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Discipleship in the New Age II - Personal Instructions to Disciples - I.A.P.
November 1944 MY COMRADE AND MY BROTHER: These are two appellations which are sincere and intended. You are at this time facing changes. The choice with which you are confronted is not so much where you will work, but whether you have arrived at a high water mark in your developed life of service and can therefore go no further, or whether there are still to be found in you those springs of interest and those inner urges which will enable you to reach outward and further into the life of the spirit. [502] Such is oft the choice with which the disciple is faced who reaches close to the three score years and ten of ordinary human enterprise, as you do today. The difficulty lies in the fact that, fundamentally, either decision is right. Few, however, face the choice consciously or intelligently or, having made it, abide by the decision made. From the standpoint of the ordinary aspirant, the choice is relatively unimportant because the time equation is of no great moment at this stage; a few years more or less are of no import in the eternity of soul reaction. Therefore, a decision to relax, to hold the point gained, but to refrain from further struggle, has in it no room for criticism. Remember this. From the standpoint of the accepted disciple - such as you are - there may be more to the choice than at first appears. It might be of service to you, and to all who may later read these instructions, if I dwelt for a moment upon the inevitable problem of the working disciple, upon the problem of the man who reaches the age which you have reached. Shall he rest back upon his laurels (and you have laurels, my brother, as I pointed out in my last instruction to you) or shall he - to use a Biblical phrase - "gird his loins" anew and go forward with a fresh impetus and to a still higher summit of attainment? Shall he demonstrate the power of the seventh wave which will carry him forward much further upon the beach of life expression or will the strong undertow of ordinary human frailty pull him back from renewed effort? The reasons why a disciple must at least endeavor not to relax unduly and should push on in spite of fatigue (the fatigue of years of living), in spite of the increasing "creaking" of the human apparatus and the inevitable tendency which comes from constant service and constant contact with others, might be enumerated as follows: He must endeavor to carry the rhythm of service and of fruitful living with him when - free of the physical body - he stands upon the other side of the veil. There must be no gap in that service. He must endeavor as far as in him lies to preserve the [503] continuity of his consciousness as a working disciple and should allow no gap to emerge between his present point of tension and that point of tension which supervenes after the death experience. He must endeavor to close the episode of this life experience so that it is apparent that he is a member of an Ashram; he must permit no break in the established relationship, or any cessation to the flow of ashramic life through him to the world of men. This activity, on account of the natural and normal deterioration of the physical vehicle as it grows older, is not so easy a task; it requires a definite concentration of effort, thus increasing the tension in which a disciple ever lives. For any disciple in my Ashram, the problem in this time of world crisis is peculiarly urgent, and this for the following reasons: My Ashram is the main affiliated Ashram with that of the Master K.H. To him, my Master (as I am yours), is given the task, on a large scale, of world education along new lines. Through my Ashram, working under the inspiration of his, the newer, esoteric presentation of truth is to be given out. The work that I have already done - through my books and through all the teaching which you have attempted to embody - is to render the teaching of the other and older esoteric schools and groups entirely exoteric. There is little left to them that is new; they must now link up with the sources which I represent if their leaders are to present fresh and vital information to their students, or they must take what I have conveyed to the world, via A.A.B., and thus again reintegrate into the esoteric whole. Disciples in my Ashram have a dual responsibility to stand steady in a preservation of realization - if I may use such a phrase. This steadiness must not be relaxed in any way as old age draws near, and it must not be permitted to disappear through the transition of death itself. It is through the [504] unbroken conscious thinking of a welded group of disciples that the Master of an Ashram works. It is not so much the active outer service of a group of disciples which is of major importance (though it has necessarily a vital purpose) as the coherent, integrated group thought which is so potent in effecting changes in the human consciousness. The peculiar problem of the present world crisis and the terrific readjustments in the human consciousness, incident to the inauguration of a new culture, civilization and world religion, warrant my presenting the members of my Ashram (even affiliated groups, such as yours) with the opportunity to preserve intact and free from all deterioration their "state of mind" throughout the remaining years of this life, through the process of dissolution, and on into the freedom of the other side of the veil. This preservation of conscious integrity is no easy task; it requires understanding and most deliberate effort. I call you, therefore, my brother, to exactly this effort. The consequences to you will be a much harder life of service from now on; the results will be the carrying out of your plans for work with greatly intensified effort. You should now work in closer cooperation with