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Glamor - A World Problem - The Nature of Glamor
I have here outlined for you the causes and the various types of illusion to which the disciple is prone. In its pure form, this illusion has to be met and some day surmounted; it has to be isolated and dispelled by the initiate. It was the final successful effort to do this that led Jesus upon the Cross to cry out in words of apparent distress. He then finally dissipated the illusion of the personal, objective [66] Deity. At that moment, He entered fully into the consciousness that He was Himself God, and naught else; that the theory of unity outlined by Him in the Gospel of St. John, chapter xvii, was indeed and in truth a fact in His Own consciousness, established unalterably. Yet, nevertheless, in this infinite and supreme realization, there entered for a moment a sense of loss and of negation, forcing from His dying Personality that tremendous utterance which has bewildered, and at the same time comforted, so many. This signified the surmounting of the final synthetic illusion. When that has been dispelled, illusion, as it can be understood in the human family, disappears. The man stands free. The illusion of the mental plane can no longer deceive him. His mind is a pure instrument for the reflection of light and of truth. The glamors of the astral plane have no further hold over him, and the astral body itself fades out. You will remember that I hinted to you in A Treatise on White Magic that the astral body itself was an illusion. It is the definition of the illusory mind upon the mental plane of that which we call the sumtotal of the desires of the man in incarnation. When illusion and glamor have both been overcome, the astral body fades out in the human consciousness. There is no desire left for the separated self. Kama-manas disappears, and man is then regarded as consisting essentially of soul-mind-brain, within the body nature. This is a great mystery, and its significance can only be understood when a man has controlled his personality and eliminated all aspects of glamor and of illusion. This is accomplished by accomplishing. This mastery is achieved by mastering. This elimination of desire is brought about by conscious eliminating. Get therefore to work, my brothers, and clarification of the problem must inevitably ensue. [67] That which is the opposite pole of illusion is, as you well know, the intuition. The intuition is that recognition of reality which becomes possible as glamor and illusion disappear. An intuitive reaction to truth will take place when - along a particular line of approach to truth - the disciple has succeeded in quieting the thought-form-making propensities of the mind, so that light can flow directly, and without any deviation, from the higher spiritual worlds. The intuition can begin to make its presence felt when glamor no longer grips the lower man, and a man's low or high desires, interpreted emotionally or self-centeredly, can no longer come between his brain consciousness and the soul. Fleeting moments of this high freedom come to all true aspirants at times, during their life struggle. They have then an intuitive flash of understanding. The outline of the future and the nature of truth sweeps momentarily through their consciousness, and life is never again exactly the same thing. They have had their guarantee that all struggle is warranted and will evoke its adequate reward. As pointed out in the tabulation (See page 41), that which dispels illusion and substitutes for it a true spiritual and infallible perception is contemplation, - a contemplation necessarily carried on by the soul. Perhaps some grasp of the sequence of development can be arrived at, if you realize that the entire meditation process (in its three major divisions) can be divided as follows: The Aspirant - Probationary Path - Concentration - Maya. The Disciple - Path of Discipleship - Meditation - Glamor. The Initiate - Path of Initiation - Contemplation - Illusion. The above tabulation will suffice to show the connection between the meditation process as outlined and taught in the Arcane School, and the problem which all of you have to face. [68] The technique of the dispelling of illusion, as used by the initiate, is that of contemplation. But of what use is it for me to discuss this with you, if you are not initiate? Would it profit you at all, or would it only satisfy your curiosity, if I outlined for you the peculiar processes, employed by a soul in contemplation for penetrating and (through an act of the trained will and through some first ray formulas) for dispelling it? Naught that I can imagine. I shall therefore conclude my remarks on this point concerning illusion from the angle of your evolutionary status. Glamor is your problem, as it is the problem of the world, at this time. Some of you, whose mental bodies are in process of organizing, may suffer somewhat from illusion, but your major problem - as a group and as individuals - is one of glamor. Your field of living experience is on the higher levels of the astral plane. Your task is to overcome glamor, each in your individual lives, and, as a group, later to approach the arduous task of aiding in the dispelling of the world glamor. This you may later be able to do, if you submit to training and, as individuals, understand and master your personal glamors. Just as soon as you have begun to do this, I can begin to use you, as a group. But before you can work as a group, and before you can assist in the dissipation of the world glamor, you have to understand better and master more definitely the glamorous and illusions of your personality. The time has now come for me to help you deal more drastically with this problem of glamor, with the view to your destined group service and not with a view of your personal release... I ask you to set to work, therefore, with fresh courage and determination and with fresh understanding, and to carry on for another year. Will you bend your effort to the task? For task it is. [69]
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