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Discipleship in the New Age I - Foreword
However, only when a man is highly developed and nearing the Path of Discipleship is it possible for the esoteric student accurately to surmise what his ray may be. People of all kinds and professions are found on all the rays. The conflict in a disciple's life is found to lie in the fact that the ray of his soul and the ray of his integrated personality are posed against each other. At the same time, his emotional nature, his mental equipment and his physical brain are also controlled by some one or other of the rays and in this fivefold relationship lies hid much of the problem of the evolving human being. The Tibetan tells the members of his group which five rays condition them and students will learn much by a study of what he says. In the cases where I happen to know the disciple concerned personally and something of his problems, it was amazingly interesting to me to note how infallibly right the Tibetan was in his diagnosis of the rays involved. In reading these instructions will you please remember that though the Tibetan usually speaks of the soul, he also uses the word "ego" interchangeably, meaning thereby the spiritual ego and not the personal ego of the psychologists. We have not felt it wise to give the meditations assigned or the breathing exercises, except in a few cases. They were strictly individual and suited to the person and his peculiar problems. In one or two cases, however, after due consideration, we have inserted some of the meditations with slight changes. It was obvious that they could be only helpful. At the end of each instruction, we have put a sentence or two which gives information as to the work of the disciple in the Ashram. This will prove particularly enlightening as, for instance, in the cases of P.D.W. and K.E.S. where the Tibetan shows definite prevision and the knowledge that both these men would die a few years later. He is obviously preparing them for that great transition. In closing, I would like to thank all these disciples who have so kindly placed their personal instructions at my disposal [XV] in an effort to be of service to the coming generation of disciples. In many cases, they helped prepare them for the press. I would like also to thank those who helped me to get the text ready for publication, particularly Joseph Lovejoy who gave days of labor to the book; he has for years helped me prepare the Tibetan's books for publication. I hope all who read this book will receive the inspiration that we who have prepared it have received; I hope also that their confidence in the Hierarchy and in the existence of Christ and his Disciples, the Masters, may receive such an impetus that many more will attempt to tread the Way and join the great number of aspirants in every country who are seeking to tread the Path by becoming the Path Itself. October 1943 - Alice A. Bailey
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