A
discussion of the "rainbow bridge" built by the man/woman in incarnation
between the lower and higher self as part of personal spiritual
evolution.
The
science of the Antahkarana is probably the most important science
of the coming time but this talk will not claim to cover the whole
subject of the Antahkarana or the science of its use.
This
is a science which is, as yet, unknown to humanity but it will
be the coming science of mind of the New Age, the science of building
the bridge between lower and higher man, and also a number of
other bridges: between the members of the human race as a whole;
between one Centre - Humanity - and another, Hierarchy; between
Hierarchy and Shamballa; between Humanity, through Hierarchy,
and Shamballa; and between this planet and other planets, this
solar system and other solar systems. All these bridges and connections
are the result of the correct use of the science of the Antahkarana,
which will be the major educational field for humanity in this
coming age.
The best way to study the Antahkarana is to read the Alice Bailey
Teachings, in particular the book Education in the New Age, and
further references in The Rays and Initiations. You will not get
from this talk, or from the Alice Bailey Teachings, the technique
of the science of the Antahkarana. That is something which, as
far as humanity as a whole is concerned, lies well in the future.
It is a gradual process of enlightenment for humanity, but it
will become the major science - the science of evolving as a race
and making the inner connections (which of course already exist
but which have to be consciously built by the man or woman in
incarnation), to weave the thread of return to the source from
which we have originally come.
It is really the science of the Path of Return. For long ages,
the soul on its own plane looks down at its reflection, the man
or woman on the physical plane, and sees no way to interfere with
its development. There is very little the soul can do except create
a body, give it its various physical, astral and mental make-up,
and leave it to get on with the job of evolution. Eventually,
there comes a life - a series of lives in fact - in which the
soul sees that its reflection, the man or woman, is beginning
to respond to the influence of the energy which connects the soul
to its reflection, and the process of 'ensouling' begins.
"The
Antahkarana" is, above all, the thread of consciousness. It is
the result of the interaction of the life with the form, with
substance, with matter; that produces something entirely different.
We call it "consciousness". We can also call it "the Christ Principle".
It is the process of evolution itself.
Each
individual is really threefold: the Monad, or spark of God, the
impersonal Self which reflects itself on the soul plane as the
individualized human soul or ego. The soul, again, reflects itself
on the dense physical plane as the man or woman in incarnation.
That is the 'way down', the process by which spirit involves itself
in its polar opposite, substance. When the spirit, or life, aspect
and the matter aspect come together, a third, the consciousness
aspect, is born.
Those
who study anthropology, the history of evolution on the physical
plane - the evolution of forms - know that in the beginning there
were great oceans, teaming with life, nothing on the land, and
then gradually some of the more evolved animals - fish, reptiles
of all kinds - came on to the land and became the early reptiles
and mammals. Gradually, there evolved a prohuman type which eventually
became early, animal man, separating itself from the animal kingdom.
With the germ of mind - which could become the nucleus of a mental
body - at last formed, the human race began.
This
is denied by Christian fundamentalists and other orthodox religious
groups who deny the reality of Darwin's theory of evolution, but
esotericists accept it as a more-or-less accurate account of the
growth of the form, the evolution of form, on this planet. We
are not concerned with that; we are concerned, as human beings
evolving back to our source, with the evolution not of form -
which has come more or less to perfection (though there are some
minor adjustments and improvements still to be made) but rather
with the evolution of consciousness.
The
evolution of consciousness is the basis of how we become aware
of ourselves and our environment, and create together the evolution
of the human race. Gradually, there evolved a prohuman type which
eventually became early, animal man, separating itself from the
animal kingdom The descent from Monad to soul and from soul to
personality has to be re-enacted in reverse order.
The
threefold man - physical, astral and mental - has to find his
way back by a process of at-one-ment, first with the soul and
then, through the spiritual triad - the reflection of the Monad
- with the Monad itself: the threefold monadic Being.
