Accepted Disciple

(RI 114) The soul must be seen by the probationer as the sun of the life. All lesser lights must be put out by the light of the central luminary; all little fires must be obliterated by solar fire. The solar Angel controls the personality life and its forces. This, in the New Age, is the goal of the probationary path and of the applicant for discipleship. Hitherto it has been the goal of all the teaching given anent the Path of Discipleship, but the higher rate of intelligence of the modern applicant warrants a change, and as time goes on the present requirements for disciples, up to and including the second initiation, will be the requirements for the Probationary Path.

(DINAII 157) The word "disciple" is an inclusive word, in the hierarchical sense; it is, at the same time, one easily recognised by the orthodox but offers no limitation to the esotericist. It covers every grade of human aspirant from the newly accepted disciple up to and inclusive of the Christ Himself. Let me here quote the Invocation:

(DINAI 728) The term, therefore, of Accepted Disciple covers the stages of the first and second initiations; when a disciple has taken the third initiation, he is no longer technically an accepted disciple, even though he still remains in a Master's group until he has taken the fourth initiation. I am pointing out these technicalities so that there may be clarity and proportion in your thinking.

In the second life as an Accepted Disciple the 4^th stage becomes possible

(DINAI 744) This fourth stage is only possible to a disciple who has been an accepted disciple for more than one life and who has demonstrated his ability to work with selflessness and pertinacity.

The disciple stays in the Masters group until 4^th initiation

(DINAI 728) The term, therefore, of Accepted Disciple covers the stages of the first and second initiations, when a disciple has taken the third initiation he is no longer technically an Accepted Disciple, even though he remains in the Masters group until he has taken the fourth initiation.

At the 4^th stage the fourth initiation is taken and the disciple emerges out of the Masters group

(DINAI 710) At the fourth stage, the disciple emerges out of his Masters group and becomes what is esoterically called “a fixed aspect of the Hierarchy.”…He then comes under the influence of Shamballa…

Once the 4^th initiation is taken the disciple is no longer a World Disciple

(DINAI 689) A world Disciple….These men and women are always Accepted Disciples in the academic sense of the term and are able to render themselves receptive to impression; they do this is they choose at will….They are not perfect, for they are not yet Masters; the fourth initiation still lies ahead for them…

(DINAI 768) The world today offers opportunity to all disciples to become world disciples, close to the Masters heart, and to pass rapidly through the earlier stages of discipleship.

(GAWP 69) You stand on the verge of accepted discipleship. This means that you will shortly have to add to your battle with glamour that of the battle with illusion. Are you strong enough for this? Forget not, that a disciple who is dealing with the aspiration of his nature and who is also wrestling with the problems that result from mental polarisation and awareness, and with the energies which become active through soul contact, is rapidly becoming an integrated personality. His task is not therefore easy and calls for the focussed activity of his best self. By that phrase, I mean the soul and the aspirational personality.

The discriminating mind that sees through the illusion of ideas

Already you are battling somewhat with the illusion of ideas with which I dealt in my last instruction. You are thus beginning to develop that discrimination which will lead to right choice of life themes. In this instruction I seek to cast some light upon the glamour which confronts the disciple as an individual and also consider the aspect of glamour with which he must deal as a world server in training.

(DINAII 247) The disciple, when he becomes an accepted disciple (and this through the Lodge's recognition of his pledge to his own soul), arrives at a definite and factual recognition of the Hierarchy. His suppositions, his desires, his aspirational wish-life, his theories, or whatever you may choose to call his reaching out and up towards divinity, give place to clear knowledge of the liberated group of souls. This happens not through the occurrence of convincing phenomena, but through an inflow of the intuition. He undergoes, therefore, an expansion of consciousness which may or may not be registered in the brain. Every step of the way from that point of recognition onward has to be consciously achieved and must involve a conscious recognition of a series of expansions. These expansions are not initiation. Have that clearly in your mind. The initiation lying immediately ahead is simply the effect of the recognition. They might be called "stabilising points of crisis," in which the "occasional becomes the constant and the intended becomes the intentional." Ponder on these words. The Hierarchy is now a fact in your life and your awareness. What is the next fact or point of integration or consciously achieved inclusiveness? A study of the formulas and their correct use will reveal this to you. I have laid the emphasis upon visualisation and given you some hints connected both with initiation and the creative work of the imagination, because these teachings and the development of these faculties will require calling into play your understanding, if the formulas connected with initiation are to be given. These six formulas are therefore formulas of integration, and one or two hints may here be imparted.

Formula One concerns, as I have told you, integration into a Master's group, and it has two uses—if I might so [Page 248] express it from your particular point of view. One produces a group inclusiveness, which integrates you with your group brothers into my group and brings a revelation of the hidden side of a chela's life. When I say this I refer to his new astral conditioning. This is given the name of the Revelation of Group Feeling. This subject is vaster in its implications than you might surmise, for it concerns united group sensitivity or response, outwards to the world of men, inwards to the Hierarchy, and upwards to the Monad. It does not concern the sum total of the petty moods and feelings of the personalities of the group members. Its second use is to bring about contact with the Master of your group—in this case myself, the Master D.K. This is a process which I have already done my best to help you to achieve through my instructions re the Full Moon contact—something you have most inadequately understood and attempted. Perhaps now you will work harder at the production of "contact relationship" as it is esoterically called. It is with Formula One that you must now work.

(GAWP 81) Before taking up this subject in some detail, I would like to add something to our previous consideration of the problem of glamour. In your last instruction, I elaborated somewhat upon the subject of the various types of glamour and left with you the concept of their great importance in your individual lives. The battlefield (for the man who is nearing accepted discipleship or who is upon the path of discipleship, in the academic sense) is primarily that of [Page 81] glamour. That is the major problem and its solution is imminent and urgent for all disciples and senior aspirants. It will be apparent, therefore, to you why the emphasis has been put, during the Aryan age, upon the necessity for the study of Raja Yoga, and the cultivation of submission to its discipline. Only through Raja Yoga can a man stand steady in the light, and only through illumination and the achievement of clear vision can the fogs and miasmas of glamour be finally dissipated.

(DINAII 296) The time, therefore, when the Hierarchy had to deal almost entirely with the emotional devotee is past, and this has come about far more rapidly than had been anticipated. The task of the Masters before the eighteenth century was to take emotional aspirants and train them in the technique of mental polarisation, prior to permitting them to enter Their Ashrams. This was the best that could be expected, and in the last analysis was all that was required, because mentally polarised aspirants to accepted discipleship would have been of little use in the work of lifting mankind nearer to the light; the Ashrams exist primarily for that purpose. But the [Page 296] mentally focussed humanity of today cannot be reached by emotional workers alone. The mental approach is called for and a higher type of disciple is needed.

The training to be given to aspirants (and this must be begun in our educational centres) will concern the dual use of the mind, the nature of energy, the indication of an evolutionary plan which includes more than the physical forms, and later of a definite and clear purpose for humanity as well as modes and methods of developing the subjective and subtle powers of the human being. This will involve a study of the constitution of man and the relation of its lower and higher threefold nature to the three aspects of divinity. You will note how increasingly, with all of you, I am emphasising man's essential duality and not his temporary triplicity. I would have you try to ascertain and understand my reasons. As this curriculum is firmly established it will revolutionise modern educational systems upon a planetary scale, and then man the reorienting aspirant, will become man the accepted disciple.

What has the Accepted Disciple to acheive before becoming a Chela on the Thread (4^th stage)

1. The disciple has succeeded in decentralising himself and is no longer the point of dramatic interest on his own little stage. He is no longer preoccupied with his feeling [page 744] nature and the excessive self-interest, evidenced by so many, no longer controls his thoughts and aspiration.

2. The disciple can now work with impersonality, no matter how his own personal nature may be reacting. This means that his own feelings, thoughts, likes, dislikes and desires are no longer the controlling factors; he is conditioned in his daily activities and relationships only by those intentions and activities which are for the good of the group. He will not sacrifice any individual to the group good until after due effort to help that individual understand and demonstrate right relationship; but he will not hesitate to take firm action as need and opportunity arise.

3. The disciple has developed a sense of proportion as to the work and the relative value of his contribution to the Master's work and the Ashram life. He is engrossed in the task and the opportunity and not with the Master and with his individual position in the Master's thoughts. Most disciples in the early stages of their novitiate never forget that they are disciples. This is what the Master Morya has called the "smug recollection of the self-engrossed mind." It is a form of veiled pride which beginners find it difficult to avoid. Never for a minute do they forget the fact of their discipleship and the fact of the Master, no matter how active their service; yet—if they were truly working from a point of tension—they would forget His very existence in the work to be done for their fellowmen.

4. The chela on the thread has reached a point where the higher correspondence to the so-called "split personality" is to be found, or (to word it otherwise) where that state of consciousness, of which the split personality is the shadow and the distortion, makes its appearance. The disciple is conscious simultaneously of two states of awareness or two points of concentrated activity:

a. The point of spiritual tension wherein he is focussed and which he endeavours to preserve inviolate and constant.

b. The focussed sphere of activity in the three worlds, through the medium of which he carries out his work and service as a disciple.

These two related points are not in reality two separated activities, except as they emerge in the consciousness of the disciple upon the physical plane and express his objective and his subjective life. They are incident to his having to work in time and space and through the medium of a physical brain. The second point of focus should be in reality an externalisation of the inner point of tension. In these words, you have the key to the true science of discipleship, to the developing relation of the human centre and the hierarchical. It concerns also the work of the Buddha and the Christ, as They represent the point of tension at Shamballa and in the Hierarchy.

Most disciples are not working from a point of spiritual tension, but from a point of personality focus—a step forward indeed from that of the average unthinking person but one to which they cling unduly long. As long as a man is focussed in his personality, the point of spiritual tension will evade him. He will be driven by personality aspiration and not by ashramic force and this focus in form will lead to trouble both to the individual aspirant and to his group. Spiritual tension, as a result of complete dedication of the personality to the service of humanity, stimulates and empowers but does not evoke the lower life of the personal self.

These are the requirements which the disciple must meet before he is taught to reach the Master at will and when an emergency arises.

(DINAII 203) These men and women have a dual relationship: to the rest of humanity whom they seek to serve, and also to the Hierarchy, via some Ashram—an Ashram which is the source of their inspiration and of their creative efforts to think and to work.

The accepted disciple in this group work is in conscious rapport with both planetary centres (that of Humanity and that of the Hierarchy) and their creative thinking largely conditions the group. Many, however, in this group are conscious of their relation to humanity and of their planned service, but are totally unaware of the unseen source of their inspiration. This matters not, for—if their motive is pure, their intelligence keen and their meditational capacity adequate—they receive the inspiration and develop the intuition in any case. It is those in the New Group of World Servers who can and do meditate who are the real agents of the relation existing between the Hierarchy and Humanity.

(DINAII 19) The accepted disciple never receives any detailed information or instruction; he is given no list of rules which must govern his daily life and no minute instructions as to what he must do to "take initiation." He receives—at specific "points in time"—according to his success in expanding his consciousness, certain definite hints. These hints have, in the past, been given without calling attention to the fact that they are hints. The disciple either recognised them for what they were and profited thereby, or else he failed to sense their import and so delayed his moving forward. In this group experiment which I am undertaking, I propose to change this somewhat and I shall let you know which are the hints I give, so that together the group may profit by them, stimulated by each presented idea and thus evoke together the overshadowing soul. This will result, eventually, in an inflow of light from the Spiritual Triad via the group antahkarana, constructed of the "rainbow bridge" of each disciple.

Although DK says that all in his group had taken the 1^st initiation, elsewhere he says that one of his disciples had not taken it-there is good reason (and his birth chart indicates this also) to believe that LTS-K had not take the 1^st initiation-yet he had the chart for one who could take it in the present life-and indeed he did become an accepted disciple while working with DK

(DINAII 65) All these things are at this time characteristic of the Hierarchy. I would remind you that when you think of the Hierarchy you think in terms of the Masters (as most people do) or of the higher initiates. This is not correct. Every accepted disciple is within the periphery of the Hierarchy and of its influence, and—as I have frequently pointed out—all have in some past life taken the first initiation. Every disciple has [Page 65] been to Bethlehem and has seen the Star in the East—that star which shines forth in fuller splendour each time another initiation is taken.

(DINAII 71) There are three ways whereby the inception may come:

Disciples aware of their charge, relinquish all personal ambition and are willing to meet the test and be used. For, be not surprised my brother, a disciple can meet the test if he will. Accepted discipleship is in itself a guarantee of a certain amount of preparedness administered through right devotion, pure purpose and rigid discipline.

(DINAII 74) I have now definitely decided to disband the New Seed Group. My experiment in reorganising the earlier groups into one large group has not succeeded. I have told you frequently that the Hierarchy itself does not know what decisions humanity will make in world affairs, or if mankind will profit from proffered opportunity. Equally so, the Master of an Ashram does not know what "disciples on the periphery" of an Ashram will do, because their training and testing is only in process. He does know what the accepted disciple, admitted freely into ashramic intimacy, will do in any given circumstance, because he has been tested and tried and the Master knows that there are certain things which he will not do.

(DINAI 732) Stage III. Accepted Discipleship.

It is not my intention in this short series of Instructions to deal with the Stage of Accepted Discipleship. Much has been written about this stage. I have covered every practical angle in my many books and there is nothing to be gained by duplication. The books on discipleship put out by the Theosophical Society adequately cover the Probationary Path; I have dealt in detail with the Path of Discipleship.

The angle of the contacts which become possible upon the Path of Accepted Discipleship are well known but cannot be described in too much detail. They vary according to person, and ray. I would only ask you to have these modes of approach in mind, remembering that they do occur and occur in varying degrees of clarity and at various stages upon the Path. They are as you know:

1. A dream experience.

2. A symbolic teaching.

3. The thoughtform of a Master.

4. A direct contact with the Master in meditation.

5. An interview in a Master's Ashram.

The first three are more usually the experience of the probationary disciple. The last two are undergone by the accepted disciple. They have their astral or lower psychic counterparts. They are, in this case, not all glamour and illusion and are not basically reprehensible, for they are—in reality—the seed or guarantee of future inevitable experiences upon the Way. People do see thoughtforms of the Masters, for those thoughtforms exist; they do receive symbolic teachings upon the astral plane or in the dream states. Beginners and the inexperienced are then apt to do one of two things: over-estimate the experience and believe it to indicate a high spiritual development; they begin to lean upon the experience and to substitute this astral happening for the future reality or they dismiss it as undesirable lower psychism, forgetting that so-called lower psychism is only so when the interpretation and the use of the experience is at fault. It is the task of the accepted disciple to aid in the interpreting, to indicate direction and to point out the significance of the experience to the neophyte. Workers in the spiritual field should bear this carefully in mind and remember that—as a result of the war, of tension and of aspiration towards the New Age—these dreams and visions, these episodes of symbolic teaching, these contacts with thoughtforms will steadily increase and are indicative of growth and of expansion. Undirected, unexplained and misinterpreted or laughed down and ridiculed, they can greatly hinder and can be forced to descend into the category of true lower psychism; rightly interpreted and explained, they can constitute a series of graded revelations upon the Way to light; they exist then as guarantees of future knowledge and as signposts of a relative achievement. But they are not the reality when astrally focussed.

Disciples need to bear in mind always that they grow by the answering of their own questions; the task of the Master is not to answer questions which, given a little time or thought, the disciple could answer himself, but to suggest or throw into the disciple's mind the type of question which warrants his thought and then to stimulate his abstract mind so that he can successfully find the answer.

You can see, therefore, how important this entire problem of questions can be and how, in a Master's Ashram or group, [page 734] the responsiveness of the membership to the questions, registered either by the individual disciple or by the group as a whole, and the answering of these questions has a conditioning effect upon the group. It is here the Master's particular work comes in—the arousing of the Ashram to the asking of those questions which will lead to revelation. A Master has always two things to bear in mind: the group condition which is dependent upon the aggregated vibration or

note of all the members of the Ashram, insofar as they work together, and, secondly, the period in which the group is functioning. To this must be added the total responsiveness of the entire Ashram. One of the difficulties confronting all ashrams (viewing them as wholes) is to absorb new members and disciples, either singly or in groups. One question that necessarily arises is: How can a group within an Ashram (constituted of relatively new disciples and beginners on the Path of Accepted Discipleship) become increasingly sensitive to the vibration of the Ashram as a whole and to the Master of the Ashram?

This question in reality embodies the major problem existent between the personality and the soul, between the Master and the disciple and between humanity and the Hierarchy. It is basically a question of registering essential unity and the cessation of separativeness. Disciples in their consciousness have to learn to avoid differentiating between aspects of the Ashram, inner and outer, and between the few Ashram members whom they may know and recognise, and the vast number who remain unknown to them. An Ashram is one group or band of disciples, initiates of various degrees, world disciples and neophytes at the very beginning of the Way of discipleship. Disciples must not think in terms of different Ashrams but in terms of the Ashram as a whole.

