GLAMOUR, A World Problem by Alice A. Bailey Excerpt 3
Pages 42-44
I would call to your attention the fact that the whole problem concerns itself with the use or misuse of FORCE or ENERGY. So much will clear up if you will realize three things:
1. The average man and the aspirant work with the FORCES OF LIFE on the three planes of human endeavor, plus the principle of life itself.
2. The disciple begins to discriminate between the forces and energy. Upon the path of Discipleship, he begins to work with soul-energy. This eventually demonstrates the forces. (I believe the word ‘forces’ pertains more to the personality and ‘energy’ more to the soul.mdb)
3. The initiate works upon the Path of Initiation with the energy and learns to distinguish between the energy of life, the energies of the soul, and the forces of the phenomenal world.
The nature of these forces and energies and their use and control always have to be realized and worked out in full consciousness upon the physical plane.
The student discovers how these forces interplay in his own experiences. He grasps the fundamental fact that only those forces he can master in his own life can be employed by him in group activity and be used to dispel the world glamour. It might be expressed in illustration thus:
1. Through alignment and subsequent contact, intuition is evoked, awakened, and used. It pours down from the plane of the intuition (the plane of Buddhi) through the soul and the brain to the heart of the disciple. (alignment is not just the soul and personality being aligned but the chakras of each of the subtle bodies being aligned. i.e., if the heart chakra vibrates to the note of “C” in the etheric body, then the heart chakra should vibrate to the note of “C” in the astral and in the mental vehicle. Mdb)
2. Through alignment, the energy of the soul is awakened. This is the great dissipating agency. It pours down from the higher levels of the mental plane, through the mind to the brain of the disciple carrying illumination to the astral plane.
3.These two types of spiritual energy work differently upon the forces of the personality. Their activity has to be realized in the brain consciousness of the disciple as he works upon the physical plane.
4. Only then can the light of the intuition and the light of the soul return to the astral plane through the conscious effort and the dynamic, intelligent will of the serving disciple.
Ponder on these points, for they outline your way and your service.
One of the problems that confront the aspirant is duly recognizing glamour when it arises and being aware of the glamour's which beset his path and the illusions that build a wall between him and the light.
Pages 45-48
THE GLAMOUR OF AUTHORITY is a mass glamour in most cases. It has its roots in mass psychology and is one of the indications that humanity is at the nursery stage as yet, wherein men are safeguarded from themselves by the imposition of some rule, some authoritative dictum, emanating from state control, from the rule of an oligarchy, or the dictatorship of some individual. It is imposed through catering to the fear complex rampant in humanity at this time. This FEAR is one of the most fruitful sources of glamour. We might regard it as the seed of all glamour upon our planet.
When the glamour of authority transfers itself into the spiritual consciousness of man, we have such a state of affairs as the period of the Inquisition in its worst form with the emphasis upon the organization, government, and penalties, or the unquestioned rule of some teacher. In its highest forms, we have the recognition of the right of the solar Angel, the soul or ego, to rule.
The disciple has freed himself somewhat from the imposed control of orthodox teaching and from the rule of a teacher. Knowing his essential weakness and the lure of the personality, he is on guard against himself. But, like all persons who have not taken some of the higher initiations, he can, in due time, become enamored of his freedom and automatically then swing into the glamour of his ideal of freedom, an ideal which he has created. He becomes the prisoner of freedom. He rejects all rules except that which he calls the “rule of his own soul.” He forgets that he has to learn to accept the authority of the soul and the group of souls with which he is affiliated through his karma, his ray type, his choice, and the inevitability of the effects of the at-one-ment.
He forgets that he treads the Path IN UNISON WITH OTHERS and that there are certain rules of the road which he must master.
Those of us who are looking at him from the clearer heights of attainment see him gradually becoming obscured by wisps of fog as he becomes a “prisoner of the fog of freedom.” When his sight has cleared, he will know that the Law of the Group must impose itself upon him.
Page 48-51
To stand really free is to stand in the clear, unimpeded light of the soul, which is basically GROUP CONSCIOUSNESS.
What is this occult obedience, my brothers? Not what many occult groups make it out to be. It is not the control of an external organization dedicated to so-called occult work. It is not the exchange of the prison of one set of ideas for those of another set.
