Hierarchical Democracy, Agni Yoga and the Plan

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https://hierarchicaldemocracy.blog/2019/05/11/usr-2019/

Agni Yoga, the Practice of the Presence

Three preliminary steps for which the practice of alignment should have prepared the student of the higher mysteries. These steps must precede all effort to develop the intuition, and this may take several months (or even years) of careful preparation. Fire is the symbol of the mind and these are the first three stages of the Agni Yoga discipline, or of the yoga of fire, for which Raja Yoga has prepared the student.

Profound attentiveness, the evocation of the stage of spiritual “tension.” It is a tension brought about by complete control of the personal self so that it is “fitted for contact with the real,” like the tension of a taut string attuned to a musical note ready to resonate at a certain frequency.
Adaptability of the Soul-infused Personality. The Personality becomes pliably receptive to the life of the Soul, achieving a state of fusion with the Soul, or solar Angel, as it eliminates the “points of frictions.”
Serene expectancy. The holding of the mind steady in the light of the Soul, which remains the attitude of the lower self for the entire remaining period of work, held at the point of tension by the Soul and not by an effort of the personality. The Soul undertakes this holding when the personal self has done its utmost to achieve the desired tension.

Next stages in the Technique. These must be thoroughly understood and form the basis of prolonged brooding and intelligent reflection, carried on whilst the daily avocations and duties are being performed and not carried out at certain set times. The trained intuitive or disciple lives ever the dual life of mundane activity and of intense and simultaneous spiritual reflection. This is a suggestive formula for a more advanced meditation attitude, not a meditation form.

The (Monadic) Presence. Keep a definite and sustained effort to sense the (Monadic) Presence throughout the universe in all forms and in all presentations of truth. This could be expressed in the words: “the effort to isolate the germ or seed of divinity which has brought all forms into being”. This effort is primarily to see in the light which the solar Angel radiates the point of light behind all phenomenal appearances.
Intuiting the Purpose. Having sensed the (Monadic) Presence – not theoretically but in vibrating response to its Existence – next comes the stage of the ascertaining of the Purpose, the effort to achieve an understanding of that which through the medium of form is seeking to embody the high purpose at any specific point in the evolutionary cycle.
The triple light of the intuition. To carry some world problem, some design which has evolved in the mind or the heart of the disciple for the helping of Humanity, into what is esoterically called “the triple light of the intuition.” This light is formed by the blending of the light of the personal self, focused in the mind, the light of the Soul, focused in the solar Angel, and the universal light which the Presence emits.
The interludes. After relinquishing of the Higher (Monadic) Way and returning to the solar Angel (refocusing in the Soul),
- a pause or interlude for constructive thinking, under the influence of the solar Angel;
- the turning of the mind to the formulation of those forms of thought which must embody the revelation; and
- then again, a pause which is called “the pause preceding presentation.”
Fiery ordeal. The presentation of the revelation of the imparted truth and its precipitation as a formulation of the lower concrete mind is achieved. It is a GROUP revelation. The group is needed to protect the individuals from “some of the fire within that which is revealed” as it “wings its way back to the source from whence it came; some of it serves to destroy the revealer, and some to burn those who recognize the revelation.” This phase of Agni Yoga may only be INDIVIDUALLY practiced by those group-conscious initiates who can penetrate beyond the solar Angel into the place “where fire dwelleth,” and where God, the Presence, functions as a consuming fire and waits for the hour of total revelation.

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Final Stages of Precipitation (see Rules on White Magic)

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[Adapted by JB from the Technique of the Presence (Glamour: A World Problem) by Alice A. Bailey.]

The Lord Looked at Peter

Christ

by Herbert Beecroft*

[Photo credit: John Wesley’s House & The Museum of Methodism]

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* It is not entirely clear why [Herbert Beecroft] decided, at the age of 41, to emigrate to Australia. He did much the same kind of thing there, making a good living, and it was there, in 1927, that he painted his most famous picture. He was a devout and life-long Methodist, and the story went that one day, after a time spent in prayer, he had a vision of the face of Christ. This he set down in oils, and it was subsequently copied many times.

I can remember a copy of it hanging of the wall of my Sunday school superintendent, and finding it distinctly unnerving. It had the caption: “And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter……..and Peter remembered.”

