Lesson 4
In Search of Light
Everywhere throughout the whole world is felt the urge that drives man to seek out someone who, for him, embodies the ideal… The human being – simply because he is himself fragmentary and incomplete – has always the urge within himself to seek other and greater than himself. It is this that drives him back to the center of his being, and it is this that forces him to take the path of return to the All-Self. Ever, throughout the eons, does the Prodigal Son arise and go to his Father, and always latent within him is the memory of the Father’s home and the glory there to be found. But the human mind is so constituted that the search for light and for the ideal is necessarily long and difficult. “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face”; now we catch glimpses through the occasional windows we pass in our ascension of the ladder, of other and greater Beings than ourselves; They hold out to us helping hands, and call to us in clarion tones to struggle bravely on if we hope to stand where They are now standing.
We sense beauties and glories surrounding us that as yet we cannot revel in; they flit into our vision and we touch the glory at a lofty moment, only again to lose the contact and to sink back again into the murky gloom that envelops. But we Know that outside and further on is something to be desired, we learn also the mystery that that external wonder can only be contacted by withdrawing within, till the center of consciousness is found that vibrates in tune with those dimly realized wonders, and with those radiant Souls, Who call Themselves our Elder Brothers. Only by tramping on the external sheaths that veil and hide the inner center do we achieve the goal, and find the Ones we seek. Only by the domination of all forms, and this bringing of those forms under the rule of the God within can we find the God in all.
The Great Initiate, Who voiced the words I quote, added still other words of radiant truth: “Then shall we know even as we are known”. The future holds for each and all who duly strive, who unselfishly serve and occultly meditate, the promise of knowing Those Who already have full knowledge of the struggler. Therein lies the hope for the student of meditation; as he struggles, as he fails, as he perseveres, and as he laboriously reiterates from day to day the arduous task of concentration and of mind control, there stand on the inner side Those Who know him, and Who watch with eager sympathy the progress that he makes.
Forget not the earlier part of the Initiate’s remarks, where he points out the way whereby the darkness is dispelled, and knowledge of the Great ones is reached. He emphasizes that only by LOVE is the path of light and knowledge trodden. Why this emphasis upon love? - because the goal for all is LOVE, and therein lies the merging.
This is the path to be trodden by one and all, and the method is mediation. The goal is perfect love and wisdom; the steps are the surmounting of sub-plane after sub-plane on all the three planes; the method is that of occult meditation; the reward is the continuous expansion of consciousness that puts a man eventually en rapport with his own Ego, with other selves, with the waiting eager Master to Whom he is assigned, with fellow disciples and more advanced Initiates whom he may contact in that Master’s aura, till he finally contacts the One Initiator, is admitted into the Secret Place, and knows the mystery that underlines consciousness itself.
Be not in any way discouraged if you find the “upward way " stiff and hard to climb. You are in good company and are not alone. Out of the present situation true wisdom is born. Before the full light of the sun can shine at the time of dawn, there has to be the dissipation of the mist – a mist that distorts and hides. This is done not only by any function of the mist itself, but also by the growth in power of the rays of the rising sun. Therefore, for you there must be the steady growth of the light of your own soul, fostered by meditation, expressed in selfless service, and increasing in radiance through the intensification of your soul’s life. Live, therefore as soul and forget the personality. Give not so much time to the consideration of the faults and mistakes of the past. Self-depreciation is not necessarily a sign of spiritual growth. It is often the first result of a soul contact and means the revelation of personality limitations covering many years. That has a temporary value provided you again turn your eyes to the soul. Forgetting the things that lie behind let the light of your soul lead you where it will.
We create light, we employ light; we discover greater lights which serve to reveal to us the Unknown God. It is the guiding light within us, which eventually reveals those brighter lights which usher in the process of revelation.
(4) Grant me the light that I may shine.
Let me throughout the world of time and space radiate light,
Create a light, transmit the light, and treading thus the Lighted Way (which is my Lighted Self), enter the light and so return the light to those who need, to Those likewise whence it came.
(5)Is the house you are building yet lit? Is it a lighted house? Or is it a dark prison? If it is a lighted house, you will attract to its light and warmth all who are around you and the magnetic pull of your soul whose nature is light and love, will save many. If you are still an isolated soul, you will have to pass through the horrors of a more complete isolation and loneliness, treading alone the dark way of the soul. Yet this isolation, this loneliness and this separation in the dark night are all part of the Great Illusion. It is, however, an illusion into which the whole of humanity is now precipitated in preparation for unity, freedom and release. Some are lost in the illusion and know not what is reality and truth. Others walk free in the world of illusion for the purpose of saving and lifting their brothers, and if you cannot do this, you will have to learn so to walk.
