Book of the Month – Ponder On This, by Alice A. Bailey

Headings under which the material is arranged alphabetically

1. Some Basic Assumptions
2. Food for Thought
3. Abstruse Teachings
4. Age of Disciples
5. Agni
6. Alignment
7. The Ancient Mysteries
8. Antahkarana
9. Aspirant
10. The Astral (Emotional) Body
11. Astral Phenomena
12. Astral Plane
13. Astrology
14. Aura
15. Breathing Exercises
16. The Buddha
17. The Causal Body
18. Centres (Force)
19. A Challenge
20. The Christ
21. The Christ: Reappearance of
22. Colour
23. Consciousness
24. The Constitution of Man
25. Courage
26. Cremation
27. Crime
28. Crisis
29. Criticism
30. Cycles (Cyclic Impulses)
31. The Dark Forces
32. Death, Death: The Art of Dying
33. Death: Restitution
34. Death: Sequence of Events
35. Detachment
36. Devachan
37. Devas
38. Diet
39. Disciples: Acceptance of
40. Disciples
41. Discipline: Physical
42. The Dweller on the Threshold
43. East and West
44. .. and more including – Education, The Ego (Soul), Electricity, Elementals, Elimination (After Death), Energy and Force, Energy in the Universe, Esotericism, Etheric Body (Vital Body), Failure, Fear, The Fifth Kingdom (The Kingdom of God), The Four Freedoms, Free Will, To Give, Glamour, Glands, God, Goodwill and Will-to-Good, The Great Invocation, Group Relationships, Guidance, Harmlessness, Healing, Health and Disease, Hell, The Hierarchy, The Hierarchy: Externalisation of , Horoscope, Humanity, Human Races, Humility, Hylozoism, Ideas and Ideals, Identity, Illumination, Illusion, Immortality, Impersonality, Incarnation, Incarnation: Intervals Between, Indifference, Initiation, Initiation: Applicants for First Initiation-Second Initiation- Third Initiation- Fourth Initiation, Inner Training, Inoculations, Inspirational Writing, Intuition, Joy, Karma, Knowledge, Law, Law of Loving Understanding, Leadership, Light, Limitation of Words, Lost Souls, Love, Magic: White and Black, Man as Creator and Builder, Masters, The Master Djwhal Khul, Maya, Medical Science, Medicine: Mineral Drugs, Meditation, Mind (Manas), Money, The Moon, Motive, Nature of Man, The New Age, The New Generation, The New Group of World Servers, New Teachings, The New World Religion, Obedience, Occult Blindness, Occultists and Mystics, The Old Commentary, Overpopulation, Pain, The Personality, The Physical Body, The Pilgrim, The Plan, The Planets, Prana, The Probationary Path, Prophecies, Psychic Powers, Rays, Recognition, Reincarnation, Relinquishing, Revelation, Ring-Pass-Not, Sanat Kumara, The Sannyasin, Schools of Occultism, Schools of Thought, Sense of Humour, Sensitivity, Serenity, Servers and Service, The Sex Problem, Shamballa, Sight, Solitude, The Soul, Sound, Space, Speech, Spirit, Spiritual Evolution of Man, Spiritual Man, Spiritualism, Stage, Reached on Evolutionary Ladder, Symbols, Synthesis, Teaching, Telepathy, The Third Eye, Thought-Forms, Thought-Form Building: Rules, Thought Power, Time, Triangles of Light, Truth, Virtue, Visualisation, War, The Wesak Festival, Wisdom, Words of Power, Worry and Irritation, Zodiac. Conclusion

97
JOY

Pages 226-227:

(1) Be joyful, for joy lets in the light, and where there is joy there is little room for glamour and misunderstanding.  (5-461).

… It is helpful to differentiate between happiness, joy and bliss:

First, happiness, which has its seat in the emotions, and is a personality reaction.

Second, joy, which is a quality of the soul and is realised in the mind, when alignment takes place.

Third, bliss, which is the nature of Spirit and about which speculation is fruitless until the soul realises its oneness with the Father.  This realisation follows upon an earlier stage where the personal self is at-oned with the soul. Therefore speculation and analysis as to the nature of bliss is profitless to the average man whose metaphors and terminologies must perforce be personal, and related to the world of the senses.  Does the aspirant refer to his happiness or joy?  If he refers to the latter, it must come as the effect of group consciousness, of group solidarity, of oneness with all beings, and may not be interpreted in terms of happiness at all.  Happiness comes when the personality is meeting with those conditions which satisfy it in one part or other of its lower nature; it comes when there is a sense of physical well being, of contentment with one’s environment or surrounding personalities, or of satisfaction with one’s mental opportunities and contacts.  Happiness is the goal of the separated self. … (4-268/70)

107
MAGIC: WHITE AND BLACK

Pages 249-250:

…(4) And now what methods may be employed to safeguard the worker in the field of the world?  What can be done to ensure his safety in the present strife, and in the greater strife of the coming centuries?

1. A realisation that purity of all the vehicles is the prime essential.  If a Dark Brother gains control over any man, it but shows that that man has in his life some weak spot.  The door whereby entrance is effected, must be opened by the man himself; the opening whereby malignant force can be poured in, must be caused by the occupant of the vehicles.  therefore the need of scrupulous cleanliness of the physical body, of clean steady emotion permitted in the emotional body, and of purity of thought in the mental body.  when this is so, co-ordination will be present in the lower vehicles, and the indwelling Thinker himself permits no entrance.
2. The elimination of all fear.  the forces of evolution vibrate more rapidly than those of involution, and in this fact lies a recognisable security.  Fear causes weakness; weakness causes a disintegration; the weak spot breaks and a gap appears, and through that gap evil force may enter.  The factor of entrance is the fear of the man himself, who opens thus the door.
3. A standing firm and unmoved, no matter what occurs.  Your feet may be bathed in the mud of the earth, but your head may be bathed in the sunshine of the higher regions.  Recognition of the filth of earth involves not contamination.
4. A recognition of the use of common-sense, and the application of this common-sense to the matter in hand.  Sleep much, and in sleeping, learn to render the body positive; keep busy on the emotional plane, and achieve the inner calm.  Do naught to overtire the body physical, and play whenever possible. In hours of relaxation comes the adjustment that obviates later tension. (2 – 137/8)

(5) The cultivation of emotional tranquility is one of the first steps towards the achievement of the needed equipment of the white magician.  This tranquility is not to be achieved by an effort of the will which succeeds in strangling all astral vibratory activity, but by the cultivation of response to the Ego, and negation of all response to the inherent vibration of the astral sheath itself (3 – 983).

See also: “Dark Forces.”

This compilation contains extracts from 18 of the 24 books of Alice A. Bailey, which were written between 1919-1949. Most of the books, were written in cooperation with a Tibetan teacher.

This compilation was prepared by a student of the Alice Bailey material in Pretoria and was first published in 1971.  It was the compiler’s hope that the reader should refer to the source material in the books to get the information in its proper context and full detail.   References to the source material are given with each quotation by referring to a book number and page number.  For example (18 – 323) refers to page 323 of the 18th book – The Rays and the Initiations.

EXTRACT FROM A STATEMENT BY THE TIBETAN

“Suffice it to say, that I am a Tibetan disciple of a certain degree, and this tells you but little, for all are disciples from the humblest aspirant up to, and beyond, the Christ Himself. I live in a physical body like other men, on the borders of Tibet, …” Read more