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Discipleship in the New Age II - Personal Instructions to Disciples - D.H.B.
September 1943 BROTHER OF MINE: The call has now gone forth from your soul and from my Ashram to develop and evolve your own definitely planned service, and therefore to begin the task of finding those whom you can help - not only in this life but primarily in the next. I start with this statement because I seek to say something which will arrest your attention and give incentive to the next few years of your life. The sixfold statement which I gave you last year was, if you have not ascertained this for yourself, full of information, indicative of your soul's desire or plan for you, and full also of esoteric symbolism. It is a symbolism which holds for you the key to the future. I would like to take these six sentences in this instruction and give you a deeper insight into them. They hold for you the blueprint of your future, and particularly are they the blueprint for your next incarnation. Study them afresh from that angle. What, my brother, has been the keynote of your present life? I refer here to the obvious personality keynote. Is it not [663] perhaps and above aught else frustration? Plans which have not materialized; dreams which have not come true; friends who have consistently failed to understand; lack of appreciation from those who should justly have given it to you; apparently no situation in which your deep knowledge and understanding could be made available. Learning and esoteric knowledge have both apparently (I said apparently, my brother) failed you. A home life which has not measured up to your earlier dreams and a physical body which limits all you have sought to do. You likewise see the years slipping away, and from the angle of the personality there seems little to show for it all. Such is one side of the picture, is it not? But what about the other side, my friend and co-worker? This, it is easy to overlook, because from the angle of personality appraisement it appears so nebulous and evasive and dependent for verification upon those rare moments when you contact consciously your soul, and then suddenly know. But this happens none top often. Let me tell you in words what that other side appears to us, knowing that you will believe me and that what, I say may give you a fresh and living grip on life and enough confidence to enable you to make the coming years increasingly fruitful. This has been for you an incarnation wherein certain major happenings have taken place. Your soul has, for one thing, taken possession of your personality and gripped your mind (a major determining factor in all processes connected with reincarnation), and has done this in such a way that you will return to incarnation when the time comes with a sense of convinced awareness. Secondly, you have stepped upon the Path of Accepted Discipleship and are definitely in preparation for initiation - which initiation it is for you to discover. A hint lies for you in the fact that frustration has been the keynote of your personality life, and that divine indifference is your quality objective. Do you realize the importance of those two major happenings? Again, you have learnt the meaning of pain, and again divine indifference is your goal. You have made many contacts and helped many more than you know, and you have thus established links - for what purpose, my brother? May it not be that each life that you [664] have touched with helping and with strength indicates to you those who may form the nucleus of your own group in a later life experience? One of the things which I shall have to indicate to the senior members of this particular group of chelas in my Ashram (as their teaching is carried forward after the preparatory personal processes have been duly taught) is the Technique of Magnetism, which is the clue to the manifestation of all Ashrams. It is through spiritual magnetism and through pure love, impersonally applied, that an Ashram is assembled. It is a technique which you must learn and are beginning to learn, but the motive for so learning is now presented to you. You have made many friends and evoked much love, and that is a lasting process entailing responsibility which may not be ignored. You are learning to know me and you have ever the staunch love and confidence of A.A.B., who has a peculiarly deep appreciation of you based on ancient work together in past lives. You have also gained a little knowledge as to the intent of my Ashram, as far as you are concerned. You have worked off much karma (far more than you think) and stand much freer than was deemed possible when you entered into incarnation this life. From the angle of your soul your life has been triumphant. From the angle of your personality it has been frustrated. Which matters, my brother? Perhaps neither matters from the angle of the initiate vision and the attitude of the trained disciple. "In neither pain nor joy is liberation found. In neither dark nor light will the spiritual sun appear. The pairs of opposites distract the eyes of men. Only the single eye directs the steps Of the initiate upon the Way." Will you ponder my presentation of these two contrasting aspects of your life, and then pass on to fuller light and service? I told you in my last instruction that you were called to live the triple life of ceaseless serving, of constant pain, and [665] of endless dreaming. I started off in that statement with the enunciation of that which is factual in your life. Let us see which are the other statements of fact pointed out by me, for in their sumtotal your future integration, development and service lie hidden. Let me, therefore, enumerate: Service and pain and dreaming are your present lot. You do not walk as yet the darker ways of earth. For that hard task you are in