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Discipleship in the New Age II - Teachings on Initiation - Part VIII
On Hints Thus far I have given you - for your searching consideration - seven hints. I intend to give you no more than these seven, because what you now have will prove adequate for many years of study. Each of them, in fact, could provide the theme of a book, and the search for their meaning will take all that you have of mental and intuitive perception. The significance which is immediately apparent is the one which probationary disciples can well see, grasp and appreciate. Disciples can, however, arrive at much deeper significances, and it is to these that the group attention is now called. Let me point out that the apparent significance is applicable to the training and the unfoldment of the individual aspirants, and is therefore in line with the ancient use of hints by the Masters of the Wisdom. But the deeper meaning (for which you must search) is not so easily seen and is concerned with hierarchical impression, involving necessarily ashramic intention and its precipitation in service. It is here that the Points of Revelation are to be found of prime importance, and the reason why I am laying much emphasis upon this little-understood theme of revelation. As you already know, a hint is susceptible of many interpretations, according to the point in evolution and the grade of the disciple. A Master can gauge a disciple's ability to pass onward and arrive at his attained status by his mode of handling a hint. In the preceding instruction I posited for you a series of questions relating to the subject of hints, but I did not tell you that they were in the nature of a test. They were framed in words that appeared to make them of general and personal application. Did you deal with them as such? There was no need to do so and (if you have truly understood what I have indicated re hints) you must have wondered why the questions were drafted in that particular form; you would then have proceeded to consider their themes and the answers required from the standpoint of the [355] Ashram, which is not the standpoint of the individual. I know not what you did. I can only hope for your right approach. If - to illustrate - you interpret the sixth hint, which states among other things that "my one effort is to indicate relationship between initiation and revelation," by pondering upon the initiation which you believe lies ahead of you as an individual, and the consequent revelation which will then be made to you, then you will be functioning as an aspirant and not as a disciple. If, however, you sensed no matter how dimly, that each initiate-group enriches the ashram with its invoked revelation, you will then be arriving closer to the desired consciousness. For your instruction, I propose to take these seven hints and - in this instruction and the next - I will "open up" the hint for you and try to show you a little (not all) that a hint, rightly approached, can convey. As I do so, it will become apparent to you that you must always have in mind three things: A hint today will concern the group - its interrelation, its fusion, its initiation and its service. A hint is intended to teach you something new in your experience, even if - as a theory - it may seem quite familiar to you. A hint, like all else in the occult teaching, is capable of seven interpretations which can roughly be divided into three. These three are that of the probationary disciple or aspirant, that of the accepted disciple and that of the Master or the higher initiate. That interpretation which I will indicate to you will concern the meaning which it has for the accepted disciple, and therefore its meaning for those of you who read these words. The probationary disciple can arrive at the significance of a hint as it can be understood in terms of the three worlds, i.e., its physical application, its emotional or devotional expression, and its mental formulation; the disciple must interpret and apply it in terms of the Plan, of directed energy and [356] of the Ashram, as it exists as the servant of humanity. If you will endeavor to arrive at this attitude and also at a spirit of true self-forgetfulness, you will assuredly learn much. I shall not be able to give you full and adequate interpretations or write you at length upon each hint, but I will give you enough to enable you to go deeper into significances than would otherwise be possible. Because we are considering the seven rays, do not waste your time attempting to assign the seven hints to the seven ray influences or to the seven principles. Disciples on all the rays can work with these hints in terms of the seven rays, if they so choose; but these seven terms of ray interpretation have to be used on each hint, a task which is too great for our present endeavor. These seven hints are used in all Ashrams as teaching measures, and when I first gave them to you (scattered through the papers during the past few years, beginning in 1941 and more definitely isolated for your reflection since 1945) I did not mention this fact. You can see, however, the richness of the contribution of the disciples since the inauguration of the new technique. Since that time, disciples in all the Ashrams, and therefore on all the rays, delved into meaning and arrived at revelation. I have given you these seven hints in their simple modern rendering. I will try and give them to you in their more esoteric presentation, as they are thus preserved in the Archives of the Hierarchy.
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