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Discipleship in the New Age I - Personal Instructions to Disciples - L.D.O.
To L. D. 0. November 1937 MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND: Many factors are responsible for bringing people together into such a group as this. There is, first of all, their mutual karmic relationship which, indicating as it does equality in aspiration and a general ability to make and hold certain spiritual contacts, enables them to work together more easily as a unit or a unity, if you prefer that term. In these cases, there exists [128] a need in the group for a specific and peculiar development in order that the group life may be thereby enriched and deepened. In other cases, there is a definite relationship with myself, dating from past experience, even if that experience is as yet unconsciously registered. There is a proffering of new opportunity for training to those who are upon the Path of Discipleship. All these factors influenced my decision to ask you, a disciple, to work in cooperation with myself and my group of disciples. In your particular case, the determining causes were the contribution you can make to this group, out of your rich equipment of deep desire and understanding, and also a relation to myself of very old standing. Of this latter cause, I am, of course, more conscious than you can be. It is necessary for me to explain these points to you as the understanding of causes is one of your strongest mental urges, and such an urge may not be disregarded. Entering this group is not an easy matter for you. You question your ability to conform to the requirements and to submit to the inevitable, even if voluntary, group discipline. I have also questioned it, not because I doubt your sincerity of purpose and of your life intent, for I do not, nor do I query the steadfastness of your determination to tread the Path and to go forward towards your goal. That is for you an unalterable and inflexible decision. You hold to it at all costs and in spite of failure at times to achieve your own standard of spiritual living. My questioning is based upon a tendency on your part towards vagueness and a lack of the sense of orientation in time. This is frequently the case with the pure mystic which you have been. Of this also I feel sure you are yourself conscious. It is not easy for a person of your type to enter upon a course of self-discipline under the suggestion of another, such as myself. To offset this difficulty, I would remind you that your acquiescence in the matter has been quite voluntary and that you have signified your willingness to make the needed effort after debating the matter for more than a year. That is all that I ask of you. I would remind you also that in my attitude towards my groups of disciples (some of which have been working with me for many years) I am simply prompted by a keen desire to aid you [129] all from the angle of my wider experience and to make suggestions. These can be followed or not as the disciple may desire. It is, however, wise to make the effort and to give me the opportunity by a temporary acquiescence and a voluntary obedience to prove to you that there is a purpose and a planned understanding behind my proposed technique of training. Will you, therefore, be willing to try out my suggestions and to follow my proposals for an adequately long time so as to give proof of their wisdom? It takes time in the spiritual life for adjustments to be made and for needed unfoldments to be brought about. Two or three months do not suffice to offset the tendencies and habits of a lifetime or maybe of several life cycles. But you have courage and a steady will and can achieve much in this life. Your problem is that of a versatile, advanced second ray type. You have a marked ability to do many things well and a decided aptitude to understand people, their motives and their impulses. You have a genius for contact and are naturally a good psychologist. You are prone also (because of your second ray inclusiveness) to over-estimate people and, subjectively, you have a strong inferiority complex, based largely upon your sense of the divine and not on failure. Ponder on this thought which I here give you. You need to learn to see people as they really are and appreciating, as heretofore, the divine in them to stand aside from them in your endeavor to help them and to work with and for them. You are apt to regard your ability to do well along so many lines as somewhat in the nature of a handicap. You must learn to regard it rather as an indication of the many ways in which you can reach others, and as a definite asset upon the Path. With you I can and must be entirely frank; your innate honesty recognizes the same quality in others and you would have no respect for me if I handled you with gloves, as the saying is. My function with you is not to tell you your faults or to give you many directions. These you know and follow the true direction instinctively even if at times you choose the longer way around towards your objective. [130] You have two things to do which - if successfully accomplished - would very much increase your output in service and reorganize both your inner and your outer life. You have to work conscientiously with the time factor and you have to make out of life a fuller expression of work well done. You have also to cultivate more definitely than you do the habit of mind, the trained attitude of the Observer of life, of people and of yourself. You must develop the attentiveness of the one who looks on at life and at the life struggle of others. It is necessary for you to learn that when you can avoid identifying yourself so closely with people, refraining from suffering so consciously with them, you can be of greater service to them and a finer friend and helper. Therefore, for you, detachment is an outstanding requirement and a quality to be cultivated. This is not the detachment of self-protection or of self-immunization or of aloofness, but that soul detachment which works from soul levels and - seeing all life in the light which streams from the soul - regards everything from the standpoint of eternity. You will then see the real values involved and the true perspectives of the picture. You need to apply to people and to circumstances the quality of interrogation and understanding which you endeavor to employ when you follow your art. You must see people truly and as they are - with their faults and their virtues, their divinity and their humanity. Am I not right, my brother? As time goes on, we can extend and, deepen the analysis but at first I only seek to emphasize to you these two points or rather these two requirements - the right use of time and its right adjustment in your life, and the cultivation of an attitude of detachment. I am of no use to you or to any of my disciples if I cannot be specific and direct. The work that I may ask you to do should tend to bring about certain of these needed adjustments. I am going to ask you to add to your morning meditation an evening review upon detachment... As far as your meditation is concerned follow your usual procedure, at any rate for the present, only add to it each morning a definite period wherein you take your co-disciples (those you may happen to know) into the light and seek consciously to link up with them, [131] pouring out to them the love and wisdom which may be yours. This tends definitely to group integration... You are in a position to aid and help many people. See to it, my brother, that you aid with wisdom, discernment and discretion and that you place your effort where the best results can be achieved. Right discrimination in helpfulness is rare, but you can give it. You will, of course, endeavor to conform to group requirements, will you not? But this must be of your own free choice and for the purposes of group integrity.
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