Ascended Master Hilarion, "Teachings of the Temple"

As published in the magazine referred to, these lessons appeared under the head of "Open Series" as distinguished from esoteric teachings given to inner groups of students. In the present volume no attempt has been made to group the lessons under any definite classification, but they appear in the sequence in which they were given to the Temple by the Masters-in most instances, no doubt, being called forth by the law of supply and demand spiritually operating at the time. The lessons open up so many marvelous mines of spiritual richness and helpfulness that The Temple of the People sends out this work to the world in order that a more universal benefit may be derived from a wider dissemination of the same.

The Temple is a continuation of the work inaugurated by H. P. Blavatsky and is inspired and ensouled by the same great cosmical forces having their source in the Masters of the Great White Lodge who are ever guiding the evolution of worlds, races, and the affairs of men. While the Masters of the White Lodge are many, yet their work is one.

The Masters are those beings who, by sore travail of soul, by vast experience, suffering, and sacrifice, have advanced to a degree of evolution far beyond ordinary human beings.

Their consciousness is not limited to any one plane of life, as is the case with ordinary men and women. A Master is one who has conquered the limitations of matter, as that term is usually under stood, and is able to

function consciously and at will on more than ; one plane of being, according to the degree to which he has attained. In other words, a Master is one who has entered the Eye of the' Triangle in the Square, and who henceforth functions in wider spheres', of action, where he becomes and IS a conscious factor, force, and agent in helping on the evolution of worlds and races.

The Masters are not Gods, they are men, and if necessity requires, they can work on the physical plane in a physical body. Their greater work is done, however, in their Nirmanakaya body, the robe of conscious immortality, which they have won through pain and sacrifice endured age upon age.

The Lodge of Masters is synthesized in the Central Spiritual Sun, which is composed of all the Masters of the Right-hand Path. This Central Sun is interchangeable with the Christos who is the perfected Son (Sun) of Infinite Love.

At cyclic periods one or more Masters may seem to take a more particular direction of forces affecting the evolution and development of humanity, but this is because karmic and hierarchical law so ordain.

The Masters are, in a sense, the Higher Self of humanity and watch over, protect, and guide its unfoldment. They cannot interfere with karmic law, but have the power, at crises, to hold back to some extent the action of accumulated karma that otherwise might destroy civilization or shatter the planet itself. But in the end every iota of karmic law must be fulfilled. Devastating epidemics, great wars, destruction of cities in past or present times with their toll of death, the sudden breaking up and submergence of continents, as in the case of Atlantis, are instances of karmic forces operating on a large scale, and where such forces could be held back no longer by the administrators of nature's laws, the Masters of Wisdom, lest a greater spiritual damage be done to the people of those cities, nations, or continents affected. Where spirituality and morality have departed beyond a certain measure, humanity can only be brought back to a recognition of its spiritual foundations by some great shock or series of shocks driving the personal consciousness inward to the eternal verities, to its inherent divinity, and so preventing a further descent into the lure and glitter of outer falsities and sense illusions.

We have been told by "Those Who Know" that it is not an uncommon occurrence for a planet to be riven into fragments by retributive forces when the inhabitants of some world have misused high spiritual powers persistently, thus accumulating an excess of destructive forces, outweighing the balance of constructive energies and finally culminating in the destruction of the planet itself. In our solar system we have evidence of such a happening. Astronomers had noted the wide gap between Mars and Jupiter in which no planet was found, and for years they looked in vain to find a body that ought to be there. Finally over two hundred asteroids were discovered. These are very small planets, some of them not over twenty-five miles in diameter, and moving very close one to another, and all in the same direction, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, as would be the case if they were shattered fragments of a once large planet.

A similar fate threatened our own world in 1899 ; but it was saved at that time by many Masters of high degree and power assembling from other planets at certain zones on and in the earth centers and holding the balance for the time being. The "Dark Star" was saved for the time, but for how long ? Who can tell ? Since that time there has been a great advance in scientific knowledge, invention, and attainments, and we are harnessing nature's finer forces more and more to our personal and commercial uses and pleasures. But these forces are forces of Life Itself-rays of Deific Energy from the very Heart of God and of Nature, and unless rightly used in the spirit of unselfish service and for the good of all, there is bound to be a reaction, due to the inversion of divine qualities, with terrible consequences to humanity, endangering the very existence of the planet itself upon which we live. Like unto a brotherhood of worlds in the celestial spaces, so must there be a Brotherhood of Nations on the earth and a true spirit of Universal Brotherhood without distinction of race, age, color, or creed among all the peoples of this earth, in order that -such a cosmical catastrophe may be averted.

The teachings given out in this volume are ensouled by very high spiritual forces – the forces from the Lodge of Light itself – and in sending these teachings into the world the Temple will radiate into the hearts of the people a light and an influence that must powerfully promote the ideal of the. Brotherhood of Man. Because of the great inner Light and Love back of these teachings, every person who loves his fellow men and who opens his or her mind in attunement to the fundamental truth contained in this volume will inevitably receive an uplift in consciousness and a help that will be entirely independent of the teachings themselves. He will receive the touch of Infinite Love and Compassion from the Master's hands, warming the heart of every true and earnest seeker for light and giving greater opportunity to help the world. The cosmic lilt of Life Itself may then be heard by the inner ears once more attuned to the initiating sounds of primal Consciousness, that Consciousness which is divine and reveals the concealed unity of the One in All and All in One.

The Temple of the People.