CHAPTER XV
THE PATH OF DISCIPLESHIP
As the Ancient Wisdom unfolds to the gaze of
the seeker the majestic Plan of Evolution, there
are some whose hearts burn within them with
an overwhelming longing to consecrate themselves to that Plan. All things in life lose their
savor after the Heavenly Vision is seen, and
nothing thenceforth is possible except to give
utterly, holding back nothing, to an Ideal of
service, devotion or renunciation. The noblest
impulses in man are the manifestations on
earthly levels of an expansion of consciousness
in the heavenly realms; the vision of an ideal
brings with it the promise of its attainment.
For within man is the Way, the Truth and the
Life; he only needs to be roused from his lethargy to see the Light which burns in his Soul.
The awakening of the soul has many stages,
and the influences of all forms of culture are
brought to bear on him, to make the Divine
Spark within him to shine forth as a flame. In
...
- 335 -
the long history of the soul's unfolding of consciousness, there comes the stage when he is
clearly recognizable as committed not to self-seeking but to altruism. The soul is then on
earth the man or woman of ideals, who, however often he or she may betray the ideal, never
finally renounces it, though the cost is suffering
and martyrdom.
It is at this stage that. there enters into the
soul's life One who shall guide his expansion of
consciousness to greater heights of realization.
This is a “Father in God”, a Master of the
Wisdom, who has watched the soul's struggles,
life after life, to be true to his ideal; He now
comes to make a bond with the soul as Master
to disciple.
The stages on the Path of Discipleship, leading upwards from
the man of ideals to the Initiate of the Great White Brotherhood, are given
in Fig. 119.
|
|
The first stage is that of the Probationary Pupil, when a Master of the Wisdom
puts the aspirant “on Probation”. This is
done either on the physical or the astral plane,
but more usually on the latter. At the Master's command, the aspirant is conducted to
Him by a senior pupil, and the Master formally
puts the candidate on Probation. It is at this
time that the Master makes what is known as
...
- 336 -
the "living image"; it is a living replica,
fashioned by the Master's will, of the pupil's
astral and mental bodies. The living image
is kept near the Master, and it is so magnetically connected
with the pupil that it records perfectly the effects of the latter's thoughts and
emotions as he does his work in life. The
Master examines frequently this living image,
to note how far the pupil is succeeding or failing. Needless to say, when He so examines,
it is not merely as judge; He sends through the
living image to the pupil such purification and
strengthening as the latter will allow himself
to receive.
- 337 -
The act of being put on Probation is the response to a demand,
made by the pupil to the
Guardians of Humanity, to be given opportunities for a swifter evolution than is normal with
the generality of mankind. The response
brings with it a readjustment of the individual's
karma. This karmic readjustment has the
aim: (1) of freeing the individual slowly from
such types of karma as handicap him from exercising a greater usefulness; (2) of giving him
opportunities for a wider knowledge, especially
the knowledge of the hidden truths of nature;
(3) of bringing to him new opportunities for
self-expression through Service.
The Probation or proving of the pupil consists in testing him, to see how far he can withstand
the shocks of his karma, and remain without
diminishing his altruism, in spite of the fact that
his life becomes more barren of those satisfactions and delights which make life worth living
for most men. He is also tested to see if, as a
worker, he can sufficiently adapt himself to be a
worker in the Master's plan. For each Master
of the Wisdom is the center of a large number
of activities, which He has undertaken to foster
as His contribution to the Plan of the Logos;
an aspirant, therefore, is put on Probation less
to gain knowledge from the Master and, more
...
- 338 -
to train himself to be an apprentice to help the
Master in His work. The probationary pupil
must therefore be ready, if necessary, to change
his methods of work to fit himself to those of
his Master; he must be ready to cooperate
with his fellow-apprentices; and in all ways he
must prove that an Ideal of work weighs more
with him than his personal satisfaction as a
worker.
When a Master takes an aspirant as a probationary pupil, it is usually with the expectation of presenting him for Initiation in that life.
