Annie Besant has given advice on how to prepare for the Path. I thought it would be good to look at several quotes she has written.

First, the seeker must see how the hustle and bustle of everyday life needs to be re-directed.

“...man acts to gratify his lower nature; he acts because he wants to get something; he acts for fruit; he acts for desire, for reward. He works because he wants money in order that he may enjoy. He works be­cause he wants power in order that the lower self may be gratified. All these activities, these raja­sic qualities, are set going with the purpose of ministering to his lower nature. In order that these activities may be trained and regulated to serve the purpose of the Higher Self, he is to be taught to substitute duty for self-gratification, to carry on work as work because it is his duty, to turn the wheel of life because it is his function to turn it, that he may do as Shri Krishna said He does Himself. He does not act because there is anything for Him to gain either in this world or in any other; but He acts because without his action the world would cease, He acts because without His action the wheel would no longer revolve. And those who accomplish Yoga must act in the spirit of His acting, acting for the whole and not for the separated part, acting for the carrying out of the divine will in the Kosmos and not for the pleasure of the separated entity that imagines itself to be independent when it ought to be a co-worker under Him. This object is to be gained by gradually raising the sphere of these activities. Duty is to be substituted for self-gratification....”

Path of Discipleship paragraph 12 online
http://www.anandgholap.net/Path_Of_Discipleship-AB.htm

Path of Discipleship page 18 hardcopy
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=82

Meditation is emphasized.

“A man meditates in the early morning and at the going down of the sun, but ultimately his life will be one long meditation. He meditates for an hour to prepare himself for meditating always. All creative activities are the result of meditation, and you will remember that it is by Tapas that all worlds are created. In order then that man may reach that mighty and creative power of meditation, in order that he also may be able to exercise that divine power, he must be trained towards it by religious ceremonies, by intermittent thought, by Tapas taken up and laid down again. Set meditation is a step towards the accomplishment of constant meditation; it takes a part of daily life in order to permeate the whole, and men practise it daily in order that gradually it may absorb the life. The time comes when for the Yogi there is no fixed hour for medi­tation, for all his life is one long meditation. No matter what outer activities he may be doing he meditates; and he is ever at the Feet of his Lord although both mind and body may be active in the world of man.”

Path of Discipleship paragraph 12 online
http://www.anandgholap.net/Path_Of_Discipleship-AB.htm

Path of Discipleship pages 19-20 hardcopy
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=82

Doing good deeds and service for humanity is emphasized.

[As] “...with all other forms of action; first a man learns to perform action as a sacrifice to duty and a paying of his debt to the world in which he is — the paying back to all the different parts of Nature of that which they give to him. And then later, sacrifice becomes more than the paying of a debt; it becomes a joyful giving of everything the man has to give. The partial sacrifice is the debt that is paid, the perfect sacrifice is the gift of the whole. A man gives himself, with all his activities, with all his powers, no longer paying part of his possessions as a debt but all of himself as a gift.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 12 online or page 20 hardcopy).

-- Love --

Love must be taken to a high level.

“Take again love. You may have that in the lower brutal form — the animal passion between the sexes of the very lowest and the poorest kind, which cares nothing for the character of the one for whom the attachment is felt, which cares nothing for the beauty of the mental and of the moral nature; it cares only for the physical beauty, the physical attraction, and the physical pleasure. There is passion in its lowest form.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 28 online or page 35 hardcopy).

Selfish love is transformed by Duty-to-Family into something higher.

[Self and only self] “... is purified by the man who follows Karma-Yoga into love which sacrifices itself for the one who is loved; he performs family duties, he takes care of wife and of child and does his very best for them at the sacrifice of his own inclina­tions, of his own leisure and his own gratification; he works in order that the family may be better supported, he works in order that the family wants may be supplied; in him love no longer seeks only its own pleasure but seeks to help those who are beloved, and to take on itself the evil that threatens them in order that they may be sheltered and spared and guarded; by following Karma-Yoga the man purifies his love from the selfish elements, and that which was an animal passion for the other sex becomes the love of the husband, of the father, of the elder brother, of the relative, who fulfils his duty, working for the sake of the loved and in order that their lives may be fairer and happier.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 28 online or pages 35-36 hardcopy).

This higher-love then goes out to all people.

“And then there comes the last stage, when the love that is purified from self goes out to all. Not only in the narrow circle of the home does it work, but it sees in every one whom it meets a person who is to be helped, sees a brother to be fed in every starving man, sees a sister to be protected in every woman who is left forlorn. Finding any one who is lonely, a man thus purified becomes father and brother and helper to that one, not because he loves personally but because he loves ideally, and because he seeks to give for love’s sake and not even for the gratification of being loved in return. The highest love, the love that grows out of Karma-Yoga, asks nothing back in return for what it gives; it seeks no gratitude; it asks for no recognition; it is willing to work un­known; nay, it is more glad to work unknown and unrecognized than to work in a way that brings recognition and that brings praise.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 28 online or page 36 hardcopy).

