28 Rules Group

Commentary on Rule XIV Part IV of V

R&I (305-312)

(All Highlighting, Bolding and Underlining—MDR)

Please read this Commentary with your book open or with reference to an electronic copy of the text. This will facilitate an appreciation of continuity.

4. Destroy.

 

What is this destruction which the disciple and the initiate (under instruction from this final rule) is asked to bring about?  What is he required to destroy?  Why is this destruction ordered?

 

1.            We see that the destruction here referenced is not a matter of choice. It is ordered. It is ordained. There can body no evasion.

2.            We note that in carrying out this injunction it is, in part at least, the Rule which instructs the disciple/initiation to do so.

3.            Do we find that the Rules are in process of instructing us as individuals and groups?

 

Let me start with a basic statement:  Destruction or the power and the wish to destroy which is characteristic of the undeveloped man, of the average man and of the probationary disciple is based upon the following impelling influences:

 

4.            We see that the wish to destroy is even to be found in the probationary disciple.

5.            When the word “wish” is employed we see that the astral body is involved. The impulse towards destruction comes largely from there.

6.            Have we asked ourselves whether the wish to destroy is to be found without ourselves, and if so, at what level does it operate?

7.            The wish or will to destroy is much associated with Mars and Pluto. Vulcan and Saturn also play their parts. Mars, since it is a planet associated strongly with the astral body, is the primary energy behind this “wish”.

 

1. Lack of self-control along some line.

 

8.            Undeveloped man seeks the gratification of his lower impulses. Hs does not seek to restrain himself and his lack of control turns destructive.

9.            Sometimes destruction is accidental no doubt due to the inability to control the actions of one’s physical vehicle. Breakage through clumsiness is a fairly benign example.

 

2. Desire to attain one's wishes by the removal of all obstacles.

 

10.         This is a Martian impulse pertaining to the low use of the sixth and first rays. The astral elemental hates restraint and only later is trained to accept it. The heated astral body ‘sees’ only the object of its desire and that which seems to stand in the way of satisfaction through the possession of that object. It is blind to the larger issues. It does not understand what the destruction of the obstacle may mean to the larger context.

 

3. Violent emotional reaction.

 

11.         When murder is perpetrated without premeditation and due to emotional violence, it is called “manslaughter”.

12.         We might call this ‘irrational mobilization’ of all forces to destroy that which threatens, displeases or offends. It happens frequently among those who cannot control their astral reactions.

 

4. Revenge, hate, acquisitiveness and similar faults, based on lack of spiritual unfoldment.

 

13.         The spiritually unfolded individual cannot fall victim to these low emotions based upon the cravings of the ego. Here we are in the realm of the “Hydra”, especially the “emotional heads” of the Hydra. The lower solar plexus is engaged in such emotions and the sacral center to some degree.

 

5. The effort to remove hindrances within oneself, such as those implied in the rule for probationary disciples:  Kill out desire.

 

14.         To tread the Path of Probation suggests that the discriminative mind has become active. This development has become possible through the often repeated experience of pain and suffering. The one who has endured pain and suffering through the frustration of his desires, begins to ask “why”.

15.         On the Path of Probation we enter the realm of deliberate destruction within the realm of character.

 

6. The deliberate destruction of all that prevents contact with the soul.

 

16.         This type of destruction is an act of will by the one who has become a true disciple. It is a rational, soul-inspired destructiveness. The light streaming from the soul reveals the need for such destruction.

 

7. The destroying of all links which hold the spiritual man in the three worlds.

 

17.         We have reached the period of the fourth initiation after which incarnation in the lower three worlds is no longer necessary.

18.         The power of Vulcan is here for Vulcan both forges links and shatters them.

19.         Pluto is also involved for Pluto rules the “shears” which cut threads of attachment.

 

These motives for destruction are all related to desire, to emotion and also to aspiration, implemented (towards the end of the cycle which leads to the treading of the Probationary Path) by the lower concrete mind.

 

20.         Yes, some form of desire is involved in all these acts of destruction, however, with increasing mental focus, destruction also becomes a willed act with the concrete mind acting as the carrier of the will.

 

  They cover a familiar case history and one which is well known to every sincere aspirant, or one which is realised for what they are at a lower level of life expression by the man who pays the penalties involved by this type of destruction.

 

21.         Penalties paid by primitive, desire-based destruction eventually arouse the will to eliminate the causes of such painful penalties. The man who has paid the penalties begins to seek the path of liberation.

 

 I feel no necessity to enlarge on this mode of destroying to students such as those who read this Treatise.  This type of destruction is concerned mainly with form life in the three worlds, with individual aspiration and enterprise (from the lowest [Page 306] groping physical desire up to the aspiration for conscious soul life), and with experiment and experience upon the three planes of ordinary human living.

 

22.         This is a summary of the type of destruction the cause of which is rooted in desire and even in aspiration. The form is constantly destroyed until is unreality is cognized.

23.         The types of destruction here mentioned carry us to and through the fourth initiation.

24.         Interestingly, DK in describing a higher type of destruction tells us that it can only be wielded by the Master of the Wisdom—an initiate of the fifth degree.

 

But in this word "destroy" given (as an expressed command)

 

25.         Let us note, we are dealing with a “command”, not a suggestion.

26.         Who or what are we, as disciples, willing to obey?

27.         Can we see how the many forms of occult obedience which may be necessitated in our personality life may lead to the ability at the fourth initiation to follow the “command”, Destroy?

