Discipleship

Discipleship is the state of being an adherent of the Christ and of the teachings of the Great White Brotherhood; the process of attaining self-mastery through self-discipline in the initiations of the Buddha, the World Teachers, and the ascended masters.

Steps of initiation

Steps of initiation in discipleship under the Living Word:

(1) Student: Under this phase the individual studies, becomes a student of the writings and the teachings of the master. He is free to come and go in his community, enjoying fellowship with his followers and the fruits of their dedication but has declared no particular responsibility to the person of the master. He has taken no vows, made no commitment, but may be studying to “show himself approved” in order to be accepted as a servant, or co-server (otherwise known as “chela”), sharing the joy of the master’s world mission.

(2) Disciple (chela): The individual desires to enter into a bond with the master—to be taught directly by the master rather than through his published writings alone. The disciple answers the call of the master to leave his nets of karmic entanglements and worldly desire and follow him: “Come leave your nets, I will make you fishers of men.” The disciple receives the initiations of the Cosmic Christ in the course of his service to the master. His heart, mind, and soul have begun to unfold a greater love as appreciation and gratitude for the teachings received in the previous level of student. This love is translated into action as self-sacrifice, selflessness, service, and surrender to the Person of the Christ, the Sun behind the Son of man of the master; when this step has been accelerated to the level of the “acceptable offering,” and the chela is engaged in balancing his threefold flame and his karma, he may be considered for the next step.

(3) Friend: Those counted as friend of the master enter by invitation—“Henceforth I call you no more servants but friends”—into a relationship as companion and co-worker, bearing increased responsibilities for the master’s path as world saviour. The friend bears the cross as well as the burden of light of the master; he demonstrates the qualities of friendship as in the life of Abraham and other chelas who have risen to a level of understanding the very heart and the experience of the master—providing comfort, consolation, advice, and support out of loyalty to both the purposes and the person of the master.

(4) Brother: The degree of brother is the level where the oneness of the Guru-chela, Alpha-Omega relationship is complete through the horizontal figure-eight exchange heart-to-heart; the Guru has actually made his disciple a part of his own flesh and blood and offered to him the full momentum of his attainment and portions of his mantle and authority in preparation for the master’s ascension and the disciple’s assuming of the part or whole of the master’s office. This is the love relationship exemplified between Jesus and John, his Mother, Mary, and perhaps his own flesh-and-blood brother (or cousin) James.

(5) Christ, or Christed one: the Anointed of the Incarnate Word.

The path of discipleship

To be the available instrument is one of the great keys in the path of discipleship. The disciple is the disciplined one who is always ready.

Kuthumi says:

A disciple is one who practices the disciplines of the God Self, ruling over and disciplining the outer personality and his own ideational pattern, having the God awareness of himself as an individualized manifestation of the I AM THAT I AM. Those so fortunate as to have chosen discipleship as a way of life, have thereby chosen to serve the Light. By always placing the Light first, these will find that one day the Light will place them first—at the center of God’s will. Then nothing will be impossible to the disciple, for it is not difficult for the Master.

For more information

Jesus and Kuthumi, Corona Class Lessons: For Those Who Would Teach Men the Way, chaps. 25–30.

Sources

Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Saint Germain On Alchemy: Formulas for Self-Transformation