In the course of her many activities as an esoteric teacher and writer, Alice Bailey presented several series of regular Friday evening talks to students of the Arcane School. She spoke extemporaneously, sometimes on a scheduled topic and sometimes on whatever was occupying her thoughts at the time. Frequently this involved reading new dictated teachings from Master DK. Fortunately there was a person present to take down her words in shorthand, so almost 100 of these talks have come down to us. Some of the transcripts include informal discussions that took place during or following the talk. Dialogue participants are identified by their initials, or, if their identity is unknown, by the letter "C." We plan to add talks to this website on a regular basis, so we encourage you to bookmark this page and check it regularly.
AAB now turns to Rule Five, and reads the Tibetan's commentary on it. DK's words focus on the demand to move together as a group into an Ashram, and the need for all members to develop sensitivity to impression. AAB illustrates the challenge by citing her own experience recording the Tibetan's thoughts. Sensitivity to impression is crucial because, as AAB says, "an Ashram is a silent place." Although the Master is nearby, He doesn't lecture or hand out materials. He just creates thoughtforms.
Can you define what the Will-to-Good really is? AAB admits that she can't. In this final discussion of Rule Four, the group attempts to sort out some of the Tibetan's most challenging teachings dealing with Monadic consciousness and the three principal Wills: the will-to-be, the Will-to-Good and the will-to-know. The Will-to-Good, as the middle principle here, can only be created by a strong will-to-be and will-to-know.
The group continues the discussion of Rule Four. The following statement by Master DK stimulates considerable discussion: "In this Rule two main ideas are to be found, both of them connected with the first divine aspect: the thought of Death and the nature of the Will." AAB adds to the mix that death and initiation go together. What is it then that dies?
The discussion returns to Rule Four, and tackles the challenging sentences that symbolically describe the superseding of the individual disciple's consciousness with the consciousness of the group. One pithy comment offered by AAB: "If this group here really understood the significance of what the Tibetan is saying, we would not be sitting here applying these things to ourselves and wondering whether we understood. We would be occupied with something so much beyond that that I don't know how to express it."
This evening AAB continues with the topic of the previous meeting: the ongoing work of the Christ, as described by the Tibetan in the introduction to Rule Four. The topic is huge in that it includes the initiations played out symbolically in the life of Jesus, so the group is supremely challenged to weave together the many threads of the teaching into a comprehensible pattern. There are moments of floundering, and also moments of startling insight.
In this talk AAB turns to Rule Four, reading the introductory material by Master DK on the work of the Christ. DK writes at one point, "He remains with us as God the Preserver." AAB spends most of the rest of the conversation trying to elicit from the students a good answer to her question, "What is the Christ preserving?" The group is severely tested to come up with an answer that satisfies AAB. Does she herself have an answer? Read on and find out!
AAB initiates this discussion with the final phrase of Rule Three. The conversation that emerges is one of the most interesting so far, in that it centers around the Tibetan's teachings on "initiate consciousness," and how consciousness itself will eventually yield to the next stage, which He calls "identification." The discussion concludes with the three great energies focused in Shamballa - the Will to purification, the Will to destruction and the Will to organization.
The discussion returns to the rules for group initiation. AAB continues reading from Rule Three. A couple of stimulating ideas emerge, generating much discussion. One is that humanity, for the first time, has become spiritually invocative of the next higher kingdom in nature. The other is a numerological analysis of the word "Shamballa," one of only two discussion on numerology that the Tibetan left us.
This evening's discussion centers around the Tibetan's article "What is an Esoteric School," subsequently published in the Appendix of An Unfinished Autobiography. AAB reads extensively from the first part, and the group then discusses the implications for the Arcane School - especially the question as to whether the article should be given to entering students.
In this first meeting in the new year of 1944, AAB temporarily departs from the study of the Rules, and instead seeks to evaluate whether the group meetings are serving an esoteric purpose, and whether the individuals involved are measuring up to the opportunity. Readings from DINA 2 on the relationship of disciples to the Master and to the Ashram precipitate a searching discussion about the implications of Master DK's statements on the future of the study group.
The group begins to study Rule Three. Beginning with the Tibetan's commentary on Life, Sensitivity and Creativity, the discussion segues into the significance of the "bright center" in the Rule (Shamballa). The group, responsive to the Purpose, protects the initiate, responsive to the Plan, from the terrific potencies that emanate from Shamballa. This leads to a discussion of the two divisions of the Members of the Council at Shamballa - the Registrants of the Purpose and the Custodians of the Will - and how their roles may be reflected among initiates and disciples.
AAB reads the Tibetan's commentary on a portion of Rule Two and initiates a discussion of three important points: the protection the disciple receives from the Ashram, the three great demands made by the disciple, and the significance of the words "forward move."
This talk starts off continuing the theme of the last talk – the Sacred Word – but with AAB confessing that she doesn’t find the use of it practical, and asking for help from her students and co-workers! She continues to read from the then-new pages by the Tibetan on Rule 2 for group initiation. Two themes emerge: of seeing life in terms of ever enlarging wholes and of working from group to group rather than from individual to individual. The group then deals with the profound meaning of the advanced disciple’s task of visualizing the Soul controlling the energy centers, rather than falling back on the beginner’s job of controlling the mind, emotions and physical body. The key: understanding the unique role of etheric substance.
