Discipleship in the New Age, I
PART III
commentary by Michael D. RobbinsAs you face this opportunity in a world which is passing through a major crisis, I would like to state that it is necessary for all working brothers and disciples to have three things in mind if they are to work efficiently and as desired.
First: Disciples should know that the Masters have three grades of workers. There are those doing the difficult work in the outer world. They materialise the forms through which the Hierarchy can express its intentions and they make the [Page 18] human contacts. There are many such disciples and they are doing this work from their own free choice and because they have realised the immediate and coming need of humanity and have pledged themselves to serve. There are, secondly, those who act as links between the Elder Brothers of the race, the Masters of the Wisdom Who embody the divine plan and the workers mentioned above. I do not say that they act as links between the disciple and his Master for that is a direct relationship which none may touch, particularly in the more advanced stages. This second group of working disciples, however, act as intermediaries in the working out of the plan in the world and they hold themselves in readiness to go anywhere when requested, thus aiding with their wisdom and experience and supplementing the capacities of the field workers, conferring with them. There are several such that are being sent expressly into the field at this time to hasten the work whenever possible and to increase the magnetic attraction of those centres through which the spiritual force of the New Age can flow.
1. Master DK begins by clarifying three grades of workers. The first group consists of the most materially active workers. They are related to the third, or “matter aspect” of divinity and to the third ray.
2. A hint is here given: it would appear that this group consists of “pledged disciples”.
3. Among the group of Masters Who serve humanity, it would appear that Master DK finds Himself in an analogous position. He is the “Messenger” and is involved in “field work”, and from the perspective of the Hierarchy, is surely involved in building the forms through which Hierarchy may express. This may be yet another indication that the Master DK has quite a bit of the third ray in His nature.
4. The second group of disciples are related to the “second aspect of divinity”, the “love-wisdom” aspect. The second ray is a linking ray, linking spirit and matter. Disciples on all the rays are in this group; overall, however, it is qualified by the second ray.
5. The members of the second group respond to an inner behest. They are meditatively attuned are ready to respond to need. They learn of this need through their inner contacts but also from their outer sensitivity.
6. Such workers strengthen and supplement the “field workers”. They are inspirers and carriers of quality.
7. Perhaps there are a fair number of such workers in the second group, but Master DK speaks of just a few. Their job is to hasten and magnetize.
8. Clearly, they are responsive to a will higher than their own. They are, perhaps, what Master M. would call the “nomads”, for their readiness to go anywhere according to need.
9. It seems that Mercury is very much their major planet. They are a kind of antahkarana between the directing Hierarchy and the outer workers.
This is all being done preparatory to a supreme effort which the Hierarchy of Masters plans to make. Should all of you in the field at this time work with complete surrender and devotion — giving of all your time and interest to the cause — it may be possible to prepare the ground in such a manner that the coming effort of the Masters may prove adequate to the emergency.
1. DK makes it clear that the disciples whom He is addressing are “field workers”.
2. The “supreme effort” of the Hierarchy of Masters lies ahead. It has not happened yet. It almost certainly relates to the intention to externalize.
3. There was certainly an emergency related to World War II. At the time this was written, it was not at all certain that there would be a World War.
4. Probably, the “emergency” here discussed, relates to the general condition of humanity and the need for the externalizing Hierarchy to help ensure human progress.
5. DK asks a great deal — at least the personality would think so. He asks the field workers to work with “complete surrender and devotion”. He asks them to give all their time and interest to the cause.
6. The word “all” is a strong word. We may say that those days were especially dangerous, as the Black Lodge was on the attack. We might say that such “complete surrender”, such devotion and consecration of time is not required of us today. Can we be so sure? Today’s world is extremely dangerous and we are hovering on the brink of a potential war which DK says humanity must avoid at all costs. This must be a way that is not fought on the physical plane, however much it may demand of humanity on the subtle levels.
7. How much of our time, interest, devotion and surrender is required of us? Let us assess the situation and decide.
The third group is that of the Masters Themselves and Their cooperating initiates. They work primarily upon the inner side. Their activities are confined largely to the mental plane and to the scientific use of thought. Thus They guide Their workers and helpers and influence and direct Their working disciples and the world disciples.
1. The third group of workers is highly esoteric. All of them have taken at least the third initiation.
2. Probably we have very little notion of how the Masters work with the scientific use of thought. We are just learning the ABC’s of this science.
3. We can understand, however, how effective it must be to work correctly upon those levels. It is not stated whether the work is with the higher or lower mental plane. But the Masters do stimulate souls and, therefore, their work must be related to the higher mental plane to some degree.
4. Do any of us have any sense of being guided or influenced by these streams of thought? We know that we respond to certain potent ideas and thoughtforms. Perhaps we do not realize how these stimulating factors are maintained as a sustaining presence in our lives.
5. Perhaps some of us have the experience of working inwardly, in the world of thought, and seeing the emergence of that for which we have worked. Our role is certainly a relatively outer one, yet increasingly we have to learn the kind of inward work which the Masters and Their high initiates have mastered.
There is at this time an inner intention of blending the occidental and the oriental approaches to the ancient wisdom and to the Hierarchy. Cooperation and the mutual interchange of wisdom and of knowledge are essential if this is to be perfected. The objectives of both methods — the mystic and the occult — are the same.
1. Master DK, writing in the early 1930’s, points to a process which we all witnesses in the 1960’s and 70’s. It still continues today.
2. Wisdom has come from the East and taken root in the West. The major fields for this impregnation has been the Americas (including Australia and New Zealand) and Europe.
3. We can gather here that the East is seen as the seat of mysticism and the West of occultism. There have been significant contacts of Uranus and Neptune during the late twentieth century. Mysticism (Neptune) and occultism (Uranus) have joined together in the consciousness of many.
4. We can imagine that the Buddha of the East and the Christ of the West are working together more closely than ever before. They have work to do during the Aquarian Age. In Them, the East and West are being integrated. As well male and female are approaching each other in a more balanced fashion. The strengthening of Libra in planetary horoscope will bring about many significant unions, blendings and mergings.
5. Under the impact of Shamballa, we find ourselves in a time of general synthesis. Aquarius is a sign of universalism, and the seventh ray links all factors. Globalism and internationalism are emerging for the first time in recorded history (we cannot know what transpired at the height of earlier civilizations, such as the Atlantean). The times are unique for the coming together of hitherto disparate influences.
Second: It is necessary for working disciples at this time to appreciate the immediate emergency. There is a crisis in the affairs of men. This crisis must be viewed in terms of opportunity and not in terms of cataclysm or catastrophe. Just as in the life of an aspirant to discipleship, there comes a life or a series of lives wherein there is direct conflict between the soul and the lower nature, so there is now an analogous crisis upon our planet. The object in both cases is that the soul may assume an increasing control over the form aspect.
1. DK alerts us to our opportunity, warning us away from a negative apprehension of the situation.
2. At the time of the writing, war was an imminent possibility. At least the Hierarchy realized this possibility.
3. An analogy of the social macrocosm to the microcosm is offered. Everyone can understand the process of human development. It makes sense that there should arrive certain lives during which the soul and personality of man will battle for supremacy.
4. DK simply extends the analogy to humanity considered as the macrocosm of the individual case. I think we can all acknowledge that we live in times when the soul and personality of humanity are contending for position within the consciousness of the human race. The greater potency is on the side of the soul (so great is the potency of the assisting forces) but the personality is putting up a tremendous struggle. We are living through what has been called the “last ditch fight of materialism”. This fight is not related to a single century or millennium; it concerns the entirety of the planetary process. This is the prophesied era for which the Hierarchy has waiting since its inception. That is a startling thought. A great decision is currently being made by and within humanity. On its outcome the immediate progress of humanity depends.
5. We can help with this battle by making sure that in our own little microcosmic situation, the soul is winning the battle and emerging into the dominating position. World salvation begins with the salvation of oneself — not the selfish salvation, but the redemption of the lunar vehicles and their consecration to service.
Looking at it from another angle, this planetary soul — functioning as a Hierarchy of Masters — is in direct conflict with the forces of evil. It should, however, be borne in mind that those forces also constitute a hierarchy of entities, constituting the material forms and, therefore, in their place, true and correct. It is a question, in reality, of what is the objective in any particular time cycle. The present objective is that the human family should now, as a whole, do three things and anything which militates against this is evil.
1. Is the Spiritual Hierarchy the same as the planetary soul? No. In fact the planetary soul is an aspect of the being of the Planetary Logos. The foremost vehicle for this planetary soul is found on the third subplane of the cosmic mental plane.
2. It is the second ray planetary soul which is attempting to emerge at this time in planetary history. This emergence must occur in and through the physical vehicle of the Planetary Logos. It is in this manifestation that our Spiritual Hierarchy (attuned to that planetary soul and representative of it) is assisting.
3. Evil is the good which should have been outlived. What was good once may no longer be so, depending upon the “objective of any particular time cycle”.
4. The forces of evil do not keep pace with the Divine Plan. They willfully refuse to move on, to take the risk of entering a new pattern of relationship in which their former power would almost certainly be much reduced. They wish to preserve their own selfish prerogatives in an era when their methods must give way to something better, more in keeping with the themes of the second solar system.
5. The battle, in the last analysis, is a power struggle. The Hierarchy has ranged itself on the side of the Solar Logos and of all that makes our Planetary Logos (in expression) more like Venus, more responsive to the influence of the Solar God. The counterforce seeks to evade the effects of these higher influences. No doubt they have their own ‘sources’ to which they would like our planet to become more responsive.
6. Much time has been spent attempting to catalogue the hierarchy of evil; the last number of centuries have produced their “demonologists” who have named and arranged the different orders of negative entities. Probably there is something to their classifications, but, finally, it may be a rather profitless (and dangerous) venture. In Esoteric Astrology DK has the following to say:
“Humanity and cosmic evil, focussed for many millennia of years in what has been called the Black Lodge. Speculation anent this Lodge and its activities is both fruitless and dangerous.”
But human beings are fascinated, almost titillated, but such speculation and they ignore the warning. From speculation can arise the wish for contact with these dark entities (magicians have often been thus tempted) and the result often is disastrous.
7. Perhaps Hierarchy, so directly concerned with frontal confrontation, knows the names and ranks of the adversary. One day, when it concerns us, we will also, but at the moment it is glamor to think that we, as individuals and small groups, can range ourselves against such forces. First we have to made sure that anything within us which is resonant to those forces is eliminated, otherwise we would not have a ghost of a chance in battle.
