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Discipleship in the New Age II - Talks to Disciples - Group Instruction
Until this is your experience, a closer relation to my Ashram will not be possible because the heavy and lethargic quality of your group life would entail undue effort on the part of the other disciples in the Ashram (and particularly in the inner Ashram) in order to offset it. I am putting this to you with frankness as we together face the end of the war, and a period of renewed and different opportunity opens before all world servers. It is for you to decide whether your contribution during the war period measured up to your opportunity; it is for you to decide what part you will play, as individuals and as a group, in the coming cycle - a cycle wherein the new ideas and ideals must be stressed, and for which a fight must be made, wherein the wider plans must be understood, endorsed and preached, the new and clearer vision for human living must be grasped and finally brought into being, and a cycle wherein the effort of all members of the New Group of World Servers (and surely you are that!) must be given to the lifting of humanity's heavy load. No definite assignments were given in the last instruction, as I felt I would like to see whether the rhythm of the past - reporting on the meditation work and on the Full Moon Approach which has been carried on now for many years - was so strongly established that, for the sake of the [45] group, it would be carried on, even if not specifically demanded. Only a few have kept the group meditation; the work of interpreting the Formula, as outlined earlier and not specifically discontinued by me, has received no attention, and the group is the loser thereby. I point out these factors because I would have you realize that this is group work, and that it is the group which is the teacher of the group, under inspiration from me, when you - as individuals - reach me, and under the inspiration of your own souls and of the Spiritual Triad when these contacts are made and utilized. In my previous instruction I stressed three points to which I would like again to refer in the light of the emerging opportunity. My task is not to change you or to give you orders and commands. I have only one task, and that is to find and test out those who can serve the race under inspiration from the Ashrams of the Masters. I referred at that time to the loneliness which is one of the first things that indicates to a disciple that he is being prepared for initiation. It will be apparent, therefore, that the loneliness to which I refer is not that which is incident to those weaknesses of character which repel one's fellowmen, to an aloof or disagreeable nature, or to any form of self-interest which is so emphasized that it antagonizes other people. There is much loneliness in a disciple's life which is entirely his own fault and which is subject to cure if he employs the right measure of self-discipline. With these he must deal himself, for they concern the personality, and with your personalities I have no affair. I refer to the loneliness which comes when the accepting disciple becomes the pledged disciple and steps out of a life of physical plane concentration, and of identification with the forms of existence in the three worlds, and finds himself in the midway place, between the world of outer affairs and the inner world of meaning. His first reaction then is that he is alone; he has broken with the past; he is hopeful but not sure of the future; the tangible world to which he is accustomed must, he knows, be superseded by the intangible world of values, involving a new sense of proportion, a new range of values and new responsibilities. This world he believes [46] exists, and he steps forward bravely and theoretically, but it remains for a while wholly intangible; he finds few who think and feel as he does and the mechanism of sure contact only exists within him in embryo. He is breaking loose from the mass consciousness with which he has been merged hitherto, but has not yet found his group, into which he will eventually be consciously absorbed. Therefore, he is lonely and feels deserted and bereft. Some of you feel this loneliness; few of you have, for instance, reached the point where you feel yourselves to be a definite, integral part of the group; only two or three of you realize - briefly and fleetingly at times - the close link with the Ashram; your attitude is largely one of hope, coupled with the idea that it is your physical limitations which prevent your realizing all that truly is, in connection with your inner affiliations. But, my brothers, such a sense of loneliness is only another form of self-consciousness, of undue self-interest, and (as you make progress upon the Path) you will find it disappearing. If you therefore feel lonely, you must learn to look upon it as a glamor or illusion and as a limitation which must be overcome. You must begin to act as if it were not. If only more disciples would learn the value of acting "as if." There is no time for any of you to be lonely these days, for there is no time for you to think about yourselves. The second point I made was the need for you to emphasize and develop the Will. Presumably, you have all been working at the task of building the antahkarana, the channel of communication between the brain and the spiritual will, or the Monad, working through the medium of the Spiritual Triad. If you have been successful, it will be beginning to dawn upon you that there is a great distinction between goodwill which the masses can and often do grasp, and the will-to-good which is the goal of the disciple. Goodwill is relatively simple of expression and all of you know much about it and express much of it. For that, no commendation is required, for it is a human attribute lying very near the surface of expression in all men. But the will-to-good is far more difficult to express, for it involves the ability not only to use the spiritual will, but to know somewhat the nature of [47] the "good." The will-to-good is the basic quality of divine Purpose, involving planned activity and a definite goal to be achieved. It necessitates the ability to think in terms of the whole, an appreciation of the next step which humanity must take in the imminent Great Approach (for this must be a reciprocal Approach), an understanding of the lessons of the past and a vision, based - not on love or on soulsight - but on a conviction as to the immediate purpose of Sanat Kumara, as he works it out through the Christ and the planetary Hierarchy. This conviction is based, as far as the Hierarchy is concerned, on pure reason; it is based, as far as humanity is concerned, through its disciples, on intuitive perception, implemented by love and expressed intelligently. Upon this I would ask you to ponder, and as you ponder, make the needed changes in your personal approach to the problem.
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