The key to this realisation, little as you may think it, is Intensity. Intensity, or working from a point of tension, brings in the flood-tide of revelation, and it is then possible for a disciple to learn in one short day what might otherwise take months and even years to learn. Tension, when focussed rightly, is the great releasing Power. So many disciples focus tension wrongly and release energy in the wrong direction and (if I might so inadequately express it) from the wrong location. [page 735] Right tension is brought about first by correct orientation; this necessitates a true sense of values and freedom from those minor preoccupations which produce extension instead of tension. If you are (to give a very usual illustration) preoccupied with your physical condition, you will not experience the tension which will make you a magnetic centre of power and love; if you are preoccupied with the failures of other people or with their ideas about you, you will again fail to experience the tension which releases. You would find it of value to discover where your "extensions" are and then retreat inward to the point of tension from which you can consciously and effectively direct soul energy.

This is the true esoteric work. The majority of disciples are not even 60 per cent effective because their points of tension are scattered all over the personality and are not focussed where the point of individual tension should be. Each has to discover that point of spiritual tension for himself. The reason that disciples are not sensitive to the Master, to the life of the Ashram and to each other is that they are extended and not tense; they are working and living on the periphery of consciousness and not at the centre. Their service, therefore, is partial; their consecration is weak and they are overwhelmed by inertia, by lack of interest in others and by many preoccupations with the form side of life.

One more question might here be considered, dealing with a phrase which I have deliberately used several times in these talks: What is the distinction between love and the will to-love? It is one which constantly is asked in the early stages of the path of discipleship. It is a most revealing question and is based on a sense of individual need and also on group need. It indicates also a penetrating analysis which has carried the questioner to the point where he knows the difference between theory, plus effort, and a spontaneous demonstration of that which is.

The will-to-love involves the recognition of limitation, of desire, of the forcing of an issue and of the intense aspiration really to love. It does not indicate the inflow of Shamballa energy through the medium of the soul whose intrinsic nature is spontaneous love. Where there is a determination to be [page 736] loving, certain attitudes—either natural and belonging to a developed personality or forced through attention to soul behest—emerge. The disciple knows that he lacks love, because he is constantly finding himself isolated from and not identified with others; he is irritated by others: he is critical of his brothers, either feeling superior to them or looking at them and saying: "Here they are wrong and I am right; here they do not understand and I do; I know them but they don't know me; I must be patient with them," etc., etc. Throughout this phase, the attitude is definitely that of the will-to-love, coupled to a deep realisation of the handicaps to the expression of love presented by those others and presented also by one's own habits of thought. This is all a form of self-centredness. The true way to love is to reflect and meditate deeply and constantly upon the significance and the meaning of love, its origin, its expression through the soul, its qualities, goals and objectives. Most of the reflection carried on by the aspirant is based upon his innate realisation that he does not really love in the spontaneous, free way of the spirit. The disciple is, therefore, thrown back on a self-centred position in which he feels: "Now I am loving; now I am not loving; now I must try and love." Yet all the time none of these attitudes is really true love nor is their result a loving expression because the disciple is identified with himself and focussed in the personality. Love is never worked up, if I might put it so, in the lower nature; it is a free unimpeded inflow from the higher.

Love is spontaneous and carries ever the free spirit of Christ. I would suggest that there has never been a better description of the nature of love than that given by the initiate Paul, even though the translation of his words is faulty at times. Study those passages in the New Testament in which he defines love. Give up emphasising the will-to-love and emphasise in your own consciousness the need of others for understanding, compassion, interest and help. The usual loneliness of all disciples is frequently incidental to the fact of the self-centredness of all those whom they contact and the intense preoccupation of the neophyte with his own growth. The cry of the neophyte is: "Tell me. Tell me. Then I will change. I will accept anything that is said but tell me." The cry of the disciple is: "Aid [page 737] the work. Forget yourself. The world needs you." So many disciples are still shut up within themselves, hidden behind the wall of the personal self and little true out-going love is present. Until they break through and truly love, their usefulness is impaired.

We have considered briefly the stage of Little Chelaship and that of Chela in the Light. These stages lie behind quite a large number of human beings today. It is necessary, however, to revive the effect of these two experiences and the need to do so lies behind much of the work being done by disciples and teachers at this time. Many other people are today passing through the stage of Accepted Discipleship. The keynote of that stage is, as you know, the establishing of contact with the Master; it is primarily and technically the task of the Master to evoke the direct response and the conscious reaction of the disciple. Along with these reactions, the Master looks for an effort on the part of the disciple to be impersonal in his dealings, both with Him and with his co-disciples; impersonality is the first step upon the road to spiritual love and understanding. The effort of most sincere disciples is usually concentrated upon loving each other and in this (to use an old simile) they put the "cart before the horse." Their effort should be to achieve, first of all, impersonality in their dealings for, when that has been achieved, criticism dies out and love can pour in.

The Master also looks for an effort upon the part of His disciples to work on a larger and more generous scale in connection with His work in the world of men; He leaves them free to work as they may choose but He most certainly looks for the effort to take place along the lines of the specific activities which constitute His intention. To achieve this vital and strenuous effort, there must be the ability to focus upon the work and its needs and to develop the power to cooperate with those also engaged in similar work. This, again, involves impersonality and right focus. The Master is today looking for dedication to the needs of humanity in these days of human agony; this involves a sensitivity to world pain as it demonstrates from day to day in world affairs; it requires also a "divine indifference" to outer events in the life of the little self and a sense of proportion which enables the disciple to see his little personal [page 738] affairs—physical, emotional and mental—in terms of the whole. So again we arrive at impersonality—this time impersonality to a man's own reactions.

The Master has, therefore, necessarily to ask Himself whether the expenditure of time and energy which He gives to the members of His group or Ashram is rightly warranted and whether, as a result, the group has "quickened" for increased service, and is more closely knit together in the bonds of the ashramic fellowship and is decentralised and less a group of dedicated personalities and more a group of living souls.

Impersonality has also to be developed in connection with the Master Himself. He is not occupied with making His group of disciples satisfied with themselves, their status or their service. He frequently lays the emphasis (in His few and rare contacts with His disciples) upon their failures and limitations. He does not only give them a steady flow of teaching and increased opportunity to serve. His work is primarily to help them detach themselves from the form aspect of life and fit them to undergo certain great expansions of consciousness. He assumes the factual nature of their dedication and desire to serve. This he has shown by receiving them into His group of disciples. When He did that, He assumed also the responsibility of preparing them for initiation. It is no part of the Master's duties to pat disciples upon the back or to congratulate them upon work done and progress made. He has instead the task of watching closely their note or vibration and of indicating where changes must be made in attitude and expression, where intensification of the spiritual life is in order and where personality adjustments could lead to greater freedom and, therefore, to more effective service. If this process, when applied by Him evokes resentment and disappointment upon their part, then the indication is that they are still steeped in personal reactions.

Another thing which disciples are apt to forget is that the Master has to protect the larger Ashram as a whole from the reaction of those who are learning to work in smaller supervised groups and in cooperation with their more experienced brothers. Sometimes disciples become discouraged—from a natural morbidness, self-centredness, lethargy and sometimes [page 739] good intentions—and endeavour to resign from the Ashram or group. This they can only do exoterically, for the esoteric link always persists, though it may be temporarily negated in the need of the larger group to protect itself from some unit in its midst. The members of an Ashram and accepted disciples are always engaged in world work and effectively so. Newcomers and beginners have to be trained to participate in that work and ample scope is always provided to this end.

Certain periods come when disciples have to be faced with clear and definite questions, in the answering of which they discover themselves and the scope and fruitfulness of their demanded service. Some of these questions might be expressed as follows:

How effective is my work in relation to my sphere of activity?

How effective is my thinking and planning in relation to what may lie ahead in the immediate future? We have an instance of this today, in connection with the plans for a post-war world and the need for intelligent and spiritual reconstruction activity.

What results can I recognise as the fruit of my work?

Do I feel that my work has been satisfactory from the standpoint of my soul and, incidentally, of my Master?

Have I worked with impersonality in relation to my fellow disciples and co-workers, no matter what their status?

Have I preserved the needed spirit of loving cooperation?

Do I recognise truthfully my own and my co-disciples' limitations and do I then move forward with those who are serving alongside of me without criticism and with silence?

Do I realise exactly where I stand? Whom I can help? And to whom I must look for example, aid and understanding?

One of the first lessons a disciple has to learn is to recognise what is occultly called "hierarchical progression." This enables the disciple to place himself consciously at the point to which evolution and spiritual unfoldment have brought him and, therefore, recognise those whom he can assist from the standpoint [page 740] of his greater experience and those to whom he must look for like aid.

This is a hard first lesson. The neophyte is always more consciously conceited than is the experienced disciple. It was the need for the understanding of this fact of hierarchical progression which prompted me to choose the six stages of discipleship as our study theme. To be a disciple does not mean that all within the Ashram are upon the same rung of the ladder of evolution. It is not so. An Ashram is composed of all degrees, ranging from that of a disciple who is taking his first steps upon the arduous path of training, up to that of a disciple who is a Master of the Wisdom. This hierarchical progression is something warranting careful consideration. I would remind you of the Law which states that "we grow through the medium of our recognitions." A recognition, when it is seen as an aspect or fractional part of a greater whole, is the seed of a major expansion of consciousness. A stabilised expansion of consciousness connotes initiation. This is an occult statement of major importance.

It is essential that disciples cultivate the attitude of spiritual recognition and they will find their lives greatly enriched when they do so. Contact with disciples, initiates and Masters is ever evocative in the result. The power they normally and unconsciously wield has a dual effect. It draws out the best and evokes the worst whilst presenting situations with which the disciple must deal. Every disciple is a focal point of power to some degree. The more advanced the disciple, the greater the force or energy which will radiate from him; this necessarily presents situations which the lesser disciple has to handle. The true disciple never does this with intention. The theory (so prevalent among occult groups) that the leader or some senior working disciple must stage situations in order to develop the pupil is contrary to occult law. The moment, however, you step into the range of the radiation of a Master or of any disciple senior to you, then things are bound to happen in your life. The radiation is effective when rightly received, registered and consciously used to bring about the sensed and needed changes. Eventually when the disciple's vibration is constant and responsive to the higher one, the two can then be synchronised. [page 741] It is this synchronisation which characterises all grades of initiates and which indicates to an initiate of a higher degree that an initiate or disciple of a lower grade can be admitted into the higher ranks. Synchronisation is the key to initiation.

(DINAI 727) If the chela in the Light is truly in earnest and is consciously developing the higher sensitivity, this stage can be relatively short. Two lives sometimes are sufficient to cover [page 727] this period. The chela in the Light is one who treads the way of what is called "the lesser revelation"—lesser because it is concerned with the revelation of that which must be done in the personality life; it is not the way of the higher revelation of divinity and its nature. It is the revelation of that which is already manifested and not of what must be manifested. Ponder on this. The searchlight of the soul reveals faults in character, limitations in expression and inadequacies in conduct. These must be intelligently corrected. In the symbolic charts which the guiding disciple presents to the Master twice a year, the effort made along these lines is indicated, not the results; it is effort which counts. The results will be inevitable and commensurate with the effort. When these charts (three in number) are geometrically related and superimposed one upon the other, they indicate a definite ray pattern. Then the Master can gauge the rate and type of development and can determine the time for authorising the senior disciple to recommend the stage of accepted discipleship. When the demand of the aspirant, the guiding disciple's recommendation, the karmic condition and the note which the Master registers coincide in time, then the third stage is reached.

(DINAI 747) This responsive relationship and interplay (Chela on the Thread 4^th stage-ZR) is only attained after a long cycle of the outer relation of the accepted disciple upon the periphery and finally within the Ashram. It does not come about as the result of any effort to fit oneself for this position of power and of influence in service. It is simply the silent and almost unconsciously achieved result of that self-effacement and self-forgetfulness which distinguishes the accepted disciple; he is decentralised and engrossed in the fulfilment of the divine Plan to the best of his ability. It is the reward, if I might so express it, of the worker who knows what [page 747] he has come into incarnation to do and who is endeavouring with dedication to do it. The driving urge of his life is the need of humanity and his expanding awareness of the immediate next step that man must take.

The major tasks of the Master when a disciple first enters His Ashram is to make him think along the lines of decentralisation. This involves the shift of the disciple's consciousness from himself to the work to be done and, incidentally, the answering of the questions:

1. Do you, in reality, know what your life task is?

2. Have you tried to carry this out in your current life processes?

3. Is your main objective the building of character and the development of purity? If this is so, do you not think that you should be on the Path of Probation and not deluding yourself with the idea that you are on the Path of Discipleship? (pre reversal stage definitely deals with character building and personality rays 4,5,6,7 -ZR)

4. Are you preoccupied with human need or are you engrossed with your own position as a disciple, with your own spiritual problems, and with the delusion of the terrific difficulties in your personal life?

As long as you believe that your life is one of all engrossing interest and also one of exceeding hard places, you are only in the very early stages of accepted discipleship and have not yet cast off ancient habits of thought. These questions have eventually to be answered before the student has what I might call "the full freedom of the Ashram."

(DINAI 751) An accepted disciple, therefore, advances—if I may so express it—through the medium of three vibratory realisations:

(stage of Accepted Discipleship)

1.He reacts to the vibration, the note or the quality of an Ashram, according to his ray type. The periphery of a Master's sphere of group control is contacted by him and he becomes an accepted disciple in full waking consciousness. The Master is aware of his presence upon the outer fringe of His consciousness; his fellow disciples are also aware of another point of light within the Ashram, largely because of the effort they have to make to offset the new chela's personality reactions to the new mode of life, to the effects wrought into his consciousness by his penetration into the world of meaning and to the out-surging of his devotion to the Master. It becomes the task of more advanced chelas to protect the Master from the violent reactions of the new chela and to stand between Him and the neophyte. Some initiate-chela takes him in hand and acts as intermediary. The chela (as I have earlier pointed out) is in touch with the Master when, and only when, the Master so desires and it would be good and helpful to the entire group.

(stage of Chela on the Thread-taken 3^rd initiation already)

2. He realises increasingly the nature and note of his Ashram and advances from the periphery into the sphere of influence of the Master and His group; he then begins to participate more and more in the group life and is less and less interested in himself. He becomes, consequently, a more valuable asset in the Ashram and is entrusted with specific duties and tasks for which he is individually responsible to the initiate-chela in charge of him. The Master begins to contact him with greater frequency and—because he is becoming decentralised and his own growth and development are of less and less importance to him than service for others—he is permitted to attract the Master's attention when help is needed for the group, and thus becomes a chela on the thread. The antahkarana is being rapidly built and the inflow of life from the Spiritual Triad increases slowly and regularly. He has reached a point where, upon the outer plane, he is gathering around him a sphere of influence as a result of his soul radiation, via the personality. It might be stated that no disciple becomes a chela on the thread until he has many people in the outer world who (on a lower turn of the spiral) are to him what he is to the Master—chelas [page 752] on the thread. In a distorted and frequently unsatisfactory fashion, he is engaged in forming his own group and today this is very often the case. The world is full of struggling disciples, intensely preoccupied with forming organisations, with gathering around them those whom they can help, thus striking a particular note and learning the rudiments (the rudiments, I repeat, my brother) of group work as the Hierarchy seeks to see it carried out.

(Chela within the Aura-5^TH stage)

3. He responds powerfully and (from his point of view) quite unexpectedly to the realised vibration of the Master as He functions at the very centre of His group. He has known the Master's vibratory call; he has become aware of the quality of the Ashram which is evoked by the Master. Now he is admitted to the secret place to be found at the very heart of the Ashram and becomes a chela within the aura.

(DINAI 761) Disciples gravitate into world groups and many of them are doing far more efficient work than those gathered together into esoteric groups. The advanced accepted disciple has always his own group which he gathers around him for active and creative work. I would remind you of this. The gauge of a disciple's capacity lies in his influence—through pen, word of mouth, and personal influence—upon other people.

(DINAI 768) The world today offers opportunity to all disciples to become world disciples, close to the Masters heart, and to pass rapidly through the earlier stages of discipleship.

Chela within Masters heart (6^th stage) no longer Accepted Disciple

(DINAI 767) For another thing, brother of mine, when the disciple reaches this stage he is no longer what you understand by an accepted disciple. He is an initiate of high standing and of elevated degree and has passed out of the supervision and the safeguarding of a Master into a direct relation with the Master of all the Masters, the Christ, who is the central point in the Hierarchy, just as the Master is the central point in an ashram. The Master is the heart of His group and the Christ is the heart of the Hierarchy. The closer one gets to realisation, the clearer becomes the concept that the point at the centre and the periphery are one.

(DINAI 673) 3. The stage wherein, according to necessity, the Master contacts the chela through:

a. A vivid dream experience.

b. A symbolic teaching.

c. A using of a thoughtform of the Master.

d. A contact in meditation.

e. A definite remembered interview in the Master's Ashram.

This is definitely the stage of Accepted Disciple.