 

for those who are members of the Hierarchy or who have moved or are moving from an affiliated relationship on the periphery of that Hierarchy toward the centre of activity and into close contact with some Ashram, the significance is very different.

 

28.         The ashramic relationship of the average sincere disciple is what is here called an “affiliated relationship on the periphery”. The command “Destroy” does not apply to such disciples.

29.         Significant destructions are necessary if the disciple seeks a closer contact with the Ashram.

 

The type of destruction here dealt with is never the result of desire; it is an effort of the spiritual will and is essentially an activity of the Spiritual Triad;

 

30.         This is of great importance. The true spiritual will emanates from the spiritual triad and the Monad. It is of so high a nature that even the Ego on the higher mental plane cannot be its source.

31.         Later a still higher type of destruction is discussed—one which uses the spiritual triad as an instrument of expression.

 

it involves the carrying out of those measures which will hinder obstruction to God's will;

 

32.         Perhaps we can detect here a higher influence of the planet Saturn—so often considered a planet of blockage and hindrance. Saturn is the planet which rules the plane from which the true spiritual will emanates—the atmic plane. It is also associated with the logoic plane as it is a correspondence to the logoic physical permanent atom found on the logoic plane.

33.         How do we hinder or inhibit the hindrance or inhibition of God’s Will in our lives? To do so requires an understanding of how to oppose forces with higher forces and certain energies with still higher energies.

34.         The high initiate must learn to block the blockage.

 

 it is the furthering of those conditions which will destroy those who are attempting to prevent divine purpose from materialising as the Plan—for which the Hierarchy is responsible.

 

35.         We seem to be reading of the destruction of individuals and groups who attempt to prevent divine purpose from materializing the Plan.

36.         Ultimately centers such as Shamballa and still higher centers have this responsibility.

37.         We note that destructive powers are not applied directly to such destructive individuals: rather the advanced and purposeful destroyer furthers “conditions” which destroy those who attempt to prevent the materialising of the Plan. This is a distinction worth noting.

38.         We see, however, that the obstructers are most definitely to be destroyed, but it is conditions engineered by Hierarchy which destroy the obstructers.

39.         We are attempting to discriminate between modes of destruction. The type of destruction we are studying arises when relationship is established between Shamballa and Hierarchy and not between Hierarchy and Humanity. Another way of saying this is that such destruction can only be wielded by those or are approaching the fourth initiation or of still higher attainment.

 

40.         Are we coming to understand some of the tasks of those whose privilege it is to pass through the fourth degree?

 

 This type of destruction has only a secondary relation to the destruction of form life as you know it.  When steps are taken to implement divine purpose, the resultant effect may be the destroying of forms in the three worlds, but that is an effect and only a secondary destruction; something else has been destroyed on a higher level and outside the three worlds.

 

41.         We are speaking of destruction which occurs on the cosmic etheric plane. It is a more essential type of destruction than the destruction of dense physical forms (i.e., forms existent within the three lower worlds). We can understand that if the energy-model upon which a dense physical form is built is destroyed, that dense physical form will also be destroyed.

42.         When we speak of density in this context, we are speaking of forms which exist within the dense physical body of the Solar Logos or Planetary Logos.

 

  This, in due time, may produce a form-reaction to which we may give the name of death.  But the death of that form was not a primary objective and was not even considered, because it was not within the range of awareness of the destroyer.

 

43.         Such destroyer work, we see, on planes higher than the subplanes of the three lower worlds. In their destructive activities they deal with causes and not effects.

44.         From the perspective of the cosmic physical plane, causes emanate from the cosmic ethers and effects are generated upon and within the three lower planes—the mental, astral and physical-etheric  plane.

 

The higher destruction which we are considering is related to the destruction of certain forms of consciousness which express themselves in great areas or extensive thoughtforms;

 

45.         We must assume that these “great areas or extensive thoughtforms” exist outside the three lower worlds. Are we speaking of thoughtforms pertaining to the cosmic mental subplanes, such thoughtforms expressing as formative potencies within the cosmic ethers? Usually, when speaking of thoughtforms, we think of them as expressing within the confines of the mental plane within the three lower worlds.

46.         “Forms of consciousness” are dependent upon the quality of matter through which consciousness expresses and also upon the way such matter is ‘arranged’ on the various planes. If the ‘arrangements’ are broken, the forms of consciousness arising as consciousness, per se, works through those arrangements are also destroyed.

these may have, in turn, conditioned human thinking.

 

47.         Great “forms of consciousness” existent on planes higher than the three lower planes, condition human thinking. Of such conditioning we are almost totally unaware.

 

  Perhaps the simplest illustration I can give you of this type of destruction would be concerned with the major ideologies which down the ages have conditioned or may [Page 307] condition humanity.

 

48.         Ideologies have their origin within impulses emanated by planetary Ray Lords within Shamballa. Since this is the case, we can understand that the impulses which are the origin of those energies and forces which we recognize as ideologies will have a field of expression upon and within the cosmic ethers. Ideologies, then, have at least a cosmic etheric origin and, perhaps (even probably) a much higher origin.

49.         The essential energies embodied in ideologies emanate from outside the three worlds altogether.

 

 These ideologies produce potent effects in the three worlds.

 

50.         DK is telling us that ideologies (though potently effective in the three lower worlds) have a cosmic origin. This may be a relatively new thought to us.

 

  This type of destruction affects those civilisations which condition the human family for long periods of time, which concern climatic conditions that predispose the forms in the four kingdoms to certain characteristics in time and space, which produce effects in the great world religions, in world politics and all other "conditioning forms of thinking."

