| From
Bethlehem to Calvary |
In
her foreword to this book, the author remarks, "The conscious evocation
of the Christ life in the human heart and our rapid integration
into the Kingdom of God are the immediate tasks ahead, embodying
our responsibility, opportunity and destiny." The five expansions
of consciousness by which this integration and evocation proceed
are clearly portrayed here as the correspondences of the five climaxing
experiences of the Master Jesus during His life in Palestine. These
are the five initiations known as the Birth, Baptism, Transfiguration,
Crucifixion, resurrection and Ascension. Through these five stages
on the Way, we follow the Master from Bethlehem to Calvary. While
these initiations are popularly known by their Christian terminology,
within the experience of the spiritual Hierarchy the fourth and
fifth initiations are known as the initiation of Renunciation
and the initiation of Revelation. The crucifixion experience
of the Master Jesus involved Him in the great renunciation of His
own soul, with a resulting revelation in the light of the Spiritual
Triad. These experiences are both symbolic and actual, setting guideposts
along the way of tIre disciple. Some understanding of these Mysteries
revealed by the Christ and the Master Jesus, as They exemplified
the experience of the human soul through the five stages of its
spiritual journey, can be invaluable to individual man facing the
vast span of the same five-fold experience. This is probably the
factor of greatest value and service to the aspirant, setting his
feet on the Path of Return; that the experience of the Master Jesus,
including that of the Crucifixion, the Great Renunciation, reflects
through the lives of all human beings. Through the divine life in
us, and as the Christ principle unfolds in our heart and consciousness,
the sons of men walk the Way of the Cross eventually to become soul-illumined
Sons of God. Knowing something of these things, aware of the spiritual
journey before all men from stage to stage on the Path of Initiation,
an exact service opens before the aspirant. "Service must expand
and express itself on broader and more inclusive lines, and we must
learn to serve as Christ served, to love all men as He loved them
and, by the potency of our spiritual vitality and the quality of
our service, stimulate all we meet so that they too can serve and
love and become members of the Kingdom . . . the call is for sane
and normal men and women who can comprehend the situation, face
what must he done, and then give their lives to expressing for the
world the qualities of the citizens of the Kingdom of Souls; love,
wisdom, silence, non-separativeness and freedom."
All of Alice Bailey's books are available in clothbound and paperback
editions.
Order
Online
|
|
