When ma has passed through mahat, ma will still be ma; but ma will be united with mahat, and be a mahat-ma.

—The Zodiac.

THE

WORD

ADEPTS, MASTERS AND MAHATMAS

(Continued)

THE faculties do not act singly and independently of each other, but in combination. When one attempts to use one of the faculties exclusively, the mind is inharmonious in its action and will not be even in its development. Only when all act together and in their proper functions and capacities, will the mind have the best and fullest development. The faculties are as organs to the mind. By them, it comes in contact with the worlds, takes in, changes, assimilates, transforms matter into itself and acts on and changes the matter of the worlds. As the senses serve the body, so the faculties serve the mind. As sight, hearing, and the other senses aid each other, and contribute to each other’s action for the general welfare, economy and preservation of the body, so the faculties should act with and contribute to each other’s action in the exercise, training and development of the mind as a whole; and as the well preserved and well ordered body is an important and valuable servant to the mind, so is the mind, with well trained, developed and articulated faculties, a valuable and important servant to humanity and the worlds. As great care through long years of effort must be exercised in training and perfecting the senses of the body, so also should great care be exercised in the use and development of the faculties of the mind. As loss or impairment of any of the senses affect the value and power of the body, so will impairment of the action of the faculties limit the action of the mind.

All men use their senses, but only by training and development can the greatest or best use be made of them. All men use their faculties, but few consider differences and distinctions between the faculties themselves, and between the faculties of the mind and the senses of the body. An artist becomes great in proportion to the ability to use his senses. A mind becomes great and useful to the degree that it develops, and co-ordinates its faculties.

A man becomes a master when he has learned how to use his faculties. A master alone is able to use his faculties at all times intelligently and to know them as distinct from his senses, but every man uses the faculties of his mind in some degree. From the time one begins to exercise and develop his faculties and to control by them his senses, from that time, consciously or unconsciously to himself, does he begin to become a master. A man’s body has special organs through which the senses act, so also are there centers and parts of the human body through which and from which the faculties of the mind act and are operated while the mind is in the body.

One who would become an artist knows that he needs and must use the organs of the senses, upon which his art rests. He knows that he must care for that part of his body through which he develops his sense; yet he does not give his eye or ear special treatment; he trains it by exercise. As he measures tones and distances and compares colors and forms and estimates proportions and harmonies, his senses become keener and answer more readily to his call, until he excels in his particular art. Though it may not be known to him, he must, to be proficient in his art, exercise his faculties. He is using his faculties, but in the service of the senses, which is what those do who are in the school of the senses. Rather should he use his senses in the service of his mind and its ministers, the faculties.

The eye does not see, nor the ear hear shades of color and tone, form and rhythm. The senses, through the eye or ear, sense the color or form or sound, but they cannot analyze, compare nor reason about them. The light and time faculties do this and they do it under the name of the senses of sight or sound, and not under the name of the faculties of light and time. So that the senses gain honor not due to them and they masquerade as the faculties, but these serve the senses. By training the faculties to serve the senses and by recognizing the senses as the things to be honored, the way is found which leads to the school of the senses, that of the adepts.

Considering the faculties as distinct from and superior to the senses, and training one’s self to know the faculties and their working as distinct from the senses, and letting the faculties control the senses, is the way leading to the school of the mind, which is the school of the masters.

The faculties of the mind can be trained in a way similar to the way in which the senses are trained. As with the senses, the way to train the faculties is by exercising them. They must be exercised independently of the senses. While the faculty is developed which corresponds to the sense of sight, the eye and the sense of sight should not be used. Only after the practice in the training of the light faculty has met with enough success to warrant assurance in its independent use, only then may the eye be used in connection with it. But even then the organ of sight as well as the sense of sight must be considered and understood as subordinate to the light faculty. One does not exercise nor develop the light faculty by sitting with his eyes closed and trying to see things. If one sees things with his eyes closed, he is developing his inner, clairvoyant or astral sense of sight, and not the light faculty. The faculties are trained by mental processes and not by the senses or their organs. The senses should not be keyed up as by gazing fixedly with the eyes closed, or by straining the ear to hear. The senses should be relaxed, not keyed up.

One should begin to train the faculties by a certain attitude of mind. To train the light faculty, the attitude should be of attention, confidence, sincerity and good will.

The light of the light faculty is intelligence, which comes and illuminates the mind according to one’s progress. To develop this faculty of the mind, one may direct his mind to the subject of light and try to perceive and understand what is light in each of the worlds, spiritual, mental, psychic and physical. As one becomes proficient in the exercise, he will find that intelligence is a light and will illuminate the mind when the light faculty is able to perceive it.

The attitude of mind to exercise the time faculty is of patience, endurance, exactitude and harmony. All the faculties should be directed in thought to the subject of time and the time faculty. As one develops in the practice of these four virtues, the mind will become enlivened, stimulated, and a change will come in the understanding of things, and change itself will have new meanings.

To seek co-ordination, proportion, dimension and beauty, should be the attitude of mind when one wants to exercise the image faculty. The energies of the mind should be directed to the idea of the image faculty, but no pictures or forms should be created by the mind while the image faculty is being called mentally into operation. If pictures or colors or figures are outlined and seen, the clairvoyant sense of sight is being developed and not the image faculty. To assist in the calling of the image faculty into independent use, words, names and numbers should be conceived and their beauty and proportion, dimension and co-ordination should be seen, as the names, numbers and words are formed or imaged.

Seeking balance, justice, duality and unity is the mental attitude or condition in which one should be for the exercise of the focus faculty, and with this attitude he should bend all his faculties to know that which he values above all things. The subject which is taken must, however, not be anything connected with the senses or possible to be reached by sensuous perception. As he advances in his practice his mind will become clearer, the mental fog will be removed and he will be illuminated on the subject of his search.