(6) If he looks backward he can see only the fogs and miasmas of the planes of illusion, and fails to be interested. If he looks forward he sees a distant light that attracts him, but he cannot as yet see that which the light reveals. If he looks around, he sees but shifting forms and the cinematograph of the form side of life. If he looks within, he sees the shadows cast by the light, and becomes aware of much impedimenta that must be discarded before the light he sees in the distance can be approached, and then enter within him. Then he can know himself as light itself, and walk in the light and transmit it likewise to others.
(7) When the radiant light of the soul is blended with the magnetic light of the vital body, it stimulates the atoms of the physical body to such an extent that each atom becomes in turn a tiny radiant center . . .When this is the case, the work of initiation and its interludes of active discipleship become possible. Before this time the work cannot proceed. This is foreshadowed in the aspirant when there is enacted a symbolic happening in the light in the head, which is the forerunner of the later stage of initiation.
In this stage, the soul light penetrate into the region of the pineal gland; there it produces an irradiation of the ethers of the head, of the vital airs, this produces a stimulation of the atoms of the brain so that their light is fused and blended with the other two, the etheric light and the soul light, and there is then produced that inner radiant sun of which the aspirant becomes conscious in his physical brain experience. Frequently students speak of a diffused light or glow, this is the light of the physical plane atoms of which the brain is composed; later they may speak of seeing what appears to be like a sun in the head. This is the contacting of the etheric light, plus the physical atomic light. Later they become aware of an intensely bright electric light; this is the soul light, plus the etheric and the atomic. When that is seen, they frequently become aware of a dark center within the radiant sun. This is the entrance to the Path disclosed by the “shining light upon the door.”
Students must remember that it is possible to have reached a high stage of spiritual consciousness without seeing any of this brain radiance.
(8) “The Path of the just is as a shining Light”, and yet at the same time a man has to become that path itself. He enters the light and becomes the light and functions then as a lamp set in a dark place, carrying illumination to others and lighting the way before them.
(9) The process of bringing light into dark places falls naturally in three stages:
1. The stage wherein the beginner and the aspirant endeavor to eradicate glamour out of their own life by the use of the light of the mind. The “Light of Knowledge” is a major dispelling agent in the earlier phases of the task, and effectively eliminates the various glamours which veil the truth from the aspirant.
2. The stage wherein the aspirant and disciple work with the light of the soul. This is the “Light of Wisdom”, which is the interpreted result of long experience, and this streams forth blending with the light of knowledge.
3. The stage wherein the disciple and the initiate work with the “Light of the Intuition”. It is through the blended medium of the light of knowledge (personality light) and the light of wisdom (soul light), that the Light is seen, known and appropriated. This light puts out the lesser lights through the pure radiance of its power.
You have therefore the light of knowledge, the light of wisdom and the light of intuition, and these are three definite stages or aspects of the One Light.
These stages and their corresponding techniques are apt to be misunderstood if the student fails to remember that between them lie no real lines of demarcation, but only a constant overlapping, a cyclic development and a process of fusion which is most confusing to beginners. Just as the result of innate reaction to environmental produces the apparatus needed to contact that environment, so the unfoldment of the powers which these techniques serve, produces modes of contact with soul and spiritual environments. Each of these techniques is related to a new environment; each of them eventually develops power in the initiate or disciple which can be used in the service of humanity and in higher spheres of divine activity; each is related to the other techniques, and each releases the disciple into a conscious relationship with a new environment, new states of awareness and new fields of service.
(10) The inner light is like a search light, swinging out into the world of glamour and of human struggle from what one Master has called “the pedestal of the soul and the spiritual tower or beacon.” These terms convey the idea of altitude and of distance, which are so characteristic of the mystical approach. Power to use this light as a dissipating agent only comes when these symbols are dropped and the server begins to regard himself as the light and as the irradiating center.
