Ray mantrams. Each ray has its own formulas and sounds which have a vital effect upon the units gathered on those rays. The effect of sounding it by the student of meditation is threefold:
1. It links him and aligns him with his Higher self or Ego.
2. It puts him in contact with his Master, and through that Master with one of the great Lords,—dependent upon the ray.
3. It links him with his egoic group and binds all into one composite whole, vibrating to one note.
These mantrams are one of the secrets of the last three initiations and may not be sounded by the pupil before that time without permission, though he may participate at times in the chanting of the mantram under the Master's direction.
Mantrams, or formulas of words, sung by the pupil, which have direct effect on one of the three bodies. These mantrams are largely already in use—though in a much distorted degree—in the services of the religious bodies in all lands. Some light on them is being communicated in the ritual of the Church..........The passwords as used in Masonry—though practically valueless now—based on the use of mantrams and some day when there is an Initiate Head to all these organisations (such as Masonry, various esoteric societies, and religious bodies) the old mantrams will be given back in pure form to the peoples. [166]
There are also mantrams for use in healing, and for the development of certain psychic faculties. Some mantrams have a direct effect on the centres of the body, and will later be used under the guidance of the Master for increasing vibration, for causing fourth dimensional movement, and for the complete vivification of the centre.
Still other mantrams act upon the hidden fire, but I will deal with them a little later. There are numerous oriental books on the subject, which is so vast a one that I caution the student from investigating much. It would but prove for the worker in the world a waste of time. I have touched upon the matter because no book on meditation would be complete without a reference to what will some day supersede all preliminary meditation. When the race has reached a certain point of development, and when the higher mind holds greater sway, these occult mantrams—rightly imparted and rightly enunciated—will be part of the ordinary curriculum of the student. He will start his meditation by the use of his ray mantram, thereby adjusting his position in the scheme; he will follow this with the mantram that calls his Master, and which puts him en rapport with the Hierarchy. Then he will begin to meditate with his bodies adjusted, and with the vacuum formed that may then be used as a medium of communication.
August 13th, 1920
Forms used in one of the three departments.
The interest of what I have to communicate today is very great, for we have to take up the matter of the forms used in the Departments of the Manu, the World Teacher and the Mahachohan, the Lord of Civilisation.
These three Departments represent in the Hierarchy the three aspects of the Logos as manifested in the solar [167] system,—the Aspect of Will or Power, the Aspect of Love and Wisdom (which is the basic aspect for this system), and the Aspect of Activity or Intelligence. You know from your studies the work undertaken by these departments.
The Manu manipulates matter and is occupied with the evolution of form, whether it is the dense physical form of animal, mineral, flower, human being or planet, or the form of races, nations, devas or the other evolutions.
The Bodhisattva or World Teacher works with the evolving life within the form, with the implanting of religious ideas and with the development of philosophical concepts both in individuals and races.
The Mahachohan, who synthesises the four lower rays, deals with mind or intelligence, and, in collaboration with His Brothers, controls the evolution of mind whereby the Spirit or Self utilises the form or the Not-Self.
The synthetic work of the three Great Lords is inconceivably great. Form-Life-Intelligence, Matter-Spirit-Mind, Prakriti-Purusha-Manas, are the three lines of development, and in their synthesis comes completeness.
Each of these three lines works through formulas, or through set forms, which by graded steps put the man who employs the form in touch with the particular line of evolution represented by the Head of that line.
................What I seek to bring out here are the three clear lines whereby a man may mount to the Logos and find union with the self of the Solar System. He can mount by the line of the Manu, he can attain through the line of the Bodhisattva, or he can reach his goal via the path of the Mahachohan. But specially note, that on this planet the Lord of Love and Power, the first Kumara, is the focal point for all three departments. He [168] is the One Initiator, and whether a man works on the line of power, or on the line of love, or on the line of intelligence, he must finally find his goal on the synthetic Ray of Love and Wisdom. He must be love, and manifest it forth, but it may be love working through power. It may be love in harmony, or love working through knowledge, through ceremonial or devotion, or it may be just pure love and wisdom, blending all the others. Love was the source, love is the goal, and love the method of attainment.
August 14th, 1920.
The three lines of approach.
As you will note (in continuation of that which we studied yesterday) there are three direct lines of contact between the higher and the lower, all finding their focal point through the same Initiator, and all, at the same time, quite distinct in their method of approach. If this is borne in mind it will be apparent that each provides for the man (whose egoic note is one of the three, or a department of the third) the line of least resistance and the path whereby he may most easily approach the Ultimate. It is fundamentally a matter dealing with various states of consciousness, and here it is that the Great Ones so powerfully assist the student. Through meditation, adjusted to the desired line, the student can control step by step the various intermediate states that lie between him and his goal. He rises by means of various focal points of force. These focal points may be his Higher Self, they may be his Master, they may be an ideal.......But they are only steps upon the ladder whereby expansions of consciousness are obtained, and the man is enabled to extend the periphery of his consciousness until he gradually embraces all, and merges at last with the Monad, and later [169] with the All-Self, the Logos Himself.
