Let us come back to the type of the Knight which we took as an example.
If he surveys his failures and tries to get to the root of them, he will
understand the main cause: the scale of values that exists in the environment
in which he works does not correspond to his own. While everyone
around him hankers after worldly power, he is an anachronism who feels
lost in these modern times, searching only for Truth.
Generally speaking, even though the man 2, who is born in the environment
3 of our epoch, is inept for the practical struggle of everyday life,
he has considerable potential for esoteric evolution, due to the constitution
of his psyche. By consciously working on the development of his
intellectual centre-his emotional centre being already awake, and perhaps
even somewhat developed-he more easily balances his Personality. This
is an important thing to know. For the people destined to be the forerunners
of the New Era (which is that of the Holy Spirit) will be chosen
from this group of highly cultivated men 2 who have attained a certain
equilibrium by taking their intellectual development as far as possible.
The position of the man 3 in ambience 3 does not give him the same
advantages from the esoteric point of view. Of course, he has more opportunities
in practical everyday life than the man 2, but he does not have
the same aptitude for balancing his Personality. He has to begin by developing
an emotional centre which is partially or entirely dormant. So he first
has to awaken it. This awakening is naturally more difficult for the man 3 in
ambience 3 than it is for the man 2 to develop his intellectual centre in the
same environment. For neither in its form nor in its content does Religion
offer anything constructive to the intellectual type, who is agnostic by
nature. Besides, until now no institution has made provision for schools
or universities where emotional aptitudes may be formed or scientifically
developed.
If a man 3 feels the need for emotional development, for lack of anything
better he will be forced to work empirically.
However, we can give him a valuable hint: human nature has an aptitude
for being trained, and this can be profitably used to awaken the torpid
emotional centre. With subtle and highly refined reasoning, the man 3
must in every circumstance imagine the reaction of the man 2 who is
obedient to the call of his emotional centre. And he must by conscious
effort react in the same way when not driven by emotion. It is a game. He
will make mistakes and stumble many times, especially at the beginning.
But if he takes the game seriously and makes it a permanent methodical
exercise for all occasions, he will succeed in liberating his emotional centre
from its state of torpor. He will then notice its spontaneous reactions and
this first success will encourage him to continue this work. He must
tirelessly persevere in this exercise of awakening until the emotional centre
is completely aroused and quite ready for development.
The man 3 can find that this condition is an advantage. Except for
negative emotions, his emotional centre is not greatly sullied, as it is so
often asleep. If afterwards during the course of these awakening exercises he
takes care that this centre does not become stained by all sorts of
considerations and, above all, is not used for false aims, the man can become
like a little child4 whose emotional centre is awake although undeveloped
and is neither deformed nor tarnished.
Accessing the emotions through the intellect can be very 'entertaining', but it's usually not very effective. This entire human experience is an emotional school. The problem with most people is that the door is sealed shut from years of neglect and lack of use, that they can't see the school around them.
