1) Seed Thought
2) Reading Assignment
3) Written Work
4) Letter from Teaching Staff
5) Relationship Between Soul and Personality and Meditation
6) The Coming One as Sensed by a World Server
7) The Past and the Future Compared

THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST (p. 26-60)

The questions below refer to the keynote on page 4 of REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST:

"Whenever there is a withering of the law and an uprising of lawlessness on all sides, then I manifest Myself." (BHAGAVAD GITA, Book IV, Sutra 7,8)

I.

1. Do you believe there is a withering of the laws at this time? That is, do you believe the laws of the land have not kept pace with the needs of society? Give reasons for thinking as you do. Please give examples, if you can, from current news to support your view.

2. Do you think there is today a greater "uprising of lawlessness" than at other times in the world's history?

II.

Is our present treatment and handling of law-breakers helping them to grow spiritually or is it tending to retard their soul unfoldment?

III .

Crime is usually regarded as physical violation of man made laws: i.e. as physical acts on the physical plane; and punishment is meted out in some physical way, even though thoughtful people realize that serious, major crimes represent emotional motivation and emotional gratification of some sort.

For instance, an act of violence is the climax to an accumulation of some destructive emotion such as hatred, fear, anger, jealously, or irritation, that increases in intensity to a point of explosion on the emotional plane, that in turn manifests on the physical plane in a criminal act.

Use of drugs and alcohol too represent emotional motivation and offer emotional gratification. To the occultist, any physical plane happening is but a small part of what is happening, and is but the outcome of an inner condition and development.

Should drug addiction and alcoholism be considered as criminal offense or as sickness? In other words, is punishment enough to protect society, or should some psychological healing he applied?

Regulating one's daily life to include the regular daily practice of meditation, daily study, and the evening review does, in most cases call for changes in personal habits and some re-arrangements in the personal life. This is more difficult for some students than for others. We hope that already you have realized the importance of making whatever effort is necessary to bring the personal life under the soul's direction. Had you realized that the first thing in the morning and the last thing in the evening that claims our full conscious attention, is the thing that truly directs and governs our life? This is why we try to place tile morning meditation as early as is practicable in the day's program; and this is why we try to do the evening review as close to day's end as we can do it without falling asleep. (However, do the review before retiring for the night. Do not use it as a remedy for insomnia, for instance!) In this way, we place the whole waking day within the framework of spiritual service, the Soul's intent.

Thus as we daily offer the day to the Soul, month after month, year by year, our days become irradiated with the Soul's redemptive influence. A passage On page 6 of REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST refers to the Soul as an "intermediary between man and God". The Soul performs, in the life of the individual, the same function that the Christ performs in the life of the planet.

The basic quality of the Soul is Love. Love nurtures the seed of divinity in human nature. Love makes it possible to develop soul quality within the form and eventually to express soul quality through the form. To love one another is a soul experience.

In loving relationships a portion of Divine Love flows through us to touch and awaken the divinity in other individuals. Personal love is however but a faint reflection of the selfless love of the Soul. To love another is the way of discovering the reality of the Soul, and the nature of the Soul, for relationship is the Soul's concern. The effort to heal and improve relationships can be counted upon to engage the Soul's interest and unfold the Soul's genius.

Through the magic of love we are able to see spiritual value in the daily routine of the personal life for when we are loving, when we look out and around from the loving point of view, we are living in a new dimension of awareness that makes familiar things come alive with new meaning. The loving consciousness is then imbued with the quality of the spiritual kingdom, gaining a new perception of the beauty hidden in all forms of life including the necessary forms of our daily duties.

Love releases us from the narrow boundary of self-interest and transfers the focus of attention onto relationships and cooperation with others. The routine of daily duties are then seen in a new light; they no longer seem meaningless and confining; instead our duties become our field of service for the welfare of our daily companions. We take the responsibility of faithfully doing the daily tasks, for the nature of love is to give.

The sense of responsibility strengthens our contact with the soul, which is steadily gaining control of the personality; and through love, we develop the Soul's other divine qualities, such as wisdom, joy, serenity, healing, faith, sympathy, gentleness, reverence, common sense etc.

