between ourselves and the universal undifferentiated Spirit, which is the
root and substance of all things, solves the question of our release from
the iron grasp of an inflexible Law, not by abrogating the Law, which would
mean the annihilation of all things, but by producing in us an intelligence
equal in affinity with the universal Law itself, and thus enabling us to
apprehend and meet the requirements of the Law in each particular as it
arises. In this way the Cosmic Intelligence becomes individualized, and the
individual intelligence becomes universalized; the two became one, and in
proportion as this unity is realized and acted on, it will be found that
the Law, which gives rise to all outward conditions, whether of body or of
circumstances, becomes more and more clearly understood, and can therefore
be more freely made use of, so that by steady, intelligent endeavour to
unfold upon these lines we may reach degrees of power to which it is
impossible to assign any limits. The student who would understand the
rationale of the unfoldment of his own possibilities must make no mistake
here. He must realize that the whole process is that of bringing the
universal within the grasp of the individual by raising the individual to
the level of the universal and not vice-versa. It is a mathematical truism
that you cannot contract the infinite, and that you _can_ expand the
individual; and it is precisely on these lines that evolution works. The
laws of nature cannot be altered in the least degree; but we can come into
such a realization of our own relation to the universal principle of Law
that underlies them as to be able to press all particular laws, whether of
the visible or invisible side of Nature, into our service and so find
ourselves masters of the situation. This is to be accomplished by
knowledge; and the only knowledge which will effect this purpose in all its
measureless immensity is the knowledge of the personal element in Universal
Spirit in its reciprocity to our own personality. Our recognition of this
Spirit must therefore be twofold, as the principle of necessary sequence,
order or Law, and also as the principle of Intelligence, responsive to our
own recognition of it.
VIII.
RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS.
It must be admitted that the foregoing considerations bring us to the
borders of theological speculation, but the student must bear in mind that
as a Mental Scientist it is his business to regard even the most exalted
spiritual phenomena from a purely scientific standpoint, which is that of
the working of a universal natural Law. If he thus simply deals with the
facts as he finds them, there is little doubt that the true meaning of many
theological statements will become clear to him: but he will do well to lay
it down as a general rule that it is not necessary either to the use or
understanding of any law, whether on the personal or the impersonal side of
Nature, that we should give a theological explanation of it: although,
therefore, the personal quality inherent in the universal underlying
spirit, which is present in all things, cannot be too strongly insisted
upon, we must remember that in dealing with it we are still dealing with a
purely natural power which reappears at every point with protean variety of
form, whether as person, animal, or thing. In each case what it becomes to
any individual is exactly measured by that individual's recognition of it.
To each and all it bears the relation of supporter of the race, and where
the individual development is incapable of realizing anything more, this is
the limit of the relation; but as the individual's power of recognition
expands, he finds a reciprocal expansion on the part of this intelligent
power which gradually develops into the consciousness of intimate
companionship between the individualized mind and the unindividualized
source of it.
Now this is exactly the relation which, on ordinary scientific principles,
we should expect to find between the individual and the cosmic mind, on the
supposition that the cosmic mind is subjective mind, and for reasons
already given we can regard it in no other light. As subjective mind it
must reproduce exactly the conception of itself which the objective mind of
the individual, acting through his own subjective mind, impresses upon it;
and at the same time as creative mind, it builds up external facts in
correspondence with this conception. "Quot homines tot sententiæ": each one
externalizes in his outward circumstances precisely his idea of the
Universal Mind; and the man who realizes that by the natural law of mind he
can bring the Universal Mind into perfectly reciprocal action with its own,
will on the one hand make it a source of infinite instruction, and on the
other a source of infinite power. He will thus wisely alternate the
personal and impersonal aspects respectively between his individual mind
and the Universal Mind; when he is seeking for guidance or strength he will
regard his own mind as the impersonal element which is to _receive
personality_ from the superior wisdom and force of the Greater Mind; and
when, on the other hand, he is to give out the stores thus accumulated, he
must reverse the position and consider his own mind as the personal
element, and the Universal Mind as the impersonal, which he can therefore
_direct_ with certainty by impressing his own personal desire upon it. We
need not be staggered at the greatness of this conclusion, for it follows
necessarily from the natural relation between the subjective and the
objective minds; and the only question is whether we will limit our view to
the lower level of the latter, or expand it so as to take in the limitless
possibilities which the subjective mind presents to us.