It does not follow that the pupil will succeed
because a Master has responded to his aspiration; he has earned a karmic right to be given
the opportunity, but what he makes of that
opportunity depends on himself. Still, if he
"means business", and will allow himself to be
guided by the senior pupils of his Master, he is
more likely to succeed than to fail.
If he strenuously works at the qualifications
for Initiation, then the Will to Good inherent in
nature will help him with illumination and
strength. These qualifications are given in
tabular form. in Fig. 120;
|
|
they are taken from At the Feet of the Master, by J. Krishnamurti.
The author of that priceless gem gives the explanations and comments on them which were
...
- 339 -
given to him by his Master when he was prepared for Initiation. The aspirant who is
seeking the Master cannot do better than take
that little book, study it, and live it.
If, after seven years of testing, the pupil on
Probation is found to have grown in self-sacrifice to man and to God, his Master then finally
...
- 340 -
receives the pupil into the stage of Acceptance.
The living image is dissolved, and the Master
makes with the accepted pupil an inward link
which, even if temporarily broken by the pupil
through failure, will in all lives to come be felt
as drawing him to his Master.
When accepted, the pupil is given the right
to a mystical experience, which is of the greatest
inspiration to him in his work. When any
matter arises which he cannot decide out of his
own experience, he may test his judgment by
the judgment of the Master on the matter.
This is done by raising his consciousness for the
moment so as to touch the fringe of his Master's
consciousness. If he can free himself of the
prejudices of his personality, and knows how to
guard himself against the idiosyncrasies of his
temperament, then such a possibility of testing
his judgment by the criterion of the Master is
one of the greatest privileges in life to which the
pupil can attain. It enables him to distinguish
between what is more useful and less useful,
between what is more helpful and less helpful,
as he works for men in the name of his Master.
There are some pupils put upon Probation
who have shortened the usual seven years between Probation and Acceptance into one
year, or even less; but such fortunate souls are
...
- 341 -
few, for it means that behind them, as they
enter upon Probation, there exists a great accumulated karma of Service, which gives them
the strength and the opportunities which others
have not earned. The interval of time between the various stages on the Probationary
Path depends upon the initiative and the capabilities of the pupil;
if he is forceful and determined, he may override obstacle after obstacle and "enter the Path" swiftly; or, if he lets
opportunities slip by, he may spend decades in
one stage before passing to the next. All pupils, without distinction, receive the inspiration
of the Master, but each assimilates from it according to his capacity.
A still ctoser link between Master and pupil
takes place at the next stage, when the pupil
becomes the “Son of the Master”. More and
more the pupil's hopes and dreams begin to
reflect the wondrous life which the Master lives
among His peers, and slowly the pupil becomes
as a cell in the living organism of his Master.
He grows to be a ray of his Master's consciousness, and he comes to possess a depth of wisdom
which is not his, but is given to him for use by
his Father in God.
Nevermore can the pupil be alone; in griefs
and in joys, in darkness and in light, the
...
- 342 -
Master's consciousness enfolds that of the pupil,
even though at times the pupil may not be
aware of that glorious fact. Now, as he works
for the plan of his Master, whether the world
accepts him with acclamation or martyrs him,
he works, not as a solitary craftsman, but as a
younger brother by whose side toils an elder
and more expert Brother.
His commandments grievous are not
Longer than men think them so;
Though He send me forth, I care not,
Whilst He gives me strength to go.
When or whither, all is one,
On His business, not mine own,
I shall never go alone.
At each stage, from Probation to Acceptance
and to Initiation, the Master formally presents
his pupil to the Maha-Chohan, the Keeper of
the Records pf the Hierarchy; the pupil's name
and rank are entered by the Maha-Chohan in
His imperishable Record.
Coincident usually with the stage of the Son
of the Master, the pupil is presented by his
Master to the Great White Brotherhood for
Initiation. The Master thereby affirms to the
Brotherhood that his pupil is sufficiently fit,
by his ideals and by his life; and by the balance
between his good karma and bad, to share in
the mysterious life of that august Body, and to
...
- 343 -
be a channel of Its forces to the world. Besides
his own Master, a second member of the
Brotherhood, of the rank of a Master, has also
to stand sponsor for the candidate. The presentation is made in the first instance to the
Maha-Chohan, who then appoints one of the
Adepts to act as the Hierophant Initiator.
