There is one mistake which esoteric students are prone to make; they are apt to believe that a hint is so carefully veiled and so cautiously concealed that it is only discoverable after most persistent search. Such is not the case. A hint is usually quite obvious, and should be; however, its meaning, as it concerns the life, work and activities of the disciple, is the factor which presents difficulty and calls for careful reflection. Take, for instance, the obviousness of the hint (on page 319) in which even the paragraphs where it was to be found were indicated. The hint which you were intended to take as a guide is to be found in the words that the disciple must "... recognize the hint which is related to his point in consciousness... my one effort is to indicate the relation between initiation and revelation."

One thing you are all apt to forget as you hunt feverishly for the hint, and that is: it is a hint for the searching disciple. It is not of general application as far as my intention is concerned, but must contain something each of you needs in order to take the next needed step forward during the year following your receipt of the instruction. Had you considered it in that light?

You now have six hints which can be summed up for you in the form of questions, addressed personally to you and to no one else; they require your personal application, understanding and reply:

1. How have I, as a disciple of D.K., contributed to the work of inducing the Hierarchy to make certain needed changes where the task of influencing humanity is concerned?
   This would involve a high-powered livingness.
2. Is the Will aspect in my life beginning to create situations which are related to the hierarchical Plan which I - as a disciple - must follow?
   This would involve a careful construction of the antahkarana.
3. In what way have I cooperated with the Plan in order to have "modified, qualified and adapted it" to meet the need I see?
   This would involve careful soul-personality cooperation.
4. As I work, do I see an increasing vision of divine intention, and do I know practically more than I did?
   This would involve occult obedience in its true sense.
5. Do I work with an inner program, and are my thoughts and activities rightly directed?
   This would involve the dual life of the disciple and correct orientation. [343]
6. Do I recognize in the life-training which I am receiving preparatory steps for initiation, and the possibility of impending revelation?
   This would involve constant ashramic contact.

These hints are therefore intended for the guidance of the disciple in training; the formulas are of wider connotation and concern the group, the Ashram, the Hierarchy and the workers with the Plan upon the inner and the outer sides of life. The synthesis of the teaching or of the training given is something which you should not overlook. The unit, the individual and the part are always viewed in relation to an expanding and inclusive whole. One of the marks of readiness for initiation is the ability to see this inclusive entity and to note the law which is transcended when the part becomes the whole; the disciple must be able also to register and respond practically to the greater spiritual laws which take the place of those which have been transcended. In this last sentence I have given you the seventh hint.

It is through the medium of a hint that the Master in any particular group conveys to a disciple his desire for the disciple. In past times, the hint given was obvious and clearly stated by the Master. Today, owing to man's greater intellectual perception, the hint is still obvious, but it is contained in group instructions, given not to the individual but to the members of an Ashram at some particular stage of development - as is the case with all of you who receive these teachings.