdom to the fourth, in terms of food, animal products, animal labor and, in general, the service which the animal kingdom renders the human kingdom. Lower expressions of life provide a foundation for those expressions that are higher.
12. It is perhaps less easy for us to understand the sacrifice of the fourth kingdom of nature to the fifth. Let us ponder this matter.
a. The fifth kingdom ‘comes to birth’, as it were, ‘within’ the fourth kingdom—and especially within the consciousness of the fourth kingdom. In a way that kingdom always exists on its own plane (being a produce of ‘God’s emanation’), but its task is to link with the lower kingdoms and come to birth within them.
b. Each kingdom of nature has its objectives and, unless harmonized by Planetary Purpose, these objectives are at variance.
c. The objectives of a higher kingdom will always alter or modify the objectives of a lesser kingdom. That alteration or modification is initially experienced as a sacrifice by the lower kingdom (if the lower kingdom is self-conscious). If the lower kingdom is not self-conscious, then the alteration or modification is recognized as a sacrifice by those higher kingdoms which can see and understand the relationship between a given kingdom and the kingdom ‘above’ it.
d. The fifth kingdom, the
Kingdom of
Souls
, is obviously ‘above’ the fourth or human kingdom.
e. As the consciousness belonging to the fifth kingdom begins to arise within human consciousness, the habitual tendencies of the fourth kingdom are seen to be detrimental to the realization of the desirable objectives revealed by fifth kingdom consciousness.
f. It comes to be understood by the disciplic consciousness (poised between fourth and fifth kingdom consciousness) that unless the tendencies of the fourth kingdom are modified so that they correspond to and harmonize with the objectives revealed by the nascent fifth kingdom consciousness, those higher objectives will not be fulfilled. An inherent conflict is revealed between fifth kingdom consciousness and fourth kingdom consciousness.
g. The lesser must always give way (or make sacrifice) to the greater, so that higher patterns may take the place of lower patterns. In the great Universal Hierarchy of Lives, the highest patterns available within any hierarchical ranking of lives must eventually dominate all lower patterns, forcing these lower patterns into conformity or harmony with the higher.
h. So it is in relation to the Kingdom of Souls and the Kingdom of Humanity..
i. Plants need minerals in order to flourish; animals feed upon plant life (and upon themselves); human being feed upon plants and animals (and only rarely upon themselves!). In these instances, the lower kingdoms are actually needed to sustain the life of the higher kingdoms. Does this pattern hold true when comparing the Kingdom of Souls to the Kingdom of Humanity. Do the members of the Kingdom of Souls actually need and ‘feed upon’ the substance of the fourth kingdom of nature?
j. We might say that the fifth kingdom of nature is temporarily in need of human forms through which to manifest the consciousness of the fifth kingdom. It is the objective of the fifth kingdom to redeem the lives of the lower four kingdoms (human, animal, vegetable, mineral). The human kingdom is the macrocosm of the three kingdoms below it. If the kingdom of souls is to be successful in its planetary mission, it needs not only to work through the forms of the fourth kingdom, but needs the best creative products of the fourth kingdom. In a way, the fifth kingdom of nature works through that which the fourth kingdom has created and infuses those creations with its consciousness.
k. Usually, there is a change of form with every change of kingdom. Once, however, the relative perfection of the fourth kingdom has been reached (in this fourth scheme, fourth chain, fourth round and fourth globe), no further changes in form are needed to accompany changes in kingdom. This is why a Master or a Chohan will use a human form through which to manifest.
l. One of the sacrifices which the fourth kingdom provides for the fifth (and perhaps the sixth) is to provide the members of these kingdoms with human forms through which they can manifest.
m. In a way, the energy and force patterns which have been built during the evolution of the fourth kingdom are made available for the utilization of the fifth. The members of the fifth kingdom take human forms and human creations and make them live. They pour through these forms and creations the “vivid, flaming, drenching life”, flooding the fourth with their energy.
n. We might say that members of the fifth (and perhaps sixth and seventh kingdoms) have no bodies (in the three lower worlds), per se, other than what is provided for them by the fourth kingdom. Once a unit of life is very solidly a member of the fifth kingdom, after the fourth initiation, incarnation is no longer a necessity, but if such a member wishes to manifest in the three lower worlds, a human form must either be ‘taken’ in the usual way, or ‘created’ via the power of Kriyashakti.
o. We see, then, that the sacrificial relationship between the fourth and fifth kingdoms is subtler and more psychological than the sacrificial relationship between the third and fourth, or second and third, etc. Bodily sacrifice may, indeed, be involved (as when a candidate for the fourth initiation gives up his life for the sake of manifesting fifth kingdom objectives), but often the sacrifice is one that occurs in consciousness more than in the realm of physicality.
