There are advanced souls in the Hierarchy, Who can be called Masters, Teachers, or Guides. In this would also include Prophets and Saints, as from other terminologies. These advanced ones are in the upper levels of the whole Hierarchy of souls, and it is this overall Advanced Group that is usually referred to as 'The Hierarchy'. Some are above others, and some below, for the hierarchical principle applies even among the Masters and Teachers. Then, just below these highest levels are the levels of soul conscious initiates, who could also be understood as the 'students' of those Teachers and Masters above.
The Masters and Higher souls do not have to be physical, since they can exist and work just from the realm of Mind. They have progressed to a stage of being, whereby they are independent of physical existence, though still concerned with the world and everyone here, because with compassion they are dedicated to freeing men and women from unnecessary suffering caused by attachment and conditioned thinking, and also part of their realized purpose is to help bring peace and beauty on earth.
There may be misunderstandings about the meaning of 'a Master'. It does not mean to be a master over someone's freedom or free will. It is not about master and slave. A Spiritual Master is not someone intent on enslaving people or making people do what they ask, and a student (or 'disciple') of a Master is not meant to be a mere puppet. Rather, the esoteric meaning of a Master is one who has mastered their own forces of self,.. thus a master of their own self. But this is no small achievement. Additionally, a Master has developed their soul-potential capacity to receive very high levels of spiritual Will, Love, and Wisdom. Hence, this highly developed soul is able to also teach and transmit a higher level of wisdom and understanding.
These self-mastered souls of the Spiritual Hierarchy, who are the highest spiritual leaders and helpers for humanity, have purified themselves of karma and become free from conditionings of the lower three worlds. Thus, they are pure souls - without worldly personalities, free of worldly conditioning, and free of personal karma. Therefore, they are able to receive and channel (with purity) the greater cosmic-universal energies for humanity, which are, fundamentally, the seven Rays and their subsequent spiritual qualities and wisdoms.
This is possible for anyone – to be free of personality, worldly conditioning, and karma – if self-mastery has been successfully accomplished. But this takes time and a lot of self-work, which requires many lifetimes of forward self-evolution, many steps forward mixed in with occasional setbacks.
Ordinary souls will carry with them, into the next incarnations, an outer crust, which is their samsaras, their personality tendencies or predispositions. But the masters are free of these, so they can incarnate without them. Consequentially, a master will have, in their own deep psyche, no ego desires and tendencies. This is true for any 'higher soul', to some relative extent, but a master is one who has attained real purity of ordinary desires and other ego tendencies. However, in the process of growing up in a particular society or social condition, this higher soul (or even a master soul) could take on social conditioning and ego tendencies for a time, yet it will be easier for them to shake loose these patterns as the growing person gradually re-awakens to their own soul power.
The masters are just as 'human' as anyone else and have lived on earth as regular people, but they distinguish themselves from the average person and from average-mass consciousness by their many lifetimes of successful self-evolution; such that these masters are the leading souls of the human kingdom on earth. In other words, the masters themselves are the cutting edge of human evolution, the wave ahead in the whole human evolution. Thus, they become the leaders and the helpers for the rest of us.
But anyone can catch up. The masters compassionately and egolessly offer their hands to anyone, to raise anyone up the hierarchical ladder to where themselves now stand, and even offer their blessings to anyone who might go even further up the ladder of realization. There is no ego or petty competition in the Hierarchy, as there is so often in the world of personalities, because in these levels of the Hierarchy the ladder of ascent is all to do with a greater and greater capacity for love and realization, and to selflessly serve. This service is two-fold: service to God or to the Greater Purpose, and service to all of humanity in need of love and guidance.
These most advanced souls, sometimes called 'Ascended Masters', achieved such mastery while in physical incarnations, whether in male or female bodies, and now they work in the Kingdom of Light (the Hierarchy of souls) and serve the world by their emanation and communication of love and inspirational wisdom. Some will re-incarnate again later on, some have already re-incarnated many times in history, and a few are already re-incarnated at this time.
Note that in the history of spiritual Teachers incarnated on Earth, there does appear to be a predominance of male Teachers. But this can be explained by two reasons. First is the fact that most places had a male dominated culture (and in many instances repressed the spiritual wisdom of women), so it was easier for a Master do get a particular spiritual work accomplished while in a male body. Many even purposefully incarnated into Royalty, in order that they would have an excellent education and possibly even lead the people. Of course, though, not all Royal or political leaders were high souls; in fact, many leaders were quite corrupt or even cruel. Some great Masters chose to incarnate into powerful and wealthy families, but others did not - for example Jesus. Second of all, history tends to focus on famous people who have made great accomplishments, so these tend to be males since they have had much more opportunity to make historically recorded accomplishments, while the embodied women Masters were seldom in the spotlight in recorded history.