For the sake of clarity and in order to satisfy the craving of the concrete mind for differentiation these three departments are pictured as distinct and separated the one from the other, though having their points of contact. In reality—apart from the illusion that mind always sets up—the three are one, and the seven are but blended parts of one synthetic whole. They all interface and intermingle. All the three departments are but necessary parts of one organisation over which the Lord of the World rules. They are but the executives offices in which the business of our planet is handled, and each office is dependent upon the other offices, and all work in the closest collaboration. The man who finds himself on one line has to remember that in time and before perfection is achieved he must realise the synthesis of the whole. He must grasp it as a fact past all questioning and not just as a mental concept, and in his meditation there will eventually come a point when this realisation of the essential unity will be his and he will know himself as a fragment of a vaster whole.
In these three departments the method of approach to the Head of the Department is meditation, and the means whereby the student puts himself en rapport with the essential Life of that department (it is all a matter of terms) differ. The life within the form manifests—as a result of meditation—in three different ways. The results of meditation as demonstrated in terms of character, if I may so express it, are really the same aspects of manifestation under different terms or conditions. Let me tabulate them for you:—
Line of the Manu...Force, Strength, Power to rule. [170]
Line of the Bodhisattva...Magnetism, Attraction, Healing.
Line of the Mahachohan...Electricity, Synthesis, Organisation.
I seek here to point out that the effect in the life of the student of meditation
on one of these three lines will be as enumerated above, though all of course coloured and modified by his personality ray, and by the point attained in evolution. If you study the three words applied to the three lines you will find it very illuminating. (I seek not to enlarge the mental body but to train the intuition.) These words demonstrate the law as working through the three groups, and the working out into active expression in the three worlds of the due following of the desired line. Each line has its specific forms whereby those results are achieved, and the time is coming when the rudiments of these forms (the first fundamental formulas) will be given to students deemed ready and who have done the necessary preliminary work.
1. The line of the Manu.
We might here somewhat indicate the approximate method, and lay down certain rules which will serve to elucidate when the time comes.
This first line is specially the line of government, of racial, development, of working in and with the matter of all forms on all the planes of human evolution. It is, as I have said before, the line of occultism. It emphasises the hierarchical method, it embodies the divine autocracy, and it is the line whereby our solar Logos imposes His Will on men. It is closely linked to the Lords of Karma, and it is through the Manu's department that the Law of Cause and Effect is wielded. The four Lords of Karma work closely with the Manu, for They impose the Law, and [171] He manipulates the forms of men, of continents, of races, and of nations so that that law may be duly worked out.
The man therefore who attempts through meditation to contact these powers, to rise to union by these means, and to attain the consciousness of the Will aspect, works under set rules, rises from point to point under due forms, and broods ever on the Law and its workings. He seeks to understand, he discriminates and studies; he is occupied with the concrete and its place in the divine plan. He admits the fact of the indwelling life but concentrates primarily on its method and form of manifestation. The basic rules of expression and of government occupy his attention, and by studying the rules and laws, and by seeking to comprehend, he necessarily contacts the Ruler. From stage to stage he rises—from the ruler of the microcosm in the three worlds, to the group egoic and its focal point, a Master; from the ruler of the group he rises to the Manu, the Ruler of the department wherein he has his place, thence to the Ruler of the World, later to the Planetary Logos, and thence to the Solar Logos.
2. The line of the Bodhisattva.
This is the line of religion and of philosophy, and of the development of the indwelling life. It deals with consciousness within the form more than with the form itself. It is the line of least resistance for the many. It embodies the wisdom aspect of the Logos, and is the line whereby His love is manifested in a predominant fashion. The solar system being in itself a direct expression of the Logos, and of His love aspect, all in manifestation is based upon it—love in rule, love abounding, love in activity,—but in this second line the above manifestation is supreme, and will eventually absorb all the others.
The man who meditates on this line seeks ever to enter into the consciousness of all that breathes, and by [172] graded expansions of consciousness to arrive eventually at the All-Consciousness, and to enter into the life of the Supreme Being. Thus he enters into the life of all within the Logoic Consciousness.
He broods not so much upon the Law as upon the life that is governed by that Law. Through love he comprehends, and through love he blends himself first with his Ego, then with his Master, next with his group egoic and then with all groups, till finally he enters into the consciousness of the Deity Himself.