13. The dynamic of sacrifice is difficult to understand. It must be approached with idea of planetary wholeness in mind. Although one kingdom seems to be sacrificed to the next higher kingdom, it is the creativity, welfare and purpose of the whole that is working out in these sacrifices. Through such sacrifices the entire system and all lives within it benefit.
14. Once the ability to identify with the larger whole grows, the lesser sacrifices of forms and energy patterns associated with those forms are all seen as one great process by which Divine Purpose is working its way into manifestation.
15. A fundamental revolution in the perception of identity will change our way of viewing sacrifice. It is not as if a kingdom higher than our own arbitrarily wills the sacrifice of ‘our’ kingdom to itself. Rather, we as the Will of the Whole, will that sacrifice. We have to rediscover that our own will lies behind all the apparent sacrifices in the larger system which includes us.
16. Once self-conscious units evolve to the point where they know that “Life is One”, the drama of sacrifice will be understood in an entirely new way, and much of the sense of pain and loss will disappear.
Paragraph
2
B.
It therefore behooves the individual disciple to decide whether
he is an applicant, and consequently to be controlled by the "rules in time
and space," or a candidate for initiation who knows that life is one and
that the form is of no material significance, except as a field of experience
for the soul.
1. We are asked to make a decision regarding our ‘place’ within the initiatory process.
2. Are we an “applicant” (presumably for either of the “initiations of the threshold”—the first and second initiations), or are we a “candidate for initiation” (initiation, in this context, meaning the third initiation which is the first true and major initiation)?
3. In a way, we are what we are, but when an attempt is make to clarify our own minds regarding our ‘standing’, the very act of clarification may serve as an elevation.
4. Time and space are inescapable actualities. I will not call them “realities”. As long as our work lies within the lower three worlds (whether for the sake of experience or of service) we will have to deal with time and space. In a way, Time and Space are universal factors and the very fact that a universe exists demands their existence.
5. But although we may work within the field of time and space, are we controlled by the “rules in time and space”? About this we have a choice.
6. The task presented to us is to see through time and space, to see beyond time and space. When our expanding consciousness invalidates the reality of time and space, we are ready to transcend them (at least as they are known in the three lower worlds) and can become a true candidate for initiation.
7. It is at the third degree that the first real conquest of illusion begins. The most fundamental of all illusions is the idea that time and space are real. The third degree initiate knows that “life is one” and that form is merely an instrument through which soul can experience and express.
8. One who “lives in the eternal” and “knows the self as one” is rapidly overcoming the illusion of time and space. One who fulfills these two requirements is a third degree initiate.
9. We do not want to get ahead of ourselves. We do not want our wishes to take the place of a sober assessment of reality. But we can control the degree of our imprisonment in time and space by thoughtfully penetrating its unreality. We can use our illumined minds to assure ourselves that the prison of illusion we have taken for granted for millions of years is fundamentally unreal.
10. Yes, we are faced with a decision about whether we are an “applicant” or a “candidate” but we are also faced with the possibility of choices and actions which can turn transform us from one to the other.
11. Let us be clear in determining the nature of our values and the degree of reality possessed by our perceptions. One is transformed from an “applicant” to a “candidate” by subtle inner processes. The transformation occurs in consciousness. That transformation depends upon the extent to which we can grasp reality. Those who see clearly can begin to count themselves as “candidates”. Those who do not see clearly, no matter how strenuously they labor within the veil of illusion, must still count themselves as “applicants” at best.
The amount of text to be considered during this month has been relatively little. The import of the text, however, is considerable. The great theme of sacrifice between the kingdoms was brought forward for elucidation and the contrast between the “applicant” and the “candidate” were to be carefully considered. It is obvious that Master DK would have us become true “candidates”—those who have managed to leave behind any preoccupation with lesser disciplines in favor of the disciplines of soul and spirit. Discipline, per se, is inescapable. It is forced upon lives not yet self-conscious. It is also forced upon self-conscious lives, but these can acquiesce and intelligently cooperate with the enforcement or imposition.
If we are going to grow, a great change in consciousness is required. Form will only change when changes in consciousness precede changes in form. There is much internal work to be done. When done correctly, the outer world will reflect the inner transformation. The whole matter is extremely subtle, but such is the Way of the Occultist. May our growing “esoteric sense” reveal to us the necessary inner changes and guide us in making them!
With Love and Many Blessings to all,
Michael and Stefan