Anyone can make a connecting relationship with greater souls or any Master/Teacher (most of whom we know not their names), and at least receive something from them. This is by the cosmic law of sympathetic vibration, actualized by a combination of deep reverence and receptivity. Then, we can receive and even become a living expression of their soul-being. In other words a portion of their soul-being and wisdom can incarnate into us; maybe not the whole of their being, but possibly some. This is not a birth-incarnation; it's an incarnation possible at any moment in our lives.
To receive a portion of a great Soul-Being, or a Master/Teacher/Saint, is to become more like them in their spiritual mind and being. It is to manifest their beingness and wisdom in this world. But it is best to not think that we are a reincarnation of one of these Masters, because most often this is glamor and delusion. It is best to keep an attitude of humility and just be the best person one can be - being sincere in oneself.
Nonetheless, any sincere and dedicated student can receive and, in effect, become a living embodiment of one of these higher Souls, to some portion or degree. The significant question is how much of this Soul can one bring into consciousness, into mind and heart, and then into expression. Of course remember that all souls come from the One Being of God, so all Praise must go to the One in Whom we all are. For in a larger view, each soul/person on the spiritual path is a degree of God realization and God incarnation. So if a Master/Teacher can be realized and incarnated through us, to some degree, then this is a further expansion of our own soul in God, and we become a finer incarnation of divine expression.
To be in contact with and consciously receive from a Master or an Ashram is a great blessing. But this all depends on one's ability to contact and receive. This might seem to be rather simple; just make contact and receive. But there is more to understand.
Wherever one is already a conscious soul, or is at the level of personality in relation to the Hierarchy, it is possible to contact and receive from one of these Masters or Ashrams (soul-Groups). One can receive wisdom teachings, higher guidance, higher ideas, and higher visions. So we can learn and be inspired by one of these Ashrams, and with Their help, our soul-being can be uplifted and expanded. The same can also be said of our possible contact with a Master, a Teacher, or Soul Guide. (Generally, these are just different names which mean the same, though certain teachings might use these different names to make a distinction of soul level).
Now this might seem complicated, being that it is possible to make contact with and receive from either an Ashram or a Master. Yet either one will essentially include the other, because Ashrams and Masters are intricately related. An Ashram is like a multi-faced representation and expression of a great Soul Teacher/Master, though it is at a level just below its Teacher and so it also acts as a step-down medium of the higher Light radiating from the Teacher/Master. So the Teacher's Light of Love and Wisdom is inspiring that Ashram and is essentially in it.
Thus, an Ashram and its Teacher are all intrinsically related. So if a person or group contacts an Ashram, they are also in contact with its Teacher, the Soul-Master of that Group. And if a person or group contacts a Master/Teacher/Guide, then they are also in contact with an Ashram representing that Master, which is a Group helping to step-down those higher Energies and help make the Wisdom more understandable. As well, a person or group can be embraced and expanded by the very Being of a great Master/Teacher, Who can help raise and expand our own being and, as well, the group-soul in which we participate.
People stuck in just their personality will not be able to contact nor receive any wisdom from a spiritual Ashram. The consciousness in an Ashram is beyond any personal-focused concerns and personal emotions, so it will magnetically repel any lower personality consciousness. Any self-serving or separative thinking will make it impossible to contact or get close to an Ashramic sphere of consciousness. An Ashramic sphere is radiating-out love, unity, and selfless dedication; so one needs to get into that vibrational resonance. But self-serving thought or selfish motivations will naturally lead one into a very different kind of group consciousness - in a lower level of the mind of humanity.
And so too with separative-thought, which is thought that makes rigid boundaries between 'us and them'. Separative thought has a mental attitude of assuming that another group of people are very definitely excluded from being part of the divine world and also excluded from our love and care. It is true that some people may be temporarily asleep spiritually, or too engrossed in selfish thinking, or perhaps involved with harmful crimes; but nonetheless, everyone needs to be included in our love and in our wider compassion for all humanity. Everyone needs healing and help, and everyone is in the larger process of spiritual evolution.
