BROTHER OF MINE:

You have had much of strain, difficulty and mental readjustment during the past year, but then who has not in these days of world strain, world difficulty and world adjustment. I would point out here that enforced adjustment (from which there is no escape) is one thing and simply involves acquiescence, the cultivation of a willingness to accept with understanding that which may not be avoided. There is another form of adjustment which grows out of conditions which are self-initiated and which are based on the effort to handle your own life and a capacity to recognize the place and time to effect changes and, ruthlessly and as a soul, bring about those conditions and situations to which the personality - under the urgency of the soul - must adjust itself. One situation, the first, is based upon the past, under the Law of Cause and Effect. The other is based upon the foreknowledge of the soul, sensed by the intuitive personality and concerns the future. To both, you bring a certain type of equipment and this is the thing of practical import.

You will note how this fits in with my comments on time found in my instruction to you last January. I might almost call this the second lesson upon the right use of time which is so essential in your case, though not exactly in the sense that your personality would apply my words. Time has to be grasped by you in its cyclic nature and in the inevitable swing of the pendulum between past and future as they both affect the present; secondly, in the adjustment which you have to make in the present in relation to these two. Later, as you come to know yourself more wisely and to comprehend the working out in the present life of the established habits, qualities and tendencies brought into expression in past lives, you will find yourself increasingly being conditioned by emerging tendencies which are the effect of soul contact and soul impulse. These concern the future. You will then come to a fresh understanding of time and to a sense of the urgency and importance of each moment in the present. It is this process of interplay between that which has been, that which will be and that which is at any given moment which creates you, the personality, and [209] this is for you the most needed concept. It serves to give importance to the present and also directs the future. You may perhaps wonder why I emphasize this question of time in your particular case. There is always in each disciple at any given moment of his incarnated life some one aspect of development which is of more importance than another. The right understanding and the right use of time is for you the major significant lesson. When understood and relegated to its rightful place and when wisely used, you will experience an amazing release. The implication of these words is far deeper than you might think.

These basic requirements in a disciple, expressed and understood, are conditioned by the quality of the energy pouring through the etheric body. I have given to each of you an analysis of your rays, five in number. Later, I will endeavor to show you all the state of the etheric body which is the prime conditioning factor as far as physical plane expression is concerned. This body is the aggregate manifestation of all the energies at any one moment which may be concentrated through the seven centers. It is these centers which indicate to us who watch the point in evolution, the immediate limitation, need and the inherent possibilities. The response of the physical body is purely automatic to the impression or impulses coming from the vital body. This in itself is responsive to certain sources of energy - these may be one or other of the personality vehicles, the personality note or the direction of the soul, producing impression in varying degrees.

During the coming period until such time as I give out the next group instruction, I would ask you to discipline your time, making each moment count; I would ask you to perfect each life episode and event (which is only another word for time) so that they are as constructive in expression of the group will as you can make them. This, you will never regret doing.

PERSONAL MEDITATION

1. Relax and focus yourself in the soul. Then sound the O. M., breathing it out upon the world of men and saying to yourself inaudibly:
   "The will of God moves the world."
   This is the thought lying behind your use of the O. M.
2. Then ponder upon the significance of time as an expression of the will, realizing that this expression is a thought - instantaneous and effective - in the mind of the planetary Logos. Think out carefully some of the implications of this last statement.
3. Then say slowly and thoughtfully:
   "The past has gone. I am that past. It makes me what I am. The future comes. I also am the coming destiny and, therefore, I am that. The present flows from out the past. The future colors that which is. I make the future also by my present knowledge of the past and the beauty of the present. And, therefore, I am that I am.
4. Sound the O. M. softly three times.

I am responsible for this work and I would ask you to proceed as indicated and, my brother, to trust me, your teacher and friend.