Such a love then becomes divine.

“And the ultimate purification of love is where that love becomes absolutely divine, where it gives because it is its nature to spread happiness, where it asks nothing for itself but seeks only that others should be glad.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 28 online or page 36 hardcopy).

-- Greed and Selfishness --

“And so again with greed, covetousness. Men seek to gain in order that they may enjoy; they desire gain in order that they may have power; they strive to gain in order that they may be lifted up. They purify that first form of greed; and they begin to desire gain that the family may be better off, that the family may be in a better position, that the family may be beyond suffering and want and starvation; thus they grow less selfish than before. Then they go further. They desire power in order that they may use it for good, that they may spread it to do good over a wider area than the family, that they may serve in a wider field than the home; and at last, as in the case of love, they learn to give without any return. They learn to desire knowledge and power not that they may hold it but that they may give it, not that they may enjoy it but only in order that it may be spread. And in this way selfishness is burned up.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 29 online or pages 36-37 hardcopy).

“Thus do these first steps lead onward towards true discipleship, lead onward towards the finding of the Guru, lead onward towards the Inner Temple, the holiest of holies, where the Guru of humanity resides. These are the first steps that you must take, this is the route by which you must travel. Men you are, living in the world and bound by worldly ties, men living the social and political life; and yet at the back of your hearts you are desiring true Yoga and the knowledge which is of the permanent and not only of the transitory life. For in the hearts of every one of you, if you go down to the very bottom of them, you will find a yearning to know something more, a desire to live more nobly than you live today. You may have the outer appearance of loving the things of the world, and you do love them with your lower natures; but in the heart of every true Hindu, who is not absolutely renegade and apostate to his religion and his country, there is still an inner yearning for some­thing more than the things of earth, still a faint longing, if only from the past traditions, that India shall be nobler than she is today and her people more worthy of her past. Here then is the route that you must begin to tread: no great nation unless individuals are great; no mighty people if individuals are sordid and poor and selfish in their lives You must begin where you are today, in the life that you are leading and following these lines that I have roughly sketched you will take your first steps to­wards the Path.

“Let me close by reminding you of what the end of that Path is.... [The man on the Path] is balanced amidst friends and foes, balanced in praise and in shame, self-reliant, looking on all things with an equal eye, on the clod of earth, on the piece of gold, on friend and on enemy alike. He is the same to all.... That is the goal that we are seeking. These are the first steps towards the Path that crosses over. Until these are trodden no other steps are possible; but as these are gradually accomplished the beginning of the true Path is seen.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraphs 31-32 online or pages 39-40 hardcopy).

-- Qualifications for Discipleship --

There are specific qualifications that must be achieved before discipleship is possible. Certain fetters must be removed.

[These are] “... qualifications for discipleship; that which has to be done before discipleship is possible; that which has to be accomplished before the search for the Guru has any chance of success; that which has to be done in the world, in the ordinary life of men, utilizing that life as a school, as a place for learning the preparatory lessons, as a place for qualifying the man to be fit to touch the Feet of the great Teachers who shall give him the true re-birth - the re-birth which is symbolized in all exoteric religions by one or another external ceremony, sacred less for itself than because of that which it symbolizes.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 38 online or page 46 hardcopy).

The first is self-control.

“When we say a man is self-controlled we mean that his mind is stronger than his passions; that if you take the lower nature, the passions and the emotions, and over against that you set the intellectual nature, the mind and the will and the reasoning power and the judgment, that these last are stronger than the first; that the man is able in a moment of tempta­tion, under an appeal to his passions, to say: ‘No, I will not yield to that; I will not permit myself to be carried away by passion, I will not allow myself to be run away with by means of the senses; these senses are simply the horses that draw my chariot; I am the driver, and I will not permit them to gallop along the road they desire’; and then we say that that man is self-controlled. That is the ordinary sense of the word, and mind you, that self-control is an admirable quality. It is a stage through which every man must pass. The uncontrolled and un­regulated man, who is subject entirely to the senses, he indeed has much to do ere even this quality of worldly self-control will be acquired; but very, very much more than that is wanted. When we talk about a strong-willed man and a weak-willed man, we mean for the most part that the man who has got a strong will is a man who under the ordinary cir­cumstances of temptation and difficulty will choose his path by reason and by judgment, and will guide himself by the memory of the past and by conclusions which are based thereon; then we say a man has a strong will; he is not a man who is at the mercy of circumstances; he is not a prey to every impulse, he is not like a ship carried by the currents of the river or driven about by the winds as they blow upon it. He is rather like a ship controlled by a seaman who understands his duty, who utilizes the currents and the winds to drive his ship in the direction in which he desires to go, who uses the rudder of the will to make the ship follow the path on which he himself has determined.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 39 online or pages 50-51 hardcopy).

The second is controlling the mind's tendency to flitter here and there, willy-nilly, from topic to topic.

