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FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING
SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND.
AN intelligent consideration of the phenomena of hypnotism will show
us that what we call the hypnotic state is the normal state of the subjective
mind. It always conceives of itself in accordance with some suggestion
conveyed to it, either consciously or unconsciously to the mode of objective
mind which governs it, and it gives rise to corresponding external results.
The abnormal nature of the conditions induced by experimental hypnotism
is in the removal of the normal control held by the individual's own objective
mind over his subjective mind and the substitution of some other control
for it, and thus we may say that the normal characteristic of the subjective
mind is its perpetual action in accordance with some sort of suggestion.
It becomes therefore a question of the highest importance to determine
in every case what the nature of the suggestion shall be and from what
source it shall proceed; but before considering the sources of suggestion
we must realize more fully the place taken by subjective mind in the order
of Nature.
If the student has followed what has been said regarding the presence
of intelligent spirit pervading all space and permeating all matter, he
will now have little difficulty in recognizing this all-pervading spirit
as universal subjective mind. That it cannot as universal mind have the
qualities of objective mind is very obvious. The universal mind is the
creative power throughout Nature; and as the originating power it must
first give rise to the various forms in which objective mind recognizes
its own individuality, before these individual minds can re-act upon it;
and hence, as pure spirit or first cause, it cannot possibly be anything
else than subjective mind; and the fact which has been abundantly proved
by experiment that the subjective mind is the builder of the body shows
us that the power of creating by growth from within is the essential characteristic
of the subjective mind. Hence, both from experiment and from a priori reasoning,
we may say that where-ever we find creative power at work there we are
in the presence of subjective mind, whether it be working on the grand
scale of the cosmos, or on the miniature scale of the individual. We may
therefore lay it down as a principle that the universal all-permeating
intelligence, which has been considered in the second and third sections,
is purely subjective mind, and therefore follows the law of subjective
mind, namely that it is amenable to any suggestion, and will carry out
any suggestion that is impressed upon it to its most rigorously logical
consequences. The incalculable importance of this truth may not perhaps
strike the student at first sight, but a little consideration will show
him the enormous possibilities that are stored up in it, and in the concluding
section I shall briefly touch upon the very serious conclusions resulting
from it. For the present it will be sufficient to realize that the subjective
mind in ourselves is thc same subjective mind which is at work throughout
the universe giving rise to the infinitude of natural forms with which
we are surrounded, and in like manner giving rise to ourselves also. It
may be called the supporter of our individuality; and we may loosely speak
of our individual subjective mind as our personal share in the universal
mind. This, of course, does not imply the splitting up of the universal
mind into fractions, and it is to avoid this error that I have discussed
the essential unity of spirit in the third section, but in order to avoid
too highly abstract conceptions in the present stage of the student's progress
we may conveniently employ the idea of a personal share in the universal
subjective mind.
To realize our individual subjective mind in this manner will help us
to get over the great metaphysical difficulty which meets us in our endeavor
to make conscious use of first cause, in other words to create external
results by the power of our own thought. Ultimately there can be only one
first cause, which is the universal mind, but because it is universal it
cannot, as universal, act on the plane of the individual and particular.
For it to do so would be for it to cease to be universal and therefore
cease to be the creative power which we wish to employ. On the other hand,
the fact that we are working for a specific definite object implies our
intention to use this universal power in application to a particular purpose,
and thus we find ourselves involved in the paradox of seeking to make the
universal act on the plane of the particular. We want to effect a junction
between the two extremes of the scale of Nature, the innermost creative
spirit and a particular external form. Between these two is a great gulf,
and the question is how is it to be bridged over. It is here, then, that
the conception of our individual subjective mind as our personal share
in the universal subjective mind affords the means of meeting the difficulty,
for on the one hand it is in immediate connection with the universal mind,
and on the other it is immediate connection with the individual objective,
or intellectual mind; and this in its turn is in immediate connection with
the world of externalization, which is conditioned in time and space; and
thus the relation between the subjective and objective minds in the individual
forms the bridge which is needed to connect the two extremities of the
scale.
