THE STANDARD OF PERSONALITY
We have now got some general idea as to the place of the personal factor in
the Creative Order, and so the next question is, How does this affect
ourselves? The answer is that if we have grasped the fundamental fact that
the moving power in the Creative Process is the self-contemplation of
Spirit, and if we also see that, because we are miniature reproductions of
the Original Spirit, our contemplation of It becomes Its contemplation of
Itself from the standpoint of our own individuality--if we have grasped
these fundamental conceptions, then it follows that our process for
developing power is to contemplate the Originating Spirit as the source of
the power we want to develop. And here we must guard against a mistake
which people often make when looking to the Spirit as the source of power.
We are apt to regard it as sometimes giving and sometimes withholding
power, and consequently are never sure which way it will act. But by so
doing we make Spirit contemplate itself as having no definite action at
all, as a plus and minus which mutually cancel each other, and therefore by
the Law of the Creative Process no result is to be expected. The mistake
consists in regarding the power as something separate from the Spirit;
whereas by the analysis of the Creative Process which we have now made we
see that the Spirit itself _is_ the power, because the power comes into
existence only through Spirit's self-contemplation. Then the logical
inference from this is that by contemplating the Spirit _as_ the power, and
_vice versa_ by contemplating the power _as_ the Spirit, a similar power is
being generated in ourselves.
Again an important conclusion follows from this, which is that to generate
any _particular sort_ of power we should contemplate it in the abstract
rather than as applied to the particular set of circumstances we have in
hand. The circumstances indicate the sort of power we want but they do not
help us to generate it; rather they impress us with a sense of something
contrary to the power, something which has to be overcome by it, and
therefore we should endeavor to dwell on the power _in itself_, and so come
into touch with it in its limitless infinitude.
It is here that we begin to find the benefit of a Divine Standard of Human
Individuality. That also is an Infinite Principle, and by identifying
ourselves with it we bring to bear upon the abstract conception of infinite
Impersonal Power a corresponding conception of Infinite Personality, so
that we thus import the Personal Factor which is able _to use_ the Power
without imposing any strain upon ourselves. We know that by the very nature
of the Creative Process we are one with the Originating Spirit and
therefore one with all the principles of its Being, and consequently one
with its Infinite Personality, and therefore our contemplation of it as the
Power which we want gives us the power to use that Power.
This is the Self-contemplation of Spirit employed from the individual
standpoint for the generating of power. Then comes the application of the
power thus generated. But there is only one Creative Process, that of the
Self-contemplation of Spirit, and therefore the way to use this process for
the application of the power is to contemplate ourselves as surrounded by
the conditions which we want to produce. This does not mean that we are to
lay down a hard and fast pattern of the conditions and strenuously endeavor
to compel the Power to conform its working to every detail of our mental
picture--to do so would be to hinder its working and to exhaust ourselves.
What we are to dwell upon is the idea of an Infinite Power producing the
happiness we desire, and because this Power is also the Forming Power of
the universe trusting it to give that form to the conditions which will
most perfectly react upon us to produce the particular state of
consciousness desired.
Thus neither on the side of in-drawing nor of out-giving is there any
constraining of the Power, while in both cases there is an initiative and
selective action on the part of the individual--for the generating of
power he takes the initiative of invoking it by contemplation, and he makes
selection of the sort of power to invoke; while on the giving-out side he
makes selection of the purpose for which the Power is to be employed, and
takes the initiative by his thought of directing the Power to that purpose.
He thus fulfils the fundamental requirements of the Creative Process by
exercising Spirit's inherent faculties of initiative and selection by means
of its inherent method, namely by Self-contemplation. The whole action is
identical in kind with that which produces the cosmos, and it is now
repeated in miniature for the particular world of the individual; only we
must remember that this miniature reproduction of the Creative Process is
based upon the great fundamental principles inherent in the Universal Mind,
and cannot be dissociated from them without involving a conception of the
individual which will ultimately be found self-destructive because it cuts
away the foundation on which his individuality rests.
It will therefore be seen that any individuality based upon the fundamental
Standard of Personality thus involved in the Universal Mind has reached the
basic principle of union with the Originating Spirit itself, and we are
therefore correct in saying that union is attained through, or by means of,
this Standard Personality. This is a great truth which in all ages has been
set forth under a variety of symbolic statements; often misunderstood, and
still continuing to be so, though owing to the inherent vitality of the
idea itself even a partial apprehension of it produces a corresponding
measure of good results. This falling short has been occasioned by the
failure to recognize an Eternal Principle at the back of the particular
statements--in a word the failure to see what they were talking about. All
_principles_ are eternal in themselves, and this is what distinguishes them
from their particular manifestations as laws determined by temporary and
local conditions.
If then, we would reach the root of the matter we must penetrate through
all verbal statements to an Eternal Principle which is as active now as
ever in the past, and which is as available to ourselves as to any who have
gone before us. Therefore it is that when we discern an Eternal and
Universal Principle of Human Personality as necessarily involved in the
Essential Being of the Originating Universal Spirit--_Filius in gremio
Patris_--we have discovered the true Normal Standard of Personality. Then
because this standard is nothing else than the principle of Personality
expanded to infinitude, there is no limit to the expansion which we
ourselves may attain by the operation in us of this principle; and so we
are never placed in a position of antagonism to the true law of our being,
but on the contrary the larger and more fundamental our conception of
personal development the greater will be the fulfilment which we give to
the Law. The Normal Standard of Personality is found to be itself the Law
of the Creative Process working at the personal level; and it cannot be
subject to limitation for the simple reason that the process being that of
the Self-contemplation of Spirit, no limits can possibly be assigned to
this contemplation.
We need, therefore, never be afraid of forming too high an idea of human
possibilities provided always that we take this standard as the foundation
on which to build up the edifice of our personality. And we see that this
standard is no arbitrary one but simply the Expression in Personality of
the ONE all-embracing Spirit of the Affirmative; and therefore the only
limitation implied by conformity to it is that of being prevented from
running on lines the opposite of those of the Creative Process, that is to
say, from calling into action causes of disintegration and destruction. In
the truly Constructive Order, therefore, the Divine Standard of Personality
is as really the basis of the development of specific personality as the
Universal Mind is the necessary basis of generic mentality; and just as
without this generic ultimate of Mind we should none of us see the same
world at the same time, and in fact have no consciousness of existence, so
apart from this Divine Standard of Personality it is equally impossible for
us to specialize the generic law of our being so as to develop all the
glorious possibilities that are latent in it.
Only we must never forget the difference between these two statements of
the Universal Law--the one is cosmic and generic, common to the whole race,
whether they know it or not, a Standard to which we all conform
automatically by the mere fact of being human beings; while the other is a
personal and individual Standard, automatic conformity to which is
impossible because that would imply the loss of those powers of Initiative
and Selection which are the very essence of Personality; so that this
Standard necessarily implies a personal selection of it in preference to
other conceptions of an antagonistic nature.