Joy is a Special Wisdom
A talk by Adrienne Barkla at The University of the Seven Rays 11th Annual Conference: ‘New Esoteric Schools The Time Is Now’ (San Diego, 1997)
This talk is on Joy – Joy as a ‘special wisdom’. The dictionary defines joy as ‘an emotion of keen or lively pleasure arising from present or expected good…exultant satisfaction…great gladness…delight’. The Tibetan sage Djwhal Khul describes joy as that quality which is the characteristic of a personality consciously anchored in the soul realm. (Discipleship In the New Age I p.397) He differentiates between happiness, joy and bliss. Happiness he describes as seated in our emotional nature. We feel happy when our personality needs are being met, when we experience that sense of well being that comes from contentment with the environment, when our relationships are going well, when we have satisfying work and opportunities for development and increase abounds. Happiness is referred to as – the goal of the separated self.
Joy is described as a quality of soul and is realised in the mind which as we know is the plane of the soul. It is the result of alignment and presupposes group consciousness, group solidarity and a sense of oneness with all beings. If we are living as souls we are not focussed in the needs of the lower self, and our greatest joy comes, according to the Tibetan, from group relationship and from drawing out the soul in others by bringing about the conditions that foster their fuller soul expression. This is what he calls bringing joy to others. I have a colleague, an experienced counsellor, who says that the best help we can give in consultation is to ‘touch’ or recognise the soul of the client. This is the key to emotional and mental repair as the soul is the great healer. Without the soul, life is such a dearth.
The joy of the soul may be known and felt in spite of the vicissitudes of life and the Tibetan alludes to the occult paradox which maintains joyful expression in the midst of profound personality distress and unhappiness. This is what we are, as spiritual aspirants, to aim towards. The sequence is set before us: happiness and the fulfilment of personal desire; then happiness superseded by the imposition of the joy of the soul life upon the personality; then the bliss of spiritual Being, which in due course is imposed upon the rhythm of the soul and this is the monadic life. The use of the word ‘imposition’ here is interesting, as it implies the use of the will and we are told that living under the impress of authentic spiritual will is ‘monadic living’.
So, where are we and what are we seeking? When do we experience joy? Watching a beautiful sunset of radiant colour, catching those moments when shafts of sunlight break through the clouds and seem to touch the earth; watching your sleeping child; moments of true friendship, of unspoken understandings that can pass between people; or a high point of meditation when revelation comes and the unitive sense fills our being, the moments perhaps when we glean a sense of the grand design. Do we sense the process of ‘divine imposition’ occurring within us? Are we in contact with the soul? Are we anchored in the soul realm? Does the light of the soul pour upon us and flood our life?
Joy is:
Joy is an expression of the soul’s surety…
Joy lets in the light…
Joy leaves little room for glamour and misunderstanding… Joy is a major healing factor.
Joy brings strength, the ability to stand steady, oriented to the soul, in the midst of changing or difficult circumstances.
Joy produces right magnetism.
Joy releases the channels of the inner life and reaches out through the aura and touches those in our circle of influence, whether that be our family, our friends, workmates or spiritual co-workers, to those we may teach or counsel.
Love and joy carry the healing vibrations of the Hierarchy
We are asked to cultivate the spirit of joy – that Joy in living that should be the hallmark of the disciple, a needed characteristic. (DINA I/137) This quality of joy does not come from disciplining the emotional body but flows as a natural soul reaction and spiritual understanding. If we truly believe that spiritual life underlies the world, if we know that we are truly one – one human family, that humanity is hierarchically guided and the human heart is basically sound, isn’t this enough to carry us forward in life with a joyous attitude towards our spiritual work in the world? Surely enough, says the Tibetan that we express a joyful confidence in the law and in the Hierarchy, which lies behind the biblical words, ‘The joy of the Lord is our strength’.