The individual subjective mind may therefore be regarded as the organ
of the Absolute in precisely the same way that the objective mind is the
organ of the Relative, and it is in order to regulate our use of these
two organs that it is necessary to understand what the terms "absolute"
and "relative" actually mean. The absolute is that idea of a thing which
contemplates it as existing in itself and not in relation to something
else, that is to say, which contemplates the essence of it; and the relative
is that idea of a thing which contemplates it as related to other things,
that is to say as circumscribed by a certain environment. The absolute
is the region of causes, and the relative is the region of conditions;
and hence, if we wish to control conditions, this can only be done by our
thought-power operating on the plane of the absolute, which it can do only
through the medium of the subjective mind. The conscious use of the creative
power of thought consists in the attainment of the power of Thinking in
the Absolute, and this can only be attained by a clear conception of the
interaction between our different mental functions. For this purpose the
student cannot too strongly impress upon himself that subjective mind,
on whatever scale, is intensely sensitive to suggestion, and as creative
power works accurately to the externalization of that suggestion which
is most deeply impressed upon it. If then, we would take
any idea out of the realm of the relative, where it is limited and restricted
by conditions imposed upon it through surrounding circumstances, and transfer
it to the realm of the absolute where it is not thus limited, a right recognition
of our mental constitution will enable us to do this by a clearly defined
method.
The object of our desire is necessarily first conceived by us as bearing
some relation to existing circumstances, which may, or may not, appear
favorable to it; and what we want to do is to eliminate the element of
contingency and attain something which is certain in itself. To do this
is to work upon the plane of the absolute, and for this purpose we must
endeavor to impress upon our subjective mind the idea of that which we
desire quite apart from any conditions. This separation from the elements
of condition implies the elimination of the idea of time, and consequently
we must think of the thing as already in actual existence. Unless we do
this we are not consciously operating upon the plane of the absolute, and
are therefore not employing the creative power of our thought. The simplest
practical method of gaining the habit of thinking in this manner is to
conceive the existence in the spiritual world of a spiritual prototype
of every existing thing, which becomes the root of the corresponding external
existence. If we thus habituate ourselves to look on the spiritual prototype
as the essential being of the thing, and the material form as the growth
of this prototype into outward expression, then we shall see that the initial
step to the production of any external fact must be the creation of its
spiritual prototype. This prototype, being purely spiritual, can only be
formed by the operation of thought, and in order to have substance on the
spiritual plane it must be thought of as actually existing there. This
conception has been elaborated by Plato in his doctrine of archetypal ideas,
and by Swedenborg in his doctrine of correspondences; and a still greater
teacher has said, "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that
ye have received them, and ye shall receive them." (Mark XI. 24, R.V.)
The difference of the tenses in this passage is remarkable. The speaker
bids us first to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled, that
it is a thing already accomplished, and then its accomplishment will follow
as a thing in the future. This is nothing else than a concise direction
for making use of the creative power of thought by impressing upon the
universal subjective mind the particular thing, which we desire as an already
existing fact. In following this direction we are thinking on the plane
of the absolute and eliminating from our minds all consideration of conditions,
which imply limitation and the possibility of adverse contingencies; and
we are thus planting a seed which, if left undisturbed, will infallibly
germinate into external fruition.
By thus making intelligent use of our subjective mind, we, so to speak,
create a nucleus, which is no sooner created than it begins to exercise
an attractive force, drawing to itself material of a like character with
its own, and if this process is allowed to go on undisturbed, it will continue
until an external form corresponding to the nature of the nucleus comes
out into manifestation on the plane of the objective and relative. This
is the universal method of Nature on every plane. Some of the most advanced
thinkers in modern physical science, in the endeavor to probe the great
mystery of the first origin of the world, have postulated the formation
of what they call "vortex rings" formed from an infinitely fine primordial
substance. They tell us that if such a ring be once formed on the minutest
scale and set rotating, then, since it would be moving in pure ether and
subject to no friction, it must according to all known laws of physics
be indestructible and its motion perpetual. Let two such rings approach
each other, and by the law of attraction, they would coalesce into a whole,
and so on until manifested matter as we apprehend it with our external
senses, is at last formed. Of course no one has ever seen these rings with
the physical eye. They are one of those abstractions, which result if we
follow out the observed law of physics and the unavoidable sequences of
mathematics to their necessary consequences. We cannot account for the
things that we can see unless we assume the existence of other things,
which we cannot; and the "vortex theory" is one of these assumptions. This
theory has not been put forward by mental scientists but by purely physical
scientists as the ultimate conclusion to which their researches have led
them, and this conclusion is that all the innumerable forms of Nature have
their origin in the infinitely minute nucleus of the vortex ring, by whatever
means the vortex ring may have received its initial impulse, a question
with which physical science, as such, is not concerned.
