Ascended Masters
Ascended masters are enlightened beings who have undergone a series of spiritual transformations called initiations.2
They are considered the highest evolved beings in the spiritual hierarchy, surpassing guardian angels and spirit guides.3
Theosophists believe in the Law of Rebirth or reincarnation.2
Ascended masters once lived on Earth as normal human beings but have learned their karmic lessons and raised their consciousness to the point where they now live permanently in a higher dimension.0
They are guides who help Humankind and help with the expansion of light on this planet.1
No prayer to them goes unheard, but they answer them in their own way and at the appropriate time.0
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Ascended masters, as written about in the theosophical tradition, are held to be enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans, but who have undergone a series of spiritual transformations called initiations.
Theosophists believe in: 1) the Law of Rebirth or reincarnation; 2) the Law of Cause and Effect; and 3) the Law of Harmlessness.
Most importantly, evolution is considered to be spiritual in nature.
Spiritual development occurs over many life-times, with humans slowly learning to observe themselves and to come to terms with who they are on a moment-to-moment basis.
In addition, the Law of Cause and Effect, or karma, forces individuals to experience inevitably what they have imposed on others, as well as to acquire the spiritual fortitude to face all they are and ever have been — for every thought, feeling and action has a karmic impress.[1][2]
Painstakingly over many lifetimes, individuals thus are afforded the opportunity to witness their very own lives, while learning how to master their bodies, emotions, and mind. (This is true freedom, unlike the pursuit of desires, which ends up by enslaving one.)[3]
For within you is the light of the world — the only light that can be shed upon the Path. If you are unable to perceive it within you, it is useless to look for it elsewhere. It is beyond you, because when you reach it you have lost yourself. It is unattainable, it forever recedes. You will enter the light, but you will never touch the Flame.[4]
Consciousness expands slowly, largely through meditation, self-observation, voluntary suffering, and restraint or harmlessness. With self-mastery comes the capacity for sustained, higher states of consciousness or self-realization.[5]
When clarifying the role of the Masters of Wisdom vis-à-vis humanity, the Master Djwal Kuhl stated:
Emphasis should be laid on the evolution of humanity with peculiar attention to its goal, perfection. This is not the idealistic perfection of the visionary mystic, but the control of the instrument, man in incarnation, by the indwelling and overshadowing soul. The constitution of man should be increasingly taught...The relation of the individual soul to all souls should be taught, and with it the recognition that the long-awaited kingdom of God is simply the appearance of soul-controlled men on earth in everyday life and at all stages of that control.[6]
During the process of human development, however, one is inevitably confronted by the realization that the separate self one has labored hard to create is largely a product of one's conditioning.
(The self is constructed out of: one's education, culture and belief systems; one's personal history, memories and traumatic enactments; one's habits as well as attachment to certain experiences or people, places and things).
Thus the result of this arduous process in which one grows into a unique, awakened being is both of great value, and, at the same time, illusory, as what one commonly identifies as the self is, by nature, limited.
So despite people's ordinary identification with their roles, nationality, or status, these are understood as temporary in nature, and merely part of an accidentally contrived or "false" personality.[7]
In fact, Maitreya, the 5th Buddha, clarifies how difficult it is to come to know one's Self.
He is quoted as saying, "When you surrender the Self to mind, spirit and body, everything is predestined.
Anything you do through Self-awareness is not predestined, because it does not arise out of conditioning."[8][9]
Therefore, in the end, the very process of awakening, itself, comes to supersede the product (i.e., the individual who one becomes).[10]
According to Theosophical writings, men who have mastered themselves have become Masters of Wisdom, and thus have entered the Fifth Kingdom, or the Kingdom of Souls.
This higher kingdom (which emerges out of the human kingdom) serves as part of an exquisitely restrained, planetary government or Spiritual Hierarchy, working on behalf of all beings and the Planet Earth itself (which is a living being).
One of the Hierarchy's functions is to oversee the evolution of mankind; another is to uphold the Plan for the spiritualization of all beings and matter on Earth.[11]
While individuals have been given an innate, spiritual drive towards self-perfectment that develops over hundreds of thousands of incarnations, humans are expected to perform a specific task on Earth: to foster the evolution of the lower kingdoms on this planet (i.e., mineral, vegetable, and animal).
In the New Age, mankind will outgrow not only war, but the greed, ignorance, and recklessness that has led many men to ravage the natural world, to terrorize other nations and all other species, rendering many of them extinct.[12]
While many Buddhists maintain that the arrival of Maitreya (who is the designated head of the Masters of Wisdom) lies in the far distant future, others contend that Maitreya already resides on Earth.[13] ^[2] The explanation for this may be complex, and seemingly contradictory:
Humanity has evolved enough to receive the means to accelerate its evolutionary trajectory worldwide; humanity is also threatened with extinction.[14]
In fact, in 1978 (during the first year of his Emergence), Maitreya spoke openly of how humanity needed to alter its course:
Mankind has lost its way, has strayed far from the path prepared for it by God. Many there are now in the world who know this, who search and pray, and work towards the light; but many more are blind and would rush towards disaster. My plan is to halt this headlong plunge and to turn the tide...
Allow Me to show you the way into the New Time, to outline for you the glories, which, if you will, can be yours. Man is made to serve both God and man, and only through that correct service can the path to God be trodden. Make it your task to take upon yourselves the task of re-orientation, reconstruction and change...Make bright your lamp and let it shine forth and show the way. All are needed, every one. No one is too small or young to take part in this Great Plan for the rescue and the rehabilitation of our world. Resolve to do this and be assured that My help will not be withheld.
How to Start? Begin by dedicating yourself and all that you are and have been to the service of your brothers and sisters everywhere. Make sure not one day passes without some act of true service and be assured that My help will be yours...Together we shall fashion a new and better world.[15]
(The noun, "man" has commonly been employed by Theosophists, and the great spiritual teachers of the past.
It is not merely meant as a genderless, if not seemingly antiquated, noun, but a signifier of humanity's greatest gifts, for the term originates from the Sanskrit word "manas", or spiritual intelligence).[16]
Since the time of the early Theosophists, diverse writers and spiritual aspirants have contributed further reflections on this material.
As an extension of classical, Theosophical thought, the term "ascended master" was first introduced by Baird T. Spalding in 1924 in his series of books, Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East, whose descriptions of real events occurred both on the physical and etheric planes.[17]
Godfre Ray King (Guy Ballard) further popularized this concept in his book, Unveiled Mysteries.[18]
According to the Ascended Master Teachings, a "Healer", "Spiritual Master", or "Master of Light", is a human being who has taken the Fifth Initiation and is thereby capable of dwelling in a 5th dimension, while an "ascended master" is a human being who has taken the Sixth Initiation (also referred to as an Ascension)[19] and is thereby believed to be capable of dwelling in a 6th dimension.
Everything (both seen and unseen) is perpetually engaged in an evolutionary process: from a grain of sand to an ecosystem; from a microscopic cell to a spiritually enlightened being; from a planet to a solar system....[11]