BROTHER OF OLD:

This is but a parting word to you as regards your physical plane affiliation with my Ashram. I will start by assuring you that the inner link remains unbroken and will persist, though even I have no idea when freedom will distinguish you or when you can advance with surety into the Ashram itself. Any progress that you could have made this life, as a result of my corrective teaching and aid, has been largely negated by your supine acceptance of failure, by your profound and lasting "conviction of sin" (if I may use so old-fashioned a phrase), and by your constant inner dwelling on your group relations. You did fail, my brother. But why stay overwhelmed by failure for year after year and remain with your eyes concentrated on the lower self that failed? All have failed and will again along some line. E'en the Masters fail at times to pass through one or other of the highest initiations at their first attempt and - from the hierarchical angle - that connotes failure. But the failure is scarce recognized; the effort is made to register what caused the failure and the inability to stand before the One Initiator, for all effects emanate from some ascertainable cause. So should it be on all levels of advancement, even such a relatively unimportant effort (from the point of view of hierarchical work) as your attempt to gain the right of entry into my Ashram or what is called "ashramic penetration," and then on and up through many graded failures, until you meet the well-known failure of the Buddha to attain his goal.

Your spiritual focus will remain unaltered, and it is this tenacity (which you have ever demonstrated) which has preserved untouched your relationship with me and with your brothers; you need therefore have no concern in relation to your spiritual expression on its own plane. It is your physical expression which has been at fault. Reflect with assiduity on these words of mine. A focusing of your spiritual attitude and nature upon the physical plane will result in a more dynamic life, instead of the basically negative life you at present demonstrate; you will be surprised at the results which may eventuate.

I am giving you no meditation. I seek to see the flow of your spiritual life downward into daily life, and I seek not to see you raising your human soul towards a soul contact you seldom achieve, consciously at least, this life. Your problem has been due to the fact that in the past you at one time achieved a most definite soul contact, but knew not how to handle the force engendered. In this incarnation, this force flowed into the astral body to a very great extent and evoked the glamor and the deception which have colored your life. But - you have a vast stored reservoir of spiritual potency on higher levels than the astral, and can perhaps draw upon its source of love and light if your major concentration and preoccupation is the perfecting of your daily living in the place where you are and in the environment and the circumstances for which you are responsible.