As the vortex theory accounts for the formation of the inorganic world,
so does biology account for the formation of the living organism. That
also has its origin in a primary nucleus which, as soon as it is established,
operates as a centre of attraction for the formation of all those physical
organs of which the perfect individual is composed. The science of embryology
shows that this rule holds good without exception throughout the whole
range of the animal world, including man; and botany shows the same principle
at work throughout the vegetable world. All branches of physical science
demonstrate the fact that every completed manifestation, of whatever kind
and on whatever scale, is started by the establishment of a nucleus, infinitely
small but endowed with an unquenchable energy of attraction, causing it
to steadily increase in power and definiteness of purpose, until the process
of growth is completed and the matured form stands out as an accomplished
fact. Now if this were the universal method of Nature, there is nothing
unnatural in supposing that it must begin its operation at a stage further
back than the formation of the material nucleus. As soon as that is called
into being it begins to operate by the law of attraction on the material
plane; but what is the force which originates the material nucleus? Let
a recent work on physical science give us the answer; "In its ultimate
essence, energy may be incomprehensible by us except as an exhibition of
the direct operation of that which we call Mind or Will." The quotation
is from a course of lectures on " Waves in Water, Air and Ether," delivered
in 1902, at the Royal Institution, by J. A. Fleming. Here, then, is the
testimony of physical science that the originating energy is Mind or Will;
and we are, therefore, not only making a logical deduction from certain
unavoidable intuitions of the human mind, but are also following on the
lines of the most advanced physical science, when we say that the action
of Mind plants that nucleus which, if allowed to grow undisturbed, will
eventually attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its manifestation
in outward visible form. Now the only action of Mind is Thought; and it
is for this reason that by our thoughts we create corresponding external
conditions, because we thereby create the nucleus which attracts to itself
its own correspondences in due order until the finished work is manifested
on the external plane. This is according to the strictly scientific conception
of the universal law of growth; and we may therefore briefly sum up the
whole argument by saying that our thought of anything forms a spiritual
prototype of it, thus constituting a nucleus or centre of attraction for
all conditions necessary to its eventual externalization by a law of growth
inherent in the prototype itself.
THE LAW OF GROWTH.
A CORRECT understanding of the law of growth is of the highest importance
to the student of Mental Science. The great fact to be realized regarding
Nature is that it is natural. We may pervert the order of Nature, but it
will prevail in the long run, returning, as Horace says, by the back door
even though we drive it out with a pitchfork; and the beginning, the middle,
and the end of the law of Nature is the principle of growth from a vitality
inherent in the entity itself. If we realize this from the outset we shall
not undo our own work by endeavoring to force things to become that which
by their own nature they are not. For this reason when the Bible says that
"he who believeth shall not make haste," it is enunciating a great natural
principle that success depends on our using, and not opposing, the universal
law of growth. No doubt the greater the vitality we put into the germ,
which we have agreed to call the spiritual prototype, the quicker it will
germinate; but this is simply because by a more realizing conception we
put more growing power into the seed than we do by a feebler conception.
Our mistakes always eventually resolve themselves into distrusting the
law of growth. Either we fancy we can hasten it by some exertion of our
own from without, and are thus led into hurry and anxiety, not to say sometimes
into the employment of grievously wrong methods; or else we give up all
hope and so deny the germinating power of the seed we have planted. The
result in either case is the same, for in either case we are in effect
forming a fresh spiritual prototype of an opposite character to our desire,
which therefore neutralizes the one first formed, and disintegrates it
and usurps its place. The law is always the same, that our Thought forms
a spiritual prototype which, if left undisturbed, will reproduce itself
in external circumstances; the only difference is in the sort of prototype
we form, and thus evil is brought to us by precisely the same law as good.
These considerations will greatly simplify our ideas of life. We have
no longer to consider two forces, but only one, as being the cause of all
things; the difference between good and evil resulting simply from the
direction in which this force is made to flow. It is a universal law that
if we reverse the action of a cause we at the same time reverse the effect.
