TEACHINGS ON DISCIPLES-PART-1

(1) A disciple is one who above all else, is pledged to do three things: a. To serve humanity. b. To co-operate with the plan of the Great Ones as he sees it and as best he may. c. To develop the powers of the Ego, to expand his consciousness until he can function on the three planes in the three worlds, and in the causal body, and to follow the guidance of the higher self and not the dictates of his three-fold lower manifestation. A disciple is one who realises simultaneously the relative significance of each unit of consciousness, and also its vast importance. His sense of proportion is adjusted, and he sees things as they are; he sees people as they are; he sees himself as he inherently is, and seeks then to become that which he is. A disciple realises the life or force side of nature, and to him the form makes no appeal. He works with force and through force; he recognises himself as a force centre within a greater force centre, and his is the responsibility of directing the energy which may pour through him into channels through which the group can be benefited. The disciple knows himself to be - to a greater or less degree - an outpost of the Master's consciousness, viewing the Master in a twofold sense: a. As his own egoic consciousness. b. As the centre of his group; the force animating the units of the group and binding them into a homogeneous whole. A disciple is one who is transferring his consciousness out of the personal into the impersonal, and during the transition stage much of difficulty and of suffering is necessarily endured. These difficulties arise from various causes: a. The disciple's lower self, which rebels at being transmuted. b. A man's immediate group, friends, or family, who rebel at his growing impersonality. They do not like to be acknowledged as one with him on the life side, and yet separate from him where desires and interests lie. Yet the law holds good, and only in the essential life of the soul can true unity be cognised. In the

discovery as to what is form lies much of sorrow for the disciple, but the road leads to perfect union eventually. The disciple is one who realises his responsibility to all units who come under his influence, - a responsibility of co-operating with the plan of evolution as it exists for them, and thus to expand their consciousness and teach them the difference between the real and the unreal, between life and form. This he does most easily by a demonstration in his own life as to his goal, his object, and his centre of consciousness (2) The disciple, therefore, has several things at which to aim: A sensitive response to the Master's vibration. A practical purity of life. A freedom from care. Here bear in mind that care is based on the personal, and is the result of lack of dispassion and a too ready response to the vibrations of the lower worlds. Accomplishment of duty. This point involves the dispassionate discharge of all obligations and due attention to karmic debts. Special emphasis should be laid, for all disciples, on the value of dispassion. . . .This means the attainment of that state of consciousness where balance is seen, and neither pleasure nor pain dominates, for they are superseded by joy and bliss. We may well ponder on this, for much striving after dispassion is necessary. (3) Each step up is ever through the sacrifice of all that the heart holds dear on one plane or another, and always must his sacrifice be voluntary. (4) By availing themselves of the present day of opportunity, and by conformity to the rules for treading the Path, will come to many in the [Page 87] West the chance to take these further steps. That opportunity will be found by the man who is ready in the place where he is, and among the familiar circumstances of his daily life. It will be found in attention to duty, in the surmounting of tests and trials, and in that inner adherence to the voice of God within, which is the mark of every applicant for initiation. Initiation involves the very thing that is done from day to day by any who are consciously endeavouring to train themselves: the next point to be reached, and the next bit of work to be accomplished is pointed out by the Master (either the God within or a man's Master if he is consciously aware of Him) and the reason is given. Then the Teacher stands aside and watches the aspirant achieve. As He watches, He recognises points of crisis,

