Study Set 11

More on the Rays #2

Contents:

Seed Thought
Reading Assignment
Written Work to be Completed and Mailed
Letter from the Teaching Staff

Reading Assignment:

SEVEN RAYS Vol. II 345-40l

WRITTEN WORK TO BE COMPLETED

The following passage (written by Charles Peguy) is quoted in the New Republic, March 9, 1968, page 33. "Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics ..... Politics laugh at mysticism, but it is still mysticism which feeds these same politics."

1)  What do you consider the right relation between a meditation training center and the individual student's political responsibility? What we are really asking is: what do you consider the relation between esoteric training on the one hand, and on the other hand: concerned interest in the affairs of one's nation, and its problems, its moral code, and its spiritual growth?

2)  Government is one of the seven major departments of planetary work. Disciples and initiates are to be found working and serving in all seven departments. Let us consider disciples and initiates who are today engaged in government and politics.

How would an esoteric student recognize a disciple working and serving in the political field?

If you recognize a serving disciple in the field of government in the following situations, how could you support his efforts?

If he were a candidate for elective office.

If he were taking action contrary to public opinion, or contrary to public sentiment.

If he were the target of powerful attack or powerful opposition.

Dear Fellow Server-in-Training:

Instead of a letter from the staff which usually occupies this section of the study set, we are presenting a statement by the Tibetan, written in 1947. There is real need for clear thinking about money, particularly at this time. You are asked to add your quota of clear thinking. The teaching staff joins in giving its quota of thoughtful concern. Thus together we focus the clear steady light of the group mind upon an energy (money) which, rightly used, could produce peace on earth and an entirely new world civilization.

THE REGENERATION OF THE MONEY IN THE WORLD

There is a task which must have its initial try-out in the United States, even though the activities and the attitudes which it may initiate may be world-wide. It must be undertaken prior to the coming of the Christ, because upon its success will depend the right and correct inauguration of the coming civilization. This work is engrossing the attention of the Master R -- and of all the Masters upon the third ray. It is the task of regenerating MONEY.

Let me deal first of all with the few antagonistic comments which my earlier handling of the matter called forth.....

The first comment was naturally what A.A.B. calls "the old chestnut" (I know not what that phrase means or its origin, but people seem to comprehend it!) that spiritual people must not be occupied with money and must lay no emphasis upon it. What they really mean – in this meaningless generalization -- is that the spiritually minded man must have no selfish interest in money. Those who say this are, nevertheless, definitely interested (for instance) in the size of their salary and in the acquiring of the necessary funds so as to live according to their station in the world; such interest is thus both right and reasonable. Why they should not be interested in money in relation to their spiritual status (as they think it is) on the physical plane remains to many of the onlooking Hierarchy one of the mysteries of glamour or of illusion. Because of this glamour, they have permitted the esoteric work on behalf of humanity to be neglected and often left undone. If I am right in my constantly enunciated premise that the divine life includes the physical plane, and that the word "spiritual" can be used in relation to all activity that is rightly motivated, then their position is unreasonable and is definitely hindering the spread of the Ancient Wisdom. These immature thinkers shut away vast sums of money and a whole area of creative activity (of which money is the symbol and the active energy) because of an initial premise which is false to start with. They have been, however, perfectly willing to see countless billions (I said billions and not millions, brother of mine) go into the fields of film-making (a perfectly legitimate business), cigarette smoking, liquor drinking and candy eating without a qualm or a protest and yet all the time the work of saving and helping humanity under hierarchical impulse is blocked and hindered by lack of funds.

None of this expression of financial expenditure and of creativity is wrong in itself; it is the misuse of them and the selfish emphasis which is wrong; as mankind evolves there will be less and less demand for the strictly physical pleasures and satisfactions; today the proportion of the expenditure is at fault; it is to this I would call the attention of the people who regard money as lying outside the interests of spiritual people.

Another reaction is that the Christ and His disciples (and the Buddha and His followers) never stressed money or made it apparent that material interests should play any part in the life of a true disciple. May I remind you that both these great Exponents of the divine Wisdom with Their conditioning philosophies and Their world-saving destiny (at no time more potent than today) lived in oriental countries where the needs of the time were small indeed, where there was.1ittle required or to be bought beyond food and clothing; therefore money played only a small part in the life of the masses. We read also that when the Christ needed money or the equivalent of money, He used His creative power to procure it; when the Buddha needed it, He went from house to house and from person to person with His begging bowl. Such facts the ancient Scriptures tell us; the Christian Church perpetuates this begging bowl in the form of the alms plate or the offertory bag at each church service. Men have not yet developed the creative power of the Christ to meet the right needs which the service of humanity demands. The begging bowl is still in order in some form or another.

