Very Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I offer a few impressions on the entirety of the Rules II — for Applicants and for Disciples/Initiates. So much of value has been expressed by the group over the past five and half months. Those group members who have pondered carefully have certainly expanded their insight, benefiting from the contribution of their fellow group members. No one consciousness can contain all relevant insights — thus one of the obvious benefits of our work together. I am often surprised by the insight of a fellow group member, wondering how the insight had not occurred to me. I imagine the same is true for you.
Six months is not very much time to assimilate the kinds of Rules we are studying; in fact, six months is insufficient, but it is a start, and should so lodge the basic principle of a Rule in our consciousness that the Rule itself can begin to do its work on us (individually and collectively) over time. I expect quite a full flowering within about five hundred years! This may seem an exaggeration, but remember that the last two books of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are studied the Masters, Themselves. We read those Sutras for understanding, and our understanding grows, but there are applications required which are totally beyond us. Thus it is for the Rules. In a way, we prepare for the “reincarnated aspects of ourselves”. Nevertheless, much can be accomplished even now. My attempt is simply to put our efforts into perspective so that we may avoid inflation or minimization, as we (through meditation, study and service) attempt to prove ourselves worthy of closer association with the Great Ones and Their projects for humanity during the coming years.
Rule II for
Applicants: “When application has been made in triple form,
let the disciple withdraw that application and forget it has been made.”
Rule II for Disciples and Initiates: The Word has now gone forth from the great point of tension, “Accepted as a group”. Withdraw not now your application. You could not if you would; but add to it three great demands and forward move. Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule. Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group’s united life
A. “When application has been made in triple form, let the disciple withdraw that application and forget it has been made”
1. Preparation for initiation is thorough; there is no part of our nature the cultivation of which may be avoided.
2. Perhaps our emphasis (during a particular life, or during a period of a particular life) may be focused on one of the personality vehicles or another, but we know that the rules for initiation demand a certain percentage of atomic matter in the vehicle before initiation can occur: 25% for the first degree; 50% for the second degree; 75% for the third degree; and although, it is not explicitly stated (cf. IHS 17), presumably 100% for the fourth degree. So, clearly, these requirements must be fulfilled, and each of the personality vehicles must continue to improve as each initiation is approached.
3. This means, for instance, that although the main focus of the second initiation may be the astral vehicle, still, both the physical and mental vehicles must continue to improve — which means a heightening of vibration.
4. In the matter of the improvement of the vehicles, much use of the OM (auditorily or silently, but, most importantly, with meaning) is recommended.
5. The Fourth Rule for Disciples and Initiates has much to say about this type of improvement, leading eventually, to the dying down of the “eighteen fires”.
6. Improvement, however, does not come through obsessive focusing upon the vehicles. This will lead only to selfishness and the putting of second things first — though it is a trap into which many necessarily fall as they begin to take their development seriously.
7. Improvement comes especially through service. There is no faster of more effective way. “Serve and obey” are the watch-words, and the obedience, we are told, is to “the inner impulses of the soul”.
8. We are blessed by a knowledge of many of the technicalities of the Ageless Wisdom. The Tibetan has informed us admirably and the fifth ray in our natures has been stimulated. But we can get stuck in those technicalities and miss the possibilities which the ‘broad sweep’ would offer us.
9. Service accomplishes rapidly a multitude of necessary adjustments within the vehicles, which, otherwise, point by point, would take much longer.
10. We are told to “organize for speed” — not so that we, for ourselves, may more rapidly achieve liberation, but so that our speedy release may release to the needy world yet another server and helper for the Christ and His Hierarchy.
11. Therefore, our initiation is of the utmost importance for the “added power to help and bless that it confers”. (IHS 193).
12. Our chosen method is to treat preparation for initiation seriously but selflessly. Therefore (as Master Hilarion suggests) we work as one who is ambitious, but without ambition.
13. We continue to work with the three vehicles as if we were ever conscious of their improvement, but we are not principally focused upon their improvement. Good spiritual habits will allow us to continue their correct cultivation even as we attend to the business improving our contribution to the world.
14. All this means that once we have “made application” we are not allowed to let slip the vibratory state that is our application. To sustain the requisite vibratory level is considered a given; no true candidate can evade it.
15. Our inner monitor will let us know if and when the required vibratory levels are slipping, and then we attend to them immediately. We don’t let ourselves “fall out of shape”. Too much depends upon our condition as serving disciples to allow us the luxury of an unrectified slippage in our point of tension.
16. The best way to sustain the necessary point of tension is to serve, which, essentially, means to continue to radiate soul energy in everything we think, say, do and feel. Tall order!