(11) The Path of Evolution is in fact the path of recognitions, leading to revelation. The whole process of evolution is initiatory in character leading from one expansion of consciousness to another, until the worlds of the formless and of form stand revealed in the light which the initiate generates and in which he walks. These lights are varied and variously revealing: there is:
1. The light of matter itself, found in every atom of substance.
2. The light of the vital or etheric vehicle – a light which is the reflection of the One Light because it unifies the three types of light within the three worlds.
3. The light of the instinct.
4. The light of the intellect or the light of knowledge.
5. The light of the soul.
6. The light of the intuition.
From light to light we pass, from revelation to revelation, until we pass out of the realm of light into the realm of life which is, as yet to us, pure darkness.
(12) I would ask (all esotericists) 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. If this is done, then the light will suddenly and increasingly shine upon your ways. You can become light-bearers, knowing then that “in that light you will see Light” – and so will your fellowmen.
(13) The fact of the soul will eventually be proved through the study of light and of radiation, and through a coming evolution in particles of light…
The quality of the light that promotes and nurtures growth vitality and fertility in the kingdoms of nature has changed several times during the ages, and as it has changed, it has produced corresponding mutations in the phenomenal world. From the standpoint of the esotericist, all forms of life on our planet are affected by three types of light substance; and at the present time a fourth type is gradually making its presence felt. These types of light are:
The light of the sun
The light in the planet itself- not the reflected light of the sun, but its own inherent radiance.
A light seeping in (if I may use such phrase) from the astral plane, a steady and gradual penetration of the “astral light” and its fusion with the other two types of radiance.
A light which is beginning to merge itself with the other three types, and which comes from the state of matter which we call the mental plane – a light in its turn reflected from the realm of the soul
An intensification of the light is going on all the time, and this increase in intensity began on the earth at about the time when man discovered the uses of electricity, which discovery was a direct result of this intensification. The electrification of the planet through the wide-spread uses of electricity is one of the things that is inaugurating the New Age, and which will aid in bringing about the revelation of the presence of the soul. Before long this intensification will become so great that it will materially assist in the rending of the veil which separates the astral plane from the physical plane; the dividing etheric web will shortly be dissipated, and this will permit a more rapid inflow of the third aspect of light. The light of the astral plane (a starry radiance) and the light of the planet itself will be more closely blended, and the result upon humanity and upon the three other kingdoms in nature cannot be over-emphasized. It will, for one thing, profoundly affect the human eye and make the present sporadic etheric vision a universal asset. It will bring within the radius of our range of contact the infra-red and ultra-violet gamut of colors, and we shall see what at present is hidden. All this will tend to destroy the platform upon which the materialists stand, and to pave the way, first, for the admission of the soul as a sound hypothesis, and secondly, for the demonstration of its existence. We only need more light, in the esoteric sense, in order to see the soul, and that light will shortly be available and we shall understand the meaning of the words, “And in Thy light shall we see light.”
PROPHESY: This intensification of the light will continue until A.D. 2025, when there will come a cycle of relative stability and of steady shining without much augmentation.
A great discovery in relation to the use of light by the power and the directive agency of thought, will come at the end of this century or the beginning of the next. Two small children (written in 1944) – one living in this country (USA) and one in India – will work out a formula along scientific lines which will fill in some of the existing gaps in the scale of light vibration, carrying on from the high frequency rays and waves as you now have them. This will necessitate instruments hitherto undreamt of; but really quite possible. I cannot do more than give you the clue.
Light is the great and obsessing enterprise in the three worlds of human evolution…The mystery of electricity is unfolding gradually before our rapt eyes, and the electrical nature of man is being slowly proven and will later demonstrate that, throughout the human structure and form, man is composed primarily of light atoms, and that the light in the head (so familiar to esotericists) is no fiction or figment of wishful thinking or of a hallucinated imagination, but is definitely brought about by the junction or fusion of the light inherent in substance itself and the light of the soul.
It will be found that this will be capable of scientific proof. It will also be shown that the soul is light, and that the entire Hierarchy is a great center of light, causing the symbology of light to govern our thinking, our approach to God, and enabling us to understand somewhat the meaning of the words of Christ “I am the light of the world.” These words carry meaning to all true disciples and present them with an analogous goal which they define to themselves as that of finding the light, appropriating the light, and themselves becoming light-bearers. The theme of light runs through all the world Scriptures, the idea of enlightenment conditions all the training given to the youth of the world (limited though the application of this idea may be), and the thought of more light governs all the inchoate yearnings of the human spirit.
