Today, we are going to talk about discipleship. We have already discussed the possibility of receiving training, with particular reference to the emotional body, from a Master of Wisdom. Further information on this subject is possible. The necessary character qualifications have been described in detail in the preceding presentation.
When a person is approaching the stage at which they will be fit to be accepted as a pupil of a Master, the Master may place them upon “probation”, which means that for some time, the aspirant will remain under very close observation. The Master makes what is called a “living image” of the probationary pupil, i.e., an exact duplicate of the person’s causal, mental, emotional and etheric bodies. This image He keeps in a place where He can easily reach it, and He places it in magnetic rapport with the person so that every modification of thought or feeling in the person’s vehicles is faithfully reproduced in the image. Talk about Big Brother watching you! These images are examined daily by the Master, who obtains a perfectly accurate record of His prospective pupil’s thoughts and feelings by this effort. From this, He can decide when He can take him into the far closer relationship of the next stage — that of the accepted disciple.
When a pupil is “accepted,” the living image is dissolved, and the pupil is taken into their Master’s consciousness to such an extent that whatever the pupil feels or thinks is within the master’s emotional and mental bodies.
Should, unfortunately, a thought come into the mind of the pupil that is not fit to be harboured by the Master, He at once erects a barrier and shuts off that vibration from Himself. The effect produced by this wonderfully close association is the harmonising and attuning of the pupil’s vehicles. The pupil thus becomes a kind of outpost of the Master’s consciousness so that the strength of the Great Ones may be poured out through him, and the world may be definitely the better for the pupil’s presence in it. When the pupil sends a thought of devotion to their Master, it is as though a valve were opened: there is a tremendous down-flow of love and power from the Master, the Master’s power flowing ever outwards and in all directions like the sunlight.
The pupil is so closely in touch with the Master’s thought that they can at any time see what that thought is upon any given subject, and in that way, they are often saved from error. The Master can, moreover, send a thought through the pupil either in the form of a suggestion or a message. We are individuals in our own right but we can not advance to higher planes of consciousness without support from monads on those higher planes.
An accepted pupil has the right and the duty to bless in the Master’s name.
The use by a Master of His pupil’s body must not be confused with ordinary spiritualistic mediumship, as the condition is different. The highest form of spiritualistic control may more or less approximate the relation between a Master and His pupil, but this is probably rarely reached and hardly ever completely.
The difference between the two phenomena is fundamental; the two conditions are miles apart. In mediumship, a person is passive and lays themself open to the influence of any emotional entity that happens to be in the neighbourhood. When under the influence, they are usually unconscious, and they remember nothing when they awake from their trance. Their state is one of temporary obsession. Even the spirit guide, which is generally present, can sometimes not protect the medium from undesirable or potentially disastrous influences.
When, on the other hand, a Master chooses to speak through one of His pupils, the pupil is fully conscious of what is being done and knows perfectly to Whom they are for the moment, lending their vocal organs. The pupil stands aside from their vehicle but remains keenly alert and watchful. They hear every word that is uttered through themselves and remember everything clearly. There is nothing in common between the two cases except that in both, one person’s body is temporarily used by another.
The third stage is one of even more intimate union when the pupil becomes a “son” of the Master, the pupil’s monad, focused in the causal body being enfolded within that of the Master.
This union is so close and sacred that even the power of the Master cannot undo what has been done, to the extent of separating the two consciousnesses even for a moment. Naturally, before this stage is reached, the Master must have been confident that nothing can arise in the mind or emotional body of the pupil that will ever need to be shut off. The Lord Buddha was Christ-Maitreya’s master. The current Chohan of the 2nd Ray, Koot Hoomi (aka Pythagoras), is DK’s master.
These relationships — Probation, Acceptance and Sonship — have, of course, nothing whatever to do with Initiations or steps on the Path. These latter activities are tokens of the person’s relation, not to their Master, but to the Great White Brotherhood and its august Head. All these matters are dealt with far more fully than is possible or desirable here in The Masters and the Path by Charles Leadbeater, a book of immeasurable value to the serious student of The Right Hand Path.
Before, however, leaving the subject, it may be mentioned that at Initiation, the Monad identifies themself with the monad consciousness in the causal envelope, this act having an interesting effect on the emotional body: a tremendous rhythmical swing is given to it without disturbing the stability of its equilibrium, so that it is able thenceforth to feel with far greater keenness than before, without being shaken from its base, or escaping from its owner’s control.
