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Discipleship in the New Age I - Foreword
FOREWORD

This book is in many ways unique. Nothing like it has before been published, as far as I know. It contains two series of talks by one of the Masters of the Wisdom to some members of his inner group, and also a series of personal instructions, given by him to a group of his disciples. Many of these people were unknown to me when they were brought to my notice; some of them I have since met; others I have never met; some I knew well and could understand why they had been chosen, knowing that their dedication to the life of the spirit and their love of humanity warranted the choice; one or two were regarded by me as most unsuitable choices but later I altered my point of view and recognized that a wiser mind than mine was responsible for their inclusion in the Ashram. I learnt also that ancient relationships, established in other lives, were also conditioning factors and that some had earned the right to inclusion, even if their spiritual attainments seemed inadequate to the onlooker.

A good deal of the teaching given is new in form and some of it is new in fact. One point emerges with clarity and that is: the old rules to which disciples have been subjected down the centuries still hold good, but are susceptible of fresh and often different interpretations. The training to be given during the coming New Age will be fitted to their more advanced development. The evolutionary progress - from century to century - presents a steadily ripening and developing human mind upon which the Master can work. The standard of discipleship is consequently as steadily rising. This, in itself, demands a new approach, a wider presentation of truth and the permitting of a greater freedom of action upon the part of the disciple. The time element is also different. In the old days, the Master gave his disciple a hint or a point upon which to ponder and meditate or he might indicate some need for changed habits of thought. Then the disciple went away - sometimes [X] for years or an entire lifetime - and reflected and thought and attempted to alter his attitudes without any particular sense of pressure. Today, in our speedier times and when the demand of humanity for help is so outstanding, the hint has given place to explanation and the disciple is trusted with information, hitherto withheld. He is regarded as having reached a stage in his unfoldment at which he can make his own decisions and proceed with rapidity, if he so chooses.

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