Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - Problems of Guidance, Dreams, and Depression

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Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - The Ray of Personality - Some Problems of Psychology

People who participate in the activity of those schools of thought which are called by many names such as Mental Science schools, New Thought groups, Christian Science and other similar bodies are also prone to drift into a state of negativity, based on autosuggestion. The constant reiteration of the voiced, but unrealized, fact of divinity will eventually evoke a response from the form side of life which (even if it is not worded guidance) is, nevertheless, the recognition of a form of guidance and leaves no scope for free will. This is a reaction on a large scale, from the one dealt with above. Whereas in the one case there is found a blind acceptance of an undesirable lot because it is the will of God and that Will therefore must be good and right, in the second group there is an attempt to stir the subjective man into the acceptance of a definitely opposite condition. He is taught that there are no wrong conditions except as he himself creates them; that there is no pain and nothing undesirable; he is urged to recognize that he is divine and the heir of the ages and that the wrong conditions, limited circumstances and unhappy occurrences are the result of his own creative imagination. He is told they are really non-existent.

In the two schools of thought, the truth about destiny as it works out under the Law of Cause and Effect and the truth [484] about man's innate divinity are taught and emphasized, but, in both cases, the man himself is a negative subject, and the victim either of a cruel fate or of his divinity. I am wording this with deliberation because I am anxious for my readers to realize that destiny never intended man to be a helpless victim of circumstance or the self-hypnotized tool of an affirmed, but undeveloped, divinity. Man is intended to be the intelligent arbiter of his own destiny, and a conscious exponent of his own innate divinity, of the God within.

Again, schools of esotericists, theosophists and rosicrucians (particularly in their inner schools) have also their own forms of this illusion of guidance. It is of a different nature to the two dealt with above, but the results are nevertheless of much the same quality and reduce the student to a condition of being guided, often of being directed, by illusionary voices. Frequently the heads of the organization claim to be in direct communication with a Master or the entire Hierarchy of Masters, from Whom orders come. These orders are passed on to the rank and file of the membership of the organization and prompt unquestioning obedience is expected from them. Under the system of training, imparted under the name of esoteric development, the goal of a similar relationship to the Master or the Hierarchy is held out as an inducement to work or to meditation practice, and some day the aspirant is led to believe that he will hear his Master's voice, giving him guidance, telling him what to do and outlining to him his participation in various roles. Much of the psychological difficulties found in esoteric groups can be traced to this attitude and to the holding out to the neophyte of this glamorous hope. In view of this, I cannot too strongly reiterate the following facts:

That the goal of all teaching given in the real esoteric [485] schools is to put man consciously in touch with his own soul and not with the Master.
That the Master and the Hierarchy of Masters work only on the plane of the soul, as souls with souls.
That conscious response to hierarchical impression and to the hierarchical plan is dependent upon the sensitive reaction which can be developed and made permanent between a man's own soul and his brain, via his mind.
That the following points should be borne in mind:
1. When a man is consciously aware of himself as a soul, he can then be in touch with other souls.
2. When he is consciously a disciple, he is then in touch with, and can collaborate intelligently with, other disciples.
3. When he is an initiate, other initiates become facts in his life and consciousness.
4. When he is a Master, the freedom of the Kingdom of Heaven is his, and he works consciously as one of the senior members of the Hierarchy.

But - and this is of prime importance - all these differentiations relate to grades of work and not to grades of persons; they indicate soul expansions but not graded contacts with personalities. According to the realized soul development upon the physical plane will be the response to the world of souls of which the occult Hierarchy is the heart and mind.

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