SUPPLEMENTAL READING: The Light of the Soul: Book I, vii-xv; 7-37 (Sutra 19.)

KEYNOTE:
The new learning and the coming knowledge will arise as a result of an awakening intuition, of the presence upon earth of a very great number of advanced and developed souls, and the coming of the Hierarchy and Humanity into a closer relationship. (Esoteric Healing: 382)

SEED THOUGHT

I think no thought, I dream no dream
that could harm my brother,
and thereby dim his light.

Discipleship in the New Age, I: 475

Note to the student: The study questions in this study set and in succeeding study sets of this series on healing should be approached after due pondering and careful consideration. You need not respond to all the questions, but to those that you do, let mental clarity, heart sensitivity, and intuitive insight be the soul qualities that guide you.

1.) Whether in the healing arts or in human relations, harmlessness plays a vital role in maintaining a close rapport with all participants. The esoteric student may not be actively involved in the healing arts, but certainly he interacts with many persons in the daily life. How should he employ harmlessness in these situations? Use the creative imagination to portray various probable interactions in the home, in the work place, in community affairs, in a spiritual group. Be the esoteric psychologist and the attentive disciple in the portrayed human relationships.

2.) Criticism and analysis are two functions of the lower mind, though the former is tinged with emotionalism and the latter, a purely mental activity. Describe the points of similarity and difference. How is analysis useful in the healing process, in self-evaluation, in group participation? How can the student prevent analysis degenerating into destructive criticism? (NOTE: "Criticism" here refers to the usual meaning in human interaction, verbal or printed, with some mental bias and emotional coloring--and not to the academic or scholarly sense upon a well-formulated presentation or upon a major contribution to an area of human interest or concern.)

3.) Two wonderful functions of that level of mind wherein the aspirant should have ready access are discrimination and discernment. Describe their points of similarity and difference. Consider direction of use, scope of operation, and method of employment, whether in the healing arts or in human relations.

4.) To be a true healer in the esoteric sense, as described by the Tibetan, requires one to be well advanced on the evolutionary path, schooled in several of the medical and psychological techniques, and capable in manipulating forces and energies with control and discretion. Is the student of this series such a healer, and, if not, does he or she know one personally or is aware of one directly or indirectly? Indicate the background of this server in the healing arts, his approach to healing and his use of the Laws of Healing, that is, technique and method, and his relationship with the patient. If one is the healer, how can one improve the healing approach and increase one's understanding of the Laws and Rules of Healing as defined by the Tibetan? If one is an observer, what lessons are learned from the true healer that is known personally or indirectly?

The second half of the Healing series contains several major points of interest which are indicated in the title of the series. The Tibetan apparently discerns the need to elaborate upon them in depth and to clarify them through the use of well-known esoteric principles and ideas. Though much of the material in the text and in this study set is presented for the benefit of those students who are destined to enter into the healing arts as practitioners or as counselors, the spiritual value contained therein is made available to all aspirants and disciples who are serving mankind in various ways.

The esoteric knowledge lying behind the many approaches and techniques, which we will become aware of as we pursue this course of study and meditation, is of egoic nature. Hence, its usefulness can be readily seen and appreciated, and when the knowledge is duly apprehended and its validity established, we shall be able to utilize it in our service with conscious intent.

We can then heal through right thought, through the spoken word and through the use of the creative imagination. We can direct the healing energies, evoked from our Inner Selves, upon world problems through our meditation and upon all human relations in our daily rounds through a controlled thought life, expressed in harmless speech and in inspired writing.

In this second phase of the healing series, we encounter immediately the Ten Requirements for Healing, which may be seen as stepping stones, as beacons of light, into the vast domain of the Ego--the source of all healing power. Extended passages from other works by the Tibetan are included in the study set to assist us in developing a practical understanding of the healing forces and energies that can be tapped and channeled into our mode of service.

The seed thought and questions in the Written Work Section should be helpful in evoking heart energy and stimulating the higher faculties of mind into conscious activity. Through this awakening process spiritual understanding is increased, inner harmony and poise maintained, and more importantly, group consciousness clarified and enriched.

These ten requirements may appear simple but are not so by any means. Superficially, they may appear to deal with character and quality and capacity; fundamentally, they concern the relation of soul and body, and deal with integration or abstraction. The objective underlying them in any case is to set up an unbroken rapport between the healer or the healing group and the patient who is receiving the scientific attention of the healing agent--group or individual.
(Esoteric Healing: 385-387)

1.) A recognition of the great Law of Cause and Effect, if possible.
This is not always possible when dealing with the totally unenlightened.

2.) Correct diagnosis of the disease by a competent physician, and later by a spiritual clairvoyant, when that capacity is developed by the initiate leader.

3.) A belief in the law of immediate Karma. By that I mean an ability on the part of the patient or of the healer to know whether it is the destiny of the patient to be healed or else be helped to make the great transition.

