Course I - Teaching 7: Assistance and Work

A disciple is bound to be like an ever-alert sentinel because at any moment he can be called to the Labor. Masters who lead destinies of the world will call him to work as soon as the aspirant is ready enough to take part in it.
The Work of assistance to mankind is the Great Current, a powerful force brought into play by invisible protectors, which drags along with it the being prepared to stand the Current, and excludes someone else that is unable to stand its high vibration.
This participation is made slowly and insensibly, and as a disciple advances, his physical and astral bodies gradually are purified from too much heavy material dregs, and surrounded by an army of both physical and supra-physical atoms, which are more pure and fit to penetrate and stand the Great Current.
When time arrives, the motto of a chosen disciple will be “work for the sake of work”, without any eagerness for the fruit of the work, because any appetite, even saint or good, takes for granted the attachment to the object loved, and ties to the Law of Consequences.
A person at the disposal of the Great Work, does not work for himself, and just works for the Work, with his thought always placed only on it.
So, the work, or one labor instead of another, cannot be chosen, but you should surrender always to the Only Will, the Will leading the Work as a whole.
In the beginning, it is difficult for a disciple to assist and work, and not to give way to emotion; it is hard to him to achieve everything by a pure act of will. Sloth and void overcome many people, and are deadly enemies that can spoil everything.
Truly, it is hard to remain enthusiastic without the participation of our senses; but the disciple must overcome this if he does not wish to die here and be thrown away by the Great Current like the sea carrying back remnants of wreckage to the shore. And if the disciple understood that it is impossible to go on for now, then he should deviate immediately this feeling from the particular object, and by all forces of his being he should focus his sensibility on the only and pure Love of the Divine Mother of the Universe.
Assistance to mankind is achieved in the physical plane on watchful state, and in astral plane, during sleep.
In the beginning, on both planes, actions of assistance are unconsciously made, under the direction of an invisible Master. But when a disciple spiritually develops, he is given a wider field for action and freedom.
What he formerly made almost unconsciously and as if taken by his hand, now he does on purpose and by using certain personal choice.
Of course, a disciple should not take for granted that, in the physical plane, the labor to achieve may be the same or wonderful for all. A disciple never can take part in great works if previously he did not learn how to achieve little works with efficiency and conscientiousness.
Skillfulness should be acquired during the day: at home, in the street, at work. The disciple will see how the Masters, when he makes properly little things, will give him more obvious opportunities to do good; and he shall see how, without his own search or will, suffering souls shall drop near him to drink, of the chalice of his hands, the beneficent waters of consolation.
In the astral field, there are more opportunities to do well.
An astral body, properly educated by right concentration before sleeping shall be gradually habituated not to ramble in search for mirages that the sleeper has been preparing during the day.
The union between both cerebral memory and astral memory becomes more vivid; and when the disciple, in wakeful state remembers occurrences while he was sleeping, controls better the astral body, and can lead it at night to places where he is called by the Masters, being able to assist the needy.
Not only “students” can take part in the Great Current, but also every being, of any religion and social class, who selflessly wishes with right intention to work for mankind.
In this connection, an example of it is the astral labor achieved by Catherine Emmerich, who was totally unaware of the most elemental concepts of Initiation Schools.
In the history of her life, the following event is commented: “One morning she gave to a friend a little bag full of rye and eggs, and pointed him a house where a poor woman called Gertrude stayed, along with her husband and two children. Gertrude had a consumptive disease. This friend should say to this woman to make some dough with it, which should be good for her chest.
In entering the hut, he took out the little bag he carried under his cloak, and this poor mother, lying on her mat among her almost naked children, had an overwhelming fever; then she extended her arms to him, saying with tremulous voice: “¡Oh, lord. God has sent you to sister Emmerich. She brings me rye and eggs”. This woman wept, coughed and motioned her husband to talk for her. Her husband said Gertrude had slept quite agitated last night and, being sound asleep, she spoke and in waking up told her dream: “Seemingly I was with you at the entrance of the house; the pious nun got out of a neighbor house, telling you to look; she stopped before us, and said unto me: “Ah, Gertrude, seemingly, your face tells you are very sick; I shall send to you rye and eggs, which are good for the chest”. Then she woke up.