Points of Revelation

Points of Revelation

I have dealt considerably in my earlier writings with the theme, Points of Crisis. We can now approach and prove the livingness of our progress from the angle of Points of Revelation. The entire objective of the initiation preparatory process is to bring about revelation. You must ever bear in mind that that which is revealed is eternally present. There is, therefore, occult truth in the statement that there is “nothing new under the sun.” All that is revealed upon the Path of Discipleship and of Initiation is forever there, but that which can perceive, reach out and include has developed with the ages. Upon the Path of Discipleship, in the earlier stages, the eye of vision is the illumined mind. Upon the Path of Initiation it is that of which the eye of the mind is the exteriorization – the intuitional perception of the soul itself. But as evolution proceeds, that which is brought to the point of perceiving the existing verities differs vastly as the centuries slip away. Even the adept of the present is pronouncedly more perceptive and more accurately interpretive and his vision more penetrative than was the adept in Atlantean days, and the initiate who will achieve initiate-perception during the coming Aquarian Age will be greatly in advance of those who now function as the adepts of today.

I have warned you that discipleship is becoming increasingly difficult. This is owing to the increased sensitivity to the esoteric values and realities which the modern disciple manifests. He can and does perceive that which was the goal of initiation in earlier aeons and perceives these things normally and as an established fact in a developed awareness. It is the spiritual parallel of the development during material evolution of the five senses. His goal and his “pointed direction” lie far ahead and his inclusiveness opens for him doors which in earlier times only opened to the initiate knock. I consequently hold out to you no easy way but only one of difficulty and adjustment.

In all forward stages upon the Path of Initiation, there are three phases which concern the initiate-aspirant’s reactions. There is first of all the vision of the soul, but whereas in the past there was the vision and the starting point, now the modern disciple perceives likewise many of the intermediate stages, the opposing forces, the obstructions and the rapidly arousing handicaps and hindrances. The words I here use are chosen with deliberation. He is not now totally blind nor does he move forward entirely in the dark. There is enough light in him to bring to him what is called the “little revelation,” and, in that light, will he see the greater light and arrive at a truer perception. He sees himself, and that – for aeons – the disciple has ever been able to do. But now he also perceives and recognizes his brother in the light, and this evokes personality reactions and he has to adjust himself not only to himself as he discovers himself to be, but likewise to what he finds his brother also to be. This is no easy adjustment to make, and this the earlier imparted Rules of the Road (Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. I, page 583-584.) will have indicated to you.

I would like here, my brother, to list for you the most important of the statements made by me in the previous instruction, indicating those which embody important hints and showing you, this one time, with what care I prepare that which I seek to impart and how, therefore, I expect from you a careful study of my words. Here are these key thoughts:

1. Only that which you know for yourself and consciously experience is of importance. This refers especially to the following:
   1. Your perception of the vision.
   2. Your contact with me, your Master.
   3. Your recognition of the initiatory process.

I told you, therefore, that you must have (for the goal) the demonstrating of the initiate-consciousness through both mind and brain and consequently upon the physical plane.

2. Initiation is, as far as you are at present concerned, a “moment of crisis wherein the consciousness hovers upon the border line of revelation.” This involves consequently:
   1. A tremendous pull between the pairs of opposites.
   2. The existence, as a result, of a field of tension.
   3. The effort to stand firm at the midway point.

I would remind you that this does not refer to the man upon the path of life, pulled as he is between the pairs of opposites upon the plane of desire, but to the soul standing at the midway point between the monad and the personality and preparing to make the Great Renunciation – a renunciation which the personality makes possible – and to disappear, leaving the two (personality and monad) perfectly at-one. It is the man, as the soul, in full waking consciousness who takes initiation. Hence the emphasis upon soul contact when a man is upon the Probationary Path and passing through the early stages of discipleship. This leads, later, to the emphasis placed upon the need for two major activities – before the man can take the higher initiations:

3. 1. Upon alignment.
   2. Upon the scientific building of the antahkarana.
4. The revelation, given to the initiate, is not a vision of possibilities, but a factual experience, leading to:
   1. The evocation of new powers.
   2. The recognition of new modes and fields of service.
   3. Freedom of movement within the bounds of the Hierarchy.
   4. New hierarchical contacts and new responsibilities which face the initiate.

