There once lived a young disciple in the ancient land of Egypt. A brilliant mind he had and yet his life was sad, though he was unaware of it. His real-life intention was not yet consciously clear to him and he did not yet know his soul. He was in love with an ideal and its form. After the Grand Gallery experience his life began to change and it was all very exciting. His eyes, so blinded by idealized love, were about to change. What happened in the next nine months to the young disciple would change his life forever.
One day while in the Temple of Isis, the young disciple was asked a question by the Teacher:
“How does the term ‘die not for outer forms’ relate to sacrifice, death, and life more abundant?”
The Teacher added: “Remember, dear son, there is no hurry, but I only wish that you allow this question to stew in your mind for a while. Immediately you may think, ‘Oh, I have this’, but I would ask, ‘Do you really? Remember, it is the duty of the disciple to penetrate the worlds of meaning and significance, seeking the esoteric value behind words, axioms, metaphors, etc., searching for the hidden meaning.”
Though the young disciple had studied the teachings of Imhotep and Thoth, accepting them as basic truth, the essence and understanding of the One Life Immutable remained only that in his consciousness— a mental understanding. He threw himself into the question through meditation, studying the symbols of the teachings, and most of all, by becoming conscious of all the outworn patterns needing to be released through an open and loving heart.
The graduation day came on the return of the star Sirius and he stood before his Mentors within the Crystal Chamber. He presented his words which came from a deep place of knowing, the Ka/Ba, the soul. A few months back, after much inner work, the young disciple had made contact with what could only be described as the eternal Light of Spirit. Asked to speak from the heart, the disciple said:
“I have realized we are on our way back from the unity of form-identified existence—through the varying unfoldments of consciousness in response to divine interplay and activity—to a final identification with the one Life. Form awareness has to give place to the qualified radiation of the self-conscious spiritual identity, which is that of a son of God appearing through form.”
One of the Mentors spoke:
“Well done, my son, this realization you have had will be superseded by two more phases of initiation wherein there is hidden the mystery of Life more abundant.” Pointing to a symbol on the wall, the Master said:
“The next initiation holds within its mystery the sense of divine synthesis, of which our bodily “well-being” is the lowest form of material, yet symbolic, reflection. It is a sense of coordinated blissful satisfaction, based on realized Being.”
“Then you shall be prepared for one of the greatest of all mysteries to reveal itself: A withdrawal from even this life-awareness to a state of higher consciousness, still more intensive and detached, which involves an awareness of the life of God Itself, free from form, but still, in a mysterious sense, aware of quality.”
The Teacher continued:
“In the ancient language of mystical symbolism, it might be expressed in this way:
‘I take a body. That body is alive. I know its life. I therefore know my mother.’
‘I use a body. That body is not me. I serve the group and, in this serving, live within the body, detached, a son of God. I know my Self.’
‘I infuse a body. I am its life and, in that life, shall I see life. That life is known as love. I am the love of God. I know the Father, and know His life is love.’
‘I am the body and its loving life. I am the Self, whose quality is love. I am the life of God Himself. The Mother-Father-Son am I.’
‘Behind these three there stands the unknown God. That God am I’.”
Bowing in gratitude to the Mentors, the young architect disciple, standing at the centre, silently affirmed:
To “die not for outer forms”, to love even more one’s fellow human beings, and to create that which has an outer form infused with the pure Light of the Self—is to fuse and blend form and life.”
(Note: part two of this story has been adapted from Esoteric Psychology, Vol. I p.34-35 by Alice A. Bailey)