 

51.         Let us tabulate the areas of impact for the type of destruction we are discussing:

    1. An impact upon human civilizations
    2. An impact upon climatic conditions. (Note the conditioning effect of climatic conditions upon the four kingdoms.)
    3. An impact upon world religions
    4. An impact upon word politics
    5. An impact, in general, upon “conditioning forms of thinking”.

 

52.         We are speaking of destructive impulses of great and sweeping scope.

53.         It is probably clear to us that every time there is a change of change of precessional age (and a change of ray that accompanies that age), this type of destruction will be released.

 

  Does this convey much or little in connection with the concepts which I am attempting to make clear?

 

54.         Certainly the power and subtlety of this type of destruction is in the hands of those who have progressed far beyond the normal human stage.

 

That which is destroyed, therefore, are certain group forms and these upon a large scale;

 

55.         Form, we see, exists even upon what we normally call “arupa” levels.

56.         The destruction under consideration affects groups and large aggregations of groups rather then individuals, per se.

 

 this requires an exercise of the spiritual will to bring about, and does not require simply the withdrawing of the attention of the soul,

 

57.         Some forms of destruction proceed simply through the withdrawal of attention. One such is the death of the human being within the three lower worlds. The soul withdraws its attention from its projection into the three worlds (the soul-in-incarnation) and thence into itself. The projected soul-in-incarnation magnetically follows the withdrawal of attention and returns, eventually, to the soul on its own plane.

58.         The kind of destruction we are here discussing requires still more—an active application of spiritual will.

59.         The origin of the spiritual will, as we realize, is also outside the three worlds of human evolution.

 

 the decision to vacate the form

 

60.         Presumably the soul’s decision…

 

 and the failure of the basic desire to perpetuate,

 

61.         This is the failure of what we usually refer to as the “will to live”. It might be more proper to speak of it as the ‘desire to live’.

 

 which is what we imply when we speak of death in the three worlds.

 

62.         What are the three movements which lead to the death of the unit man upon the systemic dense physical plane:

    1. The withdrawal of the attention of the soul
    2. The decision by the soul to vacate the form and sometimes (under the impress of the soul) the decision of the soul-in-incarnation to vacate the form.
    3. The “failure of the basic desire to perpetuate”.

 

63.         We see how closely what we normally call “death” is related to both decision and desire.

 

  The lack of the will-to-live of which we so glibly speak has little relation, in reality, to the will itself;

 

64.         Here Master DK clarifies the point.

 

 it refers only to its faint or distorted reflection in the three worlds;

 

65.         Desire is the faint or distorted reflection in the three worlds of the will.

 

this is much more closely related to desire and aspiration than to pure will, as spiritually comprehended.

 

66.         We can understand why the desire to continue living does, in fact, perpetuate life in lower form.

67.         We note that “pure will”, if it is to be the true will, must be spiritually comprehended.

 

The Purpose of God (to use a familiar phrase) is that which implements the Plan.

 

68.         To implement is to impulse and utilize.

69.         For all practical purposes, “Purpose” lies behind and within “Plan”.

 

 This purpose is the motivating life behind all that emanates from Shamballa

 

70.         Notice that motivation is associated, in this context, with the life aspect.

71.         Purpose lies “behind” than which emanates from Shamballa. This places Purpose in a solar context.

 

and it is that which impulses all the activities of the Hierarchy;

 

72.         Hierarchy is impelled by Divine Purpose—and “the motivating life” lies behind that Purpose.

 

 the task of the Hierarchy is to formulate the Plan for all forms of life in the three worlds and the four kingdoms in nature. 

 

73.         We might say that Divine Purpose, in itself, is not yet formulated with respect to the three lower worlds. That more ‘concrete’ task is left to Hierarchy.

 

This Plan, in time and space, is not in any way concerned with individual man or with the life of any microcosmic entity in any of the kingdoms of nature, but with the wholes, the cycles of time, with those vast plans of livingness which man calls history, with nations and races, with world religions and great political ideologies and with social organisations which produce permanent changes in types, constitutions, planetary areas and cyclic manifestations.

 

74.         Let us tabulate that to which the Plan refers and does not refer:

    1. The Plan is not concerned with individual man
    2. The Plan is not concerned with any microcosmic entity in any kingdom of nature
    3. The Plan is concerned with wholes
    4. The Plan is concerned with cycles of time
    5. The Plan is concerned with “vast plans of livingness” known as “history”
    6. The Plan is concerned with nations and races
    7. The Plan is concerned with world religions
    8. The Plan is concerned with political ideologies
    9. The Plan is concerned with “social organisations which produce permanent changes in types”, in constitutions, in planetary areas, in constitutions and in cyclic manifestations.

75.         In short, the Divine Plan for this planet is truly planetary in scope.

76.         It is legitimate and even necessary for each human unit to search for his or her ‘place’ within the Divine Plan, but such a unit must remember the vast scope of the Plan and the relative tininess of any role that he or she may play—no matter how relatively important such a role may be to the unit.

 

  It will therefore be obvious to you that from the standpoint of man's little mind, these plans are well-nigh impossible to [Page 308] grasp.

 

77.         With the Divine Plan are many “plans”. No wonder we have so much difficulty grasping the true nature of the Plan. Its scope is too vast and its reach, too deep.

 

  From the standpoint of the vision of the initiate who has developed or is developing the wider grasp and who can see and think and vision (I care not what word you choose) in terms of the Eternal Now, the significance is clear;

 

78.         Note the use of the word “significance” with its triadal implications. The initiate focuses within the spiritual triad.