“But we know there is a difficulty about this lower self of ours, the mind. Do you remember what Arjuna said to Shri Krishna when he was dealing with this control of the lower Manas that we are studying? You remember how he said to his divine Teacher that Manas was so restless; ‘Manas is verily restless’, he said, ‘O Krishna; it is impetuous, strong, and difficult to bend; I deem it as hard to curb as the wind‘. And that is true; every one knows it to be true who tries to curb the mind. Every one who tries to control Manas knows how restless, impetuous, and strong it is, and how hard to curb. But do you remember how the Blessed Lord gave answer to Arjuna when he said it was hard as the wind to curb? His answer was: ‘Without doubt Manas is hard to curb and restless, O mighty­armed; but it may be curbed by constant practice and by indifference’. There is no other way. Con­stant practice: no one can do it for you; no Teacher can accomplish it for you. You yourselves must do it, and until you begin to take it in hand no finding of the Guru is possible for you. It is useless to cry out and desire to find, if you will not take the steps that are laid down in the published words of all the great Teachers in order to guide you to Their Feet. Here is a mighty Teacher, an Avatara, who lays down what must be done and who says it may be done. And when an Avatara says it may be done, He means that it can be done by the man who wills it; for He knows the powers of those whom He can see, and whom He as the Supreme has brought into the world; and when He gives His divine word that the conquest is possible, shall we dare to say that we cannot do it, and so as it were give the lie to the God that speaks?

“How then shall it be done? ‘By constant practice’, says the Lord; that is to say in your daily life as you have it, in the busy life of men, you are to begin to train this restless mind of yours and make it subject to your will. Try for a moment to think steadily. You will find your thoughts fly away. What shall you do? bring them back again to the point on which you desire to fix them. Choose a subject and then think definitely and consecutively upon it....

“In order that you may fight against this modern tendency of scattering thought you should make it a daily habit to think consecutively and to concentrate your attention for some time on one subject; make it a serious practice in the training of your mind to read every day some part of a book that deals with the graver matters of life, with the eternal rather than with the transitory; fix the mind upon it while you are reading. Do not allow it to wander, do not allow it to scatter. If it travels off bring it back, and place it again on the same idea, and in that way you will strengthen the mind, you will begin to curb it, you will by constant practice learn to control it, and make it go along the path that you desire it should follow. Even in things of the world this quality is of great advantage. It is not only that in doing this you are preparing yourself for the greater life which is open to you, but even in the common things of life the man of concentrated thought is the more successful man; the man who is able to think con­secutively, clearly and definitely, he is the man who even in the lower world will be able to make his way. So you will find this constant practice in training the mind useful in this unimportant world as well as in greater things. And then you will gradually learn the control which is one of the conditions of discipleship.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraphs 44-45 online or pages 59-61 hardcopy).

The next is meditation.

“As you thus train the mind you will perhaps take another step — meditation. Meditation is the de­liberate and formal training of the mind in concen­tration and in fixity of thought. You are to do it every day, because if you do it every day you are helped by what is called the automatism of the body and mind. That which you do daily becomes a habit; that which is done daily is done without an effort after a time; that which is hard to begin with becomes easy by practice. Now meditation may be taken partly as devotional and partly as intellectual, and the wise man who is training himself for disciple­ship will meditate in both ways. He will concentrate his mind, fix his thought, on the divine ideal, on the Teacher whom, unknown at present, he still ulti­mately hopes to find; and keeping before him this perfect ideal, he will fix his lower mind on that ideal in the hour of meditation, and will aspire upwards towards it with fixed and unswerving thought. As the mind grows, this will become easier and easier; as he keeps this ideal before the mind in meditation he will begin to reflect it, to grow a little like it. That is one of the creative powers of the mind — the man becomes that upon which he reflects; and if he reflects daily on the perfect ideal of humanity he will begin to grow towards that perfect ideal himself. Then he will gradually find that as he fixes the mind steadily on this ideal, as he aspires upwards towards it, and longs to come into contact with it, he will find during this time of meditation that the lower mind will become peaceful, that the lower mind will sink into quietude, that the outside world will fade away from consciousness, and that the deeper consciousness will shine as it were from within — the higher consciousness, that of the individual himself, realizing and knowing what he is. For as the lower mind is thus quieted, as its restlessness is con­quered, it becomes like a still lake of water which is unruffled by any wind, unmoved by any currents. That lake is like a mirror; on that mirror-like surface, unruffled, tranquil, the sun which is in heaven shines down, reflecting itself in the quiet water; so also the higher consciousness reflects itself in the mirror of the tranquillized lower mind. And then the man knows, no longer by authority but of his own knowledge, that he is more than the mind which he has realized as intellect, that his consciousness is greater than the passing consciousness of the mind; then it becomes possible for him to begin to identify himself with the higher, and if only for a moment to catch a glimpse of the majesty of the Self.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 47 online or pages 63-65 hardcopy).

The next is purity.

