The Technique of the
Disciple
THE WAY OF ATTUNEMENTBy Raymund
Andrea, F.R.C.
Grand Master of the
Rosicrucian Order for Great Britain
[From The Rosicrucian
Digest February 1935]
IN MY book, "The Technique of the Master,"
published two years ago, certain basic principles of thought and action were
outlined, and methods of esoteric discipline were suggested, which appeared to
me to characterize the Master in the training of a disciple. These principles
and this discipline constitute the necessary foundation upon which a disciple
has to build through graduated development, a comprehensive structure of
technical equipment in order to attain to high initiation. I endeavoured to
sketch the subject from the Master's point of view. I took it for granted that
readers would accept the fact of the existence of the Masters as living
personalities, actually operative on this material plane as well as on the
Cosmic plane, having full knowledge of the activities of the Order to which we
as members are attached, and inspiring certain advanced initiates in carrying
on those activities.
The response from members to the teaching of this book was
highly gratifying. It proved beyond question that within the Order a large body
of appreciative understanding existed of the subject under consideration. Not
only so, but that a very real hunger was present to grasp all the related
aspects of truth discussed and work them out in the individual life. What was
especially significant to me was the appreciative comment that came from young
members in the Order, of an age at which one scarcely expects to find subjects
of this nature to be of interest, much less of being grasped with any real
understanding. Surely this fact is a sign of the times in the occult world. In
a world still full of unrest, with superficiality and lightmindedness manifest
on every hand to a painful degree, to find young people seeking the wisdom of
the Masters with an earnestness of thought and aspiration worthy of their
elders, is the most promising sign of the onward march of evolution and an
inspiration, to us who endeavor to teach and guide, beyond any other incentive.
It is in compliance with the request of these and many
members of all ages in the Order that I have been prompted to prepare another
book, as a companion volume to the first, dealing with the technique. In this
book I have had the neophyte in mind. I have gone back to my own early days of
study and effort on the path and placed myself side by side with the neophyte
as he sets forth on his journey of self development. I have endeavoured to
treat the subject from the point of view of the neophyte as he seeks to qualify
from the outset of his studies, knowing little of the path before him, or how
his new departure in life will react upon himself and his environment. It is
not an easy task to embark upon, but I have written from my own experience of
the path and taken the young aspirant along with me, until light and knowledge
dispel doubt and hesitancy and he finds the technique unfolding in his mind and
soul and expressing skilfully in his hands in the one great service to which we
have dedicated ourselves, the service of the Master.
In these books on the technique I am not, I need scarcely
say, proposing to offer a teaching which shall be in any way a substitute for
the actual studies of the aspirant within the Order. I seek rather to throw a
light upon definite phases of inner experience which will transpire as he
proceeds in his unfoldment through the various grades. As he works on through
his studies ever new problems arise of a deeply personal and intimate nature;
yet experience has shown how uniform in character are many of these problems,
and again and again one finds that the same difficulties, the same searching
questions and perplexities in one's own experience, beset others, though in
different circumstances, and the solutions which one has found in his own
researches into the soul become an inspirational guidance in other lives. Take,
for instance, the Obscure Night, which is specifically dealt with in the
teachings of the Order. It comes to all at some time or other: all must pass
through it. It is fraught with temporary doubts and difficulties: some almost
lose their faith and their hold upon life in it. To each it comes in a peculiar
and individual form, contingent upon circumstances and temperament and
evolutionary status. But those who have passed through it know the actual experiences
of it; they know the nature of its trial and the necessary requirements for
passing on in spite of all illusionary aspects which suggest defeat. And here
it is that an individual exposition of this and other related phases of
development can be an added inspiration to the aspirant to face his task with
courage and qualify for a worthy mission in life.
An advanced member of the Order recently proffered the
opinion that the book, "The Technique of the Master," was really for
ninth grade students. Perhaps this is so, although it had not before occurred
to me. I dealt in that book with intricate points of the technique which had
long burdened my mind in connection with some of the deepest problems of our
experience on the path. Inevitably, therefore, I was speaking therein mainly to
the student of experience, faced with some of the hardest problems that may
beset him. For it is just here, when the student has made considerable progress
and is waiting the decisive touch and influence of the Master in his life, that
his greatest strength and perseverance are in requisition. It is to be expected
that before this great privilege is his, he should be subjected to the keenest
possible trial of his powers to ensure his proper use of that privilege. And
these considerations had my earnest attention in the first book.
But in the second book to be published, I have reviewed the
earlier stages up to this point of attainment. But the neophyte and the
advanced student will find in it an interpretation of personal experience and,
I trust, an inspiration to attainment. One cannot do more in a book of this
nature. One would like, when face to face with acutely perplexing problems and
circumstances of students, to live the life for them and translate them
secretly into a larger consciousness. But the wish is vain; and were it
possible, it would not be true growth, but a forced development, unable to
stand the strong reactions which must come from day to day in the fulfilment of
Karmic obligations. We must proceed on our own, not on the borrowed strength of
others. Indeed, that is the underlying truth of the technique in all its
phases, and the way of it is precisely the many-sided and purposeful use of
self in the largest sense.
I feel that these books will have served a good purpose if
they emphasize to the student in the various grades of the Order that they must
work their studies into the fabric of daily life, that reading and discussion
have their place in accumulating facts and clarifying the mind, but that upon
their own persistent and conscientious efforts alone can any real progress be
achieved. The advanced student knows this; but the neophyte is slow in
realizing it. His eagerness is laudable, his enthusiasm inspiring; but his
anxiety and impatience hamper him at every step, and increase the
responsibility of those who guide him. Nothing that one can say to him can
fully satisfy. There is a wisdom which comes of old experience which cannot be
imparted; yet he will not believe that this experience is necessary. He is
prone to believe that because he has read a certain corpus of literature and
has by heart a reasonable amount of information regarding development, that
therefore he is ready for the gift of deep insight and singular demonstration.
But the fact is, that this knowledge has not yet been worked out in experience:
the circumstances of daily living have not yet brought him to the test of his
knowledge; and nothing but the passage of time and the application of his life
to those circumstances can bridge the gulf and open his inner vision to the
adjustments to be made between the objective brain consciousness and that of
the soul. A young student of science may read the recorded researches and
discoveries of the master scientists and feel himself very-well versed in the
subject; but these men have often wrestled with nature in the laboratory for a
lifetime before they put pen to paper.
The living of life must precede the revealing of its
technique. Let the neophyte be thankful that there are those who have trodden a
few hard stages of the path and have been constrained by the Masters to record
in the fire of their souls some fragments of their hard won wisdom. This is my
message to him. If he has trust and devotion, and the patience of the true
seeker, he will not have to wait long before the fire of his soul is kindled;
and once launched upon the path of individual discovery, the successive steps
of advancement will open to him as quickly as he is ready to ascend them.
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