SOUND THE NOTE OF LOVE,
INVOKE THE SOUL RAY,
PERMIT THE CHRIST SPIRIT ENTRANCE
DISTANCE GROUP MEDITATION
– EVERY SUNDAY AT 20.30 –
for invoking Soul Ray of Greece, Nations and One Humanity
March 12, 2023
Text read by brother L.M.
ON HINTS
The hints a Master earlier gave were concerned largely
with the building or changing of character and with the awakening of the chela.
These no longer constitute hints to the modern disciple; he knows enough by
himself to work on his own character, and he has penetrated to the fringe of
the inner world by his own effort and on his own power. Such is the rule for
the majority of aspirants today. The hints such as I will give you are
superficially easy to understand and have an apparently obvious meaning; but
they [Page 277] are concerned with service and
with human and planetary affairs, and are capable of several
interpretations—according to the point of unfoldment and the ray type.
In my last instruction I gave you three hints, and it
might be useful if we briefly considered them. I will indicate to you the line
along which light might come to you, as a group, at your particular point of
development.
The first hint dealt with the changes wrought by the
work done in the Ashrams which are enfolded in the one great Ashram of the
Hierarchy. I said that the results of this would be that a closer relationship
would be established with Sanat Kumara and His Council Chamber. This will be
the result of the work done by the disciples of the world—in or out of
incarnation. I wonder how many of you pondered on the significance of the
statement that the changes were brought about by the activity of the disciples;
by this I mean not the senior initiates, but what you mean when you speak of a
disciple. You might naturally have assumed that the needed changes would be
instituted by the Masters, or by the Christ, or even by Sanat Kumara. But it is
not so. Why is this? What idea lies behind my flat statement? The disciples of
the world are the intermediaries between the Hierarchy and Humanity. They are
the product of immediate human endeavour; they set the pace for human
unfoldment; they are therefore closely en rapport with the consciousness of the
race of men. It is the quality of the new disciples, the rapidity with which
men find their way into the ranks of the disciples, and the demand which the
working disciples in the world make on behalf of humanity (which they know)
that brings about the needed changes. The Masters are trained in the art of
recognition, which is the consummation of the practice of observation; They
stand ever ready to make the needed changes in the techniques or curriculum
whenever human nature outgrows the old presentations of the ever-needed truths.
The need is indicated to Them by Their disciples, and They then initiate the
required changes. When these occur at a time of crisis and are far-reaching in
effect and are determining of conditions for several thousand years to come,
then the entire Hierarchy meets in conclave. Upon [Page
278] the basis of the light in this hint, you can for yourselves infer
much.
The second hint I gave indicated that mankind had
evolved so well that today the goals and theories, the aims and determinations
now expressed in human thinking and writing showed that the will aspect of
divinity, in its first embryonic manifestation, was beginning to make its
presence felt. Have you followed this hint? Have you realised that the
uprisings of the masses and their determination to overcome handicaps and all
hindrances to a better world state are indicative of this? Do you grasp the
fact that the revolutions of the past two hundred years are signs of the
striving of the spirit aspect? That spirit is life and will; the world today is
showing signs of new life. Think this out in its modern and immediate
implications and see the way that the world is going under the inspiration of
the spiritual Will.
The third hint I gave you was intended to suggest that
it was the duty and the responsibility of the disciple, working under the
inspiration of the Ashram, to "modify, qualify and adapt" the
proposed plan of Shamballa (for which the Ashrams are responsible) in
connection with the coming civilisation and culture. There is an "art of
spiritual compromise" which must be learnt and which it is difficult to
master, because it negates fanaticism, requires a trained and intelligent
understanding of applied measures and truth, and also negates evasion of
responsibility; it involves also a comprehension of the time equation, of
differing points in evolution, plus experience in the process of discarding the
outgrown and unnecessary—no matter how good it may appear to be.