Strength, service, love and sacrifice should constitute the attitude in which one should attempt the exercise and training of the dark faculty. He should try to be informed concerning the secret of death. As he preserves the right attitude of mind and continues the exercise, he will understand it.

Freedom, action, honesty and fearlessness, should be the qualities making up the mental attitude necessary for the exercise and training of the motive faculty. All of the energies of the mind should be centered on knowing the action of right thought. With this purpose in mind the exercise should be continued and the success will be announced when one’s true nature is revealed to him. All of these qualities are necessary to face one’s true nature. But the man exercising this faculty should determine and have the earnest desire and firm resolve to right wrongs at any cost. If this intention is certain and persistent in his mind, he will not fear.

Permanence, knowledge, self and power, form the attitude in which the mind can, with all faculties bent on the subject of self, try to call into independent, conscious being, the I-am faculty. In proportion to the success achieved, the mind will receive an accession of power, and man a confidence in his persistence through death, and he may at his will stand forth as a column of light.

The parts of the body through which the focus faculty operates during normal activities have been given. In order to exercise and discipline the faculties, it is not actually necessary to know all correspondences of the parts of the body with which they are connected, nor the centers from which they are operated. The parts and centers will become apparent to those who are able to use them. As the faculties are understood and their action becomes clear to one’s thought, he will of himself find the way to exercise, discipline and use them as naturally as he learns to speak and think and give expression to his thought. It is not necessary to have a teacher or a master. One learns by aiding himself and he is assisted in his efforts to the degree that he finds the means to aid himself.

Outside his own heart, there is no place at which an aspirant to discipleship in the school of the masters may apply for admission, and no person is able to receive or accept such aspirant, nor is anyone able to introduce him to a master. The school of the masters is the school of the world. There are no favorites. Each disciple must depend on his merits and is accepted by no preference nor because of credentials. The only speech which the masters can hear and respond to are the thoughts and aspirations of the heart. One’s thoughts may be hidden to one’s own view, but they speak their true nature in no uncertain notes, where thoughts are words.

The age is ripe for those who will to appoint themselves disciples in the school of the masters. The appointment can be made in no other way than by one’s resolution. Most people are willing to be masters, as they are willing to be great men and leaders of civilization, but few are willing to fit themselves and comply with the requirements. Those who make rash promises, who expect much in a short time, who look for results and advantages within some fixed time, who think that they may practice on other people and who promise the world to give it an uplift, will do others little good and be themselves the least benefited. One cannot appoint himself as disciple to another whom he opines to be a master, nor to a society or group of people, and have the appointment result in permanent good to any concerned. Masters do not hold their lodges with men. There are lodges, societies and groups of people who do accept pupils and do give secret instructions and who do have occult practices, but these are not the masters spoken of in the preceding pages.

When one appoints himself a disciple in the school of the masters, he shows that he does not understand what this means if he sets a time for his acceptance. His self appointment should be made only after due consideration and in a calm moment, and when he has an understanding that he is in eternity and that he makes the appointment for eternity, and not subject to time. When one so appoints himself, he will live on confidently, and although the years may roll by without his seeing any other evidence than his moral improvement and increase of mental strength, still he knows he is on the way. If he does not, he is not made of the right stuff. One who is of the right stuff cannot fail. Nothing will daunt him. He knows; and what he knows no one can take away.

There are no great things for one to do who would be a disciple, but there are many little things to do which are of the greatest importance. The little things are so simple that they are not seen by those who look about to do great things. But no great thing can be done by the disciple except by nurture of the small.

Cleanliness and food are simple subjects and these he must understand. Of course he will keep his body clean and wear clean garments, but it is more important that his heart be clean. Cleanliness of heart is the cleanliness here meant. Cleanliness of heart has been advised for ages. In every sphere of life it has been advised. If a student of occult lore makes light of it, let him know that a clean heart is not a metaphor; it is a physical possibility and may be made a physical fact. A self appointed disciple becomes an accepted disciple in the school of the masters, when he learns how and begins to cleanse his heart. Many lives may be needed to learn how to begin to clean the heart. But when one knows how and begins to clean his heart, he is no longer uncertain about it. Once he has learned the work as an accepted disciple, he knows the way and he proceeds with the cleansing. The cleansing process covers the entire period of discipleship.

When the disciple has his heart clean, his work as disciple is done. He passes through death while living and is born a master. His heart is needed for his birth. He is born out of his heart. After he is born out of it, he still lives in it, but is master of it. While he lives in his heart he lives with the laws of time, though he has overcome time. A strong heart is needed. Only a clean heart is strong. No drugs, sedatives, or tonics will avail. Only one specific, one simple, is needed. No apothecary, nor any cult or organization, with or without quick cures or sure ones, can supply it. This simple is: Simple Honesty. One must be his own physician and he must find it. It may have been long unnoticed, but it can be found in the heart. It may take a long search to find it, but when it is found and used, the results will repay the effort.

But honesty in the gross, the kind which the legal and even moral codes of the world demand, is not the simple which the disciple needs. Much of the gross is needed to get a little of the essence, in the simple. When honesty is applied to the heart, it changes the heart. The treatment will be sure to hurt, but will do it good. Only one who tries, knows the difficulties and obstacles encountered and the strength needed to find and use honesty. Those who are already honest, and are always offended at having their honesty questioned, need not try.

When a little of the specific of honesty is by an aspirant applied to his heart, he begins to stop lying. When he begins to stop lying, he begins to speak truly. When he begins to speak truly he begins to see things as they are. When he begins to see things as they are, he begins to see how things should be. When he begins to see how things should be, he tries to make them so. This he does with himself.

(To be concluded)