1.  Describe what you mean by living the spiritual life twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

2.  What effect does attempting to live the spiritual life have upon one's family and close friends?

3.  So much happens to a person within the family circle. It is seldom realized how valuable to future achievement is the wide range of experience provided by family life.

Family life is one of the finest training grounds for discipleship and for the Great Service of membership in an Ashram.

What traits of character, what sensitivities and abilities that distinguish the disciple are developed in family relationships and family living?

Your observations should include more than your present personal situation, because one's present situation accounts for only a fraction of the soul’s experience through many lifetimes.

This study set and the ones that-follow contain a wealth of study material that will not be fully assimilated at once. The form in which this material presented here is extremely well organized. We hope you are filing all your study sets carefully(perhaps in ringed notebooks) for continued use for many years. The form of this material is part of the "field of knowledge" which you enter and explore by the use of your lower mind as you apply your mind to study.

The expansion of consciousness which opens up to the student as he relates esoteric knowledge to his observations and experiences in the daily life, is the result of aligning the mind with the soul, through meditation. Knowledge applied to living becomes wisdom. And wisdom comes from the eons. Wisdom is one of the soul's powers. Esoteric training is far more concerned with the development of wisdom, than with the accumulation of knowledge.

The wise student absorbs as much of the presented material as he can relate, practically and realistically, to his present experience -- both his outer experience in the daily contacts with other people, and his inner experience of reaching more deeply into the world of meaning, and of broadening his understanding of all he sees and touches. Those portions of the presented material which seem to hold no practical value at this time, he plants like seeds in the soil of his consciousness later, perhaps much later, when his expanded field of service requires more knowledge of the laws and principles and energies that compose the whole of life, he will discover that the seeds of learning previously planted have been growing; when he returns his attention to them, he finds them more understandable and probably more interesting.

We tend to associate wisdom in our thinking with the elderly, and reasonably so, for much living and a wide range of experience in a variety of living condition are required to enable the soul in incarnation to transform knowledge, which it gains via its triple instrument, into wisdom which is the expression of the soul's innate point of view. Thus it used to be that serious esoteric training that was undertaken only in the latter half of an individual's life. It was not considered wise to introduce a young person to the deeper levels of teaching or to the meditation work that enables one to consciously control and employ one's own emotional and mental equipment in creative endeavor under the soul's direction. There was a time when the disciple in training was obliged to first fulfill his duty to family and then to achieve some success as a man of affairs, in order to earn the karmic right to remove his attention and himself from the affairs of society, retreat to some secluded spot, and devote his whole effort to the meditative disciplines.

Today changes are occurring in the esoteric training field. Changes are apparent in human nature too. And we know from our studies that energies of a new kind are pouring into our planetary life.

Today young people are displaying intelligent interest in esoteric literature. When this interest is combined with sincere interest in the public welfare and compassionate concern for the plight of the underprivileged and the have-nots, and when the young enquirer evidences a sense of responsibility for the wise care of his own form nature the door into esoteric training opens to his knock.

Today as always, meditation requires periods of solitude, and a place where privacy is not likely to be disturbed. But today, unlike earlier times, a place of undisturbed privacy in the home and adequate periods of solitude must be arranged by the meditator in the very midst of family life and in the noise and turmoil of large cities. These arrangements must be made by each and every serious student of meditation; and made without violating the principle of occult reticence.

If the student lives in a crowded house, or his family includes small children, or if the other members of the family do not share his high regard for esoteric subjects, the student of meditation is obliged to use an unusual amount of tact and ingenuity, and probably some self denial as well. To tell a small child to "go away and be quiet while Mommy (or Daddy) talks to God" is hardly fair to the child, and is quite unlikely to make God a beloved part of the child's world. No, the practice of the group disciplines must be managed without calling the family's attention to one's spiritual efforts, and without interfering with the performance of one's family duty.

The esoteric student who undertakes serious systematic meditation in his twenties or thirties must be prepared to do so simultaneously with maintaining a household and rearing a family, along with finding and filling his place (vocationally, socially, culturally) in the community. He should be equipped with skill and sensitivity in human relations, and the strength of character to pursue his own inner life quietly, in order to be able to arrange a time and place within his home where he is free to meditate and study and think constructively without bothering other members of the household in any way whatsoever. Ideally, they should not even be aware that he entertains interests which they do not share.