In these three hints lie much scope for individual
education and expansion of consciousness, and it is in the right use of these
hints that the disciple learns to serve with adequacy and precision and to
render satisfactory service to the Hierarchy. I shall ever indicate to you when
I give you a hint, and upon these hints I would ask you to concentrate. I shall
not always elaborate as I have done today, for you must grow by solving your
own problems.
One of the difficulties which is associated with
inaugurating [Page 279] a new and more advanced
attitude towards initiation is the offsetting of the idea that the initiate
always knows all there is to know. You need to remember that knowledge is
associated with the factual world; it concerns the accumulated information of
the ages; it is closely connected with memory and its subjective
counterpart—recovery of past knowledge. This means regaining again,
consciously, all that the Ego has stored up as the result of many incarnations
and many different experiences; it is related to the "knowledge
petals" in the egoic lotus and to the concrete lower mind. Knowledge is
that which brings about an effective working relation between this outer tier
of petals, the concrete mind and the brain. It embodies the "intelligence
equipment" of a soul in incarnation during any one life, dealing largely
with the ephemeral, the transitory and the passing. The factor which is
enduring in knowledge is simply its power to relate the past and the present,
and thus produce effective, phenomenal living today.
Wisdom is the hallmark of the initiate, and this he
possesses even if his practical knowledge of mundane details—historical,
geographical, economic, and cultural—may leave much to be desired. The
disciples within a Master's Ashram can provide Him with what knowledge He may
require, for they are drawn from different cultures and civilisations and among
them can summarise the sum total of human knowledge at any one given time. This
must not be forgotten. A Master of the Wisdom always knows where to go for
knowledge. Knowledge and intelligence or mental polarisation must not be
confounded in your minds. I might add to the above that knowledge deals with
the ascertained and the effectual on the physical plane and in the three
worlds; wisdom deals with inherent capacities and possibilities of spiritual
expression. Knowledge can be expressed in concepts and precepts; wisdom is
revealed through ideas against which (very frequently) much mundane knowledge
powerfully militates. The concrete mind often inhibits, as you well know, the
free flow of ideas intuitively impulsed; it is with this free flow of the new
ideas that the initiate is basically concerned, because it is ideas, their
right application and interpretation, [Page 280]
which determine the future of humanity and of the planetary life.
The first thing, therefore, that the disciple in
preparation for initiation has to learn is the nature of ideas and their
distinction from contacted thoughtforms—to express it simply, and therefore,
from the complexity of the subject, inadequately. The primary task of the
Master is to aid the disciple to develop the intuition, and at the same time,
keep the mental perception in an active and wholesome state. This is done,
first of all, by enabling him to arrive at a right relation and correct
evaluation between the abstract and the concrete realms of thought—those higher
and lower aspects of the mind which are to the soul what the lower mind and the
brain are to the personality. Think this out. A true recognition of this
distinction produces a new focussing of the life force within the soul which
will, in the earlier stages of discipleship, work through the abstract mind and
the concrete mind. But the abstractions with which the disciple in training is
then dealing are not in the nature of intuitions, and here is a point where
confusion oft arises. They are merely the broad, general and universal
perceptions and world inclusions which the gradually developing intelligence of
mankind has registered and recognised and which the foremost thinkers of the
race grasp with facility, but which seem so amazing to the neophyte. They appear
to him of such magnitude and importance (as objects of his enhanced vision)
that he confounds them with ideas and their intuitive perception. He has not
learned to discriminate between abstract thoughts and intuitive ideas. Here
lies the crux of his problem.
Ideas are other than this, as far as the initiate is
concerned; they deal primarily with that which will eventually be, and are
those formative new spiritual and creative impulses which will supersede the
old and build the "new house" in which humanity will live; cycle
after cycle and civilisation after civilisation, the fresh stream of inflowing
ideas have conditioned the dwelling places of man and his mode of life and
expression; through the medium of these ever-living and ever-appearing ideas,
humanity passes on to [Page 281] something
better and greater and more appropriate to the life of the slowly manifesting
divinity.