That
return journey, or the process by which that return journey is
made, is through the creation, the gradual evolvement and building,
of the Antahkarana. This is a conscious process and only occurs
in stages. As the process downward has been slow, over millions
of years, so the process back can be a long, drawn-out process,
and for the vast majority of humanity so it is. We are in the
second of a threefold solar system. In other words, this solar
system is the second embodiment or manifestation of the great
Heavenly Man we call the Solar Logos Who has a Plan for the evolution
of all the forms in the solar system.
The
first solar system expressed through matter, substance, the quality
of active intelligence. It was concerned mainly with the intelligent
creation of forms. We are in the second of this threefold expression
in which the soul quality - the love or consciousness aspect -
of the Logos is in process of being expressed. The Solar Antahkarana
is being built by the Solar Logos and by all the forms, whether
they know it or not, who have evolved from the first solar system
and are now creating the bridge between that system and this one,
and, eventually, between this system and the next.
The
next solar system will be concerned with the Will aspect, the
Monadic aspect, of the Solar Logos. When the correct bridge between
these three expressions is built, the Solar Antahkarana is in
place. This will lead to the culmination of the Plan of our Solar
Logos in its threefold expression. Each solar system creates a
body of expression at a higher level than the one before. The
first - that to do with form, with substance - is, of course,
preparatory to the expression of the soul. It is the soul, in
all forms, which incarnates. By descending into form, the soul
- actually the Monad, the spirit aspect, through the soul - begins
a process of redemption of the soul in form.
It
begins to spiritualize substance; the underlying purpose of our
incarnational experience is, precisely, to spiritualize the substance
of this particular solar system. When we have taken the substance
- the forms created in the previous solar system - and energized
it with the energy of the soul, the consciousness aspect, in this
solar system, we will raise it, redeem it, heighten its vibration
and bring it up to the level at which the Will, the Purpose aspect
of God (in terms of our Solar Logos), can be expressed.
In
this present solar system God is Love, Love is the aspect of the
soul, Will of the Atmic level of being. In the next solar system
God will be Will and Purpose. We are, all of us, as microcosms,
evolving in precisely the same way as the macrocosm, our Solar
Logos, through its threefold expression, works out its Plan of
evolution in every kingdom and in every planet. In coming into
incarnation, therefore, we are doing something quite extraordinary,
something far greater than we as individual human beings possibly
realize. But as soon as we do realize the interconnectedness of
the microcosm with the macrocosm it deepens our sense of purpose
- the sense of reality - in life, and it is also a stimulus to
concentrate more, and to build a direct line of ascent between
this low-level (for that is what it is) expression of Deity and
bring it into line with the underlying purpose of Deity for its
perfectionment.
The energy of each solar system is raised and becomes the basis
for the new system, just as in our incarnational experience every
incarnation creates an expression through the vehicles up to a
certain vibration. That vibration is held exactly at the point
we have reached when we die. There are three 'permanent atoms'
around which the new bodies, physical, astral and mental, are
formed. These permanent atoms vibrate at exactly the frequency
reached in that particular life, and we can understand, therefore,
how the vibrational rate reached is the degree to which we have
perfected, or spiritualized, matter.
The
soul infuses the matter of the three bodies with its energy and
in this way salvages, redeems that matter. It raises their vibration
onto an ever-higher level until the point is reached when the
soul is reflecting itself, without resistance, directly, through
the personality. That is how we become divine. We do so by raising
the vibrational rate of the substance of these three bodies to
a point where the Divine Man, the soul on its own plane, can reflect
itself relatively purely through its reflection, the man or woman
on the physical plane. That
is the evolutionary, the return process; the technique of it is
the science of the Antahkarana.
Sutratma
There are two major threads which connect the Monad, through the
soul, with the man or woman in incarnation. One the Sutratma,
the thread of life, is anchored in the heart. It comes directly
from the Monad, reflected through the soul, and is fixed in the
heart centre at the right-hand side of the body. It is reflected
through that etheric centre to the physical heart and into the
bloodstream, which, as you know, is the purifying stream which
carries the energy of life to every part of the body. While the
lifeblood is pumped correctly through the body and is kept free
of poisons, the physical body displays all its ability and accuracy
of movement and expression. So, too, the connecting body, the
astral-emotional body and the mental body are dependent on the
life thread, the Sutratma, for their existence and correct function.