8. Shamballa and Hierarchy together stand against the great evil, protecting humanity from what has been called the “intention to destroy”. Our task, for the moment, is to build with positivity, creating the vessel for the New Age. By asserting the good we can assist best in the “battle for men’s souls”.
9. The Tibetan outlines for us that which we may do to counter the evil against which they so frontally fight. (Even in the Second World War, the Allies were but fighting the reflections of the Hierarchy’s dark enemies. One suspects that the Hierarchy had a much fiercer battle on their hands.)
1. Manifest the nature of the soul, through the integrated personality. The nature of the soul is love and the will-to-good.
1. The first requirement for those who would aid in the contest with evil seems simple enough. It is oft repeated to students of esotericism and is one of the main objectives of their labors. The nature of the soul is to be manifested through an integrated personality. This, of course, requires understanding what the soul really is, knowing how to contact it in meditation, knowing how to be translucent to its downpouring and ensuring that the personality is integrated. The sentence is easily written but entails all labors up to and including the third initiation. Still, a beginning must be made.
2. Soul is variously and extensively described throughout DK’s works. Here He simply describes soul as “love and the will-to-good” — emphasizing the second and first ray aspects of the soul rather than its nature as light.
2. Transfer the energy, now turned to the vitalising of the physical body and physical creation, to the nurturing of the creative faculty upon the mental plane; thus the entire human family will be transmuted into a dynamic, self-conscious, creative agency.
1. This requirement is reminiscent of the eleventh Rule for Applicants: “Let the disciple transfer the fire from the lower triangle to the higher, and preserve that which is created through the fire at the midway point”.
2. There is no way to elevate humanity without raising the energies of the etheric-physical body towards the vitalization of the higher chakras and glands.
3. Essentially, DK is asking the human family as a whole (and disciples as leading members of that family) to raise the energy of the sacral center to the throat center and thus become creative instead of merely procreative.
4. Humanity is meant to be the throat center of the Planetary Logos (or at least the throat center of the globe lord in whose energy system our physical Earth and its various vehicles are included). Sometimes, however, humanity functions more like a solar plexus center or even a sacral center.
5. DK is asking that the lowest part of the higher triangle (head, heart and throat) be vitalized and that humanity become creative — eventually in line with the Divine Plan.
6. This creative cannot occur if too much of humanity’s ‘disposable energy’ is downwardly directed.
3. Usher in a period of spiritual unfoldment in every kingdom in nature. At the close of this period, the door into the animal kingdom will again be opened and opportunity offered to waiting embryonic souls. Many also, at this time, can take initiation and hence the balancing of forces at either end of the human line of unfoldment. This is to be brought about by the renewed cyclic activity of the Great White Lodge and will be carried forward through the medium of those energies which are ushering in the New Age. This crisis is upon us almost prematurely, owing to the exceedingly rapid advance made by humanity since 1850. Through the driving [Page 20] urge of men themselves, a new realm and a new dimension has been contacted. Humanity has loosed energies hitherto unknown and the effects are of a dual kind, producing both bad as well as good results.
1. Master DK is looking a long way ahead, for the door into the animal kingdom will not be re-opened until some point in the “fifth round”.
2. He is calling our attention to the responsibility of humanity to consciously become the macrocosm to the three lower kingdoms. Many human beings today are scientifically attending to the needs or development of those kingdoms, thus the process is underway.
3. How humanity treats the lower kingdoms will affect the intended future process of individualization whereby opportunity will be offered to “waiting embryonic souls”. Among those souls are, perhaps, many who are now the domestic animals and who are under the care and supervision of human beings who love and nurture them.
4. DK is speaking of issues of planetary balance. If the door from the animal kingdom to the human is to be opened, it will be necessary for many in the human kingdom to move into the kingdom of souls through the process of initiation.
5. How will initiation within the human kingdom be promoted? The strenuous effort of the Great White Lodge will stimulate the initiatory possibilities in humanity (and also in the other kingdoms, for there are those Masters Who attend to the needs of kingdoms other than the human).
6. The present world crisis was precipitated, in part, by humanity’s rapid advance into new realms of energy. Perhaps the Shamballa Impact of 1825 was unusually powerful, for by 1850 (according to this paragraph) humanity was making very rapid progress.
7. It is difficult to know why the year 1850 is signaled out by DK. Neptune had been discovered in 1846, but no particular cycle of which we know began in 1850 (though there are a great many cycles of which we have no knowledge). Perhaps 1850 is a conventionalized date related to the Great Decision of 1854. Such Chohanic decisions have a tremendous impact upon humanity. The means of advance was probably the Industrial Revolution — the rapid advance of technology and scientific discovery. While Hierarchy and Shamballa were making Their Presence felt in powerful ways, it was humanity’s unexpectedly swift and powerful response to the proffered stimulation which, shall we say, almost “caught the Hierarchy by surprise”. This is what lead Master DK to speak of a crisis which is upon us “almost prematurely”
8. Probably the incoming fifth ray cycle in 1775 combined with the Great Decisions of 1805 and 1854, and the Shamballa Impact of 1825 were enough to give humanity an unusually potent stimulation to which it responded in an unanticipated way. The 1825 Shamballa Impact was the first such direct impact upon humanity since Atlantean times. Perhaps that was the reason for its tremendously powerful effect.
9. In other parts of the teaching we are told that atomic energy was to have been discovered in the Age of Capricorn, some 2300 years ahead of its discovery. The rapid developments of the Industrial Revolution set the stage for this discovery.
10. Thus, one of the greatest crises ever facing humanity has been precipitated, and we are all involved in it — “whether in the body or out of the body”. The possible outcomes are extremely promising for humanity’s development or the reverse. Hence the importance, at this time, for all disciples to take planetary evolution very seriously. The crisis is planetary. Individual, national and international crises are all part of it, but it is the welfare of our globe which is now at stake.
Third: Disciples must now organise for a steady united effort. This must take the form of a closer cooperation between all groups and a standing together in a closer relationship, thus strengthening each others' hands and, where possible, pooling resources. It should result also in a united push forward of all spiritual and occult agencies and the carrying of the truth along all possible lines, down among the masses of men. Just as in Atlantean days, spiritual forces were subordinated to the selfish desires of men, so today, they are being subordinated to the minds and the ambitions of men and the results will be profoundly evil. The world situation today demonstrates this. For though material benefit and physical prosperity might eventually emerge from certain countries where great experiments are being undertaken, they will only exemplify the triumph of the form and will finally come to naught. Just as every human being struggles through in some one life to personality achievement so it is among the nations. Yet at the heart of every nation lies latent the mystical soul and eventually — after dire struggle and distress — all will be well. Tendencies towards materialism and towards personality achievement must, under the larger plan and the will-to-good, be offset by a counter move of spiritual living and this must be the objective of all working disciples.
1. First, DK calls for united effort. We are all to help each other: individuals, other individuals; groups, other groups. Under the Law of Economy we are to pool our resources so that we may all progress.
2. Humanity, itself, is called upon for a great pooling of resources. This would mean “sharing the wealth” rather than “cornering the market”.
3. The spiritual groups should cooperate with each other rather than fighting each other. Spiritual truths have to reach the masses of human beings in ways they can assimilate.
4. DK issues a warning. In Atlantean days spiritual forces were subordinated to rampant, selfish desire. Today, these same forces run the risk of being subordinated to the minds and ambitions of selfish personalities. The results could be even worse than in Atlantean days. As a matter of fact, DK tells us this is already happening.
5. Material prosperity must not be seen as an end in itself (as it is in some of today’s wealthier countries). It is not the triumph of the national personality which is sought by Hierarchy, but the emergence of the national soul expressive of the soul quality of each nation.
6. DK almost promises “dire struggle and distress”. It certainly occurred during World War II, and it may have been of this struggle that He was speaking. From another perspective there may be even greater struggles imminent for humanity, though perhaps they will not have to be precipitated onto the physical plane as war.
7. DK takes note of the “tendencies towards materialism and personality achievement” — not essentially bad but wrong for this time in human history. He calls for the offsetting of these tendencies by “spiritual living”.
8. The disciples of the world are to be part of this “offsetting” process. This means, of course, that we have to learn to offset tendencies towards materialism and self-glorifying personality achievement in our own natures.
9. This might seem easy to do until the subtleties of the process are recognized.
10. The principle which emerges is that if we really wish to be of help in offsetting the world crisis now engulfing all of humanity, we must accomplish within our own microcosm (our individual energy system) that which we would see accomplished with the macrocosm (the pan-human and planetary energy systems).
Let such working disciples see to it, therefore, that their love for all beings deepens and that the growth of their love comes through their tapping the group love which lies back of all world happenings. My brothers, when will the time come when the world will realise that the love aspect of the Logos — as it affects the human kingdom — is focussed through the inner subjective group of workers? That love is now in the stage of anchoring itself physically through the new groups (such as this group) which are in process of forming all over the world. These new groups are centres (or should be) of divine love, magnetic, constructive and pure. See to it, therefore, that your conformity to the requirement is met in the measure of your [Page 21] physical strength, bearing ever in mind that you are equal to more effort and to greater strain than ever before.
1. How many injunctions are offered by the Master! Things are not as they should be and must be changed. Therefore, we must change our behavior and He is constantly reminding us of this.
2. Love is the great ‘weapon’. No matter how much we may know, if we do not love, there is no use pretending we are disciples of the Great White Lodge.
3. And it is “love for all beings” that is called for — not just love for those we ‘like’ and who are ‘like’ us.
4. This love is to be strengthened by accessing “the group love which lies back of all world happenings” (the love which underlies the happenings of the time” — The Mantram of Unification). But to do this, we must actually sense this love, perceive and feel this love. This may not be easy to do because it is so much covered over by events which seem entirely other than loving.
5. Then comes a great exhortation. DK asks us when the world will realize the power and method of expression of the Logos’ love nature. Really, He is also asking when we (disciples) will realize the same things. That love nature is focussed in the inner groups of workers (of which the Hierarchy is the great Example).
6. The new groups, such as the group of disciples to whom He was addressing these instructions (and such as our groups) are to become anchor points for this descending Logoic Love. But are they? Are we working through centers of divine love which are “magnetic, constructive and pure”. DK wanted this for His immediate group of chelas and, no doubt, He wants it for groups such as ours.
7. The message is clear: unless the energy of Divine Love is pouring through such groups they are not true representatives of the Spiritual Hierarchy and of the Planetary Logos Who stands ‘behind’ and ‘within’ Hierarchy.
