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Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - The Ray of Personality - Problems of Disciples and Mystics
3. In the period of transference wherein the forces of the body are in a state of abnormal flux and mutation, it will be obvious what danger there is for the mystic and the disciple, and how serious can be the results of any transference which is forced into effect instead of following the natural course of evolution. This accounts, partially, for the present world upheaval and chaos. The forces flowing through the masses of average intelligent men today (and by that I mean those men who are educated and able to recognize the world news and to discuss world events and trends) are constituting the experimental ground for the transference of the energy of the sacral center to the solar plexus. This leads inevitably to turmoil, over-stimulation, revolt and many other difficulties. The problems, therefore, are many but are subject to solution. Let that not be forgotten. The whole theme is vast, but many minds are today seeking to deal with it and are working selflessly and altruistically to bring about the needed changes, a better understanding of man's physical and psychological natures, and a new approach - both to religion and education. When the mystical approach and its consequences - good and bad, material and spiritual - are better understood, through study and experiment, we shall arrive at a more complete comprehension of our problem and a better program for human unfoldment. I would like to point out that I am using the words "mystic and mystical" in this section of our treatise because I want [543] what I have to say to meet with the interest of those who recognize the fact of the mystical approach to God and the mystical life of the soul, but who refuse as yet to widen the concept so that it includes also the intellectual approach to divine identification. The keynotes which the mystic at present recognizes and which the religious writer and thinker is also willing to admit are those of feeling, sensitivity to the divine existence, the recognition of a vision of God which will suffice to meet individual need and thus bring relief, peace, understanding and the realization of divinity without and within, plus the relationship of the man to some extraneous Factor called God, or the Self, or the Christ. This attitude is colored always by a sense of duality; it leads to the attainment of union - a union of which the marriage relation remains still the best symbol and illustration as the writings of the mystics of all periods and nationalities will testify, and which still preserves the consciousness of the two identities. The keynotes of the occult life have been (and rightly) the notes of knowledge, of the mental approach to the problem of divinity, the recognition of divine immanence and of the fact that "as He is so are we." There is, however, no sense of duality. The goal is the achievement of such an approved and appreciated identification that the man becomes what he is - a God and, eventually, God in manifestation. This is not the same thing as the mystical union. And yet, the whole theme is mystical and innately subjective. The time must come when the mystic will appreciate and follow the way of the head and not only the way of the heart. He will learn to realize that he must lose his sense of the Beloved in the knowledge that he and the beloved are one and that the vision must and will disappear as he transcends it [544] (note that phrase) in the greatest processes of identification through initiation. The occultist, in his turn, must learn to include the mystical experience in full understanding consciousness as a recapitulatory exercise before he transcends it and passes on to a synthesis and an inclusiveness to which the mystical approach is but the beginning, and of which the mystic remains unaware. The mystic is too apt to feel that the occultist over-estimates the way of knowledge and repeats glibly that the mind is the slayer of the real and that the intellect can give him nothing. The occultist is equally apt to despise the mystical way and to regard the mystical method as "lying far behind him". But both must learn to tread the way of wisdom. The mystic must and will inevitably become the occultist and this whether he likes the process or not. He cannot escape it in the long run, but the occultist is not a true one until he recovers the mystical experience and translates it into terms of synthesis. Note the structure of words I have used in this last paragraph for it will serve to elucidate my theme. I use therefore the words "mystic and mystical" in this section of the treatise to describe the intelligent, highly mental man and his processes upon the Path of Discipleship. In dealing with the problems and diseases of mystics who are at the point in their evolution where they are making one of the major transferences of force, it should be pointed out that in the earlier stages quite a long period of time may elapse between the first effort to transmute and transfer the energies and that particular life wherein the energies are finally gathered up and "elevated" as the esoteric term usually employed technically expresses it. It is at this point of focused activity (in the place of the previous fluidic and spasmodic efforts) that one finds a definite point of crisis in the life of the mystic.
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