The Rays and the Initiations

	This involves the merging of his personality self-will into that of the sacrificial will of the soul; and this, when accomplished, will lead to the revelation of the divine Will. Of this Will, no one who is not an initiate has any conception. It means, secondly, the release of the faculty of spiritual perception and of intuitive understanding, which involves the negation of the activity of the lower or concrete mind, of the lower personal self, and the subordination of the knowledge aspect of the soul to the clear pure light of the divine understanding.

	The fifth great secret underlying the purpose of Sanat Kumara is related in a peculiar sense to the cyclic manifestation of all that is found in the three worlds of human evolution. It concerns that which is working slowly into manifestation through the medium of the lower concrete mind as it controls desire and brings substance and matter into conformity with the divine thought along this line.

	Then no questioning can ever arise and sure knowledge takes its place. There are no questions of any kind in the consciousness of those who form the Hierarchy. The lower analytical concrete mind which questions and separates this from that has been completely controlled and superseded; response to indicated group activity takes place.

	The lower concrete mind in its more developed stage, as it gradually assumes control and supersedes instinct in the consciousness of man. The Buddhas of Activity preside over what might be called (using a technical, occult term) the ahamkara principle - the mind as it serves the selfish interests of man and enables man thereby to achieve a sense of proportion and a finer estimate of values. Forget not that selfishness is a stage of unfoldment, and that it is a necessary stage whereby humanity learns the price of self-interest.

	What you mean when you speak of the abstract mind is not exactly true to the facts; the effort to think abstractly is really an effort to think as far as possible as an initiate thinks who has transcended the concrete mind and thinks, or rather is aware, in terms of life and not of form, of being and not that which anchors being on the physical plane - or even in terms of consciousness, as you understand it.

	These motives for destruction are all related to desire, to emotion and also to aspiration, implemented (towards the end of the cycle which leads to the treading of the Probationary Path) by the lower concrete mind. They cover a familiar case history and one which is well known to every sincere aspirant, or one which is realized for what they are at a lower level of life expression by the man who pays the penalties involved by this type of destruction.

	This higher form of destruction does not manifest under the activity or the non-activity of the Law of Attraction, as does the death which the soul brings about. It is definitely under the Law of Synthesis, a law of the monadic sphere of life, and one therefore most difficult for you to comprehend; it emanates from a point outside the five worlds of human and superhuman evolution, just as the destruction of form in the three worlds emanates from the soul functioning outside the three worlds of the lower, concrete mind, the astral world and the physical plane.

	This whole theme is one of great complexity and yet at the same time so simple that when the simplicity of the planetary constitution is truly grasped and the analytic disputations of the concrete mind are overcome, the liberated Master enters a world of spiritual endeavor which is free from forms and symbols or the veils which hide the basic truth and the underlying mystery.

	The intensely private and purely subjective life in which he - the soul-infused personality - oriented upon the mental plane, brings into increasing rapport: His lower concrete mind and the higher abstract mind. Himself and the Master of his ray group, thus developing the ashramic consciousness. Himself and the Hierarchy as a whole, becoming increasingly aware of the spiritual synthesis underlying the united Ashrams. He thus consciously and steadily approaches the radiant Center of this solar Ashram, the Christ Himself, the first Initiator.

	It might be said (equally symbolically) that at each initiation he tests the connecting bridge and discovers gradually the soundness of that which he has created under the inspiration of the Spiritual Triad and with the aid of the three aspects of his mind (the abstract mind, the soul or the Son of Mind, and the lower concrete mind), combined with the intelligent cooperation of his soul-infused personality. In the early stages of his invocative work, the instrument used is the creative imagination.

	Now - at this stage - the integrated, rapidly developing personality becomes consciously active, and (in unison with the soul) starts building the antahkarana - a fusion of the three threads and a projection of them into the "higher wider reaches" of the mental plane, until the abstract mind and the lower concrete mind are related by the triple cable.

	The lower concrete mind. This expresses itself most completely through the fifth Ray of Concrete Science, reflecting the lower phase of the will aspect of divinity and summarizing within itself all knowledge as well as the egoic memory. This lower concrete mind is related to the knowledge petals of the egoic lotus and is capable of pronounced soul illumination, proving eventually to be the searchlight of the soul. It can be brought under control through the processes of concentration. It is transient in time and space. Through conscious, creative work, it can be related to the manasic permanent atom or to the abstract mind.

	The lower concrete mind. The receptive common sense. The highest aspect of the form nature. The reflection of atma, the spiritual will. The throat center. Knowledge.

	He is aware of the point of focused tension which he has succeeded in producing and that three streams of energy have contributed to it - the focused energy of the personality, poised in the lower concrete mind, the inflowing magnetic energy of the soul, streaming out from the twelve petals of the three tiers plus the innermost tier of the egoic lotus, and the energy of the "jewel in the lotus" - all streaming into the center of tension on the mental levels of the lower mind.

	Ray Five - Concrete Knowledge or Science - "Three Minds unite" (This asserts the fact that the Universal Mind, the higher mind and the lower concrete mind are blended through the projected antahkarana.)

	The truth might be expressed this way: When the disciple's eyes are removed from himself and his functioning in the three worlds is becoming spiritually controlled (or is in process of being controlled), then he is faced with becoming a truly mental being, with the focus of his life upon the mental level where it is subject to soul control; it then in turn becomes the directing agent of the man upon the physical plane. This does not mean that he is occupied with making his lower concrete mind active, directing and illumined; that is taking place gradually and automatically through the pressure of the higher influences pouring into and through him. He is occupied with the task of becoming aware of the activities of his higher or abstract mind and of the pure reason which controls and animates the buddhic plane, and which is itself susceptible to impression from the Monad.

	The stage in which the lower concrete mind and the higher mind are related in such a manner that the lower mind is not only soul-illumined but is subject also to impression from the Spiritual Triad.

	The two aspects of the mind (the lower concrete mind and the soul, the Son of Mind) become more closely related and enter eventually into a conscious, recognized association on the astral plane; Five streams of informative energy, therefore, make their impact upon the concrete mind and emanate from the physic-astral plane. Three streams of energy, coming from the soul, also make an impression upon the concrete mind.

	It is of value to the student to consider these three activities of the mind. The transmuting agent in the first case is the lower or concrete mind; the transforming agent is the soul, whilst the transfiguring agent is the Spiritual Triad, working through the higher or abstract mind.

	they realize a possible spiritual achievement, unknown and undesired by those whose lives are conditioned entirely by either the emotions or the lower concrete mind.

	To a much smaller group of human beings the world of the intelligence appears paramount, and the concrete mind is the desired ruler or controlling factor.

	Symbolically, the Jews represent (from the point of view of the Hierarchy) that from which all Masters of the Wisdom and Lords of Compassion emerge: materialism, cruelty and a spiritual conservatism, so that today they live in Old Testament times and are under the domination of the separative, selfish, lower concrete mind.