October 7th, 1920

We deal today with that portion of our third point in the letter on "Future Schools of Meditation," which deals with the Personnel of the School.

This term includes both those who supervise and those who are under supervision, and the subject is necessarily large. As said in the earlier parts of this letter, the schools will be in two divisions wherever situated:

1. A preparatory school for the earlier grades in occult instruction, and situated preferably near some large expanse of water and near some central city.
2. An advanced school for the later grades, which will definitely prepare the way for initiation, and train pupils in occult lore.

As you will consequently see, the personnel of both schools will necessarily differ, as will the curriculum. We will deal with each type of school separately, and lay down certain fundamentals which must be looked for in instructors and instructed.

The Preparatory Occult School

This - to the outer world - may appear not so different from an ordinary college. The differences will not be recognizable at first to the man of the world, though the differences will be there, and will demonstrate themselves in the school work, to the pupils, and on the inner planes. The fundamentals as regards the instructors are as follows: [315]

• The Head of the school will be an accepted disciple; it is essential that the Master, Who is back of the work of any particular school, should be able at all times to tap the consciousness of that school as focused through the disciple. This Head will be able to act as a medium of communication between the students and the Master and as a focal point for His force to flow through to them. He must be consciously able to function on the astral plane at night and to bring the knowledge through to the physical brain, for part of his work will be with students on the astral plane, guiding them to the Master's ashram at certain intervals for specialized work. He will have to train them too in this conscious functioning.
• Under him will work six instructors, of whom one at least must be a conscious clairvoyant, and able to assist the Head with his information as to the auric development of the students; he must be able to gauge the colors and expansion of the students' vehicles, and cooperate with the Head in the work of expanding and attuning those vehicles. These instructors must be on the Probationary Path and earnestly devoted to the work of assisting evolution and devoted to the service of some one Master. They must and will be carefully chosen so as to supplement and complement each other, and in the school will form a miniature hierarchy, showing on the physical plane a tiny replica of the occult prototype. As their work will be largely to develop the lower mind of the pupil and to link it up with the higher consciousness, and as the focal point of their endeavor will be the rapid building-in the causal body, they will be men of erudition, and of knowledge, grounded in the knowledge of the Hall of Learning, and able to teach and to compete with the trained teachers of the world universities. [316]
• In every college the work of these trained seven men will be aided by that of three women chosen for their capacity to teach, for their intuitive development and for the spiritual and devotional touch they will bring to the lives of the students. To these ten teachers will be entrusted the work of grounding the students in the important essentials, in superintending the acquirement of the rudiments of occult lore and science, and their development in the higher psychism. These ten must be profound students of meditation, and able to superintend and teach the pupils the rudiment of occult meditation, as taught, for instance, in this book. Occult facts will be imparted to these pupils by them and the basic laws that - in the advanced school - will be the subject of definite practice by the would-be initiate. Exercises in telepathy, causal communication, reminiscence of work undertaken during the hours of sleep, and the recovering of the memory of past lives, through certain mental processes, will be taught by them, - themselves proficient in these arts.
• As you will see here, all these teachers will be devoted to the definite training and inner development of the threefold man.
• Under these will work various other teachers, who will superintend other departments of the pupils' lives. Exoteric science will be taught and practiced by proficient teachers, and the lower mind will be developed as much as possible, and kept in check by the other ten teachers who watch over the proportional development, and the aptitude for correct meditation of the student.
• Along with all this will be the life of world-service, rigidly demanded of each and every pupil. This life of service will be carefully watched and recorded. One thing to be noted here is that in this there will be no compulsion. The pupil will know what is expected of him and what he [317] must do if he is to pass on to the more advanced schools, and the school's charts (recording the condition of his vehicles, and his progress and his capacity to serve) will all be available for his personal inspection, though to no one else. He will know clearly where he stands, what he must do and what remains to be done, and it rests then with him to aid the work by the closest cooperation. A certain amount of care will be taken in the admittance of pupils to the school, and this will obviate the necessity of later removal for inability or lack of interest, but this I will deal with later, when taking up the grades and classes.
• You have, therefore, ten superintending teachers, composed of seven men and three women, including a Head who is an accepted disciple. Under them will work a set of instructors who will deal largely with the lower mind and in the emotional, physical and mental equipping of the pupil, and his passing into the advanced school in a condition to profit by the instructions there to be imparted. Here I would point out that I have planned out the ideal, and pictured for you the school as it is hoped it will eventually be. But as in all occult development, the beginning will be small and of little apparent importance.