That which is academic and the result of reading, listening, and of your response to the work of the Arcane School is apt to take the place of true understanding. True understanding involves identification with humanity. Your theories, your ideals, your fixed beliefs come between you and humanity as a whole, and the good of the form side of life looms unduly large in your attitude to service. You are, under the glamor of idealism, apt to sacrifice the spirit of love in order to preserve the form of your ideal. Ponder on this for it is basic in its teaching value for you if you grasp rightly the implications.
Ideals are formulations by the human mind.
The Hierarchy has no ideals. The Hierarchy is simply the channel for pure love and where love exists there is no danger of harshness, of cruelty, of misunderstanding, of evasion of facts or of harmfulness. Much also that many regard as harmless is definitely harmful in its general effects. The one who thus holds them frequently serves only in the limited field, conditioned by his chosen work and colored by his idealism. He excludes the Whole and thinks in terms of the past and as he wants to think.