The details of making the necessary arrangements in the home vary with each student. For most of us, it means rising an hour earlier in the morning and making some personal sacrifice to adjust to others' dally routines. This is asking a great deal of young people. Yet young people are entering the field of esoteric training and accomplishing all these things. Young people are coming into Arcana already equipped with the mental poise and emotional stability to undertake rather early in life what the Tibetan calls the "dual life of the disciple". It marks a new advance for the spiritual late of the planet.

Once the student has made the necessary interpersonal arrangements within the home to provide a time and place for his daily meditation and study, and once his spiritual training is well under way, his family and his other daily associates are the first to benefit from his spiritual unfoldment. His deepening understanding of conditions around him, the irradiating of his personality with the light and love of the soul, the organization of his thoughtline, the sweetening and steadying of his emotional life, his economy and effectiveness of speech, his increased efficiency in all physical plane activities -- all these results of meditation become a blessing to all people around him before he is aware of the changes and improvements in himself. A soul in full command of its personality instrument is easier and more delightful to live and work with than is a personality running wild.

The meditator benefits too, even though his purpose in learning to be an expert meditator is not self interest or personal gain. The student who is learning to sense and follow the daily direction of the soul and whose main incentive to effort is his desire to help humanity upon its evolutionary way, finds that his daily life is less perplexing and less complicated than the life of the ordinary person. He sees things in proper proportion and true perspective. His days and his energies are not consumed by trivialities, nor does he waste himself on dead-end by-paths. Rather, by the light of his own soul, he sees the direction of humanity’s progress, and points his whole effort in that direction. He is the joyous daily realization that to serve the common good is to be sustained and uplifted by the on-moving current of the One Life. This is pure wisdom.

As we remarked earlier in this letter, such wisdom is usually not expected of youth. Yet today -- such is the evolutionary progress of humanity in response to hierarchical guidance -- a few young people are displaying the ability to shoulder family responsibility simultaneously with spiritual responsibility. If perchance you are such a one, these observations are here offered for your encouragement. If on the other hand you are approaching, or already enjoying the wisdom years, we urge you to be ready to recognize young people in your own environment who may be destined to carry the burden of discipleship work, and to aid them according to the promptings of the soul.

From the soul’s perspective youth and age alternate in rhythmic repetition is advancing all of us toward wiser and more capable application of the Teaching.

Your loving companions,

The Staff of ARCANA

ESOTERICISM defined by the Tibetan, for a training group in 1948.

It might be of service to you… if I attempted to define esotericism in terms of the general average intelligence of students and their point in evolution. I would remind you that true esotericism is a far deeper thing (from the angle of the Hierarchy) than you can appreciate.

One of the most inadequate of the definitions is that it concerns that which is concealed and hidden and which, even though suspected, still remains unknown. The inference is that to be an esotericist is to be among those who seek to penetrate into a certain secret realm to which the ordinary student in not permitted to penetrate. If this were all it is, then every scientist and every mystic would represent the approach to the world of esotericism and the hidden realities.  This would not, however, be accurate. The mystic is never a true esotericist for he is not dealing in his consciousness with energies and forces but with that vague "Something other," called God, the Christ, the Beloved, and, therefore, in reality with that which satisfies the hunger of his soul. The scientist who is now so rapidly dealing with and entering into the world of forces and energies, is in reality a true esotericist -- even if, in his effort to control the sought for energies, he denies their Source. That is of relatively small moment; later, he will recognize their emanating Source.

The basic approach for all who endeavor to grasp esotericism… is to lay the emphasis upon the world of energies and to recognize that behind all happenings in the world of phenomena (and by that, I mean the three worlds of human evolution) exists the world of energies; these are of the greater diversity and complexity, but all of them move and work under the Law of Cause and Effect. It is hardly necessary for me, therefore, to indicate to you the very practical nature of this definition and its applicability to the life of the individual aspirant, to community life and world affairs or to the immediate conditioning levels of spiritual experimental energies which are constantly seeking impact upon, or contact with, the world of phenomena.  This they do in order, under spiritual direction, to implement the Plan. The above statement is foundational in its importance; al1 other definitions are implicit in it and it is the first important truth anent esotericism which must be learnt and applied by each aspirant to the mystery and the universality of that which moves the worlds and underlies the evolutionary process.