8. Then, this potent statement:
“See to it, therefore, that your conformity to the requirement is met in the measure of your physical strength, bearing ever in mind that you are equal to more effort and to greater strain than ever before”.He is demanding from us a total commitment according to the measure of our physical strength. He might well have included reference to our mental and emotional strength. A very great effort by Hierarchy is now in process. That effort is evoking an effort, similar in kind but not in intensity, from Hierarchy’s chelas. Basically, the Master is asking us to intensify our effort.
9. For our encouragement, He tells us something uplifting about our capacity: we are stronger than ever before and can bear more strain than ever before. In short, we can do far more than we normally think we can, and should get about the business of doing it.
10. When we hear words like this, do we feel that the Master is addressing us? Do we take these injunctions to heart and are we ready and willing to act upon them? I hope this is the case, because the great hierarchical effort needs more committed workers than ever before — functioning at the peak of their strength and efficiency, and in the fullest expression of love-wisdom possible for them.
This experiment which I have instituted and to which you have voluntarily and willingly submitted yourselves is one undertaken for group purposes. The Hierarchy seeks to discover how sensitive groups are, as a whole, to subjective guidance and instruction, and how free the channels of communication are between the various individuals in the group and the Master, and between the various groups within the Ashram of a Master. A Master's group of disciples, upon the inner side of life, forms an integrated organism, characterised by mutual life, love and interplay. The relationships in such a group are entirely on mental and astral levels and hence the limitations of the etheric force body and of the physical brain are not felt. Needless to say the fundamental relation is on soul levels. The fact that the etheric body and the physical brain lie outside these basic relations where the Ashram is concerned leads to greater facility in understanding and to reciprocal interplay.
1. DK re-enunciates the group theme. Reminding all that they “knew what they were getting into”, He reaffirms the group nature of the experiment, placing the whole experiment in relation to a project undertaken by Hierarchy as a whole.
2. Hierarchy wants to “get through” and needs sensitive groups (not just sensitive individuals) in order to be successful.
3. The Master seeks closer communication with sensitive individuals within these groups. As well, there is to be increasing sensitivity and free communication between the individuals which such groups and between the various groups related to the Master.
4. Hierarchy is ruled by all planets and all signs. In this case, the Hierarchy is involved in an Aquarian/Uranian/Jupiterian experiment, and groups are being tested out for their fitness.
5. DK describes the nature of the interplay existing within inner groups. Life and love characterize this interplay — freed from the limits of the etheric force body and physical body. The main relationship in such groups are mental/astral, and even more fundamentally, of the soul.
6. The outer groups are not as free and work under the burden of the etheric and physical bodies.
7. Hence the difficulty is preparing outer groups to mirror, as much as possible, the kind of vital interplay which occurs between members of the inner group when such members are focussed on the subtle planes (many of them, out of the body).
It is wise to remember, however, that the astral potency is far more strongly felt on the physical plane than elsewhere and hence the major emphasis laid upon emotional-desire control in all treatises on discipleship or on preparation for that state. It is not easy for the average beginner on the Path of Discipleship to grasp this or to see the necessity for the rules and suggestions made. For some people to conform to rule and discipline is not easy unless it is entirely self-initiated. The suggestions which I make to you, my brothers, are only suggestions but it is surely the part of wisdom to follow them as long as you have voluntarily put yourselves under my tuition. Your working under me has been entirely of your own free will and choice. You are subjected to no compulsion. Other types of disciples evince willingness to follow instructions but their real difficulty consists in bringing the life into conformity with the desired rhythms. The narrow path, which all disciples have to tread, requires obedience to the ancient rules for disciples. This is given willingly and with eyes open, though no rigid adherence to such rules is ever expected. The disciple grows through intelligently adapting his life to these requirements as far as is reasonably possible and not by adapting the requirements [Page 22] to his life. Flexibility within certain limits is always needed but that flexibility must not be set in motion by any personality inertia or mental questioning.
1. DK calls our attention to the strength of “the astral potency”. The members of the outer groups feel it far more strongly than those in the inner groups. The astral potency can act as a deterrent to group love and right group functioning, hence the need for its control — a need not easily appreciated, especially by beginners. Are we beginners? He often seems to say so.
2. DK refers to people who do not wish to conform to rule and discipline unless it is self-initiated. These would be, primarily, first ray types, or those in whom the Sun (as an astrological indicator) is very strong, or those for whom Leo or Aries are prominent.
3. But DK asks us to think of the wise course of action. Is it not wise for those who have willingly placed themselves under the Master’s tuition, to attempt to conform to His suggestions? The answer, of course, is obvious, but there will always be those who will rebel in various ways even against the Master — such is the strength of the self-reinforcing personality.
4. DK is a second ray Master and so He does not use force as a first ray Master might. For instance in Leaves of Morya’s Garden, the Master says:
“When I say act, exhaust all the resources of action.
When I say silence, seek all the means of silence”. (LMG 375)A command is given, a directive, and the Master expects compliance. This is not the second ray way.
5. Nevertheless, with silent will and deep understanding, DK does express the expectation that His students will be sensible enough to conform to His suggestions; it would certainly be in their best interests and is necessary for the work within any Ashram. The Master’s wishes must be obeyed.
6. The first type of disciple — the kind who seeks to impose his own discipline, not easily accepting discipline from others, will often have a strong first ray. DK now speaks of another type. This other type would gladly follow instructions, but cannot seem to bring the life “into conformity with the desired rhythms”. This type would have more of the soft-line rays in his/her makeup.
7. Disciples are treading a “narrow path” we are told; after all, the Path of Discipleship is ruled, in part, by Saturn and Saturn is strict. On this Path “obedience to the ancient rules for disciples is required”.
8. We live in very Uranian times. We are on the brink of what might be understood as an ‘Age of Freedom’. Aquarius and Uranus, at length, confer this freedom. Perhaps the concept of obedience seems old fashioned, a relic of the Piscean Age which we are now rapidly leaving behind.
9. Should this be our attitude we would be mistaken. The requirement for obedience becomes ever more strict, the higher we ascend. Can one imagine disobedience to the Lord of the World? Fortunately, an increasing identification with the higher Will, makes the necessary obedience almost second nature, but even the Christ had to demonstrate His acquiescence in the Garden of Gethsemene.
10. The obedience expected is not “rigid”; some flexibility there must be, and it is allowed. But concerning this flexibility an important statement is made:
“The disciple grows through intelligently adapting his life to these requirements as far as is reasonably possible and not by adapting the requirements to his life. Flexibility within certain limits is always needed but that flexibility must not be set in motion by any personality inertia or mental questioning”.11. The principles are to be held firm. The disciple is to have sufficient intuition to recognize their value. There is an attitude of “mental questioning” which, really, is nothing but a ploy to avoid commitment. As well, personality inertia sometimes rules and encourages us to question the value of rules to which we know we should conform. The personality must not be in control, demanding flexibility in the fulfillment of the ancient rules in order to preserve its own comfort. Let us examine ourselves closely to see if we ever fall into this trap.
12. The Hierarchy is an adaptable body of Servers; the Divine Plan itself is an adaptation of Divine Purpose. Hierarchy realizes the necessity of right adaptation. What is not allowed, however, is the attempt to adapt the requirements of the ancient rules to the comforts and expediencies of ones personal life.
13. One example of this arises when students of the Teaching disagree with what the books say, assuming it must be AAB who wrote the sections with which they disagree. In fact they have some vested interest in the world which they would find uncomfortable to relinquish. They refuse to obey but escape from the implications of this refusal by insisting that the rules proposed are not real rules because they were not written down by the Tibetan (but, rather, by AAB).
14. At length one learns to see through this kind of self-deception and finally decides simply to obey no matter what might be the cost to the personality. None of us shall escape this necessity.
15. A pledged disciple is already on the “Path of No Return” and an accepted disciple is expected to be occultly obedient.
A change in this relationship between disciples is now being made. An attempt is being set on foot to see if a group activity and interplay can now be set up upon the physical plane, involving consequently the use of the etheric body and the brain. The difficulties confronting you are, therefore, great and I am anxious that you should realise this. Will you realise, for instance, that any differences of opinion which may occur in the relations of this group of disciples will be caused by astral-brain reactions and, therefore, must not be considered of any importance whatsoever? They must be immediately eliminated and wiped from the slate of the mind and of the memory and classed as entirely personality limitations and unworthy of hindering group integrity.
1. The inner groups within the Master’s Ashrams, as stated, have an easier time communicating — livingly and lovingly — than will outer groups, encumbered as they are by the etheric and physical vehicles.
2. But as part of the process of externalizing the Hierarchy, the attempt is being made to form outer groups representing the Ashram.
3. DK realizes the difficulty of this process but most chelas involved in these new groups do not.
4. Many groups are broken apart by “differences of opinion”. It is fascinating to realize that these differences are attributable to “astral-brain reactions” and, really, are of no moment. We have all been in groups involved, in some way or another, with conflict. The fights have been, perhaps, over relatively petty issues. Probably all of them have been based upon astral-brain reactions.
5. DK enjoins us to set all such things aside. He is very assertive in His statement:
“They must be immediately eliminated and wiped from the slate of the mind and of the memory and classed as entirely personality limitations and unworthy of hindering group integrity”.
6. This is certainly the Law of Repulse in action. He asks us to adopt the attitude of the soul towards personality limitations. He asks for swift detachment from unworthy patterns. He does not temporize; He does not delay.
7. The group integrity is so important that nothing must be allowed to threaten it. Again, we are called to examine ourselves.
This experiment, being attempted by a group within my Ashram, is one in mental relations and in soul contact, with the emphasis and attention placed basically there. The astral- physical brain reactions should be regarded as non-existent and as illusion and should be allowed to lapse below the threshold of the group consciousness — there to die for lack of attention. This type of group work is a new venture and unless something definitely new emerges as a result of this experiment, the time and effort are not warranted.
1. DK tells us how we are to relate to each other. We are still, ‘reverberatorily’, part of this experiment.
2. Our relations to each other, primarily through the Internet, facilitates this kind of mental/soul contact. At least we are spared the usual personality distractions.
3. There are not many astral-brain reactions with which we have to deal. But in our more local group relations we probably have significant opportunity to regard astral-brain reactions as non-existent and, then, allow them to die of attrition.
4. One of the ways we do this is to keep focussed on purpose. There are many habitual distractions and they compete for attention which should be placed on other, more worthy things. If the fundamentals are kept constantly before our eyes, we will not stoop to involvement with patterns of the past which need to be transcended.
