some relation to existing circumstances, which may, or may not, appear
favourable 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
endeavour 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 endeavour 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 be 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 Æther," 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.
VI.
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 endeavouring 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
10/2 = 5, then 10/5 = 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 endeavour 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 law, 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 Law
of Growth to do the rest.
VII.
RECEPTIVITY.
In order to lay the foundations for practical work, the student must
endeavour to get a clear conception of what is meant by the intelligence of
undifferentiated spirit. We want to grasp the idea of intelligence apart
from individuality, an 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 endeavour 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 the 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
centres of personal intelligence is proof that the infinite, from which
these centres 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 personalness 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! Æons upon æons 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 questions. 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 _x^n._ 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.