These thoughts are paraphrased from the Tibetan’s books by Alice Bailey. InDiscipleship in the New Age: Vols I & II we are given instructions to the discipleship group with which he was working – a group of 24 people he was training for specific work. He speaks often about the need for developing joyfulness, particularly in relation to service. He says joyfulness characterises the new server and by this I take it to mean the server in the Aquarian manner working through group affiliation. The Tibetan’s discipleship group was an experiment in the new methods of Hierarchical training, a departure from the Piscean way of individual relation with the master or guru. The emphasis has turned to the fitting of ‘the group’ for initiation, of a collective moving forward and of working in the world. The focus of his instructions, although given out to individuals, were most definitely aimed at group integration and the fashioning of a useful vehicle for working out Hierarchical Plans. (By group is not meant to infer an association of people under a name or banner but rather an inner union of soul being or resonance of purpose between persons no matter therir affliation in the external world.)
We must realise that he was working with this group through the war years and much of his emphasis was to encourage and inspire them through these difficult times. Can we imagine what it was like for spiritually sensitive people of the time to maintain the attitude of joy that he outlines through the horrors of world war, to observe that mass destruction and not lose their inner poise and loving detachment? And yet, are we so different? We stand at the portal of a new millennium, again facing a global Shamballic impact with its liberating potential which will be experienced by many as destructive at some level. Are we, as members of the World Group, more equipped and coherent today. I think so. Are we sensitive to the newer rhythms and do we understand œservice to the whole?Do we love enough?
He makes some interesting comments about humanity and our ancient habits of what he calls misery and of our need to learn ‘the difficult lesson of happiness’ before we can know the true meaning of joy. He talks of the weariness of humanity, of ‘personality fatigue’ and the ‘pining-for-release’ psychology that has been fostered. As humanity as a whole progresses, the soul pours through and does its transmutative work. Looking at the state of human affairs we could wonder about the progress being made, but we can recognise also the striving towards the Common Good and we can see the efforts of compassionate and far-sighted individuals, groups and organisations leading humanity forward, expressing soul quality.
‘Learn to feel joy’, we are told, based on the knowledge ‘that humankind has always triumphed and moved ahead in spite of seeming failure’. A scan of history shows the evolutionary cycles of rising and failing civilisations and eras. We might seem to go round in circles, but do in fact progress upon each higher turn of the spiral. As in an individual life journey, we accept that the points of crisis are a spur to forward advancement, so in the case of a race or humanity as a whole do those crisis points serve to draw out the power of the soul. ‘Learn to feel joy…for grounded in the centre of your Being, you can see the world truly and with no limited vision…you can stand unperturbed, knowing the end from the beginning and realising that love will triumph’. This is the view from the mountaintop. At the base of the mountain, little can be seen beyond the immediate surroundings, but the higher you climb, the broader and more comprehensive the view. From high up, one can see down into the valley below, the many pathways up the mountain and out across the vista into the distance and up ahead to the peaks yet to be climbed. ‘Mount, therefore to the soul’. Gain spiritual perspective.
Are you familiar with the biblical saying ‘after weeping cometh joy, and joy cometh in the morning’? We can consider the morning (or the dawn) of the Aquarian Age and see humanity moving out of the Pisces away from’ the cup of sorrow and the cross of suffering.’ If we have assimilated the message of sacrifice and salvation offered by the Christ and the detachment taught by the Buddha, and are free from the ‘lure of matter,’ orientated to the soul, joy and strength, keynotes of Aquarius will usher in the era which lies ahead of us…joy and strength (Rule 12, R&I). This is not a platitude but the ongoing progressive evolution of humanity as the World Disciple in which all of us as spiritual aspirants play a part. If we have achieved soul contact and developed our spiritual understanding, we can stand subjectively as One, taking our place in the World Group. The Tibetan talks about the joy a Master knows when he is instrumental in lifting a brother up a little higher on the ladder. He calls this’the deepest joy of all ‘ and this is what is set before us. He talks of the joy of participation in the Master’s plan, of the spirit of joy which is based on an inner assurance as to the Plan and your work in relation to it – the Joy of doing the Master’s work. How many of you work within a group or a community? Are you familiar with the concept of the’ New Group of World Servers’? Each of us individually or in our group have our part to play in the awakening of humanity to soul expression, each of us ushering a newer paradigm.
