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Discipleship in the New Age II - Personal Instructions to Disciples - D.H.B.
November 1948 MY BROTHER AND MY FELLOW WORKER: I am deeply concerned in this communication to say something which will be of real service to you at this crisis in your life of discipleship. Disciples of all degrees are now being tested and tried out in preparation for the work they should do, prior to the reappearance of the Christ. Your whole life has been in reality a preparation for the work which it is hoped that you will do. This life has been for you what we call in the Hierarchy "a life of dual possibilities." When that is the case, a most difficult setting upon the physical plane is presented to the disciple and he faces two possible lines of activity: He can decide to adjust himself to the circumstances and give his whole attention to their surmounting (which in this case means changing them) and he, therefore, submits to the wear and tear of life, and to the constant consideration of karmic unfoldments within his personality scope. He has no time for outstanding service but regards the period of incarnation as an interlude wherein karma is worked off. Or - he accepts the seemingly impossible situation and determines that nothing in his personality or his circumstances shall deter him from the active service of humanity. He, therefore, handles both the situations and opportunity from an inner point of enlightenment and from a sustained peaceful position within the Ashram. In what I am here saying, I am considering only an accepted disciple such as yourself. You chose and have faithfully followed the second method of handling this present incarnation. With a frail and seriously injured physical body and a partner who is ever the cause of constant concern (though withal you owe her much), you have gone ahead with the task of a working disciple; you [676] have done much good and have helped our work greatly and - as the Master said - the Hierarchy is never ungrateful, for gratitude is the hallmark of an enlightened soul and a basic releasing agent from an occult and scientific angle. I am not ungrateful to you, my brother; I hope to move you on into a closer relation to myself provided you succeed in handling a somewhat difficult situation with which you are now confronted and dominate an aspect of your nature which must be controlled before the move I contemplate in connection with you can be consummated. At this time I have the responsibility of deciding whether you will accept what I say and then set in to change certain attitudes or whether you will refuse to recognize their existence and go your own way. That would make it impossible for me to offer you an esoteric possibility which will next life orient you in such a manner that, when you face the Initiation of Decision, the Path which you must follow will clearly appear to you. I wonder whether you have ever studied the reasons why the various members of the groups of nine stopped their work with me and are not (for this short period) participants in the work of my Ashram. Please note that I do not use the phrase "participants in spiritual work." Many of them are still just as spiritually motivated. An Ashram exists for work and not primarily for training disciples. That training is necessarily given, but the prime object of an Ashram is to accomplish a particular phase of work. This is a sentence which I would beg you here to pause and reflect upon. It is of prime importance to you at this time. The work of the Hierarchy is an integrated whole; each Ashram within the Hierarchy is dedicated to that whole and to that particular aspect of it which can be best carried out through its members of all degrees - the disciples in training for some initiation or another. To insure that the work goes forward as desired, necessarily (as I said) the individual disciple or initiate receives training, injunctions as to character development and personality attitudes. A close study of Discipleship in the New Age (Vol. I) will disclose to you that it was on this point of personality correction - if I may use so [677] harsh a word for the hints and suggestions I gave - that defection occurred. In spite of sincerity, dedication and wide knowledge, and even a subjective recognition of the accuracy of what I said, they would not accept it; rebellion set in; self-justification through rationalization took place and temporarily - very temporarily - they became inactive, though still disciples on the periphery of my Ashram. If I now address to you certain comments upon your attitude the past three years, towards the work which has its spiritual focal point in New York, do I risk losing you after all these years? Will you, for the remainder of your life, go your own way? I am going to believe that such will not be the case. As you well know, my work in the outer world has taken the form of three major activities... You have done much to help with this work and the door of opportunity stands wide open to you, provided the work is held true to the original picture, given prior to World War II. There are, however, one or two things you are apt to forget. The center from whence the Goodwill work goes out and the source of its spiritual potency is located in New York at this time, though later - if deemed wise - it may be moved to London. This I mentioned several years ago and I would remind you also that both these cities are among the five focal points of spiritual energy through which hierarchical activities can be set in motion. Your city is not. The major task of the Goodwill work is threefold: It must mobilize world goodwill. It is responsible for the distribution of the message The Reappearance of the Christ and for a great deal of the work preparatory to his coming. It must aid in drawing the attention of the masses as far as may be - to the problems of humanity, and thus help create the thought-form of solution. This F.B. and A.A.B. have already realized and are laying plans in line with the above. All over the world before long [678] (and already in different countries) much is being accomplished by students and others, always under instruction from New York, so that their work fits in with the general picture and the plans of the New York workers. There are, my beloved brother, three things in connection with your relation to the work which I would like to call to your attention: You have a strong feeling that all the