Either in the Hall of Initiation, or in some other
appointed place, the candidate is formally
initiated at a stately ceremony. What happens to the candidate is truly an "initiation",
i.e., a beginning. It is the beginning of a new
phase of existence, where the Personality becomes steadily more and more a reflection of
the Ego, and the Ego himself begins to draw
upon the powers of his Monad1.
The Soul of Man is in truth that highest part
of him which is the Monad; but from that
moment, when the Monad made the causal
body out of the animal group-soul at individualization, the “Spark hangs from the Flame by
the finest thread of Fohat”. The Ego, though
linked thus to the Monad, has had, up to the
moment of Initiation, no means of communication with that highest aspect of himself.
But at Initiation, at the call of the Hierophant,
...
1 For further information, see The Masters and the Path, by C. W. Leadbeater.
- 344 -
the Monad descends into the causal body to
take the vows of Initiation. From that moment, the “finest thread of Fohat” becomes
as a bundle of threads, and the Ego, instead of
hanging merely as a "spark", becomes as the
lower end of a funnel, which reaches upwards
to the Monad and brings down from him life
and light and strength. From the time of
Initiation, there comes into the Initiate a virility and a power of resistance of which he was
not capable before, and he finds thenceforth in
his own self a Rock of Ages which nothing can
shake.
After his Initiation, the candidate is taken by
his Master, or by a senior pupil, to the Buddhic
plane, to be taught to function there in his
Buddhic vehicle. This means that the causal
body must be transcended. Here now happens what has not happened before. Each
night, when he left his body to work on the
astral or the mental plane, his physical body,
or his astral — one or both, as the case may be
— has been left behind on the bed, to be donned
when he returned to them. When he leaves
the higher mental plane for the Buddhic plane,
he of course leaves his causal body; but this
causal body, instead of remaining with the
physical, astral and mental bodies, vanishes.
- 345 -
When the pupil, from his Buddhic vehicle,
looks down on to the higher mental plane, no
causal body is there any longer to represent
him. It is true that, when he returns, he finds
himself in a causal body again; but it is not
the causal body which he has had for millions
of years since the day of individualization, but
a causal body which is a replica of that age-long house of his.
This experience shows the Initiate that he is
not the Ego, but something more transcendental still; he knows now at first hand that
his "self", to which he has clung from the
time of individualization, is no true self at all,
but only “that thing which he has with pain
created for his own use and by means of which
he purposes, as his growth slowly develops his
intelligence, to reach to the life beyond individuality”1. Also,
with his first Buddhic experience, the Initiate knows, not merely believes on faith,
the Unity of all that lives — how
all men's lives, their griefs as their joys, their
failures as their successes, are inseparable from
his life. Thenceforth, his standard of all
things is changed; he has shifted his center
from that of his personal self and its interests
...
1 Light on the Path
- 346 -
to that of a greater Self, the "great Orphan", Humanity.
At Initiation, the Soul "enters the Stream",
(Fig. 121).
|
|
This is the ancient Buddhist phrase, which describes the great transition
which takes place in the life of the Initiate. He
enters the great tide of the Will of the Logos,
which has determined that, on this Earth
Chain, the majority of our humanity shall commit themselves to His Plan, before the great
day of testing in the Fifth Round, when the
laggard souls must drop out of evolution, as
the failures of the Earth Chain. They drop
out, not for ever, but only for an age; when the
next Chain begins, they resume their evolution,
...
- 347 -
after their long rest, at that level whence they
dropped out from the Earth Chain.
This is that "eternal damnation" with
which the ungodly are threatened in Christianity. But it is not a condemnation, but rather
an evolutionary arrangement for those souls
who must drop out, because they cannot keep
pace with their more spiritually equipped fellows. Nor is it eternal, but only, as in the
original Greek of the New Testament, "eonian", that is, for
the period of an eon or dispensation. But he who has "entered the
Stream" is "safe" or "saved"; and, slowly
or with speed, he will "attain Nirvana", the
goal of human perfection, according to the
plan for the Earth Chain. Therefore the Initiate is called in Buddhism Sotapanna, "he who
has entered the Stream".
