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The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Section One - The Aspirant and the Mysteries of Initiation
The Bridge between the three Aspects of the Mind There is one point which I would like to clarify if I can, for - on this point - there is much confusion in the minds of aspirants, and this is necessarily so. Let us for a moment, therefore, consider just where the aspirant stands when he starts consciously to build the antahkarana. Behind him lie a long series of existences, the experience of which has brought him to the point where he is able consciously to assess his condition and arrive at some understanding of his point in evolution. He can consequently undertake - in cooperation with his steadily awakening and focusing consciousness - to take the next step, which is that of accepted discipleship. In the present, he is oriented towards the soul; he, through meditation and the mystical experience, does have occasional contact with the soul, and this happens with increasing frequency; he is becoming somewhat creative upon the physical plane, both in his thinking and in his actions; at times, even if rarely, he has a genuine intuitive experience. This intuitive experience serves to anchor the "first tenuous thread spun by the Weaver in fohatic enterprise," as the Old Commentary puts it. It is the first cable, projected from the Spiritual Triad in response to the emanation of the personality, and this is the result of the growing magnetic potency of both these aspects of the Monad in manifestation. It will be obvious to you that when the personality is becoming adequately magnetized from the spiritual angle, its note or sound will go forth and will evoke response from the soul on its own plane. Later the personality note and the soul note in unison will produce a definitely attractive effect upon the Spiritual Triad. This Spiritual Triad in its turn has been exerting an increasingly magnetic effect upon the personality. This begins at the time of the first conscious soul contact. The response of the Triad is transmitted necessarily, in this early stage, via the sutratma and produces inevitably the awakening of the head center. That is why the heart doctrine begins to supersede the doctrine of the eye. [458] The heart doctrine governs occult development; the eye doctrine - which is the doctrine of the eye of vision - governs the mystical experience; the heart doctrine is based upon the universal nature of the soul, conditioned by the Monad, the One, and involves reality; the eye doctrine is based on the dual relation between soul and personality. It involves the spiritual relationships, but the attitude of dualism or of the recognition of the polar opposites is implicit in it. These are important points to remember as this new science becomes more widely known. The aspirant eventually arrives at the point where the three threads - of life, of consciousness and of creativity - are being focused, recognized as energy streams, and utilized deliberately by the aspiring disciple upon the lower mental plane. There - esoterically speaking - "he takes his stand, and looking upward sees a promised land of beauty, love and future vision." But there exists a gap in consciousness, though not in fact. The sutratmic strand of energy bridges the gap, and tenuously relates monad, soul and personality. But the consciousness thread extends only from soul to personality - from the involutionary sense. From the evolutionary angle (using a paradoxical phrase) there is only a very little conscious awareness existing between the soul and the personality, from the standpoint of the personality upon the evolutionary arc of the Path of Return. A man's whole effort is to become aware of the soul and to transmute his consciousness into that of the soul, whilst still preserving the consciousness of the personality. As the fusion of soul and personality is strengthened, the creative thread becomes increasingly active, and thus the three threads steadily fuse, blend, become dominant, and the aspirant is then ready to bridge the gap and unite the Spiritual Triad and the personality, through the medium of the soul. This involves a direct effort at divine creative work. The clue to understanding lies perhaps in the thought that hitherto the relation between soul and personality has been steadily carried forward, primarily by the soul, as it stimulated the personality [459] to effort, vision and expansion. Now - at this stage - the integrated, rapidly developing personality becomes consciously active, and (in unison with the soul) starts building the antahkarana - a fusion of the three threads and a projection of them into the "higher wider reaches" of the mental plane, until the abstract mind and the lower concrete mind are related by the triple cable. It is to this process that our studies are related; earlier experience in relation to the three threads is logically regarded as having occurred normally. The man now stands, holding the mind steady in the light; he has some knowledge of meditation, much devotion, and also recognition of the next step. Knowledge of process gradually becomes clearer; a growing soul contact is established; occasional flashes of intuitive perception from the Triad occur. All these recognitions are not present in the case of every disciple; some are present; some are not. I am seeking to give a general picture. Individual application and future realization have to be worked out by the disciple in the crucible of experience. The goal towards which the average disciple has worked in the past has been soul contact, leading eventually to what has been called "hierarchical inclusion." The reward of the disciple's effort has been admittance into the Ashram of some Master, increased opportunity to serve in the world, and also the taking of certain initiations. The goal towards which higher disciples are working involves not only soul contact as its primary objective (for that has to some measure been attained), but the building of the bridge from the personality to the Spiritual Triad, with consequent monadic realization and the opening up to the initiate of the Way to the Higher Evolution in its various branches and with its differing goals and objectives. The distinction (I said not "difference," and would have you note this) between the two ways can be seen in the following listed comparisons:
Desire - Aspiration | Mind - Projection
The 1st an 2nd Initiations | The 3rd and 4th Initiations
Universal Love and Intuition | Universal Will an Mind
Path of Light | The Way of the Higher Evolution
The Point of Contact | The Antahkarana of Bridge
The Plan | The Purpose
The Three Layers of the Egoic Petals | The Spiritual Triad
The Hierarchy | Shamballa
The Master's Ashram | The Council Chamber
The Seven Paths | The Seven Paths
In reality, you have here the two major approaches to God or to the Divine Whole, both merging at the time of the fifth initiation in the one Way, which in itself combines all Ways. Forget not a statement which I have several times made, that the four minor rays must merge eventually into the third ray, and that all five must then finally merge into the second and the first rays; bear also in mind that all these rays or modes of Being are aspects or subrays of the second cosmic Ray of Love and of Fire.
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