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REFLECTIVE MEDITATION UPON PREPARATION
FOR THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST

Forgetting the things which lie behind,
I will strive towards my higher spiritual possibilities.
I dedicate myself anew to the service of the coming One
and will do all I can to prepare men’s minds and hearts for that event.
I have no other life intention.

https://www.lucistrust.org/arcane_school/meditation/two_redemptive_meditations

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THOUGHTS ON THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST

BY ALICE A. BAILEY, JUNE 1949

Keep close in touch with Me and with the Master who surveys your life.
With Us are found the forces of the living Light and Love which you must use.
Keep close to us, and day by day draw on the strength
And knowledge which We have and which is also yours.
Let naught disturb the acquiescent calm which keeps you close in touch,
Which brings you light and understanding
And keeps you steadfast on the Way.

Source: I Stand and Wait by Alice A. Bailey

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Today Christ is nearer to humanity than at any other time in human history; He is closer than the most aspiring and hopeful disciple knows, and can draw closer still if what is here written is understood and brought to the attention of men everywhere. For Christ belongs to humanity, to the world of men, and not alone to the churches and religious faiths throughout the world.

The Buddha Himself is standing behind the Christ in humble recognition of the divine task which He is on the verge of consummating, and because of the imminence of that spiritual accomplishment. Not only are all those who are functioning consciously in the Kingdom of God aware of His Plans, but those great spiritual Beings Who live and dwell in the “Father’s House,” in the “centre where the will of God is known,” are also mobilised and organised to assist His work. The spiritual line of succession from the throne of the Ancient of Days down to the humblest disciple (gathered with others at the feet of the Christ) is today focused on the task of helping humanity.

-Alice Bailey, The Reappearance of the Christ

Kim, Inchang. The Future Buddha Maitreya: An Iconological Study.
New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1997. ISBN 8124600821.

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Maitreya, in Buddhist tradition, the future Buddha, presently a bodhisattva residing in the Tushita heaven, who will descend to earth to preach anew the dharma (“law”) when the teachings of Gautama Buddha have completely decayed.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Maitreya-Buddhism

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Maitreya, the “future Buddha” in Buddhist eschatology, is a Bodhisattva that many Buddhists believe will eventually appear on earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma. As such, he will be the spiritual successor of the historic Śākyamuni Buddha. Unlike his antecedent, however, Maitreya is understood in a more millennial light, as he is predicted to be a “world-ruler,” uniting those over whom he has dominion.

The prophecy of the arrival of Maitreya is found in the canonical literature of all Buddhist sects (Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna) and is accepted by most Buddhists as a factual statement about a long-distant (or, in some cases, an incipient) millennial age.

The name Maitreya or Metteyya is derived from the word maitrī (Sanskrit) or mettā (Pāli) meaning “loving-kindness,” which is in turn derived from the noun mitra (Pāli: mitta) (“friend”).

Many images of Maitreya portray him seated on a throne or in a meditative posture — both of which represent his future role in embodying the Dharma. In both cases, he is often depicted in the dress of either a renunciant monk or Indian nobleman, wearing a small stupa in his headdress, and (occasionally) holding a Dharma wheel and/or lotus.

Seated Maitreya,
Korean, fourth-fifth century C.E. Musée Guimet, Paris.

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Bodhisattva Maitreya,
2nd century, Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Maitreya

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In Mahayana schools, Maitreya is traditionally said to have revealed the Five Treatises of Maitreya through Asanga.

These important texts are the basis of the Yogachara tradition and constitute the majority of the Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.

http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Maitreya

Andrea Bocelli – The Lord’s Prayer

Andrea Bocelli – The Lord’s Prayer – Live From The Kodak Theatre, USA / 2009 – YouTube

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“Say each day, with care and thought, a very familiar prayer, The Lord’s Prayer. It has many meanings and the trite and usual Christian significance is not for you. Ponder on this most ancient formula of truth and interpret it entirely in terms of a formula for the dissipation of illusion. Write an exegesis on it from this angle, taking it phrase by phrase and regarding it as giving us seven keys to the secret of the elimination of glamour. The formula (which is not essentially a prayer) can be divided as follows:

a. Invocation to the solar Lord.

b. Seven sentences, embodying seven keys for the dissipation of illusion.

c. A final affirmation of divinity.

Use your intuition and apply these all to the subject of glamour and see at what knowledge you will arrive. [Page 25] Then write it down in the form of an interpretation or article and we may arrive at much value.

From Glamour: A World Problem by Alice A. Bailey