Goodwill work should be completely divorced from what you choose to call occultism. Do you mean from the spiritual center, the Hierarchy? If this is done, in what way will the goodwill work you propose to do differ from the thousands of goodwill movements so ardently and actively working in the world today? This A.A.B. told you, since which time you have never spoken to her, bade her farewell even by phone or written her a letter. These personality details matter not to her and are of no importance except as they indicate a strong reaction on your part of almost violent disagreement. F.B. and A.A.B. have done what they could to "absorb" you into the work of the new cycle, but hitherto quite unsuccessfully. You tend to emasculate the work and rob it of all potency by a drastic elimination of any word or phrase or paragraph which could be considered to have an occult meaning or implication. Yet, my brother, in the years 1932-1936 the goodwill literature went out practically as dictated by me and it met with enormous and overwhelming success. It had the spirit and the rhythm of the Hierarchy behind it. Today the demand for things esoteric and occult and of the new era is greater still, and the unique thing which the Goodwill work has to offer is the Plan for humanity which the Hierarchy is seeking to implement. Then, my co-disciple, you have lately succumbed to [679] two personality faults or weaknesses which seriously hinder your work for me, and in the Ashram, and for humanity. You are again intensely critical of all who do not see things your way and - when their ideas do not coincide with your conception as to how the work should be done - you refuse to cooperate. I would remind you that the Members of the Hierarchy are highly individual even though relatively free from personality reactions. Each Ashram has its part to play in materializing the Plan and some project to carry through connected with that Plan. Sometimes this will require the joint cooperation of two or three Ashrams. All the senior workers called in to help may not see eye to eye with the Master responsible for a certain aspect of the Plan, but (when united in a cooperative task) they work under the direction of the Master who is responsible. Here lies a great deal of your difficulty. You want to work your own way many thousand miles away from Headquarters where I have established my work, instead of working out the plans as proposed to you. We come, therefore, not only to the field of criticism in which you find yourself stranded but we come to that latent ambition which, you have oft admitted over the years, is perhaps your deepest rooted failing... You are anxious to see the new seed group members take control of the organizational situation should anything happen to A.A.B., forgetting that the work of that group is mainly to create a subjective channel of spiritual love, light and power - a point to which few of the members pay any attention at all. You would like to run the work with your own chosen group of workers. You are not working with love and in cooperation with the workers at Headquarters; you are forgetting, are you not, that unless such a plan as the Goodwill work is founded and engineered by a group of disciples [680] who are working in the closest rapport with each other and (in the case of world goodwill) with the Hierarchy (via my Ashram and the Ashrams of the Masters M., K.H., and R.), the work cannot go forward as desired. My brother, your choice is clear and one of two paths is open to you. You can work with loving cooperation with F.B. and the other goodwill workers so that there is unity of approach and uniformity of technique, or else - you can create, engineer and run your own goodwill movement, which may turn out to be a big thing numerically but a poor little thing specifically because you are not in your place and doing your work in my Ashram as had been your soul's decision. This latter choice is not what I seek to see happen but at present you stand isolated and relatively useless between these two alternatives. The new cycle is upon us, brother of mine; there is no time now for personality plans, for criticisms and for disagreements. I have asked you to cooperate with those who have been asked by me to undertake the task of bringing the Goodwill movement to the world. An era of frustration has swept the world, due to certain planetary influences; the work that I have sought to do has consequently suffered. This period will not last. I need you in the new cycle and in the new expanding work. There is no place today for personal ambition, personal criticisms, hard feelings or self-pity. Deepen your spiritual life, my brother. Much that interests you is not constructive. Also the cleaning up of your country by ardent search for undesirable citizens can well be carried on by others than yourself. Your work is and must be for the Hierarchy and the furthering of its plans. Take again your place as an outpost of my consciousness in the activities of my organizations. Be humble. F.B. needs you but he knows that the Goodwill work is not an American movement but an international one; he has traveled much and seen the need. This you cannot really know as your life circumstances and your karma have confined you largely to [681] one single and distant locality. Broaden your horizon and bring in Europe, Australia and distant Asia and - as your vision quickens - you will arrive at understanding. Contribute your ideas and suggestions to the reservoir of plans at Headquarters and learn to consider and take part in other people's plans besides your own. What more can I say to you, my brother? We are ancient co-workers and those with whom you are associated in New York are your true co-workers, far more than those well-intentioned aspirants you seek to dominate in your environment. Work closely with your co-disciples and with the Ashram members. They all love you and want your cooperation. A.A.B. wants to see certain things accomplished in the relatively brief interlude which is left to her. Will you help? F.B. is going to need you and many like you as the work expands in the new cycle. Will you stand by him, by my work, and by me? My love goes out to you. Much in your present situation and spiritual dilemma reminds me of myself when I was in preparation for the third initiation; therefore, I understand and with this thought I leave you and will not fail you.
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