Ideas, when intuitively contacted by the disciple or
initiate, via the antahkarana, must be brought consciously down to abstract
levels of thinking where (expressing it symbolically) they form the blueprints,
prior to the institution of the creative process which will give them
phenomenal existence and being. I would have you, therefore, remember the three
factors:
1. The Intuition which contacts and reveals new ideas.
2. The Abstract World in which they are given form and substance and which is to the thoughtform eventually created what the etheric body is to the dense physical vehicle.
3. Concrete Thought producing the concretising of the thoughtform and thus making the idea available to mankind.
Here, in this simple summation, is expressed for you
the process which the disciple will be able to follow when he is initiate; as
each initiation is taken, the scope of the idea steadily increases, and its
potency also, so that it might be said that the initiate—as he progresses upon
the Path of Initiation—works first with the idea, then with ideas, then with
the hierarchical Plan in a wide and general sense, and finally reaches the point
where he comes under the influence of the purpose of Sanat Kumara. Then the
will of the Lord of the World will stand revealed to him.
The work of the initiate is carried forward within the
ring-pass-not of the Universal Mind; this is only a phrase expressive of the
range of thought, planning and purpose which is that of a planetary or solar
Logos. The quality of the approach which the initiate brings to the work is
drawn, as pure energy, from the heart centre of the planetary Logos; it is pure
love with its inevitable corollaries, wisdom and [Page 282]
understanding. These give him insight into the plan. The power which he can
bring to the task is drawn from his comprehension of the purpose of the
planetary Logos and this expansive and all-inclusive work is entered into in
graded sequences and carried forward under the influence of the initiate's
expanding awareness and his growing sensitivity to impression.
I am seeking here to divorce your minds from the idée
fixe that the initiate works because he knows. I would reverse the statement
and say he knows because he works. There is no point of attainment at which the
Initiator says to the initiate: Now you know, and therefore you can work.
Rather it is: Now you serve and work, and in so doing you are embarked upon a
new and difficult voyage of discovery; you will discover reality progressively
and arrive at whole areas of expression, because you serve. Resulting from this
service, certain powers and energies will manifest, and your ability to use
them will indicate to you, to your fellow initiates and to the world that you
are a worker, fully conscious upon the inner side of life.
The initiate works from his place upon that inner
side. During the early stages of the initiatory process he works in the world of
meaning. After the third initiation he works consciously in the world of
causes, until such time as he is advanced enough to work in the world of being.
The aspirant is endeavouring to grasp the purpose of the world of meaning and
to apply the knowledge gained to his daily life with understanding. The
disciple is endeavouring to comprehend the significance of the world of causes
and to relate cause and effect in a practical manner. The initiate of higher
degree utilises the potencies of these three worlds of meaning, cause and being
to implement the purpose of Sanat Kumara.
These differences are not hard and fast, with clear
lines of demarcation; life is fluid and moving and the points of attainment are
myriad in number and progressing forward all the time, but the general picture
will serve to carry your thoughts away from the "trappings of
initiation," from the colouring and the unimportant, so-called facts
(actual and [Page 283] imagined) which have been
so much emphasised by the occult groups and leaders and which have been held
out as inducements to would-be disciples. I would have this group which I am
training forget the details about initiation as presented so oft by the mystery
monger and the emotional person, and concentrate upon the far more factual
realities of meaning, cause and being. The old and outworn presentations were
the product of the concrete mind, and are therefore crystallising in their
effects and distorting in their results; they are also evocative of spiritual
selfishness and isolation, as well as of astral curiosity. The new approach
which I seek to indicate makes its appeal to the abstract mind and to the soul,
whose values are sound, and eventually to the intuition; it is not so colourful
an appeal as far as the personality is concerned, but it will produce more
creative results and lead the neophyte along a safer road, with fewer
disappointments and failures.
(Alice A. Bailey, DISCIPLESHIP
IN THE NEW AGE II, pp. 276-283)
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου