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Meditation for the
Right Direction Money

(Sundays)

Meditation for the
Reappearance
of the Christ

(Thursdays) From the writings of Alice Bailey

introduction by Guy Pettitt

In His teachings on meditation, the Tibetan Teacher gave a series of seven progressive meditations to his students, and these are published in the book Discipleship in the New Age, together with the reasoning behind them.  Our group is undertaking to follow the same sequence, in order better to understand the nature of meditation as both individual and group service activity, and to develop our skills in this regard.  At one point He suggests that we begin to think of meditation as the building of thoughtforms for the future, and of our responsibility to do this well.

As part of this process of building soul-centred thoughtforms for the future He asked His students to carry out (regularly) two other meditations. 

One was designed to enable humanity’s use of money to become much wiser, for money to be seen eventually as a form of pranic energy that is to be increasingly redirected into channels which serve humanity better then heretofore.  It is to enable the New Group of World Servers (NGWS) to fulfil their function better

The other was to help prepare the way for the “Reappearance of the Christ” (whether you understand that to mean in person or by the development of the Heart of Love in Humanity). 

The nature and role of the NGWS, the process of the externalisation of the Hierarchy and the Reappearance of the Christ are more fully described in the books Externalisation of the Hierarchy, the Treatise on White Magic, The reappearance of the Christ,  and Esoteric Psychology.  The Tibetan often implied that the main reason for His teaching was to facilitate the lifting or expansion of humanity’s consciousness to a level where the Reappearance would be possible.

These two meditations appear quite close together in the writings, hinting that there could be a connection between them. 

This small compilation begins by quoting the meditations, for your easier use if you choose to use them regularly as part of your meditation programme.

The rest of the compilation includes sections He gave to us that help to illuminate our thinking about both topics, and the section in which the two meditations were given is included in full..

[The italics and change to this font are mine, to help you to find the places where the topic is being discussed more specifically, and the rest of the text is included so that you can see the context in which this teaching is given]

 

Stage I.

After achieving a positive and intended personality quietness, formulate clearly to yourself in your own words, the answers to the following questions:

1. As a member of the New Group of World Servers, what is my specific, fixed intention at this moment of dedicated contact with my soul?

2. Is my concentrated and expressed personality purpose in line with hierarchical intention—as far as I am permitted to know it?

3. Have I—in my own personal daily life—earned the right (because of definite effort and not so much because of success) to stand with those Servers Who are now undertaking the work of Preparation?

This is the one time in the meditation where you think of yourself, and it is here because it is a method of personality, focussed attention and aligns your personality upon the mental plane.

Stage II.

Having answered these three questions in the light of the soul, then say with emphasis:

"Forgetting the things which lie behind, I will strive towards my higher spiritual possibilities. I dedicate myself anew to the service of the Coming [Page 227] One and will do all I can to prepare men's minds and hearts for that event. I have no other life intention."

PAUSE

Stage III.

1. Visualise the world situation as best you can and in terms of your major world interest and with what knowledge of world affairs you may possess. See the mass of men everywhere glowing with a dim light and, here and there, points of brighter light where members of the New Group of World Servers and men of spiritual intention and of loving hearts are working for their fellowmen.

2. Then visualise (through the creative imagination) the vivid light of the Hierarchy, streaming towards humanity and slowly merging with the light which is already in men. Then say the first stanza of the Invocation:

"From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth."

3. Then ponder upon the reappearance of the Christ; realise that no matter by what name He may be called in the many world religions, He is still the same great Identity; reflect and speculate upon the possible results of His appearance. Then say the second stanza of the Invocation:

"From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let Love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth."

4. Endeavour to concentrate your fixed intention to serve and to spread love in your surroundings and realise that in so far as can do these things you are attempting to blend your personal will with the divine Will. Then say stanza three of the Invocation:

"From the Centre where the Will of God is known
Let Purpose guide the little wills of men—
The Purpose which the Masters know and serve."

5. Consider practically what you can do in the coming week to further the preparations for the coming of the Christ.

PAUSE

Then sound the OM three times, dedicating the threefold personality to the work of preparation.

Suggestions:

1. It is suggested that you do this meditation once every week, each Thursday, in the place of your usual meditation; endeavour to assume an attitude of aspiration, devotion, prayer and fixed intention (in this order), prior to following the outline. Esoteric students need the heart approach, as well as the mental approach, in order to make this meditation the powerful instrument which it can be.

2. Between Thursdays endeavour to carry out the results of the reflection expressed in this meditation. Lay practical plans and then review each week the planned activities when you sit down to this meditation, in the light of your expressed Intention.

3. Make this meditation brief and dynamic. After doing it a few times, this should be easily possible; forget the various stages and be impelled by the sequence and the synthesis of the form.


REFLECTIVE MEDITATION ON

ATTRACTING MONEY FOR HIERARCHICAL PURPOSES

(Sundays)

Stage I.

After achieving a positive and intended personality quietness, formulate clearly to yourself and in your own words, the answers to the following questions:

1. If money is one of the most important things needed today for spiritual work, what is the factor which is at present deflecting it away from the work of the Hierarchy?

2. What is my personal attitude towards money? Do I regard it as a great and possible spiritual asset, or do I think of it in material terms?

3. What is my personal responsibility in regard to money which passes through my hands? Am I handling it as a disciple of the Masters should handle it?

PAUSE

Stage II.

1. Ponder on the redemption of humanity through the right use of money. Visualise the money in the world today as

a. Concretised energy, at present largely used for purely material purposes and for the satisfaction (where the individual is concerned) of purely personal desires.

b. Visualise money as a great stream of flowing golden substance, passing out of the control of the Forces of Materialism into the control of the Forces of Light.

2. Then say the following invocative prayer, with focussed mental concentration and from a heartfelt desire to meet spiritual demands:

"O Thou in Whom we live and move and have our being, the Power that can make all things new, turn to spiritual purposes the money in the world; touch the hearts of men everywhere so that they may give to the work of the Hierarchy that which has hitherto been given to material satisfaction. The New Group of World Servers needs money in large quantities. I ask that the needed vast sums may be made available. May this potent energy of Thine be in the hands of the Forces of Light."

3. Then visualise the work to be done by those groups which claim your present allegiance (i.e., the Arcane School and the Service Activities, or any other group which you know is attempting to carry out the hierarchical Plan). Then, through the creative imagination and by an act of the will, see untold and unlimited sums of money pouring into the hands of those who seek to do the Masters' work.

4. Then say aloud, with conviction and emphasis:

"He for Whom the whole world waits has said that whatsoever shall be asked in His Name and with faith in the response will see it accomplished."

Remember at the same time that "faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." Then add:

"I ask for the needed money for . . . . . . and can demand it because
`From the Centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.'"

5. Close with a careful consideration of your own responsibility to the Plan, and each week plan your financial cooperation with the Hierarchy. Be practical and realistic and know that if you do not give, you may not ask, for you have no right to evoke that which you do not share.

Suggestions:

1. This meditation is so simple that many of you may regard it as innocuous and perhaps futile. Used by many simultaneously, it may shatter the impasse which [Page 231] at present prevents adequate funds pouring into the work which the Hierarchy seeks to accomplish.

2. Do this meditation every Sunday morning. Take what you have saved during the previous week and dedicate it to the work and present it in meditation to the Christ and His Hierarchy. Whether the sum is large or small, it can become an attractive and magnetic unit in the Masters' plans.

3. Realise the occult Law that "to those who give shall be given" so that they can give again.

4. Attempt to feel true love sweeping through you, and have the fixed intention to express this love to all you contact. It is the great attractive and selfless agent in world affairs.


Excerpts from DK On Money

DINA I   pp 271-3

June 1936

BROTHER OF MINE:

I would commend you today for work accomplished silently within yourself. How much has been done, only you yourself can gauge. A steady re-adjustment has gone forward in your life and in your grasp of the work essentials, and you have succeeded in freeing yourself inwardly from much of the detail work with which you have been confronted. This was my desire; in the future, you can do much towards an aspect of my work which makes the rest of it possible. I refer to the financing of the work which I have planned. Cooperating with those who are endeavouring to procure the needed funds for the work to be done during the next few years will strengthen you inwardly and eliminate that fear which still tinctures much that you do. This fear to which I refer is not due to lack of courage as it is to fear of definite action, of clear speech where individuals are concerned, where the need is for a direct appeal and a straight presentation of the facts is warranted. This fear is being overcome; for this I have much commendation for you because this fear went down into the very roots of your being; it is basic in the form life and also in the specialised activity of the second ray type and is coincident with your second ray ability to react sensitively to others. It is, therefore, a problem to you of peculiar difficulty, as it is a soul expression and not a personality one.

This whole question of money is one of the greatest difficulty at this time and also one of the utmost simplicity. The difficulty is due to the wrong thought which, for generations, has been brought to bear upon the problem, leading to wrong attitudes, even among the most devoted disciples. The attitude of humanity to money has been coloured by greed, by grasping for the lower self, by jealousy, by material desire and by the heart-breaking need for it which—in its turn—is the result of these wrong attitudes. These wrong attitudes lead to [Page 272] the disastrous economic conditions which we find all around us. They are effects of causes which are initiated by man himself. In the re-generation of money and in the changing of man's attitude to it will eventually come world release. If this cannot take place, then some dire condition will arise; money (as we know it) will vanish off the earth and the situation will have to be met in some other way. Let us hope that this will not be needed but that it will be possible to change the thought of humanity where money is concerned so that it will be regarded as a great spiritual asset, as a definite spiritual responsibility and as a means to real world work. The custodians of money will then shoulder their responsibility without fear and with due understanding. At present, they hold on to it through fear of the future and distrust of each other. The key to the right expenditure of money and to its correct use can be summed up in the following statement to which I would ask all of you to pay attention:

As money has in the past ministered to personal and family need, so in the future it must minister to group and world need. Each unit has, in the past, attempted to act as a magnet and to attract to itself that which will meet what it regards as its need—using personal activity and labour, if of no influence or education, and financial manipulation where that was possible. Groups in the future must act as magnets; they must see to it that they are animated by a spirit of love. I give you a thought here which is capable of much expansion. Need, love and magnetic power are the three things which—consciously or unconsciously—attract money. But they must all manifest at once. The need in the past has not always been real, though it has been felt (such is the world glamour and illusion). The love has been selfish or unreal; the demand for things material has been for that which is not necessary to health or happiness. The magnetic force utilised has been, therefore, wrongly motivated and this process—carried forward over so long a time—has led to the present dire financial situation in the world.

By the transmutation of these factors and the expression of their higher correspondences—through right love, right thought or meditation and right technique—the financial requirements [Page 273] of the new groups and of the New Group of World Servers will be found. I would suggest that an elaboration of these ideas should be disseminated among all whom you know who could help. I would ask you to ponder much on these ideas for, in the education of the intelligent world servers, this question of money and of right attitudes towards money and right meditation upon money must be boldly faced. The emphasis laid by certain large groups on meditation for the raising of funds (usually for personal use or for the selfish ends of their own particular organisation or group) has been based upon this emerging concept of the group use of money. Being, however, selfishly and personally interested, the money was thought of in relation to the individual and not in relation to the group. This attitude must and will be changed.

One thing more I would ask of you, my brother, and of the group who read my words. Money is the manifestation of energy. All energy can be applied in differing ways, being in itself an impersonal and blind force. It can be selfishly or unselfishly used. That, in itself, constitutes the main difference. Motive and creative thought determine the magnetic power of any individual, group or centre. Determine your motive; see that your group ideal and group love are dominant; use skill in action; this will involve right preliminary meditation, plus correct thinking; then you will find that that which you need will be forthcoming.

 

From Esoteric Healing

5. The fifth ray technique (of healing).

That which has been given must be used; that which emerges from within the given mode will find its place within the healer's plan.  That which is hidden must be seen and from the three, great knowledge will emerge.  For these the healer seeks.  To these the healer adds the two which are as one, and so the fifth must play its part and the five must play its part and the five must function as if one.  The energies descend, pass through and disappear, leaving the one who could respond with karma yet to dissipate and taking with them him who may not thus respond and so must likewise disappear.

The obvious and simplest meaning of the fifth ray mode of healing is that the healer, working scientifically and largely on concrete levels, employs all aids to bring about a cure, starting with appropriate physical care and passing on to subtler modes of healing.  Again I would point out that physical aid can be as divinely used as the more mysterious methods which the metaphysical healer of the present time believes to be so profoundly more effective.  Just as all modern knowledge, developed on the physical plane, through the personalities of men and women of insight and genius everywhere, is useful to the disciple and initiate, in time and space, so it is with the medical sciences.  Just as right application of these varying sciences has to be made by the disciple or the initiate in order to bring about spiritual results, so must it be when the healer is at work.

All work becomes spiritual when rightly motivated, when wise discrimination is employed and soul power is [Page 711] added to the knowledge gained in the three worlds.  The dynamic use of energy in one of its seven streams, added to the sane understanding and work of the modern physician, aided by the healer (who works as does a catalyst), can produce miracles when destiny so ordains.  The metaphysical healer who works solely on the subtler levels is like the spiritual worker who fails so constantly to precipitate the needed financial assets on the physical plane.  This is caused frequently by a subtle—though usually unrecognised—sense of superiority with which the average healer and the esotericist views his problem of materialisation of either physical health or money.  Ponder on this and realise that fifth ray methods carry through to the physical plane; there they engender conflict and eventually produce a physical precipitation of the desired nature.  In what I have said anent the fifth ray techniques, I have given more hints and information than in any of the others.

From a Treatise on White Magic:  The New Group Of World Servers [Rule Ten]

THE NEW GROUP OF WORLD SERVERS

We have spoken often of the integrating group of knowers who are beginning to function upon the earth, gathered together in loose formation and held by the inner spiritual tie and not by any outer organisation.  The planetary Hierarchy has always existed and from time immemorial and right down the ages those sons of men who have fitted themselves for work and who have measured up to the requirements, have found their way into the ranks of those who stand behind the world evolution and guide the destinies of the little ones.

Their grades and works are theoretically known, and names of some have been given out to the masses,—at what cost and personal sacrifice those masses will never know.  With the Hierarchy of adepts I do not propose to deal.  The books upon the subject are easily available and should be read with the needed reservations as to symbolical interpretations and the limiting effects of words.

An event is however transpiring upon earth which is, in its way, as momentous and as important as that crisis in Atlantean times when the physical, vital and astral bodies were coordinated and formed a functioning unit.  Then the `yoga of devotion' or bhakti yoga was initiated for the training of the aspirants at that time.  A physical plane replica (as far as such a replica was then possible) was organised of those who could work devotedly and who could learn, through the use of ceremonial and pictures, some mode of activity which would carry on the hierarchical work on earth and thus constitute a training [Page 399] school for those who later would be admitted into the ranks of the Hierarchy. 

The remnants of this Atlantean group remain with us in the modern Masonic movements, and the work of the Hierarchy was thus perpetuated in sign and symbol.  There has thus been preserved in the consciousness of the race a pictorial presentation of a momentous planetary condition which worked out in the human family in this threefold coordination.  But it was primarily objective.  Form and symbol, tool and furniture, temple and tone, office and externalities were the prominent factors; they veiled the truth and therefore preserved the 'outer and visible form of an inner and spiritual' reality.  Only those were, in those days, allowed to participate in these mysteries and work who felt within themselves the longing and desire for the mystical vision, and who loved deeply and were devoted to the spiritual ideal.  They were not required to possess active mentalities, and their intellectual powers were practically nil.  They liked and needed authority: they learnt through ceremonial; they were devoted to the Great Ones Whose names and forms stood behind the office holders in the esoteric lodges.  Mind entered not in.  This must be remembered.  There were no personalities.

Today, in the world, another great moment of crisis has arrived.  I refer not to the present world condition, but to the state of the human consciousness.  Mind has arrived at a functioning power, personalities are coordinated.  The three aspects of man are being blended; another formation or precipitation from the Hierarchy of adepts has become possible.  On the physical plane, without any exoteric organisation, ceremonials, or outer form, there is integrating—silently, steadily and powerfully—a group of men and women who will supersede eventually the previous hierarchical effort.  They will supersede all churches, all groups, and all organisations and will [Page 400] eventually constitute that oligarchy of elect souls who will govern and guide the world.

They are being gathered out of every nation, but are gathered and chosen, not by the watching Hierarchy or by any Master, but by the power of their response to the spiritual opportunity, tide and note.  They are emerging out of every group and church and party, and will therefore be truly representative.  This they do, not from the pull of their own ambition and prideful schemes, but through the very selflessness of their service.  They are finding their way to the top in every department of human knowledge, not because of the clamour they make about their own ideas, discoveries and theories, but because they are so inclusive in their outlook and so wide in their interpretation of truth that they see the hand of God in all happenings, His imprint upon all forms and His note sounding forth through every channel of communication between the subjective reality and the objective outer form.  They are of all races; they speak all languages; they embrace all religions, all sciences and all philosophies.  Their characteristics are synthesis, inclusiveness, intellectuality and fine mental development.  They own to no creed, save the creed of Brotherhood, based on the one Life.  They recognise no authority, save that of their own souls, and no Master save the group they seek to serve, and humanity whom they deeply love.  They have no barriers set up around themselves, but are governed by a wide tolerance, and a sane mentality and sense of proportion.  They look with open eyes upon the world of men and recognise those whom they can lift and to whom they can stand as the Great Ones stand,—lifting, teaching and helping.  They recognize their peers and equals, and know each other when they meet and stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow workers in the work of salvaging humanity.  It does not matter if their terminologies differ, their interpretations of symbols [Page 401] and scriptures vary, or their words are few or many.  They see their group members in all fields—political, scientific, religious, and economic—and give to them the sign of recognition and the hand of a brother.  They recognise likewise Those who have passed ahead of them upon the ladder of evolution and hail Them Teacher, and seek to learn from Them that which They are so eager to impart.

This group is a product of the past and upon that past I will touch; I will also indicate the present situation and forecast somewhat the general lines along which their association and future work will run.  That such a group is forming is true and holds a good augury for the coming decades.  In quiet and subtle ways they are already making their presence felt but theirs is as yet primarily a subjective influence.

Let us begin with the past.  About the year 1400, the Hierarchy of Masters was faced with a difficult situation.  As far as the work of the second ray was concerned (which had to do with the impartation of spiritual truth) there had come to be what I might call a complete exteriorisation of that truth.  The activity of the first ray had also brought about an intense differentiation and crystallisation among the nations and governments of the world.  These two conditions of concrete orthodoxy and political differences persisted for many generations and are still manifesting.  Today we have a similar condition both in the world of religion and in that of politics.  This is true whether one is considering India or America, China or Germany, or whether one is studying the history of Buddhism with its many sects, Protestantism with its myriads of warring groups, or the many schools of philosophy in the orient or the occident.  The condition is widespread, and the public consciousness tremendously diversified, but this state of affairs marks the summation [Page 402] of the period of separativeness and the end, before so many centuries, of this intense distinctiveness of thought.

After noting and watching this trend of affairs for another one hundred years, the Elder Brothers of the race called a conclave of all departments about the year 1500 A.D.  Their object was to determine how the urge to integration, which is essentially the keynote of our universal order, could be hastened, and what steps could be taken to produce that synthesis and unification in the world of thought which would make possible the manifestation of the purpose of the divine life which had brought all into being.  When the world of thought is unified, then the outer world will fall into a synthetic order.  It should be remembered here that the Masters think in large terms and work in the wider cycles of evolutionary endeavour.  The tiny and temporary  cycles, the small ebb and flow of the cosmic processes do not engage Their attention in the first instance.

At this conclave They had three things to do:

1. To view the divine plan on as large a scale as possible, and refresh Their minds with the vision.

2. To note what influences or energies were available for use in the large endeavour to which They were pledged.

3. To train the men and women who were then probationers, chelas and initiates so that in due time They could have a satisfactory band of assistants on whom They could in future centuries rely.

They had, in connection with these aspirants, two problems:

1. They had to deal with the failure on the part of even the most advanced disciples to preserve continuity of consciousness, a failure even now manifested by even initiates.

[Page 403]

2. The Masters found the minds and brains of chelas curiously insensitive to the higher contacts, and this again is a condition which still prevails.  The chelas, then as now, possessed aspiration, a desire to serve humanity, devotion and occasionally a fair mental equipment, but that telepathic sensitivity, that instinctive response to hierarchical vibration, and that freedom from the lower psychism which are the needed prerequisites to intensive intelligent work were singularly lacking.  For that matter, they are still distressingly so.  Telepathic sensitivity is decidedly on the increase as a result of world conditions and the evolutionary trend, and this is (for the workers on the inner plane) a most encouraging sign, but love of psychic phenomena and failure to differentiate between the vibrations of the various grades of hierarchical workers still greatly hinder the work.

You might here ask and rightly so:  What is this plan?  When I speak of the plan I do not mean such a general one as the plan of evolution or the plan for humanity which we call by the somewhat unmeaning term of soul unfoldment.  These two aspects of the scheme for our planet are taken for granted, and are but modes, processes and means to a specific end.  The plan as at present sensed, and for which the Masters are steadily working, might be defined as follows:—It is the production of a subjective synthesis in humanity and of a telepathic interplay which will eventually annihilate time.  It will make available to every man all past achievements and knowledges, it will reveal to man the true significance of his mind and brain and make him the master of that equipment and will make him therefore omnipresent and eventually open the door to omniscience. 

This next development of the plan will produce in man an understanding [Page 404] —intelligent and cooperative—of the divine purpose for which the One in Whom we live and move and have our being has deemed it wise to submit to incarnation.  Think not that I can tell of the plan as it truly is.  It is not possible for any man, below the grade of initiate of the third degree, to glimpse it and far less understand it.  The development of the mechanism whereby a disciple may be en rapport with Those responsible for the working out of the plans, and the capacity to know (and not just dimly sense) that tiny aspect of the whole which is the immediate step ahead and with which cooperation is possible, that can be achieved by all disciples and should be held as the goal before all aspirants.  With the exception of probationary disciples who are not as yet sufficiently stable in their endeavour, all can therefore strive towards achieving continuity of consciousness and at awakening that inner light which, when seen and intelligently used, will serve to reveal other aspects of the Plan and specially that one to which the illumined knower can respond and usefully serve.

To bring this about has been the objective of all training given during the past 400 years, and from this fact you can vision the utter patience of the Knowers of the race.  They work slowly and with deliberation, free from any sense of speed, towards Their objective, but—and herein lies the immediate interest of what I have to communicate—They do have a time limit.  This is based upon the Law of Cycles.  It concerns the operation of certain periods of opportunity which necessarily have their term.  During these times of opportunity, forces, influences, and energies are temporarily at work, and of these the Masters seek to make use.

Looking ahead, during the conclave to which I have made reference, the assembled servers of the race noted the future coming in of the Aquarian age, with its distinctive energies and its amazing opportunities.  These [Page 405] They noted and They sought to prepare man for that period which would approximate 2500 years, and which could if duly utilised, bring about the unification, consciously and intelligently, of mankind, and so produce the manifestation of what I prefer to call "scientific brotherhood" in contradistinction to the sentimental connotation of the term now so prevalent.

It appeared to Them at that time that it would be necessary to do two things before the coming potencies of the Aquarian age could profitably be employed.  First of all, humanity must have its consciousness elevated to the mental plane; it must be expanded so that it included not only the world of emotion and of feeling but also that of the intellect.  The minds of men must be made widely and generally active, and the entire level of human intelligence must be raised.  It was necessary, secondly, that something should be done to break down the barriers of separateness, of isolation and of prejudice which were keeping men apart from each other and which They foresaw would increasingly do so.  Cycle by cycle, men were becoming more and more wrapped up in their own selves—satisfaction and exclusiveness, and racial pride.  The result of this would lead inevitably to wide cleavages and the erection of world barriers between nation and nation, and between race and race.

This determination of the members of the Hierarchy to train the minds of men more rapidly and to build towards a more synthetic unity brought them to a decision which involved the formation of group units, and brought about the emergence of those groups of workers and thinkers who, through their activities, have so largely governed and moulded our world for the past three or four centuries.  We have therefore, dating from this conclave, the inauguration of definite and specific group work along clearly defined lines, with each group standing [Page 406] for some peculiar presentation of truth and for some aspect of the knowledge of reality.

These groups fall generally into four major divisions; cultural, political, religious, and scientific.  In more modern times three other groups have definitely emerged; they are the philosophical, the psychological, and the financial groups.  Philosophers have, of course, always been with us, but they have been for the most part isolated units who have founded schools characterised by partisanship and separativeness.  Now there are no outstanding figures as in the past, but groups who represent certain ideas.  It is of profound importance that the work of these seven groups of thinkers be recognised as part of the hierarchical programme, designed to produce a certain situation, to bring about certain preparatory conditions, and as playing a definite part in the work of world evolution as far as humanity is concerned.

Under the influence of the different rays as they cycled in and out of activity, little groups of men emerged, played their part in group formation, and disappeared, often unaware of their inherent synthesis and of their co-workers.  As can be seen in any intelligent historical retrospect, the work that they did for the race and their contribution to the pageant of the progress of mankind stands out with clarity.  I have not the time to take this procession of groups, each custodian of a special contribution, and trace for you the work they did or the subjective impulses under which they worked.  I can but indicate the trend of their endeavour, and leave to some illumined student of history the delineation of the golden thread of their spiritual work as they raised the mental standard of the race and put man en rapport with the world in which he lived, opening his eyes not only to the nature of matter and of form but also to the hidden depths of his own being.  Through their activities we [Page 407] now have a humanity in close relation, though not at-one, and a humanity characterised by three things:

1. An amazing interrelation and intercommunication, of which the radio, the press, modern transportation, and the telephone and telegraph are the servants.

2. A wide-spread philanthropic enterprise, and the growth of the sense of responsibility for one's brother, which was totally unknown in the year 1500.  Movements such as the Red Cross, educational foundations, hospitals, and the present economic relief measures to be found in every country are its exoteric manifestations.

3. A division of the entire human family, consciously or unconsciously, into two basic groups:  first, those who stand for the old order of things, who are reactionary, and separative.  They represent separative nationalism, boundaries, servitude, and servile obedience; they exemplify religious sectarianism and dependence upon authority.  They are against all modern innovations and progress.  Secondly, those who vision a unified world wherein love of God means love of one's neighbour, and where the motives underlying all religious, political and educational activities are characterised by a world consciousness and the welfare of the entire body and not of the part.

The unification to which the forward looking people aspire does not involve the neglect of any part, but it does involve the care and nurture of each part in order that it may contribute to the well being of the entire organism.  It involves, for instance, the right government and proper development of every national unit so that it can adequately perform its international duties, and thus form part of a world brotherhood of nations. [Page 408]

This concept does not even involve the formation of a world state, but it does involve the development of a universal public consciousness which realises the unity of the whole, and thus produces the determination that each must be for all and all for each as it has been said.  Only in this way can there be brought about an international synthesis which will be characterised by political and national unselfishness.  This universal state of mind will not again inevitably involve the founding of a world or universal religion.  It requires simply the recognition that all formulations of truth and of relief are only partial in time and space, and are temporarily suited to the temperaments and conditions of the age and race. 

Those who favour some particular approach to the truth will nevertheless achieve the realisation that other approaches and other modes of expression and terminologies, and other ways of defining deity can be equally correct and in themselves constitute aspects of a truth which is greater and vaster than man's present equipment can grasp and express.  Even the Great Ones Themselves but dimly sense reality and though They are aware of deeper underlying purposes than are Their chelas, yet even They see not the ultimate goal.  They too are forced to use such unmeaning terms in Their teaching as Absolute Reality, and Ultimate Realisation.

Hence, during the past three centuries, group after group has appeared and played its part, and we today reap the benefit of their accomplishment.  Under the cultural group for instance we find emerging the poets of the Elizabethan age, and the musicians of Germany and of the Victorian era.  Groups of artists are likewise to be found, giving us the famous schools which are the glory of Europe. 

Two famous groups, one cultural and the other political, also played their parts, the one producing the Renaissance and the other bringing about the French Revolution.  The effects of their work are still [Page 409] to be felt, for the modern humanistic movement with its emphasis upon the past which is completed in the present, and its search for the roots of man's equipment in the earlier trends, harks back to the Renaissance.  Revolution and the determination to fight for the divine rights of man find their prime inaugurating influence and impetus in the revolution in France.  Revolt, the formation of political parties, the class warfare which is so rampant today and the splitting of every country into warring political groups, though sporadic always, have become universal during the past two hundred years, and are all the results of the group activity started by the Masters.  Men have grown thereby and have learnt how to think, and even though they may think wrongly and may initiate disastrous experiments, the ultimate good is inevitable and unavoidable.  Temporary discomforts, passing depressions, war and bloodshed, penury and vice may lead the unthinking into the depths of pessimism.  But those who know and who sense the inner guiding hand of the Hierarchy are aware that the heart of humanity is sound and that out of the present chaos and perhaps largely because of it, there will emerge those competent to deal with the situation and adequate to the task of unification and synthesis.  This period has been occultly called the "age of restoration of what has been broken by the fall".  The time has come when the separate parts can be reunited and the whole stand together again in its earlier perfection.

The religious groups have likewise been many,—so many that their enumeration is hopeless.  We have the groups of Catholic mystics who are the glory of the occident, there are also the protesting Lutherans, Calvinists and Methodists, the Pilgrim Fathers—those sour and earnest men—the Huguenot and Moravian martyrs, and the thousands of modern sects in every group.  These have all served their purpose and have led man to the [Page 410] point of revolt and away from acquiescence in authority.  They have driven man to the stage of thinking for himself by the force of their unique example.  They stood for freedom and the personal right to know.

These latter groups have acted largely under the influence of the sixth and second rays.  The cultural emerged under that of the fourth ray, whilst the first ray has impelled the political activities which have brought such changes in the nations.  Under the fifth and third ray impulses, groups of scientific investigators have arisen, working with the forces and energies that constitute the divine Life, dealing with the outer garment of God, searching from without towards the within, and demonstrating to man his essential unity with all creation and his relationship, intrinsic and vital, with all forms of life.  The names of the individuals in any group are legion and of relatively no importance.  It is the group and its interrelated work that counts.  It is interesting to note that in the scientific group the underlying unity is particularly noticeable, for its members are singularly free from sectarianism and selfish competition.  This cannot be said of the religious and political groups.

In relation to the many nations and the myriads of men on earth, these moulding groups under the various divisions are few in number.  Their personnel, their contribution to the growth of human expression, and their place in the plan can quite easily be traced.  The point to be emphasised is that these have all been motivated from the inner subjective side of life; they have come forth under a divine urge and with a specific work to accomplish; they have all been composed in the primary stage of disciples and initiates of the lesser degrees; they have all been subjectively  guided step by step by their own souls, which have, in their turn, been cooperating consciously with the Hierarchy of Knowers.  This has [Page 411] been the case even when the individual man has been totally unaware himself or his place in the group and that group's divine mission. 

Let it be remembered also that there has not been a single failure, though again and again the individual has not been cognisant of success.  The mark of these workers is that they build for posterity.  That those who have followed them have failed, and that those who have responded to this work have not been true to the ideal is disastrously true, but the initial group has uniformly achieved.  This surely negates pessimism and demonstrates the exceeding potency of the subjective activity.

The three groups to which I earlier referred require a word of comment.  Their work is curiously different to that of the other groups and their ranks are recruited from all the ray groups, though the members of the third group (that of the financiers) are found primarily upon the seventh ray, that of ceremonial organisation.  In the order of their emergence, they are the groups of philosophers, psychologists and business men.

The group of philosophers of more modern date are already powerfully moulding thought, whilst the ancient schools of Asiatic philosophers are just beginning to influence western ideas.  Through analysis, correlation and synthesis, the thought power of man is developed and the abstract mind can be unified with the concrete.  Through their work therefore that interesting sensitivity of man, with its three outstanding characteristics of instinct, intellect and intuition is brought to a condition of intelligent coordination.  Instinct relates man to the animal world, intellect unites him to his fellow men, whilst the intuition reveals to him the life of divinity.  All these three are the subject matter of philosophical investigation, for the theme of the philosophers is the nature of reality and the means of knowledge.

The two most modern groups are the psychologists [Page 412] who work under the Delphic injunction "Man, know thyself", and the financiers who are the custodians of the means whereby man can live upon the physical plane.  These two groups necessarily, and in spite of apparent divergences and differences are more synthetic in their foundational aspects, than any of the others.  One group concerns itself with mankind, with the varying types of humanity the mechanism employed, and man's urges, characteristics, and with the purpose—apparent or hidden—of his being.  The other group controls and orders the means whereby he exists, controlling all that can be converted into energy and constituting a dictatorship over all modes of intercourse, commerce and exchange.  They control the multiplicity of form—objects which modern man regards as essential to his mode of life.  Money, as I have before said, is only crystallised energy or vitality,—what the oriental student calls pranic energy.  It is a concretisation of etheric force.  It is therefore vital energy externalised, and this form of energy is under the direction of the financial group.  They are the latest group in point of date, and their work (it should be borne in mind) is most definitely planned by the Hierarchy.  They are bringing about effects upon the earth which are most far reaching.

Now that centuries have elapsed since the conclave in the sixteenth century, these external groups have played their part and performed most notable service.  The results achieved have reached a stage where they are internationally effective, and their influence is not confined to one nation or race. 

The Hierarchy is now faced with another situation which requires careful handling.  They must gather up and weld together the various threads of influencing energy and the differing trends of thought power which the work of the groups since the year 1500 has produced.  They have also now to offset some of the effects which are tending towards a further differentiation. [Page 413] This must inevitably be so when force is brought into contact with the material world.  Initial impulses have in them potency both for good and for evil.  As long as the form remains of secondary importance and relatively negligible, we call it good.  Then the idea and not its expression controls.  As time elapses and the energy of the thought makes its impact upon matter and lesser minds seize upon the particular type of energy or are vitalised by it, then evil begins to make its presence felt.  This finally demonstrates as selfishness, separateness, pride and those characteristics which have produced so much harm in the world.

About seventeen years ago the Masters met and came to a momentous decision.  Just as it had been decided at the earlier conclave to gather out of the inchoate masses of men, groups of workers along various lines, and set them the task of elevating humanity and expanding the human consciousness, so now it was felt wise to gather out of the many groups, a group which should contain (as does the Hierarchy itself) men of all races, of all types and tendencies.  This group has a specific mission, and some of the facts about it might be stated as follows:

It is first of all an attempt at an externalisation of the Hierarchy upon the physical plane, or a small working replica of this essentially subjective body.  Its members are all in physical bodies but must work entirely subjectively, thus utilising the inner subjective apparatus and the intuition.  It is to be composed of men and women of all nations and ages, but each one must be spiritually oriented, all must be conscious servers, all must be mentally polarised and alert, and all must be inclusive.

One of the essential conditions imposed upon the personnel of the group is that they must be willing to work without recognition, on the subjective levels.  They must work behind the scenes as do the Great Ones.  Its members [Page 414] therefore must be free from all taint of ambition, and from all pride of race and of accomplishment.  They must be also sensitively aware of their fellowmen and of their thoughts and conditioning environment.

It is a group that has no esoteric organisation of any kind, no headquarters, no publicity, no group name.  It is a band of obedient workers and servers of the WORD—obedient to their own souls and to group need.  All true servers everywhere therefore belong to this group, whether their line of service is cultural, political, scientific, religious, philosophical, psychological or financial.  They constitute part of the inner group of workers for humanity, and of the world mystics, whether they know it or not.  They will be thus recognised by their fellow group members when contacted in the casual ways of world intercourse.

This group gives to the word "spiritual" a wide significance; they believe it to mean an inclusive endeavour towards human betterment, uplift and understanding; they give it the connotation of tolerance, international synthetic communion, religious inclusiveness, and all trends of thought which concern the esoteric development of the human being.

It is a group therefore without a terminology or Bible of any kind; it has no creed nor any dogmatic formulations of truth.  The motivating impulse of each and all is love of God as it works out in love for one's fellow man.  They know the true meaning of brotherhood, without distinction of race.  Their lives are lives of willing service, rendered with utter selflessness and without any reservations.

The personnel of the group is known only to the Elder Brothers of the race, and no register of names is kept, and there are only three main requirements:

1. A certain amount of at-one-ment between the soul and its mechanism is essential, and that inner triplicity, [Page 415] usually dormant in the majority, of soul-mind-brain must be in alignment and active.

2. The brain has to be telepathically sensitive in two directions and at will.  It must be aware of the world of souls and also of the world of men.

3. There must also exist a capacity for abstract or synthetic thought.  This will enable a man to leap over racial and religious barriers.  When this is present also there is an assured belief in the continuity of life and its correlation to the life after death.

To sum up the situation, it must be noted that the groups in the past have stood for certain aspects of truth and have demonstrated certain ray characteristics.  The new group will express all the aspects and have in it members on all the rays.  The majority of the workers in the many groups have carried forward certain details of the plan, and added their quota of energy to the forward urge of humanity, but they have for the most part done this without any true understanding of what they were accomplishing, and without any real comprehension of that body-soul relationship which leads to really intelligent work, unless we except a few prominent mystics such as Meister Eckhart.  They have been primarily groups of personalities, with that added touch of genius which indicates a certain contact with the soul. 

The group that is now in process of formation is composed of those who are aware of the fact of the soul, and have established a soul intercourse that is real and lasting; they look upon the mind, emotions and body nature as simply an equipment whereby human contacts can be established, and their work, as they see it, is to be carried forward through the medium of this equipment, acting under the direction of the soul.  They are therefore living souls, working through personalities, and not personalities actuated by occasional soul impulses.  The members of the many groups were all somewhat one-sided [Page 416] and their talents ran along some specific line.  They demonstrated a capacity to write as Shakespeare, to paint like a da Vinci, to produce musical masterpieces like a Beethoven, or to bring about world changes like a Napoleon.  But the new type of group worker is a rounded out individual, with a capacity to do almost anything to which he sets his hand, but with a basic impulse to network on thought levels more than on the physical plane.  He is therefore of use to the Hierarchy as he can be used in a variety of ways, for his flexibility and experience, and his stability of contact can be all subordinated to the group requirements.

The true exponent of this new group type will of course not appear for many decades.  He will be a true Aquarian with a universal touch, an intense sensitivity, a highly organised mental apparatus, an astral equipment which is primarily responsive to the higher spiritual vibrations, a powerful and controlled energy body, and a sound physical body, though not robust in the ordinary use of the term.

What then is the present situation in connection with the integrating group of mystics?  Let me be somewhat explicit.

In every European country, in the United States of America, and in parts of Asia and South Africa are to be found certain disciples, usually unrecognised in the world at large, who are thinking truth.  Let me call your attention to that phrase.  The most important workers in this new group and those who are closest to the Great Ones are those whose daily thought life is oriented by the new ideal.  That this thought life of theirs may work out in definite esoteric activities may be true, but they are first of all and always those who live in and work from the "high and secret place".  Their influence is wielded silently and quietly and they lay no emphasis upon their personalities, upon their own views and ideas, [Page 417] or upon their methods of carrying forward the work.  These possess a full realisation of their own limitations, but are not handicapped thereby, but proceed to think through into objective manifestation that aspect of the vision which it is their mission to vivify into form.  They are necessarily cultured and widely read, for in these difficult transitional times they have to cultivate a world grasp of conditions and possess a general idea of what is going on in the different countries.  They possess in truth no nationality in the sense that they regard their country and their political affiliations as of paramount importance.  They are equipped to organise, slowly and steadily, that public opinion which will eventually divorce man from religious sectarianism, national exclusiveness, and racial biases.

One by one, here and there they are being gathered out and are gathering to them those who are free from the limitations of past political, religious and cultural theories.  They, the members of the one group, are organising these forward looking souls into groups which are destined to bring in the new era of peace and of good will.  These latter who are being influenced by the group members are as yet only a few thousands among the millions of men, and out of the four hundred accepted disciples working in the world at this time, only about 156 are equipped by their thought activity to form part of this slowly forming group.  These constitute the nucleus of what will be some day a dominant force.  During the next twenty-five years their influence will become potent enough to attract political attention, provided those of you who have seen the vision of a powerful subjective body of thinking Souls can speak the needed words, and outline those concepts which will hasten the work of integration, and put the units in this group in touch with one another.  Do your utmost to see that this is done and [Page 418] make this the message and keynote of the work you all do wherever you are.

What should therefore be the work of the immediate present?  Let me outline the programme as far as I can.

The first thing to be done is to strengthen the ties and establish firmly the link between yourselves and all those whom you recognise as possible working disciples in the new group.  To do this, acquaint yourselves with the work of the leaders of groups in the various countries of the world—such as Switzerland, the United States, Holland, Germany and Great Britain.  From their reaction to the vision of this new age type of work you can then make a temporary decision.  Watch them at their work.  Note the emphasis laid by them upon personalities.  If personal ambition seems to govern their activities, if their position is one of a determination to work in the group of mystics because of its novelty or because it gives them a certain standing or because it intrigues their imagination or gives them scope for gathering people around them, then proceed no further, but—preserving silence—leave time and the law to correct their attitude.

Secondly, be receptive towards those who seek you out and seem to vibrate to the same note.  When I say you, I mean the group to which you all subjectively belong.  They will come if you work with decision and sound out the note of unity so clearly that they are in no doubt as to your motives and your disinterested activity.  Some of the 156 who form the present nucleus will be known to you and will work in unison with you, though maybe not in your peculiar field of action.

The picture to be held before your eyes is that of a vast network of groups, working along the many possible lines, but having at their heart or behind them—working silently and persistently  influencing through soul contact—one or more members of the new slowly emerging [Page 419] group.  These focal points through which the Hierarchy is now seeking to work stand together telepathically and exoterically they must work in the completest understanding, preserving always an attitude of non-interference, and leaving each worker free to teach his own group as he sees fit.  The terms used, the methods employed, the types reached, the truths taught, the discipline of life demonstrated concern no one but the working disciple.

The members of this group of new age workers will, however, possess certain general characteristics.  They will impose no enforced dogmas of any kind, and will lay no emphasis upon any doctrine or authorities.  They are not interested in having any personal authority nor do they rest back upon traditional authority, whether religious, scientific, cultural or any other form of imposed truth.  Modes of approach to reality will be recognised and each will be free to choose his own.  No discipline will be imposed by these workers upon those who seek to cooperate with them.  The ideas of any one person or leader as to how the units in his particular sphere of activity should live and work, should meditate and eat, will be regarded as of no special value.  The members of this new group work esoterically  with souls, and deal not with the details of the personality lives of the aspirants they seek to inspire.

This is a basic rule and will serve to eliminate many worthy aspirants from this group of world servers now in process of forming.  The tendency to impose one's own point of view indicates a lack of understanding and it will rule many out.

Again, the young and promising aspirants must be sought out and carefully inculcated with the trend of the new ideals.  They must be taught to look for the divine and the good in all—both people and circumstances.  Breadth of vision must be developed and that [Page 420] wide horizon pointed out which will enable the aspirant to live through this transitional period which is now with us, so that when they reach middle life they will stand as pillars of strength in the new world.  Do not narrow them down to the ancient disciplines and teach them not to lay emphasis upon diet, celibacy, times and seasons, and so distract their attention away from the newer and sacred art of being and the wonder of living as a soul.

Forget not that when a man is living as a soul and his entire personality is therefore subordinated to that soul, unselfish purpose, purity of life, conformity to law and the setting of a true example of spiritual living will normally and automatically follow.  Food, for instance, is frequently a matter of climatic expediency and of taste, and that food is desirable which keeps the physical body in condition to serve the race.  Again, a divine son of God can surely function as freely and as effectively when in the married state as in the celibate; he will however brook no prostitution of the powers of the body to the grosser satisfactions, nor will he offend against established custom, nor lower the standards which the world has set for its highest and best.  The issues have been confused and the emphasis has been too often laid upon the physical acts and not upon the life of the actor when the attention is fixed upon the soul, the physical plane life will be rightly handled.  It will be realised that there is greater hindrance to the growth of the man in spiritual being through a critical attitude or a state of self satisfaction than by the eating of meat.

Two rules of life activity must be taught the young aspirant:

He must be taught to focus on constructive activity and to refrain from pulling down the old order of living.  He must be set to building for the future, and to thinking along the new lines.  He must be warned not to waste time in attacking that which is undesirable, but must instead [Page 421] bend all his energies to creating the new temple of the Lord through which the glory may be manifested.  In this way public attention will gradually be focussed upon the new and beautiful, and the old established creations will fall into decay for lack of attention and so disappear.

He must be taught also that partisanship is in no way a sign of spiritual development.  He will not therefore use the words anti this or pro that.  Such terms automatically breed hatred and attack, and effort to resist change.  They put the user on the defensive.  Every class of human beings is a group of brothers.  Catholics, Jews, Gentiles, occidentals and orientals are all the sons of God.

As regards the future of this world group of which we have been speaking much depends upon two things.

First, it is necessary for all those isolated disciples working in every country in the world, to become aware of one another and then to enter into telepathic rapport.  This may seem to you to be a wonderful but impractical vision.  I assure you that this is not so.  The work of establishing this rapport may indeed be slow, but it is an inevitable effect of the growing sensitivity of all the souls who are working in the field of the world.  The first indication of it is that instinctive recognition of those who constitute part of this group when they meet and contact each other in the ways of world intercourse.  There comes to them an immediate flashing forth of the light, an instantaneous electrical interplay, a sudden sensing of a similarity of vision and of objective, or a vital opportunity to aid in and to cooperate with each other in the work in which it is realized that all are interested.

Working disciples everywhere when they meet each other will know at once that their work is identical, and will advise with each other as to where cooperation and [Page 422] supplementary endeavour may be possible.  In about thirty years the interrelation between the units in this group (scattered as they may be all over the world) will be so close that daily they will meet each other at a set time and in the secret place.  This only becomes possible when the triplicity of soul-mind-brain are all aligned in the individual and when each aspect of it can be simultaneously in touch with members of the group.  At present all the souls of the group of mystics do work in unison; a number have succeeded in bringing the soul and the mind also into a close and established relation, but as yet the lowest aspect of this aligned and linking triangle, the physical brain, remains totally unresponsive to the waves of force emanating from the higher aspects of the disciples engaged thus in laying the foundations of the new age civilisation.

It is therefore largely a matter of perfecting the mechanism of the brain so that it can rightly register and correctly transmit the soul impressions and the group purposes and recognitions.  This involves:

1. The awakening into conscious activity of the centre between the eyebrows, called by the oriental student, the ajna centre.

2. The subordinating then of the activity of this centre to that of the head centre, so that the two vibrate in unison.  This produces the establishment of three things:

a. Direct conscious alignment between soul-mind-brain.

b. The appearance of a magnetic field which embraces both the head centres and so definitely affects the pineal gland and the pituitary body.

c. The recognition of this field of dual activity in two ways: as of a light in the head, an interior radiant sun, or as a dynamic centre of energy [Page 423] through which the will or purpose aspect of the soul can make itself felt.

3. The development of a facility which will enable a man to:

a. Use the mind in any direction he chooses, turning it externally towards the world of phenomena, or internally towards the world of spiritual being.

b. Produce consciously and at will a corresponding responsiveness in the physical brain, so that it can register accurately any information coming from the physical world, and the emotional or astral world.

c. Discriminate intelligently between all these spheres of sentient activity.

This will all be eventually covered by a new psychological approach which will emerge out of the old and be a blend of the mechanical schools, the introspective and the more purely oriental position, plus the conclusions of two new schools which will shortly arise but which are as yet too small to warrant a name.  They are in the embryo stage.  One school will deal with the energy aspects of the individual and his responsiveness to the energy of the universe in which he is immersed; the other will consider man as a unit of electricity.  Both will be quite one-sided but the contributions of the various schools will some day be unified into one synthetic presentation.

The second requirement which will establish relation between the working disciples in this group is the capacity to preserve a constant and sequential recollection of both the inner and the outer life.  We call it continuity of consciousness, and by this we mean the power to be fully aware of all happenings in all spheres and departments of man's being during the entire twenty-four hours of the day.  As yet this is far from being the [Page 424] case.  There is no real awareness of existence during the hours of sleep.  The dream life as related is as full of illusion as any of the more definitely lower psychic experiences.  The slowly growing interest in dreams from the standpoint of psychology and the investigation of their probable source are the first weak attempts towards establishing the awareness on a really scientific basis.  There is as yet no conscious registering of mental activity during such times, for instance, as when the emotional body holds the centre of the stage.  With what is the mind occupied during a long period of emotional upset?  It has, we know, its own life and its laws. 

Again, what are the activities of the soul when the development of consciousness will have reached the stage where there will be a sentient reaction in all the departments of man's nature and all of it recorded by the brain?  Already men are aware both of physical plane activity and emotional aliveness simultaneously.  That is for the majority a common and ordinary condition.  Where two activities can be registered at once, why not three or even four?  Such is the future ahead for the race, and the disciples, actively employed, will be the first to express and demonstrate this extended consciousness.

Thus telepathic interplay and extended sentiency must be developed and are closely interlinked with each other.

I have therefore pointed out the immediate future development of the individual disciple.  What lies ahead in the immediate future for the group?

First of all, a preliminary period of emergence into the public consciousness, and thus of making its presence felt.  This will be done through the steady communication of the new ideals and the constant emphasis laid upon the essential oneness of all humanity.  It will [Page 425] be the result of the uniformity and inclusiveness of the note sounded by one here and another there.  During this stage there must be no hurried work and no precipitate action of any kind.  The growth of the group and of its ideas will be slow and sure.  The group exists already.  It has not to be formed and organised, and there is therefore for none of you the assuming of any sense of responsibility nor the organising of any activity desired to lure these disciples, who have chosen thus to work subjectively, into publicity.  Such are not the methods approved by the Elder Brothers of the race, nor is it the way that They Themselves work.

Know each of you for yourselves whether you stand for the new position, the new attitude towards work, and for the subjective method.  Decide once and for all whether you prefer to work in the old exoteric ambitious manner, building and vitalising an organisation, and so producing all the mechanism which goes with such a method of work.  Remember that such groups are still greatly needed and are useful.  It is not yet the new age and the little ones must not be left exposed to the new forces, nor turned out bereft of the nursery to which they naturally belong.

Should the new mode of work appeal to you, see to it that the personality is subordinated, that the life of meditation is kept paramount in importance, that sensitivity to the subjective realm is cultivated, and any necessary outer activities are handled from within outwards.  Avoid a purely mystical introspection or its opposite extreme, an over-emphasised organising spirit, remembering that a life of truly occult meditation must inevitably produce outer happenings, but that these objective results are produced by an inner growth and not by an outer activity.  An ancient Scripture teaches this truth in the following terms:

[Page 426]

"When the sun progresses into the mansion of the serving man, the way of life takes the place of the way of work.  Then the tree of life grows until its branches shelter all the sons of men.  The building of the Temple and the carrying of the stones cease.  The growing trees are seen; the buildings disappear.  Let the sun pass into its appointed place, and in this day and generation attend ye to the roots of growth."

Little groups will spring up here and there whose members respond to the new note and whose growth into the world group will be watched over by one or more working disciples.  But these latter do not organise the groups; they grow as a man in this place and another in that place awakens to the new vision or comes into incarnation in order to take his place in the work and bring in the new era. 

These groups will demonstrate no sense of separateness; they will be unaware of personal or of group ambition; they will recognise their unity with all that exists, and will stand before the world as examples of pure living, constructive building, creative activity subordinated to the general purpose, beauty and inclusiveness.  Perhaps in the early stages of integration, the words friendliness and cooperativeness best describe them.  They are not interested in dogmas or doctrines and have no shibboleths.  Their outstanding characteristic will lie in individual and group freedom from a critical spirit.  This non-criticism will not grow out of an inability to see error, or failure to measure up to an idea;  falsity, impurity and weakness will be recognised for what they are, but when noted will only serve to evoke a loving helpfulness.

Little by little these groups will come to know each other and to meet with one another at set times and places.  They will come to these mutual conferences with no desire to impress one another and with no thought of relative numerical strength; they will demonstrate no ambition to increase their ranks.  How should they when [Page 427] they know themselves all to be members of the one world Group?  They have no teaching to give of a doctrinal nature and will not seek to demonstrate learning.  They will meet solely to discuss modes of world helpfulness, the formation of a platform so universal and composed of such basic truths that it can be presented under all the varying methods and utilise the many terminologies.  They will endeavour to employ each other's terms, and to familiarise themselves with each other's approach to reality and symbology.

Little by little also the special contribution and note of each group will be recognised and where a need exists for just that special approach and the particular note or method of interpretation in any part of the world, there will be an immediate and united impulse to facilitate the work that that special group could do in that place.

These groups, with the one subjective group of conscious living souls behind them, will be too busy with world service and interests to waste time on trifling nonessentials.  They will not have the time to play around with group names and insignia and badges and the technicalities of fraternities when they meet together.  World needs, world opportunities, and the rapid development of the consciousness of mankind and the initiation of humanity into the spiritual realities will so engross their attention that they will have no interest in purely physical plane arrangements, nor in laying the emphasis upon their own personal growth.  They will be well aware that response to world need in service and the life of focussed meditation will promote their growth.  Their eyes are not upon themselves, upon their own good characters, or upon their individual accomplishments.

Later as a result of their telepathic relationship and their united conferences, there may emerge certain esoteric groups and schools for development in order more rapidly to equip them for world service.  In these schools [Page 428] modes of meditation, the intensification of vibration and the laws of the universe will be taught, and the right use of colour and of sound.  But all will be subordinated to the idea of service and the uplift of humanity.  Also the schools referred to in Letters on Occult Meditation will gradually come into being.

But what use is it for me to forecast the future in more explicit terms and hold out a picture of an intriguing quality when at the present time the integration of the group of world mystics and its close welding is not an accomplished fact?

World unity, brotherhood in its true sense, the growth of telepathic interplay, the elimination of the non-essentials which serve to separate the thoughts of men and bring about separateness on the physical plane, and the laying of a true emphasis upon the fundamentals of the Ageless Wisdom, the manifestation of a true understanding, the bringing about of at-one-ment with the soul, the recognition of those who belong to the group of world Saviours—this is the immediate work to be done and this must engross your attention.

This and this alone warrants the expenditure of all that any of you have to give—love and life, time and money.

This and this alone justifies your existence and calls forth from all of you who respond to the vision that utter self-sacrifice which is so rare and so far-reaching in its effects.  The casting of all that one has at the feet of the Lord of Life in order that the work of world salvage may go forward, the elimination out of one's life of all that can possibly hinder, the giving of all that one has until it hurts to give, the ruling of one's life on the basis of surrender, asking oneself all the time:  What can I relinquish in order that I may help more adequately?  That and more than that lies ahead of all of you who hear the call and respond to the need and opportunity.

[Page 429]

Let me tell you this—this group now in process of becoming, will in time develop its own "yoga" and school of training which will gradually supersede that of the raja yoga and bhakti yoga schools.  The method of training will only be given to those who have trained the mind and learnt to control the emotions.  Hence the key to what is now going on.  The mode of training will be no easy short cut to the goal.  Only the intelligent can attain it and only coordinated personalities will be eligible to the teaching.  The keynote of the new yoga will be synthesis; its objective will be conscious development of the intuitive faculty.  This development will fall into two categories:  first, the development of the intuition and of true spiritual perception, and secondly, the trained utilisation of  the mind as an interpreting agent.

In the book Agni Yoga, some of the teaching to be given has filtered through but only from the angle of the will aspect.  No book has as yet made its appearance which gives in any form whatsoever the "yoga of synthesis".  We have had "bhakti yoga" or union through devotion.  Raja Yoga is now receiving emphasis, which is union through the mind.  It sounds like a redundancy to speak of union through synthesis, but it is not so. 

It is union through identification with the whole—not union through realisation or through vision.  Mark well this distinction, for it holds the secret of the next step for the personalities of the race.  The Bhagavad Gita gives us primarily the key to the yoga of devotion.  Patanjali teaches us the yoga of the mind.  In the Gospel story we have the portrayal of realisation, but the key or the secret of identification is still withheld.  It lies in the custody of a few in this integrating group of mystics and knowers and will be brought out into manifestation in the furnace of  their individual experience and thus given to the world.  But the time is not yet.  The group must grow in strength and knowledge and in intuitive perception.

[Page 430]

You ask me:  What keeps a man from becoming a member of such a group?  I tell you with emphasis that four things only keep a man from affiliation.

First:  an uncoordinated personality.  This involves necessarily an untrained mind and a feeble intellect.

Second:  a sense of separateness, of distinction, and of being set apart or different from one's fellow men.

Third:  the possession of a creed.  No matter how good a formula of beliefs it may be, it inevitably produces exclusiveness.  It bars some out.

Fourth:  pride and ambition.

You ask again:  How shall one qualify?  The rules are simple, and are three in number.  First, learn to practice harmlessness; then desire nothing for the separated self, and thirdly look for the sign of divinity in all.  Three simple rules, but very hard to accomplish.

Behind this group of mystics, which includes thinkers in every department of human thought (let me reiterate the word thinkers and of human knowledge stands the Hierarchy of Masters and in between these two groups stand also a band of teachers, of whom I am one.  These act as intermediaries and as transmitters of energy.  May I repeat and beg you to attend, that this group which is slowly forming is gathered out of every imaginable group of thinking and intelligent men.  As yet, and this may surprise a few, there are not very many occultists (so-called) among them.  This is due to the fact that the occultists are numerically few in relation to the masses of humanity, and also to their tendency to be sectarian, exclusive and self-righteous.  Selfless humanitarian workers are there; political leaders and economists and scientific workers in the world's laboratories are also there; churchmen and religious adherents from all the [Page 431] world religions are there and the practical mystics and a few occultists.  The true occultist is rare.

The group is and will be kept entirely subjective.  Its members are linked telepathically, or they recognise each other through the quality of the work they are doing in the outer world and the inclusiveness of the note they sound.  It is inspired from above by the souls of its members and the Great Ones, and is energised into activity by the need of humanity itself.  It is composed of living conscious souls, working through coordinated personalities.  Its symbol is a golden triangle enclosing an even-armed cross with one diamond at the apex of the triangle.  This symbol is never reproduced in form at all.  It shines above the heads of all who are in the group and cannot be seen by anyone (not even a clairvoyant) except a group member, and then only if—for purposes of work—his recognition needs stimulation.  The motto of the group is The Glory Of The One.

More I may not tell you now, but this will give you some idea of the reality of the work that is going on.  It may serve as an incentive to fresh effort on the part of all working to equip themselves for selfless service.

We are to take up now a very brief consideration of two types of energy of a major kind, which are, in themselves, composed and blended of coordinating energies.  The subject matter is therefore of so advanced a nature that it is useless for the aspirant to give much time to its study.  Volumes would be necessitated likewise if all that could be said were written, and it will only be possible in this book to outline some broad generalisations, and to indicate certain facts of interest.  The main reason that it profits us not to study these energies too closely is because the planetary Spirit or Logos and the planetary Entity are the two forms in active manifestation which respond most forcibly to the impact of these energies.  The human being responds, and that only subconsciously, [Page 432] because (in his form nature) he constitutes a part of the planetary expression.

The planetary Spirit is a Being Who, ages ago, passed through the state of consciousness which we call the human state and has left it far behind.  He (using the personal pronoun simple for the sake of terminological clarity) has an origin which lies outside the solar system altogether; his life is focussed in the planet; his consciousness lies in realms beyond the concept of the highest adept in our planetary Hierarchy.  The planetary Entity is the sum total of the forms which constitute the form through which the planetary spirit is manifesting, and therefore is the synthesis of the planetary physical, astral and mental elementals. 

For the purposes of our consideration, this Entity is the sum total of all physical, mental, astral and mental forms, which, blended and fused, constitute our planet.  Each is the embodiment of energy, and these two major streams which produce the form and the consciousness aspects of our planetary existence make their impact on the human being.  The life of the planetary spirit makes its impact via the soul; and the life of the planetary Entity is registered through the medium of the personality mechanism.

The duality of these energies is primarily astral-buddhic, and the bias of the life forces and the general trend of the impulses influencing humanity in this great cycle are the attractive energy of the intuitional nature of the planetary Logos, and the potent force of the astral (desire) body.  In other words, the astral elemental, which embodies the desire nature of the planetary Logos is exceedingly potent, particularly in this present cycle, but the strength of the spiritual and intuitional nature of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being is steadily increasing. 

On the one hand, you have the devastating expression of the wild hunt for pleasure, of sex and of the crime incident to the satisfying of desire. [Page 433] This characterises our present civilisation and is now at its height; it may be said that it is even on the decline, little as you may sense it.  At the same time, there is found the open door of initiation.  Both these opportunities (if I might so term them) are found simultaneously present, but the strength of the one is weakening, and the trend towards the other is growing.  Thus the way out can be seen.

In the above paragraph, the dominant planetary urges present in evolution are summed up and man's reaction to them noted.

Solar energies have also a dual effect.  First, there is what we might call the pranic effect, which is the result of the impact of solar force, emanating from the physical sun.  This produces definite results upon the objective forms, and these are termed physical or vital.  These enter the human body—via the spleen and also via a centre found between the shoulder blades; this centre is between the throat centre and the heart centre in the spinal column, but nearer the heart than the throat. 

Secondly, there are energies which emanate from what is esoterically called "the heart of the sun"; these sweep through one or other of the planets in seven great streams and power into the soul of man and produce that sensitivity which we call awareness.  These seven types of energy produce the seven types of souls or rays, and in this thought you find the secret of soul unity.  During manifestation, owing to the seven types of energy impacts, playing upon the matter of space, one finds the seven types of soul, the seven fields of expression, and the seven grades of consciousness and of ray characteristics.  These differentiations as you well know are like the colouring that the prism takes when subjected to the rays of the sun, or to the tracery of pattern found in reflection upon a limpid pool.


From DINA II Parts XIII and XIV

PART XIII

In my last instruction I made the statement that meditation was the major creative agent in the universe. There are other universes that are ahead of us in development and, in them, the emphasis may not be upon creation by use of mental energies; others may not be so advanced and, in them, mental energy may be in process of unfolding or expressing itself—in the evolutionary sense. There are also universes and solar systems where the quality and the conditions of the manifesting universe, solar system or planet are unknown to us.

It must be borne in mind that though in all manifestations the three aspects (of purpose or will, attraction, [Page 208] magnetic love or plan, and appearance as manifestation of both of these) are necessarily present, the manifesting Entity (responsible for these expressions of divinity) may work through and "occultly declare" conditions and qualities of which we have no experience or knowledge. We may possess utterly no idea in the highest flights of our abstract thinking (and this includes the most advanced thinkers upon our planet) of the nature of the impulses and concepts which animate certain universal Creators. Ponder on this.

I also pointed out to you that there are three major groups of meditating agents who act as intermediaries between the three groups of Self-conscious Lives upon our planet, and also between our planet and that which lies behind and beyond it and with which our planetary Logos has intimate and intensive relation. I am not, however, going to deal today with that which is extra-planetary; it would be, for you, sheer waste of time. I will deal with the theme of meditation as the agent of the creative process Now, and with the part meditation must play in the preparation for the coming of the Christ and the inauguration of the new civilisation which is so definitely on its way.

There are, as you may surmise (if you have read my instructions intelligently), seven phases of the creative meditative process; all of them are productive of the required results. All that at present exists in the three worlds and in the higher spheres is the result of some form of meditative activity. These seven sources are:

1. The planetary Logos Himself, Who formed and informed the world by His thought, and Who holds all together within His Mind for the many, many aeons of manifested existence. As I have before said, the occult truism that "God thought, God visualised, God spoke and the world was made and is sustained" remains eternally true.

2. The Group which is the higher correspondences of the Nirmanakayas. This group sustains and cooperates with the planetary Logos in His concentrated creative thought; its Members are the agents for attracting—through the potency of Their meditation—those extra-planetary energies [Page 209] which He needs to carry forward His vehicle of expression, the planet, and thus to bind all together into one great created Whole, tending ceaselessly to the greater glory of God. They wield the Law of Synthesis and hold steadfastly (in the universal Mind of the Logos) the ultimate result of the divine Will-to-Good.

3. Shamballa, with its life and intention focussed in the Council Chamber of the great Lord, Sanat Kumara. Here is known and embodied the Purpose of the planetary Logos under the meditative impression of the group which knows His will and which wields the Law of Synthesis. In the hands of this august Council, the Law of Karma finds adequate planetary guidance; this does not refer to the law as it affects the individual human being because of such individuals the Council Members have no knowledge, for the reason that They think and meditate only in terms of the Whole; but They know the nature of planetary karma and of its delayed or rapid application, according to transient planetary indications. The great Wheel of Life, with its passing manifestations and its recurring civilisations, is directed by Them; the manifesting kingdoms in nature, great cyclic expressions of life, are controlled by Them, and all this is produced through the potency of Their creative meditation which impresses the needed inspiration (another phrase for the breath of life itself) upon the Nirmanakayas and through Them upon the spiritual Hierarchy. Their link with all these planetary groups (and it is real and vital) can be grasped in the key statement that "all Lives upon or within the aura of the planetary Logos and of His manifested Body, the Earth, have been, are or will be in the future human being, thereby establishing and demonstrating their past, present or future identity with humanity, the fourth kingdom in nature." This kingdom is the planetary group or centre which expresses in time and space all the divine aspects—sometimes in latency and sometimes in potency. Here lies the clue to the entire mystery of divine guidance, and here is also to be found the guarantee of the divine Will-to-Good.

[Page 210]

4. The Nirmanakayas, the divine Contemplatives. This is the receptive group which receives impression from Shamballa in relation to the planetary creative purpose. Then They, on Their own level of atmic activity, build—through contemplative meditation—a vast reservoir of potent energies which are impregnated with the qualities of the seven energies of the seven planetary Rays. They are the Custodians of life, under the direct inspiration of the Buddhas of Activity, and They spend the aeons of Their planetary service:

a. In active contemplation of the divine Purpose.

b. In a developed receptivity to that aspect of the Purpose which must be expressed through the medium of the divine Plan, and thus presented to the Hierarchy.

c. In developing that spirit of sevenfold receptivity which will make Them a channel for the inflow of ray energies from Shamballa into the Hierarchy. Their united aura or area of influence and the extent of Their magnetic and dynamic radiation correspond roughly to the aura of the planet itself; They contain (within Their ranks) Members Who are identified with the Lords of the seven Rays.

They are, in a peculiar sense, the creative agents of life as it streams forth from Shamballa into all the aspects, areas, kingdoms and fields of manifestation. This They are enabled to do through sustained, concentrated, intensive and dynamic meditation. They are necessarily a second ray group (as the second ray is the ray at present of the planetary Logos) but They focus Their meditation largely along first ray lines (which is a subray of the second ray in this solar system, as you know) because They are the creative agents of life itself and the knowers and the custodians of the will of the planetary Logos, as it works itself out in manifestation. They are the source in reality [Page 211] of planetary invocation and evocation. Again, ponder on this.

5. The Hierarchy of Masters, the Masters of the Wisdom and the Lords of Compassion. This group, which stands midway between Shamballa and Humanity, is subject to impression from Shamballa, via the Nirmanakayas, and its Members are Themselves the agents for the impression of Humanity. They embody and express the love aspect of the divine purpose; They wield, direct and control the Law of Attraction—the motivating energy which swings the Law of Evolution into activity in the three worlds. Much is known by you anent this group of divine and spiritual Workers, and I will not enlarge upon it here. Basically, They work through directed meditation and each Ashram is a centre of meditation to which every disciple, initiate and Master contributes. I would have you bear this in mind and endeavour to realise, as disciples, that your meditation—both individual and group meditation—if it is of an adequate nature and quality—will be absorbed into and become part of the ashramic meditation. The theme of the hierarchical meditation is the Plan, as it embodies the divine Purpose.

6. The New Group of World Servers is fast becoming a major centre of planetary meditation. Much of this meditation is far from being of an occult nature but that is of no importance; it is largely based upon deep reflection upon the problems of humanity, backed and aided by the deep aspiration of the mystics found within its ranks, and aided also by the meditation of those few esotericists (technically speaking) who are working there also. This group is a reflection of the invocative and evocative capacity of the Nirmanakayas, but this aspect of their activity is only in process of being learnt and applied. The entire activity of the New Group of World Servers along the invocative line was stepped up and greatly hastened by the giving to the world of the three Invocations during the past few years. What was actually a vague demand and a fluid nebulous receptivity became (by the use of the Invocations) [Page 212] a powerful invocative plea, and resulted in the evocation of energies from the Hierarchy which were transmitted by the New Group of World Servers to Humanity and which are responsible for much of the constructive work now going forward in many parts of the world. I have told you much about this group and will not enlarge upon it here; your understanding of the work to be done should be instinctual for you all belong to it, if you are in any way dedicated to the service of humanity, under inspiration of the Hierarchy; your instinctual reaction to hierarchical impression as a member of this group should develop rapidly into an habitual life tendency. Thus is a Master created. The creative meditation of the New Group of World Servers has for its objectives the creation of the new civilisation and of the new world order.

This group itself works through another group: the intelligent men and women upon the mental plane, those who, added to the intelligence, possess a love of their fellowmen; these, in their turn, work through the idealists who seek a better world and those who respond to the inspiration of goodwill. This last group, in its turn, works with all who are emotionally implicated in the desire to help humanity change its living conditions for the better. These people are not open to direct spiritual impression, but the intellectual approach and the presentation of ideas appeal to them, and they constitute the active creative group who act as the dynamic inspiration to the seventh group, which is

7. Humanity itself. Men everywhere are, if they only knew it, always in a state of unconscious meditation, dreaming of better things, fighting for desired material benefits, longing for that which lies beyond their present possession and their present attainment and, in many cases, even their vision. All these desires, longings, wishes, visions and dreams are the "ingredients" of the focussed meditation which they will some day know; they are the first results which produce success in the three worlds, and which lead [Page 213] eventually to an integrated personality, ready to appreciate the higher aspects of meditation when concentration upon worldly material success and benefits has proved no longer appealing. That which they have, through meditative concentration, succeeded in creating (and all men, under the Law of Karma, create their own world) no longer satisfies; their meditation then shifts into the creation of higher things, into the world of spiritual values and of that which we cover by the unsuccessful and inadequate term of "heaven."

See you, therefore, how all that is, is created by meditation, by desire merging into transient thought, and transient thought becoming clear thinking and, eventually, abstract and transcendent thought. Prolonged concentration upon some form or another eventually becomes meditation upon that which is not of the nature of form; from thence it passes into that contemplation which is the source of inspiration and of illumination.

Trace these concepts which you, who have studied the Science of Meditation, know to constitute its recognised stages, and note how each stage is creative in nature, each stage produces creative changes and that (as far as humanity is concerned) the Christ spoke scientifically and also in a planetary sense when He said: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

You have, therefore, three major groups of thinkers and three other groups of intensive, creative thinkers, all of them responsible for and also dedicated to the comprehension of the divine Purpose as it works out through the spiritual hierarchical Plan; this is applied under the Law of Evolution to humanity and, through humanity, to the subhuman kingdoms in nature. From the human family, all divine Lives and Beings have come; in humanity the creative process is constantly working; and into humanity all subhuman lives must eventually proceed. As regards the meditative creative process, the diagram on the following page may serve somewhat to clear your minds:

[Page 214]

We need not deal here with the higher groups of spiritual Intermediaries and Their techniques of creative work, because Their meditation lies on too high a level for your consideration. But the meditation work done by the Hierarchy and by the New Group of World Servers lies within your range of understanding; many disciples will read what I am here saying and, in time, many of the lesser workers and aspirants in the ranks of the group will come to an understanding of my meaning. It might profit us if I briefly stated [Page 215] the grades of meditative work, leading to creative result of an effective nature, upon which you might reflect. For our purposes we will divide them into seven grades, of which four might be regarded as individual and the other three types as representative of their group nature:

1. Desire, leading to the attainment in the three worlds of that which the lower man desires and wants; this will include the desires of the lowest types of human beings through all intermediate types up to and inclusive of the aspirational mystic.

2. Prayer; this is the stage wherein the aspirant, the mystic or the spiritually inclined man blends personality desire with aspiration for soul relation and contact; he, through the proved efficacy of prayer, discovers the subtler powers and the fact of the essential dualism of life; he finds that he himself is both a lower self and a higher Self.

3. Mental reflection or concentrated thinking. This in time produces integration and definite personality achievement in the three worlds, leading eventually to controlled reflection and scientific or concentrated thoughts; this type of thinking has produced all the creative wonders of our modern civilisation and it culminates in the concentration achieved in occult meditation. This meditation finally brings about the reorientation of the personality and soul fusion.

4. Straight meditation. This is a focussed, concentrated mental attitude and fixed reflection; it is creative in nature, for it creates the "new man in Christ" or produces the soul-infused personality; this personality then proceeds to recreate his environment and to cooperate consciously with the creative work of the Hierarchy.

Little as you may realise it, all these expressions of human meditation or concentrated thought—whether it is concentrated desire for physical or emotional objectives or the higher aspects of spiritual, concentrated aspiration—do definitely [Page 216] create that which is desired. This is equally true of the other three stages, f they are intelligently and effectively creative and these four stages are responsible for all that is seen, possessed, utilised and known as existent in the three worlds. Men have inherited from previous civilisations much of value and much which is disastrous in nature; in their turn, modern men have created this present civilisation. This civilisation is unique, because it is the result of all the combined factors, and these factors have succeeded in bringing humanity to the point where there is recognition of failure, and in proving that religion and science together have reoriented men to the world of subtler and of higher values than the strictly material.

The other three stages of human meditation are as follows:

5. Worship. This is the united recognition and the subsequent reflection of humanity upon the fact of divine Transcendence and divine Immanence. It is implemented by the world religions and it created that path of return to the centre or source of divine life to which the world religions and the heart of man bear equal testimony.

6. Invocation and Evocation. This form of spiritual, dynamic meditation is largely in the hands of the New Group of World Servers and of the men and women of goodwill in every land. These will be generally unknown to each other, but they are all creatively striving and creatively thinking towards the worldwide uplift of mankind; they are earnestly working at the creation of a new world order and for the manifestation of a more definitely spiritual civilisation.

7. Ashramic Meditation. This is based upon the evocation of human response to the higher spiritual values; it concerns itself with the creation of those conditions wherein these new values can, under the divine Plan, flourish; it is focussed on that immediate aspect of the Path which humanity needs to tread, and its intent is to swing into creative activity the desires, aspirations, [Page 217] reflections and concentrated meditation of men, at whatever may be their particular point in evolution, so that a mighty, coherent and invincible movement will be instituted which must and will result in the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. This is one way of expressing the significance of the coming of the Kingdom of God on Earth, and the creation of a new order and way of life.

There are crisis points at times of superlative tension in the meditative work of all hierarchical Ashrams. At the times of the new moon and of the full moon, all members of all the Ashrams meditate deeply in an invocative and evocative manner; their meditation, therefore, falls into two parts: the first part is evocative of inspiration from the Nirmanakayas with Whom they deliberately get in touch; the second part is invocative of the New Group of World Servers and enables them responsively to come under hierarchical impression.

Three times a year—at the April, May and June Festivals* —there is a united hierarchical meditation led by the Christ; these Festivals are invocative of Shamballa or of that which lies beyond the Nirmanakayas and can only be safely carried forward in united meditation, under directed guidance and the highest possible inspiration. Each Ashram can approach the Nirmanakayas as a group at stated periods for which due preparation is made; only the entire group of Ashrams, the Hierarchy as a whole, can approach Shamballa. The New Group is invocative to the Hierarchy for purposes of impression and can be impressed by any Ashram through its disciples in that group; thus the great chain of contact and the great channel for the inflow of spiritual energy reaches from Shamballa to humanity and then, through humanity, to the three subhuman kingdoms; in this way, these lower kingdoms are "enlightened and raised." All this is accomplished through meditation, through invocation [Page 218] and evocation, carried forward in the spirit of worship, which is the fundamental method of spiritual recognition. Thus, creatively, the glory which is hidden in every form is evoked and slowly brought to exoteric manifestation.

In the destruction of the old world order and in the chaos of these modern times, the work of the new creation is going forward; the task of reconstruction, leading to a complete reorganisation of human living and to a fresh reorientation of human thinking, is taking place.

What, therefore, is the creative work confronting the Ashrams in the Hierarchy and the members of the New Group of World Servers, working creatively under the inspiration and the impression of the Hierarchy? It falls into two parts:

1. The work of bringing order out of chaos.

2. The task of preparing the way for the reappearance of the Christ.

There is much that must be done to change conditions, institute new values and produce the bringing in of an entirely new civilisation—a civilisation which will permit the externalisation of the Ashrams, or of the Hierarchy, and a restitution, therefore, of hierarchical or spiritual control as it was known in old Atlantean days, only this time on a much higher turn of the spiral and with the intelligent cooperation also and the wise assistance of humanity, which was a factor lacking in the earlier civilisation. Once this has been dealt with in the reflective, concentrated meditation of the individual aspirant, in the united reflection and meditation of the many spiritually inclined groups in the world today, and once the New Group of World Servers and the Hierarchy are working in the closest kind of cooperation, then the visualisation and the projection of the intended civilisation will have reached a definite and a most important point of precipitation. Then, the invocative appeal of the united Hierarchy and of the New Group of World Servers will be [Page 219] so potent that it will evoke a response from humanity and a cycle of organisation, of planning and of effective expression will follow. Reflection, meditation and visualisation will give place to scientific thinking (which is essentially meditation) and to the needed physical plane activity.

This will take place, esoterically speaking, under the impression of the Masters upon the three major rays. The first Ray of Will or Power (the Ray of the divine Destroyer) is already actively working, destroying the old and outworn conditions and bringing about the wreckage of the old civilisation so that the new order can be effectively brought into expression. As the Christ said, when He instituted the Christian civilisation of the past two thousand years (which has gone sadly far from His original intention), you "cannot put new wine in old bottles." The war (1914-1945) started the needed process of destruction, and the post-war period is carrying forward the planned undertaking. It is nearing its desired finish, if men work towards the freedom for which all their souls long.

The second Ray of Love-Wisdom, through the many extant educational processes and through the modern conflict of ideas (producing thus a borderland between the areas of influence of the first and second rays) is opening the minds of thousands of people. The pronounced contrast in ideas—as, for instance, the contrast between totalitarianism and the democratic freedom of thought (does such democratic freedom really exist, my brother?)—is forcing men to think, to reflect, to question and to meditate. The world is thereby greatly enriched, and the whole human family is transiting out of a pronounced cycle of karma yoga into the required cycle of raja yoga, from unthinking activity into a period of illumined mind control. It is a mental illumination which is brought about by the meditative and the reflective activity of humanity as a whole, and this is carried forward under the guidance of the New Group of World Servers, working under hierarchical impression.

Members of all the ray types are to be found in the New Group of World Servers, either through the activity of the personality ray or of the soul ray; therefore, the energies of [Page 220] all the rays are being brought to bear upon this creative period in modern human history. It is interesting to have in mind the fact that through the medium of all the fighting forces of the world (naval, military and air) much needed hierarchical work is being accomplished; the energy of the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict is making itself phenomenally felt—this time in conjunction with the unusual activity of the first ray.

Therefore, through the Forces of Light, liberation into freedom will come and it will mean the freedom of all mankind. I make here no defence of war or of fighting, brother of mine. I simply deal with world conditions as they exist today, and with the processes and the methods which are characteristic of the civilisations which have already disappeared and of the civilisation out of which we are today emerging. As man leaves the animal, the strictly physical and the highly emotional and inflammable stages behind him and learns to think, then (and only then) will war cease. Fortunately for humanity, this is happening most rapidly.

For the first time in human history, the lines of demarcation between that which is right from the angle of the spiritual values (the essential freedom of the human spirit) and that which is wrong (the imprisonment of the human spirit by materialistic conditions) are clearly perceived by the majority of the nations of the planet. Within the United Nations is the germ and the seed of a great international and meditating, reflective group—a group of thinking and informed men and women in whose hands lies the destiny of humanity. This is largely under the control of many fourth ray disciples, if you could but realise it, and their point of meditative focus is the intuitional or buddhic plane—the plane upon which all hierarchical activity is today to be found.

The fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge is also expressing itself powerfully in the meditation and the reflection of the world scientists in all fields of human interest; in their hands the form of the new civilisation is being constructed. I would remind you that when I use the word "scientist," I refer to all who are working in the social sciences and the economic [Page 221] sciences as well as the large group of chemists, biologists, physicists, etc., who are usually covered by that term. The organising, defining power of the mental plane is being brought to bear upon all phases of human life by the scientists of all the many schools of thought; out of this meditative and creative thought which they all so admirably demonstrate will come the structure of the new civilisation.

The sixth ray disciple is active also in organising the mystical aspiration of the masses of men everywhere which is in itself a most potent energy; these aspirational men (no matter what may be their immediate aspiration) are necessarily polarised upon the astral plane but are not yet capable of the clear mental perception of the massed intelligentsia or susceptible to the influence of the accurate, esoteric approach. Their guided, mystical orientation will be one of the most powerful factors in the destruction of the old values and in the massed recognition of the spiritual truth which underlies all life; it is with this reorientation that sixth ray disciples, wielding sixth ray energy, are occupied at this time. You need to remember that the one-pointed attitude of the mystic, functioning in group formation, will be a powerful factor in the creative work being done by the Hierarchy and by the New Group of World Servers, because theirs will be a massed effect, and usually wielded unconsciously.

Under the influence of disciples on the seventh Ray of Organisation or of Ceremonial Order, that powerful physical concretisation of energy which we call "money" is proving a topic of the most definite concentration; it is being most carefully considered, and the minds of thinking financiers and of wealthy humanitarian persons and philanthropists will be gradually led forward from a strictly philanthropic activity to an activity which is impulsed and brought into expression by spiritual insight, and by a recognition of the claims of Christ (no matter by what name He may be called in the East or in the West) upon the financial reservoir of the world. This is a hard thing to bring about, for the subtle energies of the inner worlds take much time in producing their effects upon the objective, tangible plane of divine manifestation. Money is not yet used divinely, but it will be. [Page 222] Nevertheless, the task is well in hand and is engaging the attention of disciples upon all the rays, under the guidance and the impression of the powerful seventh ray Ashram—now already in process of externalisation.

The effect of human meditation at this time is to change conditions, to invoke the higher, spiritual potencies, to work with concentration—both vertically and horizontally—within the world of men and within the Kingdom of God. This vertical and horizontal activity holds the secret of creative meditation. It is invocative of the higher energies, and creates a channel of contact between soul and spirit. This is brought about by what I have called "vertical meditation." It is also evocative and creates a ferment or dynamic movement in that level of being which must be affected or changed, and this is the horizontal aspect. Both the vertical and the horizontal activities are descriptive of the method of invocation and of evocation, as employed by all the linking groups between the various planetary centres; a reference to the chart (page 214) should help make this clear.

But all these processes and the entire scheme of manifestation are brought about through organised and conscious meditative methods; planetary, group and individual meditation is creative in results, and it is this aspect of it with which I am dealing in this instruction.

Therefore I shall give—for your constructive use if you care to use them—two meditation forms or outlines for reflection. Shall I call them two presented rings-pass-not for your controlled reflective thinking? One is a meditation for workers in the New Group of World Servers who are interested in preparing the way for the reappearance of the Christ, and the other is a meditation of a simple nature (combining the aspects of prayer, meditation and invocation) which has for its objective the deflecting of money from material ends into the work which the Hierarchy seeks to have accomplished.

To sum up:

The Lord of the World, through meditation, is carrying forward processes which He instituted in His original, creative meditation—back in the darkest night of the time when [Page 223] He decided to create this planet of ours for strictly redemptive purposes. The whole creation is the result of His directed and controlled thought—a process of sustained thinking which sweeps all the creative energies into evolutionary and cyclic activity, in conformity to the pattern which He eternally visualises. He has organised a group which is responsive to His meditative intention; these Beings aid Him by Their concentrated and realised Purpose to bring into our planetary livingness certain extra-planetary energies which are needed to carry forward the planned work of the planetary Logos. Shamballa itself is also permeated with His thought and conscious (if I may speak symbolically) of that which the Logos has visualised. They are the Custodians of His Purpose, as it is revealed to Them, cycle by cycle. The length of these cycles is one of the mysteries which is strictly guarded in the Council Chamber of the Lord of the World; these cycles have reference only to manifestation in the three worlds wherein the concepts of time and space control.

The Hierarchy is the Custodian of that aspect of the cyclic, planetary Purpose which is called the Plan; this covers such relatively brief periods as civilisations—where humanity is concerned. In relation to Shamballa, the intermediate group of meditating, creative Workers is called into activity in order to receive impression of the immediate, desired hierarchical activity, to transmit the needed energies from Shamballa to the united Ashrams and thus, esoterically, "inform" the Hierarchy of that which merits immediate attention.

Again, upon a lower level of the evolutionary spiral, the Hierarchy in its turn impresses the New Group of World Servers with the Plan to be at once applied to the helping of humanity. This group is the major creative agent in the three worlds for the remainder of this cycle of planetary experience. This has not always been the case. Humanity can now intelligently work with the presented Plan, and this for the first time in human history. I would have you note this. Men can now do their little share in bringing the divine Purpose into manifestation, because they have now unfolded the needed mental capacity. The control and the creative [Page 224] development of the three lower kingdoms in nature is slowly being taken out of the hands of the deva evolution (hitherto responsible) and placed under the supervision of mankind; as it is said in the ancient Archives of the Masters:

"Eventually, the solar Lords, through manas (the mind) will control the lunar lords of elemental substance, and not alone their own but that which looks to them for aid. Thus will redemption come to all through man, and thus the glory of the Lord of Life be seen."

Focussed intention, concentrated meditation, visualisation, directed invocation (producing evocation) and leading to responsive results, are the major processes of creation upon all levels and by all beings. Prayer, focussed desire, meditation and focussed intention are the graded and sequential lessons which mankind has to learn. Worship, or recognition of divine Transcendence and divine Immanence underlies all the mass recognition of spiritual potency. Thus the meditation of the planet penetrates into that which lies beyond the planet and is fused and blended in a solar sense with the Voice of Him Who has brought all into being, and with the Will of Him Who is carrying all forms of His livingness towards the perfection which He purposes; in so doing, the great processes of Redemption are furthered, to which all World Saviours (in relation to humanity) are the symbol, the guarantee and the eternal testimony.

In giving you these two meditations, I would remind all who undertake to use these meditative forms that they will not prove effective and of the needed vital potency unless the one who thus meditates identifies himself with the purpose and objective of the meditation, dedicates himself to cooperation with this objective and redeems all aspects of his own life in conformity with the focussed desire expressed in this spiritual appeal. It is useless, my brothers, to meditate along lines which will aid in preparing the world for the coming of the Hierarchy and for the reappearance of the Christ unless, again, that preparation is an integral part of [Page 225] your own constant daily endeavour, and is not just simply wishful thinking and the formulation of a hopeful theory anent the future of humanity. It is useless for you to meditate in order to reorient money, for instance, towards spiritual work (and by "spiritual work" I do not here refer to the work of the churches and of the world religions) unless all the monies which you individually have to handle are dedicated to right usage, the fulfilment of your right obligations and the covering of your karmic responsibilities, plus the constant recognition of the relation of all money to the spiritual future of the race and the requirements of the hierarchical Plan. There must always be, in your consciousness, a recognition of the needs of all men, and this must be true of all spiritually-minded people, of all true esotericists and of the religiously inclined man whose heart and understanding are more divinely inclusive than are the hearts of the average followers of any religious doctrine, enunciated by the theologians of any faith.

It must be realised that money is the energy which can set in motion and make possible the activities of the New Group of World Servers—no matter what their colour, caste or church. Money does not yet lie in their hands. Their need for it is great. Millions are needed to spread the required knowledge of the hierarchical Plan; millions are needed to further the work of men of goodwill; millions are needed to educate the masses in the fact that He for Whom all men wait is on His way back to ordinary visibility. The billions which are spent at present on luxuries, on expensive and unnecessary objects of desire, the billions (and, my brother, it is billions, as world statistics show) which go towards the purchase of candy, liquor, tobacco, jewellery and expensive furs, the millions which go in the violent search for excitement and for ceaseless nightly pleasure and, finally, the billions which go the way of armed conflict in all nations must be deflected towards those expenditures which will make the plans of the Hierarchy possible, which will aid humanity in its search for the new, spiritual and free way, and which will therefore bring into being the new civilisation. Billions are required to overcome the materialism which has dominated [Page 226] mankind for untold aeons; billions are also needed to bring about the reconstruction of human affairs and thus purify and beautify our modern world to such an extent that the Christ can appear among men; through the wise expenditure of the financial resources of the world in the many fields of human betterment and uplift, the Christ will be enabled to "see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."

I ask you, therefore, to follow these two meditations at least once a week and upon different days. These two forms of invocative appeal can be used by all who are willing to participate in the indicated service.

 

REFLECTIVE MEDITATION UPON

PREPARATION FOR THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST

Stage I.

After achieving a positive and intended personality quietness, formulate clearly to yourself in your own words, the answers to the following questions:

1. As a member of the New Group of World Servers, what is my specific, fixed intention at this moment of dedicated contact with my soul?

2. Is my concentrated and expressed personality purpose in line with hierarchical intention—as far as I am permitted to know it?

3. Have I—in my own personal daily life—earned the right (because of definite effort and not so much because of success) to stand with those Servers Who are now undertaking the work of Preparation?

This is the one time in the meditation where you think of yourself, and it is here because it is a method of personality, focussed attention and aligns your personality upon the mental plane.

Stage II.

Having answered these three questions in the light of the soul, then say with emphasis:

"Forgetting the things which lie behind, I will strive towards my higher spiritual possibilities. I dedicate myself anew to the service of the Coming [Page 227] One and will do all I can to prepare men's minds and hearts for that event. I have no other life intention."

PAUSE

Stage III.

1. Visualise the world situation as best you can and in terms of your major world interest and with what knowledge of world affairs you may possess. See the mass of men everywhere glowing with a dim light and, here and there, points of brighter light where members of the New Group of World Servers and men of spiritual intention and of loving hearts are working for their fellowmen.

2. Then visualise (through the creative imagination) the vivid light of the Hierarchy, streaming towards humanity and slowly merging with the light which is already in men. Then say the first stanza of the Invocation:

"From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth."

3. Then ponder upon the reappearance of the Christ; realise that no matter by what name He may be called in the many world religions, He is still the same great Identity; reflect and speculate upon the possible results of His appearance. Then say the second stanza of the Invocation:

"From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let Love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth."

4. Endeavour to concentrate your fixed intention to serve and to spread love in your surroundings and realise that in so far as can do these things you are attempting to blend your personal will with the divine Will. Then say stanza three of the Invocation:

[Page 228]

"From the Centre where the Will of God is known
Let Purpose guide the little wills of men—
The Purpose which the Masters know and serve."

5. Consider practically what you can do in the coming week to further the preparations for the coming of the Christ.

PAUSE

Then sound the OM three times, dedicating the threefold personality to the work of preparation.

Suggestions:

1. It is suggested that you do this meditation once every week, each Thursday, in the place of your usual meditation; endeavour to assume an attitude of aspiration, devotion, prayer and fixed intention (in this order), prior to following the outline. Esoteric students need the heart approach, as well as the mental approach, in order to make this meditation the powerful instrument which it can be.

2. Between Thursdays endeavour to carry out the results of the reflection expressed in this meditation. Lay practical plans and then review each week the planned activities when you sit down to this meditation, in the light of your expressed Intention.

3. Make this meditation brief and dynamic. After doing it a few times, this should be easily possible; forget the various stages and be impelled by the sequence and the synthesis of the form.


REFLECTIVE MEDITATION ON

ATTRACTING MONEY FOR HIERARCHICAL PURPOSES

Stage I.

After achieving a positive and intended personality quietness, formulate clearly to yourself and in your own words, the answers to the following questions:

[Page 229]

1. If money is one of the most important things needed today for spiritual work, what is the factor which is at present deflecting it away from the work of the Hierarchy?

2. What is my personal attitude towards money? Do I regard it as a great and possible spiritual asset, or do I think of it in material terms?

3. What is my personal responsibility in regard to money which passes through my hands? Am I handling it as a disciple of the Masters should handle it?

PAUSE

Stage II.

1. Ponder on the redemption of humanity through the right use of money. Visualise the money in the world today as

a. Concretised energy, at present largely used for purely material purposes and for the satisfaction (where the individual is concerned) of purely personal desires.

b. Visualise money as a great stream of flowing golden substance, passing out of the control of the Forces of Materialism into the control of the Forces of Light.

2. Then say the following invocative prayer, with focussed mental concentration and from a heartfelt desire to meet spiritual demands:

"O Thou in Whom we live and move and have our being, the Power that can make all things new, turn to spiritual purposes the money in the world; touch the hearts of men everywhere so that they may give to the work of the Hierarchy that which has hitherto been given to material satisfaction. The New Group of World Servers needs money in large quantities. I ask that the needed vast sums may be made available. May this potent energy of Thine be in the hands of the Forces of Light."

[Page 230]

3. Then visualise the work to be done by those groups which claim your present allegiance (i.e., the Arcane School and the Service Activities, or any other group which you know is attempting to carry out the hierarchical Plan). Then, through the creative imagination and by an act of the will, see untold and unlimited sums of money pouring into the hands of those who seek to do the Masters' work.

4. Then say aloud, with conviction and emphasis:

"He for Whom the whole world waits has said that whatsoever shall be asked in His Name and with faith in the response will see it accomplished."

Remember at the same time that "faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." Then add:

"I ask for the needed money for . . . . . . and can demand it because
`From the Centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.'"

5. Close with a careful consideration of your own responsibility to the Plan, and each week plan your financial cooperation with the Hierarchy. Be practical and realistic and know that if you do not give, you may not ask, for you have no right to evoke that which you do not share.

Suggestions:

1. This meditation is so simple that many of you may regard it as innocuous and perhaps futile. Used by many simultaneously, it may shatter the impasse which [Page 231] at present prevents adequate funds pouring into the work which the Hierarchy seeks to accomplish.

2. Do this meditation every Sunday morning. Take what you have saved during the previous week and dedicate it to the work and present it in meditation to the Christ and His Hierarchy. Whether the sum is large or small, it can become an attractive and magnetic unit in the Masters' plans.

3. Realise the occult Law that "to those who give shall be given" so that they can give again.

4. Attempt to feel true love sweeping through you, and have the fixed intention to express this love to all you contact. It is the great attractive and selfless agent in world affairs.

PART XIV

In my last series of instructions I gave you a group meditation which was based upon the furthering of the work of the New Group of World Servers, as they sought to prepare humanity for the reappearance of the Christ. That preparatory work is the major incentive lying back of all that I do, and was the prime reason for the formation of the group in the early part of this century. Pioneers of this group appeared in the nineteenth century but the organisation, as it now exists, is of relatively modern days.

In this instruction we will consider the relation of group meditation to the work of the New Group of World Servers, and the necessity of establishing in the world a united world group, given to unanimous and simultaneous meditation upon the work of preparing the world for the new order and for the jurisdiction of the Christ (if I may use such a phrase).

It is necessary for you all to get a wider vision of the enterprise which this group has undertaken, or else the meditation work which you will do will hinder and not help. The task of the group of World Servers is not the spreading of esoteric or occult information. In preparing the world of [Page 232] men for the reappearance of the Christ, the needs of all the many grades in the social order must be met; world groups of every description have to be contacted. Much of the work to be done, therefore, will be purely economic and will concern the right feeding and the development of a true security for millions who—for many lives—will not be interested in matters esoteric. The reform of the churches of the many world religions is another aspect of the same work, requiring no occult information but the introduction of commonsense and progressive ideas into theology, and the shift of the ecclesiastical emphasis from material values to the spiritual. The political regimes of the world need orienting to each other; it has never been the divine plan that all nations and races should conform to some standard political ideology or be reduced to a uniform general form of government. Nations differ; they have different cultures and traditions; they can function adequately under varying and distinctive governments; nevertheless, they can at the same time attain a unity of purpose, based upon a genuine desire for the true welfare and progress of all men everywhere.

In all these spheres of human thought and activity, the New Group of World Servers are playing a prominent part. At the very heart of that worldwide group are those who are in the Ashrams of the Masters—as are some of you—or on the periphery or within the sphere of influence of these Ashrams. Their task is largely a meditative one, carried on in order to influence the minds of those members of the group who are not yet in touch with any Ashram; they work thus from humanitarian, interested and basically ray reasons, and all such members are more or less under the control of their soul ray; this affects most definitely the varying fields of service. These are the areas of thought within the human family wherein the preparation for the coming of the Christ must be carried forward; but this activity is not, as a rule, associated with the esoteric angle or approach to truth but strictly with the angle of the betterment of human relationships. The Christ Himself (two thousand years ago) tried to demonstrate this mode of helpful activity; He kept the esoteric teaching for the few, the very few, who could approach [Page 233] understanding, but He dealt with the masses from the angle of commonsense and physical plane helpfulness. Have this ever in mind.

I have been for some time seeking to impress upon you the eternal fact that the entire universe has been created and its evolution processed through the power of thought, which is only another word for controlled meditation. This covers the combined meditation of numerous subjective, spiritual and mental groups; the laws of this meditative work are the result of certain mental determinations, which embody the will of the planetary Logos and are imposed upon all lesser groups of lives by Those Whose task it is to wield the divine laws and enforce them. Freedom of the will is here to be noted in relation to the Time concept but not in relation to the final and inevitable divine results at the end of the immense world period. The major thoughtform of the spiritual Hierarchy, created by joint ashramic meditation, is called by us the Plan.

The basic purpose of Sanat Kumara is revealed from cycle to cycle by His Agents in Shamballa, and is by Them impressed upon the minds of the senior Members of the Hierarchy. They, in Their turn, make this impression the subject of Their ashramic meditation, adapting its various concepts and the outlined purpose to a most carefully formulated Plan, presenting—as far as humanity is concerned—seven aspects or phases of evolutionary development and endeavour, according to the work desired of any Ray Ashram implicated at any particular time. Each Ashram thus undertakes meditation upon the general Plan and thus (if you could but realise it) each initiate and disciple finds his place and sphere of activity and service—from the very highest initiate to the least important disciple.

You might here ask: What is the value of the meditation and contribution of a new disciple, unaccustomed to ashramic patterns of thought and unable to carry much weight in the general group meditation? That is a questioning worth answering and of great encouragement to the neophyte. The various grades and ranks of initiates and disciples are so constituted that the result of their meditation upon the Plan is that the many needs of the varying masses of humanity (from [Page 234] those of the advanced intelligentsia down to those of the unskilled labourer) can be adequately met and the great mass of men swung accurately into line with evolutionary purpose.

Have you ever stopped to think that the meditation of a Master upon the Plan of which He is custodian, and His formulation of what He can do along the line of effective cooperation, is of no service or usefulness to the illiterate inhabitants of our great cities and agricultural areas? The need of these unthinking masses must be met by disciples of less spiritual development, and probably their greatest appeal is through the application of economic help; the task of these lesser disciples is to prove to the ignorant masses that—as the centuries slip away—spiritual living and true spiritual understanding include every aspect of physical plane expression and not simply the religious or the philosophic modes of thought. The meditation, therefore, of every grade of disciple and initiate has its use, for by their meditation (carried forward on their own level) they can adapt the Plan to the widely differing masses and thus the hierarchical Plan can reach from the Masters of the Hierarchy, through the Ashrams to the New Group of World Servers, and thus to the whole of the human family. I would like you to grasp the true simplicity of this picture, if you can, for you can have a share also in this great meditative task.

One of the things which I set myself to achieve when I undertook this work of making the Plan clearer to the minds of men, and thus preparing the way for the Master of all the Masters, was to prove not only that the Plan was based upon planetary meditation but that, in its progress towards expression, it met the need of all possible groups and grades of human beings; and that—more important still—it could be proved that the word "spiritual" covered every phase of living experience. Ponder on this statement.

That is spiritual which lies beyond the point of present achievement; it is that which embodies the vision and which urges the man on towards a goal higher than the one attained. The ecclesiastics of the world have made a great line of demarcation between what is human and what is spiritual, between what is material and what is not; in so doing they have created sin and [Page 235] greatly complicated human living and understanding. They have given a selfish import to human aspiration; they have not taught mankind that meditation and prayer were simply phases of cooperation with the divine Plan. Individualism was fostered and group understanding was lost. Maybe—owing to the work of the Brothers of Darkness—there was no way to avoid this dangerous sidetracking of human intent and truth. But the time has now come when the great rhythm of meditation, ranging from desire through prayer to worship, and from thence to meditation and invocation, can be imposed by men upon their own thinking.

This is the immediate task of the New Group of World Servers, cooperating everywhere with the men of goodwill; each member of the New Group has to ascertain for himself where he stands, where his meditative responsibility lies and in what field destiny indicates his service to the race of men must be found. This is no easy task, brother of mine. Men are frequently so spiritually ambitious and waste their time in doing that which is not their destined task because in so doing they satisfy their spiritual pride.

You must learn to give a wider connotation to the word "meditation" than you have hitherto given. Concentrated thought is part of the planetary meditation; planning with care for the helping of the needy and pursuing all avenues of thinking to make that plan useful and effective is meditation; laying oneself open to spiritual impression and thus to cooperation with the Hierarchy is meditation; in this enumeration of meditative possibilities I have not touched upon the major creative meditation which is responsible for the evolutionary process and the controlled moving forward of all the world of forms into greater glory and light.

The work hitherto done in such occult groups as the Arcane School and others, as they teach meditation, has been nothing but the learning of a needed concentration. Only in the meditation work of the fourth degree has some of the creative work become possible and that in its most elementary stages; yet the Arcane School leads the aspirants of the world in meditation of an occult nature, thought not in any way a mystical nature. The mystical type of meditation [Page 236] is of ancient formulation and its use indicates the next step for the masses of men; the practice of mystical meditation is not that which should be followed by aspirants and disciples who seek to work in an Ashram in cooperation with the Plan and under the guidance of a Master.

Meditation only becomes effective creatively and on all the three planes in the three worlds when the antahkarana is in process of construction. The worlds of the personality are the worlds of the third divine aspect and the creation of thoughtforms therein (as usually carried forward by the concrete mind) is related to form, to the acquisition of that which is desired and dedicated largely to the material values. But when a man is beginning to function as a soul-infused personality and is occupied with the task of rendering himself sensitive to the higher spiritual impression, then the creative work of the Spiritual Triad can be developed and a higher form of creative meditation can be employed. It is a form which each person has to find and discover for himself, because it must be the expression of his own spiritual understanding, initiated by a conscious construction or creation of the antahkarana and subject to impression from the Ashram with which he may be affiliated.

Earlier in this instruction I used the words: "An united world group given to unanimous and simultaneous meditation ... for the jurisdiction of the Christ." I particularly want to call your attention to this last phrase which introduces a new concept into the preparatory work to be done by the New Group of World Servers. The task is, through meditation, to establish the knowledge of and the functioning of those laws and principles which will control the coming era, the new civilisation and the future world culture.

Until the foundation for the coming "jurisdiction" is at least laid, the Christ cannot reappear; if He came without this due preparation, much time, effort and spiritual energy would be lost. Therefore, we must assume (if these premises are accepted) that there must be organised—in the near future—a group of men and women in every country who, under due and proper organisation, will "simultaneously and unanimously" meditate upon those juridical measures and those basic laws [Page 237] upon which the rule of Christ will be founded and which are essentially the laws of the Kingdom of God, the fifth kingdom in the evolutionary and natural processes of planetary unfoldment.

So much has been discussed in relation to these laws from the mystical and strictly Christian angle that the terms used are essentially meaningless; the whole subject requires revitalising; it needs to be endowed with a fresh and new presentation and a new terminology, more suited to the growing mental grasp of the scientific and modern mind. There has been endless talk about Brotherhood and the establishing of the principle that we are all the children of God, and this has done little to change men's approach to each other and to the shared human problems.

The New Group of World Servers will talk in other terms and their emphasis will be upon:

1. The Law of Right Human Relations.
2. The Principle of Goodwill.
3. The Law of Group Endeavour.
4. The Principle of Unanimity.
5. The Law of Spiritual Approach.
6. The Principle of Essential Divinity.

If you will study the many books which I have written, you will discover that they have been basically occupied with the rules which govern the ability to do group work—which is the work to which the Hierarchy is eternally committed. I have given you the Rules for Disciples in A Treatise on White Magic, the Rules for Aspirants in Initiation, Human and Solar, the Rules for Disciples and Initiates in A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Volume V. In other volumes you will find the Rules for Group Work; all these rules are, in essence, modes of conduct which, when imposed upon, impressed upon and followed up by an aspirant, will enable him to reach an understanding of spiritual law and of the nature of the Kingdom of God. All these are preparatory to the establishing of the new dispensation on Earth.

I would also call your attention to the words "unanimous [Page 238] and simultaneous" meditation; they are not idly chosen. A situation which is unanimous is not one which is—from the spiritual angle—imposed. It is in the nature of a spontaneous mutual reaction—a reaction which is evoked by the immediate response of a soul, in touch with its personality, to a spiritual truth or intuition, and from this there is no lower mind escape.

The concept of unanimity which has been presented by Soviet Russia runs completely counter to the truth. Their idea is that the concept, the idea, the decision and the interpretation of a group of powerful men establishes the truth, and to this truth the docile masses render prompt allegiance. This is a basic misconception and to it no member of the New Group of World Servers will render homage; they will fight this imprisonment of the human soul to the last gasp. True unanimity is free decision in response to a presentation of truth which is as near the achieved reality as possible. Therefore, it is in the enunciation of truth that security for all men lies. This necessarily involves a deeply spiritual presentation of essential facts. The principle of simultaneity is allied to this, for a mutual recognition of an identical approach to truth renders inevitably activity in unison.

The whole point, brother of mine, is that in both connections the incentive towards activity lies with the individual and there is no imposing authority. The only authority recognised is the truth as it emerges in the human consciousness, in any world or historical cycle. Today more truth is being recognised (and incidentally, repudiated) than at any other time in human history. Men have attained the point in evolution where they are able to know the truth if and when presented, because the concrete human mind is now more highly responsive to abstract truth, and therefore to the next evolutionary presentation. It is this which the Totalitarian Powers, the unconscious (and I mean that, brother of mine) agents of the Black Lodge are fighting; they will not win; in the long run they cannot, for the human spirit is eternally sound and sane.

I would have you consider these suggestions with care and thus prepare yourselves for an elucidation of the spiritual [Page 239] laws and principles, as themes for meditation. I herein present to you six themes for group meditation; this is essentially your next consideration if the "unanimous and simultaneous" meditation which can be immediately effective is organised and developed.