There is Naught but Energy
There is only the ONE LIFE, pouring through the mass of forms which, in their sum total, constitute our planet – as we know it.
All forms are related, inter-related and interdependent; the planetary etheric body holds them together so that a cohesive, coherent, expressive Whole is presented to the eye of man, or one great unfolding consciousness to the perception of the Hierarchy. Lines of light pass from form to form. Some are bright and some are dim, some move or circulate with rapidity, others are lethargic and slow in their interplay; some seem to circulate with facility in some particular kingdom in nature and some in another; some come from one direction and some from a different one, but all are in movement all the time; it is a constant circulation. All are passing on and into and through, and there is not one single atom in the body that is not the recipient of this living moving energy; there is no single form that is not “kept in shape and livingness’ by this determined inflow and outflow, and there is therefore no part of the body of manifestation (that is an integral part of the planetary vehicle of the Lord of the World) that is not in complex but complete touch with His divine intention – though the medium of His three major centers: Shamballa, the Hierarchy, and Humanity.
In the multiplicity of the forms of which His great composite vehicle is composed, there is no need for Him to be in conscious touch. It is however, possible, should He so desire it, but it would profit Him not, any more than it would profit you to be in conscious touch with some atom in some organ of our physical body. He works, however, through His major centers, Shamballa, the planetary head center, the Hierarchy, the planetary heart center, and Humanity, the planetary throat center. The play of the energies elsewhere (controlled from these three centers) is automatic. The objective of the circulating energies – as it appears to us when we seek to penetrate divine purpose – is to vivify all parts of His body, with the view of promoting the unfoldment of consciousness therein.
The fact that energy is the basic substance in the Universe, that all forms of life are energy forms, living within greater energy forms, and that all such forms – great or small – use energy and act as distributors of energy, is a well known and generally accepted fact by thinking and intelligent people. Speech, the written work, and motivated activity, are all expressions of energy, lead to the spread of energy, and to activities which are all expressions of energy and the cause of energy distribution. Governments, churches, organizations and groups are all energy distributors, and also storehouses of energy. Humanity itself is a great center of energy, affecting all the subhuman kingdoms, and forming likewise within itself a great system of interrelated energies. The same thing is true of the individual who, by his acts and words, employs energy, produces effects which are energy effects, and acts as a distributor of energy. Where the undeveloped individual is concerned, he realizes none of this and the energy which he manipulates is of relatively small importance. As evolution proceeds, and individual men and women achieve power and expression, their use of energy is frequently of major importance; they become dynamic centers of energy distribution and their words (spoken or written), plus their activities, produce wide effects and momentous results.
Students are apt to make their thinking unduly complicated when they seek to itemize and define, to separate into academic groups and brackets the multiplicity of energies with which they feel confronted when considering the planetary and the human centers. I would advise you that you think simply and certainly at first, in terms of the three major energies as they emanate from some center, become impressing agents, and then are again transmitted or stepped down:
(Energy of Will) – The dynamic energy of Life itself or divine potency, of embodied Purpose, expressing through evolutionary manifestation the divine Will…
This dynamic energy focuses itself through the Lives of Beings Who control and dominate Shamballa…
(Energy of Love) – The attractive magnetic solar energy, to which we give the quite unsuitable name of Love, It is this energy which constitutes the cohering, unifying force which holds the manifested Universe or planetary form together, and is responsible for all relationships; it is this energy which is the soul of all things or of all forms, beginning with the anima mundi and reaching its highest point of expressions in the human soul, which is the constituent factor in the fifth kingdom of nature, the Kingdom of God or the Souls…This attractive magnetism is the energy dominating and controlling the Hierarchy.
(Energy of Intelligence) – The intelligent activity of fire by friction… This third energy is the basic energy expressing itself in the three worlds and in the four kingdoms of nature, climaxing its expression in the creative energy of the human kingdom…It is the medium of activity in all forms through which the planetary Logos expresses Himself; it is the result of the activity of the divine Mind, as that peculiar type of divine energy plays upon and through all atoms and upon all atomic forms. The fission of the nucleus of the atom in the past few years, is the outer sign or demonstration that humanity has “encompassed” the divine Mind and can now move on to “encompass” the love or the attractive nature of divinity. Ponder upon this statement.
If you will work and reflect upon these three fundamental energies, and search for their expression within yourself, you will greatly simply your occult thinking.