This talk continues with a focus on the first phrase of Rule Two: The Word has now gone forth... The topic this time is a most challenging one, even for AAB: the Sacred Word. DK's profound text dissects the distinction between AUM and OM, and then discusses the next step: the Sound. This stimulates one of the most interesting discussions to date, focusing on the creative nature of sound, how to use the Sacred Word effectively, and the importance of vocal training in using the Word and Sound creatively. We find that both AAB and RK have studied singing seriously, and that because of the nerve structure of the pharynx, singing can "take you into the higher realms."
In this talk AAB begins reading from Rule Two. The meaning of spiritual tension is discussed, then she elaborates on DK's comparison between the statements in Rule Two for aspirants and those in Rule Two for disciples, eliciting a lively group discussion. Tension is emphasized as an important element in helping esoteric students overcome blocks in their studies. Foster Bailey makes a powerful appeal to raise money for Hierarchical purposes, and explains how that can be achieved through tension, visualization and use of the will. His words have a galvanizing effect on the group.
Continuing with the Tibetan's commentary on Rule One, this talk and class discussion remain more tightly focused than usual. Perhaps that is because everybody finds DK's chief topics - the clear cold light, the burning ground, the Dweller on the Threshold and the Angel of the Presence - evocative and mysterious. The discussion is particularly intense concerning the group equivalent of each of these discipleship passages.
This talk includes extensive readings from Master DK's summarizing comments on the Fourteen Rules. Here he confronts the basic question: What is group initiation? His answer leads to AAB's theory regarding students who have dropped out of the Arcane School during the War. She also expresses her sense of failure in the School's use of the second part of the Great Invocation - of failing to "stand with massed intent." "We used it because we wanted to be obedient," she adds, "and that is not the way to get results." DK introduces three forms of interpretation of the Rules that challenges the group of students and keeps them more tightly focused than usual.
Using DK's commentary on Rule One, this discussion hones in on two instructions. What practical meaning is carried in the statement that the basic attitude of the would-be initiate is one of purpose governed by pure reason and working out in spiritual activity? Second, AAB asks how one can live an invocative life, in the context of the statement, "when your life is fundamentally invocative, then there will come the evocation of the will." The conversation concludes with a consideration of the relative power of goodwill and evil in the context of the ongoing World War.
This talk continues with Rule One for Group Initiation. The third sentence is under consideration, and the group relates the concept of "cold light" to each burning ground being "colder and clearer" than the preceding one. Initiation, group purpose, and contact with spiritual energy as opposed to Soul energy dominate this discussion.
The big question in this discussion is: What is the inner purpose of this group? While leading and deepening the group's thinking on that question, AAB admits that she doesn't know. The group as a whole, using Rule One and DK's related teachings, seeks to intuit the answer. Those present, in trying to function as an invocative group, produce the most focused discussion thus far.
Basing this discussion on Rule One, AAB talks about the meaning of initiation, particularly in group formation. She also emphasizes the sacrifices involved in working in a Master's ashram. The concept of Purpose is related to the burning ground, and those present strive to put into words the purpose of the School group.
AAB and the student group begin a new cycle of talks focusing on the 14 Rules for Group Initiation that DK was dictating at the time. They use the introductory material as a basis for diagnosing and correcting the recent "slump" in the Arcane School.
AAB starts this talk with selected readings from the first two Rules for Group Initiation. Here DK defines the "burning ground" as one of the crises of initiation in which all self-will is destroyed. Levels of service within the subjective group and in the Master's Ashram are discussed, based upon the disciple's identification with either the Soul or with the Monad. The group also considers the role of the will in precipitating the crisis of initiation and the nature of the new powers that are evoked thereby.
This talk begins with a discussion of the four lines of spiritual teaching that were emphasized through the centuries until 1875. Modern disciples are assumed to have mastered them, and now "new knowledge must supercede the old," according to DK. AAB and the group of students seek to determine what that new knowledge is.
This discussion centers on a statement by the Tibetan that the revelation given to the initiate is factual and leads to, among other things, new powers and new modes and fields of service. What are they, exactly? AAB and the attending students utilize the group mind and come up with seven new powers. The evening concludes with a lively discussion about the imminent new modes and fields of service.
This meeting served as a group response/discussion on the previous Friday's reading by AAB of the Tibetan's new article, "The New World Religion."
AAB reads a new 17-page article by the Tibetan entitled "The New World Religion." This constitutes the first in-depth presentation on this important Hierarchical initiative.
AAB talks extensively of her early life and how she came to work with the Masters. In the process she illustrates what contact with the Masters means and how to distinguish between the status of accepted disciple and that of world disciple.
What are the requirements for initiation and how do we know when it has occurred? AAB and the group of students probe the psychological and spiritual issues surrounding this mysterious and little-known phenomenon, which is also a major factor in evolution.
The nature of the aura; knowing the Masters through their sphere of influence rather than only in theory; defining and experiencing higher consciousness; commitment to discipleship work; the effect disciples and Masters have upon their immediate environment.
The use of group energies for protection and for service to humanity during the Wesak and Goodwill Festivals; how the group can cooperate with the Hierarchy and meet world need at this crucial time; how focusing on technique limits our power to invoke and evoke.
The higher Will; the meaning of sacrifice; true creativity and the Antahkarana; correspondence of Shamballa-humanity to Monad-personality.
Methods of aligning with the Masters.
Discipleship, initiation and relationship with the Masters.
Group fusion, the distinction between the Plan and the Purpose, requirements for membership in a Master's ashram, becoming invocative of the intuition.
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