The soul, as well as the body and mind, requires nourishment--The
want, a promise of the fulfillment--The law of unfoldment--Nourishment
provided when it is needed--Provided for in the Divine Plan--The feast
of good things.
The Soul, as well as the body and the mind, requires nourishment. We
have felt that hunger for spiritual knowledge which transcended our
hunger for bread--exceeded our craving for mental sustenance. We have
felt soul-hungry and knew not with what to appease it. The Soul has
cried out for food. It has been fed upon the husks of the physical
plane for so long that it is fairly starving for the proper
nourishment. It seeks this way and that way for the Bread of Life and
finds it not. It has asked this authority and that authority for
information as to where this food may be had--where could be obtained
the food that would nourish the Soul--but it has been given nothing
but the stone of Dogma and Creeds. At last it sank exhausted and felt
that perhaps there was no bread to be had. It has felt faint and weary
and almost believed that all was a delusion and a will-o'-the-wisp of
the mind--that there was no reality to it. It felt the chill of
despair creeping over it and all seemed lost.
But we must not lose sight of the fact that just as the hunger of the
body implies that somewhere in the world is to be found that which
will satisfy it--that just as the hunger of the mind implies that
somewhere is to be found mental nourishment--so the mere fact that
this soul-hunger _exists_ is a proof that somewhere there is to
be found that which the Absolute has intended to satisfy it. The
_want_ is the prophecy of the fulfillment. Yes, and the want and
its recognition afford the means of obtaining that which will satisfy
the want. When, in the course of unfoldment either on the physical,
mental or spiritual plane, it becomes necessary for the well-being of
the unfolding Ego to draw to itself certain things which it requires
in the process of evolution, the first step toward the obtaining of
that necessary thing is the consciousness of a great and pressing
want--the birth of a strong desire. And then the desire grows stronger
and stronger, until the Ego becomes desperate and determines to obtain
the necessary thing at any cost. The obtaining of that thing becomes
the prime object in life. Students of evolution realize this fact
perhaps more than the rest of us. The subconsciousness of the plant or
animal becomes surcharged with this great desire, and all the
conscious and subconscious power of the living thing is put forth to
obtain that which is necessary for its development.
And on the mental plane the same thing is true. The hunger for
knowledge, when it once possesses a man, will cause him to cut loose
from old environments, surroundings and everything else which has held
him, and he forces himself to the place where that knowledge may be
obtained--and he obtains it. If he only wants it hard enough he gets
it. When we think of Lincoln in his boyhood days, painfully and
laboriously striving for knowledge, lying on his side before the log
fire and reading his book by the light of its flames--and this after a
hard day's work such as only the boy on the farm knows--when we think
of this we may understand the effects of a strong desire possessing
the mind of man or boy, woman or girl.
And this hunger for spiritual knowledge and growth, from whence comes
it? When we understand the laws of spiritual unfoldment we begin to
understand that the Ego is growing and developing--unfolding and
casting off old worn-out sheaths. It is calling into operation new
faculties--exploring new regions of the mind. In the super-conscious
regions of the Soul are many faculties lying dormant, awaiting the
evolutionary hour of manifestation along conscious lines. As the
faculties approach the hour of birth into the new plane they manifest
an uneasiness which is communicated to the subconscious and conscious
planes of the mind, causing a restlessness and uneasiness which is
quite disturbing to the individual in whom they are manifesting. There
is a straining for expression--a reaching forward for development--a
desire for growth which produces something akin to pain. All growth
and development is accompanied by more or less pain. We speak of the
beautiful growth of the plant--of the lily--and wish that we could
grow as easily and as painlessly as it does. But we forget that
_all_ growth means a breaking down--a tearing away--as well as a
building up and adding to. The lily's growth appears painless to us,
but if we were endowed with keen enough vision--with clear enough
sight--with a power enabling us to feel that which is going on within
its organism, we would be made aware that there is a constant change
going on--a tearing down of tissue, a using up of cells, a pressing
upon and breaking through of confining sheaths--all meaning growth,
development and unfoldment. We see only the birth of the new parts and
lose sight of the pain and destruction preceding it. All through life
is manifested the "growing pains" of development. All birth is
attended with pain.
And so it is with the birth into consciousness of these unfolding
spiritual faculties. We feel an uneasiness, dissatisfaction, yea, even
pain, as we strive to call into conscious life these children of the
Soul. We feel that desire for something needed by our inner self and
we seek for it in all directions. We exhaust all of the pleasures of
life, so-called, and find no satisfaction there. We then endeavor to
find comfort and solace in intellectual pursuits, but without
obtaining that which we seek. We pore over the writing of the
philosophers and learned writers of the past and present, but find
them as but husks to the hungering soul. We seek in creeds and dogmas
that comforting something, the need of which we feel, but of the
nature of which we are ignorant--but we find no satisfaction there.
