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Discipleship in the New Age II - Personal Instructions to Disciples - I.B.S.
November 1944 MY BROTHER: If you will reread the instructions which I gave you last year, I think you will realize that there is little that I need add to them. I gave you an instruction which through its directive injunction covered the remainder of your life events - as I foresaw them. You have lived for years at the high point of tension. Fire has been the quality of your life. This fire was at first destructive, but in later years it has been warming and nurturing. I think you know that sound and fire are closely allied. I think you know also that disciples are gathered by the Masters into their Ashrams when their sound has gone forth and when the fire that is in them has successfully burned away the intervening barriers between the soul and the personality. Then their sound can safely be added to the sound of the Ashram, enriching its volume, adding quality to its tone, and conveying the needed creative qualities. The next few years will not be easy ones for you, my brother. Be not over-anxious over anything that may eventuate. Speaking symbolically, I might express your future thus: The nature of fire will be brought more clearly and essentially to your attention; fire will be the subject of your thinking. Do not infer from this that I am indicating to you the way of fire, of pain or of sorrow. Such is not my intention. I do not mean that the future holds for you any passing through the fires of purification. You have moved across the burning-ground - as have all your group brothers. The whole of mankind is passing en masse through the fires which precede the first initiation. Every disciple creates his own burning-ground; he then takes his stand within it, and eventually [554] passes out of it to stand before the Angel of the Presence, at the very door of initiation. These are to you the platitudes of the Path and require from me no explanation. There is one fire, however, with which you should now concern yourself. I would call it "the fire of comprehension." It is closely related to the blinding light of realization, but ever precedes it because it destroys all the glamorous which may hide or veil the immediate point of illumination for the disciple. You have approached this fire from the standpoint of the emotional nature and it has been associated in your mind with the waters of the astral plane, thus producing the symbols of mist and fog which are ever caused by the bringing together of fire and water. This concept has conditioned your thinking. I would have you now consider glamor in the light of the fires of comprehension. There comes a time in the disciple's life when he must assume that he knows; he must take the position that he comprehends, and must proceed to act upon the comprehended knowledge. That is definitely the point that you have now reached. The results of this definite assumption, and of the activities which it initiates, are oft surprising and apt to be painful; that is why the symbol of fire is again appropriate at this point. Act in the future "as if" there are for you no more glamorous, and see, my brother, what will eventuate. Endeavor always to live within the Ashram, which is insulated from glamor, and act "as if" the consciousness of the Ashram was intrinsically your consciousness. Go forth to the service which you are rendering "as if" you remained immovable in the Ashram; live always "as if" the eyes of the entire Ashram were upon you. For the remainder of your life let the esoteric philosophical concept "as if" actuate all you do. It is this constant awareness which the two words "as if" embody that will produce in you a fresh use of the creative imagination. Some time ago I told the group that initiation was simplification. Therefore, simplify your remaining years by ever acting "as if." Through this living process you will let loose the fires of comprehension. I wonder if I am making some idea of value clear to you? Govern yourself always "as if" [555] your divine comprehension was perfected and the result in your daily life will be "as if" all concealed glamorous and all hiding deceptive veils were non-existent. The disciple acts "as if" he were initiate and then discovers that "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he," because the heart is the custodian of the power of the imagination. The imagination is released into creative activity when the disciple acts "as if" he were the soul in full expression, "as if" the Master were ever aware of the doings of his disciple, "as if" he walked in full liberation consciously. For you, these two words will bring release and happiness. The trends of your life and service are established. Seek not to change them. The fund of knowledge which you have accumulated in this life is very real. Draw, however, what you need for your teaching work from the ancient reservoir of wisdom, and not so much from the pool of knowledge. Deepen your meditation and intensify the inner silence within which it is desirable that you should live. Think humbly, speak wisely and work ceaselessly. The opportunity today is great for all disciples everywhere, and the potencies at their disposal are more vital than ever before. Link up with me each day and count on my sustaining love.
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