The Initiate
“This is a great and complex subject. It is one which a person often studies over lifetimes, and one in which you can often become more aware of other lifetimes. My experience,” relates Sensei, “is that it is not so difficult for people to wake up and remember things, if they can penetrate the veil and see inside of themselves.”
Continuing, Sensei points out the initiate’s purpose. “You're here to initiate a purpose or a change in this world. That change has something most definitely to do with you. Specifically, you are supposed to be making some kind of change within yourself.”
When we go to make a change or improvement in our life, we typically don't treat our selves as initiates. Because we don’t do this, when we go to live the change and it doesn't happen we then give up on our selves. We become frustrated with our selves because our improvement hasn’t happened. Often we say, "I'm going to make this big change in my life and I'm going to do it right now." But then we start doing the change without the initial steps. We don't realize that big changes require initiative and initiation.
There are two components to initiative. First, taking the initiative to take the first step. Secondly, accepting our self as the initiate. We do this by acknowledging that we are not the expert, and that we are at the beginning.
The initiate is someone who comes in from the outside, wanting to begin something, like joining a group. Joining a fraternity or the military are examples of this. In a fraternity there is a pledge period where the initiate is being closely watched and monitored. In the military, this same period is called boot camp.
A successful initiate is someone fully vested in the change and commitment to the thing that they are becoming initiated into. They are also always initiating change and bringing in a new perspective. They are always there through the initial stage of new developments and movements.
“Your first job as the initiate,” continues Sensei, “is to take the intangible and to bring it all the way through into physical form. “When you do this as a way of living, looking forward to improving your weak links - and you are centering on this - then you will be viewed as an Initiate in eternity, and you will be adopted by those spiritual beings that are the Masters. They will bring you through the curriculum.”
First published in ‘The Current’, a newsletter of Great River Institute. 14 March 2002.
