We have studied the rules and have penetrated deeply into the world of significances. Most of you have not, however, passed beyond the stage of groping in the world of [286] meaning. The reason for this is that you have not yet taken the third initiation. I would ask you also to bear in mind that the world of symbols is that of the personal life, of the phenomenal world as that phrase covers the three worlds of human evolution; the world of meaning is the world in which the soul lives and moves with intention and understanding; the world of significance is the world of the Spiritual Triad, which only confers its freedom fully after the third initiation.
The words dealt with in this Rule XIV are apparently so simple that they can be easily understood. I will attempt to show you that their real meaning is deep and esoteric to what you call the nth degree.
Rule XIV.
For Applicants: Listen. Touch. See. Apply. Know.
For Disciples and Initiates: Know. Express. Reveal. Destroy. Resurrect.
The following relationships should be noted, for the first is the seed of the other.
APPLICANTS INITIATES
Listen . . . Know
Touch . . . Express
See . . . Reveal
Apply . . . Destroy
Know . . . Resurrect
You will note that the applicant eventually arrives at knowledge and begins to know; the disciple or the initiate starts with knowing, and through his ability to express esoterically that which he knows is able to reveal the light, and by that light to destroy all illusion, glamour and maya; he brings about resurrection upon the physical plane—a resurrection from the death which physical plane life inevitably confers.
The five words as given to the applicant are indeed relatively simple. Most aspirants understand their meaning [287] to a certain extent. They know that the listening mentioned has naught to do with the sense of physical hearing, and that the touch to be developed has reference to sensitivity and not the sensory perception of the physical vehicle. They know likewise that the sight to be cultivated is the power to see the beauty underlying form, to recognise the subjective divinity and to register also the love conveyed through the medium of symbols. The application of soul energy to the affairs of daily life and the establishing of those conditions which permit of soul knowledge are the elementary lessons of the aspirant. With these I need not deal, except in so far as they give the clue to the significance of the five words as given to the initiated disciple.
Let us take each of these five words and seek to ascertain their significance. But first of all, I would like to point out that here we are concerned with monadic signatures, with that which synthesises significances, and with that which contributes vital significance to the initiated life. I would have you, as you read my words, retreat within yourselves and seek to think, feel and perceive at your highest possible level of consciousness. The effort to do this will bear much fruit and bring rich reward to you. You will not grasp the full intention of these words, but your sense of awareness will begin to react to triadal impression. I know not how else to word this, limited as I am by the necessity of language. You may not register anything consciously, for the brain of the average disciple is as yet insensitive to monadic vibration. Even if the disciple is capable of some responsiveness, there are not the needed words in which to express the sensed idea or to clothe the concept. It is therefore impossible to put the divine ideas into their ideal form and them bring them down into the world of meaning, and from thence into the world of symbols. What I say will therefore have more significance towards the close of this century, when men will have recovered from the chaos and cruelty of war, and when the new and higher spiritual influences are being steadily poured out. I write, my brothers, for the future. [288]
1. Know.
What is the difference between the knowing of the aspirant and the knowledge of the initiated disciple? It is the difference which exists between two differing fields and areas of perception. The aspirant is told first of all to “know thyself”; he is then told to know the relation of form and soul, and the area covered by his knowledge is that of the three worlds, plus the level upon the mental plane on which his soul is focussed. The initiated disciple knows the relation of the periphery to the centre, of the One to the many, and of unity to diversity. The applicant is concerned with triplicity: himself as the knower, his field of knowledge, and that which is the agent of knowing, the mind. The initiated disciple is beyond registering triplicity and is occupied with the duality of manifestation, with life-energy as it affects or is related to matter-force, with spirit and substance. The knowledge of the initiate has naught to do with consciousness as the mind recognises that factor in the evolutionary process; his knowledge is related to the faculty of the intuition and to that divine perception which sees all things as within itself. Perhaps the simplest way to express the knowledge of the initiate is to say that it is direct awareness of God, thus putting it into mystical terms; the knowledge of the aspirant is related to that aspect of divinity which we call the soul in form. Putting this in still another way, I might point out that the aspirant is concerned with the knowledge of soul and matter, whilst the initiate is concerned with soul and spirit.
If I say to you, my brothers, that the knowledge of the initiate is concerned with that which is produced by SOUND and not by the A.U.M. or the O.M., I shall have linked up these comments with much else given previously in the analysis of these fourteen rules. The “listening” of the aspirant has now been transformed into the effectual recognition of that which the Sound has created. I refer not here to the creation of the phenomenal world, or to the world of meaning which is essentially the Plan or the pattern underlying that phenomenal world, but to the intention or [289] the Purpose Which motivated the creative Sound; I am dealing with the impulsive energy which gives significance to activity and to the life-force which the Sound centralises at Shamballa.
It is not the fault of humanity that it is only now possible for the significance of the divine purpose to emerge more clearly in the consciousness of the initiated disciple. It is a question of timing and of movement in space; it concerns the relation of the Hierarchy, working with the Plan, to Shamballa, the recipient (by means of the Sound) of the creative energy which it is the divine intention to expend in producing a perfect expression of the divine Idea. It is to the knowledge of this relationship and of its effects that the first word of Rule XIV refers.
