Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - A Treatise on White Magic - Rule IX

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A Treatise on White Magic - Rule Nine - Fundamental Forms

Up to the present time the majority of aspirants in the world express the results of little and weak thought, but rapid action. The goal for students should at this time be rapid concentrated thought and slow action. That slow action however will be potent in result; there will be no lost motion, no delayed reactions, and no tendency towards hesitation. The attention of the thinker being focused on the mental plane, the progress of his manifested thought will be sure and inevitable. When the idea is clearly grasped, the attention closely focused, and the energy or life aspect steadily applied, the result will be irresistible appearance and potent action on the physical plane. [267]

This thought must be borne in mind if the dangers of the left hand path are to be avoided. Let me here make some statements in brief tabulated form, which will produce a truer understanding of the words "left hand path". We are dealing here primarily with those thought-forms which man creates:

The left hand path concerns the matter aspect and the life poured into the form serves only to vitalize the atoms in substance. The potency of the love aspects - as wielded by the soul - is lacking.
The form created is constituted of mental matter, of astral matter and of physical substance. It lacks the soul contribution. Its purpose is in line with the development of form, but not in line with soul expression.
The left hand path, therefore, is the path of progress for substance or matter. It is not the path of progress for the soul aspect. It is the "way of the Holy Ghost" but not the way of the Son of God. I express this truth in these words as it serves peculiarly to make the distinction clear and yet preserves the integrity of substance-matter and their Unity within the One Life.
All forms created at every stage are either confined to the left hand path or embrace it and yet go beyond it, and follow the right hand way. This sentence provides food for thought and its meaning is difficult to gather. It should be borne in mind that all forms, whether they follow the right or left hand way are alike up to a certain point; they travel the same progressive stages and at one time in their career they appear uniform and alike. Only when their purpose appears does the distinction become apparent, and hence the training of the aspirant in right motive as a preparatory step to true occult work. [268]

The question might be asked: What is meant by occult work?

True occult work involves:

The contacting of the Plan.
Right desire to cooperate with the Plan.
The work of thought-form building and the confining of the attention of the creator of these thought-forms to the mental plane. This is of so potent a nature that the thought-forms created have a life cycle of their own and never fail to manifest and perform their work.
The direction of the thought-form from the mental plane and the confining of the attention to that specific enterprise, knowing that right thought and right orientation lead to correct functioning and the sure avoidance of the left hand path.

This is a lesson little appreciated by aspirants. They engage in emotional desire for the appearance of their thought-form and the manifestation of the idea. They spend much time following the orthodox methods of work and in physical plane activities. They wear themselves out by identifying themselves with the form they have created instead of remaining detached from it, and acting solely as the directing agents. Learn to work on the plane of mind. Build there your form, remembering that if you submerge yourself in the form for which you are responsible it may obsess and dominate you and then the form will be the dominant factor and not the purpose of its existence. When the form controls then comes the danger that it may be turned in the wrong direction and find its way on to the left hand path and so increase the power of matter and its hold over sentient souls.

It might be briefly added that anything that tends to increase the power of matter and add to the potent energy of form-substance produces a tendency to the left [269] hand path and a gradual attraction away from the Plan and the Purpose which it veils and hides.

All work and all created thought-forms (whether they materialize as an organization, a religion, a school of thought, a book or a life work of any kind) which express spiritual ideals and lay the emphasis upon the life-aspect come under the category of white magic. They then form part of the stream of life which we call the right hand Path, because it leads humanity out of form into life, and away from matter into consciousness.

In an ashram of one of the Great Ones not long ago, a disciple asked his master to express this truth to him in such a way that though the words might be few yet the import would be worthy of continuous consideration. His master made this reply:

"Only the Sons of Men know the distinction between the magic of the right and left hand ways and when they have achieved, these two ways will disappear. When the Sons of Men know the distinction which exists between matter and substance, the lesson of this epoch will be grasped. Other lessons will be left but this one passes. Matter and substance together work out the way of darkness. Substance and purpose blended indicate the way of light." [273]

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