With the same apparatus we can commence by mechanical motion which will
generate electricity, or we can commence with electricity which will generate
mechanical motion; or to take a simple arithmetical instance: if 10 divide
by 2 equals 5 then 10 divided by 5 equals 2; and therefore if we once recognize
the power of thought to produce any results at all, we shall see that the
law by which negative thought produces negative results is the same by
which positive thought produces positive results. Therefore all our distrust
of the law of growth, whether shown in the anxious endeavor to bring pressure
to bear from without, or in allowing despair to take the place of cheerful
expectation, is reversing the action of the original cause and consequently
reversing the nature of the results. It is for this reason that the Bible,
which is the most deeply occult of all books, continually lays so much
stress upon the efficiency of faith and the destructive influence of unbelief;
and in like manner, all books on every branch of spiritual science emphatically
warn us against the admission of doubt or fear. They are the inversion
of the principle, which builds up, and they are therefore the principle,
which pulls down; but the Law itself never changes, and it is on the unchangeableness
of the law that all Mental Science is founded.
We are accustomed to realize the unchangeableness of natural law in
our every day life, and it should therefore not be difficult to realize
that the same unchangeableness of law, which obtains on the visible side
of nature, obtains on the invisible side as well. The variable factor is,
not the laws but our own volition; and it is by combining this variable
factor with the invariable one that we can produce the various results
we desire. The principle of growth is that of inherent vitality in the
seed itself, and the operations of the gardener have their exact analogue
in Mental Science. We do not put the self-expansive vitality into the seed,
but we must sow it, and we may also, so to speak, water it by quiet concentrated
contemplation of our desire as an actually accomplished fact. But we must
carefully remove from such contemplation any idea of a strenuous effort
on our part to make the seed grow. Its efficacy is in helping to keep out
those negative thoughts of doubt, which would plant tares among our wheat,
and therefore, instead of anything of effort, such contemplation should
be accompanied by a feeling of pleasure and restfulness in foreseeing the
certain accomplishment of our desires. This is that making our requests
known to God with thanksgiving, which St. Paul recommends, and it has its
reason in that perfect wholeness of the Law of Being which only needs our
recognition of it to be used by us to any extent we wish.
Some people possess the power of visualization, or making mental pictures
of things, in a greater degree than others, and by such this faculty may
advantageously be employed to facilitate their realization of the working
of the Law. But those who do not possess this faculty in any marked degree,
need not be discouraged by their want of it, for visualization is not the
only way of realizing that the law is at work on the invisible plane. Those
whose mental bias is towards physical science should realize this Law of
Growth as the creative force throughout all nature; and those who have
a mathematical turn of mind may reflect that all solids are generated from
the movement of a point, which, as our old friend Euclid tells us, is that
which has no parts nor magnitude, and is therefore as complete an abstraction
as any spiritual nucleus could be. To use the apostolic words, we are dealing
with the substance of things not seen, and we have to attain that habit
of mind by which we shall see its reality and feel that we are mentally
manipulating the only substance there ultimately is, and of which all visible
things are only different modes. We must therefore regard our mental creations
as spiritual realities and then implicitly trust the Laws of Growth to
do the rest.