where the application of a test will do one of two things, focalise and disperse any remaining unconquered evil - if that term might here be used - and demonstrate to the disciple both his weakness and his strength. In the great initiations, the same procedure can be seen, and the ability of the disciple to pass these greater tests and stages is dependent upon his ability to meet and surmount the daily lesser ones. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much", is an occult statement of fact, and should characterise the whole daily activity of the true aspirant; the "much" is surmounted and passed, because it is regarded simply as an intensification of the normal, and no initiate has ever passed the great test of initiation who has not accustomed himself to pass lesser tests every day of his life; tests then come to be regarded as normal, and are considered, when encountered, as part of the usual fabric of his life. When this attitude of mind is attained and held, there exists no surprise or possible defeat. (5) For a disciple, direct alignment with the Ego via the centres and the physical brain, is the goal of his life of meditation and discipline. (6) A disciple is one who seeks to learn a new rhythm, to enter a new field of experience, and to follow the steps of that advanced humanity who have trodden ahead of him the path, leading from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real. He has tasted the joys of life in the world of illusion and has learnt their powerlessness to satisfy and hold him. Now he is in a state of transition between the new and the old states of being. He is vibrating between the condition of soul awareness and form awareness. He is "seeing double". (7) A similar state of affairs exists in the early stages of the path of discipleship, and the final stages of the probationary path. The disciple becomes aware of capacities and powers which are not as yet intelligently [Page 88] under his control. He experiences flashes of insight, and of knowledge which seem unaccountable and of no immediate value. He contacts vibrations and the phenomena of other realms, but remains unaware of the process whereby he has done so, and is incompetent either to renew or recall the experience. (4 - 165). (8) When a man literally walks in the light of his soul, and the clear light of the sun pours through him - revealing the Path - it reveals at the same time the Plan. Simultaneously, however, he becomes aware of the fact that the Plan is very far as yet from consummation. The dark becomes more truly apparent; the chaos and misery and failure of the world groups stand revealed; the filth and dust of the warring forces are noted, and the whole sorrow of the world bears down upon the astounded, yet illuminated aspirant. Can he stand this pressure? Can he become indeed acquainted with grief and yet rejoice forever in the divine consciousness? Has he the ability to face what the light reveals and still go his

way with serenity, sure of the ultimate triumph of good? Will he be overwhelmed by the surface evil and forget the heart of love which beats behind all outer seeming? This situation should ever be remembered by the disciple, or he will be shattered by that which he has discovered. But with the advent of the light, he becomes aware of a new (for him) form of energy. He learns to work in a new field of opportunity. The realm of the mind opens up before him, and he discovers that he can differentiate between the emotional nature and the mental. He discovers also that the mind can be made to assume the position of the controller, and that the sentient forces respond with obedience to mental energies. "The light of reason" brings this about - light that is always present in man, but which only becomes significant and potent when seen and known, either phenomenally or intuitionally. (4 - 355). (9) This is an intensely practical work, on which we are engaged; it is likewise of such proportions that it will occupy all of a man's attention and time, even his entire thought life. . . . Discipleship is a synthesis of hard work, intellectual unfoldment, steady aspiration and spiritual orientation, plus the unusual qualities of positive harmlessness, and the opened eye which sees at will into the world of reality. (10) Enquire the Way. We are told by one of the Masters that a whole generation of enquirers may only produce one adept. Why should this be so? For two reasons: First, the true enquirer is one who avails himself of the wisdom of his generation, who is the best product of his own period, and yet who remains [Page 89] unsatisfied, and with the inner longing for wisdom unappeased. To him there appears to be something of more importance than knowledge, and something of greater moment than the accumulated experience of his own period of time. He recognises a step further on, and seeks to take it, in order to gain something to add to the quota already gained by his compeers. Nothing satisfies him until he finds the Way, and nothing appeases the desire at the centre of his being except that which is found in the house of his Father. He is what he is because he has tried all lesser ways and has found them wanting, and has submitted to many guides, only to find them "blind leaders of the blind". Nothing is left to him but to become his own guide and find his own way home alone. In the loneliness which is the lot of every true disciple, are born that self-knowledge and self-reliance which will fit him in his turn to be a Master. This loneliness is not due to any separative spirit, but to the conditions of the Way itself. Aspirants must carefully bear this distinction in mind.

Secondly, the true enquirer is one whose courage is of that rare kind, which enables its possessor to stand upright and to sound his own clear note in the very midst of the turmoil of the world. He is one who has the eye trained to see beyond the fogs and miasmas of the earth, to that centre of peace which presides over all earth's happenings, and that trained attentive ear which (having caught a whisper of the Voice of the Silence) is kept tuned to that high vibration, and is thus deaf to all lesser alluring voices. This again brings loneliness, and produces that aloofness which all less evolved souls feel when in the presence of those who are forging ahead.