This hierarchical decision then necessarily led to the instituting of the processes of group initiation, thus shifting the area of training and the whole of the teaching process and of preparation for initiation on to higher levels. The experiment of giving mankind the Great Invocation was tried and is proving successful, though much yet remains to be done.
It might be said, therefore, that the four requirements which are needed to aid the disciple to meet the demands of [86] the initiatory process are “the ability to be impressed, the capacity accurately to register the impression, the power to record what has been given, and then to give it word forms in the mind consciousness.” On the basis of the information received, the disciple must then properly invoke the needed energies and learn through experience to produce a responsive evocation. My earlier statement on this subject a few pages back was intended to lead up to this teaching and I repeat it here:
“The entire human family is today an amazing receiver of impressions, owing to the myriad types of susceptible mechanisms.... It is because of this that the human kingdom (the great middle kingdom whose function it is to mediate between the higher and the lower) is the subject of so much divine impression, conveying the purpose of Sanat Kumara.... In these present instructions I am dealing with group possibilities, with groups which can be trained to record, register and be impressed by the Hierarchy. Such a group can be in the position of being able to invoke the Hierarchy with power if it so choose. I am again bringing these things to your attention as aspirants and disciples, but from an angle different to those in my earlier writings. The responsibility of impressionability, of telepathic registration and of invocative appeal is very great.”
Sources of Impression for the Disciple
For the aspirant and particularly for the conscious disciple, the impression to be considered comes from four sources:
1. From the disciple’s own soul.
2. From the Ashram with which he is to be affiliated.
3. Directly from the Master.
4. From the Spiritual Triad, via the antahkarana.
[87] The first two stages cover the period of the first two initiations; the third precedes the third initiation and persists until the disciple is himself a Master; the fourth type of informative impression can be registered after the third initiation and reach the disciple in the Ashram; he then has the task himself of impressing his mind with what he has been told and known within the Ashram; eventually, as a Master of an Ashram, he starts upon one of the major hierarchical tasks of mastering the Science of Impression. There are therefore, two aspects to this work of impression: one deals with the capacity to be impressed; the other with the ability to be an impressing agent. The disciple is not permitted to practise the art of impressing until he himself is among those who receive Triadal impression and therefore impression from Shamballa, within the protective area or aura of the Ashram with which he is affiliated. It must be remembered that this Science of Impression is in reality the science of thoughtform-making, thoughtform vitalisation and thoughtform direction; and only a disciple who has passed through the processes of Transfiguration and is no longer the victim of his own personality can be entrusted with so dangerous a cycle of powers. As long as there exists any desire for selfish power, for unspiritual control and for influence over the minds of other human beings or over groups, the disciple cannot be trusted, under the hierarchical rules, with the deliberate creation of thoughtforms designed to produce specific effects, and with their dispersal to men and groups. After he has passed the tests of the Transfiguration Initiation he may do so.
The Science of Impression is the bedrock or the foundation for the practice of telepathy. If a major world test were to be made, those receptive to impression would be found to fall into two groups: [88]
1. Those possessing unconscious receptivity to telepathic impression. They at present constitute a majority wherein the impression is received via the solar plexus, and the thoughtforms thus generated are dispatched from the throat centre of the one who is the impressing agent.
2. Those who are developing or have developed a conscious receptivity wherein the impression is, first of all, received by the mind and then imparted to and registered by the brain. The one who is the impressing agent in this case works via the centre between the eyebrows, the ajna centre.
The first group of recipients are purely personality grounded or focussed. In some cases they are only physically aware of the life processes and of some contact which remains for them unrecognised and unchecked or uncontrolled in any way. Under this group we must, therefore, class all mediumistic phenomena, even those of the highest astral or spiritual nature, plus the messages received from the usually beautiful subconscious of the average person upon the Probationary Path. Messages from the disciple’s own soul are intermediate between those mediumistic expressions and those which are definitely mental in nature.
With this last mentioned type of communication, there will be found mixed certain messages or impressions from the Ashram which the disciple will be apt to confuse with group telepathy, soul communication and direct relation with the Master—a relationship at this stage non-existent. This will not greatly matter, because when the disciple begins to realise certain differences, a new type of registration will awaken and guide the disciple’s consciousness.
This stage, which embraces the second type of impression in its earliest forms, can be quite a long one, for it [89] covers a very definite period of transition from the astral plane to the mental plane. The time equation varies according to ray and the age of the soul. Sixth ray people, for instance, are very slow in making this transition, owing to the pronounced factor of glamour; first and second ray people are relatively quick. Third ray people are also slow, for they are lost in the threads of their own glamorous manipulations and their devious thinking, and hardly know where truth begins and delusion ends; illusion, which is the problem of the mental types on all rays, is far more temporary in its effects than is delusion.
