In this Rule two main ideas are to be found, both of them connected with the first divine aspect: the thought of Death and the nature of the Will. In the coming century, death and the will inevitably will be seen to have new meanings for humanity, and many of the old ideas will vanish, Death, to the average thinking man, is a point of [102] catastrophic crisis. It is the cessation and the ending of all that has been loved, all that is familiar and to be desired; it is a crashing entrance into the  unknown, into uncertainty, and the abrupt conclusion of all plans and projects. No matter how much true faith in the spiritual values may be present, no matter how clear the rationalizing of the mind may be anent immortality, no matter how conclusive the evidence of persistence and eternity, there still remains a questioning, a recognition of the possibility of complete finality and negation and an end to all activity, of all heart reactions, of all thought, emotion, desire, aspiration, and the intentions which focus around the central core of a man's being. The longing and the determination to persist and the sense of continuity still rest, even to the most determined believer, upon probability, upon an unstable foundation, and upon the testimony of others - who have never in reality returned to tell the truth. The emphasis of all thought on this subject concerns the central "I" or the integrity of Deity.

Putting it this way, you will note how the disciple is really enjoined to recognize (with the assistance of his group) that he is essentially the Father aspect himself, the first cause, the creative will and the breath of life within the [103] form. This is a somewhat new attitude which he is asked to take, because hitherto the emphasis upon his focus has been to regard himself as the soul, reincarnating when desire calls and withdrawing when need arises. The group life as a whole is here needed to make possible this shift in realization away from form and consciousness to the will and life aspect or principle. When this has begun to take place, one of the first recognitions of the initiate-disciple is that form, and his consciousness of form and its contacts (which we call knowledge), have in themselves produced a great thought-form which has summed up in itself his entire relation to form, to existence and experience in the three worlds, to matter, to desire and to all that incarnation has brought him. The whole matter looms, therefore, over-large in his consciousness. The detaching of himself from this ancient thought-form - the final form which the Dweller on the Threshold takes - is called by him Death. Only at the fourth initiation does he realize that death is nothing but the severing of a thread which links him to the ring-pass-not within which he has chosen to circumscribe himself. He discovers that the "last enemy to be destroyed" is brought to that final destruction by the first aspect in himself, the Father or Monad (which moved originally to create that form), the Life, the Breath, the directing energizing Will. It is the will that, in the last analysis, produces orientation, focus, emphasis, the world of form, and above all else (because of its relation to the world of cause), the world of meaning.

Average man lives and has his being in the world of meaning; the initiate and the Master have their focus in the world of Being. They are then naught but will, illumined by love which links them with the world of meaning, and capable of intelligent activity which links them with the world of form, and is the indication of life. But the desire of the initiate is not now for activity, or even for the expression of love. These qualities are integral parts of his equipment and expression but have dropped below the threshold of consciousness (a higher correspondence of the automatic [104] activities of the physical body which proceed upon their work without any realized consciousness on the part of the man). His effort is towards something which means little as yet to those of you who read these words; it is for the realization of Being, immovable, immutable, living and only to be comprehended in terms which embody the concept of "It is not this; it is not that." It is No-Thing; it is not thought or desire. It is life, Being, the whole, the One. It is not expressed by the words "I am" or by the words "I am not." It is expressed by the words "I am that I am." Having said that, know you what I mean? It is the will-to-be which has found itself through the will-to-good.