The Tibetan speaks of the relationship between joy and radiation, describing joy as being ‘the most powerful impulse behind the right kind of radiation’, which he defines as ‘a tangible substance and potency, producing effects’. A Master (an Arhat, or enlightened teacher) reaches his group of disciples through direct radiation and it is the basis of telepathic communicationand group interplay. In all our varied group work, we emulate the way the Masters and the Hierarchy work modelling ‘a mini Hierarchy’. We seek to be aligned to the group soul and from that alignment evoke an expression of purpose. We build right group relations through’directed thought, joy and outgoing love’ and we destroy by self-pity, criticism and doubt.
Aquarius is the sign of Service. The Tibetan relates joy and service, he calls it a factor of efficiency and he speaks of ‘cultivated joyfulness’ releasing us into fuller service. We all know the image of the Waterbearer who pours the waters of Life and Love from his upturned pot upon a thirsty humanity. Aquarius represents the distribution of subtle energy and it is in this sign symbolically that the initiate comes down from the mountaintop in Capricorn, having been transfigured at theTthird degree Initiation. It is this intitatory experience which Christ undertook at the Transfiguration, that is referred to in the mantram of Capricorn, known as the sign of Inititation, Lost am I in light supernal and on that light I turn my back. After Capricorn the Initiate moves out into the world and serves in Aquarius, the sign of the World Server- the true humanitarian.
Jupiter is the esoteric (or soul) ruler of Aquarius. Jupiter is synomonous with joy. It is associated with the Heart centre. Jupiter is ruler and conveyor of EXPANSION. It is a great fusing planet – the FUSION of heart and head – of love and mind. Jupiter is the ‘Bringer of the Vision’, the expanded horizon, the view from the top of the mountain. The second initiation (The Baptism) under the influence of Neptune, Venus and Jupiter represents solar plexus, heart and throat repsectively. At the Fifth and final initiation Uranus and Jupiter produce ‘a beneficent organisation’ of the initiate’s equipment. When complete the initiate can escape off the wheel of rebirth and then can truly live on higher planes of consciousness. Ultimately, this is the expansion that is spoken of here.
Jupiter is the second ray planet, the home of the Lord of Love-Wisdom or ‘his body of manifestation’ which is his physical body. This Lord of Love is the most potent of the seven rays as this is a Second Ray solar system, so Jupiter is on the same cosmic ray of our solar Deity. He is said to be’ close to the heart of the Solar Logos’. Jupiter is our biggest planet, a planet of abundance, of Increase and we can think of the image of the cornucopia (the horn of plenty) full to overflowing with all the fruits of earth’s harvest. This great Life, this Second Ray Lord, infuses all forms with the quality of Love. It is the ‘attractive principle in nature…the custodian of the Law of Attraction’. On the material level, this is the manifestation of desire, bringing us what we want. We learn about desire for as Blake said ‘Excess is on the path to wisdom’ and the principle of satiation operates here. Later we learn to attract magnetically to ourselves what is desired, this time for the good of the whole. And the Second Ray Lord is called the Great Cosmic Magnet.
The Tibetan talks about the relationship between the fourth and second rays saying how the lower or conflict aspect of the 4th Harmony through Conflict (Humanity’s ray) has dominated and is now climaxing under the impact of the incoming Shamballa (Spiritual Will) force. He speaks of a major shift of direction to the second Ray (coming through the constellation of Gemini via Jupiter) and the coming of a cycle during which the conflict that is inherent in the interplay of the dualities become stabilised on the mental plane under the influence of the salvaging, serving egos of the fifth or spiritual kingdom (Kingdom of Souls) resulting in a entirely changed world civilisation. Do we see ourselves ‘as the salvaging egos of the spiritual kingdom?’ Are soul-infused or in soul contact. Is he speaking of us?
