"THESE TIMES" in the YEAR of the 2025 Esoteric CONCLAVE
Guidance from Master (DK) to His disciples ON PAIN, AGONY, WAR ~ 1942 to Present Times
THREE SELECTIONS
Discipleship in the New Age - Volume II (DNA-II), 29/30
“Finally, my brothers [the Master is addressing all aspirants and disciples in His group], one parting word as I close this instruction. The world tension increases and will increase; anxiety grows and there is no sign of its immediate lessening; the darkest hour of human life is upon us and it frequently brings to the earnest disciple the experience—terrible yet beautiful—to which has been given the name of the "dark night of the soul." This dark night takes different forms and different degrees of intensity, according to the ray, the type and the point in evolution of the disciple. From it you cannot escape. But one error emerges if careful thought is given to this dark night as pictured by the mystics down the ages. Their emphasis has, in the past, been laid upon the suffering which the personality experiences and the agony through which the personality goes. But in reality and from the angle of the facts, that is not the true dark night. The real "dark night" is that of the soul as it participates in the pain of humanity as a whole, in the agony of humanity's separation from God (a separation based upon illusion but not on actuality) and upon the desperation of humanity's reaching forth towards what appears to be an unresponsive God. Personality pain, agony and desperation are very different things and are not concerned with the totality of pain and suffering to which mankind is subjected.
I would therefore ask you to steel your souls to endurance, knowing that the Hierarchy Stands; I would ask you to love blindly and unchangingly in spite of all that may happen, knowing that Love Stands unmoved amid the wreckage of all around and eternally loves; I would ask you to put your hand into that of the Master and move forward with Him and in the strength of your group, irradiated by [Page 30] the life and light of the Hierarchy; I would ask you to be a strong hand in the dark to your fellowmen because you are affiliated with the Hierarchy and the love and strength of the Hierarchy can flow through you, if you so permit.
I would remind you in this time of trial that I, your Master, love and guard you, for your soul and my soul are one soul. Be not unduly disturbed. There is no light or dark to the soul but only existence and love. Rest back on that. There is no separation but only identification with the heart of all love; the more you love the more love can reach out through you to others. The chains of love unite the world of men and the world of forms and they constitute the great chain of Hierarchy. The spiritual effort you are asked to make is that of developing yourself into a vibrant and powerful centre of that fundamental, universal Love.”
DISCIPLESHIP AND PAIN ~ DNA-I, 676/7
"The sons of God, who know and see and hear (and knowing, know they know) suffer the pain of conscious limitation. Deep in the inmost depths of conscious being, their lost estate of liberty eats like a canker. Pain, sickness, poverty and loss are seen as such, and from them every son of God revolts. He knows that in himself, as once he was before he entered prisoner into form, he knew not pain. Sickness and death, corruption and disease, they touched him not. The riches of the universe were his, and naught he knew of loss.
"The lives that enter into form along with lives self-conscious, the deva lives which build the forms indwelt by all the sons of God, they know not pain or loss or poverty. [Page 677] The form decays, the other forms retire, and that which is required to nourish and keep strong the outer, lacks. But lacking also will and planned intent, they feel no aggravation and know not clear revolt."
A word about pain might be in place here, though I have naught of an abstruse nature to communicate anent the evolution of the human hierarchy through the medium of pain. The devas do not suffer pain as does mankind. Their rate of rhythm is steadier although in line with the Law. They learn through application to the work of building and through incorporation into the form of that which is built. They grow through appreciation of and joy in the forms built and the work accomplished. The devas build and humanity breaks and through the shattering of the forms man learns through discontent. Thus is acquiescence in the work of the greater Builders achieved. Pain is that upward struggle through matter which lands a man at the Feet of the Logos; pain is the following of the line of the greatest resistance and thereby reaching the summit of the mountain; pain is the smashing of the form and the reaching of the inner fire; pain is the cold of isolation which leads to the warmth of the central Sun; pain is the burning in the furnace in order finally to know the coolness of the water of life; pain is the journeying into the far country, resulting in the welcome to the Father's Home; pain is the illusion of the Father's disowning, which drives the prodigal straight to the Father's heart; pain is the cross of utter loss, that renders back the riches of the eternal bounty; pain is the whip that drives the struggling builder to carry to utter perfection the building of the Temple.
The uses of pain are many, and they lead the human soul out of darkness into light, out of bondage into liberation, out of agony into peace. That peace, that light and that liberation, within the ordered harmony of the cosmos are for all the sons of men.”
“STANDING IN THE BLAZE OF PAIN”, DNA-I, 99/102
The pressure of the work upon me has been very heavy lately. Much work has rested upon my shoulders, incident to the world situation. This has involved much effort on the part of the Hierarchy to prevent a complete collapse of the structure of human civilisation, as it exists at this time. The sound foundations of part of the structure must be saved; all else may have to go.