17. Glamor and illusion can descend upon us, and “dampen our spirits”, reducing our effectiveness in service. But these dampenings must be thrown off as unworthy. Inspiration will cast away unworthy reductions of the vibratory level — reductions that tarnish our persistent “application”. Inspiration comes with clear vision of the Purpose, Plan and possibilities. We owe it to ourselves and to everyone else to keep the Purpose clear.
18. Thus, through service, we not only apparently forget our application but we sustain our application. This is the “best of both worlds”. When our brother’s need is for us of greater moment than our own, all our resources are marshaled for his/her aid, and as that aid flows, our vibratory level (and his/her’s of course) is heightened. Thus, service is its own reward, and the Christ spoke a most profound truth when He said, “It is better to give than receive”.
19. Through service, our application is apparently withdrawn. It is not withdrawn from the cognizance of Hierarchy. Rather, it is withdrawn from the forefront of our consciousness where incessant attention to it would lead only to self-absorption and ineffectiveness. Withdrawn in this manner, it is still very much ‘there’ — vibratorily sounding its note, to which the Master may evaluatively attend if He should so choose.
20. Therefore, let us find our best and most effective mode of service, and let us service with inspiration. Thus the application (though we “forget” it) is sustained and its quality steadily heightened.
B. The Word has now gone forth from the great point of tension, “Accepted as a group”.
1. It is only a group of high quality which can be “accepted as a group” in the manner set forth in this sentence.
2. So much needs to have been accomplished. If some of us are more frequently trapped in our personality than we should be, we know we have far to go. The continuous presence of soul, and then of Hierarchy, must precede the possibility of Shamballic acknowledgment.
3. So where do we stand? Is the Solar Angel the “sole luminary in the microcosmic sky”? If not, then rapidly it should become so. We cannot forever preoccupy ourselves with “lesser gods”.
4. So the soul-inspired life is the first prerequisite — for the individual and, in a larger sense, for the group. Until we are confirmed in the state of soul-inspiration, how can we speak of acceptance by the Ashram, acceptance by the Hierarchy as a whole, and, ultimately, acceptance by Shamballa.
5. Do we see how long the journey really is?
6. And yet, in this vision, we can be inspired rather than discouraged, for the end is sure and that Path sure to be not only interesting but (once our attitude is correct) exhilarating.
7. To be entirely practical, we have to know (within certain limits) what the Solar Angel really is, what it feels like when we are pervaded or infused by it. The remainder of our normal life must be contrasted with this realization, and the realization constantly cultivated and strengthened. Soul-infusion is our goal, and it is no small goal, for it is completed, really, only at the fourth initiation.
8. Then, there is the Ashram. Is it just a word to us, or is it a recognizable point of tension? Under what circumstances and when do we think we register the Ashram? One thing is quite certain — a disciple, if affiliated with an Ashram, is far more likely to register its presence when engaged in some line of work, thought or expression which is in line with the Plan and Purpose of that Ashram. Ashramic registration will ever be an impersonal matter and will have everything to do with the larger picture (even though quite localized applications are entirely necessary). One can be at work in the most humble situation, even one that involves personal factors in the lives of others, and still, through one’s expression, the Ashram will be at work. Yet the Ashramic worker is not personal, nor personally involved for any tangible or intangible acquisition.
9. So, then, a study of the Ashram (and especially, in our case, the Ashram of Master D.K.) is of relevance in this work. He laid out certain projects that emanated from His Ashram. To what extent are we involved in these projects, or in the projects of the greater Ashram which includes His — i.e., the Ashram of the Master K.H. To what extent do we know the nature of the work of any Ashram and the will of its Master?
10. What I am saying is that it does no good vaguely to talk about “the Ashram”. If we really hope for affiliation, we have to be working along the line of a particular Ashram. Then recognition will inevitably come. It is a two-way recognition. We recognize the Ashramic vibration; and we are also recognized. The individual and the group has to be accepted by the Master and His Ashram before it makes any sense to think of terms of being accepted as a group by Shamballa.
11. Thus far in our discussion, we have focused on soul-inspiration and the inspiration emanating from a particular Master and His Ashram. We now come to the possibility of registering the entirety of Hierarchy — no small matter and probably occurring far more rarely than most disciples suspect.
12. Hierarchy is a vast center of energy. It has, seven major divisions and, in potential, forty-nine subdivisions — each with its unique type of specialized energy. Who can comprehend all that it is? Hierarchy is the Ashram of Sanat Kumara, so we cannot possibly wrap our consciousness around its entirety.
13. Nevertheless, perhaps at some high points of sensitivity made possible at those times of the year when global meditation is intense, we can touch, just a little, something of this tremendous Presence of Love and Wisdom.
