AAB: I have a paper here that is part of the unpublished writings of the Tibetan and is to go in the last volume of the Treatise on the Rays. [Only the first two volumes had been published at this point.] There are several pages as to what goes on at the Full Moon of May that I thought would be useful for us to read and discuss because this next May Full Moon is of very great importance. There is a definite feeling that so much depends upon what the spiritually minded people of the world do between now and the first of July. April, May, June � three complete months in which to work, and I want to start as early as we can with certain paragraphs of this paper.

We are nearing the climax of the spiritual year. The greatest Approach of all time is imminent and possible. Much depends now upon the aspirants and disciples of the world, particularly those in physical incarnation today. A major contact between Shamballa and the Hierarchy, for which initiates and Masters have for centuries been preparing, is in process of consummation. I shall very shortly be giving you some further information on the subject in an attempt to anchor on the Earth that seed of the new world religion, which an earlier instruction upon the Great Approaches indicated might be founded, and lead to a true start of a universal faith that will serve the need of humanity for a long time to come. [EXT:387-388]

I have found some papers on the Great Approaches that I thought had been incorporated in the last part of the second volume [Esoteric Psychology, Vol. 2]. Some of it is there, but the most interesting part is not there at all. It ought to go out with the other papers to the whole School.

All I ask of you today is to begin now a most careful preparation for the event that is impending at the time of the Full Moon of May, so that the energies then set in motion may be aided by your directed thought and you yourselves may come more fully into the current of the downpouring life. [EXT:388]

Then he goes on to deal with the fact that the great event in the Himalayas is a group activity, that one person alone or even a small handful would not be able to protect themselves from the force coming from the highest center on the planet. The purpose of the group is to protect the individual from too much inflow of energy. If all of us here could at some time be receptive to energy, it might make us more effective than we are today. I think we ought to have in our minds that very definite future objective, but it will only come when we are all fused and oriented through some occult meditation of a very special kind � some technical work. It seems to me that we are beginning to lay the foundation for that kind of work.

This process of protection and distribution is one of the functions of the great meeting of all the Hierarchy, under the aegis of the three Great Lords (the Manu, the Mahachochan and the Christ) in that high and sacred valley in the Himalayas where annually � after due preparation � the Hierarchy makes contact with Shamballa and a relationship is then set up between the �bright and living center� and the �radiating and magnetic center,� in order that the �acquiescent waiting center� may be stimulated to move forward upon the ladder of evolution. [R&I:68]

The highest center where the Lord of the World lives, the bright and living center, the Hierarchy and Humanity.

Even the Hierarchy itself needs the protection of its full membership in order rightly to absorb the incoming energies, and later wisely to distribute the forces of the divine will in the three worlds where lies Their major responsibility. The focused will of God, in its immediate implications and application, constitutes the point of tension from which Shamballa works in order to bring about the eventual fruition of the divine Purpose. [R&I:68-69]

Then he goes on to take up the question of the two great Invocations.

In the great invocations that I have given out, the first one (�Let the Forces of Light bring illumination to mankind ��) was an effort on my part to put into words the invocative cry of mankind and of all men and women of goodwill throughout the world. Its success was indicative of the strength of that goodwill. The second (�Let the Lords of Liberation issue forth ��) can, in reality, only be used with any measure or hope of success by aspirants, disciples and initiates, and hence was not nearly so popular with the general public, though in reality much more powerful and potentially effective. It was essential, however, that a fusion of the two groups should take place before the invocative cry of humanity as a whole could be powerful and effective in evoking response. [R&I:71]

At the coming Wesak Festival and until the Full Moon of June, including the five days after that Full Moon, I ask you to use both of the Invocations [EXT, pp. 144, 249], thus testifying greatly to the fusion of humanity into one great group of invocative appeal. Make a real effort to be present and in group formation at the exact time of the Full Moon of May, as far as you know it, using both Invocations and believing that you are voicing the unified will and desire of humanity itself. I will enlarge upon this in my Wesak message, but I seek to get this to you as early as possible so that my own group, in process of training, can lay the needed foundations of the work to be done. [EXT:388]

That is one of the objectives before the Hierarchy at this time as it prepares for participation in the May and June Full Moons. Can the forces be so organized and the energies so distributed that the full measure of good may be evoked from humanity by the invocation sounded forth by Shamballa? Can this evocation of a new cycle of spiritual contact and of liberation be brought about by the invocation of the men and women of goodwill? Can the will-to-good of the spiritual Forces and the goodwill of humanity be brought together and produce those conditions in which the new world order may function? These are the important questions that the Hierarchy is attempting to solve.