There
is another thread, called, indeed, the Antahkarana. This thread
in anchored in the centre of the head, and through these two threads
the threefold expression - Monad, soul and physical-plane man
or woman - live their lives. These two threads inform all of these
and, in a downward flow, bridge the gaps between, first, Monad
and soul, and secondly between soul and its reflection, the man
or woman on the physical plane. Eventually, a third thread is
built by the man or woman him/herself through the interaction
of soul energy, and eventually, monadic energy, through the physical
apparatus: the thread of creativity.
These
three threads wound together eventually produce the bridge between
the three levels of existence. The future science of the Antahkarana
will concern itself with this, the path of return. This will be
the New Age education. Individuals will be recognized for what
they are, souls in incarnation; their point in evolution and ray
structure will be ascertained and known; through this science
the gaps between the various levels of our being will be bridged.
This is only possible now that the human race has reached the
present state and, of course, because of the return to the everyday
world of the only people in the world who actually know this science:
the Masters.
Since
the Masters are returning this will become an exoteric science.
All children, from the earliest age up until 28, will eventually
go through this process of education in the science of Life -
the science of building the return channel, or pathway. I
would like here to show the inner unity of method and approach
of certain terms.
The
antahkarana is the bridge built - first out of mental matter and
later out of light - by the evolving aspirant, disciple and initiate,
in turn. Until a certain time, the connection between the man
or woman and the soul plane is developed by the control of 'mentation',
the energy of the mental body. It brings the mental body under
control and the thought-patterns create a bridge.
The
Antahkarana is, therefore, in the first place, a bridge connecting
the lower man, the lower mind, with the soul, and then the lower
mind, through the soul, with the higher mind which is the lowest
aspect of the Spiritual Triad. This is Atma, Buddhi and Manas
- the reflection on the soul plane of the threefold Monad, or
spark of God.
Path
of Return
There
are different terms for this and I would like to bring all of
these together to show the unity and interconnectedness of these
different methods of expressing what is essentially the one process,
the return journey: the Path of Return. The mystic thinks of the
Path as the Path to God. He thinks of it generally in terms of
his religious or mystical feelings and experiences, his mystical
religious beliefs, doctrines, and dogma, his various spiritual
practices, the various rituals -- all of these to the mystical
and devotional type constitute a way of approaching God through
belief, a linking in consciousness between the individual man's
belief structure (whether that be Christian, Hindu, Buddhist,
or whatever) and that which lies back of all creation.
The
religious person sees that as the Path of Return -- and of course
that is perfectly true, it is. But not everybody is religious,
and the Path of Return, to the esotericist, is a path which, literally,
is made by the disciple himself. The disciple makes the Path by
becoming the Path. It is not something which is already laid down
and is whispered into your ear. It is not like that at all. It
is the evolutionary process itself. It is that same process which
brought the fishes out of the sea onto dry land, from which they
evolved into, first, reptiles and then mammals and then the huge
variety of animals and eventually, at the peak of that development
of form, the human kingdom. Above the human kingdom is the Kingdom
of Souls, the kingdom whose nature is consciousness.
The
plane of consciousness is the plane on which the Masters have
hitherto worked exclusively. The Path of Return is the Path by
which the consciousness of what is and what might be gradually
becomes known to the seeker, the evolving individual. In other
words, as you seek, as you aspire, you create before you - as
DK says: the "spider creates out of his own being the silken thread"
- so, in exactly the same way, the aspirant, the disciple and
the initiate are creating before them the Path of Return, the
Path which is not yet laid down.
It is the path of a growing awareness of what constitutes his/her
relationship to the whole. It is a means by which we grasp deeper
and deeper realizations and experiences of our connectedness to
the whole, to the Macrocosm. This is done by a growing expansion
of consciousness. These expansions of consciousness are marked
off on our planet by the five planetary initiations. For the adept
there are also four Cosmic initiations. Above these, and on throughout
Cosmos, are initiation after initiation upon initiation - on and
on eternally, throughout the whole of galactic space.