So instead of self-serving or separative thinking, or instead of a mind preoccupied with just its own self-interests, it is possible to go beyond such a limited mind and expand the inclusivity of one's consciousness. It is possible to expand one's consciousness to even include higher levels and Ashrams. But one will need to get beyond the personality consciousness, getting beyond personal emotion and personally focused thinking. Thus, one important step in making contact and communication with ashrams and teachers in the Hierarchy is to get beyond the personality mind and personality interests. Instead, expand consciousness and seek universal truths.
Another very important way to get connected and be in contact with an Ashram is to have conscious intention and make conscious effort towards serving life, or of serving God. For as we intentionally work towards helping somehow in the world, to make this world a better place, with more love and with more intelligence, we are then in a pathway of service, and we therefore receive help from Guides and Teachers. This goes according to the divine law of assistance, which is that higher beings and powers and wisdom will come to assist anyone who sincerely works to help bring more spiritual love and light into the world, or to anyone who is working to help make this world a more beautiful and harmonious place. Then because this person is already working for hierarchical aims, contact and assistance will be given.
1. We need to raise our consciousness up from its ordinary state. Raising our consciousness means that we have to let go of what makes it heavy, so that it can naturally rise up. We need to leave behind the lower in order to rise to the higher. So this involves a kind of sacrifice - of lower mind and low level attention. Become free of lower mind attachments, so that consciousness can naturally rise to higher realms. Intentionally rise to higher level.
2. We need to expand our consciousness. Our consciousness will naturally expand if we let go of its limiting boundaries. Man's usual problem is being limited by the boundaries of who he thinks he is, and so too with woman. Let go of these self limitations, these ideas or beliefs about oneself that have boundaries and are limited. Leave behind the shackles of limited belief about who you can be. Mind is not limited; only thought is limited. Finally, allow your consciousness to expand and include more of the One Ultimate Being. We are all in this One Being, which is infinitely expansive.
3. We need to raise the emotional vibration of our heart, which can be done through heart meditation, prayer, and forms of devotion or worship. This devotion or worship could be connected to a particular religious way; but it could also simply be our personal relationship and devotion in relation with God. Through love and devotion, our heart can be uplifted.
4. As well, we need to expand the receptive space our heart to include more of everyone and of all life. When our heart space is openly inclusive and expansive, then our heart-consciousness is expansively raised up a level and can then receive from a more expanded love and wisdom from those Groups and Teachers above.
5. We can also deepen our consciousness in our heart. This means to go deeper, with consciousness, into the heart. Or meditate deeper in the heart, because in our heart centre is a vast and spacious reality of Being. Here in our heart we will find the great Hierarchy. Yes, it is also found in higher mind, but also it is in the heart. This is a great mystery, but it is because the heart and higher mind are actually co-related. For if we consciously go deeper in our heart, this will connect and unify with higher mind, and the two will be known as one. The heart has consciousness, so deeper in the heart is actually a greater consciousness, and deep in the heart we find the 'wisdom of heart' or the 'knowing heart.
So here is a key. To find one's inner spiritual Mediator, Teacher or Guide, feel inside Who loves you. Love is the Key to realizing our inner spiritual Teacher, Guide, or Master. Love is the key. First of all, God loves you. God is Love. All love known from within is ultimately from God. The deepest and most profound love that can experienced comes from God. But we can also experience God's Love from one of the higher spiritual mediators. Maybe this is from Jesus, maybe from Buddha, maybe from Mohammad, or maybe from a great being who is not so well known. For there are many Masters and Initiates who are not known in any books, and so we have no idea of their names, yet they can nonetheless be profound beings of Love and Wisdom. Remember that someone is always there (or here) who loves us. So, our true Teacher or Guide, from the inner spiritual realm, is the one who we feel loves us. And we make this connection through love and trust.
A Master (or Teacher/Guide) (use whatever name is comfortable for you) is someone who really does love us, from the inner (or 'higher') spiritual realm which is the Hierarchy. This Master could be male or female, or maybe a balance of both. These are higher evolved souls, who are essentially conscious beings with an awakened heart and mind and will-to-good; but a physical body and gender is unnecessary to them.
A Master/Teacher/Guide loves and cares about us, because this Teacher is unconditionally loving and caring, and also because this Teacher believes that we can become a great disciple of the Light and succeed in the spiritual journey to Mastery. Thus, the Master loves and cares about us, and also believes in us - believes that we can realize and then manifest our spiritual potentials. The Master is caring about the progress of our soul, the progress of our awakening, and the progress of spiritual will. The Master/Teacher/Guide wants the best for us, wishing the best for us, and always ready to help us achieve our very best. This help will be given to us in many ways – through guidance and wisdom, through inspiration and visions, or through a further awakening of heart and mind. But however the help may be, it all depends on our own receptivity to it.