When the disciple has mastered to some degree the significant difference between messages from his own subconscious or the subconscious of other people with whom he may be en rapport, and the messages coming from his own soul, his life then becomes more self-directed and organised, more fruitful from the angle of service, and therefore of definite use to the Hierarchy. He learns to distinguish the messages coming from his own soul from those which are hierarchical; his life becomes more clearly directed; he next distinguishes definitely and accurately the communications which come to him from the Ashram and which are sent out to make impression upon the minds of aspirants and disciples of all degrees and of all ray types. When he can distinguish between these various communications, then and only then does the third type of communication become possible—direct messages which are due to contact with the Master of his Ashram in person. He, by that time, possesses what has been called “the freedom of the Ashram” and “the keys to the Kingdom of God”; he can then be trusted with some of the directive potency of the Ashram itself. His thinking will then affect and reach others. This developing effectiveness grows with rapidity when the fourth type of impression is familiar to the disciple: [90] that coming from the Spiritual Triad, and therefore from the Monad and Shamballa. There are consequently (to this final stage of impression) three lesser though definite states, each marking an expansion in the realm of service and each related to the last three initiations of the total possible nine initiations which confront developing humanity. The sixth initiation, in which only Masters can participate, marks a transition from the first three stages of impressibility required by the disciples as preludes to the fifth initiation—or in reality to the third, fourth and fifth—and are related to the three stages of Triadal communication, each of which is related to the seventh, the eighth and the ninth initiations.
Never does the geometrical pattern, the numerical progression or the Law of Correspondences break down in the understanding of the purpose and the plans of th
e planetary Logos—established before the worlds were created and finding their prototypes upon the cosmic mental planes. These points are peculiarly difficult for men to grasp at this time wherein their state of consciousness is concentratedly individualised.
Nevertheless, there is on man’s part a steadily growing responsiveness to an expanding environment, as for instance man’s recognition of the distinction between nationalism and inter-nationalism. This responsiveness is naturally conditioned by human freewill, effective peculiarly in the timing process. He may learn rapidly and fast or he may go the slow way, but his state of consciousness remains one of a developing reaction to his environment, as registered by his consciousness, and in which he (stage by stage) becomes an integral factor. This integration into his environment, his absorption of its atmosphere and his potency in progression are all related to the fact that he is created to receive impression and that he possesses a mechanism of response to all [91] the facets of the divine expression in manifestation. It is for that reason that the truly illumined man and all who have taken the three highest initiations are always referred to as “the diamond souled”; they, in their totality constitute the “jewel in the lotus”—that twelve-petalled lotus which is the symbol and expression of the potency of the planetary Logos.
You can see, therefore, how the theme of revelation runs throughout the entire evolutionary process; it must never be forgotten that step by step, stage by stage, expansion after expansion, initiation after initiation, the divine WHOLE is realised by man. The method is impressed from a hitherto unrecognised environment; this only becomes possible in this particular form when “the Sons of Mind who are the Sons of God and whose nature is at-one with His began to move on Earth”. The Science of Impression is in reality the technique whereby Humanity has been taught by the Spiritual Hierarchy from the moment of its first appearance upon Earth; it is the technique which all disciples have to learn (no matter which of the Seven Paths they may eventually choose) and it is also the sublime art which every Master practises on inspiration from Shamballa; it is a technique which is implemented by the Will, and its consummation is the complete assimilation of the “little wills of men” into the divine Purpose; it is the acceptance on their part of the promotion of that Purpose through right impression on all forms of life at any particular point of evolution. Disciples then become agents of the divine will and are entrusted with the direction of energies, with the plan and with the secrets and the inspiration which are hidden in the Mind of God.
His Contribution to the Divine Plan
To that knowledge—germinated and formed in the solar system previous to this—they add that which the present solar system has to give and to mature; the magnetic [92] attractiveness of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom in one of its three major forms or Rays of Aspect, implemented by the four Rays of Attribute. This power to use the ray energies to attract and impress the constantly expanding revelation is the clue to all the work going forward today, and to this activity we give the name of the Science of Impression. It involves the constant opening up of a new environment—an environment which reaches all the way from the lowest grade of daily living, undertaken by the least developed of human beings, to that point upon the ladder of evolution when the aspirant becomes consciously susceptible to what we call spiritual impression. At that point he becomes capable of being more sensitive to a higher range of impression and—at the same time—he himself begins to learn the art of impressing the minds of others, to master the understanding of the level from which he works as an impressing agent, and to know who are the sons of men he can impress. He has to master also the secondary lesson of adapting his environment in such a manner that he can impress others and the impression can find its way through his environing circumstances and into the usually inattentive minds for whom he feels a responsibility.