(DINAII 245) I would like to deal somewhat with the theme anent the attitude of the accepted disciple towards his Master and towards the general subject of initiation, and then consider the immediate steps ahead which the disciple must take, where he is and with what equipment he has. This is the first and necessary step. Disciples must clarify their position and must continue to learn from their Master, in spite of [Page 245] the crises of initiation. Unless they act upon the proffered instruction and have confidence in His occult intention, all that the Master may say or do is of small usefulness. It serves only to increase grave responsibility with its attendant liabilities; knowledge and the pressure of spiritual energy become a danger if not used. This is a basic and important statement.

(DINAI 675) Stage III.

The way of red desire fails. It loses its allure. The playground of the sons of God no longer holds appeal. The voice which has twice sounded from out the world of form sounds now within the heart. The challenge comes: "Prove thine own worth. Take to thyself the orange ball of thy one-pointed purpose." Responsive to the sounded word, the living soul, immersed in form, emerges from the many forms and hews its onward way. The way of the destroyer comes, the builder and again the tearer down of forms. The broken forms hold not the power to satisfy. The soul's own form is now the great desire, and thus there comes the entering of the playground of the mind.

But in these dreams and fantasies, at times a vision comes—a vision of a folded lotus flower, close petalled, tightly sealed, lacking aroma yet, but bathed in cold blue light.

Orange and blue in some more distant time will blended be, but far off yet the date. Their blending bathes the bud in light and causes future opening. Let the light shine.

(DINAI 681) 2. The achievement of a finer sense of values. Rest, amusement, idleness, argument and criticism have no real place in a disciple's life for the next few years. A sane handling of the physical mechanism will be required, plus a divine indifference to personal feeling and health reactions. Complete dedication to the meeting of human need; [page 681] utter consecration to the Plan; intelligent cooperation with all whom you recognise to be senior disciples; adequate care to take right action in circumstances so that your efficiency is not impaired; the conservation of energy through silence and through that constant radiation which is based on self-forgetfulness—that is what is asked of the disciple in the world today, this is what the Hierarchy expects and this is what will eventually open the door of initiation. That door has to be opened more widely at this time by the accepted disciples of the world so that more and more of the human race may more easily enter. Self-interest will not open it….

The life of a disciple is a gradual but steady moving in towards the centre, and accepted disciples are definitely a part of the Hierarchy. The Hierarchy is a place of fusion of all souls upon the higher levels of the mental plane. Just in so far as a person comes under soul impression, then soul control and final identification with the soul, just so far does he move towards the centre of fusion. As your love for humanity increases and your interest in yourself decreases, so will you move towards that centre of light and love where the Masters stand in spiritual being.

Later, we will consider the various stages of discipleship but in the meantime it is of value for you to focus your attention upon the relation of the Hierarchy to all accepted disciples. It is just because you are beginners that the whole subject evokes your deep interest. The beginner is full of questions upon all sorts of subjects. The trained disciple is so preoccupied with the Plan, so infused with love for his fellowmen that his entire orientation is towards the service of the Plan and not towards his own individual progress or towards the Master. The closer he gets to the centre and towards the Master, the less attention the Master pays him and the less he is occupied with thinking about the Master. In the early stages, he perhaps necessarily thinks much about his relation to the Hierarchy, to the Master and to his own soul. In the intermediate stage, he is occupied with the achieving of a sense of proportion and a right inner adjustment so that "he faces two ways and each way sees the same vision." In the final stages when he is the disciple who is also the Master, his consciousness is absorbed into the will of the Creator; his attitude is one of unchanging love and his work is that of radiation—[page 683] a radiation which evokes activity in others, initiates a response from his fellowmen and carries the Plan the next step forward in meeting the immediate need of humanity.

(DINAI 684) A Master's group is not a place wherein disciples are taught to make their personality adjustment and soul contact. It is not a place where character discipline is imposed and right relations established between the personnel of a group of junior or senior disciples. The rules for instituting soul control are ancient and well-known. They have to be practised for long periods before the stage of accepted discipleship is reached. The contest with the lower nature and the building in of the needed qualities which are essential to the world worker are the normal theme of life experience and, therefore, humanity in its intelligent brackets is constantly and steadily undergoing this training. The capacity to work in collaboration with others at some directed piece of work is a part of the evolutionary process itself and is inevitable. I want to make entirely clear to you that the practices of a purificatory nature and the cultivated right habits of thought which are the major undertaking of an aspirant's life are not the major undertaking of the disciple. [page 684] They are regarded as incidental and foundational; they concern the handling of the personal self and are the task of the individual soul and are carried forward under soul supervision and not under the supervision of a Master. What, therefore, is the contribution and work of the disciple?

The group of every Master is distinguished by its thought content, contributed by the disciples and used by the Master in His work for humanity. Therefore, the thought life of every disciple must be conditioned by three factors:

1. By its power. This is dependent upon right spiritual instinct, right understanding and interpretation of ideas and correct formulation of these ideas.

2. By its purity. This grows naturally out of a growing capacity for unlimited, non-separative love, clear vision and the unimpeded flow of soul force.

3. By its correct precipitation. This precipitation of thought is due to clearly directed intent, to comprehension of the purpose for which a group of disciples exists, and an increasingly intelligent participation in the Master's creative activity.

The group of a Master is a focus of power, built up by the Master in three ways:

1.By the potency of His Own thought life, evoked by His response to the united hierarchical purpose and a growing ability to respond to Shamballa.

2. By His ability to integrate the centre of power (His group for which He has made Himself responsible) into the immediate activity of the Hierarchy.

3. By His wisdom in His choice of collaborators. His group of disciples will be effective in world service and useful to His Superiors just in so far as He employs judgment in gathering together the men and women whom He is preparing for initiation.

I use the word "initiation" here because I want all disciples who read my words to realise that initiation is not something which they undergo as a result of any training which they may receive from a Master or because they have reached a certain [page 685] stage of advanced evolution. It is a process of continuing integration into centres of force, i.e., into a Master's group, into the Hierarchy as a whole and consciously, and—as disciples attain adeptship—into Shamballa. You can see, therefore, that a Master can be greatly hindered or aided in His work for humanity by His choice of disciples. They should ponder on this fact because in so doing the process of decentralisation will proceed more rapidly and their love and service will consequently increase with a paralleling certainty and surety.

(DINAI 685) I would have you also remember that a Master's group is a centre of energy into which the disciple is precipitated and that its effect upon him, as a personality, is eliminative and evocative. Those two words cover the life of every disciple. They are singularly descriptive of what is happening to humanity, as the process (so long foretold) of externalising the Hierarchy and restoring the Mysteries upon the outer plane, is slowly proceeding. The Hierarchy is essentially the group of the Lord of the World; it is His Ashram. In this statement lies the enunciation of a relatively new truth as far as human knowledge is concerned. Before the Hierarchy can work more openly and with fuller recognition by mankind, there must be the elimination of all hate and all sense of separateness and the evocation of good will and right human relations as the result of the activities of all disciples. The widespread recognition of the evil of the present war and of errors in every national policy make it possible eventually to produce a general attitude which will clear the way for the needed right adjustments. It is the same process of awakening and of consequent strife which disciples experience in their individual lives and which prepare them for the stage of accepted disciple.

(DINAI 686) Two questions always arise the moment the stage of discipleship is discussed: the problem of occult obedience and the nature of the vision. I would like to deal with these right at the beginning of any help which I may be able to give you. What is this occult obedience which a Master is supposed to exact? Today, the Masters are dealing with the highly mental type of disciple who believes in the freedom of the human will and consciousness and who resents the imposition of any so-called authority. The intellectual man will not accept any infringement of his freedom, and in this he is basically right. He objects to having to obey. This is today axiomatic. Out of this fundamental question, lesser ones arise which I would like to cite. Has the disciple to obey the slightest hint which the Master may give? Must every request and suggestion be accepted? Must all that a Master says be accepted as true and infallibly correct? Is the disciple wrong when he refuses (if he does) to recognise the Master's point of view and the statements He may make? Will the fact of Accepted Discipleship limit his freedom of opinion or choice, coerce his judgment and make him simply a replica in thought of the Master's thought? These are questions of importance.

The obedience required is obedience to the Plan. It is not obedience to the Master, no matter what many old-style occult schools may say. The obedience which is asked of you is based on your growing recognition of the Plan for humanity, as it emerges in your consciousness through the processes of meditation and through definite service, based upon a growing love of your fellowmen.

(DINAI 688) I would ask you: How much of your present so-called vision is dependent upon what others have seen and how much you discovered for yourself by climbing arduously and earnestly the Mount of Vision and (from that eminence which you have arrived at alone) looking out over the horizon towards the next peak of attainment for humanity? A disciple becomes an Accepted Disciple when he starts climbing towards the vision, towards the mountain top; he can also register consciously what he has seen and then begins to do something constructive towards materialising it. This, many throughout the world are beginning to do. A man becomes a World Disciple in the technical sense when the vision is to him an important and determining fact in his consciousness and one to which all his daily efforts are subordinated. He needs no one to reveal the Plan to him. He knows. His sense of proportion is adjusted to the revelation and his life is dedicated to bringing the vision into factual existence—in collaboration with his group.

(DINAI 689) The attitude of the neophyte is, therefore, based upon the need for vision, upon individual, personal need. But (upon the path of Accepted Discipleship) the disciple must get away from this because it is the path of spontaneous unconscious self-forgetfulness. The vision, once seen, becomes so important, that how you feel about it and your adherence to it seemingly fades out. You become absorbed in the vision and this absorption takes place upon the physical plane. Both mind and brain are preoccupied with what the soul knows and that is ever vision for the personality.

I referred above to the existence of disciples and of world disciples. A world disciple is a man or woman who has made real progress in the adjustment between the particular and the universal, between the specific and the general and between his own sphere of environal conditions and the outer world of needy souls. The problem with which such disciples are occupied is not the adjustment of relations between the inner spiritual man, the soul and its instrument, the personal lower self. Their major interest is how to fulfil the immediate personality obligation and, at the same time, produce an effect upon the environing world of men because of a strong inner compulsion and the need they feel to shoulder the service and the responsibility of their Master and His group. These men and women are always accepted disciples in the academic sense of the term and are able to render themselves receptive to spiritual impression; they do this, if they choose, at will. They are integrated people from the personality angle and susceptible at all times to soul contact. They are not yet perfect, for they are not yet Masters; the fourth initiation still lies ahead for them but their own imperfections are not their major point of soul attack or their major preoccupation; world need and world demand for spiritual and psychic aid rank paramount in their consciousness. They are clear-visioned as to people but they are basically non-critical; the recognition of imperfection is automatic with them but in no way negates loving understanding and readiness to assist on any level where the need appears to be of importance.

(DINAI 690) I am not going to define for you active discipleship as ordinarily understood. Every esoteric student knows its significance, its implications and its responsibilities. I seek to develop in you that sense of world need and that capable usefulness which will make each of you who read and understand my words a disciple in truth and in deed. The primary task of the Masters is to develop in Their disciples a world sense which will enable them to see the immediate situation against the background of the past, illumined by the light of knowledge of the Plan which always concerns the future—except for those rare spirits who think ever in terms of the whole. The blueprints for the immediate plan are in the hands of the world disciples; the working out of these plans under the inspiration and help of the world disciples is in the hands of all accepted disciples everywhere. Neither world disciples or accepted disciples are mystical visionaries or vague idealists but men and women who are intelligently and practically seeking to make the ideal plan a factual experiment and success on earth. Such is the task in which all of you have the opportunity to help. Your ability to become world disciples eventually is dependent upon your capacity to decentralise yourselves and to forget your personalities. This forgetting involves not only your own personalities but also the personalities of your fellow disciples and co-workers and of all you meet. It means, also, that in the future you go forward into a greater measure of service, impelled thereto by the fire of love in your hearts for your fellowmen.

(DINAI 696) The question now arises: How does a Master form and organise His Ashram or inner group of which the personnel is provided from the outer group of aspirants? It must surely be apparent to you that a Master, in forming His Ashram, proceeds as automatically as does the Creator. He meditates; He visualises; He speaks and that which He seeks to create and to materialise (in line with the hierarchical Plan) begins to take form. By the power of His focussed and directed thought, He attracts to Him those whose type of mind synchronises with His, because of ray, karmic relationships, point in evolution and love for humanity. In the words focus and direction lie the key to any technique or method of contributing to what I might here call the reservoir of thought which is an Ashram. It is a sustained focus, plus a dynamic direction which makes this reservoir of thought contributory to world service and creatively effective. The important thing for an accepted disciple to grasp is what the Master is seeking to accomplish through the medium of His group. This entails, finally, the enquiry, in the mind of the disciple, as to whether he thinks, focusses and works along lines similar to that of the Master. How close is the disciple to the Master's thoughts? The Master is prevented by occult law from using any pressure or power in the effort to swing the minds of those whom He is influencing into unison with His. He may not impose His will upon the disciple; His desires, aspirations and wishes must not be the enforced directing agency in the lives of those with whom He is in touch. He may impress their minds with what He feels is needed in periods of world crisis. He can express to them what He feels should be done. But it remains for the disciple to decide and prove. Disciples are in a Master's group because of similarity of ideas, even though they sense and express those ideas far less clearly than He does and see the vision as through a glass darkly. But their innate convictions are [page 697] basically the same and their task is to discover the points of contact, the analogous idealism for the group effort and then to submerge their entire individual lives and activities in the recognised effort. Behind this effort stands the Master—an initiating and distributing centre of power.

(DINAI 698) To this reservoir of pure thought, every pledged disciple is asked to make his contribution and, if he can do so, it will enable the Ashram to meet the need and help every aspirant to pass off the Probationary Path on to the Path of Accepted Discipleship. Every centre or focus of power has a definite sphere of influence and a true, active Ashram is a positive force within the centre which we call humanity.

(DINAI 709) As we study the various stages in discipleship through which all must pass, we shall discover that one of the things which happens is the irradiation of the daily life. This irradiation emanates from the world of meaning in which the disciple is learning to live consciously and always. One of the problems with which the Master is engaged in relation to His group of disciples is to teach them the deep significance of the familiar and also the importance of the truths which underlie all platitudes. This is perhaps the most difficult task of all because of the habitual reaction to the familiar and the need to do two things: Prove that the familiar veils an important reality and that by penetrating to the "world of meaning," the disciple discovers that he can enter into the first stage of the period of preparation for accepted discipleship.

(DINAI 716) During all this period, the Master pays no attention whatsoever to the aspirant. It will be a long time before the aspirant will be admitted into His presence and make a personal contact. The chela who is supervising this interim stage reports to the Master at rare and widely separated intervals; it is only when the aspirant has reached the point where he "can enter into the light of the Angel," that the Master begins to take over his training. The disciple is now, irrevocably and finally, ready. This takes place at the third stage, that of Accepted Discipleship.

These stages are all of them related to one or other of the initiations. This one, called Little Chelaship, is related to the first initiation. This initiation is connected with the physical plane and, for a very large number of people (as I have several times pointed out) lies far behind. All true aspirants have taken the first initiation. This fact is indicated by their intensive struggle to grow into the spiritual life, to follow the way of determined orientation to the things of the spirit and to live by the light of that spirit. I believe that many who read my words will recognise these determinations as the basic motivation of their lives. This stage is a correspondence to the process of individualisation in Lemurian times and the stage of Little Chelaship is sometimes referred to as the "period of the Lemurian consciousness" leading, through the Atlantean stage of a Chela in the Light, to the Aryan stage of Accepted Discipleship. At this stage, the third and real preparation for initiation is consciously undertaken, because by then integration has been stabilised and the man is full grown and mature in his consciousness and is ready to subject himself to hierarchical impression without reservation.

(DINAI 717) 3. The first initiation. This initiation ever precedes the stage of accepted discipleship. No Master accepts a disciple and takes him into His ashram in whom the birth of the Christ has not taken place. Saul must become Paul, as the Christian phraseology puts it. The babe within the womb of time emerges into the world of men and, from the standpoint of complete identification with matter (the mother), he becomes himself and seeks consciously to tread the ways of life and to become what he is. This is an esoteric repetition of the physical process of becoming a separate individual. Between the stages of "isolated individuality" and "isolated unity" lies one to which the name of "isolated identity" is given. It is with this stage we are concerned and its esoteric implications. Isolated unity describes the stage which the Master has reached; isolated individuality is that of the disciple; isolated identity (with the soul) is that of the disciple up to and including the third initiation.

(DINAI 725) All who have, in this life, transitted from the stage of chela in the Light to that of accepted disciple have established two recognitions:

1. A recognition of the senior disciple whom they have discovered "in the Light."

2. A recognition of the Master. This whole question of recognising the Master will be dealt with by me later.

(DINAI 726) I would here like to point out that I am referring to good karma as well as bad. It is the task of the helping disciple to guide the chela in the Light so that he does adjust his karma. This the senior disciple does by thought impression. All karma, when consciously faced, is precipitated by the power of thought; this is perhaps the major lesson which the senior disciple has to teach the neophyte. In this way the latter is aided to see "in the light" which falls upon his way, and the disciple who is preparing him for the stage of accepted discipleship is in constant touch with the Master. Thus a triangular relationship is set up which is of occult value.

