You have had a time of difficulty, my brother. Such times are growing times and serve to train the disciple. The deeper the capacity for usefulness and the deeper the inner conservation, the more severe will oft be the disciplining. You received a tremendous stimulation during the Conference and it resulted in an inner reorganization of your subtle bodies, locating for you also those points by which glamor could enter. This is of value. Whilst this kind of activity is transpiring, there is usually produced such an intense activity of the inner bodily forces (that are the battleground of a man's own nature) that the aspirant is temporarily submerged by these forces and by the [419] reaction produced in his own environment. Frequently he can scarcely keep his head above the water (a neat, occult phrase, my brother, and one most applicable to your own experience during the past six months). Two planks of the raft on which the disciple eventually makes his escape can be called service and patience. By a close attention to the needs of his fellowmen and by means of that uncomplaining endurance which is the hall mark of the disciple, he brings to an end the time of difficulty and emerges thence freer, richer and more useful. There come times in the life of every true aspirant when he simply continues to persevere, no matter how disinclined he may feel and no matter how acute may be the inner turmoil.

Your work in the group and your power in relation to it consists in your compassionate comprehension. You must act in the group for that aspect of the soul which expresses itself in understanding; that quality you can transmit. Be of good courage, my brother, and lose yourself in service.