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The Externalization of the Hierarchy - Section III - Forces behind the Evolutionary Process
In the message of the Buddha we have the three methods whereby the personality can be changed, and prepared to be a conscious expression of divinity. Through detachment, the brain consciousness or state of awareness (embodying physical recognition of inner causes) is withdrawn or abstracted from the things of the senses and from the calls of the lower nature. Detachment is in reality the imposition of a new rhythm or habit reaction upon the cells of the brain which renders the brain unaware of the lure of the world of sensory perception. Through dispassion, the emotional nature is rendered immune from the appeal of the senses and desire fails to deter the soul from its rightful task. Through discrimination, the mind learns to select the good, the beautiful and the true, and to substitute these for the sense of "identification with the personality," which is so characteristic of the majority of men. Personality holds so many in thrall. This has to go. These three attitudes, when correctly and sanely held, will organize the personality, bring in the rule of wisdom, and prepare the disciple for initiation. Then follows the work of the Christ, resulting in an understanding of the value of the individual and his self-initiated effort at release and illumination, with the objective of group goodwill. We learn to perfect ourselves in order to have somewhat to sacrifice to the group, and thus enrich the group with our individual contribution. This is the first result of the activity of the Christ Principle in the life of the individual. Personality fades out in the glory of the soul, which (like the rising sun) blots out the darkness and irradiates the lower nature. This is the second [413] result, and is a group activity. The word goes forth to the initiates of the future: Lose sight of self in group endeavor. Forget the self in group activity. Pass through the portal to initiation in group formation and let the personality life be lost in the group life. The final result of the work of the Christ is to be found in our identification with the whole: individuality, initiation, and identification - these are the terms in which the message of the Christ can be summarized. He said, when on Earth: "I and my Father are One," and in these words epitomized His entire message. I, the individual, through initiation, am identified with Deity. Therefore we have: The Buddha, the method: Detachment, Dispassion, Discrimination. The Christ, the result: Individualism, Initiation, Identification. It is interesting to note that the work of the Buddha is expressed in words all beginning with the fourth letter of the alphabet, the letter D. The sense of personality is achieved; the quaternary is transcended, and the Buddha gave us the reason for this transmutation and the rules. The work of the Christ is expressed for us in words beginning with the ninth letter of the alphabet, the letter I, and this number is the number of initiation. These things happen not idly but all have their underlying purpose. I have here very briefly and inadequately outlined the nature of two great Approaches and two minor. These have prepared humanity for the third great Approach which will bring the new revelation, with its realized consequences, of a new heaven and a new earth. I would ask the orthodox theologian how he interprets the words "a new heaven"? May it not signify an entirely new conception as to the world of spiritual realities and perhaps of the very nature of God Himself? May it not be possible that our present ideas of God as the Universal Mind, as Love and as Will, may be enriched by a new idea and quality for which we have as yet no name or word and of which we have as yet [414] no faintest understanding? Each of the three present concepts as to the divine nature - the Trinity - have been entirely new when first sequentially presented to humanity.
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