MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND:

One of the secrets of true life, which is beginning to emerge in your consciousness, is that of being. It must take the place of doing. Life has so arranged itself for you that activity is the way of expression and the line of least resistance. The pressure of the times in which you live and the need of the world have definitely forced you to be active in a fairly large environment. So do our souls arrange for us the major ways of life! But there is slowly dawning upon you the realization that by "standing in spiritual being" (more than by any specific activity) you can express the deep basic trends of your life, and make yourself of value in your surrounding. This is predominantly your life lesson and, my brother, you are just beginning to learn it.

For you, radiation is the keynote. And you can radiate. For you, the goal is to be a channel and no more and no less. This is the outstanding requirement and demand of your soul from your personality. This, I believe, you already know, and a study of your soul and personality rays should make clear to you why, in this life, this is so.

The ray of the mind, the fourth ray, is the controlling ray of your personality, and that means that the power to react to soul illumination is yours. The goal of your meditation should be light. I would point out, however, that in your case it is one of quiet reflection and inner recollection, preserved at all times. This permits you to be a channel for the inflow of light to your personality and, through your personality, to your environment.

I am not, therefore, going to give you a definite meditation upon light, but am going to ask you to make light the subject of your daily review. I call it not an evening review as I care not when you do it, as long as you do it once within each twenty-four hours, taking one or two of the questions in the review, reflecting deeply upon it during the next six months. Then each month answer one of the six questions I here set you, one question each month.

• 1st month - What, to me, is the practical meaning of the word, light? [197]
• 2nd month - In what manner can my life be illumined?
• 3rd month - What is the factor producing illumination, and does this factor function normally in my life?
• 4th month - What effect will an illumined mind have upon my daily life?
• 5th month - What effect should my life as a Light-bearer have upon my environment?
• 6th month - Am I in touch with other Light-bearers, and in what manner?

Let your replise to these questions be brief but full. Yes, I mean exactly what I say, my brother, "brief but full" for this is largely a question of terse terminology but of concise definition. Continue also with the group meditation, but write those brief reports, not only for your own illumination but also for the enlightenment of your group brothers.

In connection with your personality rays, I would point out that the ray of your mental body is that of the fourth, which facilitates your task of responding to the light of the soul, for it gives you a mind nature which can react easily to your second ray soul, for it is on the same line of force. At the same time, it makes your mind a focal point for soul force in your fifth ray personality, which is itself a mental ray. The building of the antahkarana should constitute for you no real problem.

Your astral body is on the sixth ray. This gives you a one-pointed attitude to life and primarily, in your case, to the things of the spiritual world. You are definitely "on your way" and with a quite satisfactory simplicity are going forward. This ray also enables you to make a fairly facile soul contact, should you so desire. Your rays, therefore, are:

1. The soul ray - the second Ray of Love-Wisdom.
2. The personality ray - the fifth Ray of Concrete Science.
3. The ray of the mind - the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.
4. The ray of the astral body - the sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism.
5. The ray of the physical body - the third Ray of Active Intelligence. [198]

What, therefore, constitutes your major difficulty, for you are not satisfied yourself with your progress, and rightly so?

The main reason lies in your fifth ray personality, wherein the emphasis is laid upon the critical, analytical mind. This leads you to watch and criticize and to argue with yourself and with circumstances. It also lies in your third ray physical body which, again upon the mental line, increases the activity of your critical personality. It is yourself, however, whom you mainly criticize, but this can be as wrong and as unnecessary as criticizing others. If you will let your soul influence your personality more definitely, working through your fourth ray mind and your sixth ray astral body, studying and utilizing these lines of least resistance, you will make rapid progress towards that goal you have set yourself in this life - the integration of soul and personality.