Wisdom is that quality which intuitively knows whether a thing is true. Wisdom supersedes knowledge, for wisdom is knowledge applied. Wisdom clearly perceives needs and relates each need to that which will meet the need. Wisdom can trace a problem to its cause, and then discern the solution to the problem.

As we gain confidence in recognizing the impressions that come from the Soul and then living according to these impressions, we know the joy that radiates from the Soul. Joy is anchored in the realization of our inseparable relationship with God through the Soul. All forms of manifestation are inter-related and inter-dependent and held together by spiritual energy which is in constant circulation; the Soul is intelligently aware of relatedness. Joy is freedom from the illusion of separateness or of exclusive possession of divine qualities, for love reveals the potential in others. Joy beams light into others' lives, thus helping them to realize and express their divine potential.

Serenity comes from knowing that the soul endures. Like the rising and the setting of the sun, the Soul persists and sustains life through many incarnations, gradually improving the quality of the personality expression, until the inner quality and outer expression are reconciled.

Reconciliation is attained by the healing power of the Soul, for the Soul's very nature is to relate, to include and integrate the different aspects of spirit and form. The process of healing (whatever the method or technique) depends upon contact with the Soul and the right use of energy in relationships, either between individuals or between groups.

Faith is a Soul quality, for only the Soul knows the existence of unseen relationships and the purpose of experience in form. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faithful adherence to the spiritual idea of love inherent in man will bring this latent quality into expression on earth. Faith in the qualities of the Soul, which love reveals, will bring the hoped for era of good-will and brotherhood through right human relations and right sharing of resources.

So we see that Love is the synthesis of all the qualities of the Soul; it is impersonal and inclusive, radiating throughout the universe, touching the hearts and minds of men everywhere who are receptive to its influence. The source, the wellspring of Love in the individual is the Soul. The source and wellspring of love in the world, is the Christ. The Christ represents in the world that which the Soul stands for in the individual.

Your faithful friends,
The Staff of ARCANA

First: There is a soul in every human form; and that soul uses the lower aspects of man simply as vehicles of expression. The objective of the evolutionary process is to enhance and deepen the control of the soul over this instrument. When this control is complete, we have a divine incarnation.

Secondly: The sum total of these lower aspects, when developed and coordinated, we call the personality. This unity is composed of the mental and emotional states of being, the vital energy and the physical response apparatus, and these hide or "mask" the soul. These aspects develop sequentially and progressively... Later comes control by the soul, and a steadily increasing expression of the nature of the soul.

Thirdly: When the life of the soul, acting under the Law of Rebirth, has brought the personality to such a condition that it is an integrated and coordinated unity, then there is set up between the two a more intensive interaction. This interaction is brought about through the processes of self-discipline, an active will towards spiritual Being, unselfish service (for that is the mode by which the group-conscious soul manifests itself) and meditation.

These three hypotheses must be accepted, at any rate tentatively, if this process of education through meditation is to be rendered effective.

"In all men lurks The Light; yet, in how few
Has it blazed forth, as rightfully it ought,
Illuming, from within... "

This is the goal of the meditation process -- to lead men forth into the Light that is within themselves and enable them, in that light, to see LIGHT.
("FROM INTELLECT TO INTUITION" by Alice A. Bailey)

From REFLECTIONS ON THE GREAT SOCIETY

By Charles Malik, formerly President of the General Assembly of the United Nations; Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lebanon; Ambassador of Lebanon to the United States; now Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Beirut.
(Published in SATURDAY REVIEW, August 6, 1966)

The gifts of the spirit are attitudes of the soul which even the cleanest neighborhood, the most wholesome school surroundings, the finest educational equipment, the most immaculate cities, the most prosperous economy, the most secure financial status, the most just society, nay even the greatest of Great Societies, cannot by themselves ensure. The gifts of the spirit have an independent origin. They pass from person to person, and where there is no person who has them, then they simply cannot be had. The problem, then, is to seek the secret of the person or persons who first had them. The original persons with the gifts of the spirit must be there in the first place and all along.

