It’s that inner intuition that Alice Bailey is speaking to in that opening statement when she says, “If the teaching calls forth a response and brings the flashing forth of the intuition then let that teaching that you are reading be accepted but not otherwise.”
Robert: Welcome. Inner sight is simply seeing that which is always present but not yet fully recognized. You have within you the ability to see yourself and the world around you in a new way, with new eyes, so stay with us and together we’ll look at the world and ourselves with inner sight. Today we’re continuing our discussion on the books of Alice Bailey, the founder of the Lucis Trust organization, who wrote twenty-four volumes of literature. All the dialogue that you hear on this show emanates from the works of Alice Bailey as does this quote: “The books that I have written are sent out with no claim for their acceptance. They may, or may not be correct, true and useful. It is for you to ascertain their truth by right practice and by the exercise of the intuition. If the teaching conveyed calls forth a response and brings a flashing forth of intuition, then let that teaching be accepted, but not otherwise.” It’s so difficult to go into all twenty-four volumes, but we have to look at this as an overview. I thought that you did so well last time, so let’s continue our discussion on these works of Alice Bailey.
Sarah: Well, we were talking last time about meditation, and it was making me remember, as you read that opening statement which appears in the front of every book by Alice Bailey, that my initial approach to the books was through an interest in meditation. I remember thirty years ago realizing that if I had a mind, I didn’t use it very much and that I should and that I needed training in meditation to get control of my mind. I think a lot of people think—and they’re right—that if they want to use their mind, they have to get an education, which they do. But there’s another aspect to the mind that requires meditation training to discipline it and to gain access to the higher level of the mind, which is the abstract level, and higher still to the intuition. It’s that inner intuition that Alice Bailey is speaking to in that opening statement when she says, “If the teaching calls forth a response and brings the flashing forth of the intuition then let that teaching that you are reading be accepted but not otherwise.” In other words, use your own God-given inner light to evaluate the truth or lack of truth in what you are reading, particularly when it comes to some spiritual teaching. We were talking last time about a number of the books of Alice Bailey focusing on meditation, one being The Light of the Soul, which is a classic text based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which must be a teaching that’s perhaps ten thousand years old. There are different guesses at it. She wrote a commentary on these classic sutras or rules that have to do with meditation. Telepathy is another wonderful book for people who are interested in meditation, not to become psychic, but to develop the mind that can be impressed or can register the Plan of God. That’s one of the major responsibilities of spiritual seekers today, according to Alice Bailey: that we use our minds to respond to the emerging Plan of God, register that Plan, and become creative cooperators in implementing that Plan. That’s the duty of the human being.
Dale: And it’s using meditation in a different way, perhaps, than what one may think. It’s not meditation just for self-analysis or for self-development, or relaxation. It’s meditation that is used in a creative way to actually create thought forms of new values and so forth. As it says in the book, The Light of the Soul, the science of meditation is based on the techniques of Raja Yoga, where the mind will be known as the instrument of the soul and the means whereby the brain of the aspirant becomes illumined.
Sarah: The instrument of the soul. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? The mind is the instrument of the soul.
Dale: That’s exactly what we have to realize; it’s what we are. We must become the instrument of the soul and allow that soul to take control of our lives.
Sarah: And the very definition of man is from the Sanskrit manas, meaning “one who thinks.” That’s our responsibility and our unique contribution.
Dale: And that’s the great thing about this type of meditation, this particular technique of meditation that is stressed in the Bailey books.
Sarah: Our mothers were right when they said, “If you would only think!” They were right. Use your brain, or as my mother would say, “Use your noggin! God gave it to you; use it.” But it’s not just the concrete mind, it’s the higher mind that is not totally self-concerned. Most of us, if we really examined our waking consciousness, it’s thinking me, me, me, me, me, I want, I want, I hope, I hope, I need, I need. But there’s a higher aspect of the mind that is more diffused in its point of focus—maybe that’s not the right word—it’s less self-centered and more concerned with universal conditions and values. Meditation can awaken access to that level of consciousness where you leave the separated self and you join the whole. Your mind can merge with the larger whole.
