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

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The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Section One - The Aspirant and the Mysteries of Initiation

It must be borne in mind that the Council Chamber of the Lord at Shamballa is a unit, but that the Hierarchy is a differentiation of this basic unity into the seven major Ashrams and the forty-nine Ashrams which are gradually forming. The Hierarchy is, however, a unity within itself, for the entire ashramic life is guarded by a ring-pass-not, created by its radiation; the seven and the forty-nine Ashrams are held together by the magnetic interplay of the whole. It is this radiation which affects by its quality the senior aspirants in the world, and draws them gradually into relationship with itself and finally into its magnetic field. This is aided by the clarity of perception, the intensification of the livingness of the rightly oriented aspirant. I prefer the word "livingness" to that of "vibration," so widely used in modern occultism.

There is therefore a dual inflow into the Ashram of Sanat Kumara, controlled and directed by the three hierarchical Directors:

From Shamballa itself. This is a flow of energizing life or of what we might call "unfettered enlightenment"; this impresses the purpose or the will of the Lord of the World upon the united Hierarchy in a manner incomprehensible to you; it also creates a dynamic magnetic impulse which enables the graded initiates, through the medium of the Ashrams, to organize the Plan and set it in motion, so that the Purpose gradually materializes on earth. Because the senior initiates, from the Christ down to initiates of the fourth degree, are conscious in varying ways (according to ray) of the Eternal Now, and can work free from the compulsion of time, They can see the impressed Purpose as a [371] more complete whole than can initiates of lesser degree and development. It is this capacity which makes Them responsive to Shamballa, where the living will of the "Unknown God" (for a period of a life cycle) is seen in completeness and is already existent. The Hierarchy is, however, handicapped in its activity by the time sense and the materialistic focus of the "center which we call the race of men."
From Humanity. There is a constant (and increasing) flow of reoriented human energy penetrating into and beyond the radiatory periphery. This penetrating energy, implemented by the individual aspirant and disciple, is that of intelligent activity and - little as you may have realized it - it is this constant inflow which aids in the intelligent application of the Plan to human affairs. The Science of Impression, which governs the technique of Shamballa, functions through the three different centers in three different ways:
1. Shamballa - dynamic impression
2. The Hierarchy - magnetic telepathy
3. Humanity - radiatory sensitivity

yet these three are only manifestations of the will of God as it works out in the activities of His three major centers.

One point should here be made: the entry of a member of the human family into the ranks of the initiates and his participation in the activity of some one or other of the Ashrams produces a movement out of the Hierarchy of some Master and into the highest center of all; it has this effect only after the entering initiate has taken the third initiation, and can therefore take his part in the hierarchical life as a monadic expression susceptible to impression from Shamballa. When a Master thus emerges He is immediately confronted with the choice between the seven Paths. With this development and decision we shall later deal. The seven Paths are all concerned with purpose, just as the seven Ashrams are all concerned with the plan. There is, as you will later see, a direct relation between the seven Paths and the seven Ashrams. Though we shall not deal with the subject at all, there is likewise a correspondence in the third [372] major center, Humanity. You have, therefore, curiously interrelated:

The seven Paths
The seven Rays
The seven Ashrams
The seven Races

Students would do well to bear in mind that these relationships are the result of the involutionary activity of the life expression of the Lord of the World. The key to the mystery of differentiation is found by the Master when He is faced by the choice of the seven Paths. At that high point of will expression, He discovers the secret of that evolutionary process which proceeds from unity to differentiation, and from differentiation to unity again. Individualization, Initiation and Identification are the three main stages in the evolutionary activity of the life of God and condition the quality of each of the three divine centers. The four related septenates, enumerated above, eventually produce a synthesis which will consummate upon the cosmic mental plane. This is of course beyond my powers to teach or to explain, as I am not yet a liberated Master, though I am a liberated human being.

In the human center, the man becomes identified with himself; in the Hierarchy, he becomes identified with the group; in Shamballa, He becomes identified with the planetary Whole. When that takes place, He is then aware for the first time that other identifications - lying beyond the planetary ring-pass-not - confront Him; His choice of one or other of the Paths is conditioned by the quality of His previous identifications, which are in their turn conditioned by His ray type.

Passing from these broad generalizations, which in reality lie far beyond our present grasp but which will have their future usefulness, let us now consider the Hierarchy as it exists (in the consciousness of Sanat Kumara, as His Ashram) and as it constitutes "the noble middle Path" to which the Buddha refers, and fills the intermediate and the [373] mediating place between Shamballa and Humanity. This position of the Hierarchy must never be forgotten.

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