It is said that usually seven lives intervene
between the First Initiation and the Fourth,
that of the Arhat, and that similarly between
the Arhat and the Asekha, seven more lives are
necessary in which to do the required work of
purification. Each Initiation means an expansion of consciousness, and each must be
prepared for by adequate experience and self-training. But while one Initiate may take the
full limit of time for the work to be done,
...
- 348 -
another may condense it all into a much briefer
period. It is largely a matter of the accumulated karma of the individual, i.e., of the work
done in past lives, and of the growth in strength
and purification achieved by him in them.
But all who "enter the Stream" reach the
"further shore", that is, to the bliss of
Nirvana.
The stages on the Path of Holiness, as this
process of spiritual unfoldment is called, are
marked by expansions of consciousness, and by
the gift by the Great White Brotherhood of new
knowledge and new powers to the Initiate.
The Brotherhood requires from the candidate,
before he can pass from one stage to another,
a record of work done for humanity, a freedom
from specified mental and moral defects, and
the possession of certain spiritual faculties. In
particular, there are ten "Fetters", which the
candidate must cast off one by one, before he
can finally come to Adeptship. After the
candidate has "entered the Stream", and before he can be given the Second Initiation, he
must show, besides the record of work which he
presents, that he is free of the first three Fetters;
these are, according to Buddhist terminology:
(1)Sakkayaditthi,
(2) Vichikichchha, and
(3) Silabbataparamasa.
- 349 -
The first Fetter, Sakkayaditthi1, means “the
delusion as to one's individuality or Self”.
Many a man thinks of his physical body as the
Self; and he identifies himself with its lusts
and cravings, with its health or want of health,
with its persistence during life, or with its death.
A man more evolved will identify his Self with
his "temperament", with his professions of
belief, wIth his religious and esthetic ideas, and
with his sympathies and antipathies. Only
very few, who are capable of dispassion and
analysis, will begin to realize how most of the
ideas and emotions, which a man thinks are his
own, are in reality a garment which he wears,
a garment which is less of his own making and
far more made for him by his sex, race, caste or
class, and religion. And all, except the
supreme idealists, instinctively make a distinction between their personal selves and the
humanity of which they are units.
To get rid of the Fetter of the delusion of
Self is to know what the real Self is — that It is
the Heart of all that lives, and that Its gain
and good come only from the gain and good of
the Whole. The Buddhic experience, when
the causal body vanishes, shows the way to the
...
1
Sanskrit: Sat-kaya-drishti
- 350 -
Initiate to discover by experiment and
experience what is that true Self in him,
which has no part in the limiting forces of
"race, creed, sex, caste or color".
The second Fetter, Vichikichchha1, means
"Doubt". This is doubt as to "God's plan,
which is Evolution", especially as to that part
which concerns the growth of the individual by
the process of Reincarnation, in accordance
with the Law of Karma. There are many
stages in doubt, from rank disbelief to the acceptance of a truth as a "working hypothesis".
In practical conduct, the noblest lives have
been lived by men and women who have had
only working hypotheses as to the nature of
existence. A lofty idealism, based on working
hypotheses, will lead a man through the gates
of Initiation; but there comes the time when
some at least of his working hypotheses must
be living facts of his inmost consciousness, facts
known to be true because, by outer observation
and by inward realization, they are part of his
individuality evermore. The Fetter of Doubt
as to the fundamental laws governing human
evolution must be utterly thrown aside, before
the soul can pass to the second stage.
1 Sanskrit: Vichikitsa.
- 351 -
The third Fetter, Silabbataparamasa1, means
"reliance upon rites and ceremonies". It was
the Lord Christ who pointed out in Palestine
that "the sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the sabbath; therefore the Son of man
is Lord also of the sabbath". It was the same
great truth which the Lord Buddha proclaimed, when He held that reliance upon prayers
and invocations, upon rites and ceremonies,
is a superstition, from which the wise man
should be free. Rituals and ceremonies, when
scientifically constructed, are like any other
piece of scientific mechanism; they are reservoirs of energy or conductors of force. But
they are to be servants to do man's will, not
masters to control man's behaviour. This is
the true attitude towards rites and ceremonies.