14. And if we did, what would be the effect? No casual contact with a higher vibration, but something enormous, impulsive and impelling — contact with something that holds the salvation of humanity and this planet in its grasp.
15. Perhaps we may register something of Hierarchy by thinking of those illustrious Individualities of Whom we may be somewhat aware — the Masters Whose names have been given out to us. Maybe we will register just a little of Their Intention, Their Vibration. This is legitimate, and gratitude towards Them will increase our apprehension of Their Natures.
16. But Hierarchy, itself, consists of many Masters — and most of Them we do not know by name, nor do we specifically know Their functions.
17. And Hierarchy is presided over the Three Great Lords — the Manu, the Bodhisattva and the Mahachohan. Do we imagine that we really know these great Beings?
18. So a registration of Hierarchy, as an entirety, is really an expansive and intense realization, and probably not our ordinary fare in meditation. Or if we think it is, perhaps we delude ourselves?
19. I would say that particularly at the Full Moons (and, still more, at the Three Great Spiritual Festivals) some glimmer of Hierarchy’s entirety may be registered in all humility (i.e., in correct proportion). We should strive for it with full concentration and see what is possible. The conception of Hierarchy is a grand conception; even holding the concept, and continually refining it helps.
20. Then, what of acceptance by Shamballa. Do we see why we may be talking of events that lie much further ahead within the Aquarian Age? Even the Hierarchy can only safely make its approach to Shamballa together, and only once a year — at Wesak.
21. Shamballa is such a mighty Center — inconceivable, really, to us. Yes, we may imagine and formulate conceptions of the “Center where the Will of God is known”, but these imaginings and conceptualizations are surely based upon our best illusion of the moment. Still, we do ascend through the use of our best illusions.
22. We well know that Shamballa is not a term much used by the human race. Even among those who use it, it is relatively meaningless. Before we can entertain any ideas of being “accepted as a group” by the “great point of tension”, we must educate ourselves about what it is that is accepting us.
23. I am remembering a project given by Master D.K. to one of His disciples — to write a book about the “Way into Shamballa”. D.K. knew that if this disciple followed the suggestion (which, interestingly, he did not), he would learn much and would be impressed to some small degree with the actual energy of the great Center. A deepened understanding of Shamballa is possible.
24. Wesak is that time of the year when access is most likely. As well, the Leo Full Moon is another time. Perhaps, this year, when the “higher interlude” approaches, we may manage to be better informed about the true nature of the highest of all planetary centers.
25. But to really experience that energy? — so much of personality must have been rendered inconsequential in the eyes of the one (or the group) who would approach. One is no longer living unto himself (even in a higher sense). There is an Absolute Will for this planet, which the obstructed consciousness will never realize. Hence the necessity of the burning which leaves us sufficiently essentialized to respond to that Will.
26. Probably only in moments of intense self-forgetfulness, inspired by selfless love, will we ever know anything about the real energy of Shamballa. Yet we are capable of such moments and the Wisdom of Life will lead us — in the fullness of time — into situations in which we cannot help but express in the manner required. The thought is inspiring. Let us keep alive in our minds and hearts a vision of the magnificent possibilities which humanity is destined to fulfill.
C. Withdraw not now your application. You could not if you would; but add to it three great demands and forward move.
1. As we serve we both withdraw our application and refuse to withdraw our application. It seems a paradox, but we are equal to its solution.
2. We are hastening towards ashramic registration and cooperation — and, incidentally, ashramic protection. A well-sustained vibratory pattern is a protection against a reduction of that pattern. As we grow into the Ashram (by knowing what it is really doing, attuning to its will, and by helping it accomplish its ends), we share in the well-sustained pattern. We stand upon a ‘vibratory plateau’ and have earned some degree of protection against our lesser selves.
3. An Ashram is a “sacred space” as much as a “sacred place”, and from the sanctity of that space we labor to work on behalf of those in need.
4. In doing so, we learn to use and be used by the Divine Will. We demand, not as personalities, but as projections of a Higher Will. We demand as part of the ‘Plan-in-Enactment’. Our insistence, when correct, is really the force of the Higher Will working through into manifestation. Therefore, we see the need of an achieved impersonality before we can demand in this way.
5. Let us keep the big picture before our eyes. What is going on in our nation? Among nations? Among kingdoms of nature? On this planet as a whole? The Plan is concerned with these larger matters, and the only ones who have any right to demand are cognizant of such matters. This doesn’t mean that we can do and know everything, but we can be informed in a large and general way about the major themes of national, international and global evolution. Thus, we can work as occultists, who always work from ‘above’ to ‘below’’.
