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Discipleship in the New Age II - Teachings on Initiation - Part VIII
Hint Two. "Human planning today is one of the first indications of the emergence of the Will aspect." So this second hint runs. This sounds relatively simple and to be a rather trite statement, and that is because it gives in reality only a general idea and synopsis of the ancient formula. These formulas, which reach the candidate for initiation as hints, are fundamentally in the nature of instructions to the Master, and provide in their entirety a sequence of teaching and of progressive unfoldment of truth. This fact emerges more clearly in the original wording, as nearly as I can translate it for you, or rather, transfer into words what were originally word symbols or ideographs: "When the stream of direction is noted by the one who seeks the inner side, then let the Master indicate the pattern and then await results. This may take time. Results come not through the action of but one; they appear when the many respond on Earth to that which comes from the higher Center through the One. This they do blindly, when at stage the first; later they move with care and right direction. Thus affairs are changed on Earth." To the aspirant, the statement re planning fixes his attention upon the physical plane; he then begins to see what are termed "indications of direction"; he sees them in terms of humanity's immediate purpose and becomes aware of the tiny part which he can play by cooperation with this planning - or, perhaps, by repudiating it. Decision in both cases is dependent upon his background, training, circumstances and prejudices, plus his ability to make choices. This is as far as he can go, and he usually is quite satisfied with the part he has played in the various processes, and regards his choices and decisions as aspects of his mental determination. But in reality he is at fault, and the case as he visions it [360] is not so. He must learn to function entirely differently. This hint is not concerned with a part which an aspirant must play as an individual, nor does it include the factor of mental appreciation of the qualities of his own nature. Where the true disciple is concerned, three things are involved and condition his whole approach to this problem of human planning: Its relation to the Plan, as it has been communicated to him within the precincts of the Ashram. His ability to use a measure of the true divine Will as it pours through the Ashram from Shamballa for the implementation of the Plan, and as constituting its directing agent. The sequence of the planning as it materializes on Earth in relation to the time factor. Three things emerge in his thinking at this time: The immediate steps to be taken in order to carry the Plan forward, logically, practically and with the least expenditure of the destroying aspect of the will. The probable duration of the cycle in which the Plan can progress from its inception until its fulfilment. An appreciation of the unfolding pattern of which the material planning is an expression. He needs to discover how far human planning conforms to that pattern. He must sense where nonconformity originates and what steps - as far as his particular point in evolution permits - the Ashram should take to offset the distortion of the Plan. Only in this way will he learn himself to plan. You can see from the above what a different approach is here involved when a disciple deals with a hint, how wide are the vistas which are opened up, how subjective his predominating attitude must be, and how inevitably the group relationship to the planning becomes apparent and important to him as an individual as well as to the group as a whole. [361] It is for this reason that disciples in an Ashram are of no political persuasion and own to no nationalistic bias. This is not an easy thing for them to achieve at once, but the group consciousness gradually assumes control, and with it the disciple's ability to think and work with the group in terms of the Plan. He grasps eventually that in relation to humanity, the planning of the Hierarchy falls into certain definite phases of activity - all of them related and all of them tending towards the externalization of the Plan in any particular century, cycle or world period. These phases are: The phase of Purpose, originating in Shamballa and registered by the senior Members of the Hierarchy. The stage of hierarchical Planning. This is the formulation of the Purpose in terms of possibility, immediacy, appropriateness and the availability of the disciples, plus the energies to implement the Plan. Next comes Program, wherein the Plan is taken up by the particular ashram involved in its implementation and is then reduced to the formative stages of human impression and direction, the conditions necessary to bring about its emergence, and the two phases of this conditioning. These are usually in two parts; i.e., the destruction of all hindrances and the presentation of the Plan. The emergence of the hierarchical Pattern (based upon the recognition of purpose, careful planning and a detailed and carefully thought-out program), both in the minds of the disciples in the Ashram who are involved in the implementation of the Plan, and among the intelligentsia on Earth. These two groups have the task - the first group consciously and the other unconsciously - of bringing the pattern of things to be into the mass consciousness, by no means an easy task, as the present state of world affairs demonstrates. Then comes the final phase of Precipitation, when all the subjective work has been done on the basis of possibility, and when the pattern and a part of the program are recognized by the world thinkers in every nation, either [362] favorably or with antagonism. The planning, having reached this final stage, then proceeds under its own momentum. These are some of the ideas which lie behind the particular hint which I have given to you, as far as the disciple is concerned. According to his development and his point in evolution, so will be his emphasis; some disciples can aid the Master in the planning process because they are becoming sensitive to impression by Shamballa; others are engrossed in the formulation of the program and in imparting some of its features to more limited disciples, thus setting them to work. A group of carefully chosen disciples are always held in the Hierarchy to work solely with the pattern; this is a most important phase of the work, requiring a spirit of synthesis and an ability to hold streams of hierarchical energy under control. Disciples who are not so advanced, and who are therefore closer to human thinking at the particular moment in history, undertake to supervise the precipitation of the Plan. Their work is necessarily far more exoteric, but is most responsible, because it is when the Plan has reached the stage of human implementation that error is apt to arise and mistakes can occur. In every ashram are to be found those disciples whose task it is to make the needed readjustments of the pattern and the demanded changes in the program as the process of precipitation goes forward. It is a law that human freedom may not be infringed. The staging of the Plan and its working out is, in the last analysis, an entirely human affair, once it has reached the stage of precipitation. It is dependent upon the responsiveness of human brains, and their recognition of need and its sources. This is a point which should be remembered. The above short explanation of the implications of a hint, and particularly of Hint Two should show you how rich is the area or the atmosphere of a hint - if I may use such peculiar phrasing; it will show you also how hints are largely concerned with ashramic duty. [363]
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