Still another argument which is brought up is in reality only another form of the first, it takes the position that men must not use their divine powers to meet their material needs; that they must "seek first the Kingdom of God", and that all these things will then be added to them. These people usually point out the wrong emphasis laid by the Christian Scientist or the Unity member upon the acquisition of money or of physical health, as a demonstration of spirituality; they feel superior when they do not follow these formulas or methods. They are, of course, right about the over-emphasis and about the use of spiritual potency for ends which would benefit the individual and his family, or which fill the coffers of the organization to which the individual belongs. But they are wrong because they apply this argument to the use of spiritual power to aid the work of that great spiritual Agency, the spiritual Hierarchy; this Hierarchy is responsible for the emergence, upon the physical plane, of all those organizations which express some aspect of the Ancient Wisdom. I would have you think this out for yourselves. I will not enlarge further upon this aspect of the matter, for the implications should be clear to the sincere thinker.

Still another antagonism is brought out in the statement so often made that "money is evil", that it is to be found in the hands of evil men, and that the whole financial system is rotten (I believe that that is the word most frequently used). Therefore, the esotericist must have naught to do with it and thus refuses to be contaminated by it or permit himself to touch it on a large scale. Money is not evil; the "love of money" for itself and for its material equivalent is evil and this distinction is often forgotten. Money does not lie in the hands of evil men and when you use this phrase you demonstrate little understanding of the nature of evil. Many of those handling money on a vast scale are under the dominance of glamour and illusion, but I would ask: Are not most perople more or less under such glamours and illusions according to their ray and temperament and point in evolution? Much of the money in the world is in the hands of men who are upon the third ray, which deals largely with the manipulation of energy and that involves much money manipulation at this time; it is manipulated also by many who love power, who have succumbed to the glamour of money (which glamour you also have helped to create), and who are selfish in their thinking and grasping in their desire. Are you also selfish and grasping along certain lines?

These reactions are, however, simply a part of the present world glamour; they are tied in with the entire world economic problem which involves you, as everyone else; even your failure to think clearly on this matter feeds this glamour, as does the disastrous situation of the masses of indigent poor, the underfed and those who -from poverty alone -- overestimate the value of money and would almost sell their souls to possess it.

The world financiers are no different to you in their hopes and their longings; they are not, as a general rule, evil men; they are frequently kindly men with a definite sense of responsibility to their families and to their stockholders (of whom you may be one) and sometimes to the world, from the humanitarian and economic angle. Often they feel that they are doing much good, directing the world resources into channels which will benefit the masses; they contribute largely to philanthropies and humanitarian concerns.

The Hierarchy does not take the position that this man is evil, because he is making millions or that this man is bad because he does not make millions, or that you are bad because you have a larger income or salary than someone else. The Masters take the position that the massed selfishness of humanity, as a whole, has brought the present financial situation into being and that the spiritual. people of the world are faced with the problem of bringing order out of the present economic chaos and of restoring a balance to the use of money which is today non-existent.

This balance will not be brought about by a superior spiritual attitude which refuses to tackle the problem, which regards the use of spiritual energy in prayer, invocation and meditation as wrong, and which thanks God that its believers are not numbered among the wicked capitalists. You can be a wicked capitalist with $1000 in the bank or less, if your motives are selfish and if you refuse to share it with any one in need.

We are not sweet idealists, desiring to help humanity and looking (as are some of you) for some divine agency -- beyond ourselves and beyond humanity -- to step in and materialize the money for our work. We are practical men of affairs; some of us in earlier lives had much money and much financial power; the subject of money and of world finance and of how to acquire it, is more familiar to us than it is to the majority of those who read my words.

It is not, however, our task to intervene in human destiny and its opportunities of how to work and what to learn. Men must themselves straighten out their own affairs, including the present financial chaos; we may not interfere. When humanity adjusts its own mistakes and initiates the steps which will put misused money to right uses, then the task will be permanently accomplished, because it will be wrought out of the very depths of the human heart and with the aid of human intelligence. This would not be the case if we intervened. We present the problem; it is for you to solve.

We begin necessarily with the world aspirants, esotericists and disciples; we ask their help in clearing away the difficulty in presenting the point of view for the new and coming era, in preparing men for the return of the Christ into recognition and in the spiritualizing of that crystallized energy to which the name of money is given.

Therefore, what must be done at this time?

First of all, clear thinking and then the assumption of a right attitude by each and all. Next will come the realization that the Hierarchy is asking your help at the re-directing.of human thought along financial lines at this time, and consequently the rechannelling of the world's money.

Nations do not realize that the moment they channel money into true spiritual channels (feeding the hungry, and providing homes and security for all) the creation of this channel will bring about two things:

Peace on earth, by healing cleavages, bridging all distinctions, restoring confidence and negating any planned world hegemony, such as that of Russia. Ambitious nations will then -- without war -- be forced to become a part of a general world planning, supervised by the three Great Powers, in cooperation with the little nations.

Release of spiritual energy of a nature hitherto unknown but which the Hierarchy of the planet is anxiously waiting to transmit -- an energy which will bring about right organization, the appearance of new types of planetary resources (latent but as yet unperceived) and the stimulation of scientific research. Thus new energies will be made available for peaceful and beautiful living. The release of this energy will affect every human mind and heart; it is this with which the new Invocation deals -- from the angle of the Hierarchy.

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