79.         Because all that has occurred, is occurring, or will occur is within the conscious apprehension of the One Observing Planetary Life, it is, as if, occurring in His NOW. The more we identify with the scope and embrace of that Planetary Consciousness, the more we will perceive in that NOW.

 

 at times,

 

80.         But not at all times…

 

 the initiate creates and then anchors a germ of livingness;

 

81.         The source of such a “germ” is the cosmic etheric planes, especially the atmic layer of these ethers—the layer within the lower five worlds closest to the monadic level.

 

 at times he builds that which can house his living idea with its conditioning qualities;

 

82.         A “germ of livingness” is a “living idea”.

83.         Habitations must be built for such ideas and it is principally under the second ray influence that the initiate builds them.

 

 at times, when these have served their purpose, he definitely and deliberately destroys.

 

84.         There is a threefold cycle:

    1. Accessing
    2. Building
    3. Destroying

 

 The reference is necessarily ever to form; with the initiate it is, however, to the "formless form" which is always the subjective aspect of the tangible world.

 

85.         On the cosmic physical plane, the true “formless forms” are found upon the cosmic ethers.

86.         To a lesser extent, the systemic etheric plane is home to formless forms—formless, at least, with respect to the densest physical subplanes.

 

 It must be remembered that from the point of view of esotericism, all forms in the three worlds are tangible, in contradistinction to forms in the two higher worlds of the Spiritual Triad.

 

87.         DK includes even the highest subplanes of the systemic mental plane as tangible. From this perspective, the buddhic and atmic planes are considered intangible.

88.         In one respect, “tangible” means ponderable or ‘touchable’. To the higher consciousness, even the buddhic and atmic planes are ‘touchable’ and have their response to gravity.

 

The destruction considered is that of the formless structure on which the grosser structure is built.

 

89.         This is another way of saying ‘cosmic etheric structure’ must be destroyed.

90.         All destruction is a disruption of the magnetism which produces coherence. Of course, a greater magnetism may destroy a lesser.

 

  Some understanding of this will come if you consider the relation of the four subplanes of the physical plane, the four etheric levels, and the three subplanes which we call the dense physical planes.

 

91.         This is the very relation which is to be increasingly illumined during the Aquarian Age.

 

 These constitute our physical plane in its two aspects.  This is only a reflection of the three planes of the three worlds and the four planes from the buddhic plane up to the logoic, which constitute the cosmic physical plane.

 

92.         The inseparability of the systemic physical plane and the cosmic physical plane must be held in mind. Their relationship is far more than analogical

 

 The destruction considered by the initiate is connected with the subjective worlds of the four higher planes and the three worlds of human living, and of other forms of life such as the three subhuman kingdoms.

 

93.         How can such destruction proceed? May it be that a pattern more archetypal is affirmed and a pattern less archetypal is vitiated or disrupted?

94.         May this newer and emerging pattern (which destroys the old pattern) occur through the assertion of new and timely energies and forces and the ignoring of those energies and forces which have already worked out in the ‘World of Effects’? In a way it is a kind of destructive substitution of the new for the old.

 

In the human family, death supervenes when the soul withdraws its consciousness thread and its life thread;

 

95.         Sometimes the withdrawal of the consciousness thread precedes the withdrawal of the life thread. It is hard to imagine how the reverse could be the case though there are stories of consciousness remaining attached (etherically at least) after the life of the dense physical body has ceased.

 

 this process of death is contained, however, entirely within the three worlds.

 

96.         It is that within the three lower worlds which dies and no higher form.

 

  The soul has its station on the higher levels of the mental plane, as well you know.

 

97.         Yet even this relatively high station is low compared with a position within the higher two planes of the spiritual triad.

 

 In connection with the forms of expression to which I have referred above—cycles, civilisations, cultures, races, kingdoms in nature and so forth—their destruction is brought about from still higher sources than the three worlds in which they manifest. 

 

98.         We are now dealing with triadal destruction or, perhaps, ‘reconfiguration’. If such destruction can exist within the worlds of the spiritual triad, man can surely learn to apply himself to destruction within and upon the solar systemic etheric plane.

 

This destruction takes place under the direction of Shamballa

 

99.         A planetary Center positioned, in its essential nature, ‘above’ the planes of the spiritual triad. Although it is possible to think of Shamballa as focussed within all of the cosmic ethers, it is specifically focussed on the monadic and logoic planes.

 

 as it evokes the will of the Hierarchy or some particular [Page 309] Ashram or some member of the Hierarchy in order to produce a predetermined result in the three worlds in line with the purpose of God.

 

100.      Hierarchy, which is focussed principally upon the lower two cosmic etheric planes, is summoned into action by the Will of Shamballa focused principally on the two abstract or occult ethers of the cosmic physical plane. In fact, it is reasonable to assume that the Council Chamber of Shamballa is to be found upon logoic plane.

101.      The Masters, too, under Shamballic impress can be considered ‘Agents of Destruction’.

 

  It might be said (accurately to a certain esoteric extent) that the destruction brought about in obedience to this fourth word in Rule XIV is the destruction of some aspect of the plan as it has been functioning in the three worlds, and this under divine purpose and intent.

 

102.      The Divine Purpose endures unchanged throughout planetary manifestation (on both gross and subtle levels), but the planetary Divine Plan is cyclic in its effect and phases of the Plan succeed each other in time and space (i.e., upon and within the lower five systemic planes), earlier phases become obsolete and obstructive as the time for newer phases arrives.

