Esoteric living (as it develops) falls into three stages, broadly speaking; these are carried forward within the consciousness of the man and parallel the recognition and ordinary aspects of form life on the three levels of experience:

1. The stage of reception of concepts, of ideas and of principles, thus gradually asserting the existence of the abstract mind.
2. The stage of "light reception," or that period when spiritual insight is developed, when the vision is seen and accepted as true, and when the intuition or "buddhic perception" is unfolded. This carries with it the assertion as to the existence of the Hierarchy.
3. The stage of abstraction, or the period wherein complete orientation is brought about, the way into the Ashram is made clear, and the disciple begins to build the antahkarana between the personality and the Spiritual Triad. It is in this stage that the nature of the will is dimly seen, carrying with its recognition the implication that there is a "center where the will of God is known." [684]

Students are apt to think that death ends things, whereas from the angle of termination we are dealing with values which are persistent, with which there is no interference, nor can there be any, and which hold within themselves the seeds of immortality. I would have you ponder on this and know that everything that is of true spiritual value is persistent, ageless, immortal and eternal. Only that dies which is valueless, and - from the standpoint of humanity - that means those factors which emphasize and assume importance where the form is concerned. But those values which are based on principle and not upon the detail of appearance have in them that undying principle which leads a man from the "gates of nativity, through the gates of perception, to the gates of purpose" - as the Old Commentary expresses it.

I have endeavored to show you how the first part of this Law X has a simple application to mankind, as well as an abstract and abstruse meaning for esotericists.

The last paragraph in this Law X cannot be interpreted in this same manner nor applied in this way; it concerns only the "passing over" or the "discarding of hindrances" by very advanced disciples and initiates. This is made clear by the use of the words, "O Rising One" - a term applied only to those who have taken the fourth initiation and who are therefore held by no aspect whatsoever of the form nature, even so high or transcendental a form as the soul in its own vehicle, the causal body or the egoic lotus. Yet again, facility in response to this law must be and is developed in the earlier stages of discipleship, where listening, responsiveness and occult obedience are developed and have their extensions in the higher levels of spiritual experience.