RECEPTIVITY
IN order to lay the foundations for practical work the student must
endeavor to get a clear conception of what is meant by the intelligence
of undiffer- initiated spirit. We want to grasp the idea of intelligence
apart from individuality idea, which is rather apt to elude us, until we
grow accustomed to it. It is the failure to realize this quality of spirit
that has given rise to all the theological errors that have brought bitterness
into the world and has been prominent amongst the causes, which have retarded
the true development of mankind. To accurately convey this conception in
words is perhaps, impossible, and to attempt definition is to introduce
that very idea of limitation, which is our object to avoid. It is a matter
of feeling rather than of definition; yet some endeavor must be made to
indicate the direction in which we must feel for this great truth if we
are to find it. The idea is that of realizing personality without that
selfhood which differentiates one individual from another. "I am not that
other because I am myself "-this is the definition of individual selfhood;
but it necessarily imparts thc idea of limitation, because the recognition
of any other individuality at once affirms a point at which our own individuality
ceases and the other begins. Now this mode of recognition cannot be attributed
to the Universal Mind. For it to recognize a point where itself ceased
and something else began would be to recognize itself as not universal;
for the meaning of universality is the including of all things, and therefore
for this intelligence to recognize anything as being outside itself would
be a denial of its own being. We may therefore say without hesitation that,
whatever may be the nature of its intelligence, it must be entirely devoid
of the element of self-recognition as an individual personality on any
scale whatever. Seen in this light it is at once clear that the originating
all-pervading Spirit is the grand impersonal principle of Life, which gives
rise to all the particular manifestations of Nature. Its absolute impersonalness,
in the sense of the entire absence of any consciousness of individual selfhood,
is a point on which it is impossible to insist too strongly. The attributing
of an impossible individuality to the Universal Mind is one of the two
grand errors which we find sapping the foundations of religion and philosophy
in all ages. The other consists in rushing to the opposite extreme and
denying the quality of personal intelligence to the Universal Mind. The
answer to this error remains, as of old, in the simple question,
"He that made the eye shall He not see? He that planted the ear shall
He not hear? "-or to use a popular proverb, "You cannot get out of a bag
more than there is in it; " and consequently the fact that we ourselves
are centers of personal intelligence is proof that the infinite, from which
these centers are concentrated, must be infinite intelligence, and thus
we cannot avoid attributing to it the two factors which constitute personality,
namely, intelligence and volition. We are therefore brought to the conclusion
that this universally diffused essence, which we might think of as a sort
of spiritual protoplasm, must possess all the qualities of personality
without that conscious recognition of self which constitutes separate individuality:
and since the word "personality" has became so associated in our ordinary
talk with the idea of "individuality" it will perhaps be better to coin
a new word, and speak of the personal-ness of the Universal Mind as indicating
its personal quality, apart from individuality. We must realize that this
universal spirit permeates all space and all manifested substance, just
as physical scientists tell us that the ether does, and that wherever it
is, there it must carry with it all that it is in its own being; and we
shall then see that we are in the midst of an ocean of undifferentiated
yet intelligent Life, above, below, and all around, and permeating ourselves
both mentally and corporeally, and all other beings as well.
Gradually as we come to realize the truth of this statement, our eyes
will begin to open to its immense significance. It means that all Nature
is pervaded by an interior personalness, infinite in its potentialities
of intelligence, responsiveness, and power of expression, and only waiting
to be called into activity by our recognition of it. By the terms of its
nature it can respond to us only as we recognize it. If we
are at that intellectual level where we can see nothing but chance governing
the world, then this underlying universal mind will present to us nothing
but a fortuitous confluence of forces without any intelligible order. If
we are sufficiently advanced to see that such a confluence could only produce
a chaos, and not a cosmos, then our conceptions expand to the idea of universal
Law, and we find this to be the nature of the all-underlying principle.
We have made an immense advance from the realm of mere accident into a
world where there are definite principles on which we can calculate with
certainty when we know them. But here is the crucial point. The laws of
the universe are there, but we are ignorant of them, and only through experience
gained by repeated failures can we get any insight into the laws with which
we have to deal. How painful each step and how slow the progress! Eons
upon eons would not suffice to grasp all the laws of the universe in their
totality, not in the visible world only, but also in the world
of the unseen; each failure to know the true law implies suffering arising
from our ignorant breach of it; and thus, since Nature is infinite, we
are met by the paradox that we must in some way contrive to compass the
knowledge of the infinite with our individual intelligence, and we must
perform a pilgrimage along an unceasing Via Dolorosa beneath the lash of
the inexorable Law until we find the solution to the problem. But it will
be asked, May we not go on until at last we attain the possession of all
knowledge? People do not realize what is meant by "the infinite," or they
would not ask such ques-tions. The infinite is that which is limitless
and exhaustless. Imagine the vastest capacity you will, and having filled
it with the infinite, what remains of the infinite is just as infinite
as before. To the mathematician this may be put very clearly. Raise x to
any power you will, and however vast may be the disparity between it and
the lower powers of x, both are equally incommensurate with The universal
reign of Law is a magnificent truth; it is one of the two great pillars
of the universe symbolized by the two pillars that stood at the entrance
to Solomon's temple: it is Jachin, but Jachin must be equilibriated by
Boaz.