We, perhaps, go from creed to creed, from philosophy to philosophy,
from one scientific theory to another scientific theory, but still we
hunger. At last we get to a position in which we feel that life is not
worth the living and that all is a ghastly mockery. And so we go on
and on, seeking--ever seeking--but the quest is fruitless.
Man on the physical plane has a comparatively easy time of it. He
lives as does the animal--he thinks as does the animal--he dies as
does the animal. The problems of life fret him not. He does not even
know of the existence of the problems of life. He is happy in his way,
and it almost seems a pity that he must be disturbed from his state
of animal content. But he _must_ be disturbed, not by you or by me
perhaps, but by the inevitable Law, which is working around and about
him, and in him. Sooner or later in the course of his development he
must be awakened. And he awakens upon the mental plane, and here his
troubles begin. On the mental plane everything seems beautiful for a
time. Man finds himself a new being and he goes on and on, feeling
himself a very god and reveling in his intellectual powers. But after
a time these things cease to satisfy him. The unfolding of the higher
faculties begin to annoy him, particularly as he cannot explain
them. His intellectual training has perhaps taught him to believe that
there was nothing higher than the mind--that religious feelings were
nothing but the result of the emotional nature and that he had
outgrown all that. But still he feels that Something Within, never
ceasing to annoy him--never ceasing to intrude upon his intellectual
consciousness certain _feelings_ entirely contrary to his theories. He
has grown to doubt the existence of a Supreme Being, and having read
Haekel's "Riddle of the Universe" feels that the question has been
satisfactorily settled for all time, and that the answer to all of
life's problems may be found in the tenets of his creed--Materialism.
But, somehow, he is not at ease. He feels the pressure of the growing
Something Within and becomes quite restless. This goes on from time to
time and he seeks the Truth in all directions, rushing from one thing
to another in his desire to satisfy the cravings of the Soul, but all
the time denying that there is anything to be found. After a time he
becomes aware of a new state of consciousness developing within him,
and in spite of his mental revolts against any good thing coming from
within, he is forced to accept himself in his growing state, and to
realize that he may possess a Knowing other than that of the
intellect. It may take him a long time to accept this, but so long as
he rebels against it and struggles, so long will he feel pain. And
only when he catches a glimpse of the true state of affairs does he
open himself up to the Divine Unfoldment going on in his Soul, and
joyfully welcome the tearing away of confining mental sheaths, which
destruction enables the newly born faculty to force its way into the
conscious mentality. He learns to even aid in the unfoldment by
holding the thoughts conducive to spiritual development, and thus
assists in the bringing forth of the new leaf or flower of the Soul.
It has always been so. Man has gone through stage after stage of
unfoldment, suffering pain each time as the old sheaths are burst
asunder and discarded. He is prone to hold on to the old sheaths and
to cherish them long after they have served their purpose in his
growth. And it is only when he has reached the stage that many men are
now coming into a knowledge of that he understands the process of
growth and is willing and glad to aid in the development instead of
attempting to oppose it. He falls in with the workings of the Law
instead of trying to defeat it.
Life is motion. We are moving onward and upward throughout the ages.
Man has passed over miles of The Path, but he will have to travel many
more before he sees the reason of the journey. But he has now reached
the stage where he may see that it all means something--all is a part
of a mighty plan--that this is a necessary stage of the journey, and
that around the bend of the road are to be found shady trees, and a
brook at which he may quench his thirst and wash away the dust of the
last few miles.
This hunger of the Soul is a real thing. Do not imagine that it is an
illusion--do not endeavor to deny it. If you feel it you may rest
assured that your time is coming, and that there will be provided that
which will satisfy it. Do not waste your energy in running hither and
thither seeking for bread. The bread will be provided when it is most
needed. There is no such thing in Life as spiritual starvation. But
instead of seeking without for that which will nourish you, look
within. At each stage of the journey the traveler will find enough to
nourish him for the hour--enough to sustain him until he reaches the
next stage. You cannot be denied this nourishment. It is part of the
Divine Plan that it be provided for you. If you will look for it in
the right place you will always find it, and will be saved much
seeking and worrying. Do not be impatient because the feast is not set
before you at this stage. Be satisfied with that which is given, for
it suffices your needs at the present moment. By and by you will reach
the stage when the feast of good things will have been earned, and you
will be invited to feast and rest until you are ready for the next
stage of the journey.
The great spiritual wave which is now sweeping over the world brings
with it great wants, but it also carries with it the means of
satisfying those wants. Do not despair.