An inner Master/Teacher for us can be felt in our heart, but also thought of, seen, or imagined in our mind. Use both heart and mind to connect and be close with this Teacher.
Try this simple meditation
Imagine walking up a path,
up a mountain. And at the top is your spiritual Teacher, your inner
spiritual Teacher from the Hierarchy of Masters. Walk up the path,
knowing that you are going to meet with a great spiritual being who
loves you and cares about you, someone who has such an immense amount
of love that he or she loves you and wants to share their love with
you. This person loves you spiritually and unconditionally, and this
persons wants to help you in anyway you need. So maybe this Teacher
will give you some guidance, some wisdom, or maybe some healing, or
maybe some power to do good in the world, or maybe simply give you
some love that you need. The Teacher helps you realize that you are
loved. And you can actually feel this love, this very deep and
sincere love, coming from the Teacher. So you feel what it is to be
truly loved in deep and spiritual way.
This is what a spiritual mediator can do. Sometimes we can receive or experience this love directly from God, or receive knowledge from God. But a spiritual mediator of love and knowledge can be very helpful. The key is love. Love is the healing, love is the goal, and love is the way to get there.
And of course this could be a male or female Teacher. Try tuning into a male Teacher at one time, then a female one the next time. Experiment in you meditations. In reality, there are no gender differences with higher souls. Masters and all higher souls have no sexual gender. Even in their psyche, they have a balance of male and female archetypal qualities. But they will appear to us usually as a male or female.
In reality, any Teacher, Guide or Master from the Hierarchy is beyond gender. In reality, there are no male and female Masters, because they have no sexual gender in their soul. Now it is true that when a Master or high soul incarnates they will inevitably live on Earth in either a male or female body; because this is the way it is for physical incarnation. But they can incarnate as a female, just as easily and comfortably as a male.
The Masters are the greatest spiritual beings of all humanity throughout all of our history, who are not dead because their souls carried on and exist in the realm we call the Hierarchy. They can and will at times incarnate again on Earth, but even if not physically present they can still communicate with us, by way of both mind and heart, through our mind and heart. In fact, the realm in which these Masters exist is the same realm in which all souls exist – within the dimension of our mind and heart; but in this dimension mind and heart are one.
The Masters all exist within us, or we could think of this as a dimension interpenetrating the whole physical world. The Masters are who we can be; they are our future possible selves... in the evolution of our souls. Though in each new moment, in each new time and incarnation, the divine soul expression will be creatively different, depending on the needs of the time and place.
A Master is what is possible for us, or anyone. A Master is who we could be, with a bit of work and some sacrifice of the non-essentials. The Masters are real beings, but they can exist and communicate from a non-physical dimension, yet they also have the power to manifest in this physical dimension. They gained such abilities by their meditation practices and by their sacrificial service to life. The Masters are those souls who forged ahead and went beyond the human ordinary. They are humanity's spiritual leaders, those who are in the lead towards complete spiritual Gnosis, and thus our spiritual leaders. Masters can be male or female; neither being more important than the other.
The Masters are, in a sense, our future -- the future of who we can be. They are our own potential being, which can be in future time. They are those souls who are ahead in time and in evolution. If we imagine Time simply as a line, then the Masters are further along towards the Evolutionary Future (or towards Omega), or further towards a greater and more expansive Self-Realization, All-inclusive Love, and Wholeness of Being. In terms of being closer to the Spiritual Triad, or more Complete in it, the Masters are further along in being a Radiant Expression of Spiritual Will, Love, and Light. The Master {whoever this may be} is my Future, my Future Self, because the Quality of the soul that the Master is, or Who the Master is, is Who I shall become as I progress in evolution along the line of Time.
A meditation practice
One way to make contact with a
Master and also to see who we can potentially be is by thinking
about a Master -- thinking about the qualities, the beingness,
the love, and also the spiritual will of a Master. This thinking
creates a connection to a Master/Teacher. It establishes a
communication pathway and also attracts a Master's attention. But
this is not merely thinking the name of a Master one has heard of,
nor remembering a picture once seen. For example, saying in your mind
'Jesus' or having a mental picture of Jesus is not enough; it could
be a start, but it's not enough. The thinking has to be more profound
than just this. Also in this exercise, it is not important to know or
have in mind a specific Master; so for this exercise it is
unnecessary for one to already have any knowledge of a Master. One
simply begins with thinking, yet with some degree of intuition also
involved.