(DINAI 728) Disciples who have taken the second initiation are regarded as "probationary initiates," and only when they have taken the third initiation are they truly initiate from the standpoint of the Hierarchy. The first initiation is sometimes spoken of as the "Lemurian Initiation" and the second as the "Atlantean Initiation," but the third initiation—that of our Aryan race—is technically regarded by Them as the first initiation. This is a new angle upon which I would ask you to think. The term, therefore, of Accepted Disciple covers the stages of the first and second initiations; when a disciple has taken the third initiation, he is no longer technically an accepted disciple, even though he still remains in a Master's group until he has taken the fourth initiation. I am pointing out these technicalities so that there may be clarity and proportion in your thinking.

(DINAI 83) One of the things most needed by every disciple is to apply the teaching given to the idea of promoting and increasing their world service, thus rendering practical and effective in their environment the knowledge that has been imparted and the stimulation to which they have been subjected. This is a suggestion to which I would have you pay real attention.

I would like also at this point to bring to your attention the fact that an accepted disciple is not in reality one who has been accepted by a Master for training. This is the distortion of a true idea which, in its progress from the mental plane to the physical, has achieved a complete reversal or distortion. An accepted disciple is one who:

1. Has accepted the fact of the Hierarchy with the implications of loyalty and cooperation which that acceptance involves.

2. Has accepted the fact that all souls are one and who has, therefore, pledged himself to seek expression as a soul. The service to be rendered is the awakening and stimulation of all souls contacted.

3. Has accepted the occult technique of service. His service to humanity determines all his activities and subordinates his personality to the need of the time. Note that phrase. Cultivate insight and a fluid response to the immediate need and not a sensitive reaction to a distant goal.

4. Has accepted the Plan, as indicated by the Teachers of the race. He seeks to understand the nature of that Plan and to facilitate its manifestation.

Other points (of a more individual nature) could be enumerated, but I would have you lay the emphasis upon the acceptances which have or should have motivated your attitude and I would ask you not to emphasise so unduly in your private thoughts this idea of being "accepted by a Master." This thought and its teaching by many esoteric groups has been productive of much error, much misunderstanding, much pain and much disillusionment. A disciple is trained in certain important [Page 84] matters and not in his relation to a Master. These factors of importance to a disciple are:

1.The whole subject of humanity—its present status, its problems and the opportunity immediately presented. A disciple is one who seeks at all times to aid humanity and to further the processes of evolution as well as to develop that deep love of mankind which is the distinguishing mark of the initiate and of the Master.

2. The subject of initiation. A study of this subject will lead to a consideration of its secondary development and its basic objective of a progressive identification with the soul of the disciple, with the soul of the group, with the soul of humanity as a whole and with the soul in all forms.

3. The subject of service. This is not service as it is usually understood. The ordinary connotation has largely lost its significance through wrong emphasis. The initiate considers service as the spontaneous, easy expression of a definite soul contact, brought down on to the physical plane and giving insight, practicality and inspiration to the disciple as he works on the outer plane of expression. Most disciples are occupied vaguely with achieving inspiration but know nothing of the earlier stages of insight, leading to the practical and wise expression of the met need upon the level of daily living. One of the major undertakings of the accepted disciple (or, as I would prefer to term it, the accepting disciple) is to transform himself from a well-intentioned idealist into a man of action on behalf of humanity.

(DINAI 98) There is one more point which I would like to take up with you so that there may be complete understanding. There come periods in the life of the disciple when there appears to be no contact with the Master and as if all relationship had been, at least, temporarily severed. Where accepted disciples are concerned, I would like to emphasise that any such severance is not possible. Occultly, it cannot happen and the Master's love for the disciple makes it again impossible. There is only one condition [Page 98] which can result in severance and that is deliberate and conscious effort by the disciple, carried over a very long period of time, to bring it about. A Master does not lightly admit a disciple to His group and once having done so, the situation is irrevocable from the standpoint of the Master. Any delay in progress and any final severance comes entirely from the pupil. There may be a temporary suspension of communication and this may last throughout one life; that, however, is not long from the angle of the soul; it is but a flash of small moment and significance in the long career of the soul. It looms as large and important in the personality life but may signify only the grasping of opportunity in the eternal now of the soul.

When a group can think unanimously along these lines and work in unison, then the first step will have been taken towards group initiation which is the goal of the new discipleship. Group initiation involves:

1. The possession and recognition of a united vision to which the individual in the group subordinates himself.

2. The simultaneous rapport of the group members with the soul on its own level (that composite group soul which is composed of the soul of each individual member). This leads to group integration on soul levels.

3. The blended consecrated contact of the group personalities upon the three levels of personality expression—the [Page 85] mental, astral and etheric levels of awareness. Some group members contact each other on one level and some on another, but the aim should be a close contact on all three levels at will and all together when the group, as a group, demands it. This is a hard saying but later a clearer understanding will come of what this means and what it brings about.

4. The ability of the group to stand united and with no barriers between the group members of any kind. This will necessarily involve the sacrifice of personality reactions, ideals and plans. At present the varying ideals, attitudes and points of view separate disciples from each other. These must go.

(DINAI 98) I have, therefore, been near you and watched at intervals the tide of life roll over you; I have noted your progress and your delay. I have watched you succeed and I have seen you fail. This I do through noting the pulsation of your light—not in watching the detail of your daily living. That is not warranted in this time of crisis, and owing to the evolutionary development of disciples will never again be warranted. You are still within my group aura, within my Ashram. Your position there is determined by yourself and not by me. There exists at times something which resembles a pulsation in the relation between teacher and pupil—a withdrawing and a coming forward where the probationary disciple is concerned and a standing with steadfastness and expectancy on the part of the teacher. When the fluctuations of contact are ended and the pupil is stabilised and becomes a "steadily approaching point of energy," then he becomes an accepted disciple. Some in my group of disciples are stabilising; some are retreating; some few are approaching and I watch with interest the waxing and the waning of their light.

(DINAI 115) Years ago, my brother, you sought more eagerly for the good results of your activity. Now you are just as active but you are willing to leave the results unconsidered. This is well and very good. However, I tell you that there are results and perhaps they can begin to be clarified in your mind. Two results I can myself indicate to you and I choose these two with deliberation because they are related to me and to your work with me, your teacher and your friend. First, I have accepted you into my own group in the technical sense and you are now an accepted disciple (chela) in my group.... Secondly, I have told you and your brothers that I am in process of preparing you for initiation.

(DINAI 116) 1. You need to work now more definitely and more confidently as an accepted disciple. What do I mean by that statement? [Page 116] I mean that you should work in the realisation that—because of this definite acceptance—you are linked with the Hierarchy of Masters and, therefore, the quality of the hierarchical service to humanity must also be expressed by and through you. What is this quality? Wisdom, expressing itself intelligently through love. Upon this statement you should ponder. Your service is ever intelligent (highly so) for you have much knowledge as the result of ancient experience and deep thought and study in this life. That knowledge must, however, be translated into wisdom through the dynamic power of a living love. I use no further terms to express this idea. That sentence should provide you with much food for thought.

(DINAI 264) You have carried much responsibility and done much work with fortitude, and you must now remember that all periods of strain are but preparatory to the handling of still more work with increased efficiency and speed. Of one thing I would seek to remind you. All disciples who are being trained for that stage called by the inappropriate name of "accepted disciple" are being taught to use their own magnetic vibration to gather to themselves those who will constitute their own group, those whom they can specifically help. This work, they are taught by being put into a position of trust in relation to their fellowmen. Your work is, therefore, the work of training people to be workers and so fit them to be cooperators with the Plan. You will contact those who need you not as a leader or teacher. They will be those whom you know and feel require training and help. They have to be taught to work inclusively and to be animated by intelligent love. Take them into your aura and hold them in the light. Note their increase of capacity and later their individual reaction to you yourself. By this you will arrive at an understanding of your vibratory, magnetic capacity. The soul's nature is love and love is the great attractive force.

In reference to my comment anent "accepted disciples," I would remind you that, after all, the Master accepts no one. [Page 265] He only recognises achieved capacity and ability and then endeavours to use them for the furthering of the divine plan. Disciples need to enquire, therefore: Does the love aspect in my nature draw people to me personally so that I can help them or does it set up a soul interplay between them and me? This is something that I would have you study and do. The extent of your magnetic radiation could well be doubled and is not yet equal to the power latent within you.

Discriminations of the Accepted Disciple

(DINAI 296) The discipline which always accompanies the accepted disciple for work in the field of the world has been yours most definitely since I last communicated with you. Because you are a disciple, that discipline has taken hold of all aspects of the lower self (the human self) at one and the same time. Those who are not disciples may be exercised in one or another of the lower bodies. A disciple, however, is exercised in all three simultaneously, that is, in the personality as a whole. For you, therefore, there has been renewed physical disability, emotional stress (of two kinds, is it not so, my brother?) and mental difficulty and strain. This latter has been the worst and is partly responsible (though not entirely so) for the other two.

The lessons to be learnt by all disciples (before they can [Page 297] work with power in the world) might be expressed as the need to gain discrimination between

1. Primary principles and secondary principles, or between two rights:

a. A greater and a lesser right.

b. That which is right for you but which may not be right for others.

2. Between one's personal dharma, obligation and individual duties and one's group responsibilities and relationships.

3. Between the needs which group work evidences and demands and those of the individual.

4. Between essentials and non-essentials.

(DINAI 307) I seek today to emphasise to you the need to recognise and re-interpret your inner life pattern, or, in other words, the inner programme which your soul undertook to follow when you first set your foot upon the Path of Accepted Discipleship. This you did two or three lives ago and you have followed this path slowly and with caution. There is now, however, need for a more dynamic following of your soul purpose and a definite negating of all the impediments which seek at this time to obstruct your progress. I would call your attention to the fact that I do not here refer to outer relationships and contacts. They exist and have their purpose and, as you well know, all right responsibilities must always be met by disciples. I refer to that inner, active, spiritual life which you should increasingly cultivate, and to that dual activity which every disciple has to follow simultaneously. This dual life embraces the world of inner relationships and of recognised subjective attitudes, but it also embraces the life of outer service and of those relationships which you have assumed as your physical plane dharma. Clear vision as to these outer relations in the world of professional activity, of friendships and of family relations is a necessary requirement in treading the Path, and until a disciple sees these relations in their true and right proportions, his mind is frequently disturbed and his service handicapped. I give you here a hint. Every link that one makes on earth does not necessarily entail the recognition of a soul link. We make new and fresh links and start new lines of karma and of dharma. One of the first things that a disciple has to learn is right judgment as to the relative soul age of his associates. He soon discovers that these vary. He learns then to recognise those whose wisdom and knowledge surpass his own, to cooperate with those who stand with him upon the Path and to work for those whom he can help, but whose evolutionary status is not on an equality with his own. The ordered pattern of his life can then take on definite forms and he can begin to work with intelligence.

(DINAI 373) Before you can claim the full prerogatives of an accepted disciple (which you are) you must penetrate behind the screen or the shutter of your personality and become aware of the violence of your true feeling on the question of racial differences, of social standing, of class distinctions and of personality affections. There is in you what amounts almost to an inhibited hatred. It is partly racial, partly European, and partly a totally unnecessary sense of social and personal inferiority. You assure yourself that it is not there. You refuse to recognise it with great deliberation. You say to yourself: I am all love and understanding because I am a soul. And you very frequently are a soul and your influence is soul influence. But behind all this lies a blind spot. It is a "sticking your head into the sand" type of glamour, and a refusal to register your personality limitations along this line. You, with your wisdom and soul contact, could most easily handle this, if you so desired.

(DINAI 553) 2. A tenderness which will grow out of an increasing capacity to identify yourself with other people and their problems.

Life has held for you much of difficulty during the past three months; many adjustments, inner and outer, have been required. Detachment has been the lesson which you are learning [page 553] and indicates to you the way of release. Like all disciples, in training on the Path of Accepted Discipleship or preparing to be so trained, much has had to be broken in your life in order to establish the new rhythms. This process is still to be continued and for it you must be prepared. You have, however, adequate light and sufficient strength to enable you to tread the way of the disciple. You can count upon yourself and upon your own divinity.

(DINAI 596) Your problem has been complicated (as is the problem of all disciples who stand on the verge of acceptance) by the force of your ray impulses, and by the difficulty of the era in which you live and the stage whereon you deliberately have chosen to play your part. You have three years in which to make the effort by means of which you can become an accepted disciple, when you return again to this earth. By this I do not mean that you are to pass over at the age of fifty-six. I am speaking of the establishing of a rhythm which will be strong enough and vital enough to produce the needed fusion of soul and personality. We who teach, watch and guide the esoteric development of man, know that unless a certain measure of fusion is established by the time fifty-six years of age is attained, it is seldom established later. After that age, a man may hold to the point achieved and foster his aspiration but [page 597] the dynamic submergence of the personality in the will and life of the soul is rare after that time. When reached prior to the age of fifty-six, then subsequent growth and unfoldment on the Path of Discipleship is surely possible.

(DINAI 612) You have been glamoured by your own values and not by the group values. You have been side-tracked by many non-essential issues and you have not collaborated in my work or with those who are already integrated into the work that I am seeking to do. I am referring to myself in this communication to you, as your statements, and I believe your intent, have ever expressed devotion to me, your Tibetan teacher. You have sought to integrate those into this work who do not belong to this particular line of endeavour but who are working in other fields of hierarchical activity—of equal importance to be sure, but not the work to which you pledged yourself in years gone by. You do not keep your line of service clear. You wander into too many other fields of service which are not yours and where you are not wanted. So great has been your glamour that you have even desired to thrust into my group of disciples an aspirant who, in a later life, will shift her consciousness on to the mental plane and gradually become a conscious disciple, but who is not yet working on the level where those who could be, or are, accepted disciples, are working.

(DINAI 618) You have had a gruelling and a testing time, my brother. Your improvement has been slow but real. You can be trusted more definitely now than in the past and it is for this reason that I again offer you a more conscious contact with myself. I here tell you my name—a fact that you already intuitively know. I am, by doing so, telling you of your status upon the Path—that of an Accepted Disciple. This carries with it, its encouragement, its responsibilities and its risks.

As you are now on the Path of Discipleship and under the direct influence of myself, the Master ... your major duty is to train yourself in the needed sensitivity of response to my voice and to the impression which I may be seeking to make upon your aspiring consciousness. This you will do by a constant attitude of directed attention, a controlled personality life and the elimination of all feverish effort along any line of endeavour. A clear, focussed mind, a loving heart, and a cultivated simplicity of understanding of yourself, of life and of [page 618] others is your great need just now. It will do much to bring your devious and involved mental attitudes and aspirations into right order. Make life very simple, brother of mine.

(DINAI 663) The life of the disciple moves forward through moments of crisis. These crises produce two results:

1. The intensification of aspiration, if the disciple is still upon the Probationary Path, or the intensification of illumination if the disciple is nearing the Path of Accepted Discipleship, or is upon the Path itself.

2. The achievement of a more stabilised attitude of detachment, based upon conscious personality renunciation, upon a right orientation of the personality to the soul (who is the one Master, the Light of Life) and to the Hierarchy of Servers. They will, therefore, produce an increasing power of control by the soul—the One Who knows no attachment and Who stands at-one with all souls in all forms.

(DINAI introduction) Much in this book is new. Much is very old, tried and proved. None of the people chosen for instruction and for inclusion in the Ashram of the Master are saints or perfect. All are, however, true aspirants and will go on to the very end in spite of pain and sorrow, discipline, success, failure, joy and a spiritual recognition of almost unattainable goals. Some have been on this Path of Accepted Discipleship (technically understood) for many lives. Some are venturing for the first time—consciously and with deliberate effort—to tread the Way to God. All are mystics, learning to be occultists.

(DINAI 53) There is an occult process which reaches its culmination in one of the higher initiations—with which initiation you have as yet no concern. It is called "a bringing forth into the light." An accepted disciple is one who is in process of preparation for initiation and that is one of the tasks with which I am engaged at this time. I have, therefore, to begin to lay the foundation for this esoteric "unearthing" or "revelation of that which is hidden." I am consequently proffering to you, through these questions, the opportunity to practise early in your training this "distressing revelation" which will later take place in a higher state of consciousness.

(DINAI 58) The teaching has always been given that the disciple or the initiate must adapt himself to, and learn from, the conditions in which he finds himself and from the setting and environment with which his physical plane life puts him in daily touch. This is one of the initial platitudes of the Path. It was, however, at one time as new a concept to the aspirant and the disciple under training as is the teaching which I seek to give this group of my disciples and the opportunity which I would have you seize. The training, hitherto carried forward upon the inner planes, and unrealised oft in the waking consciousness of the accepted disciple, has now to be grasped, used and mastered in his waking consciousness and physical brain. The disciple in the past sought to establish harmonious relations with his environment—harmony being one of the liberating forces which must precede the release of energy for use after initiation. He practised patience and forbearance and helpfulness and rendered service and this was worked out through the process of right external conduct based upon right inner orientation and attitude. But under the new system (made necessary by achieved racial progress) this process of right external adjustments must be paralleled in the New Age by right inner relations, consciously established and consciously held and recognised for what they are by the conscious mind and brain of the disciple. This, therefore, involves true knowledge of the disciple's inner group relation, spiritual penetration to the inner life of a brother disciple and the consequent fusion in the heart-mind-brain [Page 59] of the disciple, simultaneously, of all that is known on both the outer and the inner planes. This has not hitherto been the case. It is one of the major reasons for the forming of these groups as far as the individual group members are concerned. It will be brought about gradually and safely by the daily use of the group meditations which I may assign you, by a renewed interest in the subject of telepathic work and by a closer and deeper love, cultivated by all of you.

