MY BROTHER:

Since I last communicated with you, more than a year ago, life has brought you certain radical changes - some of them as a result of the war and your personality reaction to that war, and a few of them as a consequence of soul impulse. These changes and their resultant readjustments have been so many and have been brought about with such relative suddenness that you have not yet had time to know with clarity (within yourself) the distinctiveness of each change or its emanating source. Every change in a life condition upon the physical plane is the result of some inner cause. I hinted at this when I gave you the six statements which were intended to aid in the direction of your life. I said to you: "Learn that your causes are effects. Leave them behind and seek the world of causes."

These words embody one of the first lessons which a disciple has to master, as you well know. The initiate lives in the world of causes, for this is obviously the world of initiation. He deals therefore with those basic happenings which act as life-impulses, and initiates only those activities which are formulated by him as a soul and (bear this in mind) as a soul whose personality is initiate. Because of this personality capacity of seeing "eye to eye" with the soul, his activities are results of deliberate spiritual intention.

Decisions which a disciple has to make are based upon various urges, impulses and desires; they differ from those made by the average man because they are ever accompanied by questionings and by the practice of a constant and oft bewildering inner scrutiny of motive and purpose. You have faced many such periods of questioning in the past year, my brother, and your answers have definitely affected your personality life, your service to the Plan, your various group affiliations and your general attitude to the spiritual realm. This you know. One aspect of your nature is profoundly satisfied; the other is full of doubt and enquiry; your soul is on its way to a fuller and richer experience of life, and this involves difficulty.

In some ways, the war has not really touched you very profoundly, even if you retaliate by saying that it has touched you astrally and emotionally. Emotions are, however, ephemeral. Personality enterprises have offset greatly your reactions, and changes in your personality life, in your environment and in your established habits have offset much reaction. This is, perhaps, just as well. Then, too, your attempted world service has intensely preoccupied you, and you have tried to be what I suggested in my statement to you, "the fluid life" of all that you seek to do. In connection with that work I have only this to say: Your service will be best rendered if you refrain from regarding your planned organization as unique and if you do not attempt to live up so entirely to the world concept. Your work is inspired from my Ashram; it is an integral part of much larger plans and is largely modeled upon those ashramic plans (which are part of still greater hierarchical endeavors) and has little in it that is original. It is a small part of a much larger whole and has a very needed part to play. I would remind you that very large trees can grow from very small seeds. Your seed is one of many in a large pod (to use a botanical symbol). This pod contains many similar seeds which will bear many similar trees.

Again we come back to the subtle question which your soul seeks to have you answer this life, because in answering it you will find a release which will give you a definite opportunity in your next life. What motives are impelling you to action in your personality life, in your group relation, and in your service to humanity? A general answer will not suffice, for you will find that several widely different motives condition each field of expression, and when you know what they are, you will be able to bring all the three phases of your life into one rightly oriented functioning whole. Is your creative work the result of a desire to create, or is it impelled by love of humanity and, therefore, an automatic intelligent response to human appeal? Are you nurturing a small and healthy seed or are you endeavoring to transplant a tree? This last question has far more significance than perhaps you guess. It holds in its correct answering the secret of your success. Are you cooperating with the Plan, or in reality with your plans? Again a question of importance.

A rich life of service lies ahead for you in the coming period of reconstruction, but its full expression is dependent upon your achieving a point of focus, leading to a point of tension which will, in its turn, inevitably lead to a point of crisis. When these - focus, tension, and crisis - condition all your living, then your work will move ahead towards a most desirable fruition.

Take the three words which I have given you and seek to weave the energies which they represent into your life pattern, welcoming the changes which they may bring and knowing that they are, for you, the correct procedure because these three concepts govern the needed evolutionary process for you at this time - as they do for the bulk of disciples and, to a certain degree, all lesser developing nature.

I. Focus
Seek to ascertain in a wide and general sense where your major life focus is established. Is it emotional, mental, or on soul levels? Is it focused consciously in the Hierarchy, in my Ashram, or where? What is your daily focus as you watch yourself each day of living? Where, each day, has your attention been, having in mind that a disciple's focus is frequently in one place whilst his attention is in another? Do you know what I mean when I say this?

III. Crisis
The comprehension and the system of right reflection which the two above processes will generate must inevitably eventuate in a point of crisis. About such a crisis I can say little. It will take place in conformity with your ability to focus, in line with your attainment of the right tension, and the precipitation of the crisis will, therefore, give you release, freedom, clarity of vision and entrance into light.

In closing let me say: Preserve your essential and innate integrity, my brother. Be like the sapling which bears up against the storms of wind and rain, holding its life in form intact and gaining added beauty as strength develops.