THE ILLUSION OF POWER is perhaps one of the most serious tests which come to an aspirant. It is also one of the best examples of this “great mistake.” It is rare indeed for any disciple to escape the effects of this error of illusion, for it is, curiously, based upon right success and right motive. It might be expressed thus:
An aspirant succeeds in contacting his soul or ego through the right effort. He achieves alignment. His mind is illumined. A sense of power flows through his vehicles. He is, temporarily at least, made aware of the Plan. The need of the world and the capacity of the soul to meet that need flood his consciousness. He knows. He loves. He seeks to serve and does all three more or less successfully. His right purpose enhances the directed inflow of spiritual energy. The result of all this is that he becomes more engrossed with the sense of power and the part he is to play than he is with the realization of a proper sense of proportion and spiritual values. He overestimates his experience and himself. Instead of redoubling his efforts and thus establishing closer contact with the kingdom of souls and loving all beings more deeply, he begins to call attention to himself, the mission he is to develop, and the confidence that the Master and even the planetary Logos have in him. He talks about himself. He gestures and attracts notice, demanding recognition.
As he does so, his alignment is steadily impaired. His contact lessens. He succumbs to the illusion of sensed power. This form of illusion is becoming increasingly prevalent among disciples and those who have taken the first two initiations. Any emphasis on the personality can distort the pure light of the soul as it seeks to pour through the lower self. Any effort to call attention to the mission or task which the personality has undertaken detracts from that mission and handicaps the man in his task. These two illustrations of glamour and illusion will show you not only the subtlety of the problem but also the urgent need for its recognition.
Pages 53-54
One: Glamour on the Mental Plane……………………………………………….Illusion.
Illusion is not met squarely, faced, and overcome until a man has:
a. Shifted the focus of his consciousness onto the mental plane.
b. Worked definitely at the task of intelligent service.
c. Made his soul alignment consciously and firmly established his technique of contact.
d. Taken the first initiation.
The word ILLUSION is frequently lightly used to signify lack of knowledge, unsettled opinions, glamour, misunderstandings, psychic bewilderment, the dominance of the lower psychic powers, and many other forms of the world illusion. The word must be used with a developed discriminating sense. The disciple must know clearly and comprehend the nature of that phenomenal miasma in which humanity moves.
Illusion, for our purposes, can be understood to signify the reaction of the undisciplined mind to the newly contacted world of ideas. This contact opens up from the moment a man has aligned himself and brought the lower nature into touch with the higher. Ideas come to us from the plane of intuition. The soul illumines the plane of the mind and the plane of the intuition to stand revealed to each other, and their mutual relationship becomes apparent. The mind of the man becomes aware of this undiscovered world of ideas, and he seizes upon some idea or group of ideas and endeavors to make them his own. The ideas contacted appear to him superbly unusual and vitally needed by humanity.
But the mind is still self-centered, the contact feeble, and the alignment uncertain. But the uniqueness of the experience in the realized content of the mind leads him deep into the realm of illusion. The idea which he has contacted is if he could realize, only a fragment of a far greater Whole. That which he brings to their interpretation is inadequate. The idea which he has through the partial awakening of his intuition will be distorted in its descent to his brain consciousness in several ways. That which he brings to the materializing of the idea and its transformation into a practical working scheme is as yet wholly unsuitable.
Page 58-59
Aspirants must learn to distinguish between:
a. An idea and an ideal.
b. Between that which is embodied, that which is in the process of being embodied, and that which is awaiting disintegration.
c. Between that which is constructive and that which is destructive.
d. Between the old and the new forms and ideas.
e. Between the ray ideas and forms as they color the higher presentations.
f. Between ideas and thoughtforms and between those purposely created by the Hierarchy and those created by humanity.
g. Between racial thought forms and group ideas.
The student must hold the mind steady in the light to perceive correctly, achieve the right outlook, and attain the right mental attitude. It was these right attitudes with which the Buddha was dealing when He outlined the Noble Eightfold path. It involves the reaching of a right mental ALTITUDE. Yes, I said altitude, my brothers, and not attitude.
To Learn more Please consult the Book 'Glamour, a World Problem By Alice Bailey
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