from “The Rays and Initiations” by Alice A. Bailey published 1960
SECTION ONE – THE ASPIRANT AND THE MYSTERIES OF INITIATION – Part 9
The emphasis in the earlier teaching was upon character as the determining factor in deciding whether a man could “take initiation” (as it was called), and this was another of the presentations which have greatly misled aspirants. Character is of major importance—of such recognised importance that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. It is character, however, which enables a man to become a disciple with the aim in view of eventually entering [537] the Ashram of a Master and passing then through the processes of initiation. It is character which is rightly regarded as the first requirement when a man steps off the Probationary Path on to the Path of Discipleship. But he is still, however, a long way from his goal, and a long way from being accepted by a Master as a disciple. The truth might be expressed this way: When the disciple’s eyes are removed from himself and his functioning in the three worlds is becoming spiritually controlled (or is in process of being controlled), then he is faced with becoming a truly mental being, with the focus of his life upon the mental level where it is subject to soul control; it then in turn becomes the directing agent of the man upon the physical plane. This does not mean that he is occupied with making his lower concrete mind active, directing and illumined; that is taking place gradually and automatically through the pressure of the higher influences pouring into and through him. He is occupied with the task of becoming aware of the activities of his higher or abstract mind and of the pure reason which controls and animates the buddhic plane, and which is itself susceptible to impression from the Monad. That plane has to become the one toward which his mental consciousness looks and upon which it focusses its attention. There it must be polarized, in the same sense as the consciousness of average humanity is today polarised on the plane of the emotions and of astral activity but is shifting with rapidity on to the mental plane.
This involves a dual activity; the lower mind becomes a potent factor in directing the service activities of the disciple. These activities become the major motivating potency in the disciple’s life and are a consequence of a growing soul fusion with the personality, thus developing and unfolding his sense of inclusiveness. Inclusiveness is the supreme key to the understanding of consciousness. At the same time, the higher mind is impressing the lower mind and drawing it into a higher fusion with itself.
This process of unfoldment creates certain major points of successive fusions, with consequent points of tension; [538] these points of tension (when consciously attained) become the actuating energy which enables the disciple to “stand in the light and in that light see greater Light; within that greater Light he knows and sees, grasps and absorbs that which has hitherto been dark and secret and unknown.” This is initiation.
Periods of search, periods of pain, periods of detachment, periods of revelation producing points of fusion, points of tension and points of energy projection—such is the story of the Path of Initiation.
Initiation is in truth the name given to the revelation or new vision which ever draws the disciple onward into greater light; it is not something conferred upon him or given to him. It is a process of light recognition and of light utilisation in order to enter into ever clearer light. Progress from a dimly lighted area in the divine manifestation into one of supernal glory is the story of the Path of Evolution.
In the Masters’ Archives there are some Rules for Disciples of very ancient origin. Among them is one that is so old and so abstruse that it is only now possible to bring it to the attention of humanity, owing to the increased mental and Spiritual perception of the modern aspirant. It can be inadequately translated as follows:
“The light is seen, a tiny point of piercing light. This light is warm and red. It nearer draws as it reveals the things that are, the things which may be. It pierces the third centre and removes all glamour and desire.
“A light is seen through the medium of the lower light—a light of warmth and heat. It pierces to the heart and in that light all forms are seen pervaded by a glowing light. The world of lighted forms is now perceived, linked each to each by light. This light is blue, and flaming is its nature. Between the warm and reddish light and this clear light there burns a glow of flame—a flame which must be entered, ere the light of blue is entered and is used.
[539]
“Another light is then perceived, the clear cold light which is not light but darkness in its purest purity—the LIGHT of God Himself. It renders dark all else beside Itself; all forms fade out and yet the whole of life is there. It is not light as we know light. It is that pure essential essence of that Light which reveals Itself through light.”
It was the second light to which the Buddha and the Christ both referred when They said: “I am the light of the world.” It is the Light of God Himself, the Lord of the Worlds, in which the Lives within the Council Chamber of Shamballa live and move and have Their Being.
It is the recognition of the varying “lights” upon the Lighted Way that signifies readiness for initiation. The initiate enters into light in a peculiar sense; it permeates his nature according to his development at any point in time and space; it enables him to contact and see the hitherto unseen, and on the basis of the newly acquired knowledge to direct his steps still further.
I am not here speaking in symbols. Each initiation dims the light already acquired and used, and then immerses the initiate in a higher light. Each initiation enables the disciple to perceive an area of divine consciousness hitherto unknown but which, when the disciple has familiarised himself with it and with its unique phenomena, vibratory quality and interrelations, becomes for him a normal field of experience and activity. Thus (if I may so express it) the “worlds of living forms and formless lives become his own.” Again duality enters into his mental perception, for he is now aware of the lighted area from which he comes to the point of tension or of initiation; through the initiatory process he discovers a new and more brilliantly lighted area into which he may now enter. This involves no leaving of the former field of activity in which he has worked and lived; it simply means that new fields of responsibility and of opportunity confront him because he is—through his own effort—able to see more light, to walk in a greater light, to prove more adequately than [540] heretofore his capacities within the greatly increased area of possibility.
Initiation is, therefore, a constant fusion of the lights, progressively entered, thus enabling the initiate to see further, deeper and more inclusively. As one of the Masters has said: “The light must enter vertically and be diffused or radiated horizontally.” This creates the cross of service upon which the disciple is pendant until the Cross of Sanat Kumara is revealed to him; he knows then why this planet is—for wise and adequate reasons—the planet of distress, dispassion and detachment. When he knows this, he knows all that our planetary life can tell him and reveal to him. He has transmuted knowledge into wisdom.
