MY BELOVED FRIEND AND TRUSTED DISCIPLE:

You have passed the three score years and ten of ordinary living and you are privileged to look back upon a life of great usefulness and of much inner spiritual progress. You have disposed of much karma and are far freer than when you entered into incarnation.

I would outline for you a meditation which will suffice for your needs for a long time to come. I am not putting it in the ordinary form, for all of you in this group should now have reached the point at which you can formulate your own meditation and reflective approach. I only indicate to you the setting for certain seed thoughts.

I suggest that you think, first of all, of the Ashram, my Ashram, as a great center of energy with which you (in your place and in your own way) are privileged to establish contact. See the Ashram as a sphere of radiant, magnetic light; then see me, as you know me, at the center of that sphere, both emitting and receiving light, via the Christ and via the Ashram of which I was at one time a part - the Ashram of the Master K.H. See yourself also as a soul in contact with first ray energy, and thus contributing some of this energy, reaching you via the Ashram of the Master M., to the light and power of my Ashram. Having thus served and been served, and having taken your group brothers into your consciousness and recognized them as within the ashramic light, you can proceed to take three ideas or symbolic sentences as your theme for reflection, during the next few years. They will suffice to meet your need and to evoke in you the necessary spiritual attitudes.

1. The Cross, erected high, reaches from the pinnacle [654] upon which I stand into the place of light, where dwells my Master. Against that Cross there rests a ladder. The golden Cross and the ladder of pure light are one, and by their means I rise. Upward I look and see an outstretched hand. Downward I look and see the many hands demanding aid. With gladness and with hope, I recognize the purpose of the two hands I possess. I climb the ladder, hard as it may seem, with both my hands outstretched - the one above my head to find it clasped with strength, the other down below to find it full of power to lift.
2. A burning sea of flame. Beyond, a radiant sun. Behind, a world of darkness, gloom and heavy rain - a rain of tears. There, in the center of a fire I stand, my eyes upon the sun. The vortex of the fire, the flaming rays of heat cast outward by the sun, blend with my fire and lo! it disappears. The greater fire blends with and consumes the little one. I turn and pass back - out of the light and warmth - into the world of gloom and mist and, as I turn, I hear a voice crying aloud: "Well done. Pass through the gloom; enter the mist; dry up the rain and tears and find yourself upon the other side, and near my heart."
3. A garden full of flowers, of bees and glowing light and sun. I see a wall which separates the garden from the world of men. Beyond its gates I see the forms of those who long to enter. Into my heart there come the words, spoken I know not when: "The key is in your hands; open the gates and let the crowd in. This you can do, for the garden now is yours and yet is theirs, though you have entered first. Open the gate and welcome with a smile and words of love and cheer the sad, unwelcome, miserable crowd. The garden stands between the outer world and the inner sacred place you call my Ashram. Within the garden take your stand. There rest. Move forward to the gate at need, returning ever to the place of rest. Open the door when called upon, [655] but retain the key. The surging crowd will touch you not nor hurt the garden in its loveliness."

Behind these three symbolic stanzas, if I may so call them, are veiled three needed lessons which you must learn and master. I am not telling you what these lessons are, for the joy of discovery must be yours.