“I would give you three key thoughts for deep reflection [497] during the next six months; will you ponder on them, one each month for three months, within the head, and during the second three months brood on them in the heart. These key thoughts are:
1. The necessity for speed.
2. The reorganisation of standards of thought and of living.
3. The expression of: Sincerity, Sacrifice, Simplicity.” (Discipleship in the New Age. Vol I, p 358)
In the many strands of light, woven by the aspirants, disciples and initiates of the world, we can see the group antahkarana gradually appearing—that bridge whereby humanity as a whole will be able to abstract itself from matter and form. This building of the antahkarana is the great and ultimate service which all true aspirants can render.
The immediate Task ahead
What I have now to say is in the nature of a generalisation. I would like to indicate, as far as possible (asking you to remember that all generalisations are basically sound but erroneous in detail), the point where humanity stands in relation to the antahkarana. It might be said that the whole goal of normal evolution is to bring humanity to the point where a direct line of contact is established between the personality and the Spiritual Triad, via the soul—or rather, through the medium of using the soul consciousness to achieve this awareness. This is consummated at the time of the third initiation. We will now for a minute consider the Monad.
I would remind you that there is an analogy in the relation between personality and soul, to that between the Triad and the Monad. This is an analogy that is essentially complete, from the standpoint of consciousness, but not from the standpoint of form. What finally takes place at the most advanced stage of development is the complete fusion of the unified personality and soul with the unified Monad and Spiritual Triad. Only when this has been truly [498] accomplished is there the complete release of the Lives informing our solar system from all form control. Bear this carefully in mind, realising the significance of the word Service, used so frequently in the occult science, and realising also the fact that, for aspirants and disciples, the immediate task ahead is:
1. To bring about the at-one-ment of soul and body, through the medium of alignment.
2. To build the antahkarana, using the six modes or means outlined by me previously, and thus evoke response to the Triad. The thought of Alignment-Invocation-Evocation are the three major ideas for you to hold in mind as we proceed with this study.
The reason that I am giving out what was earlier regarded as some of the preparatory work prior to the third initiation is due to the fact that the race is now at the point of development which warrants complete change in the approach to divinity as taught by the Hierarchy. This does not mean that past teaching is abrogated, but it is shifted back to the earlier stages on the Path of Discipleship, whilst the teaching given in those stages now becomes the work done by the aspirants upon the Probationary Path. Emphasis has been laid upon purification, upon the need for the development of the Christ life, upon the mystical vision and upon philosophy. Occult truths have been given to the race and have evoked much interest, criticism and discussion; they have appealed to all types of mind; they have been distorted and misapplied. Nevertheless, they have been instrumental in aiding advanced aspirants to move forward on to the Path of Discipleship, with a paralleling moving forward of accepted disciples. Once firmly established upon the Path, the truths become self-evident and individual application and verification can be made, leading the disciple inevitably to the Portal of Initiation.
The race as a whole stands now at the very entrance to the Path of Discipleship. The racial gaze is forward to the vision, whether it is the vision of the soul, a vision of a better way of life, of an improved economic situation, or of [499] better inter-racial relationship. That this vision is oft distorted, that it is materially oriented or only partially seen is sadly true; but in some form or another there exists today an appreciable grasp of the “new and desirable” by the masses—a thing hitherto unknown. In the past, it was the intelligentsia or the elect who were privileged to have the vision. Today, it is the mass of men. Humanity, therefore, as a whole stands ready for a general alignment process, and that is the spiritual reason which lay behind the world war. The “sharp shears of sorrow must separate the real from the unreal; the lash of pain must awaken the sleepy soul to exquisite life; the wrenching away of the roots of life from the soil of selfish desire must be undergone, and then the man stands free.” So runs the Old Commentary in one of its more mystical stanzas. Thus it points prophetically to the close of the Aryan Race—not a close in the sense of completion, but a closing of a cycle of mental perfecting, preparatory to a cycle wherein the mind will be rightly used as an instrument of alignment, then as the searchlight of the soul, and as the controller of the personality.
