Uniting Power and Love

In every European country, in the United States of America, and in parts of Asia and South Africa are to be found certain disciples, usually unrecognised in the world at large, who are thinking truth. Let me call your attention to that phrase. The most important workers in this new group and those who are closest to the Great Ones are those whose daily thought life is oriented by the new ideal. That this thought life of theirs may work out in definite esoteric activities may be true, but they are first of all and always those who live in and work from the “high and secret place”. Their influence is wielded silently and quietly and they lay no emphasis upon their personalities, upon their own views and ideas, or upon their methods of carrying forward the work. These possess a full realisation of their own limitations, but are not handicapped thereby, but proceed to think through into objective manifestation that aspect of the vision which it is their mission to vivify into form. They are necessarily cultured and widely read, for in these difficult transitional times they have to cultivate a world grasp of conditions and possess a general idea of what is going on in the different countries. They possess in truth no nationality in the sense that they regard their country and their political affiliations as of paramount importance. They are equipped to organise, slowly and steadily, that public opinion which will eventually divorce man from religious sectarianism, national exclusiveness, and racial biases.

One by one, here and there they are being gathered out and are gathering to them those who are free from the limitations of past political, religious and cultural theories. They, the members of the one group, are organising these forward looking souls into groups which are destined to bring in the new era of peace and of good will … [It is necessary that] those of you who have seen the vision of a powerful subjective body of thinking Souls can speak the needed words, and outline those concepts which will hasten the work of integration, and put the units in this group in touch with one another. Do your utmost to see that this is done and make this the message and keynote of the work you all do wherever you are.

What should therefore be the work of the immediate present? Let me outline the programme as far as I can.

The first thing to be done is to strengthen the ties and establish firmly the link between yourselves and all those whom you recognise as possible working disciples in the new group. To do this, acquaint yourselves with the work of the leaders of groups in the various countries of the world—such as Switzerland, the United States, Holland, Germany and Great Britain. From their reaction to the vision of this new age type of work you can then make a temporary decision. Watch them at their work. Note the emphasis laid by them upon personalities. If personal ambition seems to govern their activities, if their position is one of a determination to work in the group of mystics because of its novelty or because it gives them a certain standing or because it intrigues their imagination or gives them scope for gathering people around them, then proceed no further, but—preserving silence—leave time and the law to correct their attitude.

Secondly, be receptive towards those who seek you out and seem to vibrate to the same note. When I say you, I mean the group to which you all subjectively belong. They will come if you work with decision and sound out the note of unity so clearly that they are in no doubt as to your motives and your disinterested activity …

The members of this group of new age workers will, however, possess certain general characteristics. They will impose no enforced dogmas of any kind, and will lay no emphasis upon any doctrine or authorities. They are not interested in having any personal authority nor do they rest back upon traditional authority, whether religious, scientific, cultural or any other form of imposed truth. Modes of approach to reality will be recognised and each will be free to choose his own. No discipline will be imposed by these workers upon those who seek to cooperate with them. The ideas of any one person or leader as to how the units in his particular sphere of activity should live and work, should meditate and eat, will be regarded as of no special value. The members of this new group work esoterically with souls, and deal not with the details of the personality lives of the aspirants they seek to inspire.

This is a basic rule and will serve to eliminate many worthy aspirants from this group of world servers now in process of forming. The tendency to impose one’s own point of view indicates a lack of understanding and it will rule many out.

Again, the young and promising aspirants must be sought out and carefully inculcated with the trend of the new ideals. They must be taught to look for the divine and the good in all—both people and circumstances. Breadth of vision must be developed and that wide horizon pointed out which will enable the aspirant to live through this transitional period which is now with us, so that when they reach middle life they will stand as pillars of strength in the new world. Do not narrow them down to the ancient disciplines and teach them not to lay emphasis upon diet, celibacy, times and seasons, and so distract their attention away from the newer and sacred art of being and the wonder of living as a soul.

Forget not that when a man is living as a soul and his entire personality is therefore subordinated to that soul, unselfish purpose, purity of life, conformity to law and the setting of a true example of spiritual living will normally and automatically follow. Food, for instance, is frequently a matter of climatic expediency and of taste, and that food is desirable which keeps the physical body in condition to serve the race. Again, a divine son of God can surely function as freely and as effectively when in the married state as in the celibate; he will however brook no prostitution of the powers of the body to the grosser satisfactions, nor will he offend against established custom, nor lower the standards which the world has set for its highest and best. The issues have been confused and the emphasis has been too often laid upon the physical acts and not upon the life of the actor when the attention is fixed upon the soul, the physical plane life will be rightly handled. It will be realised that there is greater hindrance to the growth of the man in spiritual being through a critical attitude or a state of self satisfaction than by the eating of meat.

Two rules of life activity must be taught the young aspirant:

He must be taught to focus on constructive activity and to refrain from pulling down the old order of living. He must be set to building for the future, and to thinking along the new lines. He must be warned not to waste time in attacking that which is undesirable, but must instead bend all his energies to creating the new temple of the Lord through which the glory may be manifested. In this way public attention will gradually be focussed upon the new and beautiful, and the old established creations will fall into decay for lack of attention and so disappear.

He must be taught also that partisanship is in no way a sign of spiritual development. He will not therefore use the words anti this or pro that. Such terms automatically breed hatred and attack, and effort to resist change. They put the user on the defensive. Every class of human beings is a group of brothers … ”. (A. A. Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, p. 416-421)