You have one glamor, my brother, which to you is well known. I will not give it a name for that is needless, and you will know whereof I speak. It is allied to fear and tunes you in on that potent and well developed world glamor. It is connected with your astral body and your emotional desire nature. It is very potent and of long persistence, constituting therefore, a powerful thought habit. Live as if it existed not. As you seek to function as a soul and to act as from soul levels, you will learn that things which are potent and apparent in your personality consciousness are in fact non-existent; they enter not into the consciousness of the soul. You will know to what I refer. I would, using a phrase with a modern significance, advise you "to forget" this glamor once and for all. Let not this glamor limit the impression which you are in a position to make as you serve within your particular sphere of usefulness. Be not discouraged (which is an aspect of your particular glamor) at failing to see the results (in this life) of the conditioning which you are imposing on other lives. Remember, as a disciple, that in this life you are establishing those relations which may not manifest in their true importance until you - as a Master - gather around you your group for instruction; you are preparing for service many lives hence.

You are entering with renewed strength and vigor into the coming winter's work. Like many today, relief and release [183] appear to lie in concentration upon your life-appointed task; in the performance and the perfection of duty is to be found a sense of contributing to the assuagement of the world need. Nevertheless, that does not suffice for a disciple, as you will have discovered; yet it constitutes for you a problem.

In teaching you, I seek to do three things:

1. Give training in the initial steps of technical discipleship so that a good foundation of knowledge in preparation for initiation is laid for future use.
2. Stimulate you to such an extent that the inner urge to express the spiritual reality (which is your true self) may overcome all the inertia which holds you down - as it does so many - to a restricted spiritual expression.
3. Integrate you more closely into the group life. I would remind you that in this group (if it is to be a true nucleus of the group life of the future) the disciple must recognize that it is the united group thinking, the unified group desire and the blended group activity which conditions its expression. This, in its turn, is the manifestation of the simultaneity and the synthesis produced by the sumtotal of the similar thoughts, desires and plans of the majority. It is for this reason, therefore, that I give you your instructions, in the hope that they may pronouncedly condition the group thinking and in this way produce the needed subjective changes.

I have told you that you were establishing those relations which may later manifest. I wonder if you are proceeding in any way consciously to do so? These relations are of a nature different to those existing between you and your associates in your chosen field of work or between you and your group brothers. A disciple and later the initiate of some degree or other - from the highest to the lowest - has a twofold relation to establish and to hold:

1. With those of like degree with whom he is associated in the work. Then their united relation enables them (as a result of their group unity) to be en rapport with levels of consciousness and of activities higher than their own. This is, therefore, a group relation, dependent upon the established interrelation of group members. [184]
2. With those to whom he is related karmatically; or by his own choice which may not be karmic at all but a newly instituted decision; or by the choice of others opening to him avenues of contacts which he, himself, working alone, would never have made but which are the result of the drawing power of the group soul.

It will be of real value to you particularly to attempt to distinguish between these relations; to recognize and regulate those relations which are unavoidable and which are those definitely emerging from the past. These cannot be evaded and frequently constitute - through their interplay in the life of the disciple - a major life problem. The interrelation between a disciple and the Ashram has also to be handled intelligently by him so that, by the subjective interplay, group fusion may proceed without hindrance and with dispatch. It is here that I would like to see closer integration and keener interest on your part. Your group attitude to your group brothers is somewhat negative, is it not? A more positive contact would be desirable.

I do not here refer to a personality contact such as the word "friendship" connotes but to an outgoing on your part to them and a receiving from them which is the higher spiritual connotation of the trite words "give and take." What do you give the group? What do you take from the group? Unless both exist there is no free circulation of the united thought and desire to which I referred above. Where these do not exist there is apt to be obstruction and blocking. It happens automatically without intention and is the result of a particular state of consciousness. This "gentle, unrecognized withdrawing" (as it has been termed) has its basis in many things. It can be a mode of self-protection, necessitated by long years of extreme sensitivity; this eventually must give place to the guarding of the group interests. It may be the result of shyness and of an inarticulate nature which longs and seeks for the companionship of the Way but knows not how to bring it into functioning process. It may be the result of a critical nature, for it is the critical mind which separates and divides, as you well know. It may again be caused by a habit of loneliness, induced by inherent natural tendencies, or by executive position and the circumstances of the individual life, or by sorrow [185] or shock in early life experience. This must be balanced by an outgoing on the part of the soul which then shifts the whole problem of relations to a higher level of contact and brings release and the power to communicate, which is the hall mark of group life.

I would ask you to consider these thoughts with care and to ponder upon the establishment of group relations and their recognition in your brain consciousness, for it is your problem in connection with the group of which you are a part. To the exoteric relation must be added the inner. This I think you know. Such a contact should be relatively easy for you as you have four rays out of the seven active in your nature and because those rays which are apt to produce separate attitudes in the early stages of expression (the first, third, and fifth) are lacking in this incarnation.

I wonder, my brother, if you have noted the relation which exists between joy and radiation - two key words which I gave you years ago for your guidance? Radiation is a tangible substance and potency, producing effects. Your radiation or "quality of effective auric contact" is recognized and evokes reaction upon the objective plane in your immediate environment and by those who contact you. It is the subjective, consciously focused radiation to which I here call attention. This should produce effects without physical contact, and this should constitute your joyful service. joy is the most powerful impulse behind the right kind of radiation.

I would ask you: How does a Master reach his group of disciples? Through direct radiation. It is the basis of all telepathic communication, group interplay, and potent usefulness.

As an exercise to foster this desirable process of effective radiation, I would ask you for the next few months to endeavor to reach two of your group brothers through directed thought, joy and outgoing love. Choose any two you like and seek to establish contact. I would suggest two that you do not know personally, if possible, for that will make the exercise more directly useful, and, therefore, constitute a more adequate test.... There is need for some physical care, brother of mine, and also for the cultivation of a trained poise. Much you already have as training, but much will be demanded of you in [186] the coming months and for this you must be prepared. Your life quality in expression is good. Intensification is all you need.