It is interesting that Zeus or Jupiter as he was known to the Romans was known as the god of the’ broad light of day’ and had control of all the phenomena of the Heavens. He inhabited a region above the sky where the source of all light was supposed to be. He lived at Mt Olympus in Thessaly. Like Indra, his Hindu counterpar,t he hurled lightening bolts down from the clouds to Earth. How like the energies of Aquarius. The eagle soaring beyond vision was sacred to Zeus and high mountain peaks sanctified by their nearness to the region of light. This great Jupiterian God was the highest god, the ruler and preserver of the world. He was possessed of all powers; endowed with wisdom; was partial to justice with no limit to his goodness and love.
Astrologically, Jupiter has rulership in four signs, Pisces (exoteric co-ruler), Gemini (monadic ruler), Sagittarius (exoteric ruler) and Virgo (monadic ruler). In Pisces the two fishes are bound together symbolizing the magnetic potency of the second ray which relates soul and form and brings them together. We can see this working out in Gemini, again a sign of duality which carries the second ray, but whereas in Pisces the captivity aspect is emphasised by the connecting band from which the fishes cannot escape, in Gemini the two brothers are potentially free to stand together in a relationship of free choice and determination.
Sagittarius is the sign of discipleship. It is through the Archer’s focussed and one-pointed activity that we become the earnest disciple, learn to rule the personality (in esoteric parlance, the lunar lords which Sagittarius governs) so that it eventually becomes a vehicle for the soul. Sagittarius often follows the path of excess, whether through excess of desire, (the centaur representing the lower desires which must be mastered) or the aspirant trying many paths to wisdom until the true direction is found. When humanity as the World Disciple is fully awakened to spiritual and not just material possibilities, then we can utilise the higher aspects of Jupiter, also known as the’ Great Beneficen’t to lead us forward into ways of peace and progress.
The Tibetan speaks of a significant relationship between Aquarius and Virgo in Esoteric Astrology. Virgo nurtures the Christ Life within the form. Virgo is esoterically the mother of the Christchild, the emanator of energies which nourish and aid the growth of the Christ consciousness. Aquarius is the coming expression of the group consciousness which is the first and immediate revelation of the ever present Christ consciousness on a large scale in humanity.
To summerize, all these signs relate to the building of a form through which higher energies can flow and express. Looking on the broader level Virgo relates to the Second Creative Hierarchy (and to the Monad) – the Divine Builders of our planetary manifestation. Aquarius – the Seventh Creative Hierarchy – is the atomic substance out of which the dense body of manifestation has to be constructed, the raw material if you like. Sagittarius rules the Sixth Creative Hierarchy – the lunar lords who build our lunar vehicles or personality bodies out of physical, astral, mental substances, whilst Pisces represents the divine interplay of soul or spirit and form. We can sense the purposefulness of the higher spiritual energies coming down into the densest matter, stimulating even the smallest atom of substance so that it can respond to spiritual life – the so called dead lives of inorganic matter. All lives respond on their level of consciousness. Our salvation and our sacrifice, to use the Piscean experience, begins when we become consciously aware of the soul and we begin to reorient our lives towards higher reality and cooperate with the higher energies flowing through us – to the positive Christ life which is the stimulating agent.
The Tibetan calls Jupiter the ‘second ray agent of the Christ spirit’. So when we are aligned with the soul or achieve some measure of soul-infusion, we become agents of this stimulating force, transmitters of these higher energies. As we learn to work along the ways outlined in the Tibetan’s teaching on the new discipleship, if that is our line of approach, we learn to become more effective and useful, to be able to use the soul force. Jupiter is related to the heart centre and a direct line of energycan be traced through the heart centres on the various levels.
