Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Discipleship in the New Age II - Talks To Disciples

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Discipleship in the New Age II - Talks to Disciples - Group Instruction

November-December 1949

MY BROTHERS OF LONG ASSOCIATION:

In my last instruction to you I gave you only a very little teaching anent group work, though there were several significant hints if you had the intuition to grasp them. I have, however, given you much over the years; yet, when I look back over those years, I am forced to realize how relatively little you have profited by this teaching upon group work, though many of you have profited much by the personal instructions I gave you. Only sixteen of you are left out of an original fifty aspirants to discipleship; I think you yourselves would be the first to admit that there is little group interplay and no group enterprise animating those few of you who remain steadfast.

Certain of you (F.C.D., J.W.K-P., R.V.B., P.G.C,, R.S.U., and R.S.W.) are actively working in relation to my plans, though those plans are not in reality mine, but simply the required cooperation in hierarchical endeavor. The rest of [101] you are engulfed in the processes of daily living or else too tired to be more active than you already are, and for that condition of the personality I have no criticism.

It is necessary for you to remember that this group effort which I initiated with the assistance of some of the older and more experienced Masters, is by no means completed; it may be (and probably is) an experiment in this particular life for you, but next life may evoke from you a new attitude and a deeper comprehension of what is subjectively going on. It has been your lack of comprehension and of understood opportunity which has distressed me and bewildered A.A.B. Like all disciples, she had at first to work in the dark; she knew nothing in her physical brain consciousness of the Masters or the Hierarchy when she started to serve, but she continued to serve for many years till discovery rewarded her or (should I perhaps say?) recovery of ancient links and knowledge clarified her vision and her position in regard to truth. Slowly she now withdraws into that service which will (within the Ashram) enable K.H. to do more deeply spiritual work in collaboration with the Christ. It was to train her and thus enable her to do this that she undertook, alone and without my help, to found and organize the Arcane School; it gave her much needed training and experience and enabled her to demonstrate the quality of the teaching and that esoteric psychology which is the major task in each Ashram and particularly in the second ray Ashram.

I would like to say at this point to all of you who have remained steadfast, even if perforce inactive, that I would ask you as life proceeds and you face eventually and inevitably the discarding of the vehicle, to hold increasingly on to your knowledge of the Hierarchy and thus to pass over to the other side with complete dedication to the hierarchical Plan. This is not simply a suggestion on my part; it is an attempt on my part to call to your attention the concept of a spiritual continuity of knowledge and of a rightly oriented attitude. Thus time will not be lost; you can - if you so choose, each and all of you - attain a true continuity of consciousness and it is one of the factors which will serve to hold this group of disciples together. [102]

There are some things which I must say to you as this will be my last instruction on the theme of group work. It is not necessary for me to say much more upon the subject. I would start with some questions. Do you ever think with recognition of those who are no longer working with us? For instance, is D.A.O. ever in your minds? Do you ever think of S.C.P., of W.D.B., of J.A.C., or of that expert worker for the Hierarchy, L.D.N-C? I would guarantee that they seldom enter your mind. Yet they are still an integral part of this group which had the task and the responsibility of being one of the first groups (not by any means the only one, however) to attempt to make the first steps towards the externalization of the Ashrams of the Hierarchy.

One of the major recognitions which is essential to the spiritual aspirant is that the Hierarchy is completely unable - under the law of the freedom of the human soul - to work in the world of men without those representative groups which can "step down" the hierarchical quality of energy so that the average man (with his average vibration and quality) can find in himself a point of response. It was for this specific reason that I engineered this experiment in group work with all of you in order to test out the human capacity in its higher brackets to respond to this much higher quality. It has not worked out as I had hoped, but owing to the fact that all of you are - from our point of view - of the same spiritual generation and that the difference in age was in no case more than twenty-five years at the outside (and believe me, my brother, I forget physical plane ages!) you will all return together to continue with this inevitable experience.

In the coming cycle of service, however, you will not have the association that you have had during this life with A.A.B. and F.B., who will then be working in the Ashrams of their own Masters, as will also F.C.D. and R.S.U. Do not infer from the above statement that contact and mutual interplay in world service will not then be present; it will. The union of all the Ashrams under the spiritual Plan is complete and the interlocking relationships will be increasingly present. But neither of these four people will be working in my Ashram and for this I would have you prepare. Remember nevertheless [103] that personal karmas have been established and are based upon many unexpected relationships, and there is much personal karma in this group of over fifty people; this was necessarily so; otherwise little personal relationships would have been possible, which may present a difficult point for you to understand.

I would like to arrest any tendency to consider one Ashram as superior to another. The forty-nine Ashrams which constitute the Hierarchy in this planetary period are some of them fully active; some are in process of formation, and some are, as yet, in a totally embryonic condition, awaiting the "focusing ability" of some initiate who is today preparing for the fifth initiation. Essentially and potentially all the Ashrams are equal, and their quality is not competitive; all of them differ as to their planned activity - an activity which is all part of a carefully formulated hierarchical activity. This you need most carefully to remember. The devotion of a disciple to some particular Master is of no importance to that Master or to his ashramic group. It is not devotion or predilection or any personality choice which governs the formation of a Master's group. It is ancient relationships, the ability to demonstrate certain aspects of life to demanding humanity and a definite ray expression of quality which determines the hierarchical placement of aspirants in an Ashram. This will perhaps be a new thought to you and is responsible for the reason why A.A.B. has never emphasized concentration on some one of the known Masters. She has always been aware that each central Ashram has associated with it six other Ashrams which are steadily and constantly being organized to meet planetary need. You will note that I did not say "human need," for the needs of the planet which the Hierarchy has to meet embrace more than those of the fourth kingdom in nature. I would have you ponder on these points.

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