Many things contribute to the inertia that today seems to afflict many of the disciples of the world who should be active in service and helpfulness. This applies also to you. The pressure of war conditions and concern over your own personal affairs, attitudes and reactions have crowded much that I might say and have said out of your minds. One of the first lessons which those in training for initiation have to master is that difficult dual attitude which permits right personality activity and real interest in personality affairs and yet at the same time permits nothing personal to interfere with the subjective spiritual life, with service and with the training, given in preparation for initiation. As time goes on, I shall try to bridge between the old techniques and the newer modes of training by using a part of the ancient techniques—now becoming somewhat obsolete—and the giving of those hints which will lead you to understand the nature, purpose and methods of educating accepted disciples in the processes of initiation.
Above all, I would say: Seek to recover the fervour of your earlier, spiritual aspiration and self-discipline. If you have never lost it (though many disciples have) seek to force that energy of inspiration to work out in an effective display of [Page 100] definite action upon the physical plane. How, you ask, my brothers? By increasing the radiance of your light in the world through love and meditation, so that others may turn to you as to a beacon light in the dark night of life which seems in this century to have descended upon humanity; seek to love more than you have ever believed was possible, so that others—frozen and chilled by life circumstance and the present horror of human existence—may turn to you for warmth and comforting. What I and all who are affiliated with the Hierarchy seek to do at this time of desperate crisis is to find those who are dependable points of living energy and through them pour out the love, the strength and the light which the world needs and must have if this storm is to be weathered. I ask you to render this service to me and to humanity. I ask nothing spectacular; it will, however, require a strenuous effort of your souls if you are to respond adequately; I ask nothing impossible; I would remind you that the apathy of the physical body and brain, the inertia of the feeling nature and the sense of futility of the mind when confronted with large issues will seem to hinder you.
Again I point the Way to you and again I wait. Will you intensify your inner life and achieve the power which will enable you to live simultaneously as an efficient human being and a living, loving soul? It is the establishing of the continuity of this dual process which is your main need at this time; it will lead to fusion, personality coordination and a greatly increased efficiency. Many disciples are not young and the settled habit of thought and of the feeling life is not easy to disrupt. They must, however, be disrupted and you must feel no resentment. The rhythms of the personality are stabilised and constitute your line of least resistance. You must cut athwart these, thus forming the cross of life and existence will then take on added difficulty. The results will be new rhythms of beauty.
To those who are standing in the blaze of pain (and their numbers are Legion), of agony, anxiety and distress—seeing it on every hand and attempting to stand steady in the midst of it all—I say: That which appears is not always that which truly is; that which rends and disrupts the personality life is frequently the agent of release, if rightly apprehended; that which will emerge when the Forces of Light have penetrated the world darkness will demonstrate the nature of the undying human [Page 101] spirit. To all of you I say: My love surrounds you and the aura of the Ashram of which I am the centre stands like a great defending wall around you and around all who are battling for the right. See that you battle. You can then, if you will, sense this loving protection. Each day, if you will, you can put yourself en rapport with your Master. We are not blind or uncaring. We know, however, that there are worse evils than death and pain. We know that this is the hour of humanity's greatest opportunity and that if men can pass triumphantly through this and (by the strength of their own souls) surmount this very present evil, then the evolution of humanity will be hastened beyond all that was believed possible. It will constitute a release, self-achieved and self-initiated. This means as much in the life of mankind as it means in the life of the individual disciple. That chance and that opportunity must not be taken from man; the gained spiritual and eternal values are of far greater importance than his temporary agony.
Little as you may realise it as you think of Us in Our so-called safe retreats, the capacity of identification with all that is involved in world pain today and the sensitivity of Those connected with the Hierarchy to the unhappy condition of humanity makes Their task of standing-by one of supreme spiritual agony. They understand the depths of the reaction of humanity; they comprehend and understand, for They are one with all men. This involves a far greater comprehension than you can grasp and one which can only be adequately expressed in the word "identification." They need the staunch support of all Their disciples, the steadfast love, the loyal attitude, the unquestioning response to human need which will enable Them to carry more easily the heavy burden which human karma has laid upon Them and which They carry voluntarily.
Will you give this? Will you aid Our work in every possible way, both as personalities, dedicated to service, and as souls who walk the lighted Way? The need of humanity for love and light, the need of the Hierarchy for channels and for those who will work under direction upon the earth can call forth all that you have to give and can evoke your soul (the only true reward that the disciple seeks) in power and love. This will happen to you, if you will forget the little self. [Page 102]
That your knowledge may be transmuted into wisdom and the eye of vision control your living processes and all your undertakings is the desire (deep within my heart) for each and all of you.
Your Master, Friend and Teacher,
THE TIBETAN