Recognition is given today by thinkers to the factual nature of energy; energy is now regarded as all that IS; manifestation is the manifestation of a sea of energies, some of which are built into forms, others constitute the medium in which those forms live and move and have their being, and still others are in process of animating both the forms and their environing substantial media…All these diverse forms are composed of tangible substance which – when
coordinated and brought together by some recognized design or idea in the mind of some thinker – creates a material form. This tangible substance is composed of living energies, vibrating in relation to each other, yet owning their own quality and their own qualified life.
In the human vehicle there are four agents of distribution of energy:
The etheric vehicle itself. This, with its myriads of lines of force and of energy, the incoming and outgoing energies, its responsiveness to energy impacts coming from the environment as well as from the inner spiritual man and the subtle bodies, underlies the entire physical body. In it are to be found the seven centers as focal points of reception and of distribution, they are the recipients of seven types of energy, and they distribute these seven energies through the entire little human system. (our 7 chakras?? - mf)
The nervous system and its various interlocking directorates. This is a relatively tangible network of energies and forces that are the outer expression of the inner, vital, dynamic network of the etheric body, and the millions of nadis of the prototype of the nerves which underlie the more substantial body. These nerves and plexi and their many ramification are the negative aspects of the positive energies that condition or are attempting to condition the man.
The endocrine system. This is the tangible and exoteric expression of the activity of the vital body and its seven centers. The seven centers of force are to be found in the same region where the seven major glands are located, and each center of force provides, according to the esoteric teaching, the power and the life of the corresponding gland that is, in fact, its externalization.
These three systems are very closely related to each other and constitute and interlocking directorate of energies and forces which are interdependent, and upon them the entire interior health of the physical organism depends ..They are the agents for the three divine aspects of all manifestation: life – quality – appearance.
The Blood Stream. This is the carrier of the life principle, and of the combined energies and forces of the three above systems. This will be an idea of some novelty to the orthodox. The relationship of the circulatory system of the blood to the nervous system, has not been as yet adequately developed in modern medicine. Much, however, has been done to relate glandular system to the blood.
Only when these four interrelated systems are viewed as one integrated whole and as the four aspects of one vital circulatory system, will the truth emerge. Only as they are acknowledged to be the four major distributing agents of the combined rays of the individual man, will the true nature of material phenomena be grasped.
(6)Initiation is in reality a great experiment with energy. The life of the occult student is consciously lived in the world of energies. Those energies have always been present, for the whole of existence in all the kingdoms of nature in manifested energy, but men are not aware of this. They are not conscious, for instance, when they succumb to irritation and find themselves voicing that irritation in loud words or in angry thoughts, that they are taking astral energy and using it. The use of this energy admits them with ease to a level of astral living which is not suitable for them; continual use of this energy brings about what the Master Morya has called “habits of residence which imperil the resident”. It is when the aspirant recognizes that he himself is composed of energy units – held in coherent expression by a still stronger energy that of integration – that he begins consciously to work in a world of forces similarly composed; he then begins to use energy of a certain kind, and selectively, and takes one of the initial steps towards becoming a true occultist. This world of energy in which he lives and moves and has his being is the living, organized vehicle of manifestation of the planetary Logos. (The Word)
(7) Each initiation puts the initiate in a position to control certain related energies, and enables him to become increasing a trained manipulator of those energies; each initiation gives him understanding of the related energy and of its field of activity; each initiation reveals to him the quality and the type of stimulation to be evoked when brought into contact with any particular ray energy; each initiation establishes relationship between the initiate and the ray energy involved, so that gradually (no matter what may be his soul ray or his personality ray) he can work with the quality and the creative aspect of all the rays, though ever retaining a greater facility to work on his own soul ray, and later with the ray of the Monad – one of the three major Rays of Aspect.
(8) The following words are from the Ancient Archives:
“Energy is all there is, O Chela (student) in the Light, but is not known. It is the cause of knowledge and its application and its comprehension lead to expanded understanding.
“Through energy the worlds were made, and through that energy they make progression; through energy the forms unfold and die; through energy the kingdoms manifest and disappear below the threshold of the world, which ever is and which will be forever.
“Through energy the Cross is mounted and from the vortex of the four uniting forces, the initiate passes through the door and is propelled into the Light – a light which grows from cycle unto cycle, and is known as supernal Energy Itself.”
End of Lesson 4 – to be continued:
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