Alice Bailey - Autobiography - Appendix

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Autobiography of Alice A. Bailey - Appendix - Personal Training

Personal Training

Paralleling these major activities, I have since the year 1931 been training a group of men and women, scattered all over the world, in the techniques of accepted discipleship, academically understood. Out of the many possible neophytes, I indicated to A.A.B. (in 1931 and later) a group of approximately 45 people - some known to her personally [254] and some quite unknown - who had demonstrated a willingness to be trained and who could be tried out for fitness for the group work of the new discipleship. These people received direct personal instructions from me and certain general instructions which embodied the newer approach to the Hierarchy and to the spiritual life, though based, of course, on the ancient rules. Those instructions will be made available to the general public very shortly, but no indication will be given of the persons thus trained and no information will be available; names, dates and locations will all be changed, though the instructions will remain as given. (These instructions are now available in a book entitled "Discipleship in the New Age." Volume II of this book will be published shortly. - Foster Bailey.)

Necessarily these people have, from their contact with me, ascertained my identity. They have known for years who I am. But they and A.A.B. have preserved my anonymity with great care and under real difficulty, owing to the fact that hundreds of people in nearly every country in the world have speculated upon my identity and many of them have guessed it accurately. Therefore, today, in spite of all that A.A.B. and my disciples have been able to do, it is generally conceded that I am a Master and a name is given to me. To my own group of specially picked aspirants I have acknowledged my name when they themselves had interiorly arrived at it. It was both foolish and false to do otherwise and in communicating with them or in writing instructions on the new discipleship, I necessarily took my rightful position. Some of these instructions were deemed by me and A.A.B. as useful and appropriate for more general use and were embodied in the series of papers, issued under my name in the Beacon upon the Stages of Discipleship. They were carefully edited by A.A.B., prior to publication, except in one paper when some months ago under the pressure of very heavy work A.A.B. omitted to delete one paragraph in which I speak as a Master. This paragraph appeared in the July 1943 Beacon, much to her acute distress. After many years of protecting my identity, she made this slip and it has, therefore, been publicly stated that I am a Master.

In this connection, there are three points to which I would like to call your attention.

Earlier - many years earlier - I stated in A Treatise on White Magic that I was an initiate of a certain standing but that my anonymity would be preserved. Years later, owing to this mistake of [255] A.A.B., I am apparently in the position of contradicting or reversing myself and so changing my policy. Actually I am not doing so. The spread of the teaching alters circumstances and the need of humanity demands at times a changed approach. There is nothing static in the evolution of truth. It has long been my intention to do all that was necessary to bring the fact of the Hierarchy and its membership more definitely before the public and in a more arresting way.

Years ago, I definitely told A.A.B. (as did her own Master) that her major duty as a disciple was to familiarize the public with the true nature of the Masters of the Wisdom and offset the erroneous impression which the public had received. This she has done to a certain degree but not to the full extent that was intended. She has shrunk from the task, owing to the disrepute into which the whole subject had fallen because of the false presentations given out by the various teachers and occult groups, plus the ridiculous claims put out by the ignorant about us. H.P.B., her predecessor, stated in certain instructions sent out to the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society that she bitterly regretted ever mentioning the Masters, Their names and functions. A.A.B. has been of the same opinion. The Masters, as portrayed in the Theosophical Society faintly resemble the reality and much good has been done by this testimony to Their existence, and much harm by the foolish detail at times imparted. But They are not as pictured; They do not issue orders to Their followers (or rather devotees) to do thus and so, to form this or that organization nor do They indicate some persons as of supreme importance as being in incarnation, knowing full well that disciples and initiates and Masters are known by their works and deeds and not by their words and have to prove their status by the work accomplished.

The Masters work through Their disciples in many organizations but They do not exact, through these disciples, the implicit obedience of organization members, nor do They exclude from the teaching those who disagree with the organizational policies or the interpretations of the leaders. They are not separate and antagonistic to the groups working under various disciples or other Masters, and any organization in which the Masters are interested would be inclusive and not exclusive. They do not fight over personalities, endorsing this one or rejecting that one simply because the policies of an organizational leader are, or are not, upheld. They are not the spectacular and illbred people portrayed by the mediocre leaders of many groups, nor do They choose, for Their pledged disciples and prominent workers, men and [256] women who even from a worldly point of view are of a pronounced inferiority or who deal in claim-making and in the art of attracting attention to themselves. To be a probationary disciple, one can be a devotee and then the emphasis can be laid on purification and the acquiring of an intelligent understanding of brotherhood and human need. To be an accepted disciple, working directly under the Masters and active in world work with a growing influence, requires a mental polarization, a heart development and a sense of real values.

