Stage I -- Preliminary

Holding the consciousness steadily in the mind, and not in the head, quickly recognize: your pledged discipleship; your equipment, gratefully rendered; your achieved alignment; your soul, the source of love-wisdom; and the Hierarchy.

Consider the "destiny of Shamballa" as it plays out through the entire Hierarchy, the Ashram of Sanat Kumara. The Ashrams of the Chohans are responsive to Shamballa’s Purpose and, in turn, impress the Ashrams under their influence with the energy of Will. This energy vitalizes all disciples and initiates. Disciples and initiates then carry some of this energy out into the world. Say with purpose and determination:

"I strive towards comprehension.
Thy will, not mine, be done."

Consider the Hierarchy, the world of souls, and its loving efforts toward humanity via the Plan. Consciously identify with the Plan, and the portion of the Plan for which the Ashram with which you are in touch is responsible. Say with love and aspiration:

"I strive towards understanding.
Let wisdom take the place of knowledge in my life."

Consider yourself as a unit in Djwhal Khul’s Ashram. Recognize which aspect of his planned work you are equipped to do. Determine how to serve and then energize your accepted project responsibilities with light, faith, love and power. Say:

"I strive toward cooperation.
Let the Master of my life, the soul,
and likewise the One I seek to serve,
throw light through me on others."

Note the distinction between Purpose, Will and Intention. In focused silence and with fixed determination, present an unobstructed channel for the inflow of light, love and strength from the Hierarchy. As a soul and disciple, say to your personality:

In the center of the will of God I stand.
Naught shall deflect my will from His.
I implement that will by love.
I turn towards the field of service.
I, the Triangle divine, work out that will
Within the square and serve my fellowmen.

Stage II -- The Center of Focused Thought

1. Polarize yourself consciously upon the mental plane, tuning out all lower vibrations and reactions.
2. Orient yourself to the Spiritual Triad, through an act of the will and the imaginative use of the antahkarana.
3. Take this month’s heart virtue and ponder deeply upon it for at least five minutes. Endeavor to extract its quality and life, thus lifting it and your thought to as high a plane as possible.
4. Sound the OM, and wait silently, holding the mind steady. This is the "pause of reception."

Stage III -- The Recipient of Impression

1. Assuming an attitude of the highest expectancy, you will now express in your own words the highest truth of the virtue that you have been able to reach.
2. Relate this truth to the present world opportunity, thus universalizing the concept, seeing its relationship to world affairs, its usefulness and spiritual value to humanity as a whole. Then relate this truth to Los Angeles, in particular.
3. Holding the mind in the light, write down the first thought (no matter what it is) that enters into your waiting mind in connection with the theme of your meditation. The ability to do this will grow with practice, and will eventually evoke the intuition and thus fertilize your mind.
4. Again sound the OM, with the intent of refocusing yourself upon the mental plane. If your work has been successful, your original focus will have shifted to intuitional levels or to the levels of the higher, abstract mind, via the antahkarana. This must happen, in time, if your work has been faithfully followed. Bear ever in your thought that you must work as a mind, and not as an aspirant or from the angle of memory. Think on this.

Stage IV -- The Analyzer of Ideas

1. You now analyze or think over with clarity the work you have done, and the ideas now in your mind, seeing them in a true perspective in relation to the whole problem of the day.
2. Then, choosing one of the ideas which the virtue has evoked, think about it, analyze it and relate it to life, getting all you can out of it. This evoked idea may and should vary from day to day but will always remain related to the month’s virtue and the goal of opening the heart center of Los Angeles.
3. Study the idea in connection with yourself, the disciple, active in service and the Master’s work, but not in connection with the personality. This you will find an interesting distinction. Make the idea practical, enabling it to "qualify" you or enrich you.
4. Again sound the OM, with the intent of making the sensed idea a part of your very nature and the nature of Los Angeles.

Stage V -- The Transmitter of Ideas

1. As the disciple, you have realized that a knowledge of truth and the reception of ideas lays on you the responsibility to be a transmitter to others. Ponder on this.
2. Now take the idea which the virtue has engendered, or the virtue itself if no ideas have come to you, and in imagination formulate it in such a way that it can be presented to others, to your friends, to those you seek to help and to humanity—when opportunity offers. Think the idea through mentally, emotionally, and practically, thus precipitating it outwards into the world of thought.
3. Then (using the creative imagination and seeing yourself as a responsible transmitter, doing the work of the Ashram) breathe out the idea as a formulated living thoughtform into the great stream of mental substance which is ever playing upon the human consciousness.
4. Sound the OM, thus "closing the episode."

Close the meditation with a daily dedication of yourself to the service of humanity; renew your pledge to your Master and say the Mantram of Unification:

The sons of men are one, and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the soul control the outer form,
And life, and all events,
And bring to light the love
That underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

1. Recognition
2. Consideration
3. Fixed determination.

1. The Center of Focused Thought

1. Polarization.
2. Orientation.
3. Meditation on heart virtue.
4. OM. Pause.

1. The Recipient of Impression

1. Statement of highest idea received.
2. Relation of theme to present world opportunity.
3. Write down first thought then received.
4. OM. Refocus on mental plane.

1. The Analyzer of Ideas

1. Period of analytic thought.
2. Summarize conclusions practically.
3. Breathe out the idea into the world of thought.
4. OM.

1. The Transmitter of Ideas

1. Dedication of yourself to service.
2. Pledge yourself to the Master.
3. Say the mantram: "The sons of men are one…"