6. We all know the opprobrium that attaches to those who are experienced as “demanding individuals”. Really, they are often offensive because they are ‘demanding personalities’. We can be occultly demanding without numbering ourselves among the selfish, self-centered and self-serving. Of course, this will take much skill-in-action.
7. One of the great projects for mastery by up-and-coming disciples is how to use the will effectively and yet inoffensively. Of course, many will necessarily be offended, but at least that reaction will not have resulted from insufficient skill-in-action on the part of the one who applied the will.
8. Perhaps we will spend a few life-times learning how to be ‘properly demanding’.
D.
Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule.
1. We want to be able to rely upon ourselves. The Buddha thought this was very important and spent a good portion of His last sermon emphasizing the point.
2. The ability to live according to memory (in the sense here meant), is the reward of lives well-lived, and the cultivation of a structure of good spiritual habits as a result.
3. We can all rely upon ourselves to some extent without having to examine the quality of every single thing we do. Perhaps our best approach is to simultaneously trust ourselves while remaining vigilant.
4. In some of the horoscopic work I have lately been doing, I have studied the life of John Calvin and some thinkers of the early Protestant Reformation. Their view of humanity was pessimistic. Not much good was seen in man. God Immanent was not mentioned. Following such a negative thoughtform, one would be a fool to trust himself or herself. No good would come out of such trust.
5. But the occult world view (a blatant and severely punishable heresy in the eyes of these ‘reformers’), is entirely different. God is immanent, and Divinity is inherent. There is much good in even the worst of us, and we have learned a lot as we have lived — life after life. We are not perfect, but in many things we are trustworthy and may proceed as such — not overconfidently, but rather watchfully, vigilantly.
6. Our minds are focused on the future; this is the way to live says Master Morya, and the Tibetan tells us that the initiate always deals with the new, with that which has not yet been precipitated.
7. Something, then, must take care of the maintenance of the immediate moment, and hopefully, increasingly in the case of all of us, it will be “right memory” — a good structure of spiritual habit upon which we may rely.
8. As well, that ancient memory of our true spiritual nature may be alive in us, subtly guiding towards the realization of monadic purpose, and thus of planetary Plan and Purpose.
9. We all have inherent ancient memories of the Good upon which we may rely. It is just a question of accessing them — perhaps accomplished more by feeling or quasi-intuitively at first than cognitively. At length, we may ‘recall’ them, as we are restored, after our long, long, “aeonial” Pilgrimage, to our “high estate”.
10. Meanwhile, let us trust somewhat to what we have learned along the way, and to our innate though imperfectly expressed goodness. Then, more easily, can memory rule.
E. Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group’s united life.
1. Already our sense of being a real group is growing in the hearts and minds of many members. I can only imagine that it will continue to grow as the years elapse, for I do not doubt that we will carry our intention to completion regardless of the comings and goings of those who are presently involved.
2. Our work is enriching us — that much is clear. We place ourselves resonantly in line with energy of the Master and His Ashram, and are nourished in ways supplementary to our nourishing of each other.
3. Our ponderings on the content of the group’s united life have been fruitful — much of the scope of that content has been suggested. Some have had experiences of it; some have speculated upon its higher reaches. All who have thought about it realize that it is deeper and wider than at first they may have imagined.
4. So, then, we are a group. We are part of what the Tibetan has called the “banded esoteric organisms”, for surely we do represent many different esoteric schools and groups. Such organisms (including the Church Organism and the Masonic Organism) are, one day, to present their candidates before the Initiator. The candidates will be presented in groups — and for this we are training.
5. We are working in a reasonable rhythm, trying to fathom what has been called “the united breath and the unified rhythm”. We are seeking to allow inertia (technically understood, in one respect, as the tendency of a body in motion to remain in motion) to work for us, and we are gathering spiritual momentum as we go.
6. We are, as I have often said, ‘growing into each other’, and learning something of that subjective spiritual intimacy which will, eventually, reveal to us the meaning of “ashramic intimacy”.
7. If all goes well, and I trust it will, our entire approach to spiritual endeavor and spiritual progress will be significantly altered and improved by our years together. We will be working, not just from all that is within the content of our own accumulated experience (which we do anyway), but from “all that is within the content of the group’s united life”. We are invested in each other, and through our association, are augmenting each other’s spiritual possibilities.
8. We are being taught in many ways. We have the Master’s words — irreplaceable. We have each other. And we have ourselves. We are learning from within — ‘in-tuition’. We are essentially Self-taught. But then, “Let the group know there are no other selves”. And also, let the group “no longer use the thought, ‘my soul and thine’.” So, who is the Teacher. The Self? The other? Really, they are the same.