“How shall a man build himself into purity? By, in his morning meditation, taking purity as part of the subject on which he thinks, realizing what it means. No impurity of thought must ever touch him; no impurity of action must ever stain him, he must be pure in the threefold thread of action, word and thought. That is the threefold cord of duty, as I once reminded you, and is that which the Brahmanas threefold thread is intended to represent. In the morning he thinks of purity as a thing that is desirable, that he must accomplish; and when he goes out into the world he carries the memory of his meditation with him. He watches his actions; he allows no impure action to stain his body; he commits no impure action all through the day, for he steadily watches every action that no touch of impurity may soil it. He watches his words. He speaks no word that is impure; he makes no refer­ence in his talk to an unclean subject; he never permits his tongue to be soiled by making an unclean suggestion. Every word of his is pure, so that he would dare to speak it in the presence of his Master, whose eye sees every lightest stain of impurity which the ordinary mortal eye would miss. He will watch every word that it may be the purest that he can utter, and he will never foul himself or others by a single word or phrase coarse with impure suggestion. His thought will be pure. He will never allow an unclean thought to come into his mind, or if it comes into his mind it will at once be cast out; the moment the thought comes he will cast it out; and as he knows that it could not come into his mind unless there was in his mind something to attract it, he purifies his own mind, so that no unclean thought of any one else may be able to gain entrance.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 49 online or pages 67-68 hardcopy).

The next is truth.

“And then again he will take truth in his morning meditation; he will think of truth, its value in the world, its value in society, its value in his own character; and when he goes out into the world of men he will never commit an action that will give a false impression, he will never speak a word that conveys a false idea. Not only will he not lie, but he will not even be inaccurate, because that also is speaking a falsehood. To be inaccurate in recount­ing what you have seen is to speak untruth. All exaggeration and painting up of a story, everything that is not perfectly consistent with fact, so far as he knows it, everything which has any shade of untruth­fulness, may not be used by him who would become a disciple. And so in thought again he must be true. Every thought must be as true as he can make it, with no shadow of falsehood to pollute his mind.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 49 online or pages 68-69 hardcopy).

The next is compassion.

[The aspirant] “...will meditate on compassion in the morning and during the day he will seek to practise it; he will show all kindness to people around him; he will do all service to family and friends and neighbours. Wherever he sees want he will try to relieve it; wherever he sees sorrow he will try to comfort it; wherever he sees misery he will strive to lighten it. He will live compassion as well as think it, and so make it part of his character.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 49 online or page 69 hardcopy).

The next is inner strength which prevents mood swings.

“He will think of the nobility of the strong man, the man whom no outer circumstances can depress or elate, the man who is not joyful over success nor miserable over failure, who is not at the mercy of circumstances, sad today because things are troublesome and joyful tomorrow because things are easy. He will try to be himself, always balanced and strong; as he goes out into the world he will practise; if trouble comes he will think of the Eternal where no trouble is; if loss of money comes, he will think of the wealth of wisdom that cannot be taken away from him; if a friend be snatched by death, he will consider that no living soul can die and that the body that dies is only the garment which is thrown aside when it is out-worn, and another taken, and that his friend shall be found again.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 49 online or pages 69-70 hardcopy).

And other qualities. The aspirant must work on them all.

“And so with all the other virtues of self­restraint, of peaceableness, of fearlessness - all these things he will think of and practise. Not all at once. No man living in the world would be able to give sufficient time to meditate on each of these every day; but take them one by one, and build them into your character. Work on steadily: do not be afraid of giving time to it; do not be afraid of giving trouble to it. Everything that you build you are building for eternity, and you may well be patient in time when eternity spreads before you. Everything you gain, you gain for evermore. Meditation alone or practice alone is insufficient for the building of the character. Both must go together; both must form part of the daily life, and in this way a noble character is made.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 49 online or page 70 hardcopy).

-- Finding the Teacher --

“Some people feel that they are ready, yet they have not found a suitable teacher yet. How can this be? Has the person somehow been overlooked? Theosophy teaches that this does not happen. Rest assured, when the student is ready, the teacher will be provided.

“A man who has thus trained himself, a man who has thus done the utmost that he can do, who has given his time and thought and trouble to make him­self fit to find the Teacher, even by him the Teacher shall verily be found; or rather, the Teacher shall find him and manifest Himself to his soul. For do you imagine in blindness and in ignorance that these Teachers desire to be hidden? Do you imagine, veiled in illusion, that They deliberately hide Them­selves from the eyes of men in order to leave humanity to stumble helpless, unwishful to aid it and to guide? I tell you that much as you may for a moment desire to find your Teacher, the Teacher is a thousand-fold more constant in His desire to find you, in order that He may help. Looking out over the world of men, They see so many helpers are wanted and so few are found. The masses perish in ignorance; teachers are wanted for them and they perish by myriads; there is none to help them. The great Teachers need disciples who are living in the lower world, and who, trained by the Teachers, shall go out into the world of men, and bring help to the suffering, bring knowledge to the darkened minds. They are always looking out into the world to find one soul that is willing and ready to be helped; always looking over the world in order that They may at once come to the souls that are ready to receive Them, and will not shut the doors of their hearts against Them. For our hearts are closed against Them and fast-locked, so that They cannot enter. They may not break down the doors and come in by force. If a man choose his own way and if he lock the doors, none other may turn the key; we are locked up by worldly desire; we are locked up by grasping after the things of the earth; we are locked up with the keys of sin and indifference and sloth; and the Teacher stands waiting till the door be opened in order that He may cross the threshold and illuminate the mind.

