Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - Problems of
Guidance, Dreams, and Depression







To Netnews Homepage    
Previous     Next 
    Index      Table of Contents





Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter II - The Ray of Personality - Some
Problems of Psychology





Problems of Guidance, Dreams, and DepressionI
am dealing with these problems because of their exceeding prevalence at this time, due to
the activities of various religiously or psychologically motivated groups, to the trend of
certain schools, dedicated to the spread of religion or of psychology, and to the present
world situation which has plunged so many sensitive people into a state of lowered
spiritual vitality, accompanied usually by lowered physical vitality. This condition is
widespread and based on wrong economic conditions. I am dealing with these before we take
up our fourth point, 'The Diseases and Problems of Mystics', as they form an intermediate
group, including many intelligent and well-intentioned citizens.
The Problem of Guidance is a peculiarly difficult one to handle, for it is based
on an innate instinctive recognition of the fact of God and of God's Plan. This inherent,
instinctual, spiritual reaction is being exploited today by many well meaning reformers,
who have, however, given no real attention to the subject, or to the phenomena of the
outer response to a subjective urge. They are, in the majority of cases, blind leaders of
the blind. We might define the problem of guidance as the problem of the method whereby a
man, through processes of autosuggestion, throws himself into a state of negativity and
(whilst in that state) becomes aware of inclinations, urges, voices, clearly impressed
commands, revelations of courses of conduct which should be pursued or of careers which
should be followed, plus a general indication [481] of lines of activity which
"God" is proposing to the attentive, negative, receptive subject. In this state
of almost sublimated awareness to the insistent demands of the subjective realms of being
or of thought, the man is swept into a current of activity which may succeed in
permanently orienting his life (often quite harmlessly and sometimes most desirably) or
which may have only a temporary effect, once the urge of response has exhausted itself.
But in any case, the source of the direction and the origin of the guidance is vaguely
called "God", is regarded as divine, is spoken of as the voice of the
"Christ within", or as spiritual direction. Many analogous terms are used,
according to the school of thought to which the man may belong, or which has succeeded in
attracting his attention.
We shall
see this tendency towards subjective guidance of some kind or another developing
increasingly as humanity becomes more subjectively oriented, more definitely aware of the
realms of inner being, and more inclined towards the world of meaning. It is for this
reason that I desire to make a relatively careful analysis of the possible sources of
guidance so that at least men may know that the whole subject is vaster and more
complicated than they had thought, and that it would be the part of wisdom to ascertain
the origin of the guidance vouchsafed, and so know, with greater definiteness, the
direction in which they were headed. Forget not that the blind, unreasoning subjecting of
oneself to guidance (as at present practiced) renders a man eventually a negative
impressionable automaton. Should this become universally prevalent and the present methods
become established habits, the race would forfeit its most divine possession, i. e., free
will. There is no immediate fear of this, however, if the intelligent men and women of the
world think this problem out. Also there are too many egos of advanced nature coming into
[482] incarnation at this time to permit the danger to grow out of all bounds, and there
are too many disciples in the world today whose voices are ringing loudly and clearly
along the lines of free choice, and the intelligent comprehension of God's plan.
it might be
of profit if I indicated anew the various schools of thought who feature
"guidance" or whose methods and doctrines tend to the development of an inner
attentive ear, and yet who fail to teach the distinctiveness of the sources of guidance,
or to differentiate between the various sounds, voices and so-called inspired indications
which that attentive ear may be trained to register.
The emotionally inclined people in the Churches of all denominations and
persuasions are ever prone to find a way of escape from the troubles and difficulties of
life by living always with a sense of the guiding Presence of God, coupled to a blind
acquiescence in what is generalized as the "will of God". The practice of the
Presence of God is most definitely a desirable and needed step but people should
understand what it means and steadily change the sense of duality into the sense of
identification. The will of God can take the form of the imposition of life circumstance
and conditions from which there is no possible escape; the subject of this imposition
accepts it and does literally nothing to improve or truly better (and perhaps avoid) the
circumstances. Their destiny and situation is interpreted by them as such that within the
imposed ring-pass-not and lines of limitation they determine placidly, submissively to
live. A spirit of submission and acquiescence is inevitably developed, and by calling the
situation in which they find themselves an expression of God's will they are enabled to
bear it all. In some of the more sublimated states of this acquiescence, the sensitively
inclined person voices his submission, but fails to recognize that the voice is
his own. He regards it as God's voice. For them, the way of [483] understanding, the
recognition of the great Law of Cause and Effect (working out from life to life) and the
interpretation of the problem in terms or a lesson to be mastered would spell release from
negativity and blind, unintelligent acceptance. Life does not demand acquiescence and
acceptance. It demands activity, the separation of the good and high values from the
undesirable, the cultivation of that spirit of fight which will produce organization,
understanding, and eventual emergence into a realm of useful spiritual activity.





To Netnews Homepage    
Previous     Next 
    Index      Table of Contents





Last updated Monday, July 6, 1998
          © 1998 Netnews Association. All
rights reserved.