RACE THOUGHT AND NEW THOUGHT
The steady following up of the successive stages of the Creative Process
has led us to the recognition of an Individuality in the All-creating
Spirit itself, but an Individuality which is by its very nature Universal,
and so cannot be departed from without violating the essential principles
on which the further expansion of our own individuality depends. At the
same time it is strictly _individual_, for it is the Spirit of
Individuality, and is thus to be distinguished from that merely _generic_
race-personality which makes us human beings at all. Race-personality is of
course the necessary _basis_ for the development of this Individuality; but
if we do not see that it is only the preliminary to further evolution, any
other conception of our personality as members of the race will prevent our
advance toward our proper position in the Creative Order, which is that of
introducing the Personal Factor by the exercise of our individual power of
initiative and selection.
It is on this account that Race-thought, simply as such, is opposed to the
attempt of the individual to pass into a higher order of life. It limits
him by strong currents of negative suggestion based on the fallacy that the
perpetuation of the race requires the death of the individual;[5] and it is
only when the individual sees that this is not true, and that his race-
nature constitutes the ground out of which his new Individuality is to be
formed, that he becomes able to oppose the negative power of race-thought.
He does this by destroying it with its own weapon, that is, by finding in
the race-nature itself the very material to be used by the Spirit for
building-up the New Man. This is a discovery on the spiritual plane
equivalent to the discovery on the physical plane that we can make iron
float by the same law by which it sinks. It is the discovery that what we
call the mortal part of us is capable of being brought under a higher
application of the Universal Law of Life, which will transmute it into an
immortal principle. When we see what we call the mortal part of us in this
light we can employ the very principle on which the negative race-thought
is founded as a weapon for the destruction of that thought in our own
minds.
The basis of the negative race-thought is the idea that physical death is
an essential part of the Normal Standard of Personality, and that the body
is composed of so much neutral material with which death can do what it
likes. But it is precisely this neutrality of matter that makes it just as
amenable to the Law of Life as to the Law of Death--it is simply neutral
and not an originating power on either side; so then when we realize that
our Normal Standard of Personality is not subject to death, but is the
Eternal Essence and Being of Life itself, then we see that this neutrality
of matter--its inability to make selection or take initiative on its own
account--is just what makes it the plastic medium for the expression of
Spirit in ourselves.
In this way the generic or race-mind in the individual becomes the
instrument through which the specializing power of the Spirit works toward
the building up of a personality based upon the truly Normal Standard of
Individuality which we have found to be inherent in the All-originating
Spirit itself: and since the whole question is that of the introduction of
the factor of personal individuality into the creative order of causation,
this cannot be done by depriving the individual of what makes him a person
instead of a thing, namely, the power of conscious initiative and
selection.
For this reason the transition from the Fourth Kingdom into the Fifth
cannot be forced upon the race either by a Divine fiat or by the generic
action of cosmic law, for it is a _specialising_ of the cosmic law which
can only be effected by _personal_ initiative and selection, just as iron
can only be made to float under certain specialized conditions; and
consequently the passage from the Fourth into the Fifth Kingdom is a
strictly individual process which can only be brought about by a personal
perception of what the normal standard of the New Individuality really is.
This can only be done by the active laying aside of the old race-standard
and the conscious adoption of the new one. The student will do well to
consider this carefully, for it explains why the race cannot receive the
further evolution simply as a race; and also it shows that our further
evolution is not into a state of less activity but of greater, not into
being less alive but more alive, not into being less ourselves but more
ourselves; thus being just the opposite of those systems which present the
goal of existence as re-absorption into the undifferentiated Divine
essence. On the contrary our further evolution is into greater degrees of
conscious activity than we have ever yet known, because it implies our
development of greater powers as the consequence of our clearer perception
of our true relation to the All-originating Spirit. It is the recognition
that we may, and should, measure ourselves by this New Standard instead of
by the old race-standard that constitutes the real New Thought. The New
Thought which gives New Life to the individual will never be realized so
long as we think that it is merely the name of a particular sect, or that
it is to be found in the mechanical observance of a set of rules laid down
for us by some particular teacher. It is a New Fact in the experience of
the individual, the _reason_ for which is indeed made clear to him through
intellectual perception of the real nature of the Creative Process, but
which can become an actual experience only by habitual personal intercourse
with that Divine Spirit which is the Life, Love and Beauty that are at the
back of the Creative Process and find expression through it.
From this intercourse new thoughts will continually flow in, all of them
bearing that vivifying element which is inherent in their source, and the
individual will then proceed to work out these new ideas with the knowledge
that they have their origin in the selection and initiative power of the
All-creating Spirit itself, and in this way by combined meditation and
action he will find himself advancing into increasing light, liberty and
usefulness. The advance may be almost imperceptible from one day to
another, but it will be perceptible at longer intervals, and the one who is
thus moving forward with the Spirit of God will on looking back at any time
always find that he is getting more livingness out of life than he was a
year previously. And this without strenuous effort, for he is not having to
manufacture the power from his own resources but only to _receive_ it--and
as for _using_ it, that is only the exercise of the power itself. So
following on these lines you will find that Rest and Power are identical;
and so you get the real New Thought which grows in Newness every day.