The Masters brought before the general public by such movements as the I AM movement are a travesty of the reality. The Masters portrayed in the many theosophical movements (since the time of H.P.B.) are not distinguished by intelligence and show little judgment in the choice of those whom the organizations claim are initiates or important members of the Hierarchy.

Knowing all this and having watched the ill effects of the usual teaching given anent the Masters, A.A.B. has gone to extremes in order to present the true nature of the Hierarchy, its goals and personnel and has sought to lay the emphasis - as does the Hierarchy itself - on humanity and on world service, and not on a group of teachers who, even if they have transcended the usual personality problems and experience in the three worlds, are still in process of training and are preparing themselves (under the tuition of the Christ) to tread the way of the higher evolution, as it is called. The name given to us by some disciples in Tibet gives the due to our point of attainment. They call the Hierarchy the "society of organized and illumined minds" - illumined by love and understanding, by deep compassion and inclusiveness, illumined by a knowledge of the plan and aiming to comprehend the purpose, sacrificing their own immediate progress in order to help humanity. This is a Master.

The second point I would make is in the form of a question. What harm does it do if some one points the finger towards a Master and recognizes him as such, provided his record substantiates the statement and his influence is worldwide? If by this inadvertent slip, A.A.B. has thus indicated me as a Master, has any harm been done? My books, the carriers of my influence, have gone to the far corners of the earth and convey aid and help; the service work which I suggested, and which F.B. carried out voluntarily, has reached literally millions by pamphlet and radio, by the use of the Invocation and by the work of the Triangles and the words and example of the men and women of goodwill. [257]

A.A.B. in her 25 years work for me in the occult field has taken no advantage of the fact that I am one of the many Masters, recognized today by thousands of people. She has not sheltered herself behind me or her own Master and made us responsible for what she has done nor has her work been started or carried forward on the basis of "The Master ordered this." She knows that the work of the Master is to put a disciple in touch with the plan and that the disciple then goes out and, on his own initiative and with the measure of wisdom and love which is his, endeavors intelligently to shoulder his share in materializing the Plan. He makes mistakes but he does not go to the Master about them but pays the price and learns his lesson. He achieves success but he does not go to the Master for praise, knowing he will not get it. He struggles with ill health, with the jealousies and antagonisms of those who are working less successfully or who fear competition, but he does not go to the Master for strength to stand steady. He tries to walk in the light of his own soul and to stand in the strength of his own spiritual Being and thus himself learns to be a Master by mastering.

The third point I would bring to your attention is that in the new cycle which will come at the close of the war, the fact of the Hierarchy and the work of the Masters - through Their disciples - must and will be brought increasingly to public attention. Disciples everywhere will present increasingly the hierarchical plan of brotherhood, spiritual living and inclusiveness to the world. This will be done not in terms (so prevalent among the foolish) of "The Master has chosen me," or "the Master stands behind my effort" or "I am the representative of the Hierarchy" but by a life of service, by indicating that the Masters exist and are known to many men everywhere, that the Plan is one of evolutionary development and educational progress towards an intelligent spiritual goal; that humanity is not alone but that the Hierarchy stands, that Christ is with His people, that the world is full of disciples unrecognized because silently working; that the New Group of World Servers exists and that the men and women of goodwill are everywhere; that the Masters are not interested in the least in personalities but will use men and women of all attitudes, faiths, and nationalities, provided that love motivates them, that they are intelligent and have trained minds and that they have also magnetic and radiant influence which will attract people to truth and goodness but not to the individual - be he a Master or a disciple. They care nothing for personal loyalties but are dedicated solely to [258] the relief of distress and the promotion of the evolution of humanity and the indication of spiritual goals. They look not for recognition of Their work or the praise of Their contemporaries but only for the growth of the light within the world and the unfoldment of the human consciousness.

August, 1943. [259]

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