World of the Soul
Author's Introduction
Chapter 1: The Search for Truth
Chapter 2: The Soul
Chapter 3: Life and Form
Chapter 4: The Constitution of a Human Being
Chapter 5: Awakening to the Soul
Chapter 6: Masters of the Wisdom
Chapter 7: Spiritual Hierarchy
Chapter 8: Hierarchies of Life
Chapter 9: History of the Soul
Chapter 10: The Path of Initiation
Chapter 11: First Initiation
Chapter 12: Second Initiation
Chapter 13: Third Initiation
Chapter 14: The Continuity of Revelation
Chapter Six
Masters of the Wisdom
The process of evolution has produced a few rare beings, lives, healers, and teachers that have gone beyond the human consciousness, who have unfolded all the potentiality of their souls, and who have in addition unfolded a measure of the Spirit aspect. They have demonstrated this unfoldment by sanctity of living, endless service to humanity, and the manifestation of spiritual Light and Love. These members of the Kingdom of Souls who know they are souls and who have unfolded their inner human potential to its fullest extent are called Elder Brothers, Arhats, Mahatmas, Lords of Compassion, or — most usual of all — Masters of the Wisdom.
Hardly any word in the esoteric lexicon has been misunderstood more than the word "Master." It means a host of things to so many different people that evoking some sense of agreement on the matter seems quite out of the question. Nevertheless, let us agree to disagree, look at some of the definitions on hand, and come to our own conclusions.
There are those who would have us believe that the Masters are purely and simply the invention of one of the founders of Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky, and those who followed in her footsteps. No one, they say, was speaking of the Masters before her, and everyone has done so ever since her day. The "Masters," they claim, were built upon the lives of some of the people Blavatsky knew, and she built up a web of fantasy about them, but ultimately — they say — came to regret her fantasy images. Thus, to these students, the Masters are just ordinary people, and nothing more.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who believe in a cosmos full of well-nigh omnipotent Masters. Various New Age groups and a host of mediums and channels seem to ardently hold this view. They view the Masters as superhuman beings, able to perform a miracle at the drop of a hat. These Masters are ready and willing to interfere with and offer advice about any personal matter. To these people, the Masters amount to miracle workers and teachers of New Age philosophies.
Still others look to the Masters in the same way that the students of eastern religions have always looked to their gurus. They see the Masters as being guides for spiritual evolution, as way-showers, as those who can present the student with new understanding of the soul and the spirit. Yet the word "guru" is as loosely applied as the word "Master." Some gurus are simply human teachers, admit this, and go on their way, doing their best to help others. Other gurus of past history have been entirely out of the ordinary. For example, anyone who has done any serious study of Tibetan Buddhism knows of the miraculous stories of Milarepa, Padma-Sambhava, and other Himalayan teachers — one cannot classify these gurus as being simply ordinary people, if these accounts are to be believed.
In another entirely different direction than the above views are those who consider the Masters the personification of the Inner Teacher, and speak of the Master Within. They believe that there is no surer, better guide than the Master in the Heart, who is the ultimate source of wisdom, understanding, and love within the human system. Any outer guide, they say, however wise that guide may be, is just a distraction to our coming to an awareness of our true self, our soul, and our spiritual nature.
Into all this comes what is perhaps an esoteric view of the Masters which, to some extent, partakes of all of the above views. There seems to be an element of truth in all of the above concepts, but also an element of falsity. The Masters are indeed just ordinary human beings in the sense that they are not outside of nature. They are not supernatural superbeings, flying through the air on cosmic missions. They are human beings first and foremost, who walk and talk and work like any other human being would do. For example, H.P. Blavatsky and Nicholas and Helena Roerich met the Master Morya on various occasions. They talked with him face to face, as we speak with any other human being. He was not, therefore, a "spirit" or a "spook" or something channeled from the constellation Orion. He was a living, breathing person who they spoke to in public parks, hotel rooms, and city streets.
At the same time, the Master Morya demonstrated that he was not simply an ordinary human being. He did not prove this by his powers (though there are stories of such) but instead by his work and his teachings. The strength and potency of his words, the wisdom of his guidance, and the effectiveness of his plans all spoke of a power beyond the human — but not outside of nature.
Yet at the same time, the Masters leave their students free to work out their own destiny, solve their own problems, and stand on their own two feet. They are not superbeings who are here to solve each and every personality problem we have. They are not here to solve our individual difficulties. Nor do the Masters intervene in regard to humanity's free will. If the Masters were the superbeings that the mediums and channels portray, we would all merely be their puppets, dancing on the strings of their superpowers.