“Do you say: How do They know among the myriads of men one soul that works for Them and makes itself fit for Their coming? The answer was once given in the form of a picture; that as a man standing on a mountain-top looking over the adja­cent valley sees a light in a single cottage because the light shines out against the surrounding darkness, so does the soul that has made itself ready show the light in the darkness of the surrounding world which catches the eye of the Watcher on the mountain side and draws his attention by its own light. You must light the soul, in order that the Teacher may see it. He stands watching, but you must give the signal in order that He may become your Teacher and guide you on the way. How great the need you will per­haps understand better at the end of the remaining work that lies before us, as I trace the work of the disciple and what may really be done by him: but let me leave you this morning with this thought in your minds: that the Teacher is watching, is wait­ing, is desiring to find you, desiring to teach you that you have the power to draw Him to you, that only you can let Him come. He may knock at the door of your heart, but you must cry out the word that bids Him enter; and if you would follow the path I have traced for you this morning, if step by step you would thus learn control of mind, medi­tation, building of character, there you would have spoken the threefold word which makes it possible for the Teacher to reveal Himself. When that word is breathed out in the silence of the soul then the Master appears before it, and the feet of the Guru are found.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraphs 50-51 online or pages 70-73 hardcopy).

-- Requirements for the First Initiation --

There are several qualifications required. The first is Discrimination.

“The first qualification is the outcome of the experiences through which he has passed; they awake and train in him ... discrimination. Discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the eternal and the transitory. Until this appears he will be bound to the earth by ignorance, and worldly objects will exercise over him all their seductive glamour. His eyes must be opened, he must pierce through the veil of Maya, at least sufficiently to rate earthly things at their true value, for from [the first qualification is] born the second of the qualifications — [indifference to worldly objects].” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 57 online or page 77 hardcopy).

The second is Indifference to Worldly Objects.

[The aspirant discriminates] “... between the real and the unreal, between the transitory and the permanent. And as reality and permanency make themselves felt in the man’s mind, it is inevitable that worldly objects shall lose their attraction, and that he shall become definitely indifferent to them. When the real is seen the unreal is so unsatisfactory; when the permanent is recognized, if only for a moment, the transitory seems so little worth striving after; in the probationary path all the objects around us lose their attractive power, and it is no longer an effort for the man to turn away from them; it is no longer by deliberate effort of the will that he does not permit himself to work for fruit. The objects have no longer an attraction in them­selves; the root of desire is gradually perishing, and these objects, as it is said in the Bhagavad Gita, turn away from the abstemious dweller in the body. It is not so much that he deliberately abstains, as that they lose the power to any way satisfy him. The objects of the senses turn away from him, because of that training that we have already dealt with, that he has passed through.

“Seeing objects then in their transitory character it is quite natural that out of indifference to the objects should also grow, as a matter of course, that which he has long been striving after, namely, indifference to their fruits; for the fruits are themselves but other objects. The fruits themselves share the impermanency and unreality which he recognizes, having seen the real and the permanent.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraphs 57-58 online or pages 78-79 hardcopy).

The third qualification is a group of six mental qualities. (let’s call them mini-qualifications.)

The first mini-qualification is control of the mind.

[The aspirant practices] “...control of the mind, that definite regulation of thought, that definite understanding of the effects of thought, and of his relation to the world around him, as he affects it for good or for evil by his own thinking. By the recognition of that power that he has either to help or to mar by his own thought the lives of other men, how to hinder or to help the evolution of the race, he becomes a deliberate worker for human progress and for the progress of all evolving beings within the limits of the world to which he belongs. And this regulation of thought — now a definite attitude of the mind — is preparing him, as we shall see, for complete and definite chelaship, where every thought is to be made the instrument of the Master’s work, and where comparatively without effort the mind is to run along the grooves that are traced for it by the will.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 59 online or pages 79-80 hardcopy).

The second mini-qualification is regulation of conduct.

“Do you notice how when dealing with things from the occult standpoint, they are reversed as compared with the standpoint of earth? Worldly men think more of conduct than of thought. The occultist thinks far more of thought than of conduct. If the thought be right the conduct must inevitably be pure; if the thought be regulated, the conduct must inevitably be well controlled and governed. The outer appearance or action is only the translation of the inner thought which in the world of form takes shape as what we call action; but the form is dependent on the life within, the shape is dependent on the moulding energy which makes it. The Arupa world is the world of causes, the Rupa world is only the world of effects; and therefore if we regulate thought the conduct must be regulated, as it is the natural and inevitable expression of thought.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 60 online or pages 80-81 hardcopy).