(DINAI 63) The need for telepathic sensitivity in every group, composed of disciples, is based upon three necessities; I would like you to understand this more clearly.

1.The cultivation of an inter-relation of a telepathic nature upon the mental plane is essential. This has always been an established fact or condition in the case of a Master and His disciple and between the senior disciples in any group of accepted disciples. The time has now come when this group quality must—for the sake of a needy world—be developed by disciples of lesser attainment in the group.

The seed groups are essentially groups of Accepted Disciples

(DINAI 71) I have not dealt with some of the activities of these groups of disciples in the New Age or pointed out the energies with which they must work in order to emphasise again to you the plans for my own groups of disciples. These groups with which I am engaged as part of the activity of my Ashram are essentially Seed Groups. They are intended to be outposts of the hierarchical consciousness as it focusses itself through me in the same sense as an individual accepted disciple is an outpost of his Master's consciousness in the world. That is the connection which I seek to emphasise—the externalisation of the inner work of the planetary Hierarchy for the first time in history and a precipitation (if you like that term) of an inner and ready condition. The New Age is upon us and the integration of humanity in the three worlds warrants definite changes in technique though not in the basic plans.

(DINAI 78) I have revealed to you, my disciples, my true name. The necessity for eradicating all reason for the speculative questioning of some of you as to my identity and of spurring others of you on to renewed and consecrated effort are two of my reasons for relinquishing my anonymity. Another reason is that I would have you recognise the fact that you are accepted disciples with all that that status necessarily implies of responsibility and opportunity. Still another deciding factor with me is to test out your ability to keep silent until it is no longer necessary to do so. Silence is one of the prime prerequisites for initiation and something which every disciple must perforce learn.

(DINAII 350) Initiates, in the past, were admitted into the world of ideas, of intuitional perception or of buddhic awareness; their task was to transform these ideas into ideals; thus, they presented spiritual goals and hierarchical objectives to the race, this being their major form of service. Today, owing to the pronounced development of mankind, the accepted disciples of the world, those who have undergone the first initiation (and their name is Legion), and the initiates of higher degree, have objectives which their mental unfoldment has made possible; they can be admitted into divine areas of consciousness which are conditioned and brought into being, not by divine ideas but by the divine Will (their perception of that Will will be according to the degree of the initiatory control). Their task is therefore to perceive the Plan which is the hierarchical mode of implementing the divine Will, plus the Purpose which is perceived by the Heads of the Hierarchy.

Seven hints for the Accepted Disciple

(DINAII 355) 3. 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.

(DINAII 446) Every change in a life condition upon the physical plane is the result of some inner cause. I hinted at this when I gave you the six statements which were intended to aid in the direction of your life. I said to you: "Learn that your causes are effects. Leave them behind and seek the world of causes."

These words embody one of the first lessons which a disciple has to master, as you well know. The initiate lives in the world of causes, for this is obviously the world of initiation. He deals therefore with those basic happenings which act as life-impulses, and initiates only those activities which are formulated by him as a soul and (bear this in mind) as a soul whose personality is initiate. Because of this personality capacity of seeing "eye to eye" with the soul, his activities are results of deliberate spiritual intention.

This is, therefore, one of the first lessons which it is my duty (as it is the duty of every Master) to teach all those who have just been accepted into my Ashram. Such people are not beginners in the world of occult life as far as the average man is concerned, but from the angle of an Ashram most of you indisputably are. I have therefore to teach each of you something as to the nature of that world of causes, and how to discover whether you are not functioning as a personality seeking, as far as may be, to be sensitive to soul incentive, or whether you are literally functioning as a soul. These are two very different matters, my brother. How can you, as a disciple, decide what you are doing and know your reasons? All that I, as your Master, can do is to indicate an approach [Page 447] to reality, and then leave you to arrive at right decision, via direct or intuitive knowledge, alone and unaided.

(DINAII 459) (LDO p443)I assign you no specific meditation. Work out your own, but let it adhere to the general concept with which I have constantly presented all of you. You can (on your own and as [Page 459] an accepted disciple) seek entrance into the life of the Ashram and thus contact me. This may take time, but the link is strong and elastic (ponder on that term) and adherence to the rules will ensure success.

(DINAII 500) One suggestion I would here make to you personally. On receipt of this instruction, will you take a full month for the establishing of such a close contact with your own soul that love, enthusiasm, wisdom and certain fundamental spiritual [Page 500] recognitions (which must ever condition the life of an accepted disciple) will flood your whole being?

(DINAII 502) From the standpoint of the accepted disciple—such as you are—there may be more to the choice than at first appears. It might be of service to you, and to all who may later read these instructions, if I dwelt for a moment upon the inevitable problem of the working disciple, upon the problem of the man who reaches the age which you have reached. Shall he rest back upon his laurels (and you have laurels, my brother, as I pointed out in my last instruction to you) or shall he—to use a Biblical phrase—"gird his loins" anew and go forward with a fresh impetus and to a still higher summit of attainment? Shall he demonstrate the power of the seventh wave which will carry him forward much further upon the beach of life expression or will the strong undertow of ordinary human frailty pull him back from renewed effort?

(DINAII 505) As I told J.W.K-P. some years ago, a "detached attachment" (paradoxical as it sounds) is the goal of the first ray working disciple. This is equally true of you. You and he have the same egoic, personality and mental rays. Hence the close link with him which you have ever realised. He is a disciple of the Master M., temporarily working in my Ashram. You have been admitted into the ranks of accepted disciples in my Ashram and by me, but you will eventually be transferred into the Ashram of the Master M. The free interplay thus established between my Ashram and that of the Master M. is due to the fact that He is the inner Head of all esoteric groups, and in the interest of the coming new world order, the teaching Ashrams are being strengthened by the inflow of first ray disciples. This should be a point of real interest to you.

Shifting from 6^th to 2^nd ray soul in this incarnation, this his second life as a pledged disciple

(DINAII 513) You are as yet a comparatively young man. The crux of your whole problem is to be found in the shift which you [Page 513] are supposed to make this incarnation from the minor ray, the sixth Ray of Devotion, to a major ray, the second Ray of Love-Wisdom. When you have accomplished this, you will take initiation. The task is however a stupendous one because as an accepted disciple in the technical sense of the word, the characteristics of the sixth ray—owing to your having a sixth ray astral body—are very pronounced and dominant. This condition is aggravated (if I might so express it) by your having a first ray personality. When, as in your case, the polarisation is in the astral body and so the energy of power pours in, the situation becomes acute, which is to be expected. Fortunately, disciples are driven by intensity and devotion to take the needed steps which will bring release and a consequent moving forward, and the incarnation wherein they do this is always peculiarly circumstanced, subjectively at least, even if the exoteric life is of no major interest. This is not so with you. In your case the following conditions embody your problem and hence your opportunity:

(DINAII 537) Life, as you know theoretically, is one long series of presented opportunities—opportunities to make decisions. As a disciple is drawn closer into the focal point of his Master's [Page 537] sphere of influence, the Ashram, and as experience proceeds, these decisions become increasingly drastic, constantly more frequent and more crucial in their general trend; they lead, when made, to more eventful results. With a disciple at your stage of development, the lines of choice become clearer and better defined. The questions with which you are faced are simpler and yet more important: Is this presented activity the way my soul would have me go? Will such or such a decision lead to the fulfilment of my personality trends and bias? Herein lies much clarification plus increasing difficulty, because the decisions made are apt to affect many others besides yourself. Watch for the proof of the correctness of this last statement of mine. In all times of decision enumerate to yourself the number of lives apt to be affected by what you do, and remember that (as you travel the Way of the Disciple) your sphere of influence and the number of those affected by you steadily increases. With the average person who is kind, well-meaning and endowed with a normal sense of responsibility, decisions are made upon the basis of the effects which are liable to work out in the family, in the business or office or within the radius of a relatively small circle of friends. In the case of a probationary disciple, decisions have oft a somewhat larger result. Where an accepted disciple is concerned, such choices affect many, for those related by united service are included with the other groups, and these can oft be unknown or include people who react to the aura of a disciple, plus his group of co-workers.

(DINAII 541) For years, my brother, I have sought to help you. You are in my Ashram, though you are not as yet in the inner circle; you belong to a group of brothers who—along with you—are struggling earnestly for spiritual fulfilment and who have been clearly told that their karma has brought them into the ranks of accepted discipleship and who are preparing for the next step ahead of them—the taking of an initiation. Each [Page 541] of you, in his own place, is facing this initiatory process. I might add that every member of the Hierarchy, from Christ down to the disciple who is preparing for the second initiation, is standing in the knowledge that initiation in some degree must be taken and may not be ignored or denied. Will you understand me, my brother, if I say to you: Take this consciousness into your thinking and let this idea or knowledge condition all your activities. Say to yourself each morning before you go forth to the duties of the day: "I am preparing to move forward upon the Path of Initiation." Let this affirmed realisation show itself forth in the quality of your daily activities.

(DINAII 546) Of one thing we who are watching the disciples of the [Page 546] world today are convinced, and that is that you are a sincere and intelligent devotee; intelligence and devotion go hand in hand in the accepted disciple, balancing each other and then producing a definite focus of power. For all of you this is an incarnation wherein the life focus becomes either irrevocably oriented toward the soul, as must be the case with newly accepted disciples, or powerfully expanded and inclusive as in the case of older disciples. In your case, the achievement of a definite focus is now essential. In the manifestation of souls in time and space, there come lives wherein—at times—a soul problem (as the personality embraces it) becomes a dominant theme and the whole incarnation (with definite points of intensive crisis) is given to the understanding of the problem and its solution. In the orientation of your life towards the soul, the keynote of renunciation is wisely clear but you need to see to it that even renunciation is not over-emphasised and that its conditioning power is not applied to that for which there is no call, because such renunciation would constitute an error.

(DINAII 575) It is not possible for anyone under the degree of accepted [Page 575] disciple to find out much. The type must be definitely pronounced and the investigator advanced enough to have reached the stage of a detached observer. This detachment you can frequently attain. Temperament and training have developed it in you. The second ray disciple has to learn detachment while at the same time he remains "attached and inclusive" esoterically, and this must be consciously achieved and the attitude preserved. The first ray disciple has to remain detached and at the same time to learn attachment and to admit entry into his aura of the entire world in a series of progressive attachments. This makes for difficulty for it involves that training in paradoxes which is the secret of occultism.

(DINAII 598) I am not doing much more than mentioning W.W. because this is his first [Page 598] cycle as an accepted disciple; the service which he has to do is already recognised by him and will provide a serious and important life work. It is my intention to give him a word of encouragement and of advice.

(DINAII 643) One of the outstanding characteristics of the pledged disciple is that he learns to stand steady and unmoving no matter what may be happening to him or around him. Much is happening to disciples these days for they bear the brunt of the world's cataclysm. You may perhaps find this an astonishing statement but I would ask you to remember that they meet the prevalent conditions on all three planes simultaneously and are at the same time endeavouring to live as souls. The accuracy of my statement is, therefore, apparent if you will ponder for a few minutes on the implications. There is appalling suffering everywhere. Physically and emotionally, people throughout the world are handling the maximum of pain. The accepted disciple, however, is suffering also mentally and to this must be added his capacity to identify himself with the whole; his trained imagination also presents special difficulty for he can include possibilities which others may not envisage, and his sweep or grasp of the plan is presumably greater; he is also endeavouring to apply his knowledge of this plan to the immediate environing [Page 644] situation and is strenuously attempting to understand and at the same time to interpret to others, no matter what he may be undergoing in his own personal life.

(DINAII 666) I have a most interesting theme for your thought on the distinction between "the dream, the vision and the Plan." There are many ways in which these distinctions can be approached, and the interpretations will be dependent upon the status of the thinker. For you, a disciple in preparation for initiation, as are all in my group—accepted disciples in training—I will suggest the following lines of approach.

DHB preparing for the third initiation (DINAII 681) second life of special training-one more life-Is a friend of the Christ and will train aspirants in 6^th root race. Rays 2, VI, 1,1,7

(DINAII 675) I am deeply concerned in this communication to say something which will be of real service to you at this crisis in your life of discipleship. Disciples of all degrees are now being tested and tried out in preparation for the work they should do, prior to the reappearance of the Christ. Your whole life has been in reality a preparation for the work which it is hoped that you will do. This life has been for you what we call in the Hierarchy "a life of dual possibilities." When that is the case, a most difficult setting upon the physical plane is presented to the disciple and he faces two possible lines of activity:

1. He can decide to adjust himself to the circumstances and give his whole attention to their surmounting (which in this case means changing them) and he, therefore, submits to the wear and tear of life, and to the constant consideration of karmic unfoldments within his personality scope. He has no time for outstanding service but regards the period of incarnation as an interlude wherein karma is worked off.

2. Or—he accepts the seemingly impossible situation and determines that nothing in his personality or his circumstances shall deter him from the active service of humanity. He, therefore, handles both the situations and opportunity from an inner point of enlightenment and from a sustained peaceful position within the Ashram.

In what I am here saying, I am considering only an accepted disciple such as yourself.

You chose and have faithfully followed the second method of handling this present incarnation. With a frail and seriously injured physical body and a partner who is ever the cause of constant concern (though withal you owe her much), you have gone ahead with the task of a working disciple; you [Page 676] have done much good and have helped our work greatly and—as the Master said—the Hierarchy is never ungrateful, for gratitude is the hallmark of an enlightened soul and a basic releasing agent from an occult and scientific angle. I am not ungrateful to you, my brother; I hope to move you on into a closer relation to myself provided you succeed in handling a somewhat difficult situation with which you are now confronted and dominate an aspect of your nature which must be controlled before the move I contemplate in connection with you can be consummated.

(DINAII 730) There is absolutely no need for the profound depression and for the process of self-accusation in which you so constantly live. Years ago, your dream was to serve the Master, to be known by Him and to be a part of His group or Ashram. You longed for the status, technically understood, of an accepted disciple. You have served the Master and rendered us, as I told you, notable service; you are known by me, and [Page 730] it is perhaps the fact of this knowledge and its implications which disturbs you so deeply; you are an integral part of a group, affiliated with my Ashram; you are an accepted disciple. You have, therefore, every reason to feel encouraged.

(GAWP 127) It will be of real value, I believe, if I relate for your benefit the various contrasting characteristics of the intelligent man and the disciple, using the word "disciple" to cover all stages of development from that of accepted disciple to that of the Master. There is naught but the Hierarchy, which is a term denoting a steady progress from a lower state of being and of consciousness to a higher.

(GAWP 204) The process followed by the disciple who is consciously working at the dissipation of glamour in his life can be [Page 204] divided into four stages to which the following definitions can be given:

1. The stage of recognition of the glamour or glamours which hide the Real. These glamours are dependent in any particular life crisis upon the ray of the personality.

2. The stage of focussing the disciple's consciousness upon the mental plane and the gathering of the light to that point of focus so that the illumination is clear, the work to be done is plainly seen, and the searchlight of the mind is directed upon the glamour which it is intended should be dissipated.

3. The stage of direction. This involves the steady pouring of the light (under intelligent direction) into the dark places of the astral plane, remembering that the light will enable the disciple to do two things:

a. Dissipate the glamour—a satisfying experience.

b. See the Real—a terrifying experience, brother of mine.

4. The stage of identification with the Real as it is contacted after the dissipation of the glamour. In the added light which is now available, there will be a further recognition of still subtler glamours which in their turn must be dissipated.

This process of recognition, focussing, dissipation and consequent revelation goes on continually from the time a disciple treads the Path of Accepted Discipleship until the third initiation.

(OM 266) That relationship exists in four grades, in each of which a man progresses nearer to his Master. These four grades are as follows and cover the period wherein the man is under training until the time when he himself becomes an adept.

a. The period wherein he is on probation.

b. The period wherein he is an accepted disciple.

c. The period wherein he is regarded as the Master's intimate, or—as it is esoterically termed—the "Son of the Master."

d. The period wherein the final three initiations are taken, and he knows himself as one with the Master. He ranks then as the "Beloved of the Master," a position analogous to that which John, the beloved disciple, held in the Bible story.

(OM 269) 3. The third thing the probationer has to do is to equip himself emotionally and mentally, and to realise and prove that he has somewhat to impart to the group with which he is esoterically affiliated. Think upon this: too much emphasis is laid at times upon that which the pupil will get when he becomes an accepted disciple or probationer. I tell you here, in all earnestness, that he will not take these desired steps until he has somewhat to give, and something to add that will increase the beauty of the group, that will add to the available equipment that the Master seeks for the helping of the race, and that will increase the richness of the group colouring. This can be brought about in two ways that mutually interact:—

When these three results are brought about, and when the high vibration touched is more frequent and stable, then the probationer takes the next step forward and becomes an accepted disciple.

