This third ray meditation concerns itself essentially with inherent forces, and students would do well to recognize the [397] fact that there are inherent or innate qualities and attributes in the divine Whole which remain as yet unrevealed, and are as much unexpressed as are the divine tendencies in the majority of human beings. It is with these mysterious and slowly emerging energies that the man, ready for initiation, will have to deal, and of them he will become increasingly aware. He has to learn to occupy himself with the task of cooperating with those great Lives Who, working on formless levels, are busy with the development of an inner and as yet unrealized development within the Whole, and which can only be contacted and sensed by those on, or nearing, the Path of Initiation. There is a mystery within the mystery. The four minor rays, or rays of attribute, are concerned with the attributes which are definitely and slowly coming into expression and to fruition - knowledge, synthesis, beauty, science, idealism and order. But there are others, further back behind the scenes, held in latency for the proper period and time (if I may speak of these things in terms of modern usage), and these are the theme of this higher meditation. Only those who have freed themselves from the thralldom of the senses can truly thus meditate. The attributes of Deity might be divided into three main groups:

1. Expressing Attributes - those which are steadily emerging, - of which we are becoming conscious, and which will constitute the major qualities and attributes of the fourth kingdom in nature, when the evolutionary cycle has done its work.
2. Presented Attributes - those which (again using human phraseology) have presented themselves to the consciousness of the advanced disciple, which are as yet not capable of interpretation nor can they be comprehended by average human beings, but which are attributes of [398] the Kingdom of Souls, and which will distinguish that kingdom in its final stages. These latent attributes can be gradually comprehended and brought into activity by those who can function as souls.
3. Undefined Attributes are those of which the Christ, the planetary Logos and Those great Lives of Whose consciousness we can have no conception are becoming aware (note that phrase). For these attributes we have no words, and it is needless for us even to guess at their nature or to ponder upon their significance. They are as remote from our understanding as the aesthetic sense, group philanthropy and world states are from the consciousness of the aboriginal savage.

In connection with the problem of "presented attributes", it might be stated that those which characterize the soul and which cannot express themselves until the soul is consciously known and steadily achieving control, could be illustrated through attention to the word Love. Love is such a presented attribute, and it took a great Avatar, such as the Christ, to grasp for humanity and present to humanity its significance. It has taken two thousand years for this presented attribute to take even the form it has in the consciousness of the human family, and those of us who are students of world affairs well know how unknown real love is. Even today, in relation to the entire planetary population, there is only a very small group (a few million would be an optimistic speculation) who have even a beginner's grasp of what the love of God really is.