It is an enduring truth, which can never be altered, that every infraction
of the Law of Nature must carry its punitive consequences with it. We can
never get beyond the range of cause and effect. There is no escaping from
the law of punishment, except by knowledge. If we know a law of Nature
and work with it, we shall find it our unfailing friend, ever ready to
serve us, and never rebuking us for past failures; but if we ignorantly
or wilfully transgress it, it is our implacable enemy, until we again become
obedient to it; and therefore the only redemption from perpetual pain and
servitude is by a self-expansion which can grasp infinitude itself. How
is this to be accomplished? By our progress to that kind and degree of
intelligence by which we realize the inherent personalness of the divine
all-pervading Life, which is at once the Law and the Substance of all that
is. Well said the Jewish rabbis of old, "The Law is a Person." When we
once realize that the universal Life and the universal Law are one with
the universal Personalness, then we have established the pillar Boaz as
the needed complement to Jachin; and when we find the common point in which
these two unite, we have raised the Royal Arch through which we may triumphantly
enter the Temple. We must dissociate the Universal Personalness from every
conception of individuality. The universal can never be the individual:
that would be a contradiction in terms. But because the universal personalness
is the root of all individual personalities, it finds its highest expression
in response to those who realize its personal nature. And it is this recognition
that solves the seemingly insoluble paradox. The only way to attain that
knowledge of the Infinite Law which will change the Via Dolorosa into the
Path of Joy is to embody in ourselves a principle of knowledge commensurate
with the infinitude of that which is to be known; and this is accomplished
by realizing that, infinite as the law itself, is a universal Intelligence
in the midst of which we float as in a living ocean. Intelligence without
individual personality, but which, in producing us, concentrates itself
into the personal individualities which we are. What should be the relation
of such an intelligence towards us? Not one of favouritism: not any more
than the Law can it respect one person above another, for itself is the
root and support for each alike. Not one of refusal to our advances; for
without individuality it can have no personal object of its own to conflict
with ours; and since it is itself the origin of all individual intelligence,
it cannot be shut off by inability to understand. By the very terms of
its being, therefore, this infinite, underlying, all-producing Mind must
be ready immediately to respond to all who realize their true relation
to it. As the very principle of Life itself it must be infinitely susceptible
to feeling, and consequently it will reproduce with absolute accuracy whatever
conception of itself we impress upon it; and hence if we realize the human
mind as that stage in the evolution of the cosmic order at which an individuality
has arisen capable of expressing, not merely the livingness, but also the
personalness of the universal underlying spirit, then we see that its most
perfect mode of self-expression must be by identifying itself with these
individual personalities.
The identification is, of course, limited by the measure of the individual
intelligence, meaning, not merely the intellectual perception of the sequence
of cause and effect, but also that indescribable reciprocity of feeling
by which we instinctively recognize something in another making them akin
to ourselves; and so it is that when we intelligently realize that the
innermost principle of being, must by reason of its universality, have
a common nature with our own, then we have solved the paradox of universal
knowledge, for we have realized our identity of being with the Universal
Mind, which is commensurate with the Universal Law. Thus we arrive at the
truth of St. John's statement, "Ye know all things," only this knowledge
is primarily on the spiritual plane. It is not brought out into intellectual
statement whether needed or not; for it is not in itself the specific knowledge
of particular facts, but it is the undifferentiated principle of knowledge
which we may differentiate in any direction that we choose. This is a philosophical
necessity of the case, for though the action of the individual mind consists
in differentiating the universal into particular applications, to differentiate
the whole universal would be a contradiction in terms; and so, because
we cannot exhaust the infinite, our possession of it must consist in our
power to differentiate it as the occasion may require, the only limit being
that which we ourselves assign to the manifestation.
In this way, then, the recognition of the community of personality between
ourselves and the universal undifferentiated Spirit, which is the root
and substance of all things, solves the question of our release from the
iron grasp of an inflexible Law, not by abrogating the Law, which would
mean the annihilation of all things, but by producing in us an intelligence
equal in affinity with the universal Law itself, and thus enabling us to
apprehend and meet the requirements of the Law in each particular as it
arises. In this way the Cosmic Intelligence becomes individualized, and
the individual intelligence becomes universalized; the two became one,
and in proportion as this unity is realized and acted on, it will be found
that the Law, which gives rise to all outward conditions, whether of body
or of circumstances, becomes more and more clearly understood, and can
therefore be more freely made use of, so that by steady, intelligent endeavour
to unfold upon these lines we may reach degrees of power to which it is
impossible to assign any limits. The student who would understand the rationale
of the unfoldment of his own possibilities must make no mistake here. He
must realize that the whole process is that of bringing the universal within
the grasp of the individual by raising the individual to the level of the
universal and not vice-versa. It is a mathematical truism that you cannot
contract the infinite, and that you can expand the individual; and it is
precisely on these lines that evolution works. The laws of nature cannot
be altered in the least degree; but we can come into such a realization
of our own relation to the universal principle of Law that underlies them
as to be able to press all particular laws, whether of the visible or invisible
side of Nature, into our service and so find ourselves masters of the situation.