Accepted Discipleship.

The second period, wherein a man is an accepted disciple, is perhaps one of the most difficult in a man's whole period of lives. It is made so in several ways:—

He is definitely a part of the Master's group, and is within the consciousness of the Master at all times, being kept within His aura. This involves the steady holding of a high vibration. I would have you ponder on what the effect of this would be. To hold this vibration is at all times a difficult thing to do; it frequently involves an intensification of all that subsists within a man's nature, and may lead (especially at first) to curious demonstration. Yet, if ever a man is to be able to hold the force that is the result of the application of the Rod of Initiation, he has to demonstrate his ability to do so at an earlier stage, and be able to hold himself stably and to move steadily forward when subjected to the intensification of vibration that comes from the Master.

Accepted Disciple is kept on periphery of the Masters Aura

(OM 271) He has to discipline himself so that nothing can enter into his consciousness that could in any way harm the group to which he belongs, or be antagonistic to the Master's vibration. If I might so express it, so as to give [Page 271] you some conception of my meaning, when he first forms part of the group enclosed in the Master's aura, he is kept on the periphery of that aura until he has learnt to throw off automatically, and to reject immediately, every thought and desire unworthy of the Self and thus harmful to the group. Until he has learnt to do this he cannot advance into a closer relationship, but must remain where he can be automatically shut off. But gradually he purifies himself still more, gradually he develops group consciousness and thinks in group terms of service, gradually his aura takes on more and more the colouring of his Master's aura, till he blends and has earned the right to be gathered closer to his Master's Heart. Later I will explain the technical meaning of this phrase, when dealing with the work of the Master with the pupil. Suffice it to say, that as the term of "accepted disciple" progresses (and it varies in different cases) the disciple advances ever closer to the heart of the group, and finds his own place and functional activity in that body corporate. That is the secret: the finding of one's place,—not so much one's place upon the ladder of evolution (for that is approximately known), but in service. This is of more importance than is realised, for it covers the period which, at the end, will definitely demonstrate which path a man will follow after the fifth initiation.

(OM 279) A time comes when the Master sees, from His inspection of the image, that the needed rate of vibration can be held, that the required eliminations have been made, and a certain depth of colour attained. He can then take the risk (for risk it is) and admit the probationer within the periphery of His own aura. He becomes then an accepted disciple.

During the period wherein a man is an accepted disciple the work done by the Master is of very real interest. The pupil is assigned to special classes conducted by more advanced disciples under the supervision of the Master, and though he may attend still the larger general classes in the Ashram (the Master's hall for teaching) he is subjected to a more intensified training..........The Master works in the earlier stages in four main ways:—

At intervals, and when the progress of the pupil justifies it, He "gathers the pupil to His Heart." This is an esoteric statement of a very interesting experience to which the pupil will be subjected. At the close of some class in the ashram, or during some specially successful meditation wherein the pupil has reached a certain rate of vibration, the Master will gather him close to Himself, bringing him from the periphery of His aura to the centre of His consciousness. He thereby gives him a tremendous temporary expansion of consciousness, and enables him to vibrate at an unusual rate for him.

Hence the need for meditation. The reward of such an experience far outweighs any of the strenuous parts of the work.

b. The Master works upon the bodies of his pupil with colour, and brings about results in those bodies that enable the pupil to make more rapid progress. Now you will see why......so much emphasis is laid upon colour. It is not only because it holds the secret of form and manifestation (which secret must be known by the occultist) but the emphasis is laid thus in order that he may consciously co-operate in the work of the [Page 280] Master on his bodies, and intelligently follow the effects brought about. Ponder on this.

c. At stated intervals the Master takes His pupils, and enables them to contact other evolutions, such as the great angels and devas, the lesser builders and the sub-human evolutions. This can be safely done by the pupil through the protective effect of the Master's aura. Later, when himself an initiate, the pupil will be taught how to protect himself and to make his own contacts.

d. The Master presides over the work of stimulating the centres in the pupil's bodies and the awakening of the inner fire. He teaches the pupil the meaning of the centres and their correct fourth dimensional rotation and in time He will bring the pupil to a point where he can consciously and with full knowledge of the law work with his centres, and bring them to a point where they can be safely stimulated by the Rod of Initiation. More on this subject is not yet possible.........

(OM 315) The Head of the school will be an accepted disciple; it is essential that the Master, Who is back of the work of any particular school, should be able at all times to tap the consciousness of that school as focussed through the disciple. This Head will be able to act as a medium of communication between the students and the Master and as a focal point for His force to flow through to them. He must be consciously able to function on the astral plane at night and to bring the knowledge through to the physical brain, for part of his work will be with students on the astral plane, guiding them to the Master's ashram at certain intervals for specialized work. He will have to train them too in this conscious functioning.

(OM 317) You have, therefore, ten superintending teachers, composed of seven men and three women, including a Head who is an accepted disciple. Under them will work a set of instructors who will deal largely with the lower mind and in the emotional, physical and mental equipping of the pupil, and his passing into the advanced school in a condition to profit by the instructions there to be imparted. Here I would point out that I have planned out the ideal, and pictured for you the school as it is hoped it will eventually be. But as in all occult development, the beginning will be small and of little apparent importance. Tomorrow we will take up the rules governing the admission of students and the personnel of the more advanced school.

(LOS 59) The expression "the sounding of the Word" must not be too literally interpreted; the esoteric "sounding forth" is based upon a study of the Law of Vibration, and the gradual tuning of the lower vibrations of the sheaths or vestures of consciousness so that they synchronise with the note or sound of the conscious indweller. Speaking correctly, the Word is to be sounded by the soul or the ego on its own plane, and the vibration will subsequently affect the various bodies or vehicles which house that soul. The process is therefore a mental one and can only really be done by those who—through meditation and discipline, coupled with service—have made a conscious at-one-ment with the soul. Aspirants to this condition have to [Page 59] utilise the potent factors of the imagination, visualisation and perseverance in meditation to reach this initial stage. It should be noted that this stage has to be reached, even if only in a relatively small degree, before the aspirant can become an accepted disciple.

(TEV 23) 7. Telepathic work between a Master (the focal point of a group) and the disciple in the world. It is an occult truth that no man is really admitted into a Master's group, as an accepted disciple, until he has become spiritually impressionable and can function as a mind in collaboration with his own soul. Prior to that he cannot be a conscious part of a functioning group on the inner planes gathered around a personalised force, the Master; he cannot work in true rapport with his fellow disciples. But when he can work somewhat as a conscious soul, then the Master can begin to impress him with group ideas via his own soul. He hovers then for quite a while upon the periphery of the group. Eventually, as his spiritual sensitivity increases, he [Page 23] can be definitely impressed by the Master and taught the technique of contact. Later, the group of disciples, functioning as one synthetic thoughtform, can reach him and thus automatically he becomes one of them. To those who have the true esoteric sense, the above paragraph will convey a good deal of information, hitherto hidden.

(TEV 37) First: It is essential that you acquire facility in tuning in on each other with deepest love and understanding; that you develop impersonality so that when a brother tunes in on a weakness or a strength, upon a mistake or a right attitude, it evokes from you no slightest reaction that could upset the harmony of the group united work as planned; that you cultivate a love which will ever seek to strengthen and to help, and a power to supplement or complement each other which will be of use in balancing the group, as a working unit under spiritual impression. The discovery of a weakness in a group brother should only produce the evocation of a deeper love; the discovery that you have made a mistake (if you have) in interpreting a brother should only prompt you to a renewed vital effort to approach more closely to his soul; the revelation to you of a brother's strength will indicate where you can look for help in any hour of your own need. State frankly what you feel as you work month after month at this task of group rapport, deliberately tuning out criticism and substituting for it analysis—an analysis impersonally given; state truthfully what you sense and register. Your conclusions may be right or wrong, but a definite effort to comply and to recognise consciously the gained impression should aid the group blending without undue delay into an instrument of sensitive understanding. If disciples cannot tune in on each other [Page 38] with ease after long periods of close relationship, how can they, as a group, tune in on some individual or some group of individuals unknown to them in their personalities? Unless such interplay is established fundamentally and unless there is a close integration between the members who constitute the group, it will not be possible for constructively

useful and spiritually oriented and controlled work to be properly carried forward and successfully accomplished. But it is a task which you can accomplish if you will, and real application over a period of time should enable the group to work smoothly and well together. The three Rules* for beginners, earlier given, embody the first steps leading to the attitude required in true hierarchical work; this is the objective of the accepted disciple.

(TEV 101) This ability develops steadily as the aspirant treads the Path of Discipleship; it is frequently prefaced in the earlier stages by much confusion, much astral psychism and frequent wrong interpretations. There is no need at this stage, however, for undue distress, because all that is needed is experience, and that experience is gained through experiment and its expression in the daily life. In no case is the truism of learning through a system of trial and error proved more correct than it is in the life and experience of the accepting disciple. When he is an accepted disciple, the errors decrease in number even though the trials (or the experimental use of the many varying energies) become more extensive and, therefore, cover a much wider range of activities.

(TEV 104) Later on, when the accepting disciple becomes the accepted disciple and is permitted to participate in ashramic activity, he adds the ability to register hierarchical impression; this however is only possible after he has learnt to register impression coming to him from his own soul (the vertical impression) and from the surrounding world of men (the horizontal impression). When he has taken certain important initiations, his magnetic aura will be capable of registering impression from the subhuman kingdoms in nature. Again, later on, when he is a Master of the Wisdom and, therefore, a full member of the fifth kingdom in nature, the world of hierarchical life and activity will be the world from which horizontal impression will be made upon his magnetic aura, and vertical impression will come from the higher levels of the Spiritual Triad and, still later, from Shamballa. Then the world of humanity will be to him what the subhuman kingdoms were when the fourth kingdom, the human, was the field of his registered horizontal impression. [Page 104] You have here the true significance of the Cross of humanity clearly revealed.

(TEV 123) It becomes of service, therefore, for the aspirant and the disciple to know the nature of the Agents Who can locate their magnetic aura and impress upon it Their understanding of the Plan; these Agents may be accepted disciples or initiates and Masters; then the aspirant or disciple must find those to whom he can personally act as an impressing agent. He has consequently to study himself as a recipient and also as an agent, as a responsive factor and also as an [Page 123] originating and impressing factor. This might be regarded as the scientific approach to the spiritual life, and it is of value because the necessity of service is implicit in the necessity for receptivity; all is, therefore, related to Invocation and Evocation.

(CF 1150) Second, to work out some piece of service under direction of his Master. This will involve some adjustments, and occasionally the temporary arresting of his karma. These adjustments are made by the Master with the concurrence of the disciple, and are only possible in the case of an accepted disciple of some standing. It does not mean that karma is set aside, but only that certain forces are kept in abeyance until a designated group work has been accomplished.

Third, a disciple will return into incarnation occasionally so as to fit into the plan of a greater than himself. When a messenger of the Great Lodge needs a vehicle through which to express Himself, and cannot use a physical body Himself, owing to the rarity of its substance, He will utilise the body of a disciple. We have an instance of this in the manner the Christ used the body of the initiate Jesus, taking possession of it at the time of the Baptism. Again when a message has to be given out to the world during some recurring cycle, a disciple of high position in a Master's group will appear in physical incarnation, and be "overshadowed" or "inspired" (in the technically occult sense) by some teacher greater than he.

(CF 106) The urgency of the time is great, and the Masters are exceedingly active and profoundly concerned at this time with the work of salvaging the world. They have not the time for personal work, except with Their own groups of accepted chelas, all of whom are active in the world work, or they would not be in the Masters' group. Also They may work intermittently with small groups of probationers to whom They offer opportunity and give an occasional hint. Each of Them has a few, a very few, probationers in training, to take the place of chelas who pass on to initiation, but beyond these two groups, during this century, They do no personal work, leaving the many aspirants to the care of lesser initiates and chelas. Even Their work and Their personal chelas at this time are much restricted, and word has been sent out to the working disciples in the world to stand on their own feet, to use their own judgment and not handicap the Masters at this time of intense strain and danger by attracting Their attention needlessly.

(EPI 108) None of the Masters of the sixth initiation (such as the Masters M. and K. H.) are at this time working through dictation with Their disciples. They are too much engrossed with world problems, and with the work of watching over the destinies of the prominent world figures in the various nations, to have any opportunity to dictate teaching to any particular disciple in some small field of activity and upon subjects of which sufficient is already known to enable the disciple to go ahead alone and unaided. Two of the Masters are working telepathically and through dictation with several accepted disciples, and Their effort is to inspire these disciples, who are active in world work, to greater usefulness in the Plan. They are working in this way in order to impress a few of the prominent thinkers in the field of science and of social welfare with the needed knowledge which will enable them to make the right moves in the emergence of the race into greater freedom. But I know of no others, in this particular generation, who are so doing, for They have delegated much of this work to Their initiates and disciples. The bulk of the communicators today (working through aspirants on the physical plane) are active working chelas of accepted degree who (living as they do in the thought aura of the Master and His group) are steadily endeavouring to reach all kinds of people, all over the world, [Page 109] in all groups. Hence the increasing flood of communications, of inspired writings, and of personal messages and teaching.

(EPI 130) The first point that I seek to make is a difficult one to grasp for those beneath the rank of initiate or accepted disciple of the higher stages. The soul is that factor in matter (or rather that which emerges out of the contact between spirit and matter) which produces sentient response and what we call consciousness in its varying forms; it is also that latent or subjective essential quality which makes itself felt as light or luminous radiation. It is the "self-shining from within" which is characteristic of all forms. Matter, per se, and in its undifferentiated state, prior to being swept into activity through the creative process, is not possessed of soul, and does not therefore possess the qualities of response and of radiation. Only when,—in the creative and evolutionary process,—these two are brought into conjunction and fusion does the soul appear and give to these two aspects of divinity the opportunity to manifest as a trinity and the chance to demonstrate sentient activity and magnetic radiatory light.

(EPII 44) A close study of the above suggested phrases, showing as they do the wrong and the right major expressions of ray force, will aid the student correctly to comprehend his own ray nature, and also whereabouts he stands in his development. One of the major faults of disciples today is the paying [Page 44] of too close attention to the faults, errors and activities of other disciples, and too little attention to their own fulfillment of the law of Iove, and to their own dharma and work. A second failing of disciples (and particularly of the working and accepted disciples in the world at this present time) is incorrect speech conveying ambiguous meanings and motivated by criticism, or by an individual desire to shine. In olden days, the neophyte was forced into a prolonged silence. Speech was not permitted. This was inculcated as a check upon physical utterance of wrong words and ideas, based on inadequate knowledge. Today, the neophyte must learn the same lesson of attention to personal perfection and to personal work through the means of that inner silence which broods over the disciple and forces him to attend to his own work and business, leaving others free to do the same, and so learn the lesson of experience.

(EPII 167) The effect of this Law of Repulse, as it works out in the world of discipleship and destroys that which hinders, sends the pilgrim hurrying back consciously along one of the seven rays that lead to the centre. This cannot be handled in detail here. Our present task is that of treading the Path of Probation or of Discipleship and of learning discipline, dispassion, and the other two necessities on the Way,—discrimination and decentralisation. It is possible, nevertheless, to indicate the goal and point out the potency of the forces to which we shall be increasingly subjected as we pass—as some of us can so pass—on to the Path of Accepted Discipleship. This we will do in the form of seven stanzas which will give a hint (if one is an aspirant) of the technique to which one will be exposed; if one has passed further on the Way, they will give one a command which, as a disciple with spiritual insight one will obey, because one is awakened; if one is an initiate, they will evoke the comment: "This I know."

Obedience to the Law of Group Progress prepares one for the third initiation

(EPII 177) The Law of Group Progress can only begin to have a conscious effect in the life of the disciple who has been pledged and accepted. When he has established certain rhythms, when he is working effectively along certain well recognised group lines, and when he is definitely and in understanding consciousness preparing himself for the expansions of initiation, then this law begins to sway him and he learns to obey it instinctively, intuitively and intellectually. It is through obedience to this law that preparation for initiation is instituted by the disciple. The previous sentence is so worded because it is important that all should grasp the self-initiated necessity of initiation. Do we understand this importance? Some of the effects earlier mentioned in the initial discussion of this fifth law can here be enumerated. Let us not forget their esoteric and unseen significances.

(EPII 299) It might be of interest to mention the fact that the moment a man becomes an accepted disciple, some such chart is prepared and placed in the hands of his Master. In fact, four such charts are available, for the rays of the personality vary from one cycle of expression to another and necessitate the keeping of the personality chart up to date. The four basic charts are:

The chart of a man's expression at the time of his [Page 299] individualisation. This is of course a very ancient chart. In it, the rays of the mental body and of the emotional body are most difficult to ascertain as there is so little mental expression or emotional experience. Only the ray of the soul and of the physical body are clearly defined. The other rays are regarded as only suggestive.

