We finally arrive at the stage of discipleship. We started with a seeker and then moved to an aspirant. We now arrive at what it is to be a disciple. Why strive for discipleship? You do so to serve evolution in all kingdoms and all life streams within a kingdom. To do this, one must place all one’s qualities and abilities at the disposal of evolution. If you are not prepared to make this commitment, then you will remain in the 4th Kingdom of Nature. When one becomes a disciple, you do not waft around with your head in a cloud. You still have to perform your life duties. However, when these are done, the dominant force in your life is still one of service. When this commitment is made, according to the Law, we are given opportunities to serve. When our work is done, we must acquire “divine indifference” to the results of our efforts.
Our passage through the 4th Kingdom of Nature is to gain a complete understanding of all the realities of the three lowest worlds, 47 to 49. This is the basic conditionality that must be fulfilled to become a disciple. Clearly, most of Humanity will not achieve this any time soon. Many believe they are ready, but they are not. In fact, not for many zodiacal cycles (2,500 years) to come. So what does discipleship imply? It means you have acquired one-pointed, unflinching, determination and endurance. You are prepared to work without any pretension, nor do you criticise. Crucial to all of this is a life view free from illusions.
Because admittance into discipleship is an entry into Unity consciousness (46), your candidacy must be acceptable to the entire Hierarchy. Why? Because what you are thinking and feeling is being broadcast to the whole community. They do not want their airwaves polluted. A disciple acquires new knowledge that must be purposefully shared. This knowledge is acquired over many lifetimes and has to be worked up into understating. You do not just understand the powers you are coached to share, but you know how to use them in the current applications. Why? Because you have both understood and used them before. This is the monad maturing. It signals lessons learnt in the past, with now a greater ability to rightly use these energies. It must be remembered that a disciple must acquire everything themselves. When they have acquired their traits and abilities, they get a “certificate”. This is what is termed “initiation”, a term that Laurency thinks has not been represented very well in Theosophical literature.
The term disciple has been used in many contexts by esoteric writers. It can apply to anyone from an aspirant, of a 45-self. Some say a disciple is anyone who has been initiated into an esoteric knowledge order. Others want to restrict the term to those who are personal disciples to a 45-self. Formerly, you had to be accepted into a knowledge order to be considered an aspirant. Laurency thinks this is no longer the case because esoteric literature has been made freely available. A disciple is a disciple until they can help themselves in all respects. This happens when you become a 45-self. You only gain full sovereignty in a world when you enter the next higher world.
Disciples are not only in telepathic communications with their soul group but with the Hierarchy as well. As has been mentioned earlier, the disciple does not always realise they are one in their current incarnation. The Hierarchy is taking steps to remedy this situation, so continuity of consciousness remains unbroken, something that only occurs now when you have taken the (i3). A disciple must keep this fact a secret and not testify to themselves. Their intentions and plans are also not communicated. If you have a tendency to gossip then discipleship is a long way off. Your personal life and relationship with others, especially members of our soul group or the Hierarchy should never be disclosed.
Here is a quick breakdown of the different types of disciples. 1) Those who are disciples but don’t know it currently. 2) Those who were given missions, failed to realise they were disciples and missed their target. According to Laurency, it takes these monads about six incarnations to retrieve their latent knowledge. 3) Those who have the possibility of contact with their teachers in this lifetime. 4) Finally, those who are in constant contact with their teachers.
Once a disciple always a disciple. However, disciples are continuously tested in subsequent incarnations to see how firmly established their newly developed qualities and abilities are. Consistency is important before contact is renewed by the Hierarchy. Therefore, in each new incarnation, the right to discipleship must be renewed. Once the (i3) is taken this is no longer an issue, as the disciple has continuity of consciousness. The monad is now a fully-fledged disciple.
Prior to 1925, requirements for discipleship were not so onerous. The disciple could call on their teachers in their sleep from the Emotional World. Remember, you are not objectively conscious in the Mental World until you are focused in your 47:1 permanent atom. At this time, the Hierarchy moved its headquarters from the Casual (47) to the Unity (46) World. After the publication of esoteric knowledge from 1875 onwards, those at the 3. Cultured stage of development was able to liberate themselves from the prevailing paradigms if they chose so to do. As has been mentioned, this greatly increased the number of prospective aspirants. This caused the Hierarchy to raise the entry requirements. Being a mystic (48:3) was no longer enough. Common senses and a better understanding of the Trinity, not just the consciousness aspect, were also beneficial. The days of the imaginative excesses relating to the Emotional World were over. Dissolving into the bliss of Nirvana was not going to hack it. Assumptions have to be backed up by facts.
The disciple starts by being focused in their 47:4 permanent molecule. If they are focused in the Emotional World, their teacher is there to point out its illusionary pitfalls. If they are focused in the Mental World, their teacher can directly communicate with them. This learning experience continues at the end of an incarnation, not requiring another incarnation to start before school opens again. This greatly speeds up development and explains why full discipleship can be achieved in relatively few (7-12) incarnations.
The Hierarch is concerned with the development of your triad structures, not your envelopes of incarnation. Hence, they are interested in your evolution through these structures to higher worlds, not your physical existence, with its attendant envelopes. The lower must be discarded for the higher. The Hierarchy is interested only in those that are prepared to “labour in the vineyard”. The organisation for the rest of us is left to the Lords of Karma and Destiny.
Consider this; knowing about your past lives is not informative for your future evolution. You do not have causal consciousness yet to interpret what you are seeing. Who you are and who you were is unimportant. It is how you are serving the cause of evolution that counts and only this. The Hierarch is not concerned with a disciple’s faults or errors. It is up to the disciple to correct these themselves. If the disciple is blind to these issues, they may get a gentle nudge. The Hierarch is concerned with those who can be functional tools for evolution. It is unwise for the disciple to question the methodology used by the Hierarchy for their development. If meat and alcohol are banned, there is a reason. The vibrations within each envelope are being revved up. Chakras are being activated. This requires upgrades to the fuel in the tank and all impurities have to be filtered out. These reorganisations are called “initiations”, as the monad moves it focused from one centre to another. The disciple must focus on their own task and not be dragged down or side-tracked. Letting your emotions rule your judgment obscures your mental clarity.
Laurency quotes a communication from a member of the Planetary Hierarchy to his disciples: “I have selected you to be my disciples, partly because you belong to the human élite, partly because karmic bonds unite you and me. You have come as far as you can at the present stage of mankind’s development. You all know that I love you all, for I can do no better. But for the sake of this love and that you might reach true self-knowledge, I say to you that you are a lot of rascals, all of you. That seems a hard saying to you. But go to the bottom of yourselves. Is there no spiritual unselfishness in you? Are there no repulsive emotional vibrations in your emotional envelope? Are there no glimpses of smugness at your mental superiority? And deeper than that you must go into your human envelope consciousnesses.
Sobering words.