103.      For instance, the phases of the Divine Plan appropriate for the Age of Pisces could not possibly be appropriate for the Age of Aquarius. Different qualities were to be cultivated in that earlier Ages and different patterns instituted than those qualities and patterns which now must be cultivated and instituted in the impending Aquarian Age.

 

This destruction is not outwardly so conclusive as is death—on the physical plane—of a man,

 

104.      This means that the process of destruction is more subtle in nature—a fading from presence rather than a decisive termination, as is, apparently, the death of man upon the physical plane.

105.      Of course, it becomes clear that the subtle forms of death under discussion are inwardly conclusive.

 

 though that is not essentially the rapidly consummated process as is usually surmised.

 

106.      DK is informing us that even the physical plane death of man is a gradual process with a number of phases.

 

 The physical form may die and disappear, but an inner process of dying of the subtler bodies supervenes and the death process is not complete until the astral and mental bodies have disintegrated and the man stands free in his causal or soul body.

 

107.      There are souls, so we learn in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, who (having achieved continuity of consciousness) do not relinquish their astral and mental bodies after physical plane death, and instead, seek relatively rapid reincarnation. Can they then be said to have “died”—fully?

108.      True death is a cyclic relinquishment of all that is to be found upon the lower eighteen subplanes.

 

  So it is, on a much larger scale, with the death or destruction of phases of the divine Plan,

 

109.      Entire “phases” of the Divine Plan are to die. These deaths, obviously, are, at least, connected with the incoming and outgoing of ray and astrological cycles, and with lesser and greater precessional cycles.

 

 engineered by the Hierarchy in conformity with the divine Purpose.

 

110.      Here the Hierarchy operates under the implementing third ray with Shamballa holding (through will) the second ray pattern of that which must be. Orders (literally the ordering of that which must be) come from Shamballa. We must realize that the Monad is an expression of both the second and first rays and its motivations are those prompted by both the first and second rays.

 

 There is an overlapping between the building process and the destroying process.

 

111.      Do we recognize that we (at this specific moment in human history) are in the midst of just such an overlapping?

 

  Dying civilisations are present in their final forms whilst new civilisations are emerging; cycles come and go and in the going overlap;

 

112.      We are caught in the cross currents of cultural/civilizational ebb and flow. Do we recognize these counter-currents? If so, with which are we identified and, if identified, are we wholly or only partially identified

 

 the same is also found to be true in the emerging and disappearing of rays and races.

 

113.      The coming and going of rays, races and civilization are all strongly correlated.

114.      Within a ray cycle, a number of phases of the Plan may be conceived by Hierarchy. Ray cycles have sub-cycles and precessional ages have decanate periods, and ever the Great Wheel of astrology keeps turning. All these variations have to be taken into consideration as the Divine Plan and its many sequential phases are conceived and the attempt made to implement them within prevailing conditions.

 

 Death, in the last analysis and from the standpoint of the average human being, is simply disappearance from the physical plane—the plane of appearances.

 

115.      In this disappearance we see death to be an essential “magical” process. The Sprit—the ever-permanent aspect of ourselves, the True Self—can never disappear, nor can it be perceived through any objective means.

116.      Gradual disappearance from the astral and lower mental planes supervenes after the relatively precipitous process of disappearance from the etheric-physical-etheric plane.

 

The form of destruction we are considering however, is more concerned with the destruction of quality than with forms,

 

117.      Quality pertains to the soul aspect and the spiritual triad is the true soul of Ego. We have been dealing with cosmic etheric destruction and, hence, with the destruction of quality (existent on the planes of the spiritual triad).

 

though the disappearance of these qualities produces the death of the outer form.

 

118.      Assembled quality, energized and configured according to Shamballic design, has made the creation of outer form possible.

119.      If there is a Shamballic “Law of Assembly”, there must be a ‘Law of Disassembly’ engineered and applied in the triadal worlds by Hierarchy.

 

  The withdrawing life of a great expression of the hierarchical plan absorbs the qualities and returns with them, as endowments, later in time and space and manifests anew through the medium of more adequate forms of expression.

 

120.      It is as if quality, per se, is not destroyed but the configuration of quality is.

121.      Death in this sense is the ‘abstraction of quality’ following upon the expression and exercise of quality.

122.      Qualities experienced in the lower five worlds are really presented by great ‘Presences’ (the Ray Lords) and as Rays (Divine Beings, really) cycle out of manifestation, they withdraw the qualities They have ‘sponsored’ along with Their presence, giving way so that new Presences (other Ray Lords) may emerge into manifestation (in the five lower worlds). Later, in another cycle, the abstracted Presences (and the qualities They characteristically sponsor) will re-present themselves with Their qualities as endowments—Their characteristic qualities newly ‘configured’ to suit the conditions of the times and spaces They are entering.

123.      Through Shamballic cycles the Ray Lords are released into manifestation in the lower five worlds, and, through hierarchical engineering, the qualities presented by these Ray Lord Presences are newly configured to suit the phase of the Divine Purpose which must, at that time in planetary time, be executed as a particular phase of the Divine Plan.

 

 The soul, however, kills the forms in the three worlds;

 

124.      What at statement! “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” The soul is our Lord.

125.      It is the soul who sounds the “Word of Death” when the spiritual usefulness of its personality has terminated or when the karma of that personality calls for its removal from the “stage” of ordinary life.

 

 it is the life aspect (in this higher and more extensive type of destruction) which destroys the innate quality and consequently the form of a civilisation,

 

126.      Life destroys quality (Spirit destroys soul) just as quality destroys objective form (soul destroys personality).

