BROTHER OF MINE:

The implications of the past year, in your particular case are not hard to read. There has been a steady unfoldment, an [175] yet at times some real discouragement. There has been a renewing of your determination to press forward at all costs and yet some sense of failure, based largely upon physical fatigue and the pressures of life. No one but yourself guesses how tired you have been at times. There have been a few high moments and a good deal of valley experience, but usually the steady monotony of a career which has become an established habit and in which you long frequently for the manifestation of earlier enthusiasms. This is, however, inevitable and is one of the things which occur to disciples who are truly on the Path. The outer plane life is followed almost automatically, and much of it falls, through habit, below the threshold of consciousness, and produces thereby system, regularity, and good discipline. If this becomes the center of consciousness, there is aridness, a longing for change and for early "excitements" (using that word in its more technical, psychological sense) which would give the sense of reality to the outer work. But this trained responsiveness to environing conditions, leading, as I have said, to right automatic habits of response, should be regarded as a liberation, setting you free for the deepening and the excitation of the inner, subjective life, wherein your center of consciousness will become increasingly focused. I am pointing this out to you as I feel (while I study your general condition) that this consciousness of release is one which you greatly need. The deep undercurrent of spiritual aspiration and mental attention to the impact of the soul is much needed by you all, and by you especially.

You have worked for some time at the alignment of the personality. This directed attention to the matter must have, and has, produced results, even if you yourself remain unaware of them. Others are conscious of them even if they cannot express to you wherein they sense the change.

To change your meditation is not my intention but I am going to give you seven seed thoughts and will ask you to concentrate upon them in your meditation period. Otherwise keep the meditation the same as earlier indicated. These seven thoughts are as follows:

• 1st month - The Power of the Soul pours like a steady current through my life. I sense it in my attitude to life, [176] and in the light it brings as it sweeps through all the aspects of my nature. May that power strengthen my will to serve.
• 2nd month - The Light of the Soul streams forth like a beacon light upon my way; and in that light I see the light in others. I know I travel not alone.
• 3rd month - The Love of the Soul wells up within my heart; and understanding, pity, love and self-forgetfulness arise. I carry love to all I meet. I meet men's love with love and remember not myself.
• 4th month - The Joy of the Soul irradiates my life, and lightens all the burdens which those I meet may carry. The Joy of the Lord is my strength, and I develop strength in joy for others.
• 5th month - The Purity of the Soul acts like a cleansing flood and bathes my lower self in the "waters of purification." The body of desire is rendered pure and clean and strong. I can then become a cleansing force to all I meet.
• 6th month - The Will of the Soul becomes my will. I know no other. That will is love and peace and power and strength to live. It bears me on. It leads me to the Cross and to the Resurrection. Thus only can I raise and lift my fellow men.
• 7th month - The Presence of the Soul abides with me. I walk with God by night and day. I stand with God upon the ways of men; the shadow of his Presence which is the Presence of my soul, reveals the God on every hand, in every man. I see divinity on every hand in every form.

I think, my brother, that if you ponder upon these thoughts and if you endeavor to incorporate them into the meditation upon alignment which I earlier gave to you, you will gain in power to do God's will. The two aspects of yourself - the aligned personality and the attentive soul - will march towards unity.

I give you no set work to do this time as I would have you carry out the instructions last given. However, if you care to [177] note each month, the significance which may appear to you in your meditation work, you would crystallize your vague reactions and make the power behind these mantric formulas your own.