4.) A willingness to recognize that healing might be detrimental and basically undesirable from the standpoint of the soul. People are sometimes healed by the potency of the healer when it is not their destiny to resume active physical plane living.

5.) The active cooperation of healer and patient--a cooperation based upon mutual understanding.

6.) A determined acquiescence on the part of the patient to accept whatever may be the demonstrated will of the soul. It might be called an expression of divine indifference.

7.) A effort on the part of both healer and patient to express complete harmlessness. The value of this will repay careful thought. This has basically a reference to the relation of both parties to their associates.

8.) An effort on the part of the patient (unless too ill) to adjust and put right those aspects of the nature and those characteristics which might militate against the right spiritual perception. This is one of the meanings hidden in the phrase, the "work of restitution," though not the most important meaning.

9.) The deliberate eliminating of qualities, lines of thought and of desires which could hinder the inflow of spiritual force--a force which might integrate the soul more closely with the body in the three worlds and inaugurate a renewed life-expression, or which might integrate the soul with its emanating source and initiate renewed life on soul levels. This, therefore, affects the relation of the patient to his soul.

10.) The capacity of both healer and the patient to integrate into the soul group with which they are subjectively affiliated, to integrate in other cases both personality and soul, and, if they are at a needed point of development, both to integrate more closely into the Master's ashramic group.

Manifestation and the Law of Cause and Effect are related: where manifestation exists, there is this great Law--governing substance and innate in matter--must control and must condition form. The Master, however, stands free, endowed with the Christ consciousness. He then wields this Law, but is not wielded by it. Such is the reward of following the vision: first, of all, the mystical vision; then later, the vision of predetermined choice, of Plan and of cosmic opportunity.
(Discipleship In The New Age, II: 340)

As I write this instruction I would call your attention to the subject of karma. There comes ever in the life of a disciple and in the soul's experience some one particular life wherein the Law of Cause and Effect assumes importance in the consciousness. From that life and that moment, the disciple begins to deal with karma, consciously and definitely. He learns to recognize it when events and happenings come which require understanding and which evoke questioning; he begins to study the quality of his radiation as a karmic agent, and therefore he becomes the maker and constructor, in a new and important sense, of his own destiny and future. His reactions to life and circumstances cease to be simply emotional in nature and become deliberately dictated by conscious observation; they then have in them a significant quality of preparation which is absent from the life of the average man. For the remainder of this life, therefore, I would ask you to carry the theme of karmic decision and of preparation for the future, ever in your consciousness; I would ask you always to take action with as full an understanding of the probable following effects as you can manage to achieve, and to make a real effort to study the Law of Consequence and Compensation.
(Discipleship In The New Age, II: 538)

The predominant work of the occult student is the manipulation of force, and the entering of that world wherein forces are actively set in motion which result in phenomenal effects. He has to study and comprehend practically and intelligently the working of the law of Cause and Effect, and he leaves off dealing with effects and centers his attention on their producing causes. In relation to himself, he comes to realize that the primary cause of the phenomenon of his objective existence in the three worlds is the ego itself, and that the secondary causes are the aggregate of those fundamental egoic impulses which have led to the development of response to sense contacts on the three planes. These impulses have produced effects which (being under the law) must work out into objectivity on the physical plane. Therefore there is much importance attached to the necessity for establishing direct egoic contact, via the thread or sutratma, for only in this way can the aspirant ascertain the causes lying back of the present manifestation of his life, or begin to deal with the samkaras or seeds of his future activities. These seeds are kama-manasic (or partially emotional and partially mental) in nature, for desire is potent in its effects and produces the physical vehicle in its two aspects.

a. Lower manas, or concrete mind is the basic factor in the production of the etheric body.
b. Kama, or desire is the prime factor in calling the dense physical vehicle into being.

The two together are responsible for manifested existence.
(The Light of the Soul, Book II, Sutra 13: 144-145)

Again, this realization [the constitution of man] will bring about three changes in the thought of the age:

(1) A readjustment of the medical knowledge of man, resulting in a truer understanding of the physical body, of its treatment, and of its protection, and thus producing a juster apprehension of the laws of health. The aim of the physician will then be to find out what it is in a man's life which is preventing egoic energy from flooding every part of his being; to find out what lines of thought are being indulged in which are causing that inertia of the will aspect which is so conducive to wrong-doing; to ascertain what it is in the emotional body which is affecting the nervous system, and thus obstructing the flow of energy from the love petals of the egoic lotus (via the astral permanent atom) to the astral body, and from thence to the nervous system; to discover what is the hindrance in the etheric body which is preventing the right flow of prana, or of solar vitality to every part of the body.

It is essential that in the days to come medical men should realize that disease in the physical body is incidental to wrong internal conditions. This is already being somewhat considered but the whole question will remain but a beautiful theory (even though an incontrovertible one in view of the achievements of mental scientists and of the various faith healers) until the true nature of the ego, its constitution, its powers, and its field of influence are duly apprehended.

