Soul to Spirit: The New Spiritual Psychology

This post continues to list some of the general characteristics associated with the Probationary Disciple as connected to the 7th Subplane of the Mental Plane focusing on how the pull between the spiritual and material worlds impacts them for better and worse.

NOTE: This book is now in the process of being edited. Once it is completely edited it will no longer be free online. As of 3/21/20 this chapter has not been edited. 

PULLED BETWEEN MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLDS

Especially with the Aspirant who is just beginning to become disillusioned with the material world, but is still mostly attached to it as a source of pleasure, we see the tendency towards spiritual materialism. Spiritual philosophies that teach how you can “have it all” materially and spiritually are especially appealing to them. In the West New Age, New Thought, and some Protestant Christian churches that combine spiritual teachings with “positive thinking,” “mind training,” or the “law of attraction” so you can have everything you want under a spiritual guise, come under this category. Eastern teachers, often under the umbrella of “crazy wisdom teachings,” also like to emphasize the “you can have it all” approach to spirituality. Probationary Disciples are more aware how these approaches do not really help you relieve suffering in your life, and keep you attached to the five senses as the focus. but they are still inclined to puruse these kind of “you can have it all” approaches. But, they are still pulled in the direction of embracing it at times especially since most of humanity is at the stage “wherein the material world is recognised and valued. Temporarily it is made the goal of all activity and the man, refusing to recognise the difference existing between him [as Soul] and the material and natural world, seeks to identify himself with it [the material world] and to find satisfaction in purely physical pleasures and pursuits.” (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, p. 95).  That is why at first most human beings and even Little Chelas (especially Aspirants) act in such a way that “satisfaction and a sense of oneness is sought in the realm of material possessions, and in the establishing of a centre of beauty and comfort in life on the physical plane” (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 95—96).  However, there is a “growing sense of dualism which, day by day, gets steadily stronger” (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 95—96), prodding the Little Chela  “to re-orient himself to truth and to take the first steps towards the Probationary Path” (Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 96). That dualism again represents the material indulgences that the Integrated Personality desires and has become accustomed, and the spiritual demands of the Soul that are trying to get the Integrated Personality to shift into finding more conscious and meaningful ways to be in the world.

As the tension grows between the dual demands of the Integrated Personality and those of the Soul, the Probationary Disciple feels increasingly pulled between making sure he or she has a “center of comfort and beauty in life on the physical plane,” and wanting to live a life of material renunciation so that he or she is free to pursue the spiritual life more readily. This tension between living comfortably in the world or renouncing it can cause quite a bit of distress for the Probationary Disciple. Some Probationary Disciples will attempt to reconcile this conflict by going into a spiritual ashram, monastery, nunnery or spiritual community where they can still have access to money, pleasure and power, but not have to work so hard on their own to get it. However, because the Probationer is not yet really group orientated, the spiritual life may be rewarding, but the community life may be a struggle and hard to endure. Other Probationary Disciples will try to have it all by finding another person to take care of them so they do not have to focus so much on the material aspects of life, while still enjoying all the comforts and benefits of a material lifestyle. And, finally some Probationary Disciples, especially those who find it difficult to be around others, may simply abandon the material world and live the life of a renunciate in order to focus on spiritual pursuits.

All the above scenarios represent the growing awareness that the Probationary Disciple has of needing to break the hold the material world has on him or her. That is good, but Bailey states the Probationary Disciple has to reach some middle ground regarding the material and spiritual realms. Eventually the Probationer has to realize it is not so much a matter of living well materially or living free of material demands that is the issue. What matters is the inner orientation the Probationary Disciple has in regards to the material world and how material substance (especially in the form of money) has to be increasingly used to serve others and their spiritual well-being and growth. Bailey says, “one of the greatest tests as to the position of a man upon the Probationary Path is that which concerns his attitude to and his handling of that which all men seek in order to gratify desire. Only he who desires naught for himself can be a recipient of financial bounty, and a dispenser of the riches of the universe. In other cases where riches increase they bring with them naught but sorrow and distress, discontent, and misuse.” (Initiation: Human & Solar, p. 79). This quote doesn’t mean that a Probationer should live a life of renunciation. He or she may choose to live simply, but ignoring money and the material world doesn’t serve either. Often it just helps the Probationer ignore the temptations of the material world and keeps them from learning how to be a “recipient of financial bounty and become a dispenser of the riches of the universe” in an unselfish way.

