Because the master knows and regards his own self to be impersonal and immaterial, mental and not physical, the aspirant does not have to meet him personally in order to get inspiration from him. It is enough to meet him mentally by faith, remembrance, and devotion to get the desired result. Indeed, unless the aspirant makes inner contact with the master he does not become a disciple at all. No outer contact and no verbal communication will suffice to give more than a pretense of discipleship; the reality can be given from within alone. The truth is that no one becomes the disciple of an adept merely by verbal intercourse; he becomes so only when he has attained enough purity and developed enough power to meet the adept telepathically in meditation. Until that time he is still in the outer court of the temple.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 6 : Teaching Masters, Discipleship > # 220