This revelation will come when medical men accept this teaching as a working hypothesis,... It will come when the medical profession concentrates upon preventative action, substituting sunshine, a vegetarian diet, and the application of the laws of magnetic vibration and vitality for the present regimen of drugs and surgical operations. Then will come the time when finer and better human beings will manifest on earth. When also physicians learn the nature of the etheric body, and the work of the spleen as a focal point for pranic emanations, then sound principles and methods will be introduced which will do away with such diseases as tuberculosis, debility, malnutrition and the diseases of the blood and the kidneys. When doctors comprehend the effect of the emotions upon the nervous system, they will turn their attention to the amelioration of environal conditions, and will study the effects of the emotional currents upon the fluids of the body, and primarily upon the great nerve centers, and the spinal column. When the connection between the dense physical and the subtler bodies is a fact established in medical circles, then will right treatment of lunacy, of obsessions, and of wrong mental conditions be better comprehended, and the results more successful; finally, when the nature of egoic force, or of energy is studied, and the function of the physical brain as the transmitter of egoic intent is better comprehended, then the coordination of man's entire being will be studied, and illness, debility and disease, will be traced to their just cause, and will be treated through the cause and not just through the effect.
(A Treatise on Cosmic Fire: 811-812)

Other groups have the task of working with the energy which is the well known and much discussed prana or life energy--the energy of vitality. The right use of the pranic energies (and they are seven in number) will most assuredly dissipate disease and bodily ills and will cure the pains of the human physical vehicle. But in connection with this, two things are essential and these ar seldom found together:

1.)The energy of the soul--like the energy of the universal mind and the energy of buddhi, or the intuition--has to be set in action upon the physical plane by the one to be healed and by the healer. Both have to work in cooperation.

2.) There must be right understanding of the disease and its cause, plus the karmic status of the patient and the condition of his centers, his alignment and his point in evolution.
(Discipleship in the New Age, I: 70)

People who are so ill that they are not expected to live, or who are suffering from diseases which preclude ultimate recovery, should not be taken into the healing group for treatment, except with ameliorative results in mind. No neophyte knows enough of karma to work with confidence either at the task of health or release by death. If, however, a patient gets worse whilst the group is working upon his case, he should not be dropped, but a definite and different technique can then be used to ease the path of death.
(Esoteric Healing: 288)

Karma is not an inevitable, inescapable and dire happening. It can be offset; but this offsetting, particularly where disease is concerned, will include four lines of activity:

1. Determining the nature of the cause and the area in consciousness where it originated.
2. Developing those qualities which are the polar opposite of the effective cause.
3. Practicing harmlessness so as to arrest the expression of the cause and to prevent any further implementing of the unfortunate condition.
4. Taking the necessary physical steps which will produce the conditions which the soul desires.

These steps will include:
    a. A mental acquiescence and an acceptance of the fact of the effect--in the case which we are considering in relation to karma--disease.
    b. Wise action along the lines of orthodox medical procedure.
    c. The assistance of a healing group or a healer for aid in inner spiritual healing.
    d. Clear vision as to the outcome. This may lead to preparation for a more useful physical plane life or preparation for the great transition called death.
(Esoteric Healing: 296-297)

There is everywhere, little as it may be realized, an abundance of good karma of a potency (under the same Law) equal to that which is regarded as bad. Of this, small mention is ever made. This good karma brings into activity forces which may work out as healing energies in any specific case. Upon these energies for good, which have been earned and are operating, the healer can always count. This is my first point. Ponder upon it.

Karma is a determining factor, but unless a healer is an advanced initiate and so able to work effectively and intelligently on the causal levels whereon souls dwell, it is impossible for him to decide whether any specific case will yield to healing treatment or not. Therefore, the healer or practicing disciple assumes in his mind the possibility of cure (which may be possible or not) and of the patient's good karma, and proceeds to apply all possible aid. This is my second point.

My third point is to suggest to you and to all engaged in the healing art that much of the so-called disaster, involved in disease and in death (particularly the latter) is to be found in a wrong attitude toward death, and to an over stimulation of the beneficence of form life. The release of a soul through disease and death is not necessarily an unhappy occurrence. A new and better attitude to the phenomena of death is essential, is possible and near. Upon this I need not here enlarge. But I do seek to give you a new slant on the subject of sickness and of death.
(Esoteric Healing: 349-350)

There are one or two things which I would like to make clear and which you must, in your turn, make clear to the patient.

1. Cure is not guaranteed. Patients must realize that continuance of life in the physical body is not the highest possible goal. It may be so if the service to be rendered is of real import, if obligations remain still to be carried out, and if other lessons must still be learned. Bodily existence is not, however, the summum bonum of existence. Freedom from the limitations of the physical body is of real beneficence. Patients must learn to recognize and accept the Law of Karma.