5. Experiments are about the ‘new’. DK was surely hoping that something new would emerge from His efforts with His outer chelas. His work was part of advancing the Plan. It was not about teaching a few people for the sake of their individual improvement.
You must not imagine that the particular line of work on which you may be engaged is the factor of main interest. It is not primarily the unfoldment of the intuition, or of the power to heal, or of telepathic efficiency which is of importance. That which counts with the Hierarchy as the Ashrams function is the establishing subjectively of such a potent group interplay and group relation that an emerging world unity can be seen in embryo. A joint power to be telepathic or a group capacity to intuit truth is of value and somewhat novel. It is the functioning of groups who have the ability to work as a unity, whose ideals are one, whose personalities are merged into one forward swing, whose rhythm is one and whose unity is so firmly established that naught can produce in the group the purely human characteristics of separation, of personal isolation and [Page 23] selfish seeking, that is new.
1. DK emphasizes that, as desirable as new unfoldments may be, they are not the main factor of the Hierarchy’s interest where these new modes of training are concerned.
2. What is desired is a model (in embryo) of an “emerging world unity” If unity could be created within a small group or groups, it could be created in a much larger, global context.
3. His remarks are completely decentralizing; His chelas are not in training for their own benefit at all; rather they are seeking to help a far more important group objective emerge.
4. The really new as DK and the Hierarchy conceive it has little to do with the demonstration of certain higher powers. Such a demonstration is here called “novel”.
5. It is true group functioning which is really new, and for which the Hierarchy seeks. Such qualities as group unity, united group idealism, the merging of all personalities into progressive action, a united rhythm, and the avoidance of the usual negative qualities of separation, personal isolation and selfish seeking.
6. If DK has to spend so much time repeating Himself on these points, the resistance against what He is trying to cultivate must be very firmly entrenched in human nature.
Unselfish people are not rare. Unselfish groups are very rare. Pure detached devotion in a human being is not rare but to find it in a group is rare indeed. The submergence of personal interests in the good of the family or in that of another person is often to be found, for the beauty of the human heart has manifested itself down the ages. To find such an attitude in a group of people and to see such a point of view maintained with an unbroken rhythm and demonstrating spontaneously and naturally — this will be the glory of the New Age.
1. Another noteworthy statement is made: “Unselfish people are not rare. Unselfish groups are very rare”. DK wants to create something which, thus far in human evolution, is a very rare occurrence — the unselfish group.
2. As we are moving from the age of the individual into the age of the group, the virtues of the individual must be transferred to the larger dimension of group functioning.
3. This is really a very great change of emphasis. We have had many experiments during the twentieth century which have exalted the group at the complete expense of the participating individuals. Sovietism and Fascism have been two notable examples of abuse in this regard. Both of these are examples of totalitarianism — a ‘state-absolutism’ which treats the individual as if he/she were of no consequence.
4. Such abuses are found whenever there is a transition towards a new form of social patterning. The abuses, however, guarantee that a truer model will emerge.
5. DK knows that a group can achieve the desirable positive attitudes and behavior now and then, but He is seeking that such a group point of view will be “maintained with an unbroken rhythm”, demonstrating “spontaneously and naturally”. We can see that in the eyes of Master DK, His attempt to train these groups of disciples was no ordinary undertaking. Rather it was intended as a seed which, germinating, could contribute to the “glory of the New Age”.
6. So often we human beings think in individualistic terms, and might be quite happy if some “special teaching” came to us rather in advance of the rest of humanity. Such thoughts, however, though human enough, are completely unworthy when compared the purpose behind Master DK’s intended enterprise. We have a long way to go before we can think and envision as a Master does.
To see the link of pure love and of soul relation, realised and utilised in group form and work is indeed new and the attainment of this is the ideal which I set before this group of my disciples. If this group measures up to the vision as it exists in my mind, there will be established upon the physical plane focal points of specialised force through which the Hierarchy can work with greater surety than heretofore. There will (through this and analogous groups) be set in motion on earth a network of spiritual energies which will facilitate the regeneration of the world. The influence of these groups — when permanently established and potently working — will have a wider objective than just the elevation of humanity.
1. DK continues presenting the requirements for doing something really new in group formation.
2. The Master sets the “link of pure love and soul relation, realised and utilised in group form and work” as an ideal before His group. The successful achievement of this objective would have led directly into the “Seed Group” work. “Physical plane focal points of specialized force” could have been established, and through these the Hierarchy could have worked.
3. DK’s vision of the possibilities was both beautiful and practical. He envisioned the setting in motion of a “network of spiritual energies which will facilitate the regeneration of the world”.
4. A Master will not present to His chelas all that is in His mind. To do so might prevent the process for going forward a He desires. Chelas might become preoccupied with the distant vision and fail to take the immediately required steps.
5. The Seed-Group work was designed to create upon the Earth groups which are adept at the reception and transmission of particular qualities of energy and force. Once established, they could be nourished by DK or by any Master Who wished to stimulate them. As seeds they would lead to the development of group-energy structures of far greater scope and significance than their humble origins would suggest.
6. DK, in passing, hinted at the future importance of such groups (and of that which could develop from them). He said that they “will have a wider objective than just the elevation of humanity”. Apparently the groups, when firmly established and potently working could be influential in a planetary sense and in relation to the various kingdoms of nature.
7. Eventually, the Earth is to become a great “station of light”. Groups of this nature (as they unfold) can contribute to that highly desirable, though distant, objective.
8. On the Path of Occultism, however, the necessary steps are never taken all at once. A slow and gradual process of building is required, and it is here that the groups-of-nine failed to measure up to opportunity. They did not follow the Master’s advice step by step. They could appreciate sufficiently the objective set before them.
9. The “Seed Group” opportunity is not forever past. Perhaps the experiment will be renewed under DK’s expert guidance at a future time, and perhaps it will stand a better chance of succeeding now that the lessons of temporary failure are firmly impressed upon the minds of the participants (who, for the most part, are still associated with His Ashram). The effort is an ashramic one. An externalization of the Hierarchy is underway, and Master DK and His ashramic groups have their role to play.
The potent rhythm which animates the inner Brotherhood of the Lodge of Masters will make itself felt everywhere on earth and these groups, if successful, may be regarded as the first step toward the emergence into manifestation of the Great White Lodge. But remember this: the keynote of the Lodge is not attainment or degree. It is stable relationship, unity of thought, plus diversity of method, of effort and of function and its quality is friendship in its purest sense. The Brotherhood is a community of souls who are swept by the desire to serve, urged by a spontaneous impulse to love, illumined by one pure Light, devotedly fused and blended into groups of serving Minds, and energised by one Life. Its Members are organised to further the Plan which They consciously contact and with which They deliberately cooperate.
1. Here the Master emphasizes that the formation of these groups is really an aspect of the Externalization of the Hierarchy. Their emergence can be considered “the first step toward the emergence into manifestation of the Great White Lodge”.
2. Thus, we see that the “Seed Groups” are experiments in group-facilitated redemption; they are part of the emergence of the Mystery Schools; and they are also an aspect of the process called the “Externalization of the Hierarchy”.
3. DK uses the occasion to clarify the keynote of the Hierarchy. That keynote is not about status — not about “attainment or degree”. “It is stable relationship, unity of thought, plus diversity of method, of effort and of function and its quality is friendship in its purest sense.”
4. The note of “unity in diversity” is sounded. In all the stability and unity of Hierarchy, a definite diversity of method proceeds.
5. Perhaps the most important statement concerning the quality of Hierarchy is that it is “friendship in its purest sense”. Well might we ponder on this magnificent phrase! Pythagoras said a friend is “another self”. One wonders if His sign in that incarnation was Gemini. Friendship, according to this thought, is pure altruism, and it behooves us to think of the Hierarchy as a society of selfless altruists.
6. This paragraph is so important for its descriptions of Hierarchy:
“The Brotherhood is a community of souls who are swept by the desire to serve, urged by a spontaneous impulse to love, illumined by one pure Light, devotedly fused and blended into groups of serving Minds, and energised by one Life. Its Members are organised to further the Plan which They consciously contact and with which They deliberately cooperate”.
When we read the description, we immediately realize that we are speaking of a higher kingdom of nature. All virtues toward which humanity can aspire are here enumerated as the achieved qualities of Hierarchy.7. Community, service, spontaneous love, illumination, fusion and blending into serving groups, livingness — these qualities exemplify the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet. Nowhere are there division and separation; nowhere ‘withholdingness’; nowhere darkness; everywhere vitality and spiritual life..
8. It is clear that Master DK is offering His groups the opportunity to become affiliated with this great group of illumined Servers. He wants them to understand the true nature of Hierarchy, quite different from the many distorted presentations.
It will be apparent to you, therefore, that the purpose of these groups is to unfold in time the three major powers of all illumined minds:
1. The new groups are composed of those who are mentally polarized.
2. The group members are striving to become more and more like the members of Hierarchy.
3. Hierarchy is the “Society of Organized and Illumined Minds”.
First: the power to work in and with all thought substance. The Hierarchy of Illumined Minds is a group Whose telepathic powers enable Them to be sensitive to the mind currents and to register the thoughts of Those Who personify the Mind of God, the Universal Mind, and to register the thoughtforms of Those Who are as far beyond the Hierarchy of Masters as They, in Their turn, are beyond the disciples of the world.
1. Unless we learn, really, to work in thought substance we cannot be affiliated with Hierarchy. To be truly human is to think. In relation to human incarnation, this power originates, really, on the higher mental plane ruled, generically, by Venus.
2. Venus (illumined thought) is to triumph over Mars (desire and irrational passion).
3. Hierarchy can be understood as a Group of Thinkers. Hierarchy telepathically receives directives from the Mind of God (the Planetary Logos) and to some extent from the Universal Mind (which can be understood as the mind of the Mind of the Solar Logos).
4. Mind is the medium of expression. The Masters are not at all beyond mind as some who are interested in spirituality seem to think. Every great Being has a mind. Mind is, in a way, the great intermediary. Of course mind has a number of dimensions or ‘vibratory strata’.
5. Mind is the medium for the reception of ‘telepathic directives’. The very first group-of-nine organized by the Tibetan was the group of “Telepathic Communicators”. This meant not so much that they could communicate with each telepathically, but that they could receive (individually and as a group) impressions relating to the Divine Plan.
6. To be a true worker with the Plan, a highly developed mind is, therefore, needed, though this is not the same as being an “intellectual”.