He, therefore, realizes what St. Paul meant when – talking in hierarchical terms – he said “All things are become new.” It is not simply a question of vision and contacts but of vital interrelation and of recognition which bring with them insight into the Mind of God.

4. Four lines of teaching were emphasized in past centuries and up until the year 1875:
   1. Hints as to the changing of personality character as preparatory to initiation.
   2. Teaching as to the oneness of Deity and of the universal order.
   3. Instruction as to the creative process.
   4. Laya yoga or the yoga of energy, working through force centers.

Two things must now happen: the imparted theories which have guided the disciple’s thinking hitherto must become practical experiences, and there must be such a shift in consciousness that the present vision must become the past experience and a new and deeper and entirely different recognition must take the place of the old goals. Here comes, consequently, a complete test-out of past hierarchical methods and modes of work. Has what the past has given proved an adequate preparation for that which will be the methods and propositions of the future? Have the foundations of truth been so securely settled that the coming superstructure will be based on such a sound reality that it can stand the impact of the new incoming solar and cosmic forces? Will the past work of the Hierarchy stand? Such are the problems with which the initiate-teachers are today faced.

Just as the attitudes of the disciple to daily living and to world happenings are totally unlike that of the average man because he is living increasingly in the world of meaning, so the initiate-disciple develops an attitude to living processes and to world events which is based on character (necessarily), interpreted in the world of meaning but to them he brings a different light to bear and a motivation – based on newly acquired knowledge and understanding – which is entirely different to the two previous conditions. The four lines of teaching are taken for granted; the initiates supposed to have grasped and mastered all of it in some experimental and experiential measure. Now the new formulas of life must control; they are life formulas, not soul formulas. New knowledge must supersede the old and it will not concern that which has hitherto been regarded as the ultimate goal.

An illustration of this is the fact that to the esotericist of the past little was known of the seven Rays and the seven ray types, and naught had been given out anent Shamballa. Now the world of instructed disciples is slowly awakening to these newer values and truths and to the sevenfold source of life expression; the Will of God is going to take shape consciously in the minds of men in the future in such a manner that the old truths will condition and control as never before, but will drop automatically below the threshold of consciousness and the new emerging values and recognitions will take their place in the surface consciousness of all disciples – and their name will be Legion.

5. The astral body provides no hindrance to the initiate – disciple, but provides a medium of facile contact with the Hierarchy. This is due to the fact that the link between the astral body and the buddhic consciousness becomes at this stage increasingly close. They constitute essentially a pair of opposites which will eventually fuse; then the astral body will disappear as does the soul body at a later stage of development.
6. Every disciple has to discover for himself and alone for which initiation he is being prepared; the Master never gives this information. Light on the subject comes through the recognition of tests and the types of experience which come his way. “It is a matter,” I have elsewhere told you, “of interior orientation and not of outside information.” Recognition and orientation are the keynotes of this phase.
7. Always there exists the need for humility. This involves:
   An adjusted sense of right proportion.
   1. A balanced point of view.
   2. A dispassionate attitude.
   3. Truthful recognition of assets as well as debits.

Here also I gave you a hint in stating that true humility is based on fact, on vision and on time pressures.

8. Two immediate objectives face the disciples, plus the need for one quality:
   1. To integrate into the inner Ashram as “practicing chelas.”
   2. To contact the Master at will.
   3. To develop divine indifference.
9. In connection with the formulas, two reactions are automatically evoked in the true disciple and in the true group within the Ashram:
   1. The reaction which is called the “formula of revelation.” This designates sensitive response to the ancient formulas which are given to those being prepared for initiation. One of these I have already given to you.
   2. The reaction called the “discovery of the point within the circle.”