2. Fear is needless. One of the first objectives of the healing agent should be to aid the patient to achieve a happy, sane, expedient outlook upon his future--no matter what that future may bring.
(Esoteric Healing: 387)

6. When the relation is that of personality to personality (and this will be the most usual), the energy with which the healer will work is simply that of planetary prana; the effect of this will be to stimulate the natural processes of the physical body and (in cooperation with nature and so in line with the patient's karma) so fortify his physical vehicle that he can cast off the disease or can be aided to face with confidence the processes of death, and with calm and intelligent understanding pass out to the subtler realms of being.

7. Where the relation is that of the soul of the healer to the personality of the patient, the healer will work with ray energy, pouring his own ray energy through the center which is controlling the diseased area. When both the soul of the healer and that of the patient are working in cooperation there can be the blending of two energies or (where similar rays are present) the strengthening of one energy and a greatly hastened work of healing or of dissolution.

8. The healer must ever bear in mind that his task is either to heal--under the karmic law--or to aid in the process of dissolution, bringing about, therefore, a higher form of healing.
(Esoteric Healing: 703)

The healing of the physical body and its due comprehension and study can be carried on by the man who has the inner vision. With his ability to see on emotional levels he can co-operate with the modern enlightened medical man, and thus safeguard him from error, enabling him to judge truly of the extent of the trouble, the seat of distress, its assistance, and the progress of the cure.

Emotional trouble that is working out in the physical body, as is the case in the majority of physical ills today, can usually be located and eliminated by judicious treatment. But emotional trouble that is deep-seated in the subtle body, has to be dealt with from mental levels, so that it requires a mental psychic to deal with and eliminate it. All these methods of course entail the active co-operation of the patient himself.
(Letters on Occult Meditation: 244-245)

The healer who responds to the inner urge to heal will face, as you can see, a very severe course of training before his own equipment--personality, etheric body and its centres--are brought into such submission to the soul that they offer no obstruction to the healing art. He has therefore to learn in connection with himself:

4. Modes of protecting himself from any transference brought about through this rapport.

5. The establishing of a right relation with the patient of either cooperation, acquiescence or spiritual control.

7. The art of cooperation with the patient's soul so that his etheric body focusses all its inflowing energies in order to bring relief to the diseased area. This involves the direct activity of the healer's etheric body in connection with a renewed activity on the part of the patient's etheric body.
(Esoteric Healing: 556-557)

Perfect poise indicates complete control of the astral body, so that emotional upheavals are overcome, or at least are greatly minimized in the life of the disciple. It indicates also, on the higher turn of the spiral, an ability to function freely on buddhic levels, owing to complete liberation (and consequent poise) from all the influences and impulses which are motived from the three worlds. This type or quality of poise connotes--if you think deeply--an abstract state of mind; nothing which is regarded as nonperfection can create disturbance. You can realize surely that, if you were entirely free from all emotional reactions, your clarity of mind and your ability to think clearly would be enormously increased, with all that it involves.

Naturally, the perfect poise of an initiated disciple and that of the initiated Master are different, for one concerns the effect of the three worlds or their noneffect, and the other concerns adaptability to the rhythm of the Spiritual Triad; nevertheless, the earlier type of poise must precede the later achievement, hence my consideration of the subject. This perfect poise (which is a possible achievement for you who read) is arrived at by ruling out the pulls, the urges, impulses and attractions of the astral or emotional nature, and also by the practice of what I have earlier mentioned: Divine Indifference.
(Esoteric Healing: 672-673)

I wonder, my brother, if it is possible for me to indicate to you the life of spiritual insulation which is in no way the life of personal isolation? In this state of "insulated being" lies, for you, the solution of many of your problems. This insulation is brought about by emotional indifference to your environment and to people, but it is a spiritual indifference, founded on spiritual detachment and dispassion. When it is present, there comes the fulfillment of obligation and the performance of duty, but no identification with people or circumstance. The soul stands free, unattached, unafraid, and is not controlled by that which exists in the three worlds. This is true the spiritual indifference and--for your own release and for greater usefulness in service--I would have you meditate on indifference,....
(Discipleship in the New Age, I: 429)

1. What constitutes a review on divine Indifference?
a. Am I confusing it with dispassion, or with a refusal to suffer?
b. Does it signify in my mind separation and consequent pain?

2. Am I capable of seeing myself with indifference, detached emotionally from any event?
a. Can I see mentally, unbiased by any reaction from the emotional personal self?
b. Do I ever do this?

3. If I use this review on indifference as it should be used, what will be the effect in my life?
a. How would this effect the group in which I seek to work?
b. Would this effect be desirable, and do I desire it?

