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THE PLAN OF GOD
& HUMANITY

RAY-DATABASE

WHAT IS
A DISCIPLE

A DISCIPLE DESCRIBED

A disciple is one who above else is pledged to do three things
  1. To serve humanity.
  2. To co-operate with the plan of the Great Ones as he sees and as best he may,
  3. To develop the powers of the Ego, to expand his consciousness until he can function on the three planes in the three worlds, and in the causal body, and to follow the guidance of the higher self and not the dictates of his three-fold lower manifestation.


A disciple is one who is beginning to comprehend group work, and to change his centre of activity from himself (as to the pivot around which everything revolves) to the group centre.

A disciple is one who realises simultaneously the relative insignificance of each unit of consciousness, and also its vast importance. His sense of portion is adjusted, and he sees things as they are; he sees people as they are; he sees himself as he inherently is and seeks the to become that which he is.

SERVING HUMANITY

GROUP WORK

SEEING THINGS AS THEY ARE

REALISING LIFE OR FORCE SIDE
OF NATURE

A disciple realises the life or force side of nature, and to him the form makes no appeal. He works with force and through force; he recognises himself as a force centre within a greater force centre, and his is the responsibility of directing the energy which may pour through him into channels through which the group can be benefited.

OUTPOST OF THE MASTER'S CONSCIOUSNESS

A disciple is one who is transferring his consciousness out of the personal into the impersonal, and during the transition stage much of difficulty and of suffering is necessarily endured. These difficulties arise from various causes:
  1. The disciple's lower self, which rebels at being transmuted.
  2. A man's immediate group, friends, or family, who rebel at his growing impersonality. They do not like to be acknowlegded as one with him on the life side, and yet separate from him where desires and interests lie. Yet the law holds good, and only in the essential life of the soul can true unity be cognised. In the discovery as to what is form lies much of sorrow for the disciple, but the road leads to perfect union eventually.

FROM THE PERSONAL INTO THE IMPERSONAL

The disciple is one who realises his responsibility to all units who come under his influence - responsibility of co-operating with the plan of evolution as it exists for them, and thus to expand their consciousness and teach them the difference between the real and the unreal, between life and form. This he does most easily by a demonstration in his own life and to his goal, his object, and his centre of consciousness." 

REALIZATION OF RESPONSIBILITY

The disciple knows himself to be - to a greater or less degree - an outpost of the Master's consciousness, viewing the Master in a two-fold sense:
  1. As his own egoic consciousness.
  2. As the centre of his group: the force animating the units of the group and binding them into a homogeneous whole.

THE TRUE SERVER

The Master looks not at a worker’s worldly force or status, not at the numbers of people who are gathered around his personality, but at the motives which prompt his activity and at the effect of his influence upon his fellow men. True service is the spontaneous outflow of a loving heart and an intelligent mind; it is the result of being in the right place and staying there; it is produced by the inevitable inflow of spiritual force and not by strenuous physical plane activity; it is the effect of a man’s being what he truly is, a divine Son of God, and not by the studied effect of his words or deeds. A true server gathers around him those whom it is his duty to serve and aid by the force of his life and his spiritualized personality, and not by his claims or loud speaking. In self-forgetfulness he serves; in self-abnegation he walks the earth, and he gives no thought to the magnitude or the reverse of his accomplishment, and has no preconceived ideas as to his own value or usefulness. He lives, serves, works and influences, asking nothing for the separated self.


ALICE BAILEY
A TREATISE ON WHITE MAGIC

THE NEED FOR SERVERS

It is essential that servers everywhere - the intelligent men and women of goodwill - get a grasp, fresh and clear, of the work to be done, and that they become "relaying channels and not delaying points of selfish interest" in the divine flow. This takes vision and courage. It takes courage to adjust their lives - dailey and in all relations - to the need of the hour and to the service of mankind; it takes courage to attack life problems on behalf of others and to oliberate one's own personal wishes in the emergency and need, and to do consistently and persisntenly. However, there is so much to encourage the server. Humanity has now reached a point in development where there is a definite grasp of the Plan of the Hierarchy - call it brotherhood, sharing, internationalism, unity or what you will. This is a growing and factual apprehension, and is a general recognition by the thinkers and esotericists of the world, by the religious people of enlightenment, by broad minded statesmen, by industrialists and businessmen of inclusive vision and humanitarian insight, and even today by the man in the street. There is also a more definite recognistion of emerging spiritual values, and a greater readiness to relinquish hindrances to service. The plans of the Christ for humanity's release, are more matured, for they had to wait until such time that the trend of human aspiration became more clearly emphatic; and the new era, with its latent possibilities, can now be seen upon the horizon, stripped of the veils of glamour and wishful thinking which obscured it ten years ago. All of this is a challenge to the disciple. What is that he must do?
The disciple has to take himself as he is, at any time, with any give equipment, and under any given circumstances; he then proceeds to subordinate himself, his affairs and his time to the need of the hour - particularly during the phase of group, national or world crisis. When he does this within his own consciousness and is, therefore, thinking along lines of the true values, he will discover that his own pirvate affairs are taken care of, his capacities are increased, and his limitations are forgotten. He takes his place with those who perceive the needs of the ocming cycle - a cycle wherein the new ideas and ideals must be stressed, and for which a fight must be meade, wherein wider . . . 

ALICE BAILEY
A TREATISE ON WHITE MAGIC