Dale: And that comes because once you merge closer with the soul, the soul is group conscious and universally conscious. That’s the type of consciousness that takes over, that you begin to enter into, and you begin to think more in universal terms.
Sarah: Another really special aspect of the books of Alice Bailey that predominates in a number of the volumes is the idea of what she called the New Group of World Servers, which was her term for the men and women who are actively engaged in world service in all departments of human living, not just in religious work or social redeeming, but in education, in politics, in finance, in psychology, science, culture and the arts; in all fields there are people who are actively working to lift the quality of expression in those fields, to develop a higher understanding of the potential, say, for example, of the field of finance: People who are involved in trying to correct the problems of distribution of money throughout the world to alleviate the terrific poverty, the disparity between the very rich and the very poor. Those would be examples of people who are members of the New Group of World Servers, and the growth of this group, she says in her books, is a phenomenon of just the past century. It’s an indication of a gain in human evolution that people have attained the ability to cooperate in a subjective way, not necessarily knowing each other outwardly, but they’re part of a network of cooperators who are engaged in solving some of these major problems.
Dale: And that’s the unique thing about this group, and probably the saving grace for this group, because it’s not organized, it has no organization, and it has no head. There is no one directing this group. It’s just a group of relatively advanced souls that have come into the world at this time, particularly since, I think, the 1930s. They are now of an adult age, and they are the ones that are simply doing what they are destined to do in this particular life.
Sarah: It’s a sign of the particular stage that humanity has reached. Her books are directed toward the period of the last fifty years or so and the coming cycle of twenty-five to fifty years, which is the period of a shift between ages. There’s a lot of talk about the New Age and the Ageless Wisdom does affirm that at this period in human history, we have left what was called the Old Age, and we are moving into a New Age. The point of that being that it’s a time of transition and upheaval and of real crisis, because any time there’s such a major shift in energy, people are affected by it. It’s a time of opportunity, but also of great confusion and conflict, and I think we can look at the world and see exactly that.
Dale: Yes, and I think that is one of the reasons why these teachings are given out at this time, because of this transition period and the need for humanity to have some understanding of what’s happening and make sense of all the apparent chaos.
Sarah: And see it in a more positive light. This chaos and this crisis is coming about because humanity is ready for it, she would say. We have reached a stage in our development and in our links with our fellow human beings that makes it possible for us to move through the crisis into a higher level of better human relationships, better relationships between nations, greater peace. So, in spite of how the present times might look, we are up to the challenge, she would say. And the New Group of World Servers is a validation that there are great networks of people that are engaged in trying to bring in and anchor the new values of justice, right human relations, sharing, cooperation, the overcoming of the old familiar barriers of differences in religion and race and class and so on.
Dale: And I think you can look around the world in the past fifty or seventy-five years, and you can see these qualities emerging.
Sarah: Another theme that predominates in the books is that of the psychology of the soul, which is discussed in depth in Esoteric Psychology.
Dale: That’s a fascinating study to me because it portends the future of psychology. It opens the way to a new type of psychology, which is really the psychology for the well and not for the sick. It’s a psychology based on what we call the science of the seven rays, and we’ve talked about those seven rays before, the seven qualities of life that are differentiated and each individual, each person, each one of you is made up of a combination of five of these rays. This forms a fascinating field of study because it gives a deep insight into why you do the things you do and why you are what you are by studying these rays.
Sarah: And also, the direction in which you are heading as a soul, as an evolving being, can be identified by those rays.
Dale: And I think this will become a new field of psychology in the future. In fact, it’s already being used today by some psychologists.