4. Is this review a scientific method of achieving indifference?
    a. Have I ever worked in such a scientific way to achieve this quality of discipleship?
    b. Do I feel it a desirable thing to try out now?
    c. Can I be indifferent in a divine way whilst using it?

5. What are the reasons for my belief that divine indifference is the way for me to tread today?
a. What basis for this do I find in my reading and my studies?
b. Does my soul lie behind this urge or pressure towards indifference which is brought to bear upon me?

6. Would indifference intensify my capacity for increased usefulness in service?
a. In what way?
b . How does it help my progress on the path?

7. If it is true that the blind must advance by touching, by keeping attached, and by keeping hold; but that those with sight, by seeing and by keeping free and unattached; why then, having sight, do I close my eyes and hold on and feel my way instead of seeing it?

8. Is the mind the organ of vision for the spiritual man? If so,
a. Is my mind an organ of vision?
b . Can I hold my mind "steady in the light" and see life truly and free from any blinding attachments?

9. As I review this day, what part has divine indifference played in it?
a. Have I spoken from the angle of a divinely indifferent viewpoint?
b. Have I practiced an indifferent attitude to myself when circumstances arose which threatened my emotional poise?

10. We are told that self-realisation is our immediate goal; in view of this, what do I know about:
a. The indifference of the soul or self to the fragmentary self?
b . The illusion of identification of that self with the little self?

11. Again we are told that there is an archetype, a pattern, a way, a goal, a light upon the path.
    a. Which of these words express my personal objective and why?
    b. How far is the archetypal pattern reflected in my life?
    c. What attachments prevent its full expression?

12. I am the redeemer of my lower nature. Therefore:
    a. How much part does divine indifference play in this redemption process?
    b. In which of my three aspects--physical, emotional or mental--is it felt the most?
    c. Does redeeming force play through me to others?

13. My nature in truth is love.
    a. How can this truly manifest and yet with indifference?
    b . Through which body do I most easily express this love?
    c. To what am I most attached and how can I deal with it?

14. What attitude and qualities will have to be developed in me if I am rightly to practice indifference?

15. What is the objective of such a practice? Can I express it formally to myself?
a. In terms of my three bodies or aspects?
b . In terms of discipleship?

The second suggestion is the cultivation of indifference--that spiritual indifference which pays no undue attention to the physical body, or to moods and feelings or to mental illusions. The body exists and must receive due care; the feelings and moods are potent and exhausting and from them. my brother, come much of your physical discomfort. Deal with them not by struggling but by substitution of other interests, ignoring them and treating them with indifference till they die of lack of attention and of a slow attrition. You pay too much attention to non-essentials.
(Discipleship in the New Age, I: 494)

Harmful magnetic conditions, as the result of man's wrong handling of force are the causes of evil in the world around us, including the three sub-human kingdoms. How can we, as individuals, change this? By the development in ourselves of Harmlessness. Therefore, study yourself from this angle. Study your daily conduct and words and thoughts so as to make them utterly harmless. Set yourself to think those thoughts about yourself and others which will be constructive and positive, and hence harmless in their effects. Study your emotional effect on others so that by no mood, no depression, and no emotional reaction can you harm a fellow-man. Remember in this connection, violent spiritual aspiration and enthusiasm, misplaced or misdirected, may quite easily harm a fellow-man, so look not only at your wrong tendencies but at the use of your virtues.

If harmlessness is the keynote of your life, you will do more to produce harmonious conditions in your personality than any amount of discipline along other lines. The drastic purgation brought about by the attempt to be harmless will go far to eliminate wrong states of consciousness. See to it therefore, and bring this idea in your evening review.
(A Treatise on White Magic: 101-102)

Let harmlessness, therefore, be the keynote of your life. An evening review should be carried forward entirely along this line; divide the review in three parts and consider:

1. Harmlessness in thought. This will primarily result in the control of speech.

2. Harmlessness in emotional reaction. This will result in being a channel for the love aspect of the soul.

3. Harmlessness in act. This will produce poise, skill in action and the release of the creative will.

These three approaches to the subject should be studied from their effects upon one's own self and development, and from their effect upon those whom one contacts and upon one's environing associates.
(A Treatise on White Magic: 103)

It can be seen, therefore, why I have so emphatically impressed the need of harmlessness upon all of you, for it is the scientific method, par excellence and esoterically speaking, of cleaning house and of purifying the centers. Its practice clears the clogged channels and permits the entrance of the higher energies.
(Esoteric Healing: 40)

What shall I say concerning harmlessness?.... The harmlessness to which I refer in connection with you is not negative, or sweet or kindly activity, as so many believe; it is a state of mind and one which in no way negates firm or even drastic action; it concerns motive and involves the determination that the motive behind all activity is goodwill. That motive might lead to positive and sometimes disagreeable action or speech, but as harmlessness and goodwill condition the mental approach, nothing can eventuate but good. (Esoteric Healing: 670)