All
of that is a process by which, through the building of the Antahkarana,
our individual relationship to that totality gradually dawns on
us.
The Monad reflects itself in the soul as the Spiritual Triad:
spiritual Will, spiritual Love-Wisdom and spiritual Intelligence,
and these are again reflected in the physical being by the soul.
The
process by which this takes place is the Antahkarana. Most people
thinking about the Antahkarana, because of the nature of the language
used, inevitably imagine a bridge. That bridge is built in, first,
mental substance and then light, and so they visualize a physical
bridge. An artist has to do so, of course; one cannot paint a
picture without a form. The artist has to create out of his creative
imagination a form which will symbolize a process, but the form
is not the process, it is simply a means of expressing the idea
of the process.
Anyone
who does Transmission Meditation knows about alignment. When that
alignment is perfect, symbolically speaking there is a column
of light above the head of the meditators. In that light there
are three threads, strands, of energy. That is the form, but it
is not the Antahkarana. We must realize that the form and the
idea of a bridge, the idea of a column of light, the idea of some
actual form in substance, is only a way of stating something else.
What we are really talking about is awareness. Awareness, in a
sense, is a vague, generalized way of talking about the process
of return. We return through a gradual expansion of conscious
awareness, through the conscious building of the Antahkarana.
This
is created firstly in mental matter, between the personality and
the soul, and then by the initiate - who has already contacted
and come into a close at-one-ment with the soul - in light, between
the soul and the Monad, the highest aspect of our threefold being.
Then the connectedness eventually is direct between the Monad
- the divine being, identical with God, the reflection of our
Planetary Logos - and the man or woman on the physical plane.
By
this process our Planetary Logos works out His Plan of evolution
through the human kingdom, and of course in the same way the Solar
Logos is working out His greater and vaster Plan through all beings
on all planets in this, the second, solar system. This process
will be completed in the third solar system, in which the Monadic
aspect - the Will, the Purpose, the essential Love of God - will
come to its final expression and fulfilment.
Each
of us, right now, is engaged in creating the Antahkarana.
Another
term for the Antahkarana, besides the bridge of light, is Self-realization,
which is what Maitreya calls it: "I have come to teach the art
of Self-realization," He said. The art of Self-realization is
the science of the Antahkarana: they are one and the same.
Maitreya
has said that the simplest, most direct path is to practise three
things:
Honesty
of mind; sincerity of spirit, and detachment.
These
three bring about Self-realization, and they do so by enabling
the man or woman to create the Antahkarana. For the vast majority
of people in the world this is a process which goes on, up till
a certain time, quite unconsciously. Most unevolved individuals
are connected only by the Sutratma, the life thread, coming from
the Monad through the soul and anchored in the heart. Average
humanity are connected also by the thread of consciousness, the
Antahkarana, and as the person evolves through the building of
the first stage of the Antahkarana - that between the lower man
and the soul - the energies of the soul become available to him
or her.
"The
Antahkarana is not simply a column of light but threads of awareness
spreading outwards from the individual into every sphere of his
environment. These threads of awareness multiply endlessly, until
in the Master, they make for omniscience: nothing can happen anywhere
of which He is unaware." Then the creative process begins. This
stimulates the mind and the creative imagination, and a life of
creativity and of service ensues. Creativity and service are one
and the same; service is the life of the soul creatively expressed
on the physical plane. This, then, dominates more and more in
the life of the individual, and so we get the creation of culture.
It
is not by accident that the culture of any nation is created by
the disciples and the initiates of that nation; they are the ones
who have already built the first stage of the connecting link,
the bridge, between themselves and their soul. The initiate, having
achieved an integration of the three lower vehicles, physical,
astral and mental - that is, having brought them to a point of
synchronous vibration, takes the third initiation; the soul, henceforward,
controls and dominates its vehicle, which is now negative in relation
to the purpose of the soul. The divine man or woman displays his
or her divinity on the physical plane in a life of service and
creativity. The third-degree and the fourth-degree initiate is
usually in incarnation for only one or two lives, depending on
astrological factors. But having taken thousands of lives to the
first initiation, and perhaps five or six to the second, the third
is taken very quickly, and the fourth very quickly after that,
probably in the next life. Therefore, by the time a person has
reached the state of true creativity, is more or less soul-infused
and expressing the purpose of the soul, he or she does not have
long in which to do this; only three or four lives at the most.