All the above scenarios represent the growing awareness that the Probationary Disciple has of needing to break the hold the material world has on him or her. That is good, but Bailey states the Probationary Disciple has to reach some middle ground regarding the material and spiritual realms. Eventually the Probationer has to realize it is not so much a matter of living well materially or living free of material demands that is the issue. What matters is the inner orientation the Probationary Disciple has in regards to the material world and how material substance (especially in the form of money) has to be increasingly used to serve others and their spiritual well-being and growth. Bailey says, “one of the greatest tests as to the position of a man upon the Probationary Path is that which concerns his attitude to and his handling of that which all men seek in order to gratify desire. Only he who desires naught for himself can be a recipient of financial bounty, and a dispenser of the riches of the universe. In other cases where riches increase they bring with them naught but sorrow and distress, discontent, and misuse.” (Initiation: Human & Solar, p. 79). This quote doesn’t mean that a Probationer should live a life of renunciation. He or she may choose to live simply, but ignoring money and the material world doesn’t serve either. Often it just helps the Probationer ignore the temptations of the material world and keeps them from learning how to be a “recipient of financial bounty and become a dispenser of the riches of the universe” in an unselfish way.

Motive is what is really being talked about here then. That motive is clarified by getting clear about some of the following: Does what you have and acquire (be it too much or too little) truly support your spiritual life, or distract you from it? Does your spiritual life isolate you from others and is a form of escape, or does it increasingly include an awareness of other lives around you (Mother Earth, plants, animals, humans) and their needs as well? Are you really taking enough for your needs and not your greeds, or using your mind to justify and rationalize over (and even under) consumption as a means of escape from obtaining deeper spiritual realization and responsibility?  Regarding what your material possessions, do you also possess equally a spirit of detachment, allowing you to release if necessary whatever you have so it does not become an obsession or addiction? Finally, is your spiritual practice helping you to live in the world, meaning you are capable of attracting resources when needed so you can help create a better world not only for yourself, but for future generations to come?

I have added the words “capable of attracting resources” to the sentence above to highlight how Probationer Disciples often over-react regarding the material world and go to the other extreme. Now, instead of viewing the material world as the source of all satisfaction, Probationers can treat the material world as “evil” (a word that is “live” spelled backwards), and reject the material world altogether. The end result is that Probationer Disciples become materially irresponsible in their spiritual endeavors. The spiritual life then becomes a kind of lasting “vacation,” where the hard task of making a living is viewed as “beneath their spiritual status.” This can incline Probationary Disciples to revert to approaching the material world (much as Group Four types do) with a kind of lottery or luck consciousness expecting money to be provided to them without having to apply themselves much. Or, they may believe others should take care of them because of how “spiritual” they are. The spiritually superior and entitled attitude can show up as a simply Buddhist monk walking around with a begging bowl wanting others to notice his spiritual status, or  as a wealthy spiritual teacher making requests for exorbitant gifts in order to live an exorbitant spiritual lifestyle because spiritually they deserve it. Again it is the inner attitude of entitlement that is the problem here regarding how others “need to provide for them materially” due to their “high spiritual status” that is the issue here. At some point the Probationer needs to work through these extremes in regards to the material and spiritual worlds so that the Probationer can live effectively and harmoniously in the material world, without being too distracted by the material world or allowing it to compromise the Probationer’s spiritual life and service towards others.

OVERCOMING IMPRACTICAL TENDENCIES

As we are seeing Probationers (who belong to Group Seven) tend to emerge out of Group Six (where they are Integrated Personalities and Aspirants) with a sense of failure and guilt in regards to themselves. They know money, pleasure and power didn’t alleviate their suffering, but they also have not yet learned to have a more conscious and spiritual understanding of money, pleasure, and power either. For this reason Probationers tend to become highly impractical and prone to extremes. We have already looked at an example of extremes in regard to the material world. Probationers may go to other extremes as well. They may either excessively indulge in pleasure (and sex) by attempting to spiritualize these the way Aspirants are do (like the Western version of Tantra does), or they may go to the other extreme and excessively deny themselves pleasure altogether. This is seen in those who enforce upon themselves a celibacy they cannot adhere to in a balanced way. Probationers are also likely to either focus on becoming extremely well off as they get others to pay for their exorbitant lifestyles, or they may go to the other extreme of engaging in ascetic practices where they beat and torture themselves, starve themselves nearly to death, or discover they have gotten to a point where they can barely survive in the world. Regarding power, they may swing from feeling terribly insecure about their ability to wield any sort of power and deny that they know much at all about the spiritual life through a deep inferiority complex. Or, they may over-estimate themselves wanting to view themselves as mentally colossal, while being too impatient and arrogant to really see how distorted their thoughts are, or how inept they are manifesting their thoughts or plans as meticulously as they should. In short, they now possess a superiority complex lacking the humility to acknowledge that maybe they don’t know as much as they think they do about spiritual ideals. Worse, they become hypocrites failing to walk their talk, or really embody spiritual ideals and ideas by applying them to themselves enough. They can also slip into wanting to be recognized as advanced spiritual beings without seeing that they are really like spiritual babies, who despite their grand ideas about themselves, haven’t done very much.