The third mini-qualification is tolerance.

[This means] “... tolerance of all that is round him, a kind or sublime patience which is able to wait, which is able to understand, and, therefore, demands from none more than he can give. This again is the prepara­tion for a very distinct stage on the path of full chelaship. This attitude of the man, the tolerant attitude, is able to make allowances for every one and everything, looks on all men not as they are seen from without but as they are seen from within, sees their aspirations, their desires and their motives, and not only the clumsy mistranslations which appearance often gives in the outer world. He learns tolerance of all different forms of religion, tolerance of all different kinds of custom, tolerance of all the varying traditions of men. He understands that all these are transitory phases which men ultimately outgrow, and he is not so unreasonable as to expect from the child humanity that wideness, that breadth, that sense of dignified patience which is characteristic of humanity in its manhood and not in its early stages. This attitude of the mind must be constantly cultivated by the man who is approaching initiation, and he must gain that tolerance by insight into truth and be able to recognize the underlying truth underneath the veil of misleading appearances.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 61 online or pages 81-82 hardcopy).

The fourth mini-qualification is absence of resentment.

“The inner man thus gets rid of resentment — resentment towards everything, towards men, towards circumstances, towards everything that surrounds him in life. Why? Because he sees truth and he knows the Law, and therefore knows that whatever circumstances surround him, they are the outcome of the good Law. He knows that whatever men may do to him they are only the unconscious agents of the Law. He knows that whatever comes to him in life is of his own creating in the past. And so his attitude is the attitude of absence of resentment. He realizes justice, therefore he cannot be angry with anything, for nothing can touch him which he has not deserved; nothing can come in his way which he has not put there in his former lives. Thus we find that no troubles and no joys can turn him aside from his path; he is no longer to be changed in direction by anything that comes in his way. He sees the path and treads it; he sees the goal and he presses towards it. He is no longer following devious and indefinite ways, here, there and everywhere; but firmly, steadily, he follows the path he has chosen. He cannot be attracted away from it by pleasure; he cannot be driven away from it by pain. He cannot be dis­couraged by dulness, by voidness, by emptiness, he cannot be induced to stray from it by offers from any save the one Guru whose Feet he seeks.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 63 online or pages 82-83 hardcopy).

~~~

(I must admit, this is one of the most difficult qualifications for me....)

The fifth mini-qualification is a student’s confidence in his Master and in himself.

“You can understand how [confidence in a student’s Master and in himself] will be the result of such a struggle. You can understand how on the further side of the struggle confidence must come out, as the flower must open under the stimulating influence of sunshine and rain. He has learned confidence in his Guru, for has He not led him through all this thorny path and brought him to the other side where the gateway of initiation begins to open in front of him? And he has learned confidence in himself — not in his lower self whose weakness he has conquered, but in his divine Self whose strength he is beginning to recognize. For he understands that every man is divine, he understands that what his Guru is today, he him­self is going to become in the lives that still stretch out in front of him. And the confidence he feels is in the power of the Master to teach and to guide him, in the wisdom of the Master to lead and to instruct him; and a confidence in himself, most humble yet most strong, that inasmuch as he is himself divine, he also has the power to accomplish; that however much of effort may be needed, however much of difficulty still remains to conquer, the strength that is in him is one with Brahman, and is enough for every difficulty, enough for every trial.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 63 online or pages 86-87 hardcopy).

The sixth mini-qualification is peace of mind.

[This is] “... balance, composure, peace of mind, that equilibrium and steadiness which result from the attainment of the foregoing qualities.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 64 online or page 87 hardcopy).

The preparation to enter the Path has been completed.

“He has been proved and not found wanting: his discrimination is keen, his indifference is no temporary disgust, due to a passing disappointment, his mental and moral character is lofty — he is fit, he is ready for initiation. No more is asked, he stands fit to come face to face with his Master, face to face with the life that he so long has sought.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 64 online or page 88 hardcopy).

The aspirant now enters the Path.

-- First Initiation — becoming a Sotapanna --

“Entering the Path” --

The first Initiation is called becoming a Sotapanna, “entering the stream.”

[The person who holds the first Initiation is called] “... ‘he who has entered the stream’ which separates him from this world. He no longer belongs to this world, though he may live in it; he has here no place, nothing can hold him. Exactly the same idea is conveyed by the word Parivrajaka, a man who wanders about, that is, who has no settled home; not necessarily wandering about in the body, not necessarily no settled home in the body — as it has come to mean in the exoteric sense — but the man who in his inner life is separated from the world, who has in this transitory world no fixed place of abode, to whom in this transitory world one place is not different from any other. He can go here, there and anywhere, where his Master may send him. No place has power to hold him, no place has power to bind him; he has shaken off the fetters of place. And so he is called ‘the wanderer’”. (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 69 online or page 93 hardcopy).

The first fetter for the Sotapanna to get rid of is seeing the self as separate.

“... during this stage, which is commenced by the first great Initiation and is closed by the second, there are three different things that a man must get absolutely rid of ere he can pass the second portal... [The first is] ... the illusion of the personal self. Personality must be destroyed; no longer now controlled, no longer now diminished, no longer kept in check: but destroyed, killed for evermore. The illusion of the separated personal self has to go. The chela must recognize himself as one with all other selves, for the Self of all is one. He must realize that all around him, man, the animal and plant worlds, the mineral and elemental forms of life, are all one. The illusion of personality must be gotten rid of.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 72 online or pages 95-96 hardcopy).

The second fetter to get rid of is doubt.

“But he has to get rid of doubt in a very definite way — he is to get rid of doubt by knowledge. No longer to him are the things of the invisible world to be questions of speculation; no longer to him are the great truths of religion to be philosophic ideas. They are to be realized facts. He must no longer have any question in his mind as to how is this or why? There are certain fundamental truths of life on which no longer possibility of doubt must remain to him. Ere he can go one step further forward, he must be absolutely convinced beyond the possibility of question of the great truth of Re-incarnation; he must know beyond the possibility of question the great truth of Karma; be must know beyond the possibility of question the great truth of the existence of the divine Men, of the Jivanmuktas, who are the Gurus of humanity.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 73 online or pages 96-97 hardcopy).

The last fetter at this level is superstition (dependence on rites and ceremonies).

[Superstition means] “... the reliance on external sectarian rites and ceremonies for spiritual help. So far as their external nature is concerned, the man recognizes the truth beneath the form, and if the truth be there the value of the outer shape depends on its adaptation to this world of ignorance and illusion. The man has risen above exoteric forms and ceremonies.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 74 online or pages 97-98 hardcopy).