The keynote of the new yoga will be synthesis; its objective will be conscious development of the intuitive faculty. This development will fall into two categories: first, the development of the intuition and of true spiritual perception, and secondly, the trained utilization of the mind as an interpreting agency.
(A Treatise on White Magic: 429)

2. The second fact to bear in mind is that as these changes and re-orientations take place, the disciple begins to awaken psychologically to new states of con- sciousness, to new states of existence, and to new states of being. It will be apparent therefore how necessary it is to go slowly in these matters, so that the mental apprehension and ability to reason logically and sanely may parallel the growth of the intuition and of spiritual perception.... Where there is lack of understanding and of mental ability, there is danger of misapprehension, of credulity and of wrong interpretation of the phenomena of other states of being. A sense of values will be lacking, and the aspirant will over-estimate the non-essentials and fail to grasp the value of the spiritual realities.
(A Treatise on White Magic: 192-193)

Modernizing the concept, we might say that the energies which animate the physical body and the intelligent life of the atom, the sensitive emotional states, and the intelligent mind have eventually to be blended with, and transmitted into, the energies which animate the soul. These are the spiritual mind, conveying illumination; the intuitive nature, conferring spiritual perception; and divine livingness.
(Esoteric Psychology, II: 70)

The point of balance between excitation of the mind and control can be achieved with greater frequency by constant repetition, until the habit of stabilizing the mind is acquired. When this is accomplished two things occur:

1. An instantaneous control of the mind at will, producing
a. A still mind, free from thought forms.
b. A quiescent responsive brain.

2. A downflow into the physical brain of the consciousness of the perceiver, the soul.

This becomes increasingly clearer, more informative and less interrupted as time elapses, until a rhythm response is set up between the soul and the physical plane man. the mind and brain are completely subdued by the soul.

It should be remembered here that this condition of the mind and brain is a positive one, not a negative state.
The Light of the soul, Book III, Sutra 10: 261-262)

"All disease is the result of inhibited soul life, and that is true of all forms in all kingdoms. The art of the healer consists in releasing the soul, so that its life can flow through the aggregate of organisms which constitute any particular form."

It is interesting to note that the attempt of the scientist to release the energy of the atom is of the same general nature as the work of the esotericist when he endeavors to release the energy of the soul. In this release the nature of the true art of healing is hidden. Herein lies an occult hint.
(Esoteric Healing: 5)

1. All disease (and this is a platitude) is caused by lack of harmony--a disharmony to be found existing between the form aspect and the life. That which brings together form and life, or rather, that which is the result of this intended union, we call the soul, the self where humanity is concerned, and the integrating principle where the subhuman kingdoms are concerned. Disease appears where there is a lack of alignment between these various factors, the soul and the form, the life and its expression, the subjective and the objective realities. Consequently, spirit and matter are not freely related to each other. This is one mode of interpreting Law I. (Esoteric Healing: 12)

Each of these four results expresses the condition of the lower man; they deal with the effects of wrong centralization or identification.

1. Pain is the effect produced when the astral or emotional body is wrongly polarized. Pain is the outcome of failure to balance correctly the pairs of opposites. It indicates lack of equilibrium.

2. Despair is an effect of remorse, produced in the mental body and is itself a characteristic of what may be called "the unregenerate mental" nature. The aspirant has a perception of what might be, though the obstacles as yet overcome him; he is ceaselessly conscious of failure, and this engenders in him a condition of remorse, of disgust, despair and of despondency.

3. Misplaced bodily activity. The inner condition works out on the physical plane as an intense activity, a violent seeking for solution or for solace, a constant running hither and thither in search of peace. It is the main characteristic at this time of our mental Aryan race and is the cause of the aggressive intensity of endeavor found in all walks of life. To this the educational processes (as they speed up the mental body) have been largely contributory factors....

4. Wrong directions of the life currents. This is the effect produced in the etheric body by the inner turmoil. These life currents (for the student of occultism) are two in number:
a. The life breath or prana.
b. The life force or the fires of the body.

It is the misuse of the life breath or wrong utilization of prana that is the cause of eighty per cent of the present physical diseases. The other twenty percent is produced through ill directed life force through the centers, and attacks primarily the twenty per cent of humanity which can be called mentally polarized. The clue for the student of occultism who aspires to liberation is not to be found in breathing exercises, however, nor in any work with the seven centers in the body. It will be found in an intense inner concentration upon rhythmic living and in the careful organization of the life. As he does this, coordination of the subtler bodies with the physical body on the one hand, and with the soul on the other, will eventuate in the automatic subsequent adjustment of pranic and vital energies.
(The Light of the Soul, Book I, Sutra 31: 71-72)

3. These are the difficulty producing hindrances: avidya (ignorance), and the sense of personality, desire, hate and the sense of attachment.
These are the five wrong ideas or concepts which for aeons of time and throughout many lives, prevent sons of men from realizing that they are sons of God. It is these concepts which lead men to identify themselves with that which is lower and material, and to forget the divine realities. It is these misconceptions which make a prodigal son of the divine Monad, and which send him forth into the far country to eat of the husks of mortal existence. It is these which must be overcome and eliminated before a man can "lift up his eyes" and see again the vision of the Father and the Father's Home and so be enabled to tread consciously the Path of return.