This lack of humility and still sporadic discipline inclines Probationers to become impractical as they chase after pipedreams that ultimately do not lead them to real spiritual success. As they are chasing these pipedreams Bailey warns they may also neglect their duties and responsibilities to their parents, children, marital partners and community all because Probationers see themselves as too spiritual now to pay attention to them. Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II puts it like this, “He lives entirely in the world of his aspiration and thus neglects life on the physical plane, becoming not only impractical but negative to the physical plane. He draws all his life forces upward so that the physical body and life on the physical plane suffers.” (p. 599) Some people attempt to justify their escape from the physical plane world by drawing upon antidote’s from the lives of Buddha and Jesus. They look at how Gautama Buddha left his wife and new born child to pursue his spiritual practice and feel justified in doing the same. Or, they point out how Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26. ESV), and see this as a justification for abandoning those who cared for them. The problem is Probationary Disciples tend to not see the larger context here. Yes, Buddha left his family, but he also returned to them and spent decades helping them wake up to who they were as Souls. Yes, Jesus encouraged his followers to make a radical shift and repel (a better word than hate I feel) those you care for a time while you make a spiritual shift. But, then Jesus also encouraged his followers to go out and mingle with and serve the masses. What Probationers tend to forget is that spiritual life is not meant to help us ignore responsibility, but to prepare us like Jesus and Buddha to take on a great deal more responsibility for helping others in the world. And, unlike Buddha and Jesus who essentially dedicated every moment of their lives to strenuously helping others, the Probationer Disciple is still focused primarily upon only helping themselves regarding their spiritual progress.

Along these lines, I am partial to some very strong words that Bailey has to say along these lines. “Until divinity has been expressed in the home, and among those who know us well and are our familiar friends, it cannot be expected to express itself elsewhere. We must live as sons of God in the setting—uninteresting, drab and sometimes sordid—in which destiny places us; there is nowhere else at this stage that is possible. The place where we are is the place from which our journey begins, and not the place from which we escape. If we cannot make good as disciples where we are, and in the place where we discover ourselves, no other opportunity will be offered us until we do. Here lies our test, and here lies our field of service. Many true and earnest aspirants feel that they could indeed make an impression on their surroundings and manifest divinely, if they had a different kind of home, a different environment or setting. Had they married differently, or had they more money or more leisure, could they meet with more sympathy from their friends, or had they better physical health, there is no saying what they might not accomplish.

A test is something which tries our strength to see of what sort it is; it calls forth the utmost that is in us, and reveals to us where we are weak and where we fail. The need today is for dependable disciples and for those who have been so tested that they will not break or crack when difficulties come and dark places in life are encountered. We have, if we could but realize it, exactly those circumstances and that environment in which this lesson of obedience to the highest which is in us can be learnt. We have exactly the type of body and physical conditions through which the divinity in us can be expressed. We have those contacts in the world and the kind of work which are required to enable us to take the next step forward upon the path of discipleship, the next step to God. Until aspirants grasp this essential fact and happily settle down to a life of service and of giving lovingly in their own homes, they can make no progress. Until the path of life is trodden, happily, silently and with no self-pity in the home circle, no other lesson or opportunity will be given.  (From Bethlehem to Calvary pp. 77 –78)

Ironically, Esoteric Psychology, Vol. II states that one of the ways to handle this impracticality and selfishness is to have those prone to these kind of difficulties to come “under the care of a wise psychologist” who would “gently and gradually develop in him a cycle of doubt, leading even to a temporary agnosticism. The result would be a rapid establishing of the desired equilibrium. I would call your attention to the words ‘gently and gradually’. The encouraging of a normal physical life, with its ordinary interests, the fulfilling of its obligations and responsibilities and the usual physical functioning of the nature should bring about much wholesome and needed orientation” (p. 602). We will see this dynamic play out under the next header titled spiritual inflation as we look at what happened with the ashram of Osho (Bhagwan Rajneesh).

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