The meaning of the word initiation is in the word itself. Initiation is initiative. In the first place every child that is born on earth is born with initiative. Then, as the child grows, more or less that spirit dies away, because the knowledge the child gathers in their life, together with courage, brings a doubt. This doubt, increasing more and more, very often makes a person lose the power of initiative. Then a person does not want to take a step before they see whether it is land or water. However, very often water looks like land and land looks like water. Since, according to the mystics, life is an illusion, upon that illusion they base their reason. This reason that they acquired helps them in their life in the world. Nevertheless, very often it is this reasoning that keeps them back from taking what is called initiative.
It is with this initiative spirit that anyone in the world who has accomplished something great, has accomplished it. People call them mad or fanatic or crazy or void of reason in the beginning of their efforts, but after the result people thought that that person was the wisest. Great prophets, the great makers of nations, the great inventors, the great discoverers, they all proved this. People often have a question – do they not see as a reasoning person sees what is before them? Yes, they see, but with different eyes. Their point of view is different, it does not always agree with the point of view of the average person. Therefore, it is natural that people should call them fanatic. For that person sees perhaps more than the many around them. If anyone has helped themself to gain success after great failure, or to get over an illness after great suffering, that person has only come to it by this initiative spirit.
There are two different kinds of initiations that souls experience. One kind of initiation is a natural initiation. A kind of natural unfoldment comes to a soul, for which the soul cannot give any cause or reason. No effort or attempt has been made by a soul to experience it. Sometimes the same initiation comes after a great illness, or pain, or suffering. It comes as an opening of the horizon, it comes as a flashlight, and in a moment the world is different. It is not that the world has changed; it is that the person is tuned to a different pitch. The person begins to think differently, feel differently, see and act differently; the whole condition of the person begins to change. In connection with that person, we might say that they begin to live from that moment. We might ask, “In what way does it come? Does it come as a vision, as a dream, as a phenomenon?” It might come in any of the said forms, and yet no one can fix the manner of its manifestation.
The other initiation which is known among the mystics is the initiation that one takes from a person living on earth. Every mystical school, therefore, has its own initiation. In the Orient, where mystical ideas are considered and regarded as most sacred, any person who wishes to tread the spiritual path considers initiation as the most important thing. When souls like Jesus Christ had to be baptized by Saint John the Baptist, no soul on the earth can say, “I have risen above the initiation.” A person might ask me, “Is it impossible?” I will answer that there is nothing impossible, even to attain the spiritual aim without initiation. I can only say that it is possible for a person to jump into the water and try to swim with the intention of arriving at the port of New York. But their life is more secure if they will book their passage on the line where the ships always pass. Even greater is the difference between these two souls: the soul who wishes to journey the spiritual path by taking initiation, and the other who refuses to do so.
The initiation that a spiritual teacher gives means a trust given by the teacher to a student, and the trust given by the student to the teacher. The progress of the student initiated depends upon how much of themself they give to their teacher’s guidance. One student might give only a finger, and the other even a part of the finger. Another would give their whole hand. That makes a great difference. For if a student would ask their teacher, “What do you ask of me?” The teacher will say, “Your whole being.” Then if the student says, “Well, I will give a certain amount of my time and thought to your guidance. I will do a bit, that comes in my way to do, will that be enough?” The teacher will say, “Yes, enough, when you think it is enough.” However, it is never enough in reality.
Another student might think, “Is it not giving away my point of view in order to follow another’s point of view?” I will answer, “No, if you have a point of view, you will never lose it. The point of view that you lose is not yours; and by looking at a thing from another’s point of view, you only enlarge your own point of view. You have two points of view, instead of one.” If the thought of the student happens to be different from that of the teacher, by taking the teacher’s thought, it is only doubled. The student has their own point of view just the same. The student can now make a choice, for their vision, the horizon of their thought, is expanded. However, the student who will close themself, and will say, “I will guard my point of view or it will run away,” will never benefit by it.
The mystical path is the most subtle path to tread. The relationship between the teacher and student is too subtle for words to express. Besides, the language of a mystical teacher is always elusive; you cannot, so to speak, pin them to their words. You cannot ask if they will clearly say that it is so and so, or such and such. If a mystic does that, they are not a mystic; if they are a mystic, they cannot do it. For the mystic may seem to be standing on the earth, but they are flying in the air. Neither can the air be made into a rock nor can a mystic be made into a gross entity. Neither does their yes mean the same as the yes of another nor does their no mean the same as the no of another. Mystical language is not the language of words; it is the language of meaning. It is to the greatest distress of the mystic that they have to use the words of everyday language, which are not their words. They cannot express themself in these words. You will find the same thing with the action of the mystic. The outward action of the mystic will not express to everybody the meaning that is behind it. Perhaps that meaning is much more important inwardly, in comparison with the insignificant action outwardly.
The teacher, therefore, continually tests their disciple. The teacher tells the disciple and does not tell them, for everything must come in its right time. Divine knowledge has never been taught in words nor will it ever be taught. The work of a mystical teacher is not to teach but to tune, to tune the disciple so that the disciple may become the instrument of God. For the mystical teacher is not the player of the instrument, but is the tuner. When the teacher has tuned the instrument, the teacher gives it into the hand of the player whose instrument it is to play. The duty of the mystical teacher is their service in this direction as the tuner.
“Is dispute any good with a spiritual teacher?” Not at all. For the student may be speaking a different language. The teacher speaks in a different language. If there is no common language how can the dispute be profitable? Therefore, on the path of mysticism there is no dispute. Are there any rules on this path to follow? No fixed rules. For every person there is a special rule. Yes, there is one law, which applies to all things in life. Sincerity is the only thing which is asked by the teacher. For truth is not the portion of the insincere.
There may be several initiations given to the disciple that the teacher has taken in hand, but it depends upon the disciple to progress. Just as the parents are anxious, so the spiritual teacher is naturally anxious to see the advancement of their disciple. There is no reason for the teacher to keep any disciple back, as there is no reason for any parents to keep their child back from success. For as in the happiness of the child there is the happiness of the parents, so in the advancement of the disciple there is the satisfaction of the teacher.
Then there is another initiation which comes afterwards, and that initiation is an unfoldment of the soul. It comes as an after-effect of the initiation that the disciple had from the teacher. It comes as a kind of expansion of consciousness, and the greatness of this initiation depends on the length and the width of the horizon of the consciousness. Many may claim it, but few realize it. Those who realize it, they do not make claims. As the more fruitful a tree is, the more it bends; so the more divine a spiritual realization, the more a person becomes humble. It is the less fruitful, who become more pretentious. Real initiated ones hardly speak of initiation; they do not find profit in making others believe that they are initiated. They possess that gain, so they do not want a gain outwardly. It is the person who has not gotten that gain, who wants recognition from outside.
You might say, “What is the profit of initiation?” The answer is this: true religion, mysticism or philosophy, all that we gain, must result in one thing, and that is to become better fitted to serve humanity.
February 23, 1924
CW 1924, Vol. 1, pp. 112-118.
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