They are not necessary, nor indispensable,
for wise conduct or for cooperation with the
Divine; they are useful, especially to souls of
certain temperaments; to help them to attune
their wills to the One Will. But the same
work can be done by earnest striving and aspiration,
each man for himself, without rites and
ceremonies, and without help of priests or
Devas or Angels. The advice and guidance
of men or Supermen, of earthly or heavenly
...
1 Sanskrit: Sh£la-vrata-paramarsha
- 352 -
denizens, are only useful to enable a man to
look up and not down, forward and not back;
but these helpers cannot tread the Path for
him, nor lead him to Salvation. A man must
"save" himself. To know utterly that within
one's own self, and not without, is "the Way,
the Truth and the Life", is to cast off forever
this Fetter of Superstition.
When the Master finds that the pupil has
transcended the first three Fetters, and has to
his credit the requisite amount of work done,
then He presents the pupil once again for Initiation.
As before, in a similar stately ceremony, the Hierophant opens up at Initiation
new possibilities of consciousness in the candidate, and entrusts him with those secrets and
powers which appertain to the new stage.
The Initiate of the second grade is called
Sakadagamin, "he who returns once", for only
one more physical birth is obligatory for him;
at the end of his next physical life he can, if he
so chooses, complete the remaining stages of
the Path without returning to incarnation.
As he passes on to the next Initiation, new
faculties must be evolved, and a yet larger record of work must be achieved. There are no
Fetters to be cast off between the Second and
Third Initiations; but the higher mind must
...
- 353 -
be made a mirror of the wisdom of the Intuition, and trained to conceive and elaborate
those truths which the mind cannot discover,
unless implanted in it by a faculty greater than
the mind.
When the higher mind has become the tool
of the Intuition, and the pupil's record of service is adequate, he is presented by his Master
for the Third Initiation. He becomes then
Anagamin, "not returning"; for birth in a
physical body, unless he so chooses, is no longer
obligatory in order to attain to the final goal.
The work can be done in the invisible worlds,
and the Initiate can from there, if he so decides,
proceed to the Fourth and Fifth Initiations.
Between the Third and Fourth Initiations,
two Fetters must be cast off: Kamaraga, sensuality, and Patigha, anger. Of course, long
before this, all the cruder forms of sense-gratification and anger will have been eliminated
by the Initiate; but there are subtle forms of
these two Fetters which bind the aspirant as
firmly as their cruder forms enslave the man of
the world. In addition to freedom from these
Fetters, and the record of work, the candidate
must show that he has acquired mastery over
some of the invisible worlds, and that his brain
consciousness can be made, when necessary, a
...
- 354 -
true record of his life on higher planes. At
the Fourth Initiation, he becomes the Arhat,
"the venerable".
During all the stages — Sotapanna, Sakadagamin, Anagamin and Arhat — the
Initiate is sekha, a
"disciple", under the instruction and supervision of a Master of the Wisdom. The next
stage is to become Asekha, "no-more-disciple",
the Master1. He is a Master of the Wisdom,
that is, he has within him all the capacities and
powers which are requisite in order to know all
that concerns the evolution-past, present and
future-of the Planetary Chain to which he
belongs. But before this stage can be reached,
five more Fetters must be cast aside, the hardest
of all.
Lo ! like fierce foes slain by some warrior,
Ten sins along these Stages lie in dust,
The Love of Self, False Faith, and Doubt are three
Two more, Hatred and Lust.
Who of these Five is conqueror hath trod
Three Stages out of Four; yet there abide
The Love of Life on earth, Desire for Heaven,
Self-Praise, Error, and Pride2.
1 These five stages on the Path probably correspond to the five
stages in Hinduism, known as:
1. Kutichaka,
2. Bahudaka,
3. Hamsa,
4. Paramahamsa,
5. Atita.
In the Festivals of the Christian Church,
the five Initiations are symbolized in the life-story of the Christ by
five great Festivals, commemorating
(1) the Virgin Birth,
(2) the
Baptism,
(3) the Transfiguration,
(4) the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, and
(5) Ascension and Descent of the Holy Ghost.
