Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Education in the New Age - II - The Nature of
Esotericism
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Education in the New Age - Chapter II - The Nature of Esotericism
There is a tendency among esoteric students, particularly
those in the older Piscean groups, to regard any interest in the energies producing world
events or which concern governments and politics as antagonistic to esoteric and [63]
spiritual endeavor. But the newer esotericism which the more modern groups and the more
mental types will sponsor sees all events and world movements and national governments,
plus all political circumstances, as expressions of the energies to be found in the inner
world of esoteric research; therefore they see no sound reason for excluding such an
important aspect of human affairs from their reasoning and thinking and from the discovery
of those new truths and techniques which may bring about the new era of right human
relations. They ask: Why omit political research from the spiritual curriculum? They deem
it to be of equal if not of greater importance than the activity of the churches;
governments condition people and aid in the production of any current civilization,
forcing the masses of men into certain needed lines of thought. The churches and men
everywhere need to learn that there is nothing in the entire world of phenomena, of forces
and of energies, which cannot be brought under the control of that which is spiritual. All
that exists is, in reality, spirit in manifestation. The masses today are becoming
politically-minded, and this is viewed by the Masters as a great step forward. When the
spiritually-minded people of the world include this relatively new area of human thought
and its international activity within the field of their esoteric research, very great
progress will be made.Let me give you one simple illustration: War is, factually, a
great explosion of energies and forces, generated on the inner planes where the
esotericist ought to be working (but is seldom to be found), and finding its dire and
catastrophic expression upon the physical plane. This is indicated today by the constant
use of the terms "Forces of Light" and "Forces of Evil." When the
inner, esoteric and predisposing causes of war are discovered through esoteric research,
then war and wars will come to an end. This is in the nature of truly esoteric work, but
is scorned by present day esotericists who regard themselves as spiritually [64] superior
to such affairs and - in their ivory tower - concentrate on their own development, plus a
little philosophy.
One point should here be stated: Esotericism is not in any way of a mystical and vague
nature. It is a science - essentially the science of the soul of all things - and has its
own terminology, experiments, deductions and laws. When I say "soul," I refer to
the animating consciousness found throughout nature and on those levels which lie outside
the territory usually called nature. Students are apt to forget that every level of
awareness, from the highest to the lowest, is an aspect of the cosmic physical plane, and
is therefore (from the angle of evolutionary process) material in nature, and (from the
angle or point of view of certain divine Observers) definitely tangible and formed of
creative substance. The esotericist is dealing with substance all the time; he is
concerned with that living, vibrant substance of which the worlds are made and which -
inherited as it is from a previous solar system - is colored by past events, and is (as
has been said) "already tinged with karma." It should also be noted that just as
the physical plane, so familiar to us, is not regarded as a principle by the esoteric
student, so the cosmic physical plane (from the standpoint of the cosmic lives) is
likewise "not a principle." I give you here much food for thought.
It might be stated that the esotericist is occupied in discovering and working with
those principles which energize each level of the cosmic physical plane and which are, in
reality, aspects of the qualified life energy which is working in and through unprincipled
substance. His task is to shift the focus of his attention away from the substance-form
side of existence and to become aware of that which has been the source of form production
on any specific level. It is his task to develop within himself the needed responsiveness
and sensitivity to the quality of the life dominating any form until he arrives eventually
at the quality of the ONE LIFE [65] which animates the planet and within Whose activity we
live and move and have our being.
To do this, he must first of all discover the nature of his own qualified energies (and
here the nature of the governing rays enters in) which are expressing themselves through
his three lower vehicles of manifestation, and later through his integrated personality.
Having arrived at a measure of this knowledge and having oriented himself towards the
qualified life aspect, he begins to develop the subtle, inner mechanism through which
contact can be made with the more general and universal aspects. He learns to
differentiate between the quality or karmic predispositions of the
"unprincipled" substance of which his form and all forms are made, and the
qualified principles which are seeking expression through those forms and, incidentally,
to redeem, salvage and purify them so that the substance of the next solar system will be
of a higher order than that of the present one, and consequently more responsive to the
will aspect of the Logos.
Viewed from this angle, esotericism is the science of redemption, and of this
all World Saviors are the everlasting symbol and exponents. It was to redeem substance and
its forms that the planetary Logos came into manifestation, and the entire Hierarchy with
its great Leader, the Christ (the present world Symbol), might be regarded as a hierarchy
of redeemers, skilled in the science of redemption. Once They have mastered this science,
They can then pass on to the Science of Life and deal with the energies which will
eventually hold and use the qualified, redeemed and then principled substance and forms.
It is the redemption of unprincipled substance, its creative restoration and spiritual
integration, which is Their goal; the fruits of Their labor will be seen in the third and
final solar system. Their activity will produce a great spiritual and planetary fusion, of
which the fusion of personality and soul (at a certain point upon [66] the path of
evolution) is the symbol in the microcosmic sense. You can see by this the close relation
between the work of the individual aspirant or disciple as he redeems, salvages and
purifies his threefold body of manifestation and the work of the planetary Logos as He
performs a similar task in connection with the "three periodical vehicles"
through which He works: His personality vehicle, His soul expression and His monadic
aspect.
By means of all that I have said you will realize that I am endeavoring to take the
vagueness out of the word "esotericism," and to indicate the extremely
scientific and practical nature of the enterprise upon which all esotericists are
embarked.
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