Initiation

Easter 2008
Illumination is never without trial and initiation at some point.  Some people claim that we can grow through positive experiences and don't have to always learn through trial and error.  They talk of experiences of just knowing, of inspirations derived from others examples, or the darshan of merely seeing the guru.  This may well be so, though I wonder what past life initiations might have prepared such instantaneous changes.

Most new growth, where we initiate something unfamiliar or contrary to our present nature requires clearing out old stopgap patterns.  Erasing old samskaras so that we can fully internalize new truths is most often a wrenching experience.

In Light on the Path, which according to Madam Blavatsky came from the invisible inspiration of Master Hilarion, Mabel Collins likened a samskara to a weed hidden in the heart.  She wrote,

It lives fruitfully in the heart of the devoted disciple as well as in the heart of the man of desire.  Only the strong can kill it out.  The weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, its death.  And it is a plant that lives and increases throughout the ages.  It flowers when the man has accumulated unto himself innumerable existences.  He who will enter upon the path of power must tear this thing out of his heart.  And then the heart will bleed, and the whole life of the man seems to be utterly dissolved.  This ordeal must be endured; it may come at the first step of the perilous ladder which leads to the path of life: it may not come until the last.

There are key times when we are ready to endure and master initiatory trials.  Ann Ree writes in Dedication 61

Initiation is always the result of the soul's command.

If one is in a state of dying to the self, he is preparing for a rise through initiation when he determines to overcome.  The words “overcoming” and “initiation” are twin friends in the spiritual life.

The disciple may be initiated through sickness, heartbreak, loss, humiliation.  When he is aware that initiation is occurring, this produces a grace plus spiritual power.

Ann Ree called all Niscienes initiates.  We have chosen the hard way because our souls are prompting us to open greater knowing and understanding beyond the opinions of men and floating sentiments in the astral world that touch mass attitudes.

The hard way is not required of those who are not ready or those who are unwilling.  While it sometimes may seem that the unwilling are given, unasked, more than they can bear, Ann Ree assures us that this is never the case.  In every case, there is an inner agreement with the soul to be initiated; and in every case there is a way, often hidden to casual gaze, to meet and master that initiation - if only the initiate will have faith, keep hope, and stretch himself to grab the prize of overcoming.  Ann Ree writes,

Major initiations occur when there is ripeness in evolvement – when one is ready to meet his soul's need and step beyond the familiar orbit.

One can meet the challenger and the challenge better when he accepts the fact that he is being initiated – that he is required to die to old conditions and be born to the new.

Rather than railing against misfortune, one must accept it as the stormy rain before Spring blossom.  If we seek blame and escape, rather than learning, we can literally refuse an initiation by running away from its challenge in search of softer comforts.  But this misses the opportunity prepared for the initiate to ride the initiation to greater joys.  Ann Ree writes,

A challenge is an accompanying syndrome associated with all initiations.  There may be thousands of challenges in one major initiation.

One has the choice to refuse or accept a challenge.  His refusal to accept a challenge delays the spiritual results to be gained through initiation.

While it is sad when one fails an initiation, it is even sadder to not try at all and run from it.  The fact is that even failing an initiation can still teach us if we have tried to some degree and are willing to accept the humiliation of having to re-trace our steps.  In the next time of ripeness, with our memory of the consequences of failure, we can master the initiation more quickly than we could have the first time.  Thus, nothing is wasted in initiation.

When I was about 12 years old, Ann Ree interpreted a freshet I drew.  The freshet had five rectangular shapes.  She said, “You will be initiated by the five senses.”  This has proved to be all too true.  In battles between my higher desires and desires driven ultimately by the senses, I have made wrong choices.  Naturally, I made all kinds of rationalizations and came up with clever but dishonest reasons why I should have made these choices.  My failures have taught me to not be too harsh in judging others.

I think of our poor but dear Jonathan who failed his last great initiation.  It was a lost opportunity for all of us, and quite possibly a lost opportunity for a world that was in ripeness for Niscience.  But it was  not without lessons learned for many of us.  And who knows when the next cycle of readiness may be or how it may appear.  Maybe we are close to it right now and can't see it.

There is another kind of failure, too.  There is a failure according to the standards of the world, and quite possibly to our own standards, which is nevertheless a victory as judged by God.  As an example, I am thinking of Edgar Cayce, who with the exception of a brief period of prosperity, lived in near abject poverty.  His grand plans for a spiritual university, and a hospital with a staff who could administer the treatments he saw in trance, all crashed and burned.  Fair weather friends deserted him when he needed them most.  During a period of despair, he and his family drafted a question to be asked of the Source as to why they had failed and were now living so miserably.  The answer was startling.  The Source answered while Cayce was in trance, “You have succeeded beyond all measure.”  I don't know if they knew how that was so.  But the 10,000 readings survived, the thousands of people he helped did their work beyond the pale of history's record, and the truths he brought subtly permeated new age literature.

Jesus described this process of success through apparent failure in his parable of the seed.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)

Truths have to be ingested after evil contesting has spent its energy, much as Jesus's body and blood  diffused into the earth after His apparent defeat by death.  Our dear Ann Ree said,

A prophet must die to live.

Also, if evil is immediately cut short by Good, we would not see the former's sad fruits in contrast to the joyful fruits of goodness.  It is almost as if God is drawing a painting like Rembrandt's where the dark background makes the brightness in the foreground all the more stunning and beautiful.

David said this very poetically in Psalm 139:11-12

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

From a purely technical standpoint, contestings preserve quality and are accompanied by a durable strength as to what one has gained.

Ann Ree again writes,

From contesting trials, quality is preserved; the disciple is assured of continued integrity and ethic in his serving.  Through the contesting trials, the disciple's flexibilities enable him to receive, from time to time, a greater proportionment of spiritual helps.

There are classic stages of initiation.  After the enchantment of meeting a teacher, new friends, a new environment, a position of authority, honor or any wonderful thing, latent samskaras are given opportunity for expression.  Ann Ree writes,

Regardless of evolvement or of spiritual prominence, all must undergo the contesting trials accompanying the spiritual life.  The first contesting trials come from persons and conditions in the world.  They next come when one seeks to die to the intemperate habits despoiling the character and temperament ... The most profound contesting trials come when one has through covenant and consecration, dedicated to serve God and only God.  These trials are sent from the subtle or psychic planes and are automatically set into action when the disciple makes his covenant or vow to live a true spiritual life.

As a rule we all have noble aspirations adulterated with ancient desires and drives.  We both want and reject spiritual disciplines at the same time.  Initiation begins first by being purified.  The purifying trails are to determine the strength and use of one's will, for if one is to be an interpreter for Heaven his will must be a keen and undefiled scimitar for God.

When one has honed his will, others can lean on him in times of need.  Without the strength of purifying trials, we could not step into the chaos of another's challenges and not be infected by the same psychic conditions.  There a side of all persons that craves to be near someone who is strong in virtue willing and who has proven his strength in trials.

We were fortunate to have had a teacher like Ann Ree, who as a Will Initiate, could stand as a steadying influence when we were caught up in initiation.  It is sad that so many persons have forgotten the priceless Niscience instruction to the point that they don't even realize that they are being initiated.

I pray that those of us who have not lost our Niscience knowing may be victorious over our trials and therefore able to pass Niscience instruction on with some authority.

Despite failures here and there, those who have kept their Niscience knowing are truly new creatures.  I close with these words of St. Paul,

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.