Perhaps we can agree that many of the the gurus of Tibet have been on the level of initiates and Masters. The concept of guru and Master overlap here, in that many Masters take students for training, though others do not. But the purpose of the Master is not training students, but is instead fulfilling the Plan for humanity and the planet. The individual accomplishment of their disciples is secondary. The Masters, in addition, are focussed upon that higher kingdom in nature we call Shamballa and upon the Light of the Monad, and not upon the petty problems, difficulties, and tribulations of their students. In the ashrams of the Masters, the unrefined personality cannot enter.
In addition, it is wise to understand that the soul is the ultimate Master. As has been said here so many times, there is no higher authority for any student than one's own soul. The whole effort of this teaching is meant to put us in contact with our own soul and unfold our true nature, rather than to put us into contact with the Masters. Yet to suppose that the Master only appears within, and cannot appear in the world, also seems limited.
The soul lives in a Kingdom of Souls, and the energies of cooperation and unity are powerful soul impulses. Thus the Masters work with human souls, and human souls in turn work with the Masters. The soul, the Master, and the human personality work, so to speak, in a triangular relationship in order to produce progress and lead us onward to initiation. Indeed, in the world of the soul and of nonseparateness, it is not clear that there is a meaningful distinction between one's own soul and the Universal Soul, or one's own higher self and the Master. A level of unity is achieved that makes their energies One — again without infringing upon human free will or being authoritarian in any way. It is a union of Love and Brotherhood. When we have found the soul within, the Master in our hearts, we have also connected up with the Kingdom of Souls, and the world of the Masters may then be entered.
The Masters are not called such because they are masters over other people but instead because they have mastered their own nature. They have transcended personality selfishness, cruelty, hatred, greed, jealousy, and envy. They have entered into a new life and a new consciousness. They have unfolded the spiritual powers of the soul: the Abstract Mind, the Spiritual Intuition, and the Spiritual Will. They have learned discrimination, dispassion, and discipline, and have decentralized themselves from the lower self and the little personality, living eternally in the inclusive Unity of Spirit. They have dedicated their lives to the service of humanity and the planet, and have thus detached themselves from the limiting ego, the lower self, so that it is no longer the center of their universe. They have filled themselves with love and compassion for all beings, and have thus become one with soul purpose.
The Masters consist of all those who have evolved past the human stage, who have so developed their awareness that they have stepped out of the human consciousness into the full awareness of their soul nature and have become at-one with the Universal Soul. They have developed their love nature such that it has expanded beyond love of self, love of family, and love of nation to embrace all humanity in an unconditional, compassionate love. They have developed their awareness so that they can see with an inner sight on the mental and intuitional levels just as we now see with our physical eyes in the physical world. They have transcended personal desire, replacing it stage by stage — first with aspiration, then with service, and still later with an all encompassing identification with humanity. They have consequently transcended the limitations of the lower self, and they have done this not by destroying it, but by transforming it into a perfected instrument for the expression of the soul. Their personalities have become instruments of the Spiritual Will and Intuition; the frustrations, irritations, angers, fears, longings, desires, and aspirations of the lower self have all been experienced, passed through, and transformed into Divine Love. The Masters have entered into a high state of consciousness that is as far beyond our understanding as the human state of consciousness is to our pet cat or dog. A whole new kingdom of experience is theirs, with its own laws and rules, its own activities and goals, and its own structure and society.
The Masters are, therefore, human, but not limited by human faults. The Masters are Divine, but not omnipotent. The Masters are gurus, but teach for the purpose of fulfilling the Divine Plan. The Master for each of us is found within our own heart, but that human heart leads to the Planetary Heart, the esoteric Brotherhood. Each soul is already a part of the Planetary Soul, the Hierarchy of Light, and the Kingdom of Souls. It is for us to find our way to that world of souls, and to the Masters of the Wisdom who dwell there.
Previous — End of Chapter Six — Next
Author's Introduction
Chapter 1: The Search for Truth
Chapter 2: The Soul
Chapter 3: Life and Form
Chapter 4: The Constitution of a Human Being
Chapter 5: Awakening to the Soul
Chapter 6: Masters of the Wisdom
Chapter 7: Spiritual Hierarchy
Chapter 8: Hierarchies of Life
Chapter 9: History of the Soul
Chapter 10: The Path of Initiation
Chapter 11: First Initiation
Chapter 12: Second Initiation
Chapter 13: Third Initiation
Chapter 14: The Continuity of Revelation