The Master’s Heart – Direct line of energy. The ‘Master’s Heart’ is a technical term indicating the sources of life and many analogous interpretations. There is at this stage and after a certain major initiation, a direct line of energy or of life – sensed, recognised, active and utilised – between the conscious disciple and
1. The disciple’s heart centre
2. The heart centre in the head
3. The Egoic Lotus, which (until the Fourth initiation) is the heart centre of the monadic life.
4. The Master at the centre of His group
5. The Christ, the heart centre of the Hierarchy
6. The life of the Monad which begins to make itself felt at the third initiation
7. The Lord of life Himself, the heart centre of Shamballa
The line of relationship then extends from these onward and outward, and upward (spherically considered) to the Life at the very centre of our Earth’s alter ego, the planet Venus, to Jupiter and thence to the solar Lord Himself and on to a point in the Sun, Sirius – ‘It is a stage which one enters through the open door of Nirvana, the beginning of the Path of the Higher Evolution’ (5 – 767/8). So we are learning to come en rapport with this direct line and it is through occult meditation as outlined by the Tibetan. The New Esoteric Schools are essentially Schools of Occult Meditation.
To work towards the establishment of the coming schools is a large task, and requires and will require much work for many years if not a lifetime ahead. It is Ashramic work and will require that those involved work as a discipleship group. Morya says ‘rejoice at the obstacles!’ and there are and will be obstacles of many kinds. There is no point in listing them here, if our soul calls us to do this work (or any other specific task) the work is joyous but the vicissitudes will test us. I think in esoteric work, perhaps more than any other, we ‘learn on the job, we learn by doing’.
Master Morya refers to joy as a s’pecial wisdom’ several times in his verses in “Agni Yoga”. It seems that this special wisdom is that deep and persistent perspective of the soul that allows us to master the vicissitudes. It is demanding as we need to maintain the coherency or soul connection of the group with which we work, if that be the case, to maintain alignment to higher sources, and to work out the particulars of manifestation. On a practical level we need to be able to attract the resources we need, the people, skills, funding and the rest. You could say that our greatest resource is soul-alignment and the Hierarchy or whatever periphery we are able to approach. This contact however does not automatically make the life easier, in fact it seems to the contrary at times.
In the DINA books, TheTibetan (DK) gave many instructions for cultivating the spirit of joy and gave much practical advice on the importance of joy in group relationships. There are seed thoughts given for meditation and a challenging review (See Review on Joy in DINA ). I have made a compilation of references for you from the Bailey books and from Agni Yoga, Hierarchy and Heart – so many gems.
‘Humanity can meet upon cooperation, and this quality will bring one to the realization of Hierarchy’ (Heart: Verse 549). On the Joy of responsibility …’the steps of approach to the Teaching are dissimilar, there is much attraction on the first steps and so much responsibility on the next ones.’ (Heart: Verse 27)
In closing I would like to read the following words from Agni Yoga p. 178.
‘It is noticed in the astral world that those possessing average understanding are not striving to the summit. Average understanding absolves them from suffering, but at the same time does put upon them the duty of self-sacrificing work. The same may be observed in the growth of the spirit. The first calls are pleasant and benevolent, and the status of the guarded ward is not a responsible one. But consciousness grows and the spirit becomes worthy of special missions. Each mission is antagonistic to the old mundane logic, and is therefore subject to difficulties and dangers.
Verily, there are few who learn to rejoice at the conquest of obstacles. And many are ready even to regret the bygone average consciousness. The commands become brief and the work depends on independent action. Friends become rare and obstructions are piled up like unapproachable mountains, whereas victories are apparently indiscernible. The effects of the subtlest energies are not apparent. The intermittent sacred pains torture one. The divisibility and transmissions of the spirit are inexplicable. But above all rises the fulfilment of the desire for the General Good. Spiritual cooperation grows, unlimited by space, through emulation of the far-off worlds, the relationship to the surroundings changes and spatial work ceases to be an empty sound. The assigned missions become a joy, become as if they were one’s own inalienable labor. It cannot be otherwise…