The first task of the esotericist is to comprehend the nature of the energies which are seeking to condition him and which work out into expression on the physical plane through the medium of his equipment or his vehicles of manifestation. The esoteric student has, therefore, to grasp that:

1. He is an aggregate of forces, inherited and conditioned by what he has been, plus a great antagonistic force which is not a principle and which we call the physical body.

2. He is sensitive to and should be increasingly aware of certain energies, at present unknown and of no use to him; of these, he must eventually become aware, it he is to move deeper into the world of hidden forces. They may be energies which, for him, would be evil were he to work with them and these must be distinguished and discarded; there are others which he must learn to use, for they would prove beneficial and would increase his knowledge and should, therefore, be regarded as good. Bear in mind, however, that energies per se are neither bad nor good. The Great White Lodge, our spiritual Hierarchy, and the Black Lodge employ the same universal energies but with different motives and objectives; both groups are groups of trained esotericists.

The esotericist in training has, therefore:

1. To become aware of the nature of the forces which constitute his personality equipment and which he himself magnetically brought into expression in the three worlds. They form a combination of active forces; he must learn to differentiate between strictly physical energy which is automatic in its response to other and inner energies, and those which come from emotional and mental levels of consciousness, focussing through the etheric body which, in turn, motivates and galvanizes his dense physical vehicle into certain activities.

2. To become sensitive to the impelling energies of the soul, emanating from the higher mental levels; these seek to control the forces of the threefold man when a certain definite point in evolution is reached.

3. To recognize the conditioning energies in his environment, seeing them not as events or circumstances but as energy in action; by this means, he learns to find his way behind the scene of outer happenings into the world of energies, seeking contact and qualifying for the bringing about of certain activities. He thus acquires entrance into the world of meaning. Events, circumstances, happenings and physical phenomena of every kind are simply symbols of what is occurring in the inner worlds and it is into these worlds that the esotericist must enter as far as his perception permits; he will sequentially discover worlds which will call for his scientific penetration.

4. For the majority of aspirants, the Hierarchy itself remains an esoteric realm which demands discovery and which will accept penetration. I am choosing my words with care in an effort to evoke your esoteric response.

Beyond this point of humanity's destined goal, I seek not to go; to initiates and disciples who have not yet taken the Initiation of Transfiguration, the higher realms of awareness and the "secret Place of the Most High" (the Council Chamber of Sanat Kumara) remain deeply esoteric. That is a higher realm of energies -- planetary, extra-planetary and inter-planetary; with them you have no concern..... The task is to train students in the recognition of energy, and force; to discriminate between the various types of energy, both in relation to themselves and to world affairs, and to begin to relate that which is seen and experienced to that which is unseen, conditioning and determining. This is your esoteric task.

There is a tendency among esoteric students, particularly those in the older Piscean groups to regard any interest in the energies producing world events or which concern governments and politics, as antagonistic to esoteric and spiritual endeavor. The attitude of The Theosophical Society has even been of this type. But the newer esotericism which the most modern groups and the more mental types will sponsor sees all events and world movements and national governments plus all political circumstances as expressions of the energies to be found in the inner world of esoteric research; therefore, they see no sound reason for excluding such an important aspect of human affairs from their reasoning and thinking and from the discovery of those new truths and techniques which may bring about the new era of right human relations. They ask: Why omit political research from the spiritual curricula? They deem it to be of equal if not of greater importance than the activity of the churches. Governments condition people and aid in the production of any current civilization, forcing the masses of men into certain needed lines of thought. The churches and men everywhere need to learn that there is nothing in the entire world of phenomena, of forces and of energies which cannot be brought under the control of that which is spiritual. All that exists is, in reality, spirit in manifestation. The masses today are becoming politically minded and this is viewed by the Masters as a great step forward. When spiritually minded people of the world include this relatively new area of human thought and its international activity within the field of their esoteric research, very great progress will be made.