It might be pointed out that two of the hindrances, avidya and sense of personality, relate to man, the synthesis upon the physical plane, that desire has relation to his astral body or vehicle of feeling, and that hate and a sense of attachment are products of the sense of egoism (the ahamkara principle) which animate the mental body. Thus the threefold personality is the field for the seeds and in the soil of the personal life in the three worlds do these seeds propagate and flourish and grow up to obstruct and hinder the real man. These seeds must be destroyed, and in their destruction three things eventuate:

1. Karma is worked off,
2. Liberation is achieved,
3. The vision of the soul is perfected.
(the Light of the Soul, Book II, Sutra 3: 127-128)

30. Harmlessness, truth to all beings, abstention from theft, from incontinence and from avarice, constitute yama or the five commandments. These five commandments are simple and clear and yet, if practiced, would make a man perfect in his relationship to other men, to supermen and to the subhuman realms. The very first command to be harmless is in reality a summation of the others. These commandments are curiously complete and cover the triple nature; in studying all these means we shall note their relation to one or other part of the lower threefold manifestation of the ego

1. Harmlessness. This covers a man's physical acts as they relate to all forms of divine manifestation and concerns specifically his force nature or the energy which he expresses through his physical plane activities. He hurts no one, and injures nobody.

2. Truth. This concerns primarily his use of speech and the organs of sound, and relates to "truth in the inmost part" so that truth in externality becomes possible. This is a large subject, and deals with the formulation of a man's belief regarding God, people, things and forms through the medium of the tongue and voice. This is covered in the aphorism in Light on the Path. "Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Master it must have lost the power to wound."

3. Abstention from theft. The disciple is precise and accurate in all his affairs and appropriates nothing which is not rightly his. This is a large concept covering more than the fact of actual physical appropriation of others' possessions.

4. Abstention from incontinence. This is literally desirelessness and governs the out-going tendencies to that which is not the self, which finds physical plane expression in the relation between the sexes. It must be remembered here, however, that this expression is regarded by the occult student as only one form which the out-going impulses take, and a form which allies a man closely with the animal kingdom. Any impulse which concerns the forms and the real man and which tends to link him to a form and to the physical plane is regarded as a form of incontinence. There is physical plane incontinence and this should have been left behind by the disciple long ago. But there are also many tendencies towards pleasure seeking with consequent satisfaction of the desire nature and this, to the true aspirant, is likewise regarded as incontinence.

5. Abstention from avarice. This deals with the sin of covetousness which is literally theft upon the mental plane. The sin of avarice may lead to any number of physical plane sins and is very powerful. It concerns mental force and is a generic term covering those potent longings which have their seat not only in the emotional or kamic (desire) body, but in the mental

body also. This commandment to abstain from avarice is covered by St Paul when he says "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." That state has to be attained before the mind can be so quieted that the things of the soul can find entrance.
(The Light of the Soul, Book II, Sutra 30: 184-186)

Students of the Art of Healing should likewise remember that there are three ways in which healing can be brought about, and that all three ways have their place and value, dependent upon the point of evolution of the subject being healed.

First, there is the application of those palliatives and ameliorating methods which gradually cure disease and eliminate undesirable conditions; they build up the form life and foster the vitality, so that disease can be thrown off. Of these methods the allopathic and the homeopathic schools and the various osteopathic and chiropractic and other therapeutic schools are good exponents.... Under these methods, the patient is in the hands of an outside party, and should be passive, quiescent and negative.

Secondly, there is the appearance of the work and methods of the modern psychologist, who seeks to deal with subjective conditions and to straighten out those wrong attitudes of mind, those inhibitions, psychoses and complexes which bring about the outer states of disease, the morbid conditions and neurotic and mental disasters. Under this method, the patient is taught to cooperate as much as he can with the psychologist, so that he may arrive at a proper understanding of himself, and so learn to eradicate those inner compelling situations which are responsible for the outer results. He is trained to be positive and active, and this is a great step in the right direction. The tendency to combine psychology with the outer physical treatment is sound and right.

Thirdly, the highest and the newest method is that of calling into positive activity a man's own soul. The true and the future healing is brought about when the life of the soul can flow without any impediment and hindrance throughout every aspect of the form nature. It can then vitalize it with its potency, and can also eliminate those congestions and obstructions which are such a fruitful source of disease.
(Esoteric Healing: 16-17)

When a member of a group, such as a group for healing, speaks of developing group consciousness, he refers to his particular group of brothers, and to his group as a unit of several souls. Forget not that such a unit is in itself a separative concept from the angle of the greater whole, but it serves a useful purpose in training the group members to think in wider terms. It serves as a stepping stone away from the consciousness of the isolated personality.