This he does through a growing knowledge of himself and through learning the art of registering. The clearer and the more deeply apprehending is his capacity to register the impression to which he is subjected and to which he is sensitive, the more easily will he reach those he must aid towards a wider and deeper insight. This registering of his own expanding environment—with all its implications of a new vision, a new goal, a wider field of service—leads to the inflowing energies ( arriving on the wings of inspiration) becoming a reservoir of thought-substance, to the use of which he must accustom himself.
[93] The first step then is the fact of recording and of reducing into correct and available concepts, ideas and thoughtforms, that which he has registered. This marks the first stage in his truly occult service, and to this new type of service he will be increasingly dedicated. From the reservoir of thought-substance he learns to project those forms, those magnetic ideas, which will invoke the attention of those he seeks to help; this is called the stage of resultant invocation. It is an invocative act, an invocative way of living, which will find its way into the minds of men, and which will call forth or evoke from them a response and a widening consciousness; the processes of spiritual impression are thereby set up; it is also an invocation—on the part of the disciple—for further and greater impression and inspiration in order to increase his ability to serve.
XIII. TELEPATHIC SENSITIVITY A NORMAL UNFOLDMENT
[94] You will have noticed that I have given no instructions as to the art of developing telepathic sensitivity. The reason is, as I told you before, that this sensitivity should be, and always is, a normal unfoldment when the disciple is correctly oriented, completely dedicated and learning decentralisation. If it is a forced process, then the sensitivity developed is not normal and carries with it much difficulty and future danger. Where the disciple is concerned, release from the constant consideration of personal circumstances and problems leads inevitably to a clear mental release; this then provides those areas of free mental perception which make the higher sensitivity possible. Gradually, as the disciple acquires true freedom of thought and the power to be receptive to the impression of the abstract mind, he creates for himself a reservoir of thought which becomes available at need for the helping of other people and for the necessities of his growing world service. Later, he becomes sensitive to impression from the Hierarchy. This is at first purely ashramic, but is later transformed into total hierarchical impression by the time the disciple is a Master; the Plan is then the dynamic substance providing the content of the reservoir of thought upon which he can draw. This is a statement of unique and unusual importance. Later still, he becomes sensitive to impression from Shamballa, and the quality of the Will which implements planetary Purpose is added to the content of his available knowledge. The point which I seek to make here, however, is the fact of the existence of a growing reservoir of thought which the disciple has created in response to the many [95] varying impressions to which he is becoming increasingly sensitive; the ideas, concepts and spiritual objectives of which he is becoming aware are steadily being formulated by him into thoughts with their appropriated thoughtforms, and upon these he learns to draw as he seeks to serve his fellowmen. He finds himself in possession of a reservoir or pool of thought-substance which is the result of his own mental activity, of his innate receptivity, and which provides the material for teaching and the “fount of knowledge” upon which he can draw when he seeks to aid other people.
The essential point to be grasped is that sensitivity to impression is a normal and natural unfoldment, paralleling spiritual development. I gave you a clue to the entire process when I said that
“Sensitivity to impression involves the engendering of a magnetic aura upon which the highest impressions can play.”
I would have you give the deepest consideration to these words. As the disciple begins to demonstrate soul quality, and the second divine aspect takes possession of him and controls and colours his entire life, automatically the higher sensitivity is developed; he becomes a magnet for spiritual ideas and concepts; he attracts into his field of consciousness the outline, and later the details
, of the hierarchical Plan; he becomes aware eventually of the planetary Purpose; all these impressions are not things which he must seek out and learn laboriously to ascertain, to hold and seize upon. They drop into his field of consciousness because he has created a magnetic aura which invokes them and brings them “into his mind”. This magnetic aura begins to form itself from the first moment he makes a contact with his soul; it deepens and grows as those contacts increase in frequency and become eventually an habitual state of consciousness; [96] then, at will and at all times, he is en rapport with his soul, the second divine aspect.
Paralleling Spiritual Development
It is this aura which is in reality the reservoir of thought-substance upon which he can spiritually rely. His point of focus is upon the mental plane. He is no longer controlled by the astral nature; he is successfully constructing the antahkarana along which the higher impressions can flow; he learns not to dissipate this inflow but to accumulate within the aura (with which he has surrounded himself) the knowledge and the wisdom which he realises his service to his fellowmen requires. A disciple is a magnetic centre of light and knowledge just in so far as the magnetic aura is held by him in a state of receptivity. It is then constantly invocative of the higher range of impressions; it can be evoked and set into “distributing activity” by that which is lower and which is demanding aid. The disciple therefore, in due time, becomes a tiny or minute correspondence of the Hierarchy—invocative as it is to Shamballa and easily evoked by human demand. These are points warranting careful consideration. They involve a primary recognition of points of tension and their consequent expansion into magnetic auras or areas, capable of invocation and evocation.
Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle Page 9