Those Lives Who carry out the ideas of the Divine Mind, exist in Their graded orders, and with the detail of Their groupings we are not concerned, except with the fact that the planetary Brotherhood is in telepathic rapport with Those Who are responsible for the planetary conditions in the solar system, with the Great Council, therefore, at Shamballa. They are also in immediate telepathic rapport with each other. The slowly manifesting powers of the radio and the sensitive workings of the perfecting radio mechanisms and of television are but the response in physical matter of the perfected telepathic powers and television of the minds of the Masters of the Wisdom. Forget not, that such powers are inherent in all men.
1. Here DK elaborates a little on the telepathic powers of Hierarchy. We learn that there is an extensive Hierarchy of Lives (ascending and descending) Who are in telepathic rapport with each other for the purpose of carrying out the Divine Plan. Many “Creative Hierarchies” are part of this ‘Ladder of Telepathic Rapport’.
2. DK does not bother with the detail of enumerating these Hierarchies. Suffice it to say that, by telepathic impression, all things on the planet and in our solar system are ordered.
3. Telepathic rapport is primarily vertical, but instrumentally horizontal. Not only are members of Hierarchy in touch with their superiors in the process of manifesting the Divine Plan, but They are in telepathic rapport with each other.
4. We have seen a tremendous outpicturing of telepathic rapport in the development of modern telecommunications systems. Writing some seventy years ago, DK, when discussing the potential growth of telepathy, speaks in terms of the radio and the nascent television of that time. Today those early examples of telepathy seem primitive, and in a few years the most advanced and amazing techniques available today will seem, comparatively, primitive. The wonder of instant, complete and undistorted telepathic communication between human beings is prefigured by our telecommunication advances in the material sphere. For Hierarchy, however, the telepathic powers are (from our point of view) complete.
5. DK reminds us that telepathic powers are “inherent in all men”, lest we think of the possibilities He discusses as unattainable. The wonders of the New Age are resident within us; we have but to release them.
The inner group of Masters with Whom I am associated work telepathically also with Their disciples and the disciples with each other in lesser degree. The power to "see" the Master — which has been the misguided impulse of the devotees of the world who substitute this desire for aspiration towards soul contact — is but their response to the "television" of Those Who seek to guide them into the light of their own souls. They are only reacting to one of the demonstrated divine powers of the Master but not to soul action.
1. DK speaks of a practical aspect of the Master’s telepathic abilities. These abilities are utilized to work with Their disciples. Disciples also have some access to such powers and work in this manner with disciples of lower degree.
2. The Masters have a kind of “tele-vision” which is, for them, an operative psychic power. The quest to “see” the Master can be fulfilled (when the motive and approach are correct), but it is far less important than achieving real soul contact and interplay.
3. All manner of psychic powers can be cultivated and utilized, but until the foundation of soul-infusion has been achieved, these psychic abilities can even retard spiritual progress.
4. There comes a time when the possibility of acquiring psychic powers becomes a temptation. Even high souls can be tempted to develop “powers” instead of a true and living contact with the Soul of all things.
5. We are faced with the harbinger of such advanced discriminations early in our spiritually developmental process. Shall we attempt to engage with our own soul (Solar Angel) or shall we run after the image of the Master (registering, most probably, some illusory astral thoughtform we take as a reality)? This is one of the first tests concerning the “glamors of the Path”, and many choose incorrectly.
Your response to such stimulation as I can give you and an earnest endeavour on your part to love with unselfishness will gradually perfect in you a similar relation to other workers. This will work out in three directions:
1. In a demonstrated ability to be in telepathic rapport with me and with Those with Whom I am associated.
2. In power to communicate with each other at any time.
3. In sensitivity to the thoughts of humanity as a whole.
1. DK offers the newly forming groups some possibilities, if they “love with unselfishness”. Doing so, they will come into an entirely new relation to each other.
2. The telepathy developed will develop in three directions: ‘above, horizontal and below’.
3. The Master can be reached (and other Masters as well); one’s fellow disciples can be reached; and humanity can be reached.
4. Telepathy is a “two-way street” — receptivity and transmission. A disciple needs six modes of interplay resulting from the three directions, with each of them considered from the perspective of both reception and transmission.
5. Is it not interesting that “unselfish love” is the method of establishing telepathic sensitivity?
6. If we study the qualities of the planet Venus (ruling the ajna center, which is involved in so much telepathy) we will find, ideally, both unselfishness and love.
7. Mercury/Venus are two planets (ruing the ajna center at different times of human development) much involved with the telepathic process. As the disciple begins to respond to the higher influences of these planets, the telepathic powers develop.
8. It should also be said that Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune have their part to play in bringing the telepathic process to fruition.
9. While Saturn rules the Plan, it does not specifically promote sensitivity to contact. Because Saturn does, however, clear and order the field of consciousness, it does, in its own way, contribute to telepathic reception.
Can you not see, therefore, how a miniature replica of the Brotherhood can be established on earth and how in decades [Page 25] to come the working disciples of the world, the isolated initiates in the many world organisations and the personnel of the New Group of World Servers will automatically respond to the telepathic sensitivity of such groups as will be found working in the many Ashrams of the Masters? The result of this success will not be the recognition of any particular group but it will lead to the recognition of a universal power and the state of mind of disciples of all degrees. This will establish in time and without controversy the unity of all beings. The revelation of unity through the power of thought is the glorious consummation of the work of the Brotherhood and to this you do, as do all disciples, respond in your highest moments. It can, in a smaller way and according to the measure of your consecration, be your glory and your goal also if you hold the thought of oneness, of service and above all else of love.
1. Master DK is involved in the process of attempting to build “a miniature replica of the Brotherhood one earth”.
2. If this can be done, those who are working in the field will have a much sounder source of guidance than heretofore. Telepathic groups working in the many Ashrams of the Masters will help guide by the power and clarity of their thought those who (more isolated) are attempting to serve humanity and carry out the Hierarchy’s will.
3. Telepathy is part of a general “linking up” which is necessary for the full expression of the Divine Plan.
4. We can see how the Triangles Work (in both of its divisions) is very useful in developing telepathy. It may be one of the reasons that Master DK considers the Triangles Project so important.
5. A widespread telepathic sensitivity will not bring any particular group to recognition, but there will be a general acknowledgement of the reality and importance of telepathic power and of that state of mind which can properly be called ‘disciplic’.
6. The growing telepathic sensitivity of disciples and, eventually, humanity will be one of the proofs of the “unity of all beings”. One can talk about such things forever, but unless one ‘sees’ for oneself, such talk will simply consist of platitudinous words unsupported by realization.
7. Another wonderful statement is offered: “The revelation of unity through the power of thought is the glorious consummation of the work of the Brotherhood and to this you do, as do all disciples, respond in your highest moments”.
8. How will humanity come to realize the reality of unity? We are here being told that the “power of thought” will reveal it — especially the power of telepathically transmitted thought.
9. Human beings will not change their behavior unless their consciousness indicates that change is desirable and even necessary. Through the sequence of love, telepathy and realized unity, human consciousness can and will change. We see that some apparently simple, innocuous advice from the Master can have extraordinarily far-reaching consequences of a positive kind.
10. DK asks that certain thoughts dominate our consciousness: thoughts “of oneness, of service, and above all else of love”. It is a great misapprehension that power comes only through complex means. Quite the opposite is usually the case. Simple advice is being offered as a means to achieve amazingly potent results. Can we cut through all the complexities of the Teaching (sometimes unavoidable complexities) in order to institute in our lives the simple fundamentals (based on love) which will make of us true telepathic workers — telepathically attuned to both Hierarchy and humanity?
Second: the power of the intuition, which is the goal of much of the work which disciples must do, requires the unfoldment of another faculty in man. The intuition is a function of the mind also and, when rightly used, it enables man to grasp reality with clarity and to see that reality free from glamour and the illusions of the three worlds. When the intuition functions in any human being, he is enabled to take direct and correct action for he is in touch with the Plan, with pure and unadulterated fact and undistorted ideas — free from illusion and coming direct from the divine or universal Mind. The unfoldment of this faculty will bring about a world recognition of the Plan and this is the greatest achievement of the intuition in this present world cycle. When that Plan is sensed, there comes the realisation of the unity of all beings, of the synthesis of world evolution and of the unity of the divine objective. All life and all forms are seen then in their true perspective; a right sense of values and of time then eventuates. When the Plan is truly intuited and at first hand, then constructive effort becomes inevitable and there is no lost motion. It is the partial realisation of the Plan and its interpretation at second or third hand by the ignorant which is responsible for the wasted effort and the foolish impulses which characterise the present occult and world organisations.
1. A most important point is brought forward: the development of intuition depends upon the clarification and deglamorization of the mind.
2. Disciples are to cultivate the intuition, but they must not “put the cart before the horse”. Intuition can not emerge unless the foundation of a clear mentality is in place.
3. Intuition is far more than we usually think it is. It ensures the correctness of action because the correctly intuiting individual is in direct, undistorted touch with the Divine Plan.
4. The reason it is so important for intuition to be cultivated on a broad scale is that its unfoldment will bring “a world-recognition of the Plan”. This, obviously, is very much lacking in today’s world and hence the many misguided ventures and initiatives.
5. There are great benefits to sensing the Plan as it is. A review of these benefits should cause us to redouble our efforts to rightly apprehend the Plan. But, it would seem, only the intuition will lead to correct apprehension.
6. A truer ‘sense of values’ is being developed. The light of Taurus rightly applied will lead to the dissipation of glamor and a consequent correction of the ‘sense of values’ (to which Taurus is also connected).
7. DK points to the “wasted effort and foolish impulses” which are typical of many occult and world organizations. This misuse of energy would disappear if the intuition were functioning properly.
8. It becomes clear that one of the major functions of Seed Group 2 (the Observers of Reality) is the cultivation of the intuition based upon deglamorization and disillusionment (occultly considered).
9. We can see how Point 2 (the development of the intuition) is based upon the cultivation of the ability to work in thought substance (Point 1)
10. We can speak endlessly of the reality of the Divine Plan, but only the intuition will apprehend it directly and convincingly. Hence the importance of ridding the world of glamor and illusion so that the way towards the development of intuition can be cleared.