Have you ever thought, my brother, that one reason why you have not as yet contacted me freely in your waking consciousness and talked with me face to face may be due to the fact that the “circle” is for you only as yet a theory? Until the circle of your brothers is a fact in your everyday awareness and of prime importance in your daily life, it is not possible for you to arrive at contact with the “Point.” The disciple starts on the periphery of the Master’s circle and works towards the center; he is apt, however, to reverse this procedure in his consciousness.

I have stated that initiation is essentially a process of revelation. For the disciple who is being prepared to take an initiation the emphasis is necessarily laid upon recognition – the intelligent recognition of what is to be revealed. This requires on his part a definite emergence from the world of glamour so that there can be a clear perception of the new vision; a new light is thrown upon old and well-known truths so that their significance is extraordinarily changed, and in that changing the plan or purpose of Deity takes on an entirely fresh meaning. The inexperienced neophyte is constantly receiving revelations and recording what he regards as most unusual intuitions. All that is really happening, however, is that he is becoming aware of soul knowledge, whereas for the initiate the intuition is ever the revelation of the purpose of Shamballa and the working out, both from the short range and the long range angle, of the divine Plan. The revelation which is accorded at initiation is given to the soul, recorded by the “mind held steady in the light” and then later – with greater or less rapidity – transferred to the brain. You can see, therefore, the true intention of the system of Raja Yoga as it trains the mind to be receptive eventually to the Spiritual Triad. You can also see why for centuries the emphasis of the Teachers of the Ageless Wisdom has been upon the necessity for discrimination, particularly where the probationary disciple is concerned.

I am at this time carrying the current teaching upon initiation a step forward and am seeking to show that it is not essentially a process of soul-personality fusion (though that has to be a preliminary step) but of monad-personality integration, carried forward because of an attained alignment with the soul. Initiation is in fact the essential and inevitable process of transferring the primary triplicity of manifestation into the basic duality of spirit-matter. It is the “dissolution of the intermediary,” and to this the crucifixion and death of the Christ was dedicated and intended to be the revelation, to the initiates of the past 2000 years, of the transmutation of the trinity of manifestation into the duality of purpose. I cannot word this in any other way but the enlightened will comprehend my meaning. The interpreters of the Gospel and many disciples of the Christian dispensation have singularly failed to grasp this revelation; they have laid the emphasis upon the death of the personality, whereas when Christ experienced the “great void of darkness” and chanted aloud the occult mantram “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me,” he was recognizing simultaneously the distinction between his “robe of glory” (symbolized by the partition of his garment by the Roman soldiery) and also calling the attention of all future disciples and initiates to the disappearance of the “middle principle,” the soul; he was projecting (into the world consciousness) the recognition which must come of relation to the Father or the Monad. This great dissolution is culminated for us at the time of the third initiation when the Light of the Monad obliterates the light of the soul and the material atomic light of the threefold personality. But – and here is the point – the recognition of this death and its effects is only symbolically enacted and recognized at the time of the fourth initiation, the Crucifixion. All lesser dissolutions, deaths, renunciations and disappearances of that to which the lower nature holds and is held are enacted in relation to the accustomed aspects of form-life, and of conscious sensitivity and awareness; they are simply preparatory to and symbolic of the final great dissolution of the causal body, consummated at the Crucifixion. This leads to the resurrection or uprising of the personality-soul consciousness (duly fused and blended) into that of the monad. This is finally carried to the point of solar perfection at the Ascension initiation.

I have given you this teaching in terms of the Christian presentation as it may be simpler for you to grasp, but there are many other formulations and approaches to these truths and the newer they are the more difficult necessarily are they to present. Only those who are on the immediate verge of initiation will understand; the others will prefer to interpret these truths to themselves in the easier and well-known formulas of the preparatory stage of the at-one-ing of soul and personality.

