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Discipleship in the New Age I - Personal Instructions to Disciples - R.L.U.
March 1936 It is not my habit, brother of mine, nor is it ever necessary where disciples are concerned, to express undue appreciation of work accomplished or to feed the vanity of the average aspirant. However, I would like today to tell you that you have done good work in this readjustment process with yourself; you have made more real progress during the last three years than you did in the previous ten. There has been a definite expansion of your consciousness and a decided deepening of your spiritual life. Of this I am confident you are yourself aware. The recognition, by an older disciple, of definite growth in a younger, constitutes a responsibility to that younger disciple. I point out to you, therefore, that I recognize your progress, and I do this in order to spur you on to renewed effort, and also to give myself the opportunity to indicate to you the need for your widening in the life of service. Vertical growth and horizontal growth must parallel each other. Two things I seek to say to you. These are days of spiritual opportunity and of world crisis. They are for you, as an individual, days of opportunity. A disciple makes his own crises and where a life is devoid of crisis (at your stage of development) it means the disciple is standing still. It means that his work is of such a kind that it makes no impact on his surroundings and his associates. It, therefore, has no value. For you the necessity is to stand in your circle of life as a quiet center, but let it be the quiet which is achieved by the mastering of turmoil and not the quiet of a stagnant pool. I have watched you, my brother of old, for nine years, for there is, as you know, a karmic link between us. I have seen you grow and deepen, and I have seen under the exterior man, a new, tender and understanding man come into being, for I can see both that which the world sees and also the subtler person. There has been for many years an exterior hardness, but the time is near when the subtler person (known and recognized by one or two) will appear and make its impact upon a wider circle. This will be done not by deliberate effort but by the recognition of release and of accomplishment. Ponder on these two words. As a soul, stand free in your environment. [535] The second thing I have to say to you has reference to the definite Organization of your life. You must and should fulfil all your needed and right obligations to those with whom your lot is cast, but you should also have definite times for the life of a disciple. In putting the situation thus before you, my duty ends. The way, the means and the methods are yours to decide. Release will come for you through the right comprehension of the time element and due discrimination between the essentials and the non-essentials. Upon these I ask you to ponder. A more intense inner life and a more vital life of service are, I know, your ideals, but the one is dependent upon the other. I seek now to change entirely your meditation. The earlier one given has accomplished its intended preliminary purpose. I suggest to you, therefore, the following. Do it with regularity, laying your major emphasis, however, upon the work of the Full Moon Approach and for five days in each month substitute that for your usual meditation work. As a soul, link up with your group brothers and with all who are close to you on the inner planes and send forth the spirit of love and peace. Then do the following visualization exercise, after centering your consciousness in the head. See in your mind's eye a lake of blue water, entirely surrounded by mountains. It is night, and there is no sound upon the lake, except the lapping of the water around the little boat in which you are seated. You can see nothing. Then, as your boat rocks on the waters of the lake, slowly you watch the dawn awaken in the east behind the mountain tops. As you see the light grow, you become aware of other boats that are all slowly making their way towards the gleaming gold at the eastern end of the lake. The rest of the visualization exercises, dating from the points indicated to you above, are entirely at your discretion. I leave the picture unfinished, [536] leaving it to the unfolding opportunity of your creative imagination. I shall be interested to know, after six months' meditation, what you have done in your little boat. Then raising the consciousness as high in your head as possible, meditate "in the light" on the following seed thoughts: 1st month - For me there is no light apart from others. If they are in the dark, into that dark I go. 2nd month - I am a window through which the light can shine. That light must reach my fellow men. 3rd month - In service to the nearest and the farthest I must each day dedicate my prime endeavor. 4th month - I heal not with my hands. I heal through speech. Thus must I learn to speak and speak aright. 5th month - The mind reveals the truth. That truth am I. My words must open up the way to other hearts and minds. 6th month - I have no barriers and no preferences, no choices and no separating walls. Upon the Path I walk and all to me are one. Then say the Great Invocation: Let the Forces of Light bring illumination to mankind. Let the Spirit of Peace be spread abroad. May men of goodwill everywhere meet in a spirit of cooperation. May forgiveness on the part of all men be the keynote at this time. Let power attend the efforts of the Great Ones. So let it be and help us to do our part. And close with the benediction: "May the Holy Ones, whose pupils we aspire to become, show us the light we seek; give us the strong aid of their compassion and their wisdom. There is a peace that passeth understanding; it abides in the [537] hearts of those who live in the Eternal. There is a power that maketh all things new; it lives and moves in those who know the Self as one. May that peace brood over us, that power uplift us, till we stand where the One Initiator is invoked, till we see his Star shine forth. "May the peace and the blessing of the Holy Ones pour forth over the worlds."
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