It must be remembered that the Science of Invocation and Evocation is a reciprocal effort. Humanity could not be invocative were it not that the Spiritual Hierarchy (and by that term I include both Shamballa and the planetary Hierarchy) is evoking the spirit of man. The invocative cry of humanity is evoked by the invocation or Sound of the spiritual hierarchies. Man�s responsibility, however, is to invoke at this time the Lords of Liberation and the Spirit of Peace. These are the Beings that have the power to raise humanity, once the race of men has assumed the right attitude. They correspond to the group, in the third degree of Masonry, who raise the Master. Their response to the cry of mankind is largely, but not wholly, dependent upon the quality of that cry. [R&I:76-77]

In closing he says:

Let me extend this concept a littler further by pointing out that the invocative cry of humanity and of the Hierarchy, jointly sounded at the time of the Full Moon of May and June and particularly at the Wesak Festival, will be effective if the �cold light� of the aspirants and disciples of the world and of all selfless servers, no matter who or where they may be found, is united with the �clear light� of the initiates and of those who can function freely as souls � the Members of the Hierarchy and, to a lesser degree, all accepted disciples. This combination is the one that is desired and required. These people are relatively few in number, when compared with the world�s population, but because they are to be found focused at �the deep center� and are distinguished by the quality of fusion and at-one-ment, they can be enormously potent. I would therefore ask all of you (during the weeks prior to the Full Moon of May and that of June and for five days thereafter) to seek to �dwell ever at the center,� to endeavor to blend the cold light of your personalities with the clear light of your soul, so as to work effectively for the five weeks of the desired period. [EXT:388]  

The paper that is going out to the School is this: If the invocative cry of humanity, which is unconscious, which is voiceless, is gathered up and focused by people such as ourselves, and if humanity and the New Group of World Servers plus the Hierarchy can form one unit of invocation, and be so invocative that certain great energies can be liberated, it will bring about the great release, the Great Approach.

It seems to me that we haven�t much time to get ourselves ready along with hundreds and thousands of others, as the Tibetan points out in this paper. Just as the Tibetan is trying to get us ready, so other Masters are preparing other groups, and much is possible if we will pay the price.

VH: What do you mean by �paying the price�?

AAB: That means something different to each one of us. Don�t think this can be done unless by a price. Christ said by prayer and fasting. I suppose most of us have had this experience; one knows that a spiritual something lies ahead, and if one takes the necessary steps one will go through with it, but the preliminary steps are concentration, pledging and meditation; and the moment you do that you bring something down upon yourself in the matter of a price to be paid, and something happens. I can look back upon situations where I have said, �I will do anything if I can only experience this or that.� If you go through with it, something happens to you. What is true of the individual is true of the group. The group as a whole can do what the individual has done. Again and again I have paid the price. Has that ever been done as a group? That is the new thing that is emerging, the things that we do together. You do that in your meditation work, but this is something more. The group sends out a challenge to the group Soul so that something happens. I do not think that that has been done before.

RK: In order for that to happen, this group would have to have a much more dynamic and valid grasp of the needs of humanity.

AAB: We are not exerting ourselves.

RK: Not identified enough with the need.

AAB: If you haven�t the courage of the flaming heart you must have the courage of desperation. Both bring you to the same point. Personally, as an individual, I have given up challenging. I need the protection of the group and so do you.

VH: What else could be done by the group besides meditation?

AAB: It isn�t a matter of meditation; it is the attainment by every member in this group of a certain dynamic reaction that may not express itself outwardly in any way, but there is an inner fusion, a challenge we all send out together. I realize now that when I sent out the challenge I had reached the point where I didn�t say anything. It was a question of orientation and attainment in myself that was an invocation and evoked a response. That is something this group has to do. It will come when each individual in the group, not for the attainment of more light and knowledge for himself but for the sake of the group, sends out the challenge, when each member of the group has all barriers down.

W: When that happens something is going to happen in the group.

HR: When it happens you are really driven by something from within. When it happens we will be driven as a group.

AAB: And then we will inaugurate the new cycle, the new cycle for ourselves as a group and for the entire School.

HR: What steps do you suggest we take?

AAB: I think it is for the group to consider. I should think we might get somewhere by talking about it.

W: Has it got to be definitely the individual first?

AAB: All of us are consecrated, I think.

W: I mean something deeper than that.

AAB: Something that has its roots in the group itself.

W: But until each person has the vision there will be a gap somewhere.