Consequently, what is needed today above everything else is an authentic voice that will move all men of good will to their deepest depths, and draw them to himself. Without a shadow of self-interest, he will rise to the historic occasion by speaking the word of truth on freedom and destiny and the spirit, in complete simplicity and conviction. He will never utter a platitude or cliche. He may be spared suffering, but if it comes, he will accept it in the name of the truth and for its sake. With the help of the infinite contrivances of industry he can do wonders. He will be full of fun and full of humanity. He will be humble, broken, ordinary, unimpressive. His words and his ways cause men to forget about him altogether: they cause them to think only of the eternal. And what gratitude, and what love, and what joy, and what infinite release of energy, will then respond throughout the earth.

Such voices cannot be planned or contrived: they are gifts from above. They are given according as men deserve them, through the sincerity and intensity of their yearning and their prayer. They are given according as certain cultures have seen enough and suffered enough to deserve them. And sometimes they appear as free gifts regardless of any merit.

May the Great Society so develop as to be worthy of such men. One of them alone will justify it.

You may be asked how the entrance upon the path of Service is defined. Certainly the first sign will be the renunciation of the past and a full striving to the future. (HIERARCHY p. 106)

It is wise to draw the line between past and future. It is impossible to calculate all that has been done -- it is incommensurable. It is better to say: "Yesterday is past; let us learn how to meet a new dawn". It is unworthy to rummage in yesterday's dust. Henceforth let us establish a new step.
(COMMUNITY p. 55-6)

To understand a little the differing modes of work which characterize those who worked in the past under the influence of the sixth ray and those who are learning to work under the influence of the incoming seventh ray (see footnote) it might be helpful if we compared very briefly the two systems of activity. I would ask you to remember that both systems and modes of work are equally right in their time and place, but that the modern disciple should be discarding the old methods and steadily learning to employ the new and more modern and effective modes of work. This he must learn to do optimistically and with assurance, knowing that the benefits and the experience gained under the sixth ray system of discipline is still his most precious possession because it has been transmuted from method and mode into characteristics and established habits. It is the new ways of working and the new forces and objectives which the disciple of this present era has to master; he must do this relying upon the lessons learnt in the past and must base his new structure of truth upon new foundations and the stabilized orientations, which must now be established.

Let us take the sixth ray methods of activity and its major characteristics first of all. They are, for us, the most familiar and can be rapidly considered, enabling us to pass on to the new ways of demonstrating and discovering the ancient wisdom, and to the comprehension of the fresh modes of working which will give new vitality to the work of the Hierarchy upon the physical plane.

The outstanding characteristic of the disciple and the aspirant under the old regime was devotion. The race had, of necessity, to achieve a different and right orientation to the world of spiritual values, and hence: the effort of the Hierarchy during the past

twenty centuries was to lay the emphasis upon the realm of religious values. The world religions have held the center of the stage for several thousand years in an effort to make humanity seek one-pointedly for the soul and thus prepare itself for the emergence of the fifth kingdom in nature. This is slated (if I might use such a specialized word) to come into manifestation during the imminent Aquarian age; this age will be predominantly the age of worldwide discipleship, leading later to the age of universal initiation in Capricornian times. Therefore the great world religions have held authoritative sway for a very long time; their peculiar tenets, adapted to specific nation, race or time, embodied some truth through the medium of some particular teacher who attracted to himself individuals throughout the world who were spiritually minded, because he expressed for them the highest goal towards which they could possibly strive. All the world religions have been thus built around an embodied Idea, Who, in His Own Person, expressed the immediate ideal of the time and age.

This orientation of man to the world of higher values has been the main objective of the Piscean age which is ending now and of the sixth ray influence which is so rapidly passing out.

The second objective of the sixth ray disciple or of the man who is emerging out of the sixth ray influence but is still conditioned by it (being a representative human being from the current evolutionary angle) has been the unfolding of the "capacity for abstraction," as it has been called. The outstanding quality of our day and period, as a result of transmuting human quality and character in and through its disciples, has been the expression of the idealistic nature of man, or of his instinctual response to the higher intuitional values. In the past, highly developed but rare people have here and there demonstrated this power to abstract the consciousness from the material or form side of life and to focus it upon the ideal and upon the formless expression of living truth. Today, whole masses of people and entire nations are regimented to certain forms of idealism and can and do appreciate ideas, formulated into ideals.