This is to be accomplished by knowledge; and the only knowledge which will
effect this purpose in all its measureless immensity is the knowledge of
the personal element in Universal Spirit in its reciprocity to our own
personality. Our recognition of this Spirit must therefore be twofold,
as the principle of necessary sequence, order or Law, and also as the principle
of Intelligence, responsive to our own recognition of it.
RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL
AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS.
IT must be admitted that the foregoing considerations bring us to the
borders of theological speculation, but the student must bear in mind that
as a Mental Scientist it is his business to regard even the most exalted
spiritual phenomena from a purely scientific standpoint, which is that
of the working of a universal natural Law. If he thus simply deals with
the facts as he finds them, there is little doubt that the true meaning
of many theological statements will become clear to him: but he will do
well to lay it down as a general rule that it is not necessary either to
the use or understanding of any law, whether on the personal or the impersonal
side of Nature, that we should give a theological explanation of it: although,
therefore, the personal quality inherent in the universal underlying spirit,
which is present in all things, cannot be too strongly insisted upon, we
must remember that in dealing with it we are still dealing with a purely
natural power which reappears at every point with protean variety of form,
whether as person, animal, or thing. In each case what it becomes to any
individual is exactly measured by that individual's recognition of it.
To each and all it bears the relation of supporter of the race, and where
the individual development is incapable of realizing anything more, this
is the limit of the relation; but as the individual's power of recognition
expands, he finds a reciprocal expansion on the part of this intelligent
power which gradually develops into the consciousness of intimate companionship
between the individualized mind and the unindividualized source of it.
Now this is exactly the relation which, on ordinary scientific principles,
we should expect to find between the individual and the cosmic mind, on
the supposition that the cosmic mind is subjective mind, and for reasons
already given we can regard it in no other light. As subjective mind it
must reproduce exactly the conception of itself which the objective mind
of the individual, acting through his own subjective mind, impresses upon
it; and at the same time, as creative mind, it builds up external facts
in correspondence with this conception. "Quot homines tot sententiae":
each one externalizes in his outward circumstances precisely his idea of
the Universal Mind; and the man who realizes that by the natural law of
mind he can bring the Universal Mind into perfectly reciprocal action with
its own, will on the one hand make it a source of infinite instruction,
and on the other a source of infinite power. He will thus wisely alternate
the personal and impersonal aspects respectively between his individual
mind and the Universal Mind; when he is seeking for guidance or strength
he will regard his own mind as the impersonal element which is to receive
personality from the superior wisdom and force of the Greater Mind; and
when, on the other hand, he is to give out the stores thus accumulated,
he must reverse the position and consider his own mind as the personal
element, and the Universal Mind as the impersonal, which he can therefore
direct with certainty by impressing his own personal desire upon it. We
need not be staggered at the greatness of this conclusion, for it follows
necessarily from the natural relatior between the subjective and the objective
minds; and the only question is whether we will limit our view to the lower
level of the latter, or expand it so as to take in the limitless possibilities
which the subjective mind presents to us.
