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Discipleship in the New Age I - Personal Instructions to Disciples - D.I.J.
January 1935 BROTHER OF OLD: Have you realized how intense has been the testing time to which the members of this group of disciples have been subjected? Have you any idea how active has been the discipline to which they have all, including yourself, willingly submitted themselves? First there was the glamor which descended temporarily upon the group, and the effects of this are only now beginning [458] to pass away. This has been succeeded by a period of personality difficulties through which the bulk of the members have been passing. You would be surprised could you see it all as I see it; it might be of value to you all if I stated the type of discipline which has overtaken several of the group. They were subjected severally to: The discipline of recovery. The discipline of adjustment. The discipline of physical disability. The discipline of inner isolation. The discipline of astral purification. The discipline of recovery of truth. The discipline of light. I have enumerated the above disciplines in order to show three things: The variety of discipline to which an aspirant can be subjected. The reality of the group life with its similarity of inner activity and training. The emerging fact that none of you is really alone. All of you are seen and watched and, on the inner planes, you walk together; your outer circumstances may differ but the training and the objective are one. Loneliness will end when the inner group continuity of consciousness is established. Your work for the next few months, my brother, must have for its objective a decentralization which will set you free from yourself. It should also be directed toward a wise care of the physical body and its fitting for better service. Can you combine these two apparently contradictory objectives? You will note that in a subtler way I hinted at these two objectives in your last instruction. Your physical body has called for attention. Give to it all that it needs but be not anxious. Your environing circumstances and the pressure of your daily life have militated against detachment and this you know. But you have learnt much these past two years, both about yourself and others, and emphatically I tell you that the work of the next six months [459] should render into your hands the high results of the process of discipline - if you approach your problems in the right spirit and consecrate your life anew to service. One practical suggestion I would make, my brother, anent the study work assigned to the group. Might not the ideas underlying the Lord's Prayer unfold to you with greater clarity if you took it for the theme of your study and teaching work. In teaching we learn. It would profit your pupils much (and you also) if you together were to give some thought to the magical formula which that ancient prayer embodies. The deepest esoteric significance which may emerge in your mind need not necessarily be imparted to your group but much may be given. In so teaching, your thoughts may take shape and these when later embodied in words may carry real benefit to your group brothers. This is but a suggestion. I would seek to reiterate at this time, as always, that my work with this group is never to be regarded as authoritative or dogmatic. From my wider knowledge of truth and from my capacity to know you all on the inner plane, I but make suggestions for fear that I may unduly influence. In my last instruction, I pointed out that the battle ground in your case was to be found in all three bodies simultaneously. This increases your problem but it also increases your opportunity. I seek now to give you a meditation form which is based on a recognition of this fact and which will help you to gain a more perfect alignment and the further release of the inner channel of contact. Continue as heretofore with the breathing exercises and with your moments before the open window. This meditation is to be followed with the cultivated realization that you are the soul, the Christ within. . . Eliminate fear, my brother. That continuity of the spiritual consciousness which is one of your dearest dreams can be ultimately developed, but you must proceed with care. Dreams are sometimes a guarantee of reality.
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