When I last said it to you, I was under no illusion as to the extent of your problem or of the weakness of the agonized equipment which you brought to its solution. The outcome of your struggle a year ago was very problematical. It is not so now. The ancient habits of thought and the quick submerging by the old rhythms are still possible; you are oft profoundly discouraged by the cropping up of the hydra of resentment and of suspicion with its many heads. Yet much progress has been made and your astral body is really quieter. This you know yourself. You are finding it easier to swing into other interests. The periods of submergence in the old lines of thought do not last so long and your understanding is growing. [509]

Will you, my brother, take the various personal instructions I have given you during the past years and - on some quiet day - read them through uninterruptedly and at one sitting? You will, in this way, get a picture of your spiritual problem (and of my effort to help you solve it) that will be constructively useful. You will discover also that there has been real growth on your part. Your problem is not this or that circumstance in your life. It is not concerned with the activity of this or that person. It is not tied up with your family life, your financial circumstances or your health. These are but the staging around which you struggle for liberation. These are but the opportunities offered by your soul which, when rightly used, will set you upon the Path of Initiation. Yes, that is what I said, my brother - upon the Path of Initiation and not upon the Path of Discipleship. You are already upon the latter path. You know well within yourself that if you could achieve detachment and if you could arrive at a stable, focused mind that the whole of life would simplify for you. Initiation is simplification.

You are rich in the real love of many people. Your physical plane circumstances, viewed in the light of the present world problem, are good. Your health problem is rooted in your astral condition. By overcoming the glamor in which you walk, you would find yourself so free and so useful that you would look back with amazement upon your past life of illusion and self-induced misery. Your personal problem is far from unique. What has constituted the main difficulty has been based on the fact that you are a disciple. The glamor and the illusion which a disciple can evoke is far more potent than that of the average person. Your mind, as a result of the glamor, may be ever restless and shifting, but the glamor is the result of potent emotional thinking and of a prolonged attentiveness [510] to the circumstances of your physical plane life. The same attentiveness and potency of thought, directed away from your circumstances and to the things of the soul, will free you.

Be more strict in the keeping of your quiet hour. Build then your tower of ivory and may the light of your soul pour upon you and flood your life; may you realize the uses of joy and of caring nothing about the separated self and may the blessing of your Master rest upon you.