~~~

(I believe that many religions rely on these superstitions, so it is a difficult fetter for many people to remove.)

-- Second Initiation — Becoming a Sakadagami --

-- “The Man Who Builds a Hut” --


“The Initiate of the second grade is called Sakadagamin, ‘he who returns once’, for only one more physical birth is obligatory for him; at the end of his next physical life he can, if he so chooses, complete the remaining stages of the Path without returning to incarnation.” (C. Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, p. 353)

This stage is the time for psychic development, and the awakening of the Kundalini.

“This stage is one in which no definite fetters are cast off, but certain acquirements are made.... After the second Initiation it is necessary that the Siddhis should be developed, because the disciple has reached a stage of his life in which he must be capable of very extended service, in which he must be able to do his Master’s work not only in the world of physical men, but also in the other worlds that surround it and lie outside the physical plane....

“It is at this stage that it is necessary, if it has not been done before, that the inner fire should be awakened, it is here that Kundalini must be roused to function in the physical body and in the astral body of the living man.... [Kundalini] gives the man the power to leave the physical body at will, for as it is led from chakram to chakram it disengages the astral from the physical and sets it free. Then without break of consciousness, without any chasm of blankness separating one world from the other, a man is able to pass out of the physical body into the invisible world, and is able to work there in full consciousness and to bring back all knowledge of the work that he has there accomplished.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 76 online or pages 101-102 hardcopy).

C. Jinarajadasa lists these aspects of the second Initiation.

“As [the Pilgrim] passes on to the next Initiation, new faculties must be evolved, and a yet larger record of work must be achieved. There are no Fetters to be cast off between the Second and Third Initiations; but the higher mind must be made a mirror of the wisdom of the Intuition, and trained to conceive and elaborate those truths which the mind cannot discover, unless implanted in it by a faculty greater than the mind.

When the higher mind has become the tool of the Intuition, and the pupil's record of service is adequate, he is presented by his Master for the Third Initiation.” (C. Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, pp. 353-354)

-- Third Initiation — Becoming an Anagami --

“Need it be said that the last shred of earthly desire must needs now fall away from him if at this stage any shred still remains. So that in this stage a fetter is cast off which is called Kamaraga, desire, little of earth indeed as there can be in it; but with that realizing of the unity of all, everything that is separate in appearance loses its power to deceive for evermore.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 77 online or page 104 hardcopy).

There is another fetter to be worked on at this level.

“A strange word is here used to describe the other chain, that he casts off in this stage ... which in English we are obliged to translate as ‘hatred’, although the English word is absurd in this connection. What it really means is this: that inasmuch as he has become one with all he no longer feels the distinctions between races and families, between all the differentiated objects in the world. He no longer can either love or hate because of external distinctions. He can no longer love or hate because a person belongs to a different race. He can no longer love or hate because he draws distinctions between men and the things around them.... Nothing repels him, nothing drives him back. He is love and compassion to everything, love and compassion to all. He spreads round him as it were an all-em­bracing circle of affection. All that come near him, all that approach him, feel the influence of his divine compassion.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 77 online or pages 105-106 hardcopy).