This is the chart of the man who is asleep.

2. The chart of a man's expression when the personality reaches its highest independent point of development;—that is, before the soul has taken over conscious control and is functioning at all dominantly.

This is the chart of the man who dreams.

3. The chart of a man's expression at that peculiar moment of determining crisis when the soul and personality are at war, when the battle for reorientation is at its highest and the aspirant knows it. He knows that upon the issue of that battle much depends. He is Arjuna upon the field of Kurukshetra.

This is the chart of the man awakening.

4. The chart of a man's expression during the life wherein the orientation has been altered, the emphasis of the life forces changed, and the man becomes an accepted disciple.

These four charts, depicted or drawn in colour according to ray, form the dossier of a disciple, for the Master only deals with general tendencies and never with detail. General trends and predispositions and emphasised characteristics concern him, and the obvious life patterns.

I would call to your attention the increasing use by the psychologists and thinkers of the race of the word "pattern". It is a word which has a deep occult significance. One of the exercises given to the disciple upon the inner planes is connected [Page 300] with these psychological charts or these life patterns. He is asked to study them with care, all four of them, and then to draw up the pattern which embodies for him the goal as far as he, at his present point of development, can sense it. When he takes the first initiation, then the Master adds another pattern or chart to the dossier of the disciple, and the latter can then study:

a. The chart of his condition at the time he became an accepted disciple.

b. The hypothetical chart which he himself drew up earlier in his training as an accepted disciple.

c. The chart of his general psychological condition at the time he took the first initiation.

The above first initiation is obviously the third initiation

By a careful analysis and comparison of the three charts, he can discover the accuracy or the inaccuracy of his own diagnosis, and thus develop a better sense of proportion as to his own mental perception of himself.

(EPII 510) 9. Dreams which are records of instructions. This type of dream embodies the teaching given by a Master to His accepted disciple. With these I shall not deal. When a man can receive these instructions consciously, either at night when absent from the body or in meditation, he has to learn to direct them correctly from mind to brain and to interpret them accurately. They are communicated by the Master to the man's soul. The soul then impresses them on the mind, which has been held steady in the light, and then the mind, in its turns formulates them into thought forms which are then thrown down into the quiescent waiting brain. According to the mental development and educational advantages of the disciple so will be his response and his correct use of the communicated teaching.

(EPII 714) Only that is of importance to us which provides a needed momentum for action, and which will also give to the working disciple of the world a vision of sufficient clarity and an adequate incentive to enable him to work with sincerity and understanding. This is often forgotten. So much is said and written these days which purports to come from the Great Ones and which is stated to embody Their will and Their intention. It is based on astral sensitivity and astral reaction to the many thought forms found upon the astral plane; these include among their number many thought forms of the Great Ones. These thought forms necessarily exist, and are built by the devotion of the aspirants of the world, and by the selfish spiritual ambition of those aspirants. They are not constructed by the disciples of the world, for no man is admitted to the status of accepted discipleship until he has at least overcome the worst aspects of personal ambition. This freedom from ambition is proved or expressed by personal reticence and by freedom from the publicity-making activities of the aspirants of the world, and also by freedom from the [Page 714] making of statements as to relationship or status. It might be well for us to ponder on these words.

(EA 466) 2. Gemini—Sagittarius—Mercury (which are an expression of the Pleiades) enable the Probationary Disciple to pass on to the Path of Accepted Discipleship. He is then becoming increasingly intuitive and entirely one-pointed whilst the nature of the pairs of opposites is clearer to him. The relation of the Mother-aspect (as embodied in the Pleiades) and of the Christ-child, hidden within the form of the personality, is realised and the inner, spiritual man institutes the process of initial identification with the spiritual entity on its own plane; the little self begins to react consciously and with increasing frequency to the higher Self. The man "presses forward on that Path wherein he learns to see."

(EA 474) 2. The cycle of aspiration from the stage of intelligent integrated man to that of the accepted disciple and from the experience of intellectual expression in the three worlds to that of the probationer who is seeking trial upon the Path and is beginning to take his spiritual unfoldment consciously in hand.

3. The cycle of initiation from the preparatory stage of accepted disciple to that of the Master and the still higher grades. These seven crises are each re-enacted during the process of self-initiation into the world of meaning and of reality. They constitute the keynote or the motif of each of the seven initiations. Each of these seven initiations permits entry into the state of divine consciousness on each of the seven planes of divine experience and expression.

The influences of these seven constellations is symbolised by three triangles and a final synthesis or focal point. Esoterically, these triangles are usually depicted as superimposed but for the sake of clarity we separate them.

The fixed cross from probationary disciple to accepted disciple

(EA 554) a. This is the Cross composed of the four energies which condition the life of the man who is first a probationary disciple and then an accepted or pledged disciple.

(EH 116) The first cause which I listed earlier in this treatise was summed up in the statement that disease is the result of the blocking of the free life and the inpouring energy of the soul. This blockage is brought about by the mystic when he succumbs to his own thoughtforms, created constantly in response to his mounting aspiration. These become barriers between him and the free life of the soul and block his contact and the consequent resulting inflow of soul energy.

The disciple reverses the entire situation and falls a victim (prior to the third initiation) to the terrific inflow of soul energy—the energy of the second aspect—coming to him from:

a. His own soul, with which centre of energy fusion is rapidly taking place.

b. His group or the Ashram with which he, as an accepted disciple, is affiliated.

c. His Master, with Whom he has spiritual relation and to Whose vibratory influence he is ever susceptible.

d. The Hierarchy, the energy of which can reach him through the medium of all the three above factors.

Introversion and extroversion prior to the life of Accepted Discipleship

(EH 126) Once a disciple has mastered the rhythm of his outer and inner life, and has organised his reactions so that he extracts the utmost meaning from them but is not conditioned by them, he then [Page 126] enters upon the relatively simple life of the initiate. Does that phrase astonish you? You need to remember that the initiate has freed himself, after the second initiation, from the complexities of emotional and astral control. Glamour can no longer overpower him. He can stand with steadfastness in spite of all that he may do and feel. He realises that the cyclic condition is related to the pairs of opposites and is part of the life manifestation of existence itself. In the process of learning this, he passes through great difficulties. He, as a soul, subjects himself to a life of outgoing, of magnetic influence and of extroversion. He may follow this immediately with a life of withdrawal, of apparent lack of interest in his relationships and environment, and with an intense introspective, introverted expression. Between these two extremes he may flounder distressingly—sometimes for many lives—until he learns to fuse and blend the two expressions. Then the dual life of the accepted disciple, in its various grades and stages, becomes clear to him; he knows what he is doing. Constantly and systematically, both outgoing and withdrawing, serving in the world and living the life of reflection, play their useful part.

(EH 161) g. It is the organ of fusion, just as the head centre is the organ of synthesis. As the heart centre becomes active, the individual aspirant is slowly drawn into an increasingly closer relation to his soul, and then two expansions of consciousness take place which are interpreted by him as events or happenings:

1. He is drawn into the Ashram of one of the Masters, according to his soul ray, and becomes an accepted disciple in the technical sense. The Master is Himself the heart centre of the Ashram and He can now reach His disciple, via the soul, because that disciple, through alignment and contact, has put his heart into close rapport with the soul. He then becomes responsive to the heart of all things which, as far as humanity is at present concerned, is the Hierarchy.

2. He is drawn into close service relationship with humanity. His growing sense of responsibility, due to heart activity, leads him to serve and work. Eventually he too becomes the heart of a group or of an organisation—small at first but becoming worldwide as his spiritual power develops and he thinks in terms of the group and of humanity. These two relationships on his part are reciprocal. Thus the love aspect of divinity becomes active in the three worlds, and love is anchored on earth and takes the place of emotion, of desire and of the material aspects of feeling. Note that phrase.

(EH 344) You will see from the above how impossible it will be to deal with this wide range of subjects. I will, however, give you the briefest answers to some of them, or indicate the line along which your ideas may flow.

1. A harmonious distribution of forces varies in its arrangement and consequently in its outer effect not only [Page 344] according to ray types but according to the age of the soul, and the individual status upon the Path. There is a difference in this arrangement in the subtle bodies of the probationary disciple and of the accepting disciple, and of the accepted disciple and for each grade upon the path of initiation. This arrangement is brought about in three ways or is subject to three forms of developing influences.

a. Through the life of aspiration, as registered in the physical brain consciousness.

b. Through the spontaneous awakening of the centres and in their right geometrical progression. This I have referred to in some of my books, but more cannot be given as it is one of the secrets of the first initiation. The rearranging and the readjustment proceeds during the whole period of the Path, technically understood.

Selflessness of Soul II Pers I or the reverse

(EH 346) b. Through a study of those people (and they are many) who have a first ray personality and a second ray ego, or vice versa.

In the last analysis, my brother, we bring about the correct distribution of force, leading to harmonious relations, when we seek to live selflessly. For the probationer, this means an imposed selfless activity upon the physical plane. For the accepted disciple, it involves a life free from all selfish, self-centered emotion, and of these self-pity and self-dramatisation are outstanding examples; for the initiate it means a mental attitude which is devoid of selfish thought, and free from the dramatisations in thought of the ego.

(RI 60) Once he is an accepted disciple and has definitely undertaken the work in preparation for initiation, there is for him no turning back. He could not if he would, and the Ashram protects him.

In this Rule for accepted disciples and initiates we are faced with a similar condition on a higher turn of the spiral, but with this difference (one which you can hardly grasp unless at the point where the Word goes forth to you): that the initiate stands alone in "isolated unity," aware of his mysterious oneness with all that is. The urge which distinguished his progress in arriving at personality-soul fusion is transmuted into fixity of intention, ability to move forward into the clear cold light of the undimmed reason, free from all glamour and illusion and having now the power to voice the three demands. This he can now do consciously and by the use of the dynamic will instead of making "application in triple form" as was the case before. This distinction is vital and significant of tremendous growth and development.

Service for the exoteric group or Service for the Life aspect

(RI 67) 4. Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group's united life.

This is not, as might appear, the effort to do the work for humanity as it is planned or desired by the group with which the initiate finds himself associated. The mode of working covers an earlier phase and one in which the accepted [Page 67] disciple learns much. First, he finds a group upon the physical plane whose ideals and plans for service conform to his idea of correct activity, and with this group he affiliates himself, works, learns, and in learning, suffers much. Later he finds his way into a Master's Ashram, where his effort is increasingly to learn to use the will in carrying out the Plan and to accommodate himself to the group methods and plans, working under the law of occult obedience for the welfare of humanity.

The initiate, however, works in neither of these ways, though he has acquired the habit of right contact with organisations in the three worlds and right cooperation with the Hierarchy. He works now under the inspiration of and identification with the life aspect—the united life aspect of his ray group and of all groups. This means that the significance of the involutionary life and the evolutionary life is fully understood by him. His service is invoked by the group or groups needing his help. His response is an occult evocation given in unison with the group of servers with which he is affiliated on the inner side. This is a very different thing to the mode of service generally understood.

(RI 97) A very cursory reading of the Rule leads one to the surmise that one of the most important hints concerns the effect of the group life and radiation upon the individual in the group. "Let the group see that all the eighteen fires die down and that the lesser lives return unto the reservoir of life." These words deal with the group personality, composed of all the personalities of its members. It should be borne in mind that a group is in itself an entity, having form, substance, soul and purpose or objective, and that none of these is better or greater, or more developed than the aggregate of group lives which compose it. Though individuals of varying points in evolution form the group, none of them is below the level of disciples upon the evolutionary ladder. A Master's Ashram has in it disciples and initiates of all degrees, but no probationary disciples at all. No one below the rank of disciples—accepted and dedicated—is admitted. This is one of the first Rules given to an accepted [Page 98] disciple when first admitted into the Ashram, and it is from that angle that we should now consider it.

The three worlds are not the focus of attention for the Accepted Disciple

(RI 99) It will be obvious, therefore, that the interpretation of these Rules must involve capacity to pass beyond the usual attitudes and what one might call the usual metaphysical and theosophical platitudes, and to see life as the Hierarchy sees it. This means that life is approached from the angle of the Observer and not from that of a participator in actual experiment and experience in the three worlds. This Observer is different to the Observer on the probationary Path. Most of the experiment and experience has been left behind, and a new orientation to a world of values, higher than even the world of meaning, has set in. This attitude might well be described as the mode of approach of all who form a part of an Ashram. Those who form the Ashram are living in the three worlds of experience if they are accepted disciples, but the focus of their attention is not there. If they are initiated disciples, they are increasingly unaware of the activities and reactions of their personalities, because certain aspects of the lower nature are now so controlled and purified that they have dropped below the threshold of consciousness and have entered the world of instinct; therefore there is no more awareness of them than a man asleep is conscious of the rhythmic functioning of his sleeping [Page 100] physical vehicle. This is a deep and largely unrealised truth. It is related to the entire process of death and might be regarded as one of the definitions of death; it holds the clue to the mysterious words "the reservoir of life." Death is in reality unconsciousness of that which may be functioning in some form or another, but in a form of which the spiritual entity is totally unaware. The reservoir of life is the place of death, and this is the first lesson the disciple learns.

(RI 126) The true disciple does not need vegetarianism or any of the physical disciplines, for the reason that none of the fleshly appetites have any control over him. His problem lies elsewhere, and it is a waste of his time and energy to keep his eye focussed on "doing the right things physically," because he does them automatically and his spiritual habits offset all the lower physical tendencies; automatically these developed habits enable him to surmount the appeal of those desires which work out in the fulfillment of lower desire. No one is accepted into the circle of the Ashram (which is the technical name given to the status of those who are on the eve of initiation or who are being prepared for initiation) whose physical appetites are in any danger [Page 127] of controlling him. This is a statement of fact. This applies particularly and specifically to those preparing for the first initiation. Those preparing for the second initiation have to demonstrate their freedom from the slavery of ideas, from a fanatical reaction to any truth or spiritual leader, and from the control of their aspiration which—through the intensity of its application—would sacrifice time, people and life itself to the call of the Initiator—or rather, to be correct, to what they believe to be His call.

First eleven rules from Accepted Discipleship up to the 4^th inititiation

(RI 225) The three remaining rules for initiates and disciples are concerned with the work of the New Age and the coming revelation which will make that work both new and possible. They are therefore of supreme importance to us. Step by step, in the eleven rules already studied, we have seen the initiate or disciple carried from his position as an accepted disciple standing before the Angel of the Presence, to that point of attainment where the spiritual will is released in full service and with full comprehension at the time of the fourth initiation, where atma or pure spirit is in control, where the Spiritual Triad is expressing the nature of the Monad, where identification with the purpose of deity has transcended illumination of the mind, and has also transcended cooperation through pure love with the Plan. These words are all attempts to indicate the path of progress which is—to the initiate consciousness—the necessary preparatory stage to treading the Path of the Higher Evolution, just as the Probationary Path is the necessary preparatory stage to being accepted into an Ashram. Briefly, the eleven rules already dealt with might be regarded as controlling the conscious activity of the initiate in the following stages and relationships.

(RI 230) It is in the New Group of World Servers that the training of the needed disciples for the Ashrams of the Masters takes place at this time in world history. This is a new hierarchical venture. In this group also accepted disciples learn to work in the same manner as does the Hierarchy. The Hierarchy works within the field of the world of human living; the New Group provides a similar field for the new disciple. It is towards that group also that initiates in the various Ashrams converge at times, in order to study the calibre and quality of the disciples who are engaged in world salvage, for it is through these disciples that the Hierarchy carries out its plans. Initiates do their main work upon mental levels and from behind the scenes, and because of this their potency is great; this is particularly so with those who have taken the third initiation. A certain percentage of them are, however, active out in the world of daily living.

(RI 231) I would have all disciples begin to train themselves to respond to the Aquarian energy now pouring into the Hierarchy. Some of you can do so as accepted disciples, and as members of my Ashram. Take advantage, therefore, of the opportunity for re-energising that comes to all those who have established contact, via their souls, with the Hierarchy, or who are members of an Ashram, or who, as probationers, are upon the periphery of the great Ashram of Sanat Kumara, the Hierarchy. This Aquarian influence produces mainly the intensifying of the hierarchical relationship to Shamballa, and therefore affects every member of His Ashram, from the Christ down to the most newly accepted disciple.

(RI 239) As our planetary Logos nears the climaxing point of the initiation which He is now undergoing, His Ashram, the Hierarchy, must and does (as part of a normal development) feel the effect. From the Christ down to the newest and latest accepted disciple, each in his own place, all are becoming increasingly responsive to the "will of God." This [Page 239] does not take place in a blind, acquiescing manner, but with understanding and "fortitude."