(See The Hidden Side of Christian Festivals, by C. W. Leadbeater.)
2 Light on the Path, Book VIII.
- 355 -
The five Fetters which the Arhat must cast
off before he can take the Fifth Initiation, that
of the Asekha, are Rulparaga, "desire for life in
worlds of form", Aruparaga, "desire for life in
worlds of no-form", Mano "pride ", Uddhachchha, "irritability", and
Avijja, "ignorance". What is the true significance of these
terms it is difficult to say; but knowledge
about these five Fetters is not essential
to those who have not yet entered the Path.
Suffice it to say that, before the Fifth Initiation
can be taken, man must put on the attributes
of the Superman; he must become the
Christos, "the Anointed", who has come
"unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ"1.
This is the great Day for which the Monad
went forth a "kingly crown to gain"; and
when he gains it, he gains it not for himself but
for all creatures, human, sub-human and super-human.
All nature rejoices in his achievement; for one more Saviour of Humanity has
joined the ranks of those who live to give utterly, as the Logos gives. It is said that when one
of our humanity attains to Perfection,
all Nature thrills with joyous awe and feels subdued.
The silver star now twinkles out the news to the night-blossoms, the streamlet to the pebbles ripples out the ...
1 St. Paul, Ephesians, iv, 3.
- 356 -
tale; dark ocean-waves will roar it to the rocks surf-bound,
scent-laden breezes sing it to the vales, and stately
pines mysteriously whisper: "A Master has arisen, a Master Of The Day"1.
* * * *
Know, O disciple, that those who have passed
through the silence, and felt its peace and retained its
strength, they long that you shall pass through it also....
Give your aid to the few strong hands that hold
back the powers of darkness from obtaining comp!ete
vIctory. Then do you enter mto a partnershIp of joy,
which brings indeed terrible toil and profound sadness,
out also a great and ever-increasing delight2.
These are the words of a Master of the Wisdom, uttered to those who seek to serve God
or Man or an Ideal. There awaits each man
and woman of noble instincts and pure enthusiasms
such a life of delight as only those know
who have become Disciples. It is a delight
which comes not from ease and the fruition of
dreams, but from ceaseless toil in the noblest
cause which man's imagination can conceive.
To look up and see God, and know that one can
be His messenger; to look down and see men's
ignorance and misery, and know that in one's
hand is the power to lessen both for them; to
look round at nature and know that one can
become her prophet; to look within and know
that a Light is there to lead men from the ...
1 The Voice of the Silence, by H. P. Blavatsky
2 Light on the Path
- 357 -
darkness of death to a new day — it is these
things which inspire; those who have torn the
veil of self-interest which enwraps them, and
have seen something of the Hidden Light and
the Hidden Work. It was said by the Rishis
of India, of those who see the Heavenly Vision:
Nanyah panthah vidyate 'yanaya — "No other path
at all is there to go." For those who have
seen what the Logos does and, from that
what the Logos is, there is indeed "no other
path at all to go".
The Path is full of toil, and renunciation of
hopes and dreams, and weariness; yet are the
days and nights, when treading that Path"
suffused with a keen enthusiasm inspiring to
new hopes and to new dreams, and filled with
the delight of knowledge and mastery. It is
said in a book of occult maxims: "When one
enters the Path, he lays his peart upon the
cross; when the cross and the heart have become" one, then hath he reached the goal."
And that goal is a Transfiguration. To that
Transfiguration the LoGOs calls us, and to go
whither He calls is to discover what has never
yet been revealed.
Enter the Path; There is no grief like hate!
No pains like passion, no deceit like sense!
Enter the Path! Far hath he gone whose foot
Treads down one fond offence.
- 358 -
Enter the Path! There spring the healing streams
Quenching all thirst! There bloom th' immortal flowers
Carpeting all the way withjoy! There throng
Swiftest and sweetest hours!1
1 The Light of Asia, Book VIII.
- 359 -
|
|