I have dealt with this question at some length because it affords the key
to two very important subjects, the Law of Supply and the nature of
Intuition. Students often find it easier to understand how the mind can
influence the body with which it is so intimately associated, than how it
can influence circumstances. If the operation of thought-power were
confined exclusively to the individual mind this difficulty might arise;
but if there is one lesson the student of Mental Science should take to
heart more than another, it is that the action of thought-power is not
limited to a circumscribed individuality. What the individual does is to
_give direction_ to something which is unlimited, to call into action a
force infinitely greater than his own, which because it is in itself
impersonal though intelligent, will receive the impress of his personality,
and can therefore make its influence felt far beyond the limits which bound
the individual's objective perception of the circumstances with which he
has to deal. It is for this reason that I lay so much stress on the
combination of two apparent opposites in the Universal Mind, the union of
intelligence with impersonality. The intelligence not only enables it to
receive the impress of our thought, but also causes it to devise exactly
the right _means_ for bringing it into accomplishment. This is only the
logical result of the hypothesis that we are dealing with infinite
Intelligence which is also infinite Life. Life means Power, and infinite
life therefore means limitless power; and limitless power moved by
limitless intelligence cannot be conceived of as ever stopping short of the
accomplishment of its object; therefore, given the _intention_ on the part
of the Universal Mind, there can be no doubt as to its ultimate
accomplishment. Then comes the question of intention. How do we know what
the intention of the Universal Mind may be? Here comes in the element of
impersonality. It has _no intention_, because it is _impersonal_. As I have
already said, the Universal mind works by a law of averages for the
advancement of the race, and is in no way concerned with the particular
wishes of the individual. If his wishes are in line with the forward
movement of the everlasting principle, there is nowhere in Nature any power
to restrict him in their fulfilment. If they are opposed to the general
forward movement, then they will bring him into collision with it, and it
will crush him. From the relation between them it results that the same
principle which shows itself in the individual mind as Will, becomes in the
universal mind a Law of Tendency; and the direction of this tendency must
always be to life-givingness, because the universal mind is the
undifferentiated Life-spirit of the universe. Therefore in every case the
test is whether our particular intention is in this same lifeward
direction: and if it is, then we may be absolutely certain that there is no
intention on the part of the Universal Mind to thwart the intention of our
own individual mind; we are dealing with a purely impersonal force, and it
will no more oppose us by specific plans of its own than will steam or
electricity. Combining then, these two aspects of the Universal Mind, its
utter impersonality and its perfect intelligence, we find precisely the
sort of natural force we are in want of, something which will undertake
whatever we put into its hands without asking questions or bargaining for
terms, and which, having undertaken our business, will bring to bear on it
an intelligence to which the united knowledge of the whole human race is as
nothing, and a power equal to this intelligence. I may be using a rough and
ready mode of expression, but my object is to bring home to the student the
nature of the power he can employ and the method of employing it, and I may
therefore state the whole position thus:--Your object is not to run the
whole cosmos, but to draw particular benefits, physical, mental, moral, or
financial into your own or someone else's life. From this individual point
of view the universal creative power has no mind of its own, and therefore
you can make up its mind for it. When its mind is thus made up for it, it
never abrogates its place as the creative power, but at once sets to work
co carry out the purpose for which it has thus been concentrated; and
unless this concentration is dissipated by the same agency (yourself) which
first produced it, it will work on by the law of growth to complete
manifestation on the outward plane.
In dealing with this great impersonal intelligence, we are dealing with the
infinite, and we must fully realize infinitude as that which touches all
points, and if it does, there should be no difficulty in understanding that
this intelligence can draw together the means requisite for its purpose
even from the ends of the world; and therefore, realizing the Law according
to which the result can be produced, we must resolutely put aside all
questioning as to the specific means which will be employed in any case. To
question this is to sow that very seed of doubt which it is our first
object to eradicate, and our intellectual endeavour should therefore be
directed, not to the attempt to foretell the various secondary causes which
will eventually combine to produce the desired result, laying down
beforehand what particular causes should be necessary, and from what
quarter they should come; but we should direct our intellectual endeavour
to seeing more clearly the rationale of the general law by which trains of
secondary causes are set in motion. Employed in the former way our
intellect becomes the greatest hindrance to our success, for it only helps
to increase our doubts, since it is trying to grasp particulars which, at
the time are entirely outside its circle of vision; but employed in the
latter it affords the most material aid in maintaining that nucleus without
which there is no centre from which the principle of growth can assert
itself. The intellect can only deduce consequences from facts which it is
able to state, and consequently cannot deduce any assurance from facts of
whose existence it cannot yet have any knowledge through the medium of the
outward senses; but for the same reason it can realize the existence of a
_Law_ by which the as yet unmanifested circumstances may be brought into
manifestation. Thus used in its right order, the intellect becomes the
handmaid of that more interior power within us which manipulates the unseen
substance of all things, and which we may call relative first cause.