If you can indeed feel, think and function as one complete unit--several personalities and one soul--it will then be relatively easy to extend the concept to a broader inclusiveness, to broaden your horizon and thus become inclusive in a much wider sense.

The using of the mind to this end involves an aptitude to learn the distinction between analysis and criticism. This is a hard and well-nigh impossible thing for many to learn. Traces of illumination of this subject will show themselves if the group persists in all earnestness. The members have to learn to respond, as a group, to the same spiritual, mental and human ideas, and thus swing--as a "telepathic unit"--into one united train of thought. They have, as a group, to be preoccupied with the same things which are indicated by the soul of the group, and not by one person in the group, as is apt to be the case. They have to learn, as a group, to hold the mind steady in the light--the group mind, and not their individual minds.

In using the imagination to this end, you have to cultivate the power to ignore the outer forms and to concentrate on the inner lines of light which unite brother to brother, group to group, and kingdom to kingdom in the expression of the Life of God Himself. It is the creative use of the imagination which produces an integrated group etheric body and which enables you to see this group body of force and light as one complete form and as one expression of the group intelligence, will and purpose--but not the will or purpose of the dominant mind or minds in the group. Thus these can work out on the physical plane in right expression.... To become entirely free from this will take much careful cultivation and self-surrender to the soul.
(Esoteric Healing: 354-355)

During the period wherein a man is under probation, he is supposed to be developing three things:--

1. The ability to contact his group, or in other words, to be sensible of the vibration of the group of which some particular Master is the focal point....

2. The second thing he is supposed to be developing on the probationary path is the faculty of abstract thought, or the power to link up with the higher mind, via the causal body. He must learn to contact the lower mind simply as an instrument whereby he can reach the higher, and thus transcend it, until he becomes polarized in the causal body. Then through the medium of the causal body, he links up with the abstract levels. Until he can do this he cannot really contact the Master, for, as you have been told, the pupil has to raise himself from his world (the lower) into Their world (the higher).

3. The third thing the probationer has to do is to equip himself emotionally and mentally, and to realize and prove that he has somewhat to impart to the group with which he is esoterically affiliated. Think upon this:

too much emphasis is laid at times upon that which the pupil will get when he becomes an accepted disciple or probationer. I tell you here, in all earnestness, that he will not take these desired steps until he has somewhat to give, and something to add that will increase the beauty of the group, that will add to the available equipment that the Master seeks for the helping of the race, and that will increase the richness of the group coloring. This can be brought about in two ways that mutually interact:--

a. By the definite equipping, through study and application, of the content of the emotional and mental bodies.

b . By the utilization of that equipment in service to the race on the physical plane, thereby demonstrating to the eyes of the watching Hierarchy that the pupil has somewhat to give. He must show that his one desire is to be a benefactor and to serve, rather than to grasp and acquire for himself. This life of acquisition for the purposes of giving must have for incentive the ideals touched in meditation, and for inspiration those downpourings from the higher mental levels and from the buddhic levels which are the result of occult meditation.

When these three results are brought about, and when the high vibration touched is more frequent and stable, then the probationer takes the next step forward and becomes an accepted disciple.
(Letters on Occult Meditation: 267-270)

"In the Hall of Ignorance the triple sheaths are known. The solar life at its densest point is contacted and man emerges fully human."
(From the Old Commentary)

Then the man becomes aware of something else, the group to which he belongs, and he does this through a finding of his own inner reality as latent in his personality. He learns that he, the human atom is a part of a group or center in the body of a heavenly Man, a planetary Logos and that he must develop awareness of:
    a. His group vibration,
    b. His group purpose,
    c. His group center.

This is the stage of the probationary path or the Path of Discipleship up to the third initiation,....
(The Light of the Soul, Book II, Sutra 4: 130)

Therefore, as a preliminary statement, we have the following objectives in the group work of the New Age, as they make their tentative beginnings at this time. The later and more esoteric objectives will emerge as the earlier ones are reached.

1.) Group Unity. This must be achieved through the practice of love, which is part of the practice of the Presence of God, through the subordination of the personality life to the group life, and constant, loving, living service.

2.) Group Meditation. These groups will eventually be grounded in the kingdom of souls, and the work done will be motivated and carried forward from the higher mental levels in the demonstration of the contemplative life. This involves the dual activity of the life of the disciple, wherein he functions consciously both as a personality and as a soul. The life of the personality should be that of intelligent activity; that of the soul is loving contemplation.

3.) Group Activity. Each group will have some distinguishing characteristic and this will be dedicated to some specific form of service.
(Esoteric Psychology, II: 182)