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Discipleship in the New Age I - Talks to Disciples - Part VI
Let him seek, in the strenuousness of his life, to preserve the synthesis of the personality and the integration of all parts of his equipment. Often in the stress of activity in one body or another and on one plane or another, the emphasis may be temporarily so strong in some one direction that he may lose sight for a moment of the synthetic point of view of both the Plan and the group. Physically, he is working under great pressure; emotionally, he may be learning the difficult lesson of detachment and may consequently be full of a temporary rebellion. Yet on the mental plane, he is aware of a mental clarity and of a power to think which keeps him incessantly and constructively active. The following three terms, therefore, express quite frequently the disciple's situation where his lower nature is concerned: excessive fatigue, emotional rebellion and mental lucidity. How must he deal with this problem? Physical fatigue need not necessarily impair in any way his usefulness. With many people, physical conditions impair their work for their attention becomes focused on the undesirable physical situation; disciples, however, often have a curious capacity to continue with their work no matter what may be happening to them physically. The physical brain can be so much the reflector of the mental life that he will remain essentially unaffected by any outer conditions. The disciple learns to live with his physical liabilities under adverse conditions and his work maintains its usual high level. The emotional problem may be the hardest. But only the disciple can handle his own self-pity and free himself from the inner emotional storm in which he finds himself living. He [57] must recognize that his integration is weak, for he is working in two phases or sections: Physical - emotional. and Mental - soul. He is sometimes one and sometimes the other and usually very thoroughly in either case. This duality must be brought into a closer relation and this is the point to which he must attend as he seeks to establish and preserve the needed synthesis and personality-soul integration. When will disciples learn that the attitude which involves a certain "don't care" reaction and a form of indifference is one of the quickest ways by which to release the Self from personality claims? This is not the "don't care" spirit which will affect the disciple's attitude to other people. It is the attitude of the integrated thinking personality of the disciple towards the astral or emotional body. It leads him to assume the position that not one single thing which produces any reaction of pain or distress in the emotional body matters in the very least. These reactions are simply recognized, lived through, tolerated and not permitted to produce any limitation. All disciples would do well to ponder what I have just said. The whole process is based on a deep seated belief in the persistence of the immortal Being within the forms of soul and personality. This inner realization grows with the development of power in meditation whether it is individual meditation or group work. Meditation is essential for establishing a freer inner spiritual interplay - again whether as a soul in relation to the personality or a group of disciples in relation to their Master or each other. You might here well ask: Why is this sensitive interplay between the disciples in a Master's group regarded as necessary? Is not life complicated enough without too much awareness of the conditions, the personalities and the soul contacts of those with whom we are associated and with whom we seek to walk as fellow-disciples? I would like here to remind you that, as disciples, you are in preparation for initiation and that impending condition of consciousness implies three things: [58] Increased awareness and sensitivity to experience and to life in all forms. The power to do for others what I have attempted to do for you, at present on a lesser scale and later, in other lives, as I now do it. The courage and the strength to know all, to realize all and to love with patient wisdom and unchanging sincerity. This must surely be apparent to you. In the group work in which disciples are now called to participate, you have an opportunity offered which can aid in the inducing of all the qualities which are needed by you as candidates for initiation, at no such very distant date, as we view time on the inner side.
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