127.      This greater type of destruction might be called ‘re-archetypalization’. Spirit, too, is possessed of quality, but a quality which is free of any type of limited personalism or individualism.

128.      Forms of civilization adhere around “innate quality”. If innate quality is destroyed or abstracted, then the form of civilization (expressive of those qualities) is also, per force, destroyed.

129.      Perhaps it is not so much essential quality which is destroyed as configured quality—the combinations of essential qualities which qualify any culture, civilization or great movement within culture and civilization, such as religions, political or economic systems.

 

 the type of an ideology and the character of a race or nation, [Page 310] preserving only the essentials but discarding the distortions.

 

130.      What, then, is destroyed during such a greater act of destruction:

    1. The form of a civilization is destroyed
    2. The type of ideology of a race or nation is destroyed
    3. The character of a race or nation is destroyed.

 

This fourth word is closely related to the fourth initiation in which the causal body or soul vehicle on its own plane is destroyed—that beautiful, intangible, qualitative Identity which has motivated and implemented the man in the three worlds.

 

131.      Here is a magnificent description of the causal body, described in so many ways. Does this mode of description help us form a clearer idea about its nature?

132.      We might well ask ourselves, ‘what is form which quality takes on the higher mental plane?’

133.      If the soul is a “qualitative identity” and is to be destroyed, it is clear that Spirit plays an important role in the destruction of the causal body. Of this we are assured from other descriptions of the destruction of the causal body, but in the context of the foregoing discussion, we realize in another way the necessity of Spirit’s involvement in this destructive process.

134.      To reassert, Quality is forever found in the Universe, even on its very highest levels. But there are many configuration of quality which come and go. These configurations are combinations of more essential qualities, which, themselves are but combinations. That which combines can be and eventually will be, uncombined—i.e., destroyed.

 

 Does this instance somewhat clarify the difficulty of this subject with which we are concerned?  Ponder on this as an illustration of this form of destruction, and seek better understanding.

 

135.      DK attempts to bring us to a clearer understanding of intangibilities. Our minds are rather ‘thick’ and He must work to refine them.

 

This higher form of destruction does not manifest under the activity or the non-activity of the Law of Attraction, as does the death which the soul brings about.

 

136.      Death in the three lower worlds arises as a result of attraction (and, thus, inevitably, of repulsion). The attractive power of the soul overcomes the soul-in-incarnation’s desire to express through dense physical matter.

137.      In a way, the soul on its own plane is withdrawing its desire to express through the soul-in-incarnation. The soul-in-incarnation sensing this waning of desire thinks its own desire for expression of waning, but the waning desire has originally occurred within the soul on its own plane.

 

 It is definitely under the Law of Synthesis, a law of the monadic sphere of life,

 

138.      The monadic sphere of life is centered on the second cosmic ether, though it embraces the spheres centered upon the five lower cosmic etheric subplanes.

 

and one therefore most difficult for you to comprehend;

 

139.      The higher forms of death here described come definitely under the Law of Synthesis. They are ‘orchestrated’ through what we might call the ‘necessitously correlated movements within the Whole’. Death comes to uphold the expression of the Divine Purpose via the ever-changing Divine Plan.

140.      Death arises so that the Purpose-ordained phase of synthesis within form may be preserved. The ordained phase of synthesis within form is another name for that phase of the Divine Plan which is intended to express during a particular temporal period and in a particular ‘space’ or vibrational domain.

141.      In other words, a much larger relationship of factors (a relationship necessary according to Divine Purpose and always reflective of the Law of Synthesis) ordains the type of deaths under discussion.

 

 it emanates from a point outside the five worlds of human and superhuman evolution,

 

142.      This is probably a very occult hint. The “point” referenced may well be the Monad, which hovers ‘above’ yet within the five worlds of human and super-human evolution, or it might be another point on the monadic plane.

143.      DK is stating that the great ‘deaths’ which He has been discussing come, minimally, from the monadic plane. There is also the possibility that these ‘deaths’ could emanate from the logoic plane.

 

just as the destruction of form in the three worlds emanates from the soul functioning outside the three worlds of the lower, concrete mind, the astral world and the physical plane.  This statement again may aid you in understanding.

 

144.      Just as the lower deaths pertain to the will (or desire) of the soul so the higher deaths pertain to the World of the Spirit.

145.      We are learning the significant lesson that liberative death emanates from above.

 

If this is so, it will be apparent to you that only initiates who have taken the fifth initiation and higher initiations can wield effectively this particular form of death—for monadic potency only becomes available after the third initiation, and its first successful use is the destruction of the causal body of the initiate.  It is the reward of Transfiguration.

 

146.      DK is telling us that the destruction of the causal body is a “reward”—the “reward of Transfiguration”. The Transfiguration Initiation sets the stage for the privilege of destroying of the causal body.

147.      Although access to monadic potency begins at the third degree and is successfully demonstrated at the fourth initiation, its truly effective and authoritative wielding seems to pertain to the fifth initiation and still later initiations.

148.      We have to combine three thoughts in order to enlarge our understanding:

    1.  The greater ‘deaths’
    2. The Law of Synthesis
    3. The wielding of monadic potency under the Law of Synthesis in order to produce those ‘deaths’.

 

In connection with the use by the initiate of what we might call pure will, it should be remembered that this pure will works into manifestation through one or other of the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad.

 

149.      This is another way of saying that the major monadic potency is expressed in the spiritual triad atmically, buddhically or manasically.