Sarah: Yes, I think there is this growing realization that people have a fairly innate drive toward wellness, toward healing, not only within the body, but within the psyche. As you say, it’s a psychology of the well. It’s a psychology that awakens an understanding of the healing power of the soul to overcome all personal problems and cleavages within the personality. The soul is perfectly healthy and perfectly whole, and as one awakens to the realization that one is a soul, one can begin to find one’s path toward integrating all the different aspects of one’s nature, and it also helps one to understand others and to have compassion and respect for them. To me, one of the major effects of studying the books of Alice Bailey is that one comes away with a sense of the dignity of the human being as an entity. That every human being, regardless of their stage and evolution, is a soul in incarnation and has within themselves an innate impulse to evolve, to grow in understanding, to redeem himself, to overcome, to move forward into light in the same way that a sunflower follows the path of the sun. This gives one great hope for the shape of the world.
Dale: And it’s part of the ongoing series of revelations, and that’s one of the objectives behind evolution itself, that these books help provide.
Sarah: Well, she identifies a number of so-called revelations in the past century that came about. One was the release of the energy of the atom. Another was the effect of the World War, which brought a tremendous expansion in human consciousness through pain and suffering. And what else? What are some other revelations? Is that the kind of thing you mean?
Dale: Yes, that’s one of the things, but just the general awakening that is going on in human consciousness. The revelations come almost daily and these books of Alice Bailey provide a tremendous boost to that. In fact, they’re called revelatory teachings and they are also called teachings that should precede and condition the New Age. So, they have a definite purpose of coming out into the world at this particular time.
Sarah: I think the preceding and conditioning is that they make it very clear that humanity has to take responsibility for the shape of the world and to fulfill its part in the divine Plan. We’ve talked about this before, but to me, it can’t be said too often that humanity’s role as the middle or mediating kingdom in the progression of life in our world means that humanity is intended to be the revealer of the Plan for the lower kingdoms: animal, vegetable and mineral. So much depends on humanity’s intelligence or lack of it, cooperation or lack of it, unselfishness or lack of it in the way that we relate to each other and to the rest of the living beings that share our planet. The New Age will depend on what we do now and the kinds of decisions we make now.
Dale: One of those other concepts that was mentioned—I think we mentioned it in the last program—is about the Spiritual Hierarchy. Do you want to reiterate that a little bit.
Sarah: Well, the Hierarchy is called the Masters of Wisdom, the White Brotherhood, as it’s called sometimes. These are the beings who have passed through the human stage of evolution, but who remain identified and engaged in the evolution of our planet. They do not manipulate or interfere in our world, but they guide and prompt as the soul does. They direct energy into human consciousness, energies of light and love and the will to good. And again, it plays up the importance of meditation because for human beings to receive and respond to those energies, they require meditation and preferably group meditation. This is how the Hierarchy seeks to work with human consciousness to expand our consciousness through light and love so that we will then in turn make appropriate choices and decisions for the way we live.
Dale: And the Bailey books have really enlightened us about who these great Beings are, who members of this Hierarchy are, and the objective is to bring us closer together in cooperation, so the human kingdom and the spiritual Kingdom can come closer together, and they’re in fact on the path of merging eventually.
Sarah: I think there’s a lot of nonsense that’s said about the Masters, a lot of glamour associated with it, but essentially they could be called the Elder Brothers, and they give us assurance that we are not alone. But we do have responsibilities that we have to shoulder ourselves, speaking of us as human beings.
Robert: You’ve been listening to Inner Sight. Now we would like to close with a world prayer called the Great Invocation. It’s a call for light and love and goodwill to flow into the world and into our hearts. Let’s listen for a moment to these powerful words.
Sarah closes the program by reciting the adapted version of the Great Invocation.
(This is an edited transcript of a recorded radio program called “Inner Sight.” This conversation was recorded between the host, Robert Anderson, and the then President and Vice-President of Lucis Trust, Sarah and Dale McKechnie.)
(Transcribed and edited by Carla McLeod)
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