The Two-fold Attitude of Mind and Soul
The following is an extract from a letter sent to me by a reader of
my articles in ~The Nature Cure Magazine.~
"Sometimes you say we must rely on our own personal efforts and at
other times you teach dependence upon a higher power. This, to me,
is contradictory and confusing. I cannot understand how,
consistently, we can do both at the same time. Which is right? Is it
best to rely upon our own power and our personal efforts or upon the
'Higher Power'?"
Similar inquiries have come from other friends. I shall now endeavor
to answer these and other questions.
There is nothing contradictory or incompatible in the teachings of
the Nature Cure philosophy concerning the physical and metaphysical
methods of treating human ailments. Both the independent and the
dependent attitudes of mind and soul are good and true and may be
entertained at the same time. It is necessary for us to rely on our
own personal efforts in carrying out the dictates of reason and of
common sense. But this need not prevent us from praying for and
confidently expecting a larger inflow of vital power and intuitional
discernment from the Source of all intelligence and power in the
innermost parts of our being.
This two-fold attitude of mind and soul is justified not only by
reason and intuition, but also by the anatomical structure of the
human organism and its physiological and psychological faculties,
capacities and powers.
The activities of the human organism are governed by two different
systems of nerves, the sympathetic and the motor. The sympathetic
nervous system is the conveyor of vital force to the organs and
cells of the body. Just what this vital force is and where it
ultimately comes from, we do not know. It is a manifestation of that
which we call God, Nature, Life, the Higher Power or the Divine
Within.
Heart action, the circulation of the blood, respiration, digestion,
assimilation of food, elimination and all other involuntary
activities and functions of the human organism are controlled by
means of the sympathetic nervous system. The nature of the
controlling force itself is not known to us. We do know that it is
supremely powerful, intelligent and benevolent.
The more we study the anatomy, physiology and psychology of the
human organism, the more we wonder at its marvelous complexity and
ingenuity of structure and function. Every moment there are enacted
in our bodies innumerable mechanical, chemical and psychological
miracles. Who, or what, performs these miracles? We do not know. Yet
every moment of our lives depends upon the infinite care and wisdom
of this unknown intelligence and power.
Why, then, should we not trust the One so faithful? Why should we
not ask aid from One so powerful? Why not seek enlightenment from
One who is so wise and so benevolent?
However, not all of the human entity is dependent upon a controlling
power, nor are all its functions involuntary. Within the house
prepared by the Divine Intelligence, there dwells a sovereign in his
own right and by his own might. He is endowed with freedom of
desire, of choice and of action. He creates in his brain the nerve
centers which control the voluntary activities of the body and from
these brain centers he sends his commands through the fibers of the
motor nerves to the voluntary muscles and makes them do his bidding;
some he commands to walk, others to laugh, to eat, to speak, etc.
This independent principle in man we call the ego, the individual
intelligence. It imagines, desires, reasons, plans and works out, by
the power of free will and independent choice, its own salvation or
destruction, physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. By means
of the motor nervous system, this thinker and doer directs and
controls from the headquarters in the brain all the voluntary
functions, capacities and powers of the human organism.
This part of the human entity can evolve and progress only through
its own conscious and voluntary personal efforts.
In this, Man differs from the animal creation. The animal is able to
take care of itself shortly after birth. It inherits, already fully
developed, those brain centers for the control of the bodily
functions which the newborn human must develop slowly and
laboriously through patient and persistent effort in the course of
many years.
Of voluntary capacities and powers the newborn infant possesses
little more than the simplest unicellular animalcule, that is, about
all it can do is to scent and swallow food. Its cerebral hemispheres
are as yet blank slates, to be inscribed gradually by its conscious
and voluntary exertions. Before it can think, reason, speak, walk or
do anything else, it must first develop in its brain special centers
for each and every one of these voluntary faculties and functions.
Through these persistent personal efforts, reason, will and
self-control are gradually evolved and developed; while the animal,
being hereditarily endowed with the faculties and functions
necessary for the maintenance of life, has no occasion for the
development of the higher faculties and powers and therefore remains
an irresponsible automaton, which cannot be held accountable for its
actions.
To recapitulate: Freedom of choice and of action distinguish the
human from the animal. In the animal kingdom, reasoning power and
freedom of action move in the narrow limits of heredity and
instinct, while Man, through his own personal efforts, is capable of
unlimited development physically, mentally, morally and spiritually,
both here and hereafter. We say physically advisedly, for in the
spiritual realms, in the life after death, the physical
(spiritual-material) body also is capable of deterioration or of
ever greater refinement and beautification.
Through the right use of his voluntary faculties, capacities and
powers, Man is enabled to become the master of himself and of his
destiny.
Thus we find that the human organism consists of two distinct parts
or departments, the one acting independently of the ego and deriving
its motive force from an unknown source and the other under the
conscious and voluntary control of the ego.
This two-fold nature of the human entity justifies the two-fold
attitude of mind and soul, on the one hand the prayerful and
faithful dependence upon that mysterious power which flows into us
and controls us through the sympathetic nervous system and on the
other hand the conscious and voluntary dominion over the various
faculties, capacities and powers with which Nature has endowed us.
It is our privilege and our duty to maintain both attitudes, the
dependent as well as the independent. The desire and the will to
plan, to choose and to perform are ours, but for the power to
execute we are dependent upon a Higher Source.