150.      The relationship between the major ray of the Monad and the major polarization of that ray within the spiritual triad has often been highlighted in our various advanced classes and forums.

 

 This activity is determined by the major ray upon which the initiate finds himself, from the angle of his monadic ray. 

 

151.      This is one of the most important statements to be found in relation to the nature and (hypothesized) sub-nature of the monadic ray. The sentence itself is written somewhat obliquely and through this obliquity, DK has managed to conceal a vital hint.

152.      It is hypothesized that He is telling us of the existence of a “major” monadic ray. Therefore, if this hypothesis is true, there must be a ‘minor’ monadic ray.

153.      The “activity” of which we are speaking is the expression of the Monad through one or other of the three major aspects of the spiritual triad.

154.      While some might approach this sentence in a simplistic manner, deciding that the “major ray” discussed is the monadic ray pure and simple, a more subtle reading points to the likelihood that there is a major monadic ray and a minor ray. This thought is confirmed by a section of text found in TCF 176.

 

After the third Initiation all human beings find themselves on their monadic ray, on one of the three major rays, and the fact that Masters and Initiates are found on all the rays is due to the following two factors:

 

First.  Each major ray has its subrays, which correspond to all the seven.

Second.  Many of the guides of the race transfer from one ray to another as They are needed, and as the work may require.  When one of the Masters or Initiates is transferred it causes a complete re-adjustment. (TCF 176)

 

155.      In relation to the above quotation from R&I, the “initiate” referenced is one who expresses upon His monadic ray.

 

Every spiritual man

 

156.      A “spiritual man” is one who is expressing principally through his spiritual triad.

 

 is upon one or another of the three major rays,

 

157.      The three “major” rays of the Monad, though there are seven minor ones as well for each major monadic type.

 

 for the minor four rays of attribute are all eventually absorbed into the third Ray of Active Intelligence.

 

158.      This is true from one point of view, and yet the mode of absorption of rays four, five, six and seven may, at times, present some variation from the rule here given. Rays six and four, for instance, may be absorbed into ray three, and yet, may also be absorbed into ray two. Ray five may, perhaps, be absorbed into ray three, but there is a line of absorption which terminates in ray one. As for ray seven, DK tells us that initiates on that ray transfer often to the first ray, but why they should not also transfer to the third is difficult to understand. In one particular instance they did—when Master R. transferred from the seventh to the third ray, taking a number of His seventh ray second and third degree initiates onto that more abstract ray.

 

Your monadic ray is the second ray and hence your soul, being on a minor ray, must transfer to that line. As you know, the sequence of activity is ever the transfer of the fourth and sixth rays on to the second and the third, of the fifth and the seventh rays on to the first ray.(DINA I 573)

 

If the initiate is upon the first ray, and therefore working in the Department of the Manu, he will use and express [Page 311] the innate will aspect

 

159.      In this case “the initiate” is the Monad. We remember that the initiate ever is. The soul-infused personality must realize the presence of the initiate within itself.

160.      So the “innate will aspect” is the Will of the Monad, along one of three major lines (each line including all seven sub-qualities of the monadic sub-rays operative on the monadic plane).

161.      The word “innate” gives the clue, as that which is innate is most essential and most recessed.

 

through the atmic nature or through the highest aspect of the Spiritual Triad,

 

162.      If the “innate will aspect” expresses through the atmic nature, its source of emanation must be above that atmic nature. That which passes through something, starts from ‘outside’ that something.

163.      If an emanation begins within a source it is said to original from that source and not to pass through that source.

 

to which we give the inadequate name of "divine Will."

 

164.      The “innate will aspect” expressing through the atmic nature is called “divine Will”—a term which Master DK considers inadequate.

165.      There will be three different major qualities to the “innate will aspect” depending on that part (or major aspect) of the spiritual triad through which it expresses.

 

 Students are apt to forget that the Spiritual Triad, related as it is to the Monad in much the same way as the threefold personality is related to the soul,

 

166.      The spiritual triad in relation to the Monad is as the personality in relation to the soul. In other words, for practical purposes, the spiritual triad is the ‘personality’ of the Monad.

 

expresses the three major aspects of Shamballic energy,

 

167.      Monadic energy is Shamballic energy.

168.      If there are major aspects of Shamballic energy, there must also be minor aspects of this energy.

 

 which three are all of them expressions of the will of the planetary Logos and His essential Purpose.

 

169.      The Planetary Logos expresses equally through will, love and intelligence. There is an aspect of Planetary Logoic will expressive through each of these aspects.

 

  If the initiate is on the second ray, and therefore is working in the Department of the Christ,

 

170.      The occult “blind” enters in our designation of the spiritual status of the “initiate”. In this analysis, we are considering the “initiate” to be the Monad or as one Who expresses as the Monad.

171.      The term initiate always refers, minimally, to the soul, but the true initiate does not appear until the human consciousness is monadically responsive, which means that it has passed through the third initiation and is focussed in the lowest aspect of the spiritual triad.

172.      The Monad within the constitution of man is the “initiate”. Through the process of initiation, we re-become what we essentially are.

173.      Here, it would seem that Master DK is speaking of those who have for their major monadic ray, the second ray of Love-Wisdom and are, thus, what we would call “second ray Monads”.

 

 he will use the will through the medium of buddhi, the second aspect of the Spiritual Triad.

 

174.      According to our present mode of interpretation, second ray Monads will express triadally through the buddhic aspect of the spiritual triad.