For the masses—under the slow processes of evolution—the next step forward is the aligning of the soul and the form, so that there can be a blending in consciousness, following on a mental appreciation of the Christ principle and its deep expression in the life of the race. This is something which can be seen quite clearly emerging, if you have the eyes to see. It is evident in the universal interest in goodwill, leading eventually to peace; this desire for peace may be based on individual or national selfishness, or upon a true desire to see a happier world wherein man can lead a fuller spiritual life and base his efforts on truer values; it can be seen in all the planning which is going on for a new world order, based on human liberty, belief in human rights and right human relations; it is demonstrating also in the work of the great humanitarian movements, the welfare organisations, and the widespread evocation of the human mind through the network of educational institutions throughout the world. The Christ spirit is expressively present, [500] and the failure to recognise this fact has been largely due to the prevalent human effort to explain and interpret this phrase solely in terms of religion, whereas the religious interpretation is but one mode of understanding Reality. There are others of equal importance. All the great avenues of approach to Reality are spiritual in nature and interpretive of divine purpose, and whether the religious Christian speaks of the Kingdom of God, or the humanitarian emphasises the brotherhood of man, or the leaders against evil head the fight for the new world order or for the Four Freedoms or the Atlantic Charter, they all express the emergence of the love of God in its form of the spirit of Christ.
Humanity in the mass has therefore reached a point of emergence from darkness; it has itself evoked the reaction of the powers of evil, and hence their attempt to arrest the progress of the human spirit and to stop the onward march of the good, the true and the beautiful.
Aspirants and probationary disciples are occupied with a definite process of focussing their consciousness in the soul. This process falls into two parts:
An intensification of the personality life, so that it is developed to its highest individualistic powers.
A process of moving forward into the light and of conscious soul contact.
This involves the earlier stage of the alignment process, which is a mode of focussed, concentrated effort, according to the ray and life purpose of the soul. This may take the form of a profound application to some scientific endeavour or a deep concentration on the spiritual work of the world, or it may be a complete dedication to humanitarian effort; it matters not. I would call your attention to that statement. In every case the motivating power must be betterment; it must be carried forward by extreme effort; but—given right motive and the effort to develop simultaneously a good character and a stable purpose—the aspirant or probationary disciple will eventually find that he has succeeded in establishing a definite soul relation; he will have discovered that [501] the path of contact between soul and brain, via the mind, has been opened, and that he has mastered the first stage in the needed alignment process.
When this has been accomplished, the man passes on to the Path of Discipleship and can undertake the work I
am outlining for you in this treatise. Thus you can see how the entire human family has reached a central and most important point upon the evolutionary path. The immediate path ahead for all—each in his own place—is to stand with right orientation, undeterred by circumstances, and then unflinchingly move forward.
I have given you the six methods of building the antahkarana, and as we proceed to take up our next point, I would have you refer to them at frequent intervals. The ray methods with which we shall be concerned are the methods, uniquely possible on the seven major lines of emanatory energy, which differing ray types will bring to bear on these six stages of the building process. All disciples on all these seven rays use the same building technique of Intention, Visualisation, Projection, Invocation and Evocation, Stabilisation and Resurrection. Of these the first two are uniform in technique for all the rays, but when the stage of Projection is reached, then the ray techniques begin to differ, and it is these techniques or methods of ray work, coupled with the seven Words of Power, which we shall now proceed to consider.
The Seven Ray Methods used in the Construction Process
Until the stage of projection is reached, the methods employed by all disciples on all rays are identical. Their intention is one, and they all have to attain the same measure of tension and of preparation for the construction of the bridge by gathering the needed energy from two sources—the personality and the soul. By this focussing and its resultant tension, by thus evoking the Spiritual Triad and starting the dual process of building from both ends of the bridge (if such a phrase is possible and permissible), the work goes forward uniformly. The use of the creative imagination [502] is now called forth and this forms the second stage. This presents a real difficulty for the first ray and the seventh ray aspirants. Neither type can with facility organise the material energy, orient energy currents, and see their objective clearly in the mind's eye pictorially. It is a process which is profoundly difficult for them. It must, however, in some way be done, because the use of the visual imagination is an essential factor in the building process and one of the major means of focussing, prior to projection.
This process of projection falls into three main activities:
1. After due focussing and after careful, sequential and systematic picturing the “rainbow bridge,” the disciple—by a distinct and separate effort—calls in the will aspect of his nature, as far as he can in this incarnation. It is in this connection that the differing ray methods make their appearance, the difference being determined by the quality of the ray life.
2. The disciple has to preserve steadily the triple consciousness, not simply theoretically but also factually, so that three paralleling lines of thought, or three streams of active energy, are used by him simultaneously:
a. He is aware of himself, personality and soul, as occupied with the process of bridge building. He never for one second loses his sense of conscious identity.
b. He is aware of the point of focussed tension which he has succeeded in producing and that three streams of energy have contributed to it—the focussed energy of the personality, poised in the lower concrete mind, the inflowing magnetic energy of the soul, streaming out from the twelve petals of the three tiers plus the innermost tier of the egoic lotus, and the energy of the “jewel in the lotus”—all streaming into the centre of tension on the mental levels of the lower mind.
c. He is aware of as much of the consciousness of his ray energy as can enter into his awareness; this is his egoic ray energy and not personality force. He endeavours to see himself as a point of particular energy [503] coloured by his ray life, and carefully bears in mind that the energy of his egoic ray is the major energy through which the Monad is attempting to express itself, and also that his threefold egoic vehicle is a reflection of and closely related to the three aspects of the Spiritual Triad. It is this relation (and its conscious interplay and effect) which is evoked by the building of the antahkarana, and which eventually (when it is powerful enough) brings into radiant activity the “jewel in the lotus.”