-- Fourth Initiation — Becoming an Arhat --

“ ... in his waking consciousness he can rise to, live in, the [Buddhic] region. He has no need to leave the body to enjoy it. He has no need to leave the body to be conscious in it. His consciousness embraces, has expanded to, that, although at the same time it may be working in the lower brain. And that is one of the great marks of the attainment of that stage. There is no such thing as physical unconsciousness necessary in order that that high region of conscious­ness may be trodden; for his consciousness has expanded to it, and while he is speaking and talking and living in the world of men, he has all that vast knowledge within his reach and is consciously experiencing it at will....” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 78 online or page 107 hardcopy).

In this stage, he throws off the last five “fetters”.

“[1] The first of these is ... desire for ‘life in form‘ — no desire for such life can move him.

[2] Then, he casts off ... desire for “life without form” - no such desire has any power to bind him.

[3]And then [pride] is cast away ... not thinking even for a passing moment of the greatness of his own achieve­ment, of the dizzy altitude at which he stands, for he recognizes neither high nor low, neither lofty height nor lowly vale....

[4] He casts off next the possibility of being ruffled by anything that may occur. Whatever happens, he will remain unshaken....

[5] And then there falls from his limbs the last fetter of all ... that which makes illusion; the last faint film which prevents the perfect insight and the perfect liberty.”

(Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 78 online or page 107 hardcopy).

-- Fifth Initiation — Becoming an Adept or Master --

-- The Goal of Human Life --

The Initiate is finally free (finally “saved” or “born again”, to use the Christian terminology) from the danger of entering Avichi, and now can pursue the next step.

~~~

“While he need be born no more, he may take birth if he will; no compulsion can bring him back to earth, but of his own will he can reincarnate. He brings within his knowledge everything of our planetary ring. He learns all that this manifestation has to teach; not one lesson is left unlearnt, not one secret remains hidden, not one corner exists into which his eye cannot pierce, not one possibility that he is not able to grasp. At the end of this stage all the lessons have been learnt.... He has accomplished the evolution of humanity....” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 78 online or pages 108-109 hardcopy).


Masterhood, is the end of discipleship.

“The chela [disciple’s] life, or chela-path, is a beautiful one, full of joy to its very end; but also it calls forth and needs everything noble and high in the learner or disciple himself or herself; for the powers or faculties of the Higher Self must be brought into activity in order to attain and to hold those summits of intellectual and spiritual grandeur where our Masters themselves live. For that, Masterhood, is the end of discipleship;....” (G. de Purucker, Occult Glossary.

-- What Next? --

Several choices are now available to the newly-initiated Adept.

“While he need be born no more, he may take birth if he will; no compulsion can bring him back to earth, but of his own will he can reincarnate.... He can enter Nirvana itself at will.... Before Him lie open different paths, any one of which He may choose; before Him spread vast possibilities, any one of which He may stretch forth His hand and take. Out of the limits of this planetary chain, outside the limits of our Kosmos, into regions far beyond even our dimmest apprehending, paths lie open that the [Adept] may choose to tread. One path, the most difficult, the hardest of all, though the swiftest, is that which is called the Path of the Great Renunciation. If He chooses that, deliberately looking over the world of men the [Adept] refuses to leave it, refuses to go away from it, says that He will remain and take to Himself a body again and again, for the teaching and for the helping of man....” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 78 online or pages 108-109 hardcopy).



-- Both Knowledge AND devotion are required --

“...to be a recognized disciple, an accepted chela, the mind and morals must be fitted to meet the gaze of the Guru; such as have been stated are the qualifications He demands, and these His pupils must give Him ere the second birth will be granted by Him who alone can give it. And notice also that these imply knowledge and devotion — the growth of knowledge that the man may see, and the growth of devotion without which the path cannot be trodden. And, therefore, it is written in the Upanishad that knowledge unallied to devotion is not enough, that devotion by itself is not sufficient; it must be knowledge wedded to devotion, for these are the two wings by which the disciple rises.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 65 online or page 89 hardcopy).

~~~


The Seeker has become the Student, the Initiate, and finally the Adept. He has traveled through many lifetimes, perhaps even falling into Hell (between lives) a few times along the way. However, Theosophy teaches that for all people, hard work and persistence will eventually get us to the goal of all of humanity, Nirvana.


~~~


There is much more involved in preparing to enter the Path. The Book, At the Feet of the Master, written by J. Krishnamurti (under the penname Alcyone), has excellent advice on how to get ready for the Path. In this book, the Young Krishnamurti records discussions he had with his Master, on what a person needs to do to enter the Path to spiritual advancement. The lessons were taught to Alcyone on the Astral Plane, while he was asleep, studying with his Master each night. In the morning, he would wake up and record these discussions, and the book was eventually published.


Krishnamurti (Alcyone), Jiddu, At the Feet of the Master

(Online)
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/other/alcyone.htm

(Hardcopy)
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=4