More on Synthesis

 Again we shall contemplate on a few more words on the wisdom of synthesis (navigating the "narrow razor-edged Path" between duality or the "noble middle path" of Buddha) from our beloved DK. However I wish to emphasize that Djwal Khul and Alice Bailey demonstrated practical (not just theoretically) synthesis. For instance Alice Bailey being born in the west was open enough to acknowledge and bring forth teachings from a far wiser eastern/oriental master Djwal Khul. She could both surrender herself (a difficult quality to develop for the western concrete mind with its overemphasis on freedom) and at the same time was careful enough to guard herself against foolish blind devotion (a vice of oriental masses). Another disciple who demonstrated practical synthesis was Blavatsky (synthesis of religions). She established Theosophical society headquarters in the west and soon shifted it to the east although she worked and died for the cause of theosophy in the west. One more disciple who comes to my mind is Mirra Alfassa (known as The Mother in India). She spent earlier years of her life in west and with occultists like max theon before moving to the east and continuing her work (which she had begun with Sri Aurobindo during their embodiment with Krishna (Maitreya or Christ) in progressive evolution and gave us Synthesis of Yoga). The time has come to understand and exhibit synthesis in today's critical and crisis period in humanity's evolution. A few ask what if we don't ? Then we will self-destruct and move through a period of darkness and materialism and we will have to restart all over again like fate of Atlantis. Our collective fate will be decided by our dedication to the lesson of synthesis (to which the Ashram of synthesis is dedicated).

So here are few more words on synthesis -

1. Synthesis is the method whereby comprehension is attained, and that, by blending the pairs of opposites, the middle path is gained that leads straight to the heart of the citadel.

2. When the Orient and the Occident have reached a point of better understanding and interplay their interaction will be of mutual benefit; the East will profit from the mental stimulation afforded by the strong mental vibration of its Western brother, whilst the Occidental will gain much from the abstract reasoning of the Oriental, and, through the effort to grasp that which the first subrace of the Aryan root race so easily apprehended, he will contact his higher mind, and thus build with greater facility the bridge between the higher and the lower mind. The two types need each other, and their effect upon each other tends to eventual synthesis.

3. Through the gradually growing synthesis of the meditation process carried on by the soul on its own plane and that of the aspirant the man manifests (in the physical brain) a point of light which has been occultly lighted on the plane of the mind. Light ever signifies two things, energy and its manifestation in form of some kind, for light and matter are synonymous terms. The thought of the man and the idea of the soul have found a point of rapport, and the germ of a thought form has come into being. This thought form, when completed, will embody as much of the great plan (on which the Hierarchy is working) as the man can vision, grasp, and embody on the mental plane. This, in the early stages of a man's aspiration, in his first steps along the Path of Discipleship, and for the first two initiations, is covered by the word "Service". He grasps, gropingly at first, the idea of the unity of the Life, and its manifestation as the Brotherhood existing between all forms of that divine Life. This subjective ideal gradually leads to an appreciation of the way in which this essential relationship can work out practically.

4. All that tends to synthesis and divine expression in collections of units is approaching closer to the ideal and approximating the higher principles. In thinking out these ideas may come some helpfulness. You have an illustration of what I say in the fact that many of the struggles that arise in organizations are based on the fact that some worthy people follow personalities, sacrificing themselves for a principle, yes, but a principle governing the personality life. They are concentrated on what seems to them to be of paramount value, the fulfilling of the wish of the personal life, and (at this period) are only secondarily interested in the good of the many though they may have moments when they think that is their primary intent.

5. Only as the man transcends his active personal life and substitutes the life of love or wisdom as led by the ego can he begin to understand the scope of that life of love and know it as demonstrated power. Just as the personality deals with the principles governing the life of activity of the lower self, and the ego works with the law of love as demonstrated in group work, or love showing itself in the synthesis of the many into the few, so the Monad deals with the active life of love shown in power through the synthesis of the few into the one.

6. The Great Ones look to see the faculty of pliability and adaptability working out, that faculty of adaptation that is one of the fundamental laws of species which nature so wonderfully demonstrates. The transference of this law to the inner planes and its working out in the new cycle of effort must be undertaken. This law of adaptation involves the appreciation of the need, the recognition of the new force coming in with the new cycle and the consequent bringing together in wide synthesis of the need and of the force, regarding the personal self simply as a focal point for action and transmutation. It involves the transmutation of the five senses and their extension into the subtler planes so that sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell are welded into one synthetic cooperating whole, for use in the great work. On the physical plane, these tend to the unification of the personal life and to the adaptation of the physical world to the needs of the personal self. On the subtler planes they must be transmuted until they are adequate to the needs of the group of which the individual forms a fragmentary part. The ability to do this is one of the things that the Great Ones look for in those individuals whose privilege it may be to inaugurate the New Age.

7. These fifteen rules for walking the path of a disciple (leading to white magic) are divided into: Six rules on the mental plane. Five rules on the desire or astral plane.

Four rules on the physical plane. As an example of the first six rules could be summarized as (we need to work out the synthesis of their realtionships): 

Rule 1—Recollection, resulting in concentration.

Rule 2—Response, resulting in an interaction between higher and lower.

Rule 3—Radiation, resulting in a sounding forth.

Rule 4—Respiration, resulting in creative work.

Rule 5—Re-union, resulting in the at-one-ment.

Rule 6—Re-orientation, resulting in a clear vision of the Plan.

8. The little evolved man is aware of synthesis, but it is the synthesis of his material nature. The highly spiritual man is aware also of synthesis but it is that in his soul, whose consciousness is that of unity. But in between is the wretched aspirant, conscious of duality above all else and pulled hither and thither between the two. His first step has, for its objective, to make him aware of the pairs of opposites and of the necessity to choose between them. Through the light, which he has discovered in himself, he becomes aware of the dark. Through the good which attracts him, he sees the evil which is for him the line of least resistance. Through the activity of pain, he can visualize and become aware of pleasure, and heaven and hell become to him realities. Through the activity of the attractive life of his soul, he realizes the attraction of matter and of form, and is forced to recognize the urge and pull of both of them. He learns to feel himself as "pendant 'twixt the two great forces", and, once the dualities are grasped, it dawns on him slowly and surely that the deciding factor in the struggle is his divine will, in contradistinction to his selfish will.