On the New Group of World Servers - Hellas

 NEW MOON IN THE VIRGO

THE OBJECTIVES WHICH ARE NOW

BEFORE DISCIPLES IN TRAINING FOR INITIATION

(DNA,II: 296-303)

     This brings me to the objectives which are now before disciples in training for initiation. Instead of the past objectives—contact with the soul and entrance into an Ashram—the following might be listed, but must be understood esoterically and not literally:

1. A sense of planetary relationships. Instead of the emphasis [Page 297] being laid upon the relation of the individual to his soul, to his Master and to the Ashram, his consciousness is consciously expanded (if I may use such an apparently redundant phrase) in order to bring about a realisation upwards into kingdoms hitherto unseen and unknown, downwards into kingdoms which we call subhuman, outwards into the human environment and into the human kingdom, and inwards (a meaningless word, my brother) toward divinity itself. This means towards synthesis, towards wholeness, towards the sense of the entire, towards totality. For all these four directions (of which north, south, east and west are symbols) there are specific techniques, but today I may only indicate direction.

2. A sense of "intelligent supervision". This must be esoterically understood. What does this mean? One of the most deeply spiritual qualities which would-be initiates must unfold is the constant recognition of a focussed control upon daily life, circumstance, the future and fate. This is as yet an embryonic sense or entirely new avenue of perception and relatively close to and an aspect of the will aspect of divinity. It makes man conscious of his destiny, develops in him predictive power and gives him initiate insight into purpose and its unfolding plan. It is a faculty which you would do well to consider and try to imagine as a step towards development.

3. The sense of orientation to humanity. I presume you will recognise the truth of what I say when I express the opinion that your individual or personal love of humanity and the focus of your attention upon human need is very largely theoretical. It is transitory and experimental in practice. Your intentions are good and fine but you have not yet the habit of correct orientation and much that you do is the result of imposed sacrifice and at a cost; it is not natural to you; it is still the result of hopeful endeavour; you are still bewildered over the problem of how to be oriented to the Hierarchy and your soul, and at the same time to be oriented to humanity and your fellowmen. But the time will come when you are personally so decentralised that automatically the sense of "others" is [Page 298] far stronger in you than the sense of personality or of the lower self. Let your imagination run wild for a moment, picturing the condition of the world when the majority of human beings are occupied with the good of others and not with their own selfish goals. Such a play of imaginative thought is good and constructive and will aid in bringing out into manifestation that new world and that new type of humanity which the future will inevitably demonstrate. On this I shall not enlarge; the practice of goodwill will lay the foundation for this new type of sensitivity.

4. The sense of registered impression. With this new feeling out towards the unknown and towards that which requires a sensitive expansion of consciousness I shall not deal at this moment. It concerns the theme of training in telepathy; I shall deal with it as we consider that Science of Impression* which will eventually be the major objective of the educational systems which will be functioning at the close of the New Age, so rapidly approaching. Only now have those forces been permitted entrance into our planetary life which will present the new subjective environment which has ever been there though unrealised. The reason for this new sensitivity being the objective of hierarchical cultural training is that it is realised by the Hierarchy that man is now adequately intelligent to be trained in right interpretation.

5. The evocation of the will. This is, for disciples particularly, the new and most necessary development. As I oft have told you, the average aspirant confounds will with determination, with fixed intention, with self-will and one-pointed attention. He does not realise that the will is that divine aspect in man that puts him en rapport with and then controlled by divine purpose, intelligently understood in time and space and implemented by the soul as the expression of loving application. The mode par excellence by which the will can be developed is the cultivation of the recognition of the divine Plan down the ages. This produces a sense of synthesis and this sense of [Page 299] synthesis ties the man into the plan through recognition of:

a. Its inevitability, therefore demanding cooperation.

b. Its success, therefore evoking wise activity.

c. Its immediate objective—to which all the past has led.

d. Its rightness—to which the intuition testifies.

   It is not easy for the disciple in training to associate the sense of synthesis and the use of the will together and to realise that a cultivation of this first ray perception is a potent mode by which the highest aspects of the spiritual will (as yet embryonic within him) can be unfolded. Elsewhere I deal in greater detail with the will, its nature and what it is.

6. The sense of that which is imminent. This concerns the "raincloud of knowable things." I would call your attention to the word knowable. It is not the recognition of that which is imminent in man, in nature, or latent in manifestation. Speculation along this line might be and frequently is of no true importance. It is what is spiritually imminent which concerns the true disciple, if I may be permitted this play on words. One of the first lessons in the esoteric field is the sense of timing, with which that which is imminent or impending is connected; the disciple has to awaken to that which is on the very verge of precipitation into human thinking, life and circumstance; he has to take those occult steps which will enable him to recognise not only that which is hovering over humanity on the point of revelation or of karmic usefulness (note the phrase), but also enable him to handle himself so correctly and wisely that he becomes a cooperator, step by step, in the process of aiding in this task of revelation. More light on this subject will come as we study the Science of Impression. The point, however, I seek to make here is that sensitivity to the overshadowing cloud presupposed the subjective existence of a power or divine faculty hitherto not consciously used by disciples but which can now be intelligently developed, producing more rapid vision and a more acute revelatory perception. [Page 300] That power has always been present; it is an aspect of the force of evolution and has led man on from one point of revelation to another, from one power to another, one sense to another, and from point to point of understanding. It first of all produced the physical senses; it led man on to emotional expression and to mental development; it is the secret behind spiritual understanding, but it has never yet been consciously employed. It is to the mind what the mind, as the common-sense, has been to all the five senses. Think that out.

    This raincloud is hovering, heavy with portent and knowledge, over a world today in process of reorganisation and regeneration. The Masters are seeking to hasten in Their disciples this recognition of that which is imminent, so that they can be the intelligent agents whereby the needed precipitations can be brought about. There is a definite technique for producing this peculiar form of cooperation, but it will not be possible to work with it or apply it for another twenty-five years.

    Here I have very briefly outlined for you the new developments which are possible if the disciple is rightly focussed and oriented.