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Discipleship in the New Age I - Summary of the Tibetan's Work
Paralleling these major activities, I have, since the year 1931, been training a group of men and women, scattered all over the world, in the techniques of accepted discipleship, academically understood. Out of the many possible neophytes, I indicated a group of approximately 45 people - some known personally to A. A. B. and some quite unknown - who had demonstrated a willingness to be trained and who could be tried out for fitness for the group work of the new discipleship. These people received direct personal instructions from me and certain general instructions which embodied the newer approach to the Hierarchy and to the spiritual life, though based, of course, on the ancient rules. Some of these instructions are made available to the general public in this book, but no indication is given of the persons thus trained and no information will be made available; names, dates and locations are changed, though the instructions remain as given. Necessarily these people have, from their contact with me, ascertained my identity. They have known for years who I am. But they have preserved my anonymity with great care and under real difficulty, owing to the fact that hundreds of people in nearly every country in the world have speculated upon my identity and many of them have guessed it accurately. Therefore, today, in spite of all that A. A. B. and my disciples have been able to do, it is generally conceded that I am a Master and a name has been given to me. To my own group of specially picked aspirants I have acknowledged my name when they themselves had interiorly arrived at it. It was both foolish and false to do otherwise; in communicating with them or in writing instructions on the new discipleship, I necessarily took my rightful position and name. Some of these instructions have been deemed by me as useful and appropriate for more general use and were embodied in the series of papers upon the Stages of Discipleship issued under my name in The Beacon. They [787] were carefully edited, prior to publication, except in one paper when, some months ago under the pressure of very heavy work, A. A. B. omitted to delete one paragraph in which I do speak as a Master. This paragraph, much to her distress, appeared in the July 1943 Beacon. After many years of protecting my identity, she made this slip and it has, therefore, been publicly stated that I am a Master. In this connection, there are three points to which I would like to call your attention. Earlier - many years earlier - I stated in A Treatise on White Magic that I was an initiate of a certain standing but that my anonymity would be preserved. Years later, owing to this mistake, I am apparently in the position of contradicting or reversing myself, and so changing my policy. Actually I am not doing so. The spread of the teaching alters circumstances and the need of humanity demands at times a changed approach. There is nothing static in the evolution of truth. It has long been my intention to do all that was necessary to bring the fact of the Hierarchy and its membership more definitely before the public and in a more arresting way. Years ago, I definitely told A. A. B. (as did her own Master) that her major duty as a disciple was to familiarize the public with the true nature of the Masters of the Wisdom, and thus offset the erroneous impression which the public had received. This she has done to a certain degree but not to the full extent that was intended. She has shrunk from the task, owing to the disrepute into which the whole subject has fallen because of the false presentations given out by the various teachers and occult groups, plus the ridiculous claims put out by the ignorant about us. H. P. B., her predecessor, stated in certain instructions sent out to the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society that she bitterly regretted ever mentioning the Masters, their names and functions. A. A. B. has been of the same opinion. The Masters, as portrayed in the Theosophical Society faintly resemble the reality; much good has been done by this testimony to their existence, and much harm by the foolish detail at times imparted. They are not as pictured; They do not issue orders to their followers (or rather devotees) to do thus and so, to form this or that organization, nor do they indicate [788] certain individuals as being of supreme importance and hierarchical status; they know full well that disciples, initiates and Masters are known by their works, their deeds and their words; they have to prove their status by the work they accomplish.
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