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Discipleship in the New Age I - Talks to Disciples - Part I
I have felt that a linking up of your minds in connection with the work of the Buddha and of the Christ might serve a useful purpose and give you all a glimpse and an indication of their two systems of unfoldment - one preparatory to accepted discipleship and the other to initiation - which would be sequential and interrelated. The synthesis of their work is easily seen by us who work with a fuller vision and a less impeded outlook than is as yet possible to you. I am, therefore, dividing my disciples into groups so that they may work on different aspects of the Plan, and also laying the ground for group work which will greatly help the individual but which will also - above everything else - forward the work of the New Age. It is, therefore, my intention to write a little in detail in connection with these groups. My time is very limited and I shall have to put a great deal of information into these talks and into any individual instructions which I may be led to give (probably at widely separated intervals) to my disciples. I am not basically writing for any of you at all but in order to lay the foundation for the group work to be done in the world during the coming years. What I say should be read with care, for the written word may contain several meanings and these can be sensed, according to the intuition - awakened or otherwise - of the aspirant. I, your Tibetan Brother, am supposing upon the part of each of my disciples, one basic essential at least and that is a persevering earnestness which nothing will deter. Each of you starts upon this work with certain fundamental characteristics; each of you is beginning this definite enterprise of training for initiation with certain defects which act as deterrents and as handicaps; each of you has been recognized by his light and for his potentialities and with these we must perforce do the best we can. Note, therefore, the difficult problem confronting those who are guiding world evolution and looking for those who can aid in their work. [5] I will teach you. Whether or not you profit by the teaching is entirely your own affair; that is something that the disciples of the New Age need to learn. There is no such thing as occult obedience as usually taught by the current occult schools. In the olden days in the East, the Master exacted from his disciple that implicit obedience which actually made the Master responsible and placed upon his shoulders the destiny or the karma of the disciple. That condition no longer holds good. The intellectual principle in the individual is now too much developed to warrant this type of expectancy. Therefore, this condition no longer holds good. In the coming New Age, the Master is responsible for the offering of opportunity and for the right enunciation of the truth but for no more than that. In these more enlightened days, no such position is assumed by the teacher as in the past, and I do not assume it. I shall with frankness speak. I know my disciples, for no disciple is admitted into an Ashram without deep consideration on the part of the teacher. I shall convey by hint and symbol that which should be apprehended and it will be noted and understood by those among my disciples who have the opened, inner ear and true humility of heart. If it is not recognized, time will pursue its onward course and revelation will ultimately come. I exact, therefore, no blind obedience. But, however, if advice and suggestion are accepted and you choose - of your own free will - to follow my instructions, those instructions must be followed accurately. Also, there must be none of that constant looking for results and for phenomena which has deterred the course and the progress of many would-be disciples. This is also for me an experiment, for those of us who are members of some degree of the Hierarchy are necessarily changing the old ways and adapting the old methods to the newer circumstances and to the advance of evolution. Many tried disciples and aspirants (should I have said "tired," brother of mine, for I surmise that both words are true?) are to be subjected to experiments which will involve the application of the ancient rules in a modern way. Disciples in the olden days were the product of more peaceful times. The "chitta" (or mind-stuff as Patanjali calls it in his famous Book of Rules) was neither so highly developed nor was it tinctured by so [6] much thought or potentially so illumined. Today, knowledge is widespread and many, many people are already thinking for themselves. The material for discipleship with which the Masters have to deal and the type of person which has to be developed and led on towards illumination is of a higher quality and grade, if I may employ so inadequate a term. The experiment of changing methods and of implementing the new technique of group work has to be carried out, likewise, in the midst of the stress and strain of Western civilization. This imposes on all chosen to participate in this work an undue effort, but if continuance is found possible and success ensues, it tempers the material to a finer degree of power. As has been said, the jungles of the Occident are of a different kind to those within the Eastern zone. They call for peace in turmoil; for power in fatigue; for persistence in spite of bad health; for understanding in spite of the clamor of Western life. Progress is, therefore, made in spite of, and not because of, existing conditions. For disciples, such as those I am now going to attempt to teach, there is no retiring from the world. There is no condition of physical peace and of quiet wherein the soul may be invoked and in which work - potent in results - may be achieved in the calm of silence and the rest of what the Hindu calls samadhi - complete detachment from the calls of the body and the emotions. The work has to go forward in clamor. The point of peace must be found in the midst of riot. Wisdom must be attained in the very midst of intellectual turmoil and the work of cooperation with the Hierarchy on the inner side of life must proceed amidst the devastating racket of modern life in the great cities. Such is your problem and such is my problem as I seek to aid you.
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