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| Discipleship in the New Age II - Personal Instructions to Disciples - S.C.P. |
| To S. C. P. August 1940 MY BROTHER: It is often difficult to know just how to approach you on account of your exceeding sensitivity both to lack of love or understanding and also to criticism. Your first reaction is one of intense pain of being misunderstood - as you think - by me. This is caused by your complete identification of yourself on mental planes with your spiritual objective - an identification which is true, sincere and lasting. You are apt to think that you now are what you want to be. This is a thing impossible if the law of achieved progress is of any importance. Your resentment of criticism (which is sharp and glamor-producing) is not based on pride in fancied achievement but is more a fierce resentment over failure. You add your own criticism of yourself to my proffered suggestions and this creates a glamor. Forget not that contact with disciples older and more experienced than yourself will ever produce a stimulation. That stimulation will apply to any innate glamor as well as to your spiritual life. Your second reaction is a silent acceptance of the criticism or suggestion, and a silent effort (once the emotional crisis is over) to change what is undesirable and to make the desired progress. Can you, my brother, think of a single instance which did not (in the early stages after reading my instructions) produce a turmoil in your consciousness? I cannot, nor can I remember any time when you did not see the matter more clearly and profit by my words. I make this preamble in the hope that this time you will waste no time in any futile reaction or self-defense and for the good of your group brothers, that you will see directly that which I - in love - seek to make clear to you. Nothing matters these days (when the bulk of humanity is in such dire distress) except to aid in its liberation at any personal sacrifice. The temptation of many people these times is oft to evade the issue and find in the daily task and [571] karmic responsibilities as well as in a type of satisfaction with their emotional reactions a way of escape from direct and practical action on behalf of humanity. They employ a forced preoccupation with their own concerns - in order not to think, not to realize and subconsciously to evade doing anything which adds to their present load. When I speak of emotional reactions, I refer to the distress and sorrow and anxiety engendered by having those for whom one cares in the besieged or occupied countries. From that you, with thousands of others, naturally suffer and this is quite unavoidable though it can be controlled. I refer to definitely constructive interest and help upon the physical plane and I would ask you: What do you do of a practical nature to add your burden-bearing capacity to the group of world workers everywhere who are attempting to absorb the world's sorrow, who are giving time and thought and effort to bring the war to an end or to alleviate in some practical way what you can of world distress and the physical plane needs of the unhappy? Maybe you are doing something of a practical nature. I take not the time to search into your daily activities. There is a symbol which flashes out from the heart of all who serve their fellowmen for which we look at times; when found, it indicates a world server. This symbol should flash with greater frequency into my vision. You serve with fealty those you love. I thank you myself and on behalf of K.H. for what you have done for A.A.B. and ask you again to continue to stand by her. But I would ask you again: What do you do of a practical nature to bring your quota of effort to the present world need? Because your creative enterprise deals with the luxuries of life, you need to offset it with an equally potent expression - again on the physical plane - of your service to your fellowmen. That is the first question which I put to you. The second question is to ask you if you feel that you are freer from the ties of those who are regarded by us as a basically selfish and self-centered group - those who belong to the so-called social set? I told you in my last instruction that you were making definite progress in this respect and I believe that you yourself are becoming conscious of your own [572] reactions in this connection. Humanity, and not the group of so-called cultured people, should take your time and attention as well as your work along your chosen creative lines - those on which you are now engaged. Are you freer from the fear of what they would say and what they might think, or are you still guided by the massed self-interest of that group of men and women whose lives are preoccupied with possessions, with the social amenities and who regard doing Red Cross work as demonstrating adequately their usefulness? You, along with others, have refused to identify yourself and interests with any set except the one in which your destiny or your ambition placed you, and this proves an obstruction often to true spiritual growth. It is a problem and takes years to learn the lesson of general human interest. It is not easy to be a "fool for Christ's sake," and, my brother, the social set is one of the cruelest in the world. They need defying for their own sake and their own awakening. Learn to stand free and unafraid, and as a soul include all with whom you are brought in contact within the dynamic vibration of your soul-directed personality. Seek to tune in on world need mentally and not emotionally; add to your service in meditation that which can practically help in this appalling world emergency. The problem of all disciples today is to achieve successful activity in their chosen task of competent citizenship and life occupation and yet, at the same time, to add to that at any cost a practical life of service. Such is not the duty or dharma of average man. It is sufficient for him to make good (as it is called) upon the physical plane, leaving to a later life cycle the development of a more dynamic and inclusive inner life. All disciples have both objectives, one outward and one inward, with also an ordained integrated expression. In your case, this situation is peculiarly ordained by the soul in order to bring about a needed bridging between your powerful astral nature and your definitely illumined intuition. This I pointed out to you some years ago. The world of competitive business and the struggle with the financial situation calls for all the resources of your lower mind and this strengthens and brings your mind into [573] practical effectiveness. The process is therefore one of a pronounced technique for the integration of soul and personality. The same process in the case of the average citizen produces an integration of the personality - what we might call an integration downwards. In the case of a disciple, such as yourself, it produces an integration upwards, leading to a definite reorientation of the life forces and the calling into creative activity the center at the throat. I will give you a short personal meditation which will aid in this development and increase your vision, effective service and usefulness. Do this meditation prior to the group meditation and do it with dynamic brevity.
If you will do this simply as an exercise in the direction and right flow of energy, via the throat center, you will find much instructive value emerging and increased usefulness and effectiveness in every aspect of your life, in the world and on spiritual levels as a disciple. You have learnt much, my brother, and I do not regret adding you to my group of accepted disciples. NOTE: This was the final instruction given to the disciple whose personal instructions are included in Vol. I. The footnote therein on page 341 still applies. |
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