Just make some time in quiet meditation to think about the qualities of a Master –what a Master would be like, or how a Master would be. A Master could be either man or woman; this doesn't matter. What matters is how a Master is; so think about the qualities of this Master. It may be also helpful in one's thinking to mentally see how a Master would be in life, so one can use mental seeing or imagination to help understand these spiritual qualities. One might simply imagine a spiritual person with those qualities expressive in their being. Or one could even imagine one's own future spiritual self with those qualities; or in other words, how I could be.
Think about the spiritual qualities of how a Master would be; such as being full of love and unconditional compassion, being inclusively and intelligently wise about each situation, being non-reactive to difficulties or to difficult people, being non-attached and free in oneself, having an unselfish serving attitude towards everyone and all of life, and having a vibrant creative will to build greater harmony and beauty in the world. These are just a few of the spiritual qualities of a Master that we might think about. Also to realize is that the Master is the future of our own spiritual potential. So this Master is really the future of our self, or sort of like our own future self.
In the next step, aspire towards having these same ideal qualities in oneself. Aspire to be like this Master, how this Master is. You have already thought about how a Master would be, so you are already knowing about those qualities. Now one needs to energy of aspiration to go along with this. The thinking about a Master, or how a Master would be, brought forth some vision of what is possible in oneself. Now aspire towards this. Aspiration involves both wish and will.
First we need to wish for something to be. We need to wish to be like this Master, wishing with our heart; so this now becomes our heart's true wish. In order to get anywhere, or to be something, one needs to really want it and wish for it. This involves both mind and emotion. The mind sees the ideal, the goal, the wish manifested; seeing what this is like or how it will be. Then the emotional energy of our heart, the desire energy of our heart, gives power towards reaching it. So mind and heart are in coordinated agreement about the same goal, and they will both work together towards manifesting that goal, or that wish.
The next essential elements to reaching our goal are will and striving. Our mind can see the goal and can focus on it. Our heart desires this, which gives an important emotional energy towards getting there. But we also need to strive towards the goal; we need to work towards it, which is to put our will into it. Wish and will are somewhat different. Wish is the wanting or the desiring, which becomes an important propelling, motivating energy; and wish also creates a magnetism between us and the goal. Yet our will is also needed.
Will is intentionally directed energy. Will involves a focus of our mind on the goal, then also a decision and agreement in oneself to strive towards the goal. Decision and agreement are actual powers; which the Masters know how to use. Without the power of self-decision and agreement, there is insufficient unity in oneself to make a full striving effort towards the goal and to make a sacrifice of lesser goals along the way when this is necessary. Then, once we have agreement and decision in our self, we can then bring in our full power of intention and will to reach the goal. Intention is a focusing of energies and effort on the goal; it's like a pulling back of the arrow in the bow while focusing on the aim, and a sureness about going for it. Will is the power of our whole being to get there. Intention needs will, and will needs intention; because both have to work together. A third element, striving or effort, is the actual work needed to get there. So intention, will, and striving are all needed.
Teachers manifest certain Ray qualities, usually one predominately but maybe two or three blended together. Thus, there are different kinds of Teachers. A second ray teacher will shower you with love, kindness and forgiveness, and thus inspire you to love others likewise. A third ray teacher will shower you with wisdom-truths, higher ideas, and visions of what is possible, and thus motivate you to think about these things. A second ray teacher enfolds you with love, that you may know love and open your heart. A third ray teacher enfolds you with wisdom ideas, that you may learn how to use the mind.
But a first ray teacher will simply knock your head off, slap around your ego identity and challenge your personality patterns. The first ray teacher is no nonsense. For the quality of first ray is a straightforward aim at transformation and destroying any illusions that are in the way. This is how the first ray of power manifests in a teacher – who might not always be so kind and polite, because he/she is trying to break something in you.
Now that does not sound too nice at all; but in
order for the subconsciously functioning ego to awaken from its set
patterns and allow the inner soul to show itself, the rigidity of
this ego-self needs a shake up and sometimes a blast, and finally the
ego needs to break down in order to melt and become transparent. This
can be painful, but only when the ego reacts to and resists
transformation. The ego might feel hurt; its pride gets hurt. But the
first ray teacher is unconcerned with hurt feelings of the ego. A
purely first ray teacher would be difficult to bear, but usually this
first ray is tempered with at least some of the second ray love and
third ray thought-provoking ideas.