It was the dawning of this significance upon the consciousness of the Christ—a consciousness enlightened, purified and divinely focussed—that forced Him to cry out: “Father, not my will but Thine be done.” He received a vision of the emerging divine intention for humanity and (through humanity) for the planet as a whole. In the hierarchical stage of development which Christ had attained and which made Him the Head of the Hierarchy and the Master of all the Masters, His consciousness was entirely at one with the Plan; its application to life in the three worlds, and its goal of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth and the emergence of the fifth kingdom in nature, were now for Him simply the fulfilling of the law, and to that fulfillment His entire life was and had been geared. The Plan, its goal, its techniques and methods, its laws and their application, its phenomenal effects, the hindrances to be met, the energy (that of love) to be employed, and the close and growing relation and interplay between the Hierarchy and Humanity, between the heart centre of the planetary Logos and the creative centre, were known to Him and fully understood. At the highest point of this consummated knowledge, and at the moment of His complete surrender to the necessary sacrifice of His life to the fulfilling of the Plan, suddenly a great expansion of consciousness took place. [290] The significance, the intention, the purpose of it all, and the extent of the divine Idea as it existed in the mind of the “Father,” dawned on His soul (not on His mind, but on His soul). He saw still further into the significance of divinity than had ever seemed possible; the world of meaning and the world of phenomena faded out and—esoterically
speaking—He lost His All. These are words necessarily meaningless to you. For the time being, neither the energy of the creative mind nor the energy of love was left to Him. A new type of energy became available—the energy of life itself, imbued with purpose and actuated by intention. For the first time, the relation of the Will, which had hitherto expressed itself in His life through love and the creative work of inaugurating the new dispensation and the launching for all time of the Kingdom of God, became clear to Him. At that point He passed through the Gethsemane of renunciation.
A hint lies here. This high point of attainment of the Christ—as related in the Gospel story—was reached in Gethsemane, and for a brief moment we are given an insight into an aspect or happening of the Sixth Initiation. It was this event and spiritual crisis in the life of the Christ (taking place as He overshadowed His disciple, Jesus) which enabled Jesus on His own level of spiritual development to take the fourth initiation, that of the Crucifixion or the Great Renunciation. The numbers four and six are closely connected, and the lesser renunciation (great only from the human point of view) makes the higher renunciation possible eventually, and vice versa. Running through many parts of the Gospel story are two paralleling histories; the lesser world of discipleship profits by the achievements of those who take the higher initiations, and thus is demonstrated the close unity which forever exists within the Hierarchy and—focussing through the Christ—the synthesis which is beginning to be formed between the Hierarchy and Shamballa. This is taking place in this era for the first time in human history. The recognition of this emerging synthesis between Will and Love produced a definite effect in [291] the consciousness of the Christ and led Him to know much that had hitherto been concealed from Him.
These are deep mysteries. Their value to the disciple in training lies in the recognised and considered relationships.
These rules are—as you know—the rules controlling group life; they constitute the key to the laws under which all planetary groups work. The hierarchical life, through its major aspect of Love, was a familiar area of consciousness and well-known to the Masters and to the Master of Them all, the Christ. But a further “knowing” lay ahead of even this “perfected Son of God”; the nature and the mind of that great Being, embodied in the Lord of the World at Shamballa, was now revealed to Him.
It is this living realisation of Being and of identification with the planetary Logos upon the cosmic mental plane which constituted the unfolding awareness of the Christ upon the Way of the Higher Evolution. Therefore, experience, perception and Being are the keynotes of:
1. The Path of Evolution.
2. The mode of unfoldment upon the Path.
3. The state of divine focus upon the Way.
In other words, you have the states of Individualisation, of Initiation, and of Identification.
The relation between the listening of the aspirant and the knowledge of the initiated disciple has been expressed for us in a certain ancient writing as follows:
“Dimly the one who seeks hears the faint whisper of the life of God; he sees the breathing of that whisper which disturbs the waters of his Spatial life. The whisper penetrates. It then becomes the Sound of many waters and the Word of many voices. Great is the confusion but still the listening must go on.
Listening is the seed of obedience, O Chela on the Path.
More loudly comes the voice; then suddenly the voices dim and listening now gives place to knowing—the [292] knowledge of that which lies behind the outer form, the perception of that which must be done. Order is seen. The pattern clear emerges.
Knowing is the seed of conscious doing, O Chela on the Path.
Listening and knowledge also fade away and that which they produce can then be seen. Being emerges and union with the One. Identity is known—not on this plane but on that higher sphere where move and speak the greater Sons of Life. Being alone is left. The work is done.”