The various groups in a Master's Ashram can fulfil certain functions and provide laboratories for specified work. Some can provide a demonstration laboratory of the trained observers of the world and can handle world glamour and illusion. Other groups can focus on the development of the telepathic faculty and become trained communicators. The objective before the Hierarchy at this time is to break and dissipate the world glamour. This has to happen on a world scale just as it happens in the life of every disciple. Just as a man shifts his focus of consciousness (when on the Path of Discipleship) on to the mental plane and learns to smash the glamour which has hitherto held him on the astral plane, so the problem before the Hierarchy today is to bring about a similar happening in the life of humanity as a whole, for humanity is at the crossroads and its consciousness is being rapidly focussed on the mental plane. A death blow must be struck at the world illusion for it holds the sons of men in thrall. By learning to break through the glamour in their own lives and to live in the light of the intuition, disciples can strengthen the hands of Those Whose task it is to awaken the intuition in man.
1. Laboratories are needed to accomplish on a small scale what must later be accomplished in relation to humanity as a whole. Groups related to the Masters’ Ashrams are excellent crucibles for such experimentation.
2. We see that Master DK is laying the foundation for the discussion of the specialized “Seed Groups”. He has entered into a discussion of the need for telepathic sensitivity, and now He is focussing on the need for “trained observers”.
3. Another prominent objective of Hierarchy is stated: Hierarchy is intent on breaking and dissipating world glamor. We (humanity) must be made to see the “error of our ways” and the realization must be so impressive that we will not fall into similar self-deceptions again.
4. We are told that “humanity is at the crossroads”. It is possible to help humanity achieve a greater mental polarization and, with it, an end to the kinds of glamors which now hold it in thrall.
5. Hierarchy is working to bring about the end of glamor in the life of humanity as a whole. It is a very daunting objective.
6. In this task, we understand that Hierarchy is fighting for the life of humanity. Consequently “a death blow” must be struck at that which is imprisoning the life and thus bringing spiritual death. We can understand that Hierarchy must involve Pluto (just as the Black Lodge did, for its own purposes). The Plutonic influence, rightly directed will not mean the destruction and death of humanity (as the Black Lodge hopes) but the destruction and death of the world illusion which is slowly strangling humanity. The same energy can be used for benevolent or malevolent purposes.
7. The responsibility is put squarely on our shoulders. If we want to help Hierarchy deal a death blow to the world glamor, we have to kill glamor in our own lives. First, however, we have to recognize what we hope to expunge.
8. It is hard to recognize one’s own glamors because they are so close to us, so much a part of how we are and what we do. It is here that group work proves invaluable, because others can see our flaws whereas, often, we cannot, or if we see them, we find clever ways to justify them (saying, perhaps, “Well, that’s just the way I am”, as if the glamor were the most natural thing in the world).
9. Notice that DK speaks of “breaking through” the glamor in our own lives. It is as if a shell of illusion has to be shattered so that the light, previously walled without, can enter.
10. It is safe to say that all that prevents us from resembling the members of the Hierarchy are glamors. If we could isolate the ways in which we are unlike those highly developed souls Who serve the planet by participation in the Spiritual Hierarchy, we would know our task.
11. To end glamor, however, is not the task of a single day. The cloud of glamor (though suffocating) is not easily seen and many glamors within the general ‘swirl’ are elusive and hard to confront.
12. The naming of some of the myriad glamors can, however, be useful for, perhaps, we will notice some of these glamors within our own nature or in those close to us. Perhaps taking notice will lead to a realization of the best methods to counter the effect. We cannot fight an enemy we do not understand.
There are many and different kinds of glamour and disciples are frequently surprised when they learn what is regarded as glamour by the Masters. I will enumerate a few of the more general glamours for you, leaving you to make any needed application and expansion of the idea from the individual to humanity as a whole. Here are the names of some of these glamours:
1. One of the problems with the elimination of glamor is that it is elusive and hard to detect. It is difficult to separate from the background of the normal living process.
2. Glamor is so often an unrecognizable part of our conditioning. Our habits come to seem normal, and the normal, acceptable. Yet correction is required and it will be the Master’s task to point of certain glamors which escape the corrective attention of the chela.
3. We are asked to generalize from the individual to the group and, thence, to humanity.
1. The glamour of destiny. This is a glamour which indicates to the one whom it controls that he has important work to do and that he must speak and work as destined. This feeds a pride which has no foundation in fact.
1. Every glamor is a distortion of an acceptable attitude.
2. Every soul has a destiny. Every monad does, especially.
3. In this case, however, the personality is attempting to model itself on some external pattern resulting in inauthentic action. There is wrong-self-estimation and, thus, lack of co-measurement of the disciple with his/her environment. He/she values himself/herself too much relative to confreres and this exalted self-valuation has no basis in truth.
4. The result will be inharmonious and non-productive action, causing trouble among the co-workers and a side-tracking of energy from a constructive objective.
2. The glamour of aspiration. Those thus conditioned are completely satisfied and pre-occupied with their aspiration towards the light and rest back upon the fact that they are aspirants. Such people need to move onward on to the Path of Discipleship and cease their preoccupation and satisfaction with their spiritual ambitions and goals.
1. This is often the glamor of those who are inwardly afraid of the work (and pain) entailed by treading the Path of Discipleship.
2. Aspiration is exciting, and excitement masquerades as a sense of livingness. One enjoys the simulation without having to “set one’s hand to the plough”.
3. Aspiration is a means to an end, but when under the spell of this glamor, one settles for the means.
4. In fact, what we have here is a refusal to move on and do the real thing.
5. If we compare the signs Sagittarius (generically, the sign of aspiration) and Capricorn (generically, the sign of initiation) we see a necessary contrast. While it could not possibly be true in all cases, we find in many Sagittarians a tendency to envision, dream and speculate rather than work. In Capricorn (the sign of initiation) the real work begins. (There are, of course, many outstanding exceptions, and Sagittarius is also the sign of the “one pointed disciple” working his/her way towards the goal.)
6. Of course, conversely, Capricorn may be “all work “(of a very mundane and non-progressive kind — “nose to the grindstone”, “shoulder to the wheel”) and Sagittarius may, at least, lift the sight to something higher.
7. There is no zodiacal sign which is greater or lesser; much depends upon the point of evolution of the form through which the sign is expressing.
8. Another way of conceiving the difference between aspiration and accomplishment is by viewing the manner in which Jupiter and Saturn affect many of those who are spiritually inclined. Jupiter (like Sagittarius) inclines towards vision rather than labor (the speciality of Saturn — ruler of Capricorn).
3. The glamour of self-assurance or of what might be called the astral principles of the disciple. This is the belief, [Page 27] in plain language, that the disciple regards that his point of view is entirely right. This again feeds pride and tends to make the disciple believe himself to be an authority and infallible. It is the background of the theologian.
1. It is interesting that self-assurance is connected here with the astral principle. If the mental principle were more involved, the factor of doubt (in this case a healthy doubt) might enter in.
2. This attitude is a self-protection against the disturbance of uncertainty. It is an emotional demand for certainty and thus a refusal to consider evidence against one’s cherished (and, apparently, certain) point of view.
3. Integration (even a false integration) unites energies (rather than dividing them), and it becomes possible for newly integrated individuals to become emphatic about their position.
4. Again, there is a distortion — an overvaluation of a particular point of view at the expense of other points of view of equal or greater value. When under the spell of a distorted perspective there is no way for correct thought and action to result, and thus the pattern of action emerging in the disciple’s life will be distorted and, thus, in dissonance with the Divine Plan.
5. What we have is a self-assuring fixation upon a certain point of view and a rigidity which makes it impossible to change that point of view. Truth is sacrificed for emotional comfort.
6. Wherever there is glamor, we have to find the seed of fear.
4. The glamour of duty. This leads to an over-emphasis of the sense of responsibility, producing lost motion and the emphasis of the non-essential.
1. A fixed thoughtform of what are regarded as duties runs the life of the disciple, and to it, he/she conforms.
2. The disciple becomes a ‘bowed’ creature, bent by the fulfillment of that which is imagined as necessary, but which is often non-essential given the real needs to which the disciple is obliged to respond.
3. Rather than attune intuitively with presented need, the thoughtform presenting a pattern of imagined duties commands the disciple, and he/she responds to it rather than to a living reality which would call for adaptability.
4. Under the pressure of imagined duty, the personality becomes a poor, dead and rigid thing, working without inspiration as it repetitively “goes through the motions” which are accepted as aligned with that which is necessary and required.
5. The disciple loses his/her center and becomes increasingly conditioned by external factors.
6. Joy leaves the life and the sense of being a ‘living origin’ diminishes.
7. Sometimes an ambition to rise makes one overly dutiful. “If I fulfill my duty, I shall rise”. Sometimes, it might be a sense of essential unworthiness; “If I fulfill my duty, at least I will be worthy”.
8. The result of all this is that the disciple is controlled from ‘without’ rather than Self-controlled from ‘within’.
9. Could we say that this glamor is rooted in a ‘fear of self-determination’?
5. The glamour of environing conditions, leading frequently to a sense of frustration, or of futility or of importance.
1. The Sun (representing S/selfhood) is positive to environing conditions. Saturn (defining the outer limits of the solar system as it was generally conceived during the pre-scientific era) represents conditions, and all that contains the being within a ring-pass-not.
2. If one is overly concerned with conditions, one forgets the originative Self which is meant to be the creator and controller of conditions.
3. As disciples, we are to work as correctly as we can without attachment to results. The realm of results is the realm of environing conditions.
4. According to the quality of the results upon which we become fixated, the condition of our astral body is depressed or rises inordinately. We allow the ‘condition of conditions’ to determine our psychological state.
5. Gradually we become more and more concerned with externals losing our Self as center — in fact, losing ourselves as soul.
6. Anything that inclines the disciple to become outwardly-determined rather that inwardly-determined is a glamor.
7. For every glamor here listed there could be created what we might call a ‘mantram of release’ — a mantram defining a necessary corrective attitude.
6. The glamour of the mind and of its efficiency and its capacity to deal with any or every problem. This leads inevitably to isolation and loneliness.
1. This is a third ray glamor. At least many third ray types are given to the “glamor of efficiency”. One could see certain first and seventh ray types falling into this problem as well.
2. Many lives of inadequacy finally give place to a life or lives when the disciple thinks that he/she “can handle it”.
3. This glamor, however, exemplifies a narrow attitude. There might be other and better ways to handle a problem, but the disciple wants to take everything into his/her own hands (and as a result, compensatorily, feel like “more”).
4. It is good to feel adequate to many challenges and to have the power to adapt intelligently and efficiently to many circumstances, but the glamor enters when one feels that he or she must do everything (and, perhaps, that others are far less capable of “doing it right”).