Pupils will be employed by their Masters in many different ways. Some are set to take up the lines of work indicated in the preceding presentation on Invisible Helpers; others are employed specifically to assist the Masters personally in some piece of work that they may have undertaken. Some pupils deliver lectures to less developed entities on the emotional plane or help and teach others who are free temporarily during sleep or living their after-death lives.
When a pupil falls asleep, they usually report to their Master. If there is nothing special for them to do, they will pursue their usual nocturnal work, whatever that may be. There is always plenty of work to be done on the emotional plane: sudden catastrophes, for example, throw a large number of people into the emotional plane in a condition of terror and in need of help. Most of the training around controlling emotional matter is usually given by one of the older pupils of the Master.
The student must not confuse an ordinary emotional body with a Mayavi Rupa, or “body of illusion”. Students of the Master leave their emotional bodies with the physical when they sleep and travel in their mental bodies. When they need a temporary emotional body for emotional work, they materialise one from the surrounding matter. Such a body may or may not resemble the physical body, the form given to it being adapted to its purpose. It may also be made physically visible or invisible at will: it may be made indistinguishable from a physical body, warm and firm to the touch, and visible and able to carry on a conversation like an ordinary human being. Only Masters and Their pupils have the power to form true Mayavi Rupas, this power being acquired at or near the Fourth Initiation (i4). An advantage of using the Mayavi Rupa is that it is not subject to deception and glamour on the emotional plane, as is the emotional body. When a person functions in the mental vehicle and leaves their emotional body behind in a condition of suspended animation, along with the physical, they can, if necessary, quickly surround the torpid emotional body with a shell, or they can set up vibrations which render it impervious to all evil influences.
In the lesser mysteries of Ancient Greece, celebrated at Agrar, the principal teaching concerned the emotional plane and the emotional life after death. The official dress of the initiates was the skin of a fawn, the spotted appearance of which was thought to be emblematical of the colours of an ordinary emotional body. Originally, the teacher produced images of emotional and etheric matter that represented what, in the Emotional World, would be the results of specific modes of physical life. Later, the teachings were represented in other ways, such as through a kind of play or drama, the parts being taken by the priests, or even by puppets mechanically moved.
The initiates had several proverbs or aphorisms peculiar to themselves, some of which were very characteristic: thus: “Death is life, and life is death“ was one; another was: “ Whosoever pursues realities during life will pursue them after death: whosoever pursues unrealities during this life will pursue them also after death.”
The Greater Mysteries, celebrated at Eleusis, dealt with the mind-body and the mental plane, the golden fleece of Jason being the symbol of the mental body. Who would have thought that Jason and all his adventures were not about slaying monsters but about initiation?
Another symbol used in the mysteries was the Thyrsus, a staff with a pine cone on its top; frequently, it was said to be filled with fire. In India, a bamboo with seven knots is used. The Thyrsus was magnetised by the priest and laid against the candidate’s spinal column, thus giving them some of the priest’s magnetism and helping the candidate pass in full consciousness to the emotional plane. The fire symbolised kundalini. LSD or magic mushrooms are not an alternative to this process!
The Southern Buddhists enumerate five psychic powers that may be gained by the person making progress on the Path: (1) The ability to pass through the air and solid objects and visit the Heaven World while still physically alive. This may mean nothing more than the ability to function freely in the emotional body, the heaven-world mentioned being possibly merely the higher levels of the emotional plane. (2) Divinely clear hearing; this is the emotional faculty of clairaudience. (3) The ability to comprehend and sympathise with all that is in the minds of others: this appears to be thought-reading or telepathy. (4) The power to remember former births. This is a faculty of the higher mental or causal body. (5) Divinely clear vision, i.e., clairvoyance. In some lists, there is also the deliverance by wisdom, which means attaining freedom from re-birth. This is a very high attainment and scarcely belongs to the same category as the other powers enumerated.
Discipleship is a very long road. Even Masters are disciples of mighty Chohans who focus the seven rays towards Earth. What has been enumerated here are the first three steps along the path. Further reference will be made in the next series of presentations on the Mental Envelope. There remains one last summary presentation on the emotional envelope and its development.