Then,
as a Master, the whole of this existence is dedicated to the service
of the Plan. Of course, the more one evolves the more one knows.
The more one knows, the greater the responsibility of service,
and the greater the opportunity for service. The Masters can serve
because They know. Our service is limited, not only because of
lack of desire or energy, but because we do not know enough; we
can serve in a rather limited way because our consciousness is
limited. The more conscious one is, or the higher the level of
consciousness, the greater the number of threads of consciousness
extending outwards to the world, the greater awareness there will
be of the nature of reality.
These
are the Antahkarana, which is not simply a column of light but
threads of awareness spreading outwards from the individual into
every sphere of his environment. These threads of awareness multiply
endlessly, until, in the Master, they make for omniscience: nothing
can happen anywhere of which He is unaware. In this way we reveal
the mind of God, become instruments in the furthering of the Plan
held in the mind of God. That, really, is the basis of initiation.
When you know consciously, through the building of the Antahkarana,
how to link the different levels of expression - Monadic with
soul, soul with the physical (on the downward path) - when you
know this science because you have done it, and done it consciously,
when you are a Master, you can use this science to create the
Mayavirupa, the self-created body.
The
Mayavirupa reverses the process of the Antahkarana. It is the
result of the ability to create a body because you know the connecting
links between the form. A God-realized Master experiences Himself
as God in this physical body. For us that physical body is the
closest, most important, aspect, whereas for the Master it is
only a transitory aspect of the whole. From His God-realized state,
the Master can go backwards down the bridge, the Antahkarana,
can repeat the process and bring together, therefore, matter of
the mental, the astral-emotional and the etheric physical plane,
and precipitate His consciousness into that. That is the secret
behind the creation of the Mayavirupa.
The
new world religion, when developed, is really the creation of
the 'racial' Antahkarana. Maitreya has said the He has not come
to build a new religion, to create followers, and so on. This
is true. Nevertheless there will be what we have to call, for
want of another name, a new world 'religion', but it will be the
science of which I am speaking. The new world religion will be
a conscious approach by the human race to the Creator, that which
stands back of creation -- which, of course, is also ourselves,
the essential part of ourselves as the Monad. This will be done
through the creation of the racial, group, Antahkarana.
The
growing experience of aspirants and disciples of working in groups
is a preparatory step towards this great racial grouping, to the
creation of the 'world' Antahkarana. Eventually the Antahkarana
links not only peoples, but planets and solar systems. This is
the essential nature of Being throughout Cosmos. All that is higher
reflects itself through a lower vehicle. This threefold expression
is to be found throughout Cosmos. At our human level, we experience
it consciously, because, as souls, we are the "Sons of Mind".
Through the expression of the soul, the consciousness aspect,
that awareness takes place by which the racial Antahkarana can
be built. As a Being, as a race, as one big grouping of all peoples,
all religions, all types and points of evolution, there will be
eventually a conscious approach to Deity, especially at the three
spiritual festivals in April, May and June and also at the nine
other full-moons.
This
will constitute "the new world religion", or the technique of
the new world religion, in which invocation will replace the present
process of worship. We can see therefore that it will be a very
scientific religion -- it will be very difficult to distinguish
between what we call science, religion and education. This is
also the education of the New Age. Children will be trained in
the creation of the Antahkarana. The science of the Antahkarana
will be taught - in so far as it can be taught, because it is
an experiential thing - to those ready to receive the tuition.
Of course, that does not mean all children, but for those more
advanced aspirants, for those who are preparing for initiation,
this will become the norm.
