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Discipleship in the New Age I - Personal Instructions to Disciples - I.B.S.
February 1935 We can now, brother of mine, begin to do more definite work. E'en yet, however, you must proceed with care and for another few months I would suggest that you do no work, except that which I may here indicate. The rent in the etheric body, which reduced you to such a serious condition early last year is now sealed, but it would take only a little to reopen it again if you were subjected to undue strain. It was through this rent that the glamor entered in such full force and worked such temporary havoc in your life. This testing glamor can serve the entire group of my disciples as an illustration of much that you will later study. Hence good is being wrested from seeming evil. Evil itself is but an illusion, for it is the use that is made of motive and opportunity by personality separateness and selfishness which constitutes evil. From right motive and the same circumstances [242] good may emerge. If no other result eventuates, this past experience will serve to make you and your co-disciples far more cautious in the future and less prone to leap to conclusions. Glamor, when it is of such a definite kind, is most convincing and of a seeming reality. This is a definition of the word "glamor", and the word "seeming" gives the clue. I have said that it is my intention to deal with each of you with utter frankness. We can, as a group of disciples, begin now our real work and can regard the past cycles as simply preparatory in nature. The objectives before each of you are to submit to such a discipline and to unfold your spiritual natures with such purpose that you can contribute much to the work of my Ashram. Each of you must work towards such a relative perfection so that your contribution may be of value and in no department of your nature can you cause hindrance. We are working towards a matured and synthesized group activity - as are all the Ashrams of all the teachers - and shall some day achieve it, but in this particular affiliated group the conditions for such work are not yet present. Work steadfastly, therefore, at self-improvement and at the elimination of those personality faults which stand in the way of the general usefulness. My brother, for long you have occupied the center of the stage in your own thought. You are not jealous in the ordinary sense of the word because your pride refuses to permit the usual form of jealousy. But you are ever conscious of being in the center of your circle of human contacts and have a feeling of resentment - oft unrecognized - when this is not the case. This was one of the main factors in your humiliation last year. Such an attitude is easy of achievement and simple to hold; it is the line of least resistance for your personality. My word to you today is decentralization. You must struggle to shift your mind away from yourself as teacher, friend, wife, worker, or disciple of the Tibetan; you must cultivate that understanding heart which will make you more aware of others than of yourself. A hard saying and one not easy to express in thought and life! In the last analysis, your problem is the subjection of your sixth ray personality to your first ray soul impulse. A study of the sixth ray characteristics will help you here, particularly if you remember that (being a disciple) it will be your sixth ray [243] vibration which will cause you the most trouble and along which glamor will easily enter. It is, for instance, your personality fanaticism and your personality devotions (both to people and to ideas) which need tempering if your first ray power is to manifest. Your fanatical devotee will must be superseded by the purpose, ordered and steadfast, of your first ray soul. In this last sentence is for you the key to your future unfoldment. The steely, brittle, determined, dynamic will of the devoted aspirant must change into the steadfast, powerful, calm purpose of the soul, working through the disciple. The soul is fluid in adjustment but undeviating in aim. Likewise, the brilliant fanatical devotion to this, that or the other person or ideal must give place to the gentle unchanging love of the soul - the love of your soul for the soul of others. In this lies for you a hint and your future success. I think you will realize whereof I speak. In conformity to soul impulse mould your life and shift out of the realm of high desire and aspiration into that of settled purpose and an undeviating attachment to reality. You can resume your active study work and your meditation work as outlined by me below... When you are meditating see to it that you are relaxed and sit not so fiercely erect as is your usual custom. Rest back somewhat, achieving comfort and self-forgetfulness. The meditation given will produce a needed reorganization of your inner bodies and this will give fruitful results in your other contacts as well. The above is all that I have to say to you for the present, my brother. May the peace of your soul, the love of your co-disciples and the benediction of your Master rest upon you. Give to all the best that you have to give and, fret not over results.
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