Let me give you one simple illustration: war is, factually, a great explosion of energies and forces, generated on the inner planes where the esotericist ought to be working (but is seldom to be found!) and finding its dire and catastrophic expression upon the physical plane. This is indicated today by the constant use of the terms "Forces of Light and Forces of Evil." When the inner, esoteric and predisposing causes of war are discovered through esoteric research, then war and wars will come to an end. This is in the nature of truly esoteric work but is scorned by present day esotericists who regard themselves as spiritually superior to such affairs and -- in their ivory tower -- concentrate on their own development, plus a little philosophy.

One point should here be stated: Esotericism is not in any way of a mystical and vague nature. It is a science -- essentially the science of the soul of all things, and has its own terminology, experiments, deductions and laws. When I say "soul", I refer to the animating consciousness found throughout nature and on those levels which lie outside the territory usually called nature. Students are apt to forget that every level of awareness, from the highest to the lowest, is an aspect of the cosmic physical plane and is, therefore, material in nature. The esotericist is dealing with substance all the time; he is concerned with that living, vibrant substance of which the worlds are made and which -- inherited as it is from a previous solar system -- is colored by past events, and (as has been said) is "already tinged with karma." It should also be noted that just as the physical plane, so familiar to us, is not regarded as a principle by the esoteric student, so the cosmic physical plane (from the standpoint of the Cosmic Lives) is likewise "not a principle." I give you here much food for thought.

The task of the esotericist 1e to shift the focus of his attention away from the form-side of existence and become aware of the source of form production on any specified level. It is his task to develop within himself the needed sensitivity to the quality of the life animating any form until he arrives eventually at the quality of the ONE LIFE which animates the planet and within Whose activity we live and move and have our being.

By means of all that I have said, you will realize that I am endeavoring to take the vagueness out of the word "esotericism," and indicate to you the extremely scientific and practical nature of the enterprise upon which all esotericists are embarked.

Esoteric study, when coupled with esoteric living, reveals in time the world of meaning and leads eventually to the world of significances. The esotericist starts by endeavoring to discover the reason why he wrestles with the problem of happenings, events, crises and circumstances in order to arrive at the meaning they should hold for him; when he has ascertained the meaning of any specific problem, he uses it as an invitation to penetrate sore deeply into the newly revealed world of meaning; he then learns to incorporate his little personal problems into the problem of the larger Whole thus losing sight of the little self and discovering the larger Self. The true esoteric viewpoint is always that of the larger Whole. He finds the world of meaning spread like an intricate network over all activity and every aspect of the phenomenal world. Of this network, the etheric web is the symbol and design, while the etheric web to be found between each of the centers up the individual spinal column is the microcosmic correspondence.

Esotericism is not, however, concerned with the centers and esotericism is not an effort scientifically to awaken the centers, as many students think. Esotericism really is training in the ability to function freely in the world of meaning; it is NOT occupied with any aspect of the mechanical form; it is occupied with the soul aspect -- the mediating principle between life and form. This mediating principle is the soul of the individual aspirant or disciple; it is also the anima mundi (world soul) in the world as a whole.

Esotericism, therefore, involves a life lived in tune with the inner subjective realities; it is only possible when the student is intelligently polarized and mentally focused; it is only useful when the

student can move among these inner realities with skill and understanding. Esotericism involves also comprehension of the relation between forces and energies and the power to use energy for the strengthening and then the creative direction of the forces contacted.

Esotericism is the art of "bringing down to Earth" those energies which emanate from the highest sources and there "grounding" them or anchoring them.

All true esoteric activity produces illumination; it results in the inherited light of substance being intensified and qualified by the higher light of the soul. It is, therefore, possible to define esotericism and its activity in terms of light but I refrain from doing so because of the vagueness and the mystical application hitherto developed by esotericists in past decades. The esotericists DOES deal with light in its three aspects, but it is preferable today to attempt a different approach until, through development, trial and experiment, the esotericist knows these triple differentiations in a practical sense and not just theoretically and mystically. We have to live down some of the mistakes of the past.

I would challenge all esotericists to attempt the practical approach which I have here outlined. I would ask them to live redemptive lives, to unfold their innate mental sensitivity and to work continuously with the meaning which is to be found behind all individual, community, national and world affairs. It this is done, then the light will suddenly and increasingly shine upon your way. You can become light-bearers, knowing then that "in that Light you will see LIGHT" -- and so will your fellowmen.