Because of the potency of the sixth ray activity, owing to the long period wherein it has been expressing itself, the reaction of the average human being is one of an intense devotion to his own particular ideal, plus the effort, fanatically, to impose his idealistic dream (for that is all it potentially is) upon his fellowmen and to do so in such a form that unfortunately the original idea is lost, the primal ideal is destroyed and the devotee becomes much more occupied by the method of applying his ideal than by the ideal itself. Thus the idea is lost in the ideal and the ideal, in its turn, in the method of its application. The man becomes the devotee of an ideal which may or may not be embodied in an individual expression; this controls his thoughts, fore-ordains his activities and leads him frequently to merciless excesses in the interest of his peculiar and formulated idea.

Under the immediate expression of the sixth ray, the divine principle of desire has shifted potently away from the desire for material form into the realm of higher desire. Though materialism is still rampant, there are few people who are not animated by certain definite idealistic aspirations for which they are ready, when needed, to make sacrifices. This is a relatively new phenomenon and one that should be carefully noted. Down the ages, great sons of God have ever been ready to die for an idea; today, whole masses of men are equally ready and have done so, whether it is the idea of a superhuman state, empire or nation, or some response to a major world need, or some potent adherence to some current ideology. This indicates phenomenal racial achievement and the pronounced success of the Hierarchy to shift human attention into the world from whence ideas emerge and on to the higher and the less material values.

The instinct which has characterized this passing sixth ray period and which has been noticeably fostered under its influence is that of taste -- taste in food, in human intercourse, in color, in form, in art and architecture and in all branches of human knowledge. This discriminating taste has reached a relatively high stage of development during the past two thousand years and "good taste" is a highly cherished mass virtue and objective today. This is a totally new thing and one which has been hitherto the prerogative of the highly cultured few. Ponder on this. It connotes evolutionary achievement. For the disciples of the world, this sense of taste has to be transmuted into its higher correspondence -- a discriminating sense of values. Hence the clear emphasis laid in all textbooks on discipleship upon the need to develop discrimination, Desire -- taste -- discrimination; these are the values, under the sixth ray, for all evolutionary unfoldment and peculiarly the goal of all disciples.

In considering the methods whereby the seventh ray purposes are achieved, we are dealing with that which is new and, therefore, not as yet to be truly comprehended, and with those developments which will be eventually brought about by means of a true and scientific magic. This new magic will have no more relation to the crude attempts and oft ridiculous undertakings of the magicians, alchemists and performers of the past than c-a-t, cat, has to an algebraical formula.

White magic -- is concerned with the unfoldment of the soul in form and its gaining needed experience thereby. It is not concerned with direct work upon the form but with the indirect influence of the soul, functioning in any form in every kingdom in nature as it brings the form under its control, thereby effecting needed and developing changes in the apparatus of contact. The white magician knows that when the proper and correct ray stimulation is applied to the center which we call the soul in any form but not to the form itself, that then the soul, thus stimulated, will do its own work of destruction, of attraction, of rebuilding and of a consequent renewed life manifestation. This is true of the soul of man, of the soul of a nation and of the soul of humanity itself. Bear this in mind, for I have here stated a basic and fundamental rule by which all white magic is agelessly governed.

It is for this reason that the seventh ray is spoken of as governing the mineral kingdom and also as manifesting through its mediumship that significant soul characteristic and quality which we call radiation. That word effectively describes the result of soul stimulation upon and within every form. The life of -the soul eventually radiates beyond the form and this radiation produces definite and calculated effects.

This is the major task of service which the fourth kingdom, (see footnote) through its incarnating souls, has undertaken. The radiation from the fourth kingdom will some day be so potent and far-reaching that its effects will permeate down into the very depths of the created phenomenal world, even into the mineral kingdom. The seventh ray influence will have three definite effects upon the fourth and third kingdoms in nature. These are as follows:

1. All animal bodies will be steadily refined and in the case of humanity consciously refined, and so brought to a higher and more specialized state of development. This is today proceeding with rapidity. Diet and athletics, open air and sunshine are doing much for the race and in the next two generations fine bodies and sensitive natures will make their appearance and the soul will have far better instruments through which to work.

