Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00210)

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" For the Masters are the distributors of the spiritual energies that help on human evolution, and the use of these for the swifter growth of a singlesoul is only permitted when that soul shows a capacity for rapid progress and can thus be quickly fitted to become a helper of the race, returning toit the aid that had been afforded to himself. When a man, by his own efforts, utilising to the full all the general help coming to him through religion and philosophy, has struggled onwards to the front of the advancing human wave and when he shows a loving, selfless, helpful nature, then he becomes a special object of attention to the watchful Guardians of the race, and opportunities are put in his way to test his strength and call forth his intuition.In proportion as he successfully uses these, he is yet further helped, and glimpses are afforded to him of the true life, until the unsatisfactory and unreal nature of mundane existence presses more and more on the soul, with the result already mentioned – the weariness which makes him long for freedom and brings him to the gateway of the probationary Path. 
664. His entrance on his Path places him in the position of a disciple or chelâ, on probation, and some one Master takes him under His care, recognising him as a man who has stepped out of the highway of evolution, and seeks the Teacher who shall guide his steps along the steep and narrow path which leads to liberation. 

665. That Teacher is awaiting him at the very entrance of the Path, and even though the neophyte knows not his Teacher, his Teacher knows him, sees his efforts, directshis steps, leads him into the conditions that best subserve his progress, watching over him with the tender solicitude of a mother, and with the wisdom born of perfect insight. The road may seem lonely and dark, and the young disciple may fancy himself deserted, but a "friend who sticketh closer than a brother" is ever at hand, and the help withheld from the senses is given to the soul. 

666. There are four definite "qualifications" that the probationary chelâ must set himself to acquire, that are by the wisdom of the great Brotherhood laid down as the conditions of full discipleship. They are not asked for in perfection, but they must be striven for and partially possessed ere Initiation is permitted.The first of these is the discrimination between the real and the unreal which has been already dawning on the mind of the pupil, and which drew him to the Path on which he is now entered; the distinctions grows clear andsharply defined in his mind, and gradually frees him to a great extent from the fetters which bind him, for the second qualification, indifference toexternal things, comes naturally in the wake of discrimination, from the clear perception of their worthlessness. " 

Complet book can be read at

http://www.anandgholap.net/Ancient_Wisdom-AB.htm