No
initiation is possible for anyone without the building of the
Antahkarana. Indeed, it is precisely the building of the Antahkarana,
the link between the lower man and the soul, which makes initiation
possible. Eventually, the link between the integrated lower man
and the soul makes possible the higher initiations in which the
at-one-ment is with the Spiritual Triad, and, through that, with
the Monad. Then the process is complete; the Godlike man, the
God-realized or Self-realized man, has achieved: he is a Master.
The
Antahkarana is not only the bridge between the different fragments
of ourselves, it is the bridge between the worlds: planetary,
systemic, and galactic. The key to the formation of the Mayavirupa
is found in the right comprehension of the creation of the Antahkarana.
It is important to remember that as these bridges are built the
vitalizing process goes on. It is not simply a question of building
a bridge; it is through that bridge that the stimulus from the
higher levels takes place.
Three
major sciences will dominate in the New Age: the science of the
Antahkarana, the science of meditation and the science of service.
The science of service utilizes the creativity which is achieved
through the building of the Antahkarana, and the science of meditation,
of course, is a preliminary process leading to, and essential
to, the creation of the Antahkarana through its science. So the
science of the Antahkarana is very broad indeed, including that
of meditation and of service. The vitalizing agency is, first
of all, the soul. The soul opens up on the personality level the
Knowledge petals in the crown chakra and vitalizes them; this
stimulates the thought processes and galvanizes the man or woman
to further creation of the bridge, the Antahkarana, between itself
and the soul. Soul at-one-ment gradually takes place, and when
this has gone a certain distance initiation leads to the opening
of the Love petals, and eventually, as a man or woman approaches
the third initiation and that is taken, the opening up of the
inner three petals which enclose the "jewel", the "jewel in the
heart of the lotus", which is the Will aspect.
The
Monad reflects more and more in the man or woman on the physical
plane, dominating, therefore, the life of that individual. In
this process, what was simply emotional aspiration gradually transforms
itself into the Monadic will: the purpose of the life is known.
This leads to lives of true value on the physical plane, no time
is wasted, the individual knows his or her purpose in life and
gets on with it without the wastage of time and wrong thought,
wrong action, and delays which occur lower down the line. He discovers
the value, uses and purposes of the creative imagination. This
is all that remains to him eventually of the intensely active
astral life lived for so many lives. The astral body becomes a
mechanism of transformation - desire transformed into aspiration,
aspiration into a growing and expressive intuitive faculty. The
intuitive faculty emerges when true soul contact is achieved,
when the bridge between the personality and the soul is of such
a constancy and intensity that what was simply emotional aspiration
is transformed into a direct linking with the higher aspect of
which it is a reflection, the Buddhic aspect of the Spiritual
Triad.
Our
astral-emotional body, in terms of evolutionary purpose, is meant
to be, and eventually becomes, simply a still, reflecting vehicle
for Buddhi. Buddhi is true intuition. It is essentially, group
consciousness; intuition is another name for group consciousness.
It is the Buddhic, the Love-Wisdom, aspect of the Spiritual Triad.
Buddhi eventually reflects itself directly through the astral
mechanism as intuition: we know, because we know, because we know.
There is no thinking about it; it is a direct, spontaneous response
to Buddhi, using the purified astral nature as the medium for
that intuitive response. The Antahkarana produces this, inevitably.
There
is a relationship between the science of the Antahkarana and Transmission
Meditation. Transmission Meditation is a fusion of two Yogas:
Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Service, and Laya Yoga, the Yoga of the
Chakras, the energies.
Essentially,
the Antahkarana is concerned with the force centres, the chakras,
because it is through the scientific, manipulation of the energies
in the chakras, the correct stimulation of these chakras, that
the Antahkarana is built. One can say that the science of the
Antahkarana is the science of the chakras. The sciences of the
future - of the Antahkarana, of meditation, and of service - are
linked. One leads to the other: correct meditation leads to the
building of the Antahkarana; correct building of the Antahkarana
leads to the life of service - correct service, directed by soul
purpose.
The
knowledge and creativity of the soul is consciously put at the
disposal of the individual who scientifically builds the Antahkarana.
