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The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Section One - The Aspirant and the Mysteries of Initiation
The World Tension Analyzed The tension in the world today, (written in April 1947) particularly in the Hierarchy, is such that it will produce another and perhaps ultimate world crisis, or else such a speeding up of the spiritual life of the planet that the coming in of the long-looked-for New Age conditions will be amazingly hastened. I would have you consider carefully what I have said here, remembering what I have told you in the past anent points of tension. This present tension constitutes a major problem for the disciple in training, and therefore our particular theme in this instruction is peculiarly apposite. There is a great deal of glamor in the world today and a great deal of that glamor is concentrated in Russia, owing to the youth and the basic political inexperience of that people. The United States of America is also young and inexperienced, but not to the same extent as are the Russian people. Today, the Russians are suffering from the glamor of power, the glamor of planning, the glamor of what they consider a great ideal (and such it is), the glamor of prestige and the inevitable - but ephemeral - glamor of totalitarianism. It is this same totalitarianism which also constitutes their weakest point, because it leads inexorably to a revolt of the human spirit. That human spirit is to be found in Russia to exactly the same extent as it is to be found in any other country in the world. Freedom is an essentially spiritual attribute, underlying the entire evolutionary process; this should always be remembered as a strengthening and conditioning reality by all men everywhere. It has survived aeons of opposition from the principle of enslaving selfishness and is largely responsible, at this time, for the struggle in which we are all participating. The country which is the most free from selfishness today is Great Britain; she is experienced, old, and therefore mature in her thinking; she has learnt much in a relatively short time and her judgment is sound. The most [429] selfish country in the world today is France, with the United States (though along totally different lines) running her a close second; both are materially selfish and capitalistically engrossed. Russia is also selfish but it is the selfishness of a fanatical ideal, held by an immature, a too young a people. The selfishness of the United States is also due to youth, but it will eventually yield to experience and to suffering; there is - fortunately for the soul of this great people - much suffering in store for the United States. The selfishness of France is less excusable; France too is old and experienced; again and again she has been the victim of the armed forces of Germany and cries aloud to the world about it. France forgets that she frequently overran central Europe in the Middle Ages, and the Napoleonic conquests are relatively modern history. Her evil destiny (as she regards it) does, nevertheless, give her the opportunity to become spiritual in her life and attitudes, instead of grossly and intellectually (though brilliantly) material. She has not yet learned her lesson, and as yet shows little inclination to do so. Strain, economic privations and anxiety may teach her; the result will be stability. In the hands of the United States, Great Britain and Russia, and also in the hands of France, lies the destiny of the world disciple, Humanity. Humanity has been passing through the tests which are preparatory to the first initiation; they have been hard and cruel and are not yet entirely over. The Lords of Karma (four in number) are today working through these four Great Powers; it is, however, a karma which seeks to liberate, as does all karma. In the coming crisis, true vision and a new freedom, plus a wider spiritual horizon may be attained. The crisis, if rightly handled, need not again reach the ultimate horror. The area of difficulty - as is well known - is the Near East and Palestine. The Jews, by their illegal and terrorist activities, have laid a foundation of great difficulty for those who are seeking to promote world peace. As a Jewish member of my Ashram pointed out (and I commend him on his soul vision), the Jews have partially again opened the door [430] to the Forces of Evil, which worked originally through Hitler and his evil gang. The "sealing" of that door had not been successfully accomplished, and it is the part of wisdom to discover this in time. These Forces of Evil work through a triangle of evil, one point of which is to be found in the Zionist Movement in the United States, another in central Europe, and the third in Palestine. Palestine is no longer a Holy Land and should not be so regarded. I would have you bear these points in mind while you investigate the world picture. This picture is taking shape and warrants recognition. It involves the Jews (who are not a nation but a religious group) the Near East and Russia. In the maps which are to be found in the Archives of the spiritual Hierarchy, the entire area of the Near East and Europe - Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Palestine, the Arab States, Egypt and Russia - are under a heavy over-shadowing cloud. Can that cloud be dissipated by the right thinking and planning of Great Britain, the United States and the majority of the United Nations or - must it break in disaster over the world? Will it present a task too hard for correct handling by that inexperienced disciple - Humanity? In what I have written above you have the picture of the true situation; it is one which finds Great Britain temporarily weakened and ineffective (except for the clear thinking of her people and her political maturity); it finds the United States, unused to power, somewhat arrogant, with a strong superiority complex, inexperienced and yet at the same time exceedingly well-intentioned and fundamentally sound. It is the mass of the people who are sound in their thinking and not their representatives in Congress. It is not for me to tell you what will happen, although the Hierarchy knows. Humanity must (as must all disciples) be left entirely free to settle its own destiny. Humanity has not yet learned the difficult lesson which all disciples have to master: the lesson of the dual life of the man whose soul is functioning and whose physical brain is constantly aware of this fact. [431]
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