The Washington herald., 1914-11-29
By DIR. W. W. BAKER.


Last week we left our aspirant on the
threshold of the door that opens into
the presence OF the Master. He has
served in the outer world; he has learned
theoretically Of the existence of the Path
and OF the Masters; he has acquired
certain amount of knowledge as to the
great facts OF human life and human
evolution: he has awakened to the wish
to take himself definitely in hand, to use
the great laws OF nature in order to
quicken his evolution that he may be of
greater service to the world. l ran over
hastily the names of those Qualifications
which are definitely laid down as pre-
cedent TO Initiation, not that they must
be perfectly acquired. not that the man
must show them out in their full strength
and full beauty, but that he must have
made some progress in weaving them
into his character, must TO some extent
at least have shaped his conduct after
these main ideas OF Right LiVing-right
living as laid down by the Masters OF the
Wisdom as necessary for candidates for
the Path l told you also something Of
mediation, as the means whereby a man
may create himself. first thinking of the
ideal and then carrying it out in life.
Now l must go straight on to the Find
ing of the Master. and the living out of
those Qualifications in action along the
lines that the Masters demand. 1t may
we'll be that on some of the points your
thought may not wholly accord with the
thought of the Occultist; it may be that
on some points you may think too much
stress is laid on something that to YOU
is trivial while on the other hand some
things are omitted that you may regard
as essential to right conduct. But we
arc now passing out of the region of
opinions into the region of facts. The
disciple cannot choose the Qualifications,
it is his to fulfil them; and il he thinks
them ill-ChOsen or unnecessary. there is
no obligation upon him to enter ON the
Path of which they are the preparatory
stage. Only, if lie would enter on the
Path. the Guardians OF which are In"
Masters of the Wisdom, then he must ac-
cept the conditions They lay down.
When a man has sufficiently distiu-
guished himself by service, and by ac-
quirinG and accepting the theoretical
views that were glanced at in Seeking
tho Master" then he finds his Master
or rather his Master finds him. During
all the time of his struggle those gracious
eyes have been upon him watching him
progress; in many lives in the past he
has come under the same influence which
now is to become the dominant influence
in his life. lie has reached a point
where the Master can reveal Himself, can
place him definitely on probation, can
help to prepare him for Initiation. That
is the first stage; a particular Master
chooses a particular aspirant and takes
charge of him, in order to prepare him
for Initiation: for you must remember
that Initiation is a quite definite thing,
that only Those who have already at
tanned can enable others to enter on
the Path which They Themselves have
trodden.
The time has come for the knitting
firmly Of the link which cannot be brok-
en-the distinct individual tie between the
man who is still outside the Path and the
One who stands at its summit: a tie
which shall endure from life to life; which
nothing can break; 1t holds against all
attempts to break it. The man may 20
slowly toward his goal. but he can new
er entirely break away, nor can he ut
terly fall He summons the man TO His
presence-nOt, naturally in the physical
body. for for the most part, the Masters
live away in retired places difficult to
reach hard TO find. But long before this
the man has learned when the body is
sleeping. to work actively in the world
invisible to feshly eyes. and in what is
called his astral body; which is, remem-
Der. the lowest OF those invisible bodies
above the physical. in which the whole
man is present, Spirit and soul, clothed
in a subtler body: 1t Us in that that he
receives the summons OF the Master to
enter into the Masters Physical pres
ence, to stand face to face with Him
and listen to His words Then that
Master places the Man on what is called
probation It means the knitting OF
the tic ] have spoken of, and then
the sending OF fhe man back into the |
outer world TO see how he will live his
life, how he will meet his trials, where