MY BROTHER:

I have not much to say to you at this time. You are afraid (as a personality) of being unduly influenced and of being subjected to an authority stronger than your own and coming to you from a source that is not that of your own soul. I foresaw your present state of mind when last I wrote to you, and it was the realization of what that would be that colored all my instruction. It was this knowledge that prompted me to say, "You have much to give." That which I have to say to you today is as follows:

You are free my brother. No one is seeking to hold you in this group. No one is seeking in any way to gain authority over you. No one wants you to work or study or to  serve, where [289] your own soul does not prompt you to work and to express yourself. But remember that there is no freedom except in making free choice and in serving. The idea of freedom can itself constitute a prison. There are no free souls anywhere, except those who of free choice imprison themselves and find themselves within and by the law of service. You can leave this particular group, but if you are to grow at all, you will find yourself inevitably within some other group for service. You can drop the responsibilities which you shouldered when you joined this group, but you cannot escape the shouldering of other responsibilities. You can pass out of this group of brothers, as far as the outer plane linking is concerned, but you have already established links with them which cannot be broken by any personality activity or line of action, for they are soul links and must at some time be recognized. It is the service, the responsibility, and the group work which counts and lasts; the fluctuations and reactions of any personality can delay, but they cannot negate success.

Basically, fundamentally and essentially, you are pledged to the service of the Plan somewhere, somehow, some day. The fluctuations and indecisions and questionings of your personality do not really matter in the long run and in the light of soul activity, but they do matter in time and space and temporarily, where your band of group brothers are concerned.

So feel free, my brother, but be quite sure that it is not a freedom demanded because group affiliation irks you. The more your soul grips your personality, the less you will be concerned with the problems of isolation and of freedom. Feel free, but be sure that it is not a freedom demanded because the steady discipline of occult training frets a temperament still essentially mystic. The more your soul grips you, the more your mind will awaken, and feeling (in the personal sense) fade but. Feel free, but be sure that it is not a freedom demanded because the sense of failure to organize your time and reduce your personality to rhythmic living hurts your pride. The more your soul grips you, the more assuredly you will learn to use time as a responsibility.

I did say earlier that in all group effort some would have to slow down their progress   and others speed it up in order to [290] balance the group life. You say that you have never ceased to question this, and you bring the analogy of light to bear upon the problem. Your analogy is not really in order. I was not speaking in terms of individual light but in terms of group service and group relationship. There are many in the Hierarchy at this time who have refused further opportunity of progress in order to stay with and help the sons of men. The point of development of everybody in the group is not uniform, and this is a fact that you should recognize and which, when recognized, negates the application of your illustration. Your illustration is entirely true, but has no bearing on the subject.