The Rays and the Initiations

by Alice A Bailey

  You can see, therefore, how far ahead of present attitudes and goals this teaching is. Identification with the soul and with the Hierarchy is dependent upon the ability of the disciple rightly to love. It is the emergence of the second divine aspect, for love is the expression of group life, and [46] that is rare indeed to find in these days. Right tension indicates the emergence of the first aspect, of the will, and this is seldom to be found as yet, save among the more advanced disciples and initiate members of the Hierarchy.

  Love governs the Way into the life of the Hierarchy and is the foundation for all approach to, and appreciation and acceptance of truth.

  Will governs the Way into Shamballa and is the foundation for all approach to, appreciation of and identification with, Being.

  This developed will expresses itself as tension, esoterically understood. It embodies the ideas of orientation, implacable determination, ability to wait and to preserve intention and orientation unmoved by aught which may occur. It also involves the determination to take the intended action (always of a creative nature and based on loving understanding) at the psychological moment (right timing), or that exact moment which the psyche or soul determines to be correct. Here you have one of the interesting transferences of meaning and of relationship which occur in the Ageless Wisdom. The Son or soul emerges into manifestation with the concurrence and aid of the Mother or of the matter aspect. This is to you a most familiar truth. In the next stage, that of initiate-development, the Son, in its turn, becomes the feminine or negative aspect and, demonstrating as the Psyche, enables the initiate to bring into expression another divine aspect—that of the will. Until the fourth initiation is undergone, it is the soul as a “focal point for descending light and for ascending radiance.” This dual activity reveals the nature of the will. Note how this phrase from an ancient writing describes the antahkarana.

  It is not possible in these brief instructions to deal adequately with the will aspect of divinity, nor would it profit at this time. Aspirants have to learn the nature of the will by the power of inner illumination and by certain intelligent recognitions. They learn the nature of the self through the aid of the personality, the shadow or distortion of the divine will. They pass from the expression of the will which [47] is purely selfish, self-sufficient and self-focussed, to the grasp of the group will and to the effort to embody that group will. This group will is always concerned with that which is not the will of the separated self.

  As this ability to be selflessly decentralised grows and develops, the aspirant reaches a point where the group life and the group good is seen as an integral part of a much greater Whole. This greater Whole is Being Itself, divorced from form but ever working through form whilst in manifestation, and working with planned purpose. The realisation then grows that intelligence and love are not enough, but that they must be supplemented and implemented by will, which is active intelligent purpose, lovingly applied.

  The difficulty of this subject is inherent in the fact that basically (no matter how strange this may seem) love is the line of least resistance for the developed human being. It is the governing principle of the present solar system. Will is the governing principle of the next or coming solar system, which will be brought into manifestation through the agency of those human beings who—in this solar system—arrive at the full expression of the will aspect. Then, in the coming consummating manifestation, love will be to the will aspect what intelligence is, in this solar system, to love.

  RULE TWO

  In our study of Rule One on Initiation, we gained (or perhaps fixed more clearly in our minds) three major thoughts:

  1. That the Path of Initiation is one on which we develop the Will aspect of divinity.

  2. We learn also to use consciousness as a jumping off place for the recognition of a new state of realisation, which is not consciousness at all, as we understand that term.

  3. We undergo, prior to each initiation, two major tests—that of the burning ground and that of the clear cold light.

  [48] We closed our discussion with the thought of Tension and I defined it as the identification of the brain and soul with the will aspect and the preservation of that identification—unchanged and immovable—in all circumstances and difficulties. I mention this as the “tension” concept or point of attainment underlies the teaching of the rule which we are now going to consider.

  Rule II.

  The WORD has now gone forth from the great point of tension: Accepted as a group. Withdraw not now your application. You could not, if you would; but add to it three great demands and forward move. Let there be no recollection and yet let memory rule. Work from the point of all that is within the content of the group’s united life.

  A close analysis of this rule will convey to the intuition far more than appears upon the surface, and that is rich enough. Each of these rules holds in it the seed of that understanding which must be evoked before the next rule can be mastered. All that is given is ever based on that which has gone before. The “three great demands” of the initiate are based upon the “triple call” found in Rule Two for aspirants and disciples. The triple call was earlier sounded forth. Now its higher significances must be comprehended.

  There are only four parts to this rule, which is one of prime importance because it contains the motivating force, the conditioning factors and the place of triumph—all these are indicated. We will, as is our usual custom, study each separate part sequentially and as far as possible in detail bearing in mind that initiation deals with factors in latent manifestation for which our languages have no words, and with ideas which are not yet to be found among the “raincloud of knowable things” (as Patanjali calls it)—that is, knowable to the masses of men. The initiate is, however, dealing with a world of meaning and of affairs which are not yet manifesting in any way. The task of the Master [49] (and of Those higher than He) is to take those steps and precipitate those “waiting events” which will eventually bring them into manifestation. This, I would remind you, is always done by the use of the will and from a point of tension.