2. The relation between the human and the animal kingdoms will become increasingly close. The service of the animal to man is well recognized and of ceaseless expression. The service of man to the animals is not yet understood though some steps in the right direction are being taken. There must eventually be a close synthesis and sympathetic coordination between them and when this is the case some very extraordinary occurrences of animal mediumship under human inspiration will take place. By means of this, the intelligent factor in the animal (of which instinct is the embryonic manifestation) will be rapidly developed and this is one of the outstanding results of the intended human-animal relationship.

3. There will be, as a consequence of this quickened evolution, the rapid destruction of certain types of animal bodies. Very low grade human bodies will disappear, causing a general shift in the racial types towards a higher standard. Many species of animals will also die out and are today disappearing, and hence the increasing-emphasis upon the preservation of animals and the establishing of game preserves.

One of the major Characteristics of the seventh ray disciple is his intense practicality. He works upon the physical plane with a constant and steady objective in order to bring about results which will be effective in determining the forms of the coming culture and civilization; towards the end of the seventh ray cycle he will work equally hard to perpetuate what he has brought about. He

wields force in order to build the forms which will meet his requirements and does this more scientifically than do disciples on other rays. The sixth ray devotee is far more abstract and mystical in his work and thought, and seldom has any real understanding of the right relation between form and energy. He thinks almost entirely in terms of quality and pays little attention to the material side of life and the true significance of substance as it produces phenomena. He is apt to regard matter as evil in nature and form as a limitation, and only lays the emphasis upon soul consciousness as of true importance. It is this failure to work intelligently, and I would like to add, lovingly with substance and so bring it into right relation with the dense outer form that has made the last two thousand years produce so disastrously a mismanaged world and which has brought the population of the planet into its present serious condition. The unintelligent work upon the physical plane, carried forward by those influenced by the sixth ray force, has led to a world which is suffering from cleavage in as true a sense as an individual person can suffer from a "split personality". The lines of demarcation between science and religion are a striking instance of this and have been clearly and forcefully drawn.

The task of the new age workers is to bring these two apparent opposites together, to demonstrate that spirit and matter are not antagonistic to each other and that throughout the universe there is only spiritual substance, working on and producing the outer tangible forms.

The sixth ray disciple, in the majority of cases, carries his work down as far as the astral plane and there lies the focus of his attention, his life and his thought. Automatically and of necessity, his physical nature responds to the impulse sent from the astral plane, motivated from the mental and -- at times -- directed by the soul. But the potency of this desire and his determination to see the fruit of his labor has produced much difficulty in the past by arresting the true expression of the originating impulse. It is arrested upon the astral plane. This has been balanced by the cyclic intervention of other ray forces or otherwise the situation would be much worse than it is. The seventh ray disciple will bring the energy which he is wielding right down on to the physical plane, thereby producing integration; and the dualism which characterizes it will be that of a center of energy upon the mental plane and one upon the physical plane. The dualism of the sixth ray worker is that of the pairs of opposites upon the astral plane.

The seventh ray disciple works consciously by means of certain laws, which are the laws governing form and its relation to spirit or life.

The sixth ray disciple, working with the laws of nature and of the soul, will quality his results and produce his creative forms upon the astral plane; he has consequently to learn frequently to work through a seventh ray personality for several lives (either before or after achieving discipleship) before he will be able to bring through on to the physical plane his dream and his vision. The seventh ray disciple has no such problem. By his knowledge of ritual (which is the ancient codified means whereby the attractive and expressive nature of the energies to be employed are organized and related), by his understanding of the "Words of Power" (which he discovers by experiment) and by using the potency of sound, the disciple of the future will work and build the new world with its culture and civilization. A curious indication of the effect of the seventh ray magical work upon the mass consciousness is the growing use of slogans and of "catch phrases" (is that not the term used?) which are employed to bring about results and to sweep human beings into certain forms of mass action. This is the embryonic use of Words of Power, and from a study of their tonal values, their numerological indications and their inherent potency, men will eventually arrive at vast magical achievements and creations, producing group activity and the appearance of certain forms of expression upon the outer plane. After all, scientific formulas have reduced the most intricate and abstruse discoveries to a few signs and symbols. The next step is to embody these signs and symbols into a word or words, thus imparting to them what is esoterically called "the power of embodiment." If I might express it this way, the ancient statement that God's formula for creation was reduced to a great Word which He sounded forth and the inevitable results followed. Something of this process on a tiny human scale will be seen happening in the coming age. At present, what I have said above may sound fanciful and fantastic to the average student.

