I have registered and then recorded on your ashramic chart your strong and constant effort to fulfil requirements as I have presented them to you in my last two communications. Particularly have you - in this incarnation - mastered the lesson of occult obedience. Have you ever realized that occult obedience - correctly understood and applied - is the royal route through the astral plane, particularly in connection with glamor and with sixth ray tendencies, to the very heart of the Hierarchy? People are apt to regard obedience as the carrying out of rules and orders, imposed upon them by some authoritative source. This, as you well know, is not the case in any true hierarchical training. Obedience, for the disciple, is a quick spiritual reaction to the Plan as it emanates from the Hierarchy, rapid and correct sensitive registration of the quality of the Ashram with which he may be affiliated and a consequent and in time almost automatic undertaking (with speed) the required task. It is a task which [587] the disciple assigns to himself and is not one ordered by the Master. The acceptance of the task is simply evidence that the disciple is an ashramic worker, pledged to the welfare of humanity.

Your work must now be more closely related to the Christ. I refer not here solely to the preparation work in which you must all be engaged; I refer specifically to the Christ himself, as a living Individual, attentive to the reactions of disciples who possess sufficient strength of purpose, clarity of intention and dedication to enable them to touch the periphery of his aura (referred to in The New Testament as "the hem of his garment"). By this statement I do not mean the aura of the Hierarchy. You are all of you already sensitive to that to a greater or less degree, for his quality impregnated the entire aura of the Hierarchy. [588] I mean his individual aura. A disciple has "the freedom of the Hierarchy" (as it is called) and can now make this attempt to reach within the individual aura of the Christ; success is entirely dependent upon the disciple's persistent but non-fanatic (or do I mean frantic, brother of mine?) and selfless effort. Make this attempt each morning for just five minutes, but not for a longer period. I can in this case give you no instructions; you will eventually find your way alone, as must all disciples. Those who are seeking to attain the degree of Master have - at some definite stage of their training - to make this attempt. A line of contact must eventually be built, and those of you who are now disciples in my Ashram can begin to make the needed effort. It will bring its own difficulties, such as over-stimulation and the arousing of glamor but - if you are watchful and alert - you can soon become aware of it.

This must suffice for today, my loyal friend and brother. There is much to do. Proceed with the work to be done, following the light which is in you and which will increasingly generate more light.