Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - The Rays and the Initiations - Part I

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The Rays and the Initiations - Part One - Fourteen Rules For Group Initiation

This can only be when he can.

Hear the OM as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands and waits at the very center of the Council Chamber of the Lord. [203]

These are grave and solemn thoughts, and of small use to the average reader. It is essential, however, that he avoid the concept that the attainment of the highest initiation upon this planet marks the end or the consummation of a great and final stage. It only marks the beginning of significance. This is a statement of esoteric value. Just as the attainment of physical control sets the neophyte free for the learning of higher lessons in preparation for the major initiations, so the surmounting of the conditions presented by the seven planes of our planetary life sets the initiate (such as the Buddha or the Christ) free for still higher and more important conditioning circumstances. Their real work as Members of the White Brotherhood is on the point of beginning, and the true purpose of the existence of the Great White Lodge begins faintly to dawn upon Their entranced and amazed understanding. It is of real value to us, therefore, to endeavor to grasp the continuity of revelation and the vast future or vista of unfolding wonder which, stage by stage, grade by grade and plane by plane, unfolds before the initiate-consciousness.

We enter here into a consideration of realms of advancement of which even advanced humanity has no faintest idea; we are touching upon goals and objectives which confront the advanced Members of the Hierarchy; we are dealing with ideas and concepts for which we have no adequate terminology and which are of such a nature that the human mechanism of thought proves incapable of registering them. What, for instance, do the words or phrases, "Divine purpose, Shamballa, the Lord of the World, states of registration or awareness which have no relation to sentiency as it expresses itself through consciousness, the Lodge on Sirius" and similar concepts convey to you? I would venture to suggest that in reality, they represent nothing, and this because the goal of all who read these words is contact with the soul, recognition of and by the Hierarchy, and initiation. If I say to you that the words "the OM, as it is sounded forth by Him Who stands within the confines of Shamballa" signify that the one Sound, rounded and full, [204] of O is sounded forth, but that the concluding sound of the M is omitted, does that convey ought to your intelligence? Again I venture to say that it does not. It is therefore of small importance for me to enlarge upon this phase of the Rules. I would be more profitably employed if I elucidated somewhat the meaning of the words "the Council Chamber of the Lord." Three concepts have perchance taken shape in your minds in connection with Shamballa, if you have sought the true esoteric attitude:

That Humanity exists as a great center of intelligent energy in the substance of the planetary Life.

That the spiritual center, where attractive, coherent, magnetic energy is focused and from whence it flows in two directions

Towards the three worlds and the four kingdoms of nature,
Towards Shamballa and the two higher kingdoms in manifestation is what we usually call the Hierarchy, the Kingdom of God, the center of love and of mediating understanding (note these last two words).

That there is another center which is neither spiritual nor human but which is characterized by divinity. Divinity is the expression of the will or purpose of the One in Whom we live and move and have our being. That center where the will of God is focused and dynamically sent forth to carry out the purpose is Shamballa.

The time has now come when a distinction must be made by esotericists between the words "spiritual" and "divine." They are not the same, nor do they have the same significance. The quality of spirituality is Love. The quality of divinity is Will. There is a definite distinction between the two and the mediating principle (or that which relates or unites the two qualities) is Wisdom. Of that Wisdom the Buddha was the expression in time and space; that means that there was only a relative and limited manifestation of that fusing linking principle. His great achievement, unrealized [205] by Him, was an innate and (at that time, not now) unconscious recognition of the distinction between love and will, and an ability to express in Himself a fusing, blending energy which could and did bring together love and will, soul and Monad. At the same time (and later in full expression in Palestine) the Christ demonstrated - for the teaching of humanity - the at-one-ment of love and intelligence, of soul and personality. These are points of real importance to have in mind.

Embodying, therefore, divinity in a sense and form incomprehensible to disciples, and which constitutes the goal of such advanced individuals as the Christ, are a group of Lives or focused integrated Beings Who stand around Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World.

As I have earlier said, Sanat Kumara is to the Planetary Logos what the personality, plus soul, is to the disciple. He is also the coherent force within the planet, holding, through His radiatory influence, all forms and all substances in the planetary form so that they constitute one coherent, energized and functioning whole. A parallel to this, though on a much smaller scale, can be seen in the radiatory influence of the Christ as it permeates, energizes and holds in coherent expression the Christian Church in all its many aspects in the world; a still smaller analogy can be seen in the influence wielded by a disciple who stands at the center of a group and holds it also in coherent and useful manifestation. Intermediate between these two symbols of will and love, united in manifestation (the Christ and a disciple), is the work of a world disciple, for the influence is wider and more far-reaching than that of a disciple, yet not as potent or comprehensive as that of the Christ.

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