HR: We might be able to get a new grasp on meditation.

AAB: It seems to me that meditation would be a result of this, but until that is existing, meditation might do harm. It might isolate some and develop others. In these meetings I want only to talk in group form, with group intention, with the group good ahead of us.

HR: The true occult method has two aspects, hasn�t it? The one is the use of the Antahkarana, the effort to make the link perfect with the Soul, and then it has another aspect, the use of force. Would you call that meditation or would you call it something different?

AAB: I would not call it meditation. I think the real process comes when you pass the stage of meditation; you have established such an inner spiritual rhythm you don�t do any kind of occult meditation. All you do is turn a spigot. I remember sitting down to meditate. I could immediately get my �click� and immediately my mind was filled with ideas related to the work, how I was handling this problem or that. I had a path of light pouring through into the work but never from the personality point of view.

C: When you are aware of meditation you are the personality.

AAB: My personality was conscious that AB wasn�t getting anything out of it at all, and I was sick of work anyway. I got in such a frantic state about it that I lost sleep, and the work was suffering. I went to a man for whom I have a great respect and laid my problem before him. He said, �Why, what are you meditating for?� I said, �I am teaching meditation and I should be meditating.� He said, �Do you want to meditate for AB, to get something for her?� The problem is not to put so much stress on meditation and the results you get through meditation, but as RK pointed out, to be so preoccupied interiorly with the need of humanity that the invocative cry goes out without your saying any words, and it brings down the downpour for the use of those around you. I am not especially interested in any fresh release that will titillate my curiosity. I am interested to know what the need is and how to meet it � the spiritual, the emotional and the physical need.

HR: Is that what you meant when you said we were going to learn different meanings of meditation?

AAB: I hadn�t thought it out that way. I am afraid of words. We become so limited by our terminologies. The things we need are attitudes, orientation, recognitions, invocations.

M: In one of the School papers the Tibetan speaks of technical occult work. I think he wants us to do something technical. He says:

The task of Invocation, based on Intention, Visualization and Projection, has been carefully undertaken by the disciple, and he has at least some measure of clear perception as to the work he has done by the dual means of spiritual living and scientific, technical, occult work. He is therefore himself invocative. His life effect is registered upon the higher levels of consciousness and he is recognized as �a point of invocative tension.� This tension and this reservoir of living energy, which is the disciple himself, is set in motion by projected thought, the use of the will and a sounded Word or Phrase of Power. (R&I:493-494)

AAB: I want to feel that this group has got beyond the technicalities of the Arcane School. We should have reached a point now where our Souls own us, and the things we are mastering are the technicalities of the Soul, the Will. The trouble is that so many of us are so preoccupied with what we have to do that the thing it does to us gets overlooked. One of the problems I find in dealing with students in the School is that they get so preoccupied with technicalities � alignment, integration, registering what they hear and see and feel in meditation � that the process is of far greater importance than that stage that we call contemplation. When I am looking out at a wonderful view I am not saying to myself that I am looking out and seeing a wonderful view because I have the mechanism, the two eyes, to see it with. It is what I am seeing that interests me. I think we should have gotten to that stage in the meditative process so that we can do what the Masters do, contemplate humanity, the processes and methods whereby the spiritual need of humanity can be met, rather than being preoccupied with ourselves.

HR: If your whole attention is upon humanity, are you not taking in energy and passing it out to them?

AAB: I become a channel, but I would not think about it. When I say I am contemplating humanity and I am a channel for energy, I have taken my thought off what I am contemplating and have put it upon myself. I think that is what we must release ourselves from. We should be so preoccupied with the group and its functions that we as individuals fade out of the picture. I am convinced that if we are rightly oriented, are seeing correctly, are identified with the spiritual forces of the world, automatically things will happen through this group and through the group of servers all over the world that will be so tremendous that we will manage to register them.

P: Isn�t it a sustained state of being? We shall be concerning ourselves only with the root, and the other follows according to the Plan. The plant does not think about producing flowers. The life is in the root. If we sustain that dynamic state of being and of centralness, then the growth follows according to the law, and we do not have to spend our life on the details. It works out automatically.

AAB: Yes, we root downward and bear fruit upward.

S: Should the line about forgiveness [in the first part of the Great Invocation] be deleted?

AAB: The Tibetan dictated that to me yesterday, and forgiveness is in it.

FB: Historically speaking, I think that was put in after the first rendering. The first time we got it, the line about forgiveness was not in but was put in later. Madame Chiang emphasized it recently, and in the last version the word forgiveness was put back. When the war came, the day of forgiveness was out of the question.