The life force has seven main points of contact with the physical body, called the seven centers.

These seven force centers transmit the life force, and are the agents of the soul. They maintain bodily existence and produce its activity.

The Indian name of a force center is "chakra." The seven centers of force (with their complete Indian names) are as follows, from the head downwards:

1. Head center --sahasrara chakra
2. Center between eyebrows --ajna chakra
3. Throat center --vishuddha chakra
4. Heart or cardiac center --anahata chakra
5. Solar plexus center --manipura chakra
6. Sacral or sexual center --svadhisthana chakra
7. Center at base of spine --muladhara chakra

It will be noted that there are four centers above the diaphragm and three below.

The force centers carry pranic energy for every part of the body and are in close relation to the nervous system in its three divisions, namely: the cerebro-spinal, sympathetic and peripheral.

From the force centers the vital or pranic energy is distributed along subtle lines of direction. These lines are called "nadis" and are closely related to the nerves and at the same time to the arteries.

Of the seven centers, two are in the head and five in the spinal column. The two centers in the head have a direct relation to the faculties of mind and motion. The sahasrara center (head center) called usually the thousand-petalled lotus, is the embodiment of spiritual energy, demonstrating as Will, as the abstract or spiritual mind, and as the intuition. The ajna center, or the center between the eyebrows, concerns the lower mind and psychic nature of that integrated organism we call man, the personality.

The five centers in the spinal column concern the varying activities of the organism as the man demonstrates his animal instinct, his emotional reactions and his life intention. They are largely directed by the force pouring into and issuing from the head centers.

These centers vary in activity according to the evolutionary status of the individual. In some people certain centers are "awake" and in others the same centers may be relatively quiescent. In certain types, the solar plexus center will be active or dominant, in others the heart, in still others the throat. In very few as yet, is the head center active. Speaking largely, in savage people and the little evolved, the three centers below the diaphragm -- the center at the base of the spine, the sacral center and the solar plexus center-- are alive and dominant, but the centers above the diaphragm are "asleep". In average humanity the throat center is beginning to make itself felt with the head and heart centers still asleep. In the highly evolved human being, the race leader, the intuitive philosopher and the scientist and in the great saints, both the head and heart centers are making their vibrations felt, priority between head and heart being determined by type and the quality of the emotional and mental consciousness.

According, then, to the development of the man these force centers become alive and dominant, and according to their alikeness various types of activity make their presence felt. The centers below the diaphragm govern the physical life of the material form and the animal psychic life, found both in man and in animal. Those above the diaphragm concern the intellectual and spiritual life and bring about those activities in which man demonstrates that his status is different to, and higher than that of the animal, and that he is climbing upward on the ladder of evolution.

Such in brief is the teaching of the East with regard to he seven centers of force or chakras.

When we compare the Eastern doctrine of the seven centers with the Western doctrine of glands, we find first of all a striking fact with regard to locality. The seven centers of force are to be found in the same region where the glands are located, and each center of force might well be ( and according to Indian teaching is ) the source of power and of life

For the corresponding gland. The following comparative table shows this identity of location.

A second fact, even more striking than the first, is that the force centers which are awake conform to the glands whose functions are known and of which most of the secretions or hormones, have been discovered. The centers that are asleep or awakening in advanced members of the race, conform to the glands whose functions are relatively unknown and whose secretions in the main have not been isolated. It will be noted, for example, that secretion of the pineal gland, one of the two in pituitary body and the thymus gland, are listed as unknown, as is the secretion of the cortex adrenal gland. These conform to the sleeping or awakening heart center, throat center, center in the head and at the base of the spine.

Is this an interesting coincidence? Or are we faced with the fact that in each case these glands with the undiscovered hormones, are allied to the center which is asleep, not yet awakened in average humanity?

I believe it will eventually be established that the glands have been brought into being through the energy of the centers, for those centers which, in average humanity are awake and functioning, seem to be related to glands, whose peculiar secretion have been isolated, and its action in relation to the bloodstream known, whilst those centers which are as yet asleep and undeveloped seem to be allied to glands whose secretion is only partially known or totally unknown. It is in any case worthy of consideration.

