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Discipleship in the New Age I - Talks to Disciples - Part IX
You have often heard that the Guru, or Teacher, in the East would teach his disciple by the giving of a hint. If you have read and studied the ancient writings of India (and who today has not read at least some of them?) you will have noted that these hints fall into two categories: Hints anent personal character in relation to reality and preparation for initiation. Hints anent the Oneness of Deity and man's relation to an ascertained and gained unity. To these were later added teachings concerning the creative process when God made the worlds, and much concerning energy and the development of the centers (laya-yoga, as it is technically called) . These four lines of teaching are practically all that is given and all the training offered was of an exoteric nature. You can see for yourselves that it was preparatory in nature and that the training for initiation was so deeply hidden in the emphasis laid upon the relation of Guru and disciple that it did not find expression in words and was not, therefore, revealed in any way. The few possible symbolic hints and meanings have been investigated and the erudite esotericist has already drained these sources of information dry. What I am seeking to do is to carry the teaching another stage outward and make exoteric what the Master taught his disciple in the ancient days when the fundamental truths anent the universal consciousness had been somewhat grasped by the disciple and the particular had been also successfully worked out in its rightful place and manner by the disciple. The old rule ever remains an unalterable rule that all true esoteric teaching begins with the universal and ends with the particular; [94] this you must ever and always bear in mind. It is my difficult task to put into modern language and into symbolic forms these hitherto unwritten rules. Much that has been given out since the time that H.P.B. struggled and worked has been truth, including information anent initiation. Much has been fanciful and grievously distorted. When a neophyte first of all applies to the Master for the training needed prior to initiation, what would you say was the Master's problem? I am assuming that the Master knows his disciple well, is convinced of his sincerity and of the appropriateness of his appeal. I am also assuming that you realize that the so-called "appeal" is the quality of the life lived, the service rendered and the presence of an illumined mind - illumined through some definite measure of soul contact. The Master's problem is to teach him the stabilization of the relation between soul and body so that, at will, contact can be established between them; the astral body provides no hindrance that amounts to anything, and through that soul contact a facile relation to the Hierarchy, its purposes and resources can be made. Secondly, the nature of energy and its wise utilization through the medium of an integrated personality is indicated.
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