I have dealt with this question at some length because it affords the
key to two very important subjects, the Law of Supply and the nature of
Intuition. Students often find it easier to understand how the mind can
influence the body with which it is so intimately associated, than how
it can influence circumstances. If the operation of thought-power were
confined exclusively to the individual mind this difficulty might arise;
but if there is one lesson the student of Mental Science should take to
heart more than another, it is that the action of thought-power is not
limited to a circumscribed individuality. What the individual does is to
give direction to something which is unlimited, to call into action a force
infinitely greater than his own, which because it is in itself impersonal
though intelligent, will receive the impress of his personality, and can
therefore make its influence felt far beyond the limits which bound the
individual's objective perception of the circumstances with which he has
to deal. It is for this reason that I lay so much stress on the combination
of two apparent opposites in the Universal Mind, the union of intelligence
with impersonality. The intelligence not only enables it to receive the
impress of our thought, but also causes it to devise exactly the right
means for bringing it into accomplishment. This is only the logical result
of the hypothesis that we are dealing with infinite Intelligence which
is also infinite Life. Life means Power, and infinite life therefore means
limitless power; and limitless power moved by limitless intelligence cannot
be conceived of as ever stopping short of the accomplishment of its object;
therefore, given the intention on the part of the Universal Mind, there
can be no doubt as to its ultimate accomplishment. Then comes the question
of intention. How do we know what the intention of the Universal Mind may
be? Here comes in the element of impersonality.
It has no intention, because it is impersonal. As I have already said,
the Universal mind works by a law of averages for the advancement of the
race, and is in no way concerned with the particular wishes of the individual.
If his wishes are in line with the forward movement of the everlasting
principle, there is nowhere in Nature any power to restrict him in their
fulfilment. If they are opposed to the general forward movement, then they
will bring him into collision with it, and it will crush him. From the
relation between them it results that the same principle which shows itself
in the individual mind as Will, becomes in the universal mind a Law of
Tendency; and the direction of this tendency must always be to life-givingness,
because the universal mind is the undifferentiated Life-spirit of the universe.
Therefore in every case the test is whether our particular intention is
in this same lifeward direction; and if it is, then we may be absolutely
certain that there is no intention on the part of the Universal Mind to
thwart the intention of our own individual mind; we are dealing with a
purely impersonal force, and it will no more oppose us by specific plans
of its own than will steam or electricity. Coinbining then, these two aspects
of the Universal Mind, its utter impersonality and its perfect intelligence,
we find precisely the sort of natural force we are in want of, something
which will undertake whatever we put into its hands without asking questions
or bargaining for terms, and which, having undertaken our business, will
bring to bear on it an intelligence to which the united knowledge of the
whole human race is as nothing, and a power equal to this intelligence.
I may be using a rough and ready mode of expression, but my object is to
bring home to the student the nature of the power he can employ and the
method of employing it, and I may therefore state the whole position thus
:-Your object is not to run the whole cosmos, but to draw particular benefits,
physical, mental, moral, or financial into your own or someone else's life.
From this individual point of view the universal creative power has no
mind of its own, and therefore you can make up its mind for it. When its
mind is thus made up for it, it never abrogates its place as the creative
power, but at once sets to work to carry out the purpose for which it has
thus been concentrated; and unless this concentration is dissipated by
the same agency (yourself) which first produced it, it will work on by
the law of growth to complete manifestation on the outward plane.
In dealing with this great impersonal intelligence, we are dealing with
the infinite, and we must fully realize infinitude as that which touches
all points, and if it does, there should be no difficulty in understanding
that this intelligence can draw together the means requisite for its purpose
even from the ends of the world; and therefore, realizing the Law according
to which the result can be produced, we must resolutely put aside all questioning
as to the specific means which will be employed in any case. To question
this is to sow that very seed of doubt which it is our first object to
eradicate, and our intellectual endeavour should therefore be directed,
not to the attempt to foretell the various secondary causes which will
eventually combine to produce the desired result, laying down beforehand
what particular causes should be necessary, and from what quarter they
should come; but we should direct our intellectual endeavour to seeing
more clearly the rationale of the general law by which trains of secondary
causes are set in motion. Employed in the former way our intellect becomes
the greatest hindrance to our success, for it only helps to increase our
doubts, since it is trying to grasp particulars which at the time are entirely
outside its circle of vision; but employed in the latter it affords the
most material aid in maintaining that nucleus without which there is no
centre from which the principle of growth can assert itself. The intellect
can only deduce consequences from facts which it is able to state, and
consequently cannot deduce any assurance from facts of whose existence
it cannot yet have any knowledge through the medium of the outward senses;
but for the same reason it can realize the existence of a Law by which
the as yet unmanifested circumstances may be brought into manifestation.
Thus used in its right order, the intellect becomes the handmaid of that
more interior power within us which manipulates the unseen substance of
all things, and which we may call relative first cause.
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