It is at the centre of this cross of service that the point of fusion and the point of tension must be found. The point of fusion is created by the focussing of all the power, aims and desires of the disciple dynamically upon the mental plane; the point of tension is created when the invocative power of this focal point becomes capable of evoking response from that which is invoked. For the average aspirant and for the disciple, this is either the soul or the Spiritual Triad. The meeting of the two focussed energies produces a point of tension. Disciples should not focus their attention upon the task of producing a point of tension. They should remember the life of dual activity; i.e., that which he is at any given moment of endeavour, and that with which he can fuse and blend this sum total of his achieved development. The potency of his thinking along these dual lines will automatically produce the point of tension, through the medium of the fusion of the appropriate dualities. It is through the activity of the lower mind that fusion with the soul is brought about, with successive, intensifying points of tension; it is through the activity established between higher and lower mind that fusion with the Spiritual Triad becomes possible, with points of tension arising at many points along the bridge, the antahkarana; it is through the activity of pure reason that fusion with the Hierarchy becomes possible, and it [541] is that which produces those points of tension which we call Initiations. There are necessarily still higher points of tension, but it is with those called initiations that we are dealing at this time.
Light may enter your mind in this connection if you will constantly bear in mind the essential duality of manifestation itself; the negative and the positive poles present within the consciousness of every form. The achieved point of fusion (the result of active and positive work and effort) is rendered negative to that which is being invoked, and by this means another and positive point of tension can be achieved. Initiation—a dramatic and a major point of tension—connotes essentially the fusion of the negative and the positive aspects. Owing to this, in all initiatory processes, it is the will of the disciple which is active and which produces, first of all, a fusion and (as a consequence) the appearance of a point of tension.
Let me illustrate. In the work of creating the antahkarana, the disciple first of all and as far as in him lies, through the medium of positive mental labour, focusses himself upon the mental plane. The fusion of the soul and of time personality is then present and is the result of a positive activity. The quality and the vibratory nature of that positive focal point is then rendered negative to that higher vibration or contact which is invoked by the existent radiance and potency. The response from the opposite pole is (if the disciple could but realise it) immediate and to the extent possible, determined by the disciple’s point of attainment.
This invocative-evocative activity produces a point of tension but not—as yet—a point of fusion with the positive pole. From that point of tension the disciple works at the creation of the antahkarana; this will eventually bring about the desired fusion between the soul-infused personality and the Spiritual Triad. The same general process dictates all the desired fusions and produces those points of tension which are the secret of all growth. These [542] points of fusion and of tension the disciple consciously endeavours to bring about.
These are the broad and general lines governing the initiatory process; the work here indicated is followed by all disciple-initiates of all degrees, and even by the Lord of the World Himself. He, in His high Place, holds the manifested world of energies in a state of fusion; points of tension successively occur as a consequence of a growing divine realisation within these forms of intelligent activity, of love-wisdom and of the will-to-good. These points of tension vary according to the divine purpose and the individual initiatory problem of Sanat Kumara Himself, as He submits to a cosmic initiatory process. Such a point of tension, of stupendous magnitude, is present in the world today; the intention behind this realised fusion and tension is to enable humanity (as an integral part of the divine body of manifestation) to move forward into greater light and nearer to the “heart of love,” which is the Hierarchy. As this takes place—and it is taking place—the Hierarchy Itself moves nearer to a conscious fusion with Humanity. The point of tension thereby achieved—and this has not yet appeared—will produce the Kingdom of God on Earth in exoteric form.
We will now consider one of the lesser, though essential, fusions which must be achieved by the disciple, producing consequently in his life a point or points of tension.Fusion of the Master’s consciousness with that of the disciple
Earlier I stated that the disciple’s private life automatically falls (once he has been accepted by the Master) into three stages:
a. The stage in which the lower concrete mind and the higher mind are related in such a manner that the lower mind is not only soul-illumined but is subject also to impression from the Spiritual Triad.
b. His relation to the Master is the next and sometimes paralleling stage and involves the bringing together [543] of the Master’s consciousness and his own. This has to be slowly developed and consciously grasped, with very interesting consequences.
c. Later comes the stage when the disciple’s consciousness can be gradually brought into a rapport with the Hierarchy as a whole. It might be mentioned, in clarification somewhat of this rather vague statement, that the disciple is absorbed into the Hierarchy and—at the same time—he assimilates in a new and mysterious manner certain united hierarchical impressions.
The disciple by now has made his approach to the Ashram and has demonstrated his ability to serve and thereby utilise any ashramic energy which he may contact and occultly include. He is slowly becoming aware of three vibratory impressions which are slightly differing though coloured by the ray which they express. First of all, he is aware of the vibration of his own soul; then he registers that of the Ashram, in the early stages focussed for him through the mediation of some disciple senior to him; and finally, he becomes conscious of the vibration of the Master. Slowly he learns to distinguish them and know them as constituting three different channels whereby energy reaches him. They contact his consciousness upon the mental plane; later, he discovers that contact with them is facilitated once he can register them consciously upon their appropriate plane and through the appropriate centre; it naturally takes time to develop this facility and (until he passes through the third initiation when major changes take place) he is expected to “retain the impression” upon the mental plane.