A Commentary on At the Feet of the Master by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater Talks on the Path of Occultism Volume 1 A Commentary on: At the Feet of the Master by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater First edition 1926, Second 1930, Third 1947, Fourth 1954 The Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras 20, India Publisher's Note With a view to facilitate convenience in handling, we have split the book - Talks on the Path of Occultism - into three parts and these are issued separately. A new Index has been prepared for each volume separetely according to the new pagination Page 1 A Commentary on At the Feet of the Master by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater FOREWORD THIS book is merely a record of talks by Mr. C. W. Leadbeater and myself on three famous books — books small in size but great in contents. We both hope that they will prove useful to aspirants, and even to those above that stage, since the talkers were older than the listeners, and had more experience in the life of discipleship. The talks were not given at one place only; we chatted to our friends at different times and places, chiefly at Adyar, London and Sydney. A vast quantity of notes were taken by the listeners. All that were available of these were collected and arranged. They were then condensed, and repetitions were eliminated. Unhappily there were found to be very few notes on The Voice of the Silence, Fragment I, so we have utilized notes made at a class held by our good colleague, Mr. Ernest Wood, in Sydney, and incorporated these into Bishop Leadbeater's talks in that section. No notes of my own talks on this book viii were available; though I have spoken much upon it, those talks are not recoverable. None of these talks have been published before, except some of Bishop Leadbeater's addresses to selected students on At the Feet of the Master. A book entitled Talks on “At the Feet of the Master” was published a few years ago, containing imperfect reports of some of these talks of his. That book will not be reprinted; the essential material in it finds its place here, carefully condensed and edited. May this book help some of our younger brothers to understand more of these priceless teachings. The more they are studied and lived, the more will be found in them. ANNIE BESANT Page 2 A Commentary on At the Feet of the Master by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater CONTENTS Chapter Page Publisher's note FOREWORD PART - I - Introductory 1 THE OCCULT PATH AND THE INTERESTS OF THE WORLD 3 2 INITIATION AND THE APPROACH THERETO 13 3 HOW THE BOOK CAME TO BE WRITTEN 25 4 THE PRELIMINARY PRAYER 27 5 THE SPIRIT OF THE PUPIL 34 6 THE FOUR INTRODUCTORY PATHS 42 7 THE FOUR QUALIFICATIONS 47 PART - II - Discrimination 53 1 TRUE AND FALSE AIMS 55 2 THE LIFE OF THE BODIES 75 3 RIGHT AND WRONG 107 4 BE TRUE ALL THROUGH 124 5 UNSELFISHNESS AND THE DIVINE LIFE 151 PART - III - Desirelessness 161 1 THE REMOVAL OF DESIRE 163 2 THE ONE GOOD DESIRE 171 3 PSYCHIC POWERS 185 4 SMALL DESIRES 203 5 MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS 212 PART - IV - Good Conduct 225 1 CONTROL OF MIND 227 Page 3 A Commentary on At the Feet of the Master by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater 2 SELF-CONTROL IN ACTION 272 3 TOLERANCE 289 4 CHEERFULNESS 319 5 ONE-POINTEDNESS 36 6 CONFIDENCE 343 PART - V - Love 1 LIBERATION, NIRVANA AND MOKSHA 363 2 LOVE IN DAILY LIFE 389 3 GOSSIP 401 4 CRUELTY 408 5 SUPERSTITION 431 6 SERVICE 454 INDEX 463 Page 4 A Commentary on At the Feet of the Master by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater PART - I - INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 1 THE OCCULT PATH AND THE INTERESTS OF THE WORLD [Page 3] C. W.L. — At the Feet of the Master is one of three books — the other two being The Voice of the Silence and The Light on the Path – especially intended to help people to set their feet upon the Path. It is most valuable for us, at the moment, because of its extreme simplicity, and because it bears especially the stamp and approval of the World-Teacher, who is so soon to come. It consists of teaching given by his Master to the young disciple J. Krishnamurti (called Alcyone in the series of his past lives recently published) ( The Lives of Alcyone, T.P.H. Adyar, 1924) in the year 1909, when he was a boy of thirteen. His knowledge of English was not then perfect, and since the instruction was given in that tongue both the teaching and the language had to be made especially clear. The Master Kuthumi, with His marvellous power of adaptability, therefore put all what was necessary for the attainment of the First Initiation into that wonderfully simple style which is one of the great recommendations of this little book. The Light on the Path appeared in 1885 and TheVoice of the Silence in 1889. Each of these books, of [Page 4] ethics has its own characteristics. Both the older ones; are more poetical than At the Feet of the Master,although in it also there are some very beautiful expressions; it could not be otherwise, since it comes from the Master Kūthūmi. The Light on the Path, we were told by Swami T. Subba Row, has several depths of meaning, one behind another, the most profound relating to the Initiation at the Mahāchohan level, a stage beyond where even our Masters now stand. The Voice of the Silence carries us as far as the Arhat Initiation. At the Feet of the Master applies especially to the First Initiation, so we will comment upon it first. We have all heard often about the qualifications for the Path, but we shall continue to hear of them until we have succeeded in putting into practice everything that is written in such books as this. There is no difficulty in knowing exactly what ought to be done, and there is no obstacle in our path which is not of our own making, yet comparatively few people succeed in following these directions, because they have personalities which often get in the way. What is written in these books must be definitely applied by each person to himself. The teacher can explain and illustrate what ought to be done in various ways, but everyone must tread the Path for himself. It is like training for a race or taking up physical culture; there may be a trainer who can give careful directions, but the candidate must exercise his own muscles; nobody else can by any possibility do that for him. Millions of people around us are supposed to be living according to the precepts of their respective religions, [Page 5] but very few actually do so. Even those who live good and holy lives do not usually strictly follow all the precepts laid down for them. In some cases the teachings of exoteric religions are unessential or inappropriate, but in occultism no unnecessary precept is given; an exact adherence to all of them is required. This does not mean that we must have all of these qualifications in absolute perfection before we can be received by a Master – that would be the attainment of Adeptship but they must be possessed to a reasonable extent, and they must be real, not merely polite fictions. When a Page 5 A Commentary on At the Feet of the Master by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater professor of chemistry tells us that if we compound certain chemicals in a specified way we shall obtain certain results, we know that those results will follow, and that if the proportions are altered we shall not get what we expect, but something else. In religious matters people seem to think that a sort of vague approximation to the instructions given is quite sufficient, but in occultism that will not do at all; it must be taken as a science; and although we have heard so often about these qualifications, it is to be hoped that by going through them carefully and endeavouring to understand and follow with scientific precision exactly what is required, many who have not yet succeeded may be able to set their feet upon the Path. These inner things are not far away and uncertain. Up to a few years ago they seemed more remote, because so few whom we knew had come into direct touch with the Masters; and a student might have thought to himself: “Yes, two or three men specially gifted, or in some [Page 6] way specially fortunate; have succeeded, but it does not seem to be for ordinary people”. But now that a number have come into direct touch with Them, one may reasonably say to himself: “If these others have reached this, why not I ? ” The cause for non-success must be in ourselves, not in anything outside. It is certainly not the fault of the Masters, who are always there when the pupil is ready. In some there is one defect that bars; in others it may be only a general lack of development; but if there were not some deficiency we should all have succeeded. It is worth while to make a definite effort to find out what is the matter — what is lacking — and to remedy the defect. There is a real inner world which surpasses in importance all this outer world, which is so incessant in its pressure upon us.