preparation, for some must serve this way and only the strong and tried can thus be trusted. Regard all that has happened to you as special training, what might be called "basic training," in order that your future initiate service may be carried out according to plan. That service is the choice of your soul. It is not imposed upon you by me or by the will of the Ashram or by any other factor save your soul. The use of the pen in writing is at present your major mode of service. Find your own people, and write that which will inspire and help. Let love speed your fingers and light travel between you and those you seek to serve. Therefore, my brother, write. You have the gift and the time and a wide open door for impersonal service. Search for those who are not yet in my Ashram, who are still probationers, and lead them on. Prepare them for the transition which they face when they step off the Probationary Path onto the Path of Discipleship. Have you found and recognized the three who await your guidance and your help? Continue, as ever, to stand by A.A.B. The reason for this is that my Ashram is an affiliate of the Ashram of K.H. I would ask you to study what I say to R.S.U., for it applies also to you. I have here clearly given you certain instructions which will only prove their effectiveness in your development and their ability to open doors for you when accepted and obeyed. [666] I can but indicate and suggest from my standpoint of greater knowledge, but it is for you to recognize the usefulness of the suggestions and to move forward in line with them. I have a most interesting theme for your thought on the distinction between "the dream, the vision and the Plan." There are many ways in which these distinctions can be approached, and the interpretations will be dependent upon the status of the thinker. For you, a disciple in preparation for initiation, as are all in my group - accepted disciples in training - I will suggest the following lines of approach. To you, the dream is the reaction of a high grade imparted knowledge and world need for service. The personality dreams of using that knowledge and meeting that need, and as he thinks of serving he thus becomes a server and a teacher. The vision is the realization of the goal (embodied by the particular initiation for which you are being prepared); according to the status of the initiate, so will be the vision. It is the sensing of the united purpose and the spiritual intention of those who have already taken the initiation for which the disciple is being prepared. I cannot express this more clearly, as it is not permitted, but once you are clear in your own mind for which initiation you are being prepared, you can then ascertain for yourself (and will, perforce, have to ascertain) the objective, secret scope and field of service, plus the esoteric quality of those who have passed through a certain door and undergone a certain expansion of consciousness. Remember that initiation does not simply enhance and deepen the soul quality; it does not simply enable the personality to express soul powers, and thus emphasize and draw out the best that is in the disciple and his service, but it makes available to him, progressively, forces and energies of which he has had no previous knowledge and which he must learn to use as an initiate of a certain degree upon the Lighted Way. It reveals to him worlds of being hitherto unsuspected and unrecognized, with which he must learn to cooperate, and it integrates him more definitely into the "lighted area" of our planetary life, bringing fresh revelation and vision but making the unlighted area dark indeed. [667] The Plan is as much of the hierarchical intent (as an entire and whole picture) as the initiate can grasp, plus an understanding of the part which he, as an individual server, must play. There is more to it than that, but I fear to complicate certain simple truths which I seek to have you grasp. The clarity of the vision and the grasp of the Plan, it might be added, are dependent upon the conscious and intelligent construction of the antahkarana. You will see, therefore, why I have asked this group within my Ashram to study the antahkarana instructions as given in the papers of the advanced section of the Arcane School. All of you have already begun to build this bridge; I seek to have you comprehend how and why. So, my brother, see your life pattern more clearly. See the underlying purpose of all happenings in the past, and endeavor then to grasp the picture of the future, and thus make your dreams come true, because you see the vision and are cooperating with the Plan; thus materialize the vision and work at intelligent understanding of the Plan. Let naught - fatigue, frustration, people or circumstance - deflect you from your purpose. Carry all forward in silence and with love. Take the four words: Dream, Vision, Plan, Realization, and make them the theme for your meditation work during the four quarters of the coming year. If you will, write during this year four papers on these four words, but only write after three months' quiet reflection upon each word, and from the angle of the personality - illumined by the Spiritual Triad. I would have you note the wording of this request with especial care. This will tend to bring in more than just soul wisdom, for the angle of the spiritual will and of spiritual love (of which both soul will and soul love are only the reflection) will begin to enter in. Go forward with joyful expectation. Get ready for your future service in this life and in the next; seek to fulfil instructions and learn to come and go between my Ashram and that of K.H., for in the one your service will appear, and in the other your love will be deepened and your heart become more understanding. [668]
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