5. One can see how this glamor could feed pride.
6. Meanwhile other potential cooperators are shut out of the process. Finding no way to work with the individual preoccupied with this glamor, they go elsewhere and do other things. The glamored disciple, obsessed with his/her overbearing sense of adequacy to all eventualities, is left alone, later to discover that there are many things which could be “handled” or “dealt with” better by others.
7. Under this glamor, true group work cannot be achieved. Members of a group cannot work together harmoniously and constructively. There is no true esoteric “division of labor” (because the glamored disciple has taken all labor to himself/herself) — or advises others exactly, in the smallest detail, how things are to be done.
7. The glamour of devotion, leading to an undue stimulation of the astral body. The man or woman thus glamoured sees only one idea, one person, one authority and one aspect of truth. It feeds fanaticism and spiritual pride.
1. Focus intensifies energy. If any field within the energy system is fed too much energy at the expense of the other fields within the same system, imbalance results accompanied by a growing inharmony between the fields. Finally, the trend ends in a disintegration of relationship between the previously related fields.
2. The undue intensification of the astral body caused by the narrow focus of devotion creates a distorted picture of life. The object of devotion looms too large until it covers the entire field of vision and all other possibilities and objectives are shut out.
3. It may create a comforting feeling of security to see and value only one, but it prevents a wise participation in all the variety of life. One becomes separated from natural and necessary life-processes by the narrow focus of devotion. One “does not care” about anything else, and begins to neglect other equally necessary “people, places and things”.
4. “Everything else” is devalued and the object of devotion is overvalued. The energy concentrated in devotion is intense and seems exiting, living and thus self-justifying. The object of devotion is exalted in an unwarranted manner and the disciple (by association with this exalted object) begins to feel exalted himself/herself. Thus, pride develops and a further separation from other people, place and things (the real value of which is progressively minimized by the narrowly devoted disciple).
5. The eventual result of all this is a separative and destructive attitude which works against harmonious and constructive relationship within the broader context.
6. The basic fear is of “standing alone” and of independent existence.
7. There is a correlative fear which seeks to avoid the demanding process of developing one’s own capacities to handle variety and complexity. Secretly, the overly devoted one hopes to avoid responsibility.
8. The glamour of desire with its reflex action upon the physical body. This leads to a constant condition of fighting and of turmoil. It negates all peace and fruitful work and must some day be brought to an end.
1. Desire is a driving force. It is associated much with the planet Mars (thus producing fighting and turmoil).
2. Intense desires do have an immediate effect upon the physical body. They translate into action almost instantaneously. Both the physical body and the astral body, especially, are generically ruled by Mars. The lower mind and the personality are also associated with this planet.
3. This instantaneous translation of desire into action produces maya (what DK calls “that unthinking emotional mess”.
4. When driven by desires, one fights for the fulfillment of those desires. In such turmoil it is impossible to see, and where one cannot see, one cannot think, act, or work correctly.
5. Desire (ever insistent) does not respect the wise and necessary rhythms of life. These rhythms are needed if plans are to come to fruition. Otherwise all constructive process will be disrupted (Mars again).
6. A disciple is one who is assisting in the manifestation of the Divine Plan. A disciple cannot constantly be disrupting his/her own work and that of others.
7. What is needed here is distance from one’s desires, and the choosing of precisely which desires one will entertain and allow as motivating forces. The qualities of the planet Saturn (discrimination and choice) must be applied.
9. The glamour of personal ambition.
1. This glamor is based upon a false sense of identity. One sees only the “little self” and does not evaluate the real relation of that self to the larger context.
2. The objectives pursued will tend to exaggerate the importance of the little self in relation to its environing context. This self will attempt to become ‘bigger’ than it really is. The welfare of the whole will thus be sacrificed for the welfare of the part.
3. This attitude obviously causes delay in the progress of the whole.
4. One can, however, be constructively ‘ambitious’ for the welfare of the whole, but a decentralized attitude with respect to one’s own personality is required.
There are many other glamours, both individual and world-wide, but these will serve to indicate a general tendency.
1. What is the tendency? Is there a common denominator at the root of all these glamors?
2. Might we say that false self-estimation is one of the major roots? Glamors are problems which exist as the individual attempts to see himself/herself within an environing context. Somehow, in the glamor process, there is always a lack of co-measurement. One fails to see the individual and the enfolding context in the proper proportion.
3. From this distorted estimation, wrong attitudes and wrong actions develop. If we could “observe reality with clarity” the glamors would cease. But only intuition can provide this kind of reliably clear vision. Intuition will only operate when we have freed ourselves from low desire (a desire which distorts perception).
4. Desire, itself, is based upon inadequacy. The tiny unit (instinctually or, later, consciously) knows it ‘needs’ something ‘else’ — something other than itself. It is born that way. Desire is natural and unavoidable. Basically and metaphysically, desire arises because the part is apparently not the whole and needs to re-become the whole. There is a primal fear associated with not being the whole. Desire can only end when the lasting perception of oneness is achieved
5. The more one refines one’s desires, the more intuition can enter. The more intuition enters, the more one can refine one’s desires. Gradually, when desire no longer has a strangling hold upon the field of consciousness, the intuition of oneness can plant itself in that field. This signals the beginning of the end of desire (as we know it). (Of course, Desire, is a cosmic principle, so even when overcome in the human sphere, must be faced on ever higher turns of the spiral. But the process will be different than that confronting the human being.)
Those who are in preparation for initiation must learn to work consciously with glamour; they must work effectively with the presented truth, ignoring any pain or suffering or mental questioning which is incident to personality rebellion and limitation; they must cultivate that "divine indifference" to personal considerations which is the outstanding hallmark of the trained initiate.
1. We see that Master DK offers these insights into glamor because of their importance to those who are treading the Path of Initiation (and all true disciples are treading that Path, even if in its earlier stages).
2. Glamor, essentially, is a lie. The life of the initiate is inherently truthful. The presented truth reveals the lies in which the glamorized person habitually lives.
3. The personality protects its prerogative and comforts through lies or distortions of the truth. Thus, the personality will rebel when its protective glamors are threatened.
4. When the truth is presented, and when the disciple makes the effort to act upon it, there is will pain, suffering and mental questioning caused by personality rebellion. This must be lived through. If one cares enough about realities, one can treat such suffering as secondary and incidental to the major issues.
5. Another potent sentence is offered’: “ ‘divine indifference’ to personal considerations…is the outstanding hallmark of the trained initiate”. Note, the DK did not say “the disciple”, the “trained disciple” or “the initiate”. He said the “trained initiate”; so we see that the achievement of this attitude is a fairly lengthy process.
6. When troubles and sorrows beset the disciple, a simple review of the pages found in this introduction to Discipleship in the New Age should restore a sense of proportion.
I shall not deal further with the subject of glamour as it affects or might affect this particular group of disciples in my Ashram. The times are urgent and the need of humanity so great that there is no "space in consciousness" (to use an ancient occult phrase) for the reiteration of the known ideal, or to tell you again what needs to be done.
1. The Master works under the Law of Economy. He seeks not to waste energy.
2. He expects that His chelas are mature men and women who are responsible enough to undertake the changes in their nature which are seen as necessary.
3. The term “space in consciousness” is worthy pondering. It correlates to the concept of “the contents of consciousness”. One has to choose which “contents of consciousness” one will entertain. Not all “contents” are in the ‘front room’; many are stored or hidden away. The disciple is to be engaged with ‘vital contents’ and not with secondary contents. Otherwise the non-essential will clutter the ‘space’ and there will be no correct performance.
4. As a sidelight, it is interesting to ponder whether “space” exists except “in consciousness”.
I would have you realise that there is no haste in the work which a Master carries on in connection with His disciples. There is no hurry in the work which I am proposing that we do together, but neither should there be any waste time or lost motion. It will become apparent to you that much that I seek to accomplish is related to thought control and to the activity of the creative imagination. The Hierarchy produces its effects upon the plane of appearances through the potency of its unified, conscious thinking. The establishing of such a condition of unified thinking within the New Group of World Servers is part of my major effort at this time; we can achieve little until that has been brought about.
1. “There is no rush, no hurry. And yet there is no time to lose” (Rules of the Road III — DINA I 584).
2. The Tibetan is aware that throughout these instructions He has created a sense of urgency. He seeks, however, to offset a customary human response to urgency — a mindless rushing about. His great concern is that good work in line with the Plan shall be done.
3. It is not rapid action upon the physical plane (with the many possibilities for waste and accident that such action may entail) that is needed. Rapid thought is need, and wise, deliberate action.
4. The Tibetan seeks to draw the chela’s attention away from physical plane effects, and center that attention upon dimensions which are causative to the physical plane — namely the realm of mind wherein thought control and creative imagination can be exercised. It is occult work He is proposing, and He reminds us of this.
5. Thus, one of the Tibetan’s main objectives is emerging here: He is attempting to create a coherent thought field within the New Group of World Servers.
6. Probably we do not much think about how Hierarchy really works. It works through “unified conscious thinking”. The Tibetan is seeking to produce a reflection of such thinking in His groups. If He succeeds, it will mean that His groups will be capable of occultly effective group thinking.
7. We should pause to realize how much of the work to be done originates on the plane of mind. A certain trust is required in the idea that the proper results are inevitable if the quality and potency of thought is sufficient.
So I summon you to a new phase of intense, inner living and dynamic thinking, but this time with a group objective — the objective of group fusion, group united thinking and group relation.... It is the inner life of reflection, the cultivated recognition of the soul and the reflective alignment of soul and personality which will determine the success of this work.
1. DK directs the group toward the necessity for intense action — but the intensity is to occur primarily upon the inner planes.
2. He is seeking to promote intension rather than extension. Power lies at the center rather than the periphery. “Give me a point on which to stand and I will move the world” — so Archimedes, reputedly, said.
3. “Dynamic thinking” is both powerful and active. One will consecrate this thinking to the welfare of the group. The subjects of such dynamic thought will be “group fusion, group united thinking and group relation”.
4. Success in the work that DK proposes will come only with certain inner actions. What is the “reflective alignment of soul and personality”? It is an alignment, first of all, which is noticed by the disciple. The soul in incarnation (another name for the disciple) will take advantage of this alignment and act as an intermediary.
5. Chelas are to be Self-directed and self-directing individuals. The soul as Solar Angel is the Guide, and by the “inner life of reflection” the behests of the Solar Angel are registered and understood. The disciple (as the soul-in-incarnation) then directs his/her life according to the direction offered by the Solar Angel.
6. DK is calling His chelas to an inner life of soul culture. The cultivation of soul responsiveness is a Venusian process (considering Venus as the planet of the light and love of the Solar Angel).
