GLAMOUR, A World Problem by Alice A. Bailey Excerpt 2.
Pages 26-28
THE NATURE OF GLAMOUR
In the preceding pages we dealt with certain definitions of the words dealing with illusion and glamour. We found that:
Illusion is primarily of a mental quality and was characteristic of the attitude of mind of those who are more intellectual than emotional. It is the misunderstanding of ideas and thoughtforms of which they are guilty and of misinterpretations.
Glamour is astral in character and is far more potent than illusion, owing to the enormous majority of people who function astrally always.
Maya is vital in character and is a quality of force. It is the energy of the human being as it swings into activity through the subjective influence of the mental illusion or astral glamour or of both in combination.
The Dweller on the Threshold, always present, swings into activity only on the path of Discipleship when the aspirant becomes occultly aware of himself of the conditions induced within him as a result of his interior illusion, his astral glamour and the Maya surrounding his entire life. The dweller is in reality a vitalized thoughtform…embodying mental force, astral force and vital energy.
The problem is to learn first of all:
To distinguish between these 3 inner illusory aspects.
To discover what conditions in the environment or in the individual constitution induce these situations of difficulty.
To find out what methods are effective in inducing a cessation of the deceiving conditions.
It must be remembered that these distorting conditions found in all of you, are the medium whereby you are tuned in on the world glamour and illusion. Each of you in this group must of necessity work separately and apart with himself and learn to induce those conditions of truth which will overcome deep-seated habits and thus steadily purify the aura. But this work has to be done in a group. Through the activity of such groups the world glamour will be dissipated.
First, the united auras of the group members ever determine the group condition, usefulness, problem, and glamour. Each of you either hinders or aids the group, according to his auric condition, which is either in a state of glamour or illusion.
Second, that the first job that each of you has to do is to determine his own peculiar problem.
Thirdly, as I look at the individual in any of these groups, I can gauge the quality of the group itself as a whole. What is required is a combination of positive auras deliberately subordinated to group work.
Pages 29-32
Strongly mental types are subject to illusion. This illusion is in reality a condition wherein the aspirant is being definitely controlled by:
A thoughtform of such potency that it does two things:
a.. Controls the life activity or output.
b. Tunes the aspirant in on the mass thoughtforms, which are of a similar nature, and which are built by others under the dominance of a similar illusion.
This, in its worst aspect, produces mental insanity or idée fixe, but in its least dangerous result produces the FANATIC.
When a man is highly developed, the mental illusion is built around a definite intuition and this intuition is concretized by the mind until its appearance is so real that the man believes he sees so clearly that which should be done, that he spends his time in a fanatical manner to make others see it too. Thus, his life slips away on the wings of illusion and his incarnation is a relatively profitless one. In a few rare cases this combination of intuition and mental activity produces the genius in some field; but then there is no illusion, but clear thinking coupled with a trained equipment in a particular field.
The weaker and more average mental types of people succumb to the general field of illusion and mass illusion. The mental plane manifests a different sort of distortion to that of the astral plane or the etheric. The faculty of discrimination has produced sharper lines of demarcation. Instead of the dense fogs and mists of the astral plane or the swirling currents of energy of the etheric plane, we have on the mental plane masses of sharply indicated thoughtforms of a particular quality, note and tone, around which are grouped lesser thoughtforms created by those who respond to thee forms. So many are these thought producing illusions that the effect in the world today has been to cause a general DIVISION of the human race into varying schools of thought (philosophy, science, religion, sociology, etc.) into many groups, all of them colored by an analogous idea into groups of idealists fighting each other on behalf of their pet concepts. These are today producing the world literature, through which the world platforms are colored.
By their means the world leaders are inspired. They are responsible for the mass of experiments in the field of government, of education, and of religion which are producing so much of the world unrest and world illusion.
It is mediating interpreters of ideas that are needed and not mediums.
The emotional types respond with facility to world glamour and to their own individual self-induced glamour. Glamour has been likened to a mist in which the aspirant wanders and which distorts all that he sees, preventing him from ever seeing life clearly.
In our race, the Aryan, the world illusion is gathering weight and slowly emerging into recognition in the human consciousness. That which is recognized can then be intelligently handled. These thoughtforms draw their vitality also from the realm of ideas, but of ideas wrongly intuited and grasped and forced to serve the selfish purposes of men.
Pages 33-36
The objective of all training given on the Path of Discipleship and up to the third intuition is to induce that clear thinking which will render the disciple free from illusion and give to him that emotional stability and poise which gives no room for the entrance of any of the world glamour.
This freedom becomes possible when there is in the aspirant no personal glamour and no deliberately self-induced response to the determining factors which have produced glamour down the ages.
Maya is the result of both glamour and illusion. It connotes, when present, an integrated personality and therefore the capacity to tune in on mental illusion and astral glamour. Where this condition is found, the problem of the disciple is one of the greatest in the world. Technically, the word MAYA should only be used in two cases:
In reference to the united glamour-illusion to which a man who is an integrated personality responds.
In speaking of the limitations of the planetary Logos of our planet.
It is my desire that you ponder upon these ideas. Watch yourselves and your daily life with discrimination so that you learn to distinguish between glamour, illusion and Maya.
I would suggest that you find out all you can about the AURA. I seek no copying to of paragraphs, but a formula of your own knowledge so that you can answer clearly questions which might be asked. The following three questions are basic:
1. What is the aura and how does it come into existence?
2. How can the aura be made the medium of light, and the light which should shine through it be intensified
3. Have you noticed what is the effect which your own individual aura is making upon your environment and how can you improve that effect?
As you look out upon the world, that you look out through your aura and have, therefore, to deal with glamour and illusion. There are 3 further questions which you might put to yourself.
Do I suffer primarily from glamour or from illusion?
Do I know which quality or characteristic in my nature facilitates my tuning in on the world glamour or the world illusion?
Have I reached the point whether I can recognize my peculiar Dweller on the Threshold, and can I state which form it takes?
Page 40
In summarizing some of the information I have given to you concerning the four aspects of glamour, I would offer the following tabulation for your careful consideration.
Note:
1.A dawning sense of MAYA arose in Lemurian days but there was no real glamour and illusion.
2. Glamour arose in early Atlantean times.
3. Illusion arose among advanced human beings in later Atlantean days and will be a controlling factor in our Aryan race.
4. The DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD arrives at full potency at the end of this race, the Aryan, and in the lives of all initiates prior to taking the third initiation.
5 The subhuman kingdoms in nature are free from glamour and illusion but are immersed in the world Maya.
6. The Buddha and His 900 Arhats struck the first blow at the world glamour when He promulgated His Four Noble Truths. The Christ struck the second blow with His teaching of the nature of individual responsibility and of brotherhood.
The next blow will be struck by the New Group of World Servers, acting under the direction of Christ and His disciples, symbolically described as “Christ and His 9000 initiates.”
7. The Four Keynotes to the solution of the problem of glamour are:
INTUITION, ILLUMINATION, INSPIRATION and the ANGEL of the Presence.
To Learn more Please consult the Book 'Glamour, a World Problem By Alice Bailey
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