The stage of recognizing the revelation which is accorded to the initiate of the major Mysteries is itself divided into lesser phases. These might be described as three in number though much is dependent upon the initiation to be taken and the ray of the prepared disciple. These are:

1. The Stage of Penetration. This refers to the piercing through the world glamour and thereby effecting two objectives:

1. The Light of the Spiritual Triad streams into the consciousness of the initiate, via the antahkarana, so that the Plan for humanity and the divine Purpose in relation to the planet become increasingly clear. This initiates relation to Shamballa.
2. Part of the world glamour is thus dissipated and thus a clarifying of the astral plane takes place and humanity is consequently served. Every disciple who arrives at a recognition of the initiate-revelation releases light and dissipates a part of the glamour which blinds the mass of men. The sixth ray disciple takes far longer over this stage of penetration than do disciples on the other rays but only in this world cycle.

2. The Stage of Polarization. This is the stage wherein the initiate, having let in the light and penetrated through the dense fogs and mists of the world of glamour, suddenly realizes just what he has done and takes a firm stand, correctly oriented towards the vision (or to word it otherwise towards Shamballa). One of the things which must be grasped is that as the initiate is a point of hierarchical life (either on the periphery of the Hierarchy, or within the circle or at the center) he is a definite part of the hierarchical effort. That effort is directed towards an orientation to the greater center of life – Shamballa. Students are apt to believe that the orientation of the Hierarchy is towards humanity. That is not so. They respond to human need when the demand is effective, and are custodians of the Plan; but the orientation of the entire hierarchical group is towards the first aspect, as it expresses the Will of the Logos and manifests through Shamballa. Just as the disciple has to do two things: polarize his position by establishing right human relations and at the same time become a conscious, practicing member of the Kingdom of God, the Hierarchy, so the initiate – upon a higher turn of the spiral – has to establish right relations with the Hierarchy and become simultaneously conscious of Shamballa.

All I can impart here is the desired point of attainment but the phraseology is relatively meaningless, except to those who are experienced in the processes of initiation to a greater or less degree, according to the initiations already taken. This polarization, this point of focussed effort and this attained orientation is the basic idea lying behind the phrase “the Mountain of Initiation.” The initiate “plants his feet upon the mountain top and from that point of altitude perceives the thought of God, visions the dream within the Mind of God, follows God’s eye from central point to outer goal and sees himself as all that is and yet within the whole.”

3. The Stage of Precipitation. Having thus identified himself through penetration and polarization with the Plan and with the Will of God (which is the key to Shamballa), he then proceeds – as a result of this triple recognition – to do his share in materializing the Plan and in bringing through into outer manifestation and expression as much of that Plan as he can. He thus becomes first of all an outpost of the Hierarchy (which of necessity means sensitivity to the Shamballa energy), and then increasingly an Agent of Light – the Light universal, or the Light of the Monad.

I have no more to say today anent initiation. Ponder upon that which I have given and grasp as far as you imaginatively can the magnificence of the initiatory process – so vastly more inclusive than has been indicated by any of the teaching given hitherto. After the war is over and the new world, with its coming civilization and culture begins to take shape, an increasing emphasis will be laid upon the purpose of the Controlling Deity or basic Life or Energy as it is working out through humanity. This will be done by those who are trained esotericists. Much that is now being said by world leaders and serving workers in every nation is an indication of an unconscious response to the Shamballa energy. Towards the end of the century and during the first few decades of the twenty-first century, teaching anent Shamballa will be given forth. The effort of the abstract mind of man will be towards the comprehension of this, just as the goal of hierarchical contact marks the present effort of the disciple. Glamour is disappearing; illusions are being dissipated; the stage of penetration into a new dimension, into a new phase of effort and of attainment is rapidly being promulgated. This is being done in spite of all the horror and agony and will be one of the first results of respite from war. The war itself is shattering illusions, revealing the need for change and producing a demand for a future new world and a coming beauty in living which will be revolutionary and a material response to an intensive initiation process in which all disciples can share and for which advanced aspirants can prepare themselves.