AAB: Just like the word peace is misunderstood these days.

RK: You called our attention to three descriptive words: Shamballa, Hierarchy, Humanity. The work of this particular group belongs between the acquiescent center and the radiant center. How to line ourselves up between these two groups would be a subject for discussion. The center is not acquiescent now. How can we help to make that center acquiescent?

AAB: The bright and living center, the radiant center and the acquiescent center. Acquiescence is a positive thing, not a negative one.

RK: Acquiescent not to what is, but to the vision. We have to be the vision and to sell it to people. We were talking about consciousness, a relation between. To me consciousness is the relation between meaning and its expression in form. In this sense meaning would be what the Hierarchy means, and its expression in form would be acquiescent humanity receiving what the Hierarchy is sending to us, and we would have to be aware in two directions.

AAB: At the time of the full moon, are we going to be preoccupied with our technique or fused with the group? If we are preoccupied with technique, we are not doing the thing we need to do. In this particular paper DK is teaching people how to link the Monad, the Spiritual Triad and the personality, to bridge the gap between Spirit and Matter, but not between Spirit, Soul and Matter. That has nothing to do with the work he wants us to do at the time of the May Full Moon. It is going to be a handicap if we are going to be bothered with it. I am not going to be bothered with it for the next two months. I am going to be bothered with the need of humanity and the ability of the group to be fired by the desire to meet the need.

P: All this language about pledging is merely symbolic of something that cannot be put into words. It is the spiritual meaning back of the words that counts.

AAB: I like to think we have gotten beyond it. There aren�t any words to express it. It is the question of an attitude that we as individuals take and especially the group attitude. If this group can, during the next eight weeks before the Full Moon of June, get into a certain rhythm, attitude and group relationship, toward humanity and toward the Hierarchy, the group will drop out of the picture, and it will be humanity and the Hierarchy, and then we shall be a link 

N: I feel very much that we have been doing spiritual Red Cross work throughout the world. I seem to have been in places where people were in great suffering, supporting people in great hope and relieving pain � invisible, but the person would feel it. This has happened in moments of intense thought about the great suffering of the world.

AAB: Don�t you think it possible that you can be preoccupied with the technique and with the suffering, but the thing we are intended to be preoccupied with is the revelation and the release that can be brought about in the human family, if we as a group can �take and transmit�? We do that by the vision of the great approach of certain great energies, the recognition of great releasing forces that can be released in humanity. When they are released, then humanity will do the rest. Our function is to release on Earth that which is on its way, if we are able to precipitate it. We don�t have to be preoccupied with what is to be accomplished, but with what is coming, if we can hold the attitude to make it possible.

VH: I wonder if anyone here is conscious of receiving, when they are quiet, a great path of light that comes in and goes out in the same direction.

AAB: I think lots of people do. The thing that we are after is to get it as a group.

RK: Dynamic radiance, dynamicity and a radiance � it doesn�t come and go; it is.

AAB: I am trying to get my consciousness into all of your consciousnesses. We have to get away from the idea that we are receiving, giving out. It is the fact that we are cooperating with the Hierarchy, which in turn is cooperating with Shamballa, that matters. There is a line of force coming through. I am not interested in what I get or give out but in all of us together meeting the need of the Hierarchy.

HR: In the papers it speaks of gathering the force of humanity into us. What Christ does is to invoke by gathering all the force of humanity into Himself.

FB: I think we all feel a little hazy about exactly what to do between now and the Full Moon of May in order to play our part, and that is where the idea of technique comes in. It is suggested that we focus on the need of humanity, on the vision, the fact that there has been steadily emerging in the School a realization of our relation with the Hierarchy. I suggested at the first meeting of this group that perhaps we could invoke a deeper consciousness of the Hierarchy for the School. What we want to do at this particular season of the May and June Full Moons is to cooperate with the Hierarchy. Our function is to do what the Hierarchy wants us to do, and I think we can be very simple about it and go all out in our desire and our intention and our will individually and as a group to do all that they want us to do. That means brooding on the Hierarchy and what it wants us to do. Then we forget ourselves and lose ourselves in the work. When the time comes you simply do it and think nothing of it. I think the thing we need as a group is to consciously approach the Hierarchy as a group in order that we may play our part in what they are trying to do, at a specific season, for a short period of time, to set our spiritual will that we shall do what the Hierarchy wants us to do at that time.

AAB: The Tibetan tells us that we have to �summarize in ourselves the invocative cry of humanity.