  1. The Word has now gone forth from the great point of tension: Accepted as a group.

  I would like here to call your attention to the progressive nature of the esoteric science; it is nowhere better illustrated than in this phrase; nowhere is it more clearly shown and yet, unless the intuition and the sense of correlation are functioning, the idea might escape recognition.

  In all the teaching given to the aspirant and to the disciple in the early stages of their training, the emphasis has been upon the “point of light” which must be discovered, brought into full illumination, and then so used that the one in whom the light shines becomes a light-bearer in a dark world. This, the aspirant is taught, becomes possible when contact with the soul has been made and the light is found. This is familiar teaching to many and is the essence of the progress to be made by aspirants and disciples in the first part of their training.

  We now, however, pass on to another expression and to the next development in the life of the initiate, which is learning to work from a “point of tension.” Here lies the new emphasis, and I am bringing it to the attention of humanity as mankind nears the close, the terrible but liberating finale, of his great test in this modern burning-ground. Now men can pass on into the clear cold light, and from there begin to hold that point of tension which will be evocative of the needed “understanding will-to-move forward” along the line of human will-to-good—the first phase of the development of the will aspect. It is the higher sublimation of the aspirational stage which precedes the attainment of the “point of light” through contact with the soul.

  The point of tension is found when the dedicated will [50] of the personality is brought into touch with the will of the Spiritual Triad. This takes place in three clearly defined stages:

  1. The stage wherein the lower will aspect which is focussed in the mental body—the will-to-activity of the personality—is brought into contact with the high
er abstract mind; this latter is the interpreting agent for the Monad and the lowest aspect of the Triad. Two things can be noted in this respect:

  a. This contact becomes possible from the moment that the first thin strand of the antahkarana, the rainbow bridge, is completed between the mental unit and the manasic permanent atom.

  b. This demonstrates in an absorbing devotion to the Plan and is an effort, at any cost, to serve that Plan as it is progressively understood and grasped.

  This expresses itself in the cultivation of goodwill, as understood by the average intelligent human being and put into action as a way of life.

  2. The stage wherein the love aspect of the soul is brought into touch with the corresponding aspect of the Triad, to which we give the inadequate name of the intuition. This is in reality divine insight and comprehension, as expressed through the formulation of ideas. Here you have an instance of the inadequacy of modern language; ideas are formless and are in effect points of energy, outward moving in order eventually to express some “intention” of the divine creating Logos. When the initiate grasps this and identifies himself with it, his goodwill expands into the will-to-good. Plan and quality give place to purpose and method. Plans are fallible and tentative and serve a temporary need. Purpose, as expressed by the initiate is permanent, farsighted, unalterable, and serves the Eternal Idea.

  3. The stage wherein—after the fourth initiation—there is direct unbroken relation between the Monad, via the Triad, and the form which the Master is using to do His [51] work among men. This form may be either His temporary personality, arrived at along the normal lines of incarnation, or the specially created form to which Theosophists give the technical but cumbersome word “mayavirupa.” It is the “true mask, hiding the radiant light and the dynamic energy of a revealed Son of God.” This is the esoteric definition which I offer you. This stage can be called the attainment of the will-to-be, not Being as an individual expression but Being as an expression of the Whole—all-inclusive, nonseparative, motivated by goodness, beauty and truth and intelligently expressed as pure love.

  All these stages are achieved by the attainment of one point of tension after another, and the work thus carried forward into the realm of the dynamic steadfast will. This will, as it is progressively developed, works ever from a constant point of tension.

  We come now to the consideration of a subject which always proves exceedingly difficult to students: The nature of the WORD, the A.U.M., and its later developments, the O.M. and the Sound. Much confusion exists as to its significance or the necessity for its use. The phase of its recognition through which we are now passing is a purely exoteric one of accustoming the general public to the fact of its existence. This has been brought about in three ways:

  1. Through the constant use in all the Christian Churches of the word “Amen,” which is a western corruption of the A.U.M. The A.U.M. is here the lowest aspect of the originating Sound.

  2. Through the emphasis laid in Masonry upon the Lost Word, thus subtly drawing the attention of humanity to the O.M., the Sound of the second aspect, the Soul.

  3. Through the growing emphasis laid by the many occult groups throughout the world upon the use of the O.M., its frequent use by these groups in public, and by those intent upon meditation.

  The soundest approach is that of the Masonic tradition, because it deals primarily with the world of meaning and [52] with a phase of the esoteric teaching. The use of the Amen in the ritual of the Christian Church will eventually be discouraged, because it is basically a materialistic affirmation, being usually regarded by the average churchgoer as setting the seal of divine approval upon his demand to the Almighty for protection, or for the supply of his physical necessities; all this is, therefore, related to the life of desire, of aspiration, of dualism and of request. It involves the attitude of giver and recipient.

  The A.U.M. and the Amen are both of them an expression in sound of the principle of active intelligent substance in the divine manifestation, the third aspect, and have served human need in that phase of material and form development. I refer here also to the development of mind or of the mental form. The personality as a whole, when perfected and brought under control of the soul, is the “Word made flesh.”