3. The line of the Mahachohan.
This is the line of mind or intelligence, of knowledge and of science. It is the line of abstract mind, and of archetypal ideas. The man broods not so much upon the Law, not so much upon the Life, as upon the effects of both in manifestation, and upon the reason why. The man on this fivefold line ever asks why, and how, and whence, and seeks to synthesise, to comprehend and to make the archetypes and ideals facts in manifestation. He broods on the ideals as he senses them; he aims at contacting the Universal Mind, at wresting its secrets from it, and giving them expression. It is the line of business organisation, the line also in which the artists, musicians, scientists and the workers of the world have their place. The Spirits of Love and Activity pass much time in each of its five departments before passing on to the lines of love and of power.
In meditation the man takes some ideal, some part of the divine plan, some phase of beauty and of art, some scientific or racial problem, and by brooding over it and by the employment of lower mind, finds out all that can be known and sensed. Then, having done all that, he seeks to raise the consciousness still higher till he taps the source of illumination, and gains the light and information [173] required. He mounts likewise by entering into the consciousness of those greater than himself, not so much from the point of view of love (as in the second line) as from admiration and joy in their achievement, and gratitude for what they have given to the world, and devotion to the same idea that impels them to action.
Therefore you will see from even the most superficial study of the above three lines how apparent it is that all the sons of men are rising. Even the ones—so apt to be despised—who are the active workers of the world may, in their place and through their devotion to the ideals of work or science or even of business organisation, be just as far advanced as the more highly considered ones who demonstrate more patently the love aspect of the Divine Self. Forget not that activity is just as divine and just as fundamentally an expression of the All-Father as love in sacrifice, and even more so than what we now know as power, for the power aspect is as yet not comprehended by any of you, nor will it be until a further manifestation.
August 14th, 1920.
Forms used in calling devas and elementals.
In taking up the two points that you have enumerated six and seven, we shall be able to deal with them as one, for the mantrams and forms used in contacting the devas, angels or builders, and in calling the elementals or subhuman forms of existence, are practically the same, and should in these letters be counted as such.
As a preliminary step let us be quite clear wherein lies the distinction between these two groups.
The elementals are, in their essential essence, subhuman. The fact that they can he contacted on the emotional plane is no guarantee that they are on the evolutionary [174] path. On the contrary, they are on the path of involution, on the downward arc. They are to be found on all planes, and the etheric elemental forms—such as the brownies, gnomes and pixies—are well known. They can be roughly divided into four groups:—
1. The elementals of earth.
2. The elementals of water.
3. The elementals of air.
4. The elementals of fire.
They are the essence of things, if you could but realise it. They are the elemental things of the solar system in their four grades as we know them in this fourth cycle on the fourth or earth planet.
The devas are on the evolutionary path, on the upward way. They are, as you know, the Builders of the system, working in graded and serried ranks. Devas are to be found of the same rank as the Planetary Logoi, and the Rulers of the five planes of human evolution hold rank equal to that of a Master of the seventh Initiation. Others are equal in development (along their own line) to a Master of the fifth Initiation, and they work consciously and willingly with the Masters of the Occult Hierarchy. They can be found on all the lesser grades down to the little building devas who work practically unconsciously in their groups, building the many forms necessitated by the evolving life.
Earlier—prior to my dictating these letters to you—you received one communication along the line of the mantric invocation of the elementals and the devas. The information given was correct, as far as it went, and you may if you wish incorporate it here.
“Force in evolution and force in involution are two different things. That is a preliminary statement. [175] In the one yo
u have destruction, violence, blind elementary powers at work. In involution it is the elementals who do most of the work, working blindly along as controlled by the Builders. The work is constructive, cohesive, a gradual growing together, harmony out of discord, beauty out of chaos. The lower kingdoms of the devas work, guided by the great Building Devas, and all move upward in ordered beauty from plane to plane, from system to system, universe to universe. Therefore in studying occult lore you need to remember two things:—
a. You control elemental forces.
b. You co-operate with the devas.
In one you dominate, in the other case you endeavour to work with. You control through the activity aspect, by the definite doing of certain things, by the preparation of certain ceremonies, for instance, through which certain forces can play. It is a replica on a tiny miniature scale of what the third Logos did in world making. Certain activities had certain results. Later on, revelations can be made as to the rites and ceremonies through which you can get in touch with the various elementals, and control them. The Ceremonial Ray—by coming into incarnation at this time, is making things much easier along this particular line.
Fire elementals, water sprites, and the lower elementals can all be harnessed by rites. The rites are of three kinds:—
1. Protective rites, which concern your own protection.
2. Rites of appeal, which call and reveal the elementals. [176]
3. Rites that control and direct them when summoned.
In working with the devas you use the wisdom or love aspect, the second aspect of the Logos, the building aspect. Through love and longing you reach them and your first step (as you are on the path of evolution, as they are) is to get in touch with them, for together you must work in the future for the guidance of the elemental forces and the helping of humanity. It is not safe for human beings, poor foolish things, to tamper with the forces of involution until they themselves are linked with the devas through purity of character and nobility of soul.
Letters on Occult Meditation Page 16