(RI 240) 2. Not only has the individual approach to the Hierarchy been superseded by a group approach, but it is now found to be possible to make a certain measure of the training objective and exoteric. Hence the establishment of the New Group of World Servers. This is primarily a group which, while working on the outer plane of daily, physical living, yet preserves a close ashramic integration; it thus provides a field of service for accepted disciples who are seeking service-expression, and it also provides a rallying point for all determined aspirants where they can be tried out and where their motives and persistence can be tested, prior to direct acceptance. This is something new, for it [Page 240] shifts the responsibility of preparing aspirants for accepted discipleship onto the shoulders of the pledged disciple and away from the immediate attention of the accepting Master. He is thus freed for other fields of service. This, in itself, is one of the major indications of the success of the evolutionary process as applied to humanity. This "shift" was initiated by the Christ Himself; he worked with men very frequently through others, reaching humanity through the medium of His twelve Apostles, regarding Paul as substituting for Judas Iscariot.

(RI 324) In Discipleship in the New Age, Volume I, I gave out much more upon this subject and also information of a deeply esoteric nature anent the Ashrams of the Masters. The second volume of the book also contains much that is new and should serve to bring this whole subject much closer to public understanding. In the instructions now to be given, however, I shall endeavour to cover the ground [Page 324] not already considered, and look at the subject of initiation from the angle of the seven rays, from the effect upon the centres, planetary and individual, and from the point of view of the esoteric training of the accepted aspirant or disciple. (These instructions were begun in March 1946 and completed in March 1949.)

(RI 421) It should be remembered as this peculiarly abstruse subject is approached that the Solar Logos is as far removed (in the evolutionary sense) from our planetary Logos as the latter is from the point of attainment of an accepted disciple. Yet the two are linked by a subjective unity and similarity of objective. At certain points upon the Way of the Higher Evolution Their two lines of energy meet and blend. Our Solar Logos also plays a peculiarly interesting part in the development of our entire planetary life. For the sake of clarity, yet at the same time speaking symbolically, Sanat Kumara might be regarded as a personal disciple of the Solar Logos, with all that that indicates of cosmic responsibility.

Once Accepted the truths become self evident, leading inevitably to initiation

(RI 498) The reason that I am giving out what was earlier regarded as some of the preparatory work prior to the third initiation is due to the fact that the race is now at the point of development which warrants complete change in the approach to divinity as taught by the Hierarchy. This does not mean that past teaching is abrogated, but it is shifted back to the earlier stages on the Path of Discipleship, whilst the teaching given in those stages now becomes the work done by the aspirants upon the Probationary Path. Emphasis has been laid upon purification, upon the need for the development of the Christ life, upon the mystical vision and upon philosophy. Occult truths have been given to the race and have evoked much interest, criticism and discussion; they have appealed to all types of mind; they have been distorted and misapplied. Nevertheless, they have been instrumental in aiding advanced aspirants to move forward on to the Path of Discipleship, with a paralleling moving forward of accepted disciples. Once firmly established upon the Path, the truths become self-evident and individual application and verification can be made, leading the disciple inevitably to the Portal of Initiation.

(RI 537) The emphasis in the earlier teaching was upon character as the determining factor in deciding whether a man could "take initiation" (as it was called), and this was another of the presentations which have greatly misled aspirants. Character is of major importance—of such recognised importance that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. It is character, however, which enables a man to become a disciple with the aim in view of eventually entering [Page 537] the Ashram of a Master and passing then through the processes of initiation. It is character which is rightly regarded as the first requirement when a man steps off the Probationary Path on to the Path of Discipleship. But he is still, however, a long way from his goal, and a long way from being accepted by a Master as a disciple. The truth might be expressed this way: When the disciple's eyes are removed from himself and his functioning in the three worlds is becoming spiritually controlled (or is in process of being controlled), then he is faced with becoming a truly mental being, with the focus of his life upon the mental level where it is subject to soul control; it then in turn becomes the directing agent of the man upon the physical plane. This does not mean that he is occupied with making his lower concrete mind active, directing and illumined; that is taking place gradually and automatically through the pressure of the higher influences pouring into and through him. He is occupied with the task of becoming aware of the activities of his higher or abstract mind and of the pure reason which controls and animates the buddhic plane, and which is itself susceptible to impression from the Monad. That plane has to become the one toward which his mental consciousness looks and upon which it focusses its attention. There it must be polarized, in the same sense as the consciousness of average humanity is today polarised on the plane of the emotions and of astral activity but is shifting with rapidity on to the mental plane.

(RI 562) These are facts which I would have you bear in mind as we consider the relation of the seven rays to initiation in this particular world period and during the cycle of treading the Paths of Discipleship and Initiation. Great [Page 562] transitions are then made; the power to include and to love in the truly esoteric sense automatically produces changes and a basic refocussing in the life of the accepted disciple and of the initiate; these changes, transitions and reactions are brought about by the action of the ray potencies during the period of initiation; the initiate then enters into relationship with rays which are conditioning him at the time. They affect his soul-infused personality, and also the ashram with which he is affiliated. The quality and potency of an ashram is definitely affected by the admission of an initiate; he brings into it not only his own potency and ray qualities as a soul, but also the energy of the rays which produced the changes and which conditioned him during the initiatory process he has just undergone. He then moves into a new stage of conscious contact within the Ashram. This new state of perceptive spirituality permits the initiate to enter into a relation with all those who have undergone a similar initiation. He therefore becomes increasingly a constructive and creative agent in the ashram.

(RI 563) All this information is elementary, but I repeat it for the sake of clarity and in order that we may know what it is that we are considering. In the case of the accepted disciple who is in preparation for initiation, the term applied to this system of integrated energies is "soul-infused personality." The fusion is necessarily not complete, but enough soul energy is present to guarantee that minimum of soul control which will make the initiatory process effective.

Hoping for personal contact with the Master postpones that contact

(WM 129) One lesson all aspirants need to learn and to learn early and that is, that concentration upon the personality of the Teacher, hoping for personal contact with him, and constant visioning of that condition called "accepted chelaship" serves to postpone that contact and delay the acceptance. Seek to equip your instrument, learn to function in quietness, fulfill your obligations and do your duty, develop restraint of speech and that calm poise that comes from an unselfish life motive and forget the selfish satisfaction that might well up in the heart when recognition of faithfulness comes from the watching Hierarchy.

(WM 168) The Master confers with some of His senior disciples as to the advisability of admitting the aspirant within the group aura, and of blending his vibration with that of the group. Then, if decision is arrived at, for the space of two years a senior disciple acts as the intermediary betwixt the Master and the newly accepted aspirant. He works with the new disciple, stepping down (if I so might express it) the vibration of the Master so as to accustom the disciple's bodies to the higher increased rate. He impresses the disciple's mind, via his Ego, with the group plans and ideals, and he watches his reaction to life's occurrences and opportunities. He practically assumes, pro tem, the duties and position of Master.

All this time the aspirant remains in ignorance of what has happened and is unaware of his subjective contacts. He, however, recognizes in himself three things:

Increased mental activity. This at first will give him much trouble, and he will feel as if he were losing in mind control instead of gaining it, but this is only a temporary condition and gradually he will assume command.

Increased responsiveness to ideas and increased capacity to vision the plan of the Hierarchy. This will make him, in the early stages, fanatical to a degree. He will be continually swept off his feet with new ideals, new isms, new modes of living, new dreams for race betterment. He will take up one cult after another as they seem to make possible the coming millennium. But after [Page 169] a time he regains his poise, and purpose assumes control of his life. He works at his own job, and carries forward his contribution to the activity of the whole, to the best of his ability.

Increased psychic sensitiveness. This is both an indication of growth and at the same time a test. He is apt to be taken in by the allurements of the psychic powers; he will be tempted to side-track his efforts from specialised service to the race into the exploitation of the psychic powers, and their use for self assertion. The aspirant has to grow in all parts of his nature, but until he can function as the soul, the psyche, consciously and with the use of cooperative intelligence, the lower powers must be quiescent. They can only be safely used by advanced disciples and initiates. They are weapons and instruments of service to be then used in the three worlds by those who are still tied by the Law of Rebirth to those worlds. Those who have passed through the great Liberation and have "occultly crossed the bridge" have no need to employ the powers inherent in the lower sheaths. They can use the infallible knowledge of the intuition, and the illumination of the principle of Light.

There is much misapprehension in people's minds as to how a Master lets an accepted disciple become aware that he is accepted. An impression is abroad that he is told so and that an interview is accorded wherein the Master accepts him and starts him to work. Such is not the case. The occult law holds good in discipleship as in initiation, and the man goes forward blindly. He hopes, but he does not know; he expects that it may be so, but no tangible assurance is given; from a study of himself and of the requirements he arrives at the conclusion that perhaps he has reached the status of accepted disciple. He therefore acts on that assumption and with care he watches his acts, guards his words, and controls his thoughts so that no overt act, unnecessary word or unkind [Page 170] thought will break the rhythm which he believes has been set up. He proceeds with his work but intensifies his meditation; he searches his motives; he seeks to equip his mental body; he sets before himself the ideal of service and seeks ever to serve; and then (when he is so engrossed in the work on hand that he has forgotten himself), suddenly one day he sees the One Who has for so long seen him.

This may come in two ways: in full waking consciousness or by the registering of the interview on the physical brain as it has been participated in during the hours of sleep.

But accompanying this recognition of the event by the disciples will come certain other recognitions.

2. There is recognised an inhibition on the disciple's part to mention the happening to any one. Months or years may slip away before the disciple will mention it, and then only to those who are also recognised as disciples or to some fellow worker, also under the same group influence, whose right it is to know and whose right is sanctioned by the Master of the group.

3. Certain factors, governing the Master's relation to the disciple, are gradually recognised and begin increasingly to govern the disciple's life.

He recognises that his points of contact with his Master are governed by group emergency and need, and deal with his group service. It gradually dawns on him that his Master is only interested in him insofar as his ego can be used in service, through the personality on the physical plane. He begins to realise that his Master works with his soul and that it is his ego, therefore, which is en rapport with the Master and not the personal self. His problem, therefore, becomes increasingly clear and this is the problem of all disciples. It is to keep the [Page 171] channel of communication open between the soul and the brain, via the mind, so that when the Master seeks to communicate, He can do so at once and easily. Sometimes a Master has to wait weeks before He can get His disciple's ear, for the channel upward is closed and the soul is not en rapport with the brain. This is especially true of the early stages of discipleship.

b. He finds that it is he who shuts the door in the majority of cases through lower psychism, physical disability, and lack of mind control, and he therefore discovers that he has to work constantly and ceaselessly with his lower self.

c. He finds that one of the first things he has to do is to learn to discriminate between:

His own soul's vibration.

The vibration of the group of disciples with whom he is associated.

The vibration of the Master.

All three are different and it is easy to confuse them, especially at first. It is a safe rule for aspirants to assume when they contact a high vibration and stimulus, that it is their own soul contacting them, the Master in the heart, and not run off with the idea (so flattering to their pride and personality) that the Master is endeavouring to reach them.

d. He finds also that it is not the habit of the Masters to flatter or to make promises to their disciples. They are too busy and too wise, nor do They trouble Themselves to tell Their disciples that they are destined for high office, or that they are Their intermediaries and that the Hierarchy is depending upon them. Ambition, love of power, and the self-sufficiency which characterises many mental types test out the struggling aspirant, and he gets from his personality all that he needs in that line. These qualities delude him and lead him astray, forcing [Page 172] him onto a pedestal from which eventually he must descend. The Masters say nothing to feed pride in Their disciples, nor do They speak words to them which could foster in Their chelas the spirit of separateness.

e. The disciple soon finds also that the Masters are not easily accessible. They are busy men, ill able to spare even a few moments in which to communicate with the disciple, and only in emergencies, in the case of a beginner on the Path of Discipleship, do the Masters expend the necessary energy with which to get en rapport. With old and tried disciples, the contacts are more frequent, being more easily achieved and bearing more rapid results. It should be remembered, however, that the newer the disciple the more he demands attention and considers he should have it. The old and more experienced servers seek to fulfil their obligations and carry forward their work with as little contact with the Masters as possible. They seek to save the Master's time and frequently consider an interview with the Master as demonstrating failure on their part, and producing, therefore, regret that they have had to take the Master's precious time, and force Him to use His energy in order to safeguard the work from error and the disciple perhaps from harm. The aim of every high disciple is to carry out his work and be en rapport with the spiritual force centre which is his group, and thus in steady touch with the Master, without interviews and phenomenal contacts. Many only expect to contact their Master once a year, usually at the time of the full moon in May.

f. He finds also that the relationship between Master and disciple is governed by law and that there are definite stages of contact and grades in the desired rapport. These can be enumerated, but cannot be enlarged upon.

(WM 173) 3. The stage wherein, according to necessity, the Master contacts the chela through:

a. A vivid dream experience.

b. A symbolic teaching.

c. A using of a thought form of the Master.

d. A contact in meditation.

e. A definite, remembered interview in the Master's Ashram.

This is definitely the stage of Accepted Disciple.

(WM230) What is that choice? For the aspirant, it is that between rapid and slow progress. For the disciple, accepted and loyal, it is the choice between methods of service. For the initiate it oft lies betwixt spiritual advancement and the arduous work of staying with the group and working out the plan. For the Master it is the choice between the seven Paths, and it will therefore be apparent how much more strenuous and difficult is his problem.

(WM231) Later, it is the experienced probationary disciple who wrestles in the vale of illusion, and deals not alone with his own nature but with the forces of that vale also, recognising its dual nature. Then, the disciple comes forth to battle and faces with courage (and often with clear vision) the forces arrayed against him. They involve not only those in his own nature and in those aspects of the astral plane to which he naturally re-acts, but also involve the forces of illusion arrayed against the group of disciples to which he belongs. Let all disciples take note of this and have it in mind in these difficult and strenuous days. Such disciples are in conscious contact at times with their soul forces and for them there is no defeat nor turning back. They are the tried warriors, scarred and tired, yet knowing that triumphant victory lies ahead, for the soul is omnipotent. Accepted disciples, who battle all the above enumerated factors, plus the black forces arrayed against the Elder Brothers, can call upon the spiritual energies of their group and at rare and indicated moments upon the Master under whom they work. Thus the work and labour expands; thus the responsibility and struggle steadily increases; yet at the same time there is also a steadily growing reception of potencies which can be contacted and utilized and which when correctly contacted insure victory at the end.

(WM582) Remember that no man is a disciple, in the Master's sense of the word, who is not a pioneer. A registered response to spiritual truth, a realised pleasure in forward-looking ideals, and a pleased acquiescence in the truths of the New Age do not constitute discipleship. If it were so, the ranks of disciples would be rapidly filled and this is sadly not the case. It is the ability to arrive at an understanding of the next realisations which lie ahead of the human mind which marks the aspirant, who stands at the threshold of accepted discipleship; it is the power, wrought out in the crucible of strenuous inner experience, to see the immediate vision and to grasp those concepts in which the mind must necessarily clothe it, which give a man the right to be a recognised worker with the plan (recognised by the Great Ones, if not recognised by the world); it is the achievement of that spiritual orientation, held steadily—no matter what the outer disturbance in the physical plane life may be—that signifies to Those Who watch and seek for workers, that a man can be trusted to deal with some small aspect of Their undertaken work; it is the capacity to submerge [Page 583] and to lose sight of the personal lower self in the task of world guidance, under soul impulse, which lifts a man out of the ranks of the aspiring mystics into those of the practical, though mystically minded, occultists.

(WM602) If these stages are regarded sanely for what they are—states of extended consciousness, and grades of responsibility—then the danger of personality reaction to the terms "accepted disciple, initiate, adept, master" would be negligible and much trouble would be eliminated. It must ever be remembered that individual status is rigidly kept to oneself, and the point of evolution (which may be truthfully recognised as lying ahead of that of the average citizen) will be demonstrated by a life of active unselfish service and by the manifestation of an illumined vision which is ahead of the racial idea.

(UA 196) I pointed out that the E.S. was the best school for probationers in the world as it fed the fires of aspiration and nurtured devotion in its membership [Page 196] but that we were a school for training people to be "accepted disciples"—that is, those on the last stages of the probationary path and that our emphasis was impersonality and mental development. I added that we made our work deliberately eliminative, only keeping those who would really work hard and who showed signs of true mental culture. I told him that we dropped hundreds of the emotional, devotional type and that if only we could work together I could have passed many of these people on to the E.S. He was neither impressed nor pleased and I cannot say that I blamed him. It was not that I meant to be derogatory in my statement for to my mind both groups are equally needed; both can serve a spiritual purpose and whether one is a probationer or a disciple one is still a spiritually oriented human being requiring training and discipline.

(UA 256) To be a probationary disciple, one can be a devotee and then the emphasis can be laid on purification and the acquiring of an intelligent understanding of brotherhood and human need. To be an accepted disciple, working directly under the Masters and active in world work with a growing influence, requires a mental polarisation, a heart development and a sense of real values.

(UA 284) Many of the students in the Arcane School are working at the problem of personality integration or at the task of developing the mind so that it may effectively control the emotional nature and direct the activities of the man upon the physical plane. Others have attained a fair measure of this personality integration and are now working at a still higher synthesis, i.e., that of the soul with the personality or of the higher Self with the lower self. When this latter integration has been achieved, then the man can be regarded as a "soul-infused personality." At this point, or when it is in process of accomplishment, he can become an accepted disciple—technically understood.