A.A.B. and F.B. The task of carrying esoteric truth into Latin and Catholic America and southern Europe is no easy undertaking. It will be slow. Your foundation must be well and truly laid. The quality of those reached by you in the future is of more importance than the quantity. Bear this ever in mind. Relinquish not the various phases of the work you have so successfully launched, but proceed with them as heretofore - no matter where may be the place of your physical plane enterprise. One of the many things which you need at this time to learn, and which you must initiate during the next few years, is how to gather people together and work through them. This, as you have been taught, is very difficult for a first ray disciple to master, particularly when the soul ray [505] and the ray of the astral or emotional nature are both first ray. It is easy for the first ray disciple to withdraw into his soul consciousness, far easier than for any other ray types, and your problem (as it is also the problem of J.W.K-P.) is to give the second ray personality fuller sway, and thus balance the first ray ability to demonstrate detachment by the functioning of the opposite quality of attachment - so distinctive of the second ray nature. Ponder on this. As I told J.W.K-P. some years ago, a "detached attachment" (paradoxical as it sounds) is the goal of the first ray working disciple. This is equally true of you. You and he have the same egoic, personality and mental rays. Hence the close link with him which you have ever realized. He is a disciple of the Master M., temporarily working in my Ashram. You have been admitted into the ranks of accepted disciples in my Ashram and by me, but you will eventually be transferred into the Ashram of the Master M. The free interplay thus established between my Ashram and that of the Master M. is due to the fact that he is the inner Head of all esoteric groups, and in the interest of the coming new world order, the teaching Ashrams are being strengthened by the inflow of first ray disciples. This should be a point of real interest to you. What, my brother, shall be the type of meditation and interior work which you should be doing during the coming years? I would like to have you meditate upon the "three activities": Outward moving, persistent orientation, and interior withdrawing or abstraction. The relation of these three activities or three attitudes should form one aspect of your reflection upon these phrases; the relative activity involved in each attained position should constitute another; the effect produced by each of them in the three worlds, and also upon soul levels, demands careful and concentrated thought. What, for instance, is the nature of "outward moving" upon the astral plane? How would "persistent orientation" appear or express itself upon the mental plane? Or "abstraction and withdrawal" upon the physical level of consciousness? How can you, as a disciple, display these attitudes simultaneously? I think you will admit, my brother, that in these three [506] concepts and in their working out in the daily life within the ring-pass-not of the three worlds and in the life of the soul upon its own plane, I have given you the theme for much thinking during the coming years. Take each of these phrases, therefore, and think each of them out in relation to each of the three planes in the three worlds, and to each other; carry the same directed thinking on to soul levels and shift the theme then into the three worlds of the Spiritual Triad, regarding the lower three worlds then as reflections of the higher, triadal three. Keep notes of all the thoughts of reality which come to you;. watch the reactions produced in your vehicles of expression, and become increasingly aware of the changes which conscious, deliberate thinking will bring about in you. Think - if I may so express it - in your heart, and also in your mind, and endeavor to comprehend the distinction between these two modes of thought. This reflective work should constitute your meditation work in the future; it will condition your interior development and will also inevitably make your outer work more dynamic. One reason why I have emphasized the need for attachment in this instruction is that right attachment releases the love of the soul, and only love, consciously, intelligently and deliberately applied, can make for successful work, both in Europe and South America - your two recognized fields of service. Only your second ray personality will have the capacity to reawaken contact with your students in Spain or hold steady those already working in South America; it is through individually refound, reawakened and reinspired realization that the work, planned and intended by me, can be successfully carried forward. Such is your immediate task. Only your second ray personality can have the patience to cover the mass of detail needed and to persist in the face of apparent non-success. Much skill in action will also be required. The Catholic Church is governed by the first ray as its soul ray, and by the third ray as its personality ray. Hence its love of politics and of temporal power; hence also its intensely commercial and financial preoccupations. The mental ray of this Church is sixth ray. Hence its narrow one-pointedness: [507] its emotional body is also sixth ray in quality, whilst the physical ray of the outer Organization is seventh. These are points which should interest you and which you need to bear in mind as you work. A realization of this peculiar combination of rays will demand of you, and of all workers along esoteric lines, great skill in action. With renewed endeavor, enlightened understanding and courage, go forth again, my brother, in the service of the light. I stand ever behind you. On that point, have no doubts. I shield and protect, but I leave you free to work.
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