This fifth ray formula is of exceeding potency at this time and should be used often, but with care, by those upon this line of divine energy. It has most powerful integrating properties, but the person who employs it must be mindful to visualize and hold in his mind's eye the even, balanced, equilibrized distribution of the divine energy set in motion by the use of this fifth ray formula so that the three aspects of the spiritual entity concerned - the mind, the One Who uses it (the Self) and the form nature - may be equally stimulated. This statement means, for instance, that if all the emphasis of the soul energy available is poured into the lower nature, the natural man, it might result in the shattering of the form and the consequent uselessness of the man in service. If all of it, on the other hand, is poured into the receiving chalice of the astral nature, it might only serve to intensify the glamor and to produce fanaticism. [370]

1. The lower psychic man - physical and astral - must receive a balanced quota of force.
2. The mind must receive its share of illuminating energy.
3. A third part of that energy must be retained within the periphery of the soul nature to balance thus the other two.

This is a replica of the experience of the Monad when coming into manifestation, for the monad retains a measure of energy within itself, it sends energy forth which is anchored in that center of energy which we call a soul. Still more energy pours forth also, via the soul, for the production of a human being - an expression of the soul upon the physical plane, just as the soul is an expression of the monad upon the mental plane, and both are expressions also of that one monad.

The use of this formula, which produces eventually a definite relation between the soul and the various aspects of the form, brings about a needed alignment, and again (as in the other cases considered previously) produces also, and evokes, a crisis. This crisis must be regarded as producing two lesser crises in the consciousness of the personality:

1. That in which there comes the achieving of equilibrium and what might be called a "balanced point of view." This balanced vision causes much difficulty and leads to what might be called the "ending of the joy-life and of desire." This is not a pleasant experience to the disciple; it leads to much aridness in the life-experience and to a sense of loss; it often takes much wise handling, and frequently time elapses before the disciple emerges on the other side of the experience.
2. This balanced condition in which the not-Self and the Self, the life-aspect and the form-aspect, are seen as they [371] essentially are (through the aid and the use of the discriminating faculty of the mind), leads eventually to a crisis of choice, and to the major task of the disciple's life. This is the detaching of himself from the grip of form experience, and consciously, rapidly, definitely and with intention preparing himself for the great expansions of initiation.

When this dual crisis is over and that which it has evoked has been rightly handled, then the light streams forth, leading to the revelation of the relationships of form to soul. These two are then seen as one in a sense never before realized and are then regarded as possessing a relation quite different to the theoretical relationships posited in ordinary occult and religious work. It will be apparent, therefore, how a new relationship and a new type of integration then becomes possible and how the mind quality of the fifth ray (critical, analytical, separative and over-discriminating) can become, what in the middle ages it used to be called,' the "common sense."

When this takes place, form and life are indeed one unity and the disciple uses the form at will as the instrument of the soul for the working out of the plans of God. These plans are at-one with the intention of the Hierarchy. We now have five words for disciples upon the five rays to study:

• Ray One - Inclusion.
• Ray Two - Centralization.
• Ray Three - Stillness.
• Ray Four - Steadfastness.
• Ray Five - Detachment.