As a Master studies his chelas year by year, he arrives at certain definite knowledges anent them which are very different to those arrived at by even the dearest or closest earthly friends. The latter are apt to fail in grasping life essentials, because the detail and the minute aspects of the daily expression attract attention and the surface is confounded with the depth. It is the depth which the Master sees; the essential quality which he grasps, and the major need which emerges. [756]

For years I have watched you. You have made steady progress in all directions but have reached a point which it is necessary that all disciples reach, where a supreme effort, based on clear perception and insight, is essential. To aid you in making this supreme life effort, I would like to touch upon these three points. I must touch upon them in such a way that only you will comprehend the implications. There is no need for your group brothers, or any one else who may come across and read your papers, to grasp my meaning. Two factors of interest emerge here. In veiling (from the point of definite personal application) the truths I seek to have you grasp, I present to you a compromise between the Eastern method of hinting and the Western method of plain speaking! I am, at the same time, endeavoring to convey to you the attitude of all disciples in training for initiation. This attitude is one of extreme personal reticence and of withdrawing from those verbal contacts which reveal too much of individual soul growth. This is one of the first lessons in the silence which initiation entails. It is also one of the first steps towards comprehension of that "isolated unity" which is distinctive of the Master. In the Hierarchy there, is complete unity, based upon a recognized isolation of spirit from matter. [757] This thought should provide you with a theme for much profound thinking.

What, therefore, brother of mine, should be the unique realization which this particular incarnation should help you to express? What lies at the depths of your being, seeking revelation? What is the essential quality which you should radiate? What is your outstanding need? I will tell you the truth as I see it, reminding you however that it is the truth as you see it which changes and conditions your life. You must therefore regard my suggestions as valuable, but regard them primarily as the subject of a defined spiritual investigation - to be carried forward with an open mind and a willingness to recognize them as correct and just when your own conclusions and your intuitive response justify your agreeing. Here are my conclusions:

1. The hidden beauty seeking expression in your life is the power to use words to arrest others and to put them, as a consequence, upon the Path of Return. This will undoubtedly surprise you, but your apparent inability to write, for instance, a fluent letter or an eloquent appeal, or to evoke the words of arresting power which you feel seething within you, are only indicative of a pronounced personality inhibition which you can overcome, if you so wish. Words are the expression of the soul, when rightly employed. You do not use those words. You can, if you determine to do so. The art of spiritual letter writing will release this inner beauty and enhance your service.
2. The essential quality which you should radiate is an understanding holding of those for whom you are responsible. I said "holding," brother of mine. A.A.B. has called my attention to the interesting fact that it is the rarest thing for you to lose a student out of your secretarial group, yet at the same time you write less and (apparently) upon the outer plane, do less, than the other secretaries. Why is this so? It is indicative of the quality which you radiate. This quality is in the [758] nature of a potency. It is the power to hold others steady by the nature of your understanding; this they feel, even if you do not consciously express it. It remains still basically subjective. A quality such as this - binding, forceful and enduring - carries its limitations as well as its benedictions. People can be held too closely to you for their own good, and it is ever the weaker who are thus held and the less advanced. People in this way can become dependent upon the one who holds, and thus fail to express themselves, and thus again their weaknesses are developed and a tendency to negativity. You can develop this theme yourself. But the beneficent aspect of this radiation is predominant in you and must be increased and this deliberately.
3. Your major need (and this you know) is freedom, is liberation. I do not mean freedom from incarnation or liberation from the pressures of life, but the freedom which the sannyasin knows as he roams free in the three worlds - unsupervised or unintruded upon by aught but his own soul. It is the freedom which gives mental help, emotional response and physical time as and when the disciple chooses. These are not evoked by habit or by the demand of others, but are the free contribution of the soul to a current need. Your response is not always to need, is it, my brother? Ponder on this.

In the six seed thoughts which I gave you a year ago, this theme of liberation, of a desirable divine loneliness, and of a search for a note that could bring freedom was a dominant one. They still should be the major subject of all your meditation work. I would suggest that for the coming year you take them as the seed thoughts for your definitely planned morning meditation. I am leaving you to do the planning, but would make one suggestion. These six thoughts will need to be taken one each month for six months, and then repeated for another six. For the first six months reflect upon them from the angle of your subjective realization as a soul; [759] for the second six months study them from the angle of practical expression in your daily life.

I am anxious for you to make the grade this life, my brother, and here I am speaking technically. I am anxious for you to take the initiation planned by your own soul, and to take it this life, so that you can enter into your next incarnation with the initiate consciousness (of the grade desired), and thus start with greatly increased assets for service. I would remind you that initiation is taken alone; hence my emphasis to you during the past few years upon the need for you to travel alone - spiritually and mentally speaking. From other angles you travel not alone. The spiritual life is full of paradoxes. We set out to develop a sense of unity and of oneness with all beings, yet at times we must learn the lessons of loneliness and of isolation. A great "aloneness" is the supreme test of the fourth initiation. Remember this. Yet never, my brother, will you be alone, and this too you must have in mind. It is, in the last analysis, a question of recognitions. Let me assure you: I recognize you and, my brother and close friend on the inner side, I know you and love you.