The forces of the body serve to feed and stimulate the sex life through the gonads; they create the urge to combat and to evolve though the adrenal glands, the glands of combat, and of struggle; they govern the psychic instinctual life through the solar plexus. Thus the personal man is mobilized and becomes a conscious sentient human being. As his evolution proceeds, the self or soul becomes more and more active and dominant in man and in his corporeal existence, and little by little all parts of etheric structure become vitally awake. Gradually, the higher centers come into increased activity, and the emphasis of the force pouring through the body shifts to the centers above the diaphragm. The throat center awakens and becomes the organ of creative work; the heart center is vivified and the man becomes aware of his soul relationships, his group responsibilities and the inclusiveness of the life-soul. Finally the head centers awaken and another range of perception enters into his consciousness. He becomes aware of himself as a soul, integrated as a personality, and later still he becomes aware of the world of spirit, divine life of unseen world of spirits, and of the "cloud of witnesses" who testify to the reality of the soul life.

One of the objectives of human evolution is to accomplish this.

The center at the base of the spine, the heart and head centers, must come into full functioning activity and thus, through a blending of the energy latent in matter itself and stored up in the center at the base of the spine, of the energy of the soul, which has its seat in the heart, and of the energy of the spirit, centered in the head, bring the human being to the highest point of perfection.

Excerpted from THE SOUL AND ITS MECHANISM 109-124

The three fundamental centers of vital importance from the standpoint of the average man, polarized in his emotional body and living the normal life of the man of the world, are:

1. The base of spine.
2. The solar plexus.
3. The heart center.

The three major centers for the man nearing the Probationary Path, and for the man who is aiming at a life of altruism, having examined the attraction of the three worlds, are:

1. The base of the spine.
2. The heart.
3. he throat.

His solar plexus is left then to normal functioning, having served its purpose as a center for motional focussing. The activity of the fire becomes more centered in the throat.

The three major centers for he man on the Path itself in its twofold divisions are:

1. The heart.
2. The throat.
3. The head.

The divine activity has developed the solar plexus center, is controlling all the centers below the solar plexus, and is passing upward in ordered progression until it is focussed and vivifying the head center.

The life of the evolving personality might be divided into five divisions. Ours is, after all, a fivefold evolution, and the life of the man ( as a human being and prior to obtaining the fifth Initiation, may be considered as a series of five gradual steps, each step being gauged by the condition of the indwelling Flame of Spirit.

We might ( if we are careful to generalize widely ) apply the same [five divisions ] to the five centers.

Before initiation, all the centers will be rotating in fourth dimensional order, but after initiation hey become flaming wheels, and – seen clairvoyantly – are of rare beauty. The fire of Kundalini is then awakened and is progressing in the necessary spirals. At the second initiation the emotional centers are similarly awakened, and at the third initiation those on the mental plane are touched. The initiate can then stand in the presence of the Great King, the One Initiator.

I seek to point out that the student must ever remember that here generalizations only are given. The complexity in the development of the microcosm is as great as in the macrocosm. The awakening of the canters and heir particular order is dependent on several factors, such as:

1. The Ray of the Spirit or Monad.
2. The Ray of the Ego, higher self, or Son, or he sub-ray.
3. Race and nationality.
4. The special type of work to be done.
5. The application of the student.

Hence you can see for yourself that it is useless to lay down rules for the development of the centers and to formulate methods whereby the fire can be circulated until such time as trained teachers with expert knowledge and clairvoyant faculty are in charge of the work on the physical plane. It is not desirable for aspirants to focus their thought on any one center. They run the risk of over-stimulation, or attrition. It is not wished that effort be made to turn the fire towards any particular point; in ignorant manipulation lies insanity and fell disease. If the aspirant but seeks spiritual development, if he but aims at sincerity of purpose and at compassionate altruism, if he, with serene application, concentrates on the subjugation of the emotional body and the enlargement of the mental, and cultivates the habit of abstract thinking, the desired results upon the centers will be produced from necessity, and danger will be eliminated.

Two passages from : The Letters on Occult Meditation
(pp. 23-29, 71-74)
placed in juxtaposition for greater study value.

Chart from ESOTERIC HEALING, pages 162 and 715

        THE CENTERS AND CORRESPONDING CATEGORIES

            From ESOTERIC HEALING, page 45