3. When these three stages of realisation have been completed as far as the disciple feels he is capable of carrying them, then and only then does he prepare himself for the distinctive use of his ray method in preparing for the “projecting sound” or Word of Power.
You can see from all the above that this constitutes a definitely planned process of a basic scientific nature, and requires as careful following as the procedure of any scientist in search of some advanced chemical formula. The only difference, scientifically speaking, is that the whole process is carried forward upon subjective levels and in the realm of consciousness, thus requiring a consciousness and a concentration not needed when working more tangibly on the outer plane of awareness. At first it seems complicated, as the disciple tries to master the different stages of the process, but it all becomes entirely automatic when once mastered. Here is a summary of process up to the point of definite projection:
I. Intention, producing focussing and tension.
II. Visualisation, produced by:
1. The buddhic activity of “impression.”
2. The tension of the mental body.
3. The imaginative processes of the astral body.
III. Projection:
1. The calling in of the Will aspect.
2. The preservation of a triple state of awareness in order that: [504]
a. The disciple is aware constantly of his own identity.
b. He is conscious of a fixed point of tension.
c. He is aware actively of his soul ray or his soul energy.
3. He starts in to use that distinctive ray energy correctly.
4. He then, when all the above is completed, uses the Word of Power which is the agent of his Will.
This short tabulation should aid in the process, and you can see how stage grows out of stage and how, once familiarity has been established, it should be possible for the preliminary work to be rapidly carried forward.
When, however, the distinctive methods of the ray energy of the disciple reach the point of definite use, it is not so simple as it sounds. Success in the building process is dependent upon the ability of the disciple to do three things:
1. Hold the mind steady in the light, i.e., preserving the point of tension at its highest possible point at any given time in the disciple's unfoldment and building activity.
2. Register consciousness of soul contact, thus bringing about an increasing fusion between the soul and the personality, so that complete at-one-ment is increasingly attained. Technically, this means that the energy of the soul ray and of the personality ray merge together, with the soul ray dominating always.
3. Hold in mind, specifically and in detail, the method to be employed in building the bridge, according to the particular ray technique, and with the objective in view of relating (in a new and significant manner, factually and not just theoretically) the Spiritual Triad and the personality.
The soul, therefore, as a separate entity, is fading slowly out of the picture because it is being absorbed into and by the personality, which is becoming more and more the soul in incarnation. Eventually the relation is established between [505] spirit (Monad) and personality (form or matter), with a tiny point of consciousness eternally present which is aware of both these factors and yet preserves inviolate its own identity. This latter realisation is the result of aeonian work, carried forward by the soul. Paradoxically, we say that the soul fades or drops out, yet in the last analysis it remains, for in this solar system there is naught else but only this consciousness of being.
One point I would touch upon here before taking up the seven ray methods of projection. The bridge to be built is called frequently the “rainbow bridge” because it is constituted of all the colours of the seven rays. Speaking specifically and from the angle of the disciple, the bridge which he builds between the personality and the Spiritual Triad is composed of seven strands of energy, or seven streams of force; he uses all the seven rays
, having gained facility in so doing because again and again his personality has (in the long cycle of incarnations) been on all the seven rays many times. But his soul ray dominates eventually, and in the rainbow bridge the “colours of his rays are heard vibrating; the note of his ray is seen.” The bridge built by humanity as a whole is one bridge composed of the multiplicity of individual bridges, built by the many disciples. It is therefore formed eventually of seven strands or streams of energy coming from the seven egoic groups (one group of each ray type). To this bridge the creative work of all human beings who reach the stage of soul contact contributes. Their dominant strands of light fuse into one whole and their lesser strands are lost to sight in the radiant light of the sevenfold bridge which humanity will eventually complete.
Even in this finally completed bridge—at the end of the world cycle—one ray light and colour will predominate, the second ray, with the fourth ray as the subsidiary ray. The fourth ray might be symbolically called “the main cable” for humanity, because it is the dominant note of the Fourth Creative Hierarchy. Now let us take up the seven ray methods, one by one.
The Rays and the Initiations Page 54