MY BROTHER:

I am speaking thus frankly to you, my tried and loved disciple, because I see more effective service to be rendered by you if you can master a difficult lesson at this time. You are exceedingly well equipped to serve. Your second ray energy, coupled with your seventh ray force, makes for almost unique and unusual service; however - and here lies a hindrance - your fourth ray mind, constantly presenting fields of conflict which you must conquer, deflects the energy which, pouring through your soul, could lead to a planned and organized activity upon the physical plane. But it does not. The descending soul energy and the ascending personality aspiration meet upon the mental plane, and there both of them are arrested by your over-analytical mind. You need not infer from this that you are not of service to people; but it is an individual here and there that you assist, and there is no rhythm or organization in your service, owing to the constant mental conflict.

From the very first time you were admitted into my Ashram, I have tried to aid you to centralize all your forces upon the physical plane. When a disciple does this, and when he is one-pointed in his activity, there is much that he can do. When to these tendencies of inflow and of concentration there is added a trained and illumined mind, then the disciple becomes a focal point of spiritual attraction. He can reach many, yet ever remain polarized at his own center; his life then has an ordered rhythm, and there is a steadfast adherence to a plan which is carried through at all costs. He takes also his rightful position as a representative of an Ashram.

You play around with ideas all the time; you experiment all the time, but that should now be past history. I ask you now, for the sake of a needy world, and because I seek to see you fill your rightful place in my Ashram, to readjust your living conditions in order to serve more adequately. I would call your attention to the words, "your rightful place in my Ashram." Do you know what that place is? I would have you find out.

An Ashram is ever in a state of constant flux and movement. Disciples are passing out of it to form their own Ashrams or to take up a specific place in another Ashram as they meet the requirements of more advanced stages. They are shifting from one degree to another; they are moving forward steadily from the periphery to the center, from the outer ring-pass-not to the lighted dynamic center. As they move forward, preserving ever the close inner unity, place is made for new disciples - to be admitted and trained for service.

You have, my brother, three things to do:

First of all, you must so think, reflect and meditate that your brain will be the recipient of your planned thinking, and not simply a sensitive registering instrument. Through right meditation, the energy from your soul and mind must be focused, via the head center. Speaking in symbols which you easily understand, "the lighted triangle of soul and mind and head will awaken the center between the eyes and bring into activity the eye of direction"; this is at present closed, and only occasionally opened. You have been greatly concerned for years over the direction of your thoughts and the trend of your thinking; shift now your attention to directed service. Undertake a task for me and bring it to accomplishment.

The final thing which calls for your attention is to grasp in a new and dynamic manner the dual life of discipleship. Your field of service and your field of karmic obligation must never rule each other out, but you must learn to function efficiently in both careers. Your time for learning, technically understood, must now give place to the use of what you have acquired of understanding and wisdom.

I suggest for your helping, the following meditation. You must bear in mind that it is only of service to you if followed steadily and with continuity. It is largely in the nature of a visualization exercise.

1. Rapid alignment and the sounding of the OM three times.
2. Focusing the consciousness in the soul with a corresponding concentration in the head at as high a point as possible.
3. Then sound the OM four times. This is followed by a pause.
4. The following visualization exercise is carried forward from the point of concentration attained. If your attention wanders, sound the OM again. This is sometimes called the "recalling OM."
   1. See in the mind's eye a sea of light.
   2. Then see yourself standing and awaiting direction upon the physical plane. Hold these two thoughts quietly for a little time or picture them simultaneously.
   3. Then you - the disciple upon the physical plane - sound the OM inaudibly, dynamically and clearly, and as you do so, see a movement or current in the sea of lighted energy, converging towards you.
   4. See it take form as a stream of down-flowing energy - the energy of love, of strength and of understanding.
   5. Imagine next that divine flow sweeping through your mind and your astral body and settling into your etheric vehicle, awaiting a Word of Power.
   6. Then again sound the OM and feel the impact of [745] the tidal wave (if I may so call it) of spiritual energy, entering into your head center, passing from thence to the ajna center, and involving in its flow the center in the medulla oblongata - the alta major center.
   7. Then, at the exact moment of this realized dispersion, say, "This source of power is all I am and have; I send it forth to serve my fellowmen; I thus prepare the way into the Ashram, thus drawing men toward the source of power and strength."
5. Having completed this exercise, then meditate for ten minutes upon the service you are asked to render; see it motivated and implemented by the energy just received, and let your creative imagination build for you a structure for your service.