Introduction by Foster Bailey
To the God Who is in the Fire and Who is in the waters;
To the God Who has suffused Himself through all the world;
To the God Who is in summer plants and in the lords of the forest;
To that God be adoration, adoration.
- Sh'vet Upanishad, II.17. [vi]
To the God Who has suffused Himself through all the world;
To the God Who is in summer plants and in the lords of the forest;
To that God be adoration, adoration.
- Sh'vet Upanishad, II.17. [vi]
The story of the many years of telepathic work by the Tibetan with
Alice A. Bailey is revealed in her Unfinished
Autobiography, published in 1951. This includes the
circumstances of her first contact with him, on the physical plane,
which took place in California in November 1919. Thirty years' work
was planned. When this had been accomplished, and within thirty days
after that period, Mrs. Bailey gained her release from the limitations
of the physical vehicle.
The Autobiography also contains certain statements by the
Tibetan in regard to his work and some information as to the reasons
why it was undertaken. in the early stages the work involved careful
attention to the physical plane conditions which might best help to
make the telepathic process more successful. But during the latter
years the technique was so perfected and the etheric mechanism of
A.A.B. so skillfully attuned and adjusted that the whole process was
practically effortless, and the reality and practical usefulness of
telepathic interplay was demonstrated to an unique degree.
The spiritual truths dealt with involved in many cases the expression
by the lower concrete mind (often with the insuperable restrictions of
the English language) of abstract ideas and hitherto quite unknown
concepts of spiritual realities. This unescapable limitation of truth
has been frequently called to the attention of the readers of the
books so produced but is all too often forgotten. Its constant
remembrance will constitute in the years to come one of the chief
factors in preventing the crystallization of the teaching from
producing yet one more dogmatic sectarian cult.
The present volume, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, first published in
1925, was the third book jointly produced and carries inherent
evidence that it will stand as the major and most far-reaching portion
of the thirty-year teachings, notwithstanding the profundity and
usefulness of the volumes published in the series [vii] entitled A
Treatise on the Seven Rays or of any other of the books.
During the long course of the work the minds of the Tibetan and A.A.B.
became so closely attuned that they were in effect – so far as much of
the production of the teaching was concerned – a single joint
projecting mechanism. Even to the end A.A.B. often spoke of her
amazement at the glimpses she obtained through contact with the
Tibetan's mind, of limitless vistas of spiritual truths which she
could not possibly have otherwise contacted, and often of a quality
she could not possibly express. This experience was the basis of her
often-proclaimed but frequently little-understood assertion that all
the teachings she was aiding in producing was in fact only the A B C
of esoteric knowledge, and that in the future she would gladly abandon
any pronouncement in the present teaching, when she found better and
more deeply esoteric teaching available. Clear and profound as the
teaching actually is in the books published in her name, the truths
imparted are so partial and subject to later revelation and expansion
that this fact, if constantly remembered, will give us a second
much-needed safeguard against that quality of the concrete mind which
constantly tends to produce sectarianism.
At the very beginning of the joint effort and after careful
consideration it was decided between the Tibetan (D.K.) and A.A.B.
that she as the working disciple on the outer plane should shoulder as
much as possible of karmic responsibility on that plane, and that the
teaching should go to the public over her signature. This involved the
burden of leadership in the esoteric field and precipitated attack and
condemnation from persons and organizations whose positions and
activities were more Piscean and authoritarian.
The entire platform upon which esoteric teaching stands before the
public today has been liberated from the limitations and follies, of
mystery, glamor, claim-making and impracticality, by the position
taken by the Tibetan and A.A.B. The stand taken against dogmatic
assertion has helped to establish a new era of mental freedom for the
students of the progressively unfolding revelation of the Ageless
Wisdom. [viii]
The age-old method of arriving at truth by the process of accepting
new authorities and comparing them with previously established
doctrines, while of undoubted value in the training of the mind, is
gradually being transcended. In its place is emerging in both the
religious and philosophical worlds a new capacity to take a more
scientific position. Spiritual teaching will be increasingly accepted
as an hypothesis to be proved less by scholasticism, historical
foundation and authority, and more by the results of its effect upon
the life lived and its practical usefulness in solving the problems of
humanity.
Heretofore, advanced esoteric teaching has almost invariably been
obtainable only by the student's acceptance of the authority of the
teacher, varying degrees of personal obedience to that teacher and
pledges of secrecy. As the new Aquarian dispensation progresses these
limitations will disappear. The personal relation of the disciple to
the Master remains, but already discipleship training has been
attempted in Group formation. The record of one such experiment and
attempt to use this new age method has been made available to the
public in the book entitled Discipleship in the New Age, which gives
the direct personal instructions by the Tibetan to a selected group.
In A Treatise on Cosmic Fire the Tibetan has given us what H. P.
Blavatsky prophesied he would give, namely, the psychological key to
the Cosmic Creation. H.P.B. stated that in the 20th century a disciple
would come who would give the psychological key to her own monumental
work The Secret Doctrine on which treatise the Tibetan worked with
her; and Alice A. Bailey worked in complete recognition of her own
task in this sequence.
Tunbridge Wells, December 1950
Foster Bailey
Foster Bailey