 

 If he is on the third ray and in the Department of the Mahachohan, the Lord of Civilisation, he will work through the higher mind, the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad.

 

175.      Again, we are considering the initiate to be the Monad-in-expression. Here, then, we are speaking of those whose Monads are majorly upon the third ray.

 

 Forget not, however, that none of these aspects can be regarded as higher or lower, for all are equally divine.

 

176.      This is easy to forget as, at certain times and in certain ‘spaces’, some rays seem to be temporarily of more importance than others.

 

 Understanding of these ideas may come if, for instance, you realise that the expression of buddhi, or of the intuition, in the consciousness of the spiritual man will lead to the use of the will in working out the purposes of Shamballa in the field of religions, of education, and of salvaging or saving the life aspect in all forms in the three worlds,

 

177.      Here we are speaking of the field of expression of the one whose major monadic ray is the second ray.

178.      Remember, again, that the “spiritual man” is the one who is polarized in one or other aspect of the spiritual triad.

179.      The “spiritual man” and the “innate will aspect” are two different things though, naturally, related as the innate will aspect expresses through the spiritual man.

180.      Note the qualities and areas of expression within the second Depart ment of Divinity:

    1. Religion
    2. Education
    3. Salvaging or saving of the life aspect in form

181.      Technically and practically it is possible for one whose soul/Ego/Triad is upon the second ray to express in these fields. Such expression does not necessitate that the Monad be upon the second ray. Buddhi can express in the consciousness of the spiritual man even if the major monadic ray is not buddhic (i.e., not the second ray). This is so because buddhi may be expressed in the triad (and, thus, in the consciousness of the spiritual man) through a triadal sub-ray which, it turns out (EP I 168-169) is equivalent to what we usually call the soul ray.

182.      It is possible that a man’s earthly career will be expressive of his monadic ray, his soul ray (really the ray of the triadal Ego) or a combination of the two. The Buddha, for instance, was expressive in the fields of religion, education and salvage and yet He had a third ray Monad. Such expression, was possible, however, because His soul(therefore triadal Ego) was upon the second ray of Love-Wisdom, and perhaps, the sub-ray of His Monad (expressing upon the monadic plane) was also on the second ray.

 

 but it will have no relation to the individual and personal problems of the man himself.

 

183.      The “spiritual man” within the spiritual triad is not concerned with individual (soul) or personal (personality) problems. The spiritual man works with the Divine Plan and the Divine Plan is concerned with great wholes. The “spiritual man” is really an extension of the Monad upon triadal levels.

184.      The attitude of the spiritual man to the soul/personality is impersonal. What is the highest point of view we are capable of achieving and sustaining? Is that point of view impersonal in the sense here indicated?

 

 If the expression is that of the higher mind, the use of the will will be in connection with civilisations and cultures for which the third department is responsible, and there will be the carrying out of the will of God in the large and general plans.

 

185.      Let us look closely at the qualities and areas of expression of the third major aspect of divinity through the higher mind.

    1. The innate will is used in connection with civilizations
    2. The innate will is used in connection with cultures
    3. The innate will aspect is used in relation to large and general plans.

186.      It must be noted that the monadic will is the Will of God or, at least, a tiny aspect of that Will.

 

  If it is the will as it expresses itself through the atmic aspect of the Triad, it will function in relation to races, nations, and the kingdoms in nature, and to great planetary arrangements at present unknown to man.  The synthesis of this picture will be apparent if carefully studied.

 

187.      Let us also tabulate the manner in which the “innate will aspect” works through the atmic aspect of the spiritual triad:

    1. It works in relation to races
    2. It works in relation to races
    3. It works in relation to kingdoms of nature
    4. It works in relation to “great planetary arrangements” presently unknown to man.

188.      The Buddha is possessed of a third ray Monad. Through which type of expression did the Buddha express monadically. The third ray Monad expresses through the higher mind. Does this seem characteristic of the Buddha? Or did He express through a combination of the higher mind and buddhi?

189.      If we search for a solution to this problem, will we find that ‘atmic mind’ or ‘Nirvanic mind’ is a higher correspondence to the higher mind? In the Buddha, what we see the relationship between ‘Nirvanic mind’ and higher mind?

 

At the same time it must be borne in mind that the destroying aspect of this pure will, expressing through the Monad, implements the purpose of Shamballa and is one of the major manifestations of the Love nature of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being;

 

190.      It would seem that DK is speaking of all three aspects of the “innate will aspect”. The purposes of Shamballa are implemented in three ways.

191.      We see that will serves love—at least in our present solar system. Destruction emanating from pure will serves the purposes of the Love of the Solar Logos—taking that Logos as the “One in Whom we live and move and have our being”.

192.      Is it too great a stretch for us to realize that destruction can be an instrument of love—in fact, very great Love?

 

 it is also [Page 312] the guarantee of our ultimate and inevitable attainment, perfection, illumination and divine consummation.

 

193.      The destruction emanating from the Monad guarantees the following:

    1. Ultimate and inevitable attainment
    2. Perfection
    3. Illumination
    4. Divine consummation

 

This destruction wrought by the initiate is preparatory to his responsiveness to the fifth word which he receives at the fifth initiation and to which we give the inadequate name:  Resurrect.

 

194.      We are preparing to move into a consideration of the fifth word. There can be no resurrection without a prior destruction.

195.      We will have to be careful as we consider the word, “Resurrect”, as the true Resurrection Initiation is the seventh, whereas the word “Resurrection” commonly refers to the aftermath of the fourth initiation, and in this context, seems to apply specifically to the fifth initiation.