One of the tasks of all disciples is the evocation of the will aspect of the soul; the will is usually quiescent in its higher aspects until a man treads the Path of Discipleship....

You might ask, my brothers, of what use are these analogies and these items of information? They are of little technical use to you and really increase your responsibility. If, however, they serve to establish a true recognition of reality, of synthesis and of relation in the disciple's consciousness, they are then of real value. Those three words - reality, synthesis, relation - indicate the goal and the problem of the disciple, plus the resultant effect of conscious, intelligent, spiritual work, motivated by love.

In the New Age, as I have earlier pointed out, the keynote of the aspirant's progress will be love of humanity; this will indicate the awakening of the heart center. In the past and up until the last few years, the keynote has been service because (if selflessly rendered) it embodied a technique which [88] automatically brought the heart center into activity. It is love of humanity which is the major lack in the character of many disciples today. They love those with whom they may be associated, or they love the work connected with the group endeavor, or they love their own nation; they may also love an ideal or theoretical assumption, but they do not really love humanity as a whole. There are limits to their capacity to love and it is the transcending of those limits which constitutes their main problem at this time; they have to learn that it is humanity which calls for their allegiance, their loyalty and service. I would ask you all to ponder deeply on the above statements, for they embody the task ahead for you also as you seek to fit yourselves for the first or the second initiation.

I would remind you also that the life of the disciple is ever a life of risks and of dangers, entered into willingly and deliberately in the cause of spiritual unfoldment and the service of humanity. But I would ask each of you to watch your emotional life and reactions with greatly increased care; I would ask you to watch particularly for the least outcropping of glamor. I would call your attention to the fact that the emergence of emotional conditions or of glamor in your life-expression need not necessarily indicate failure. There is only failure if there is identification with these astral conditions and a succumbing to old rhythms. The success of the meditation work assigned and regularly followed may be proved to you by the appearance of these undesirable conditions; they must be then recognized for what they are, and evoke in you that "divine indifference" which permits the emotion or the glamor to die of attrition, because deprived of the "feeding-power" of the attention. The whole history of true emotional control is to be found in the sentence just given. The process of achieving this control constitutes one of the most difficult periods in the life of the disciple and quite one of the longest from the angle of time. For this you should be prepared. Particularly is it difficult at this time to triumph over emotion because of the intense emotional condition of the entire human family and the widespread fear and terror for which the energy of the Black Lodge of Adepts is responsible. This definitely complicates your problem and that of all disciples: it tends to foster a most potent glamor. [89] So I beg of you to proceed with courage, joy, understanding, extreme caution and - at the same time - with speed.