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The Destiny of the Nations - Spiritual Life in the New Age
Incidentally I might point out here that the seventh ray influence will have three definite effects upon the fourth and third kingdoms in nature. These are as follows: [125] All animal bodies will be steadily refined and in the case of humanity consciously refined, and so brought to a higher and more specialized state of development. This is today proceeding with rapidity. Diet and athletics, open air and sunshine are doing much for the race and in the next two generations fine bodies and sensitive natures will make their appearance and the soul will have far better instruments through which to work. The relation between the human and the animal kingdoms will become increasingly close. The service of the animal to man is well recognized and of ceaseless expression. The service of man to the animals is not yet understood though some steps in the right direction are being taken. There must eventually be a close synthesis and sympathetic coordination between them and when this is the case some very extraordinary occurrences of animal mediumship under human inspiration will take place. By means of this, the intelligent factor in the animal (of which instinct is the embryonic manifestation) will be rapidly developed and this is one of the outstanding results of the intended human-animal relationship. There will be, as a consequence of this quickened evolution, the rapid destruction of certain types of animal bodies. Very low grade human bodies will disappear, causing a general shift in the racial types towards a higher standard. Many species of animals will also die out and are today disappearing, and hence the increasing emphasis upon the preservation of animals and the establishing of game preserves. In this comparative, even if inadequate, study of the old and of the new types of discipleship, one of the problems [126] facing the Hierarchy is how to bring about the necessary changes in technique and method of development which the seventh ray type will require and yet at the same time so condition these changes that there can be smooth process of adjustment and interplay between the Hierarchy and the world aspirants. This adjustment must include the two groups (one at present large and the other still small) of sixth and seventh ray disciples. The problems of the Hierarchy are, of course, no real concern of those who have not achieved liberation and cannot, therefore, look at life through the eyes of those who are no longer held by the forces of the three worlds, but it might serve a useful purpose if disciples occasionally gave some thought to the relation as it exists upon the Masters' side and gave less thought to their own individual and peculiar difficulties. One of the major characteristics of the seventh ray disciple is his intense practicality. He works upon the physical plane with a constant and steady objective in order to bring about results which will be effective in determining the forms of the coming culture and civilization; towards the end of the seventh ray cycle he will work equally hard to perpetuate what he has brought about. He wields force in order to build the forms which will meet his requirements and does this more scientifically than do disciples on other rays. The sixth ray devotee is far more abstract and mystical in his work and thought, and seldom has any real understanding of the right relation between form and energy. He thinks almost entirely in terms of quality and pays little attention to the material side of life and the true significance of substance as it produces phenomena. He is apt to regard matter as evil in nature and form as a limitation, and only lays the emphasis upon soul consciousness as of true importance. It is this failure to work intelligently, and I would [127] like to add, lovingly with substance and so bring it into right relation with the dense outer form that has made the last two thousand years produce so disastrously a mismanaged world and which has brought the population of the planet into its present serious condition. The unintelligent work upon the physical plane, carried forward by those influenced by the sixth ray force, has led to a world which is suffering from cleavage in as true a sense as an individual person can suffer from a "split personality." The lines of demarcation between science and religion are a striking instance of this and have been clearly and forcefully drawn. The cleavage to which I refer has been drawn by the churchmen of the past and by no one else; the lines have been determined by the mystics, impractical and visionary, and by the fanatical devotees of some idea who were, nevertheless, unable to see the broad implications and the universal nature of these recognized ideas. I am generalizing. There have been many devoted and holy sons of God who have never been guilty of the above stupidities and separate tendencies. At the same time as we recognize this, we must also recognize that orthodox religion has temporarily separated the two great concepts of spirit and matter in their thought and teaching, thereby pushing apart religion and science. The task of the new age workers is to bring these two apparent opposites together, to demonstrate that spirit and matter are not antagonistic to each other and that throughout the universe there is only spiritual substance, working on and producing the outer tangible forms. When a form and an activity is what you call evil, it is only so because the motivating energy behind the form and responsible for the activity is wrongly oriented, selfishly impulsed and incorrectly used. Here again the two basic truisms of modern occultism (there are others which will [128] be imparted when these two are mastered and rightly applied) are of importance: Energy follows thought. Right motive creates right action and right forms. These two statements are of very ancient origin but are as yet but little understood. Hence the first thing which every disciple has to learn is the nature, control and direction of energy; he does this by working with initiating causes, by learning the nature of the realm of causes and by developing the capacity to get behind the effect to the cause which generated or produced it. In the case of the individual disciple and in the preliminary stage of his training, this involves the constant investigation of his motives until he has discovered what they are and has so directed his thought that those motives can, in every case, be depended upon to work automatically and dynamically under soul direction.
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