Third: There is another great mind power which has to be unfolded. It is one which characterises all liberated souls, no matter what their ray. This is the power to heal. This work is as yet in embryo and the group consciousness is as yet so young and unpolarised that it is needless for me to enlarge upon the possibilities ahead. When men can be trained to be unselfishly and divinely magnetic and radio-active, then there will be poured out upon the world certain divine forces which will vivify and reconstruct, which will eliminate the evil and heal the sick. Hitherto the attempts of men in the field of medicine, of healing and of the various forms of therapy have been the result of impulses to respond to these hovering forces, but that is all as yet.
1. We find DK outlining the agenda for the first three Seed Groups. The first group consists of the Telepathic Communicators; the second group is composed of Observers of Reality; the third group is focussed upon Esoteric Healing (on three levels).
2. Group consciousness can be “young” (or immature) and “unpolarised” (which means, not yet focussed upon and sustained at the necessary vibratory level).
3. DK assures us that there are healing forces available for the elimination of all sickness and the reconstruction of the world. Accessing these forces, however, requires than those who would heal be unselfish, “divinely magnetic and radioactive”. Presumably the training offered will help in the achievement of these desirable objectives.
4. We being to understand that all that humanity has thus far achieved is but a prelude to an era of real wonder. Solutions to the direst human problems exist, but humanity must be in a proper condition to be the instrument for the application of such solutions. So much of Master DK’s work is the attempt to help His chelas become “fit”. This is called training.
These are the three major faculties which the spiritual man can unfold; other faculties and developing capacities are only expansions of these three — telepathic thought, receiving and transmitting; intuitive recognition of truth and its formulation into concepts by the mind, plus the later process of materialising that which has been intuited, the highest form of creative work; healing, with its understanding of energy and forces which will lead later to the rebirth of humanity.
1. The first three Seed Groups are fundamental to the other seven.
2. Here, DK summarizes the essence of the three approaches.
3. The second formulation is unusually descriptive:
“intuitive recognition of truth and its formulation into concepts by the mind, plus the later process of materialising that which has been intuited, the highest form of creative work”
In this description He connects the recognition of truth with the materializing of that which has been recognized. One might question whether all these functions pertain to the second seed group or whether some of the later groups are involved in materializing the recognized truth.4. It is also important to realize the connection between esoteric healing and the “rebirth of humanity”. The right use of esoteric energies and forces will lead to an unparalleled liberation of vitality which can be focussed upon the creative emergence of the human soul.
5. Humanity is facing amazing new opportunities. Humanity’s energies and forces have been imprisoned and unavailable for real soul culture and soul expression. This is about to change. When the seed groups take root, germinate and flower, inlets for hierarchical forces will be anchored on the planet and will express in beneficence. A new life will pour through humanity and that which all men dream in their highest moments will emerge as possible of fulfillment.
Little by little, the picture of the possibilities and of the Plan will unfold before you as your minds increase in sensitivity and your brains become more responsive to mental impulses. Little by little, the disciples of the world will work at the reproduction — on the physical plane — of that which exists subjectively. Little by little, there will appear all over the earth, groups of illumined souls who can cooperate with the Masters with perfect freedom of intercourse because their responsiveness has been scientifically trained and developed. Their power to work in tune with or in unison with the Hierarchy, to cooperate with the group life of many other groups of disciples and to communicate light and revelation to the world of men will later be an accomplished fact and is already much more actively present and potent than you think. A little vision, brother of mine, makes the way of the disciple easier and hence I have enlarged somewhat upon the possibilities which we, with our prevision, regard as already facts in manifestation. Nothing can stop the eventual success of the Plan; it is simply a question of time.
1. This is an inspiring paragraph. Master DK is sharing a little of His vision (something which He and other Masters “regard as already facts in manifestation”). He does this for our upliftment and vitalization.
2. Note the gradualism emphasized in this paragraph. Thought along this line induces patience in the disciple and in discipleship groups. Everything occurs “little by little”. This attitude of gradualism prevents the feelings of both impatience and futility.
3. We can see that a much closer communication with Hierarchy is on the way, and, in fact, already existent in certain instances. A general illumination is on its way, and in this process we are being asked to cooperate.
4. The success of the Plan is a certainty. Nothing can stop that success. The “time equation” is somewhat in the hands of the disciples of the world. We are working to bring the next intended aspect of the Divine Plan into manifestation as rapidly, and yet as soundly, as possible, in order to relieve unnecessary human suffering and, in general, unnecessary suffering upon this planet.
5. Joy is one of the qualities of successful discipleship; it is a primary quality of the soul. When we read something revealed by the Masters’ “prevision”, perhaps the flame of joy within our hearts and minds burns a little brighter. A new and better world is on its way, and is now appearing — “little by little”
One of the steps in training which lies ahead of you is the establishing of a closer contact with me, your Tibetan Teacher. This you must attempt with no formulated ideas as to what the results will be — if any are to be objectively realised. The results may be sensed by me alone on my side, or they may work out in certain specific realisations and even phenomena on your side. I indicate not the results of such an activity for the power of suggestion and the response of the creative imagination is a fruitful source of glamour.
1. Master DK seeks a closer contact with His disciples. If this is achieved, they will represent the Ashram more effectively and their service will be of a far higher quality.
2. He is cautious, however, not to tell them what they might expect as a result of such contact. If he told them, they would begin to imagine it, and the imagining would take the place of the reality. On a lower turn of the spiral this phenomenon is often seen between psychologists and their clients. A suggestion by the psychologist becomes a psychic reality for the client and imagination takes the place of truth and fact.
3. Sometimes it might seem that the Master seeks to discourage His students from trying to make contact with Him. This is not really the case. Rather, He gives the proper sequence for such contact: mental polarization, communion with the soul, absorption in service and, only then, contact with the Master.
4. We can see that one of the key discriminations is to tell the difference between that which actually had occurred or is occurring, and that which is imagined to have occurred, or is imagined to be occurring.
5. While the imagination can be a conduit to the intuition, it can also mask, distort and even replace the truth.
I would, therefore, ask all of you who are my disciples to endeavour to make a contact with me at the time of the Full Moon each month. Make sacrifice in order to establish this monthly relation as I will make my adjustments to contact you. May I emphasise the necessity for holding the thought of that contact for three whole days prior to the Full Moon itself, with aspiration and with confidence and then for three days afterwards with expectancy. May I point out the prime importance of making this a group activity and not a personal contact. Enter upon the work with the realisation of your group relation with your fellow disciples and with me, for only in so far as [Page 30] you seek to contact me as a disciple in my group will the measure of your success be rated. This contact is not of the same nature as that direct and individual contact between a chela and his Master.
1. Master DK emphasizes the importance of the Full Moon work. We now call the Full Moon Festivals, “Solar Fire Festivals”.
2. He asks for seven days of work each month. Elsewhere, He occasionally asks for five days and some have narrowed the process down to three. In any case, we are presented with a rhythmically occurring monthly responsibility.
3. Sacrifice is required, for the necessary “space in consciousness” must be cleared and the exact moment of the Full Moon be honored. The physical body may not always appreciate this.
4. Contact with the Master is especially facilitated at the times of the Full Moon. We are to think of contact with the Master for the three days preceding the Full Moon. An attitude of “aspiration and confidence” is to characterize the three days of preparation, and an attitude of “expectancy” the three days following.
5. The group approach is emphasized. Contact with the Master is not to be pursued as an individual. Individual contact is to occur within the context of the Master’s group. A strictly individual attitude will not lead to success.
6. There is another kind of contact with the Master. It is individual and has its place. But the kind of approach requested here is of a group nature. It is my impression that much more could be done along these lines and with greater consistency.
Many of you are linked with your own Master, though temporarily working in my Ashram; your contact with me is intended to be a group contact and, as a group, you will seek to strengthen the tie between us. This, therefore, is an act of group service to be rendered selflessly and with no personal expectancy. Owing to the pressure of time and of urgency in service, I am one of several teachers who have pledged themselves for the next few years to keep the twelve hours prior to the Full Moon of each month open for contacts with their disciples, so that at any time during that twelve hours, the world servers and disciples can make an attempt to reach us. This will somewhat facilitate your work for you need not, therefore, keep the exact hour of the Full Moon, unless this is easily possible. Service in the world these days requires constant pressure and attention and the work is strenuous. It may not always be possible for you to make your approach at the exact hour of the Full Moon, though you can at that hour always — silently and interiorly — lift up your heart and eyes to the Eternal. But at some hour during the preceding twelve hours, you can make your approach. When you do so rightly, you will find me waiting. Go to your work with clear vision, a loving heart and an understanding love. Much can then be accomplished.
1. The contact with the Master pursued at the time of the Full Moon is to be considered an “act of group service”. Nothing is expected or asked for the personal self.
2. This instruction was written some seventy years ago. At that time the Master (with several other teachers) was making Himself available for the twelve hours prior to the Full Moon). The attempts of His students to reach Him could then be more readily registered and response made.
3. Whether Master DK or the others are still making Themselves available in this way may be questioned. Perhaps, or perhaps not. But it does not really make any difference. We can follow His instructions and nothing will be lost. In fact, there is much to be gained.
4. In this paragraph He offers the disciples the option of not keeping the exact moment of the Full Moon (“unless it is easily possible”). Elsewhere, He speaks of the great importance of keeping the Full Moon moment.
5. It is my impression that it is always better to be available in consciousness at the exact moment of the Full Moon. Mediation at that time can be unusually effective. Further, one knows that the Masters honor that moment in meditation, and so one will definitely be participating with Them.
6. DK asks that at the moment of the Full Moon we “lift [our] hearts to the Eternal”. How one would go about doing this is entirely up to him/her, but is has something to do with the disciple’s ongoing attempt to “Living in the Eternal” and “know the Self as One”.
7. One senses that the Master DK is so very generous in offering Himself for this type of service. The Masters are extraordinarily occupied with service. They are busy spiritual executives. But They do care about the condition of Their chelas, especially about the group potentials of Their chelas. This Full Moon work can be a time of great strengthening for those potentials.
8. The Full Moon work is to be approached with “clear vision, a loving heart and understanding love”. The last two are different though related. In “understanding love” mind and heart are linked.
9. Do we begin to understand how great an opportunity is every Full Moon Opportunity? Part of the Externalization of the Hierarchy is an ever-closer relation between Master and chela or group of chelas. DK is giving us the means whereby this desirable objective can be facilitated. Let us take full advantage of it.