  The mass of aspirants and of disciples are today learning the meaning of the O.M., which is not the Word made flesh, but the Word released from form, and expressing itself as soul-spirit and not as body-soul-spirit. It might, therefore, be said that:

  1. The A.U.M. (note that I separate each aspect of this triple sound) brings the soul-spirit aspect down on to the physical plane and anchors it there by the force of its outgoing vibration. Using a symbol to make my meaning clear, it is like “a strong wind that pins a man against a wall and makes free effort difficult.” It vivifies form; it intensifies the hold of matter upon the soul; it builds around the soul a confining prison—a prison of the senses. It is the “sound of enchantment,” the sound that is the source of glamour and of maya; it is the great beguiling and deceptive energy, the note of the involutionary arc. In it are hid the secret of evil or matter, the uses of form, first as a prison, then as a training ground and as a field of experience, and finally as the expression for the manifestation of a Son of God.

  2. The O.M. rightly sounded, releases the soul from the realm of glamour and of enchantment. It is the sound of [53] liberation, the great note of resurrection and of the raising of humanity to the Secret Place of the Most High when all other Words and sounds have failed. It is not a triple sound as is the A.U.M., but a dual sound, significant of the relation of spirit and soul, and of life and consciousness. This lost Word, symbolic of the loss in the three worlds (typified by the degrees of the Blue Lodges in Masonry) must be recovered and is in process of discovery today. The mystics have sought after it; the Masons have preserved the tradition of its existence; the disciples and initiates of the world must demonstrate its possession.

  3. The SOUND is the sole expression of the Ineffable Name, the secret appellation of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being, and Who is known to the Great White Lodge through this name. Remember always that name and form are synonymous terms in the occult teaching, and these two words hold the secret of manifestation. The goal of the initiate is identification with all forms of the divine life, so that he can know himself to be an integral part of that Whole and can tune in on all states of divine awareness, knowing for himself (and not just theoretically) that they are also his own states of awareness. He can then penetrate into the divine arcana of knowledge, share in the divine omnipresence and—at will—express the divine omniscience and prepare himself to manifest in full consciousness the divine omnipotence.

  I am using words which are futile to convey the underlying meaning of the Word. Understanding can only be arrived at when a man lives the Word, hearing its soundless Sound and breathing it forth in a vital life-giving breath to others.

  The masses are hearing the sound of the A.U.M. and, in their higher brackets, are finding that A.U.M. the expression of something from which they seek release. The aspirants and disciples of the World are hearing the O.M. and in their personal lives the A.U.M. and the O.M. are in conflict. This may represent a new idea to you, but it conveys an idea of an eternal fact. It may help you to gain an understanding [54] of this phase if I point out for you that for this first group the O.M. can be portrayed in the following symbol as expressing the material M nature whereas the second group can be portrayed by the symbol m expressive of the soul enveloped in matter. You will see, therefore, how the teaching leads man progressively onward and how the occult science brings man in touch with great mental reversals and divine paradoxes. For aeons the Word of the soul and the Sound of spiritual reality are lost. Today, the Word of the soul is being found again, and with that finding the little self is lost in the glory and the radiance of the divine Self.

  This discovery is consummated at the time of the third initiation. The initiate and the Master, along with thos
e of higher rank who are approaching identification with Shamballa, are steadily and ever more clearly hearing the Sound emanating from the Central Spiritual Sun and penetrating all forms of divine life upon our planet—via our Planetary Logos Who hears it with clarity and with understanding—the Sound of the lowest syllable of the Ineffable Name of the One in Whom all the Planetary Logoi live and move and have Their Being, for They are centres in the LIFE which is expressing itself through the medium of a solar system.

  You can see how little use there is in my enlarging further upon this. Its sole usefulness is to give an expanding impulse to the consciousness of the disciple and to stir his imagination (the seed of the intuition), so that even whilst occupied in expressing the M and then the m, he will be reaching out after the Sound.

  Earlier I pointed out that the sound of the A.U.M., the sound of the O.M. and the SOUND itself are all related to vibration and to its differing and varied effects. The secret of the Law of Vibration is progressively revealed as people learn to sound forth the Word in its three aspects. Students would also do well to ponder on the distinction between the breath and the Sound, between the process of breathing and of creating directed vibratory activity. The one is related to Time and the other to Space and they are distinct from each other; and (as the Old Commentary puts it) “the Sound, the [55] final and yet initiating Sound, concerns that which is neither Time nor Space; it lies outside the manifested ALL, the Source of all that is and yet is naught.” (No thing. A.A.B.)

  There are, therefore, great points of tension from which the Sacred Word, in its major aspects, goes forth. Let me list them for you:

  1. The creative point of tension—a tension achieved by a planetary Logos when He responds to the Sound of the Ineffable Name and breathes it forth in His turn in three great Sounds which made one Sound on His Own plane of expression, thus creating the manifested world, the impulse towards the unfoldment of consciousness, and the influence of life itself. This is the Sound.