2. Express.
We come now to the second word of the fourteenth rule for disciples and initiates—the word Express. This cannot be correctly understood apart from the earlier word imparted to applicants—the word Touch. I would have you note that all the words given to the neophyte refer basically to something he must do in reference to himself, some task he must undertake which will make him more fit for advancement, or some process of apprehension which will enable him to function in a better and more sensitive instrument. This might be called the “introverted stage” of training because it brings the would-be disciple to a better knowledge of himself; he grasps the fact that he himself, the microcosm, is the key to the Macrocosm; he is the clue to the future, and he holds within himself the revelation which must precede esoteric action. In contradistinction to this, the words for the disciple and the initiate mark the attainment of a capacity to work from a most deeply esoteric centre in a pronouncedly occult way. By this I mean that the initiate, working as we have seen from a standpoint of knowledge, is at the same time no longer self-centred, but is now preoccupied with that in which he lives and moves and has his being. His interests are with the Whole and not with the part; his interests are those which will affect his environment (an aspect of that living vibrant Whole) and not himself; his task is the hierarchical one of the salvaging of others, and not his own salvation.
[293] If you will note your own present attitudes and actions, you will discover that primarily (I might add almost necessarily) they centre around yourselves, your own recognitions, your own grasp of truth, and your own progress upon the Path. But—as you achieve initiate status—self-interest declines until it disappears and, as an ancient Word has it, “only God is left”; only that remains in consciousness which is THAT, which is beauty, goodness and truth; which is not form but quality, which is that which lies behind the form and that which indicates destiny, soul, place, and status. Ponder on these words, for they convey to you where (as evolution goes on) you will later lay the emphasis.
In considering the word Express I can, I believe, make this distinction somewhat clearer. When the beginner on the Path ponders the significance of expression, he is occupied with his ability to express the truth which he theoretically recognises but to which he cannot as yet give form. This is valuable because it feeds his aspiration, centres his attention upon himself and increases his naive self-interest. This, frequently, presents its own problems, such as a sense of failure or an undue registration of success, or it fails to develop a sense of proportion.
When, however, the initiate takes into his consciousness this injunction to express, it signifies to him not his own needs or requirements, but the need of others for those expressions of truth which will guide them on their way. This word, therefore, is to him an injunction to be creative. The initiate creates outside himself that which is his individual contribution to the totality of the creative forms whereby the Hierarchy is attempting to create “a new heaven and a new earth.” He is not occupied with what he himself expresses as a soul within a personality; he has developed the habit of right soul expression in the three worlds, and the appearance of his quality (to revert to the use of our original words—life, quality and appearance) is automatic and without any planning on his part. He is, however, occupied with the sequence of activities which I will list as follows: [294]
1. The preservation of hierarchical contact, of which direct, conscious soul contact is now an incident because it is now a habit.
2. An awareness, unbroken and consistent, of his ashramic place; I refer not to location but to status—a very different matter.
3. Reflective concentration upon the hierarchical Plan as his particular Ashram has assumed responsibility for a measure of it; that responsibility he seeks to share intelligently and effectively.
4. Recognition of the immediate contribution of the Ashram and his immediate contribution as an integral part of it. This does away with visionary mysticism and produces the practicing occultist.
5. A study of the creative methods of his particular Ray and an im
aginative visualisation of that which will be expressed when the desired creative work has taken due form.
6. Conscious projection of his contribution onto the outer physical plane. A tangible creative project is undertaken and eventually produced.
7. He thus plays his part in bringing into objectivity the creative undertaking of his Ashram.
The seed of this creative work is that which the Ashram has planned for the exact moment of humanity’s presented need, correct as to timing and placement. This may not be what humanity believes it needs; it is essentially what the Hierarchy recognises as the needed factor, leading to the needed progress for the race at any specific moment in time. For instance, humanity believes today that its major need is peace and material comfort and is working vaguely for both; the Hierarchy knows that its major need is the recognition of the folly of past separateness and the cult of goodwill. Towards these ends, workers in the Ashrams are bending every effort. The creative task, therefore, of working disciples and initiates is to produce that presentation (appearance) of the necessitous truths in such a manner that the recognition of humanity may be so sound that right action can duly be [295] taken. Hierarchical workers must therefore express the true need in form, appropriate to the registering capacity of humanity at this moment.
The creative work of expression does not consequently concern the development and personal progress of the initiate. He has been taken into the Ashram because of his development and because of the contribution he should be able to make to the ashramic creative purpose. What, as a neophyte, he “touched” because of what he could gain spiritually for himself (and this with sound motive) has now become that which must be expressed in the field of service of the initiate, exacting from him all that he has and leaving him nothing for the separated self.
A great creative activity involving all Ashrams—major and minor—is now being planned in the hierarchical assembly, and the work of all waiting and attentive disciples is to make that creative plan successful through its full expression upon the physical plane. This they must do through their grouped and blended activities, which will embody the full expression of all that they have achieved and gained in the earlier stages of their individual unfoldment. Thus you will see that from God the Creator of all that IS, down to the humblest disciple in the hierarchical centre, the theme of creativity dominates and is the expression (again occultly understood) of the divine intention. At present, what is called creative work by men is in reality an expression of themselves and of their appreciation of beauty as they see it, of truth as they grasp it, of psychology as they interpret it, of nature as they scientifically interpret it. According to their spiritual development and their intelligent perception, so will be the quality and the nature of their expression—but it will be theirs.
The Rays and the Initiations Page 32