Transmission Meditation is a fusion of two Yogas: Karma Yoga,
the Yoga of Service, and Laya Yoga, the Yoga of the Chakras, the
energies Since Transmission Meditation is a fusion of Karma Yoga
and Laya Yoga, what the Masters are actually doing in the Transmission
Groups around the world is creating a group Antahkarana. It is
being done for us. The average time of real alignment, and therefore
of correct transmitting, in any hour is about three-and-a-half
to four minutes.
It is only because Transmission Meditation is so potent, so scientific,
that it is valuable to do even these three-and-a-half minutes.
Because of its extraordinary potency, because of the pure, scientific
nature of Transmission Meditation, these three-and-a-half to four
minutes have an extraordinary value for the world and an extraordinary
value for the people doing it. We are gradually having the Antahkarana
built for us - it is a gift. The Masters are serving us, spoon-feeding
us.
The
Antahkarana is being created at an extraordinary rate; so much
so that, if people are around the 1.5 mark - between the first
and second initiation - and in reasonable health and youth, it
is perfectly possible to take the second initiation in this life;
not because of any particular effort being made, either in building
the Antahkarana or in service to the world, but simply by sitting
enough times in Transmission Meditation, keeping the attention
at the Ajna centre, for the Masters to help create this channel
of light between the different aspects of our being.
This
is an extraordinary thing that is happening in the Transmission
Groups, and it is one of the major reasons why people in these
groups make such extraordinary advancement. Those who have been
transmitting for the last 10 years, say, are far more advanced
than they could possibly have been. They may not realize it, but
the Masters do; They measure and register it, and They know those
who are ready, in this incarnation, to take the second initiation
(most people doing Transmission Meditation have taken the first).
This is only possible because of the exigencies of the time which
at the same time presents to the aspirant and the disciple an
opportunity for service through Transmission Meditation. It cannot
be overemphasized how valuable this is proving. What is being
built in the connecting thread, the channel between the different
aspects of oneself, is a Path of Return to the Source, the Monad.
We are the Monad, which reflects through the soul as the physical-plane
personality. We are on the Path of Return, redeeming the matter
of our various bodies, physical, astral and mental.
That
redeemed, spiritualized, matter produces, in the next solar system,
matter of a higher rate of vibration. And so the evolution of
the body of the Planetary Logos proceeds; we are all involved
in that individually and for the planet, for the solar system.
That is why we are here. As one grows and evolves one deepens
one's consciousness of that reality. The Macrocosm, as we begin
to intuit its nature, to experience it through conscious awareness,
tells us that that is the reality, and, more and more, we lose
the sense of the separate self. It is said: Lose yourself in service.
The
process by which we do this is the building of the bridge. It
results in the creativity of service: creativity is service, service
is creativity. It is the nature of the soul in the three worlds
to express itself in some form of creative service, and as we
do this we lose sense of the separate self. We deepen our experience
of the Macrocosm and realize that that and ourselves are one.
That is the growing experience of the man or woman who builds
the Bridge, who creates that unity with the soul. Then the soul
becomes in a singular life a reality. Beyond all controversy,
all gainsaying, we know that we are the soul. It is not simply
a theoretical or intellectual idea, we know it as part of our
being, and we know eventually that the soul itself is a light
within an even greater light, a fire within an even greater fire.
That fire has consciousness -- that is the nature of the soul,
and the person making contact with the soul eventually realizes
that it is a fire within a greater consuming fire, which is Deity
itself. It says in the Bible: "God is a consuming fire". That
is the reality.
The
soul is a great, fiery vortex of forces which are reflected on
the lower planes as the man or woman in incarnation. That is what
we are: a reflection of these fiery forces, and the bridge that
we build -- the Antahkarana -- back to the soul and eventually
back to the Monad is the path by which these forces become available
to us. They stimulate the mind, the intuition and the creative
will, and our life as initiates, knowing initiates, in the process
of life, takes place. "It is the nature of the soul in the three
worlds to express itself in some form of creative service, and
as we do this we lose sense of the separate self."
Reprinted
with the kind permission of Share International Magazine.