It will be obvious to you that seventh ray disciples wield much power and for this reason the emphasis in all teaching given to them is laid upon purity of motive. In the past, the emphasis has been laid upon purity of body in the case of the sixth ray disciples. As was inevitable, they have carried the idea to a fanatical extent, and have stressed celibacy, asceticism and stringent rules of physical life, oft making sinful that which is natural. This has been a necessary stage in their development for it was essential that the physical plane should become a greater factor in their consciousness and that their attention should be turned from the realm of abstraction (which is their line of least resistance) and focussed upon physical living, for, again, energy follows thought. Thus their attitude to life could become more practical and the necessary integration take place. Disciples in the new age will lay the emphasis upon the mental principle, because it conditions thought and speech. All magical work is based upon the energy of thought and of the spoken word ( the expression of the two magical centers referred to above) and purity in the realm of the mind and motive is regarded consequently as a basic essential.

The seventh ray influence is that which will produce in a peculiar and unexpected sense the Western School of Occultism just as the sixth ray impulse has produced the Eastern School of Occultism -the latter bringing the light down on to the astral plane and the new incoming influence carrying it down on the physical.

The keynote, governing the development of the sixth ray disciple, was expressed for him in the words of Christ when He said: "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men." The emphasis of all sixth ray work is Attraction and Repulsion -- hence division and cleavage, producing eventually a realization of the necessity for a consciously undertaken synthesis and integration, mentally motivated and produced. The history of Christianity (which is the history of Europe) will stand illumined if the Law of Attraction and Repulsion is studied in connection with its eventful past. The use and misuse of this law and its constant interpretations in terms of material desires, personal ambitions, and territorial control produced the many schisms and cleavages and will account for much that happened. Under the seventh ray influence, these cleavages will end and synthesis will eventually take place.

The keynote of the seventh ray disciple is "Radiatory Activity". Hence the emergence in world thought of certain new ideas -mental radiation or telepathy, the radiatory use of heat, the discovery of radium. All this connotes seventh ray activity.

The divine principle with which the seventh ray humanity will be mainly concerned is that of life as it expresses itself through the medium of the etheric body. It is for this reason that we find a growing interest in the nature of vitality; the function of the glands is being studied and before long their major function as vitality generators will be noted. Esoterically, they are regarded as externalizations upon the physical plane of the force centers in the etheric body and their aliveness or their lack of activity are indicative of the condition of those centers. The shift of the world interest is also into the realm of economics which is definitely the realm of life sustenance. Much is, therefore, bound to happen in all these spheres of interest, and once the etheric body becomes an established scientific fact and the centers -- major and minor -- are recognized as the foci of all energy as it expresses itself through the human body upon the physical plane, we shall see a great revolution take place in medicine, in diet and in the handling of daily life activity. This will produce great changes in the mode of work and labor and above everything else in the leisure activities of the race.

We are entering a scientific age, but it will be a science which passes out of the impasse which it has now reached and which -having penetrated as it has into the realm of the intangible -- will begin to work far more sub actively than heretofore. It will recognize the existence of senses which are super-sensory and which are extensions of the five physical senses, and this will be forced upon science because of the multitude of reliable people who will possess them and who can work and live in the worlds of the tangible and the intangible simultaneously. The mass of reputable testimony will prove incontrovertible. The moment that the subjective world of causes is proven to exist (and this will come through the indisputable evidence of man's extended senses) science will enter into a new era; its focus of attention will change; the possibilities of discovery will be immense and materialism (as that word is now understood) will vanish. Even the word "materialism" will become obsolete and men in the future will be amused at the limited vision of our modern world and wonder why we thought and felt as we did.