IX.
CAUSES AND CONDITIONS.
The expression "_relative_ first cause" has been used in the last section
to distinguish the action of the creative principle in the _individual_
mind from Universal First Cause on the one hand and from secondary causes
on the other. As it exists in _us_, primary causation is the power to
initiate a train of causation directed to an individual purpose. As the
power of initiating a fresh sequence of cause and effect it is first cause,
and as referring to an individual purpose it is relative, and it may
therefore be spoken of as relative first cause, or the power of primary
causation manifested by the individual. The understanding and use of this
power is the whole object of Mental Science, and it is therefore necessary
that the student should clearly see the relation between causes and
conditions. A simple illustration will go further for this purpose than any
elaborate explanation. If a lighted candle is brought into a room the room
becomes illuminated, and if the candle is taken away it becomes dark again.
Now the illumination and the darkness are both conditions, the one positive
resulting from the presence of the light, and the other negative resulting
from its absence: from this simple example we therefore see that every
positive condition has an exactly opposite negative condition corresponding
to it, and that this correspondence results from their being related to the
_same cause_, the one positively and the other negatively; and hence we may
lay down the rule that all positive conditions result from the active
presence of a certain cause, and all negative conditions from the absence
of such a cause. A condition, whether positive or negative, is never
_primary_ cause, and the _primary_ cause of any series can never be
negative, for negation is the condition which arises from the absence of
active causation. This should be thoroughly understood as it is the
philosophic basis of all those "denials" which play so important a, part in
Mental Science, and which may be summed up in the statement that evil being
negative, or privation of good, has no substantive existence in itself.
Conditions, however, whether positive or negative, are no sooner called
into existence than they become causes in their turn and produce further
conditions, and so on _ad infinitum_, thus giving rise to the whole train
of secondary causes. So long as we judge only from the information conveyed
to us by the outward senses, we are working on the plane of secondary
causation and see nothing but a succession of conditions, forming part of
an endless train of antecedent conditions coming out of the past and
stretching away into the future, and from this point of view we are under
the rule of an iron destiny from which there seems no possibility of
escape. This is because the outward senses are only capable of dealing with
the relations which one mode of limitation bears to another, for they are
the instruments by which we take cognizance of the relative and the
conditioned. Now the only way of escape is by rising out of the region of
secondary causes into that of primary causation, where the originating
energy is to be found before it has yet passed into manifestation as a
condition. This region is to be found _within ourselves_; it is the region
of pure ideas; and it is for this reason that I have laid stress on the two
aspects of spirit as pure thought and manifested form. The thought-image or
ideal pattern of a thing is the _first cause_ relatively to that thing; it
is the substance of that thing untrammelled, by any antecedent conditions.
If we realize that all visible things _must_ have their origin in spirit,
then the whole creation around us is the standing evidence that the
starting-point of all things is in thought-images or ideas, for no other
action than the formation of such images can be conceived of spirit prior
to its manifestation in matter. If, then, this is spirit's modus operandi
for self-expression, we have only to transfer this conception from the
scale of cosmic spirit working on the plane of the universal to that of
individualized spirit working on the plane of the particular, to see that
the formation of an ideal image by means of our thought is setting first
cause in motion with regard to this specific object. There is no difference
in kind between the operation of first cause in the universal and in the
particular, the difference is only a difference of scale, but the power
itself is identical. We must therefore always be very clear as to whether
we are _consciously_ using first cause or not. Note the word "consciously"
because, whether consciously or unconsciously, we are always using first
cause; and it was for this reason I emphasized the fact that the Universal
Mind is purely subjective and therefore bound by the laws which apply to
subjective mind on whatever scale. Hence we are _always_ impressing some
sort of ideas upon it, whether we are aware of the fact or not, and all our
existing limitations result from our having habitually impressed upon it
that idea of limitation which we have imbibed by restricting all
possibility to the region of secondary causes. But now when investigation
has shown us that conditions are never causes in _themselves_, but only the
subsequent links of a chain started on the plane of the pure ideal, what we
have to do is to reverse our method of thinking and regard the ideal as the
real, and the outward manifestation as a mere reflection which must change
with every change of the object which casts it. For these reasons it is
essential to know whether we are consciously making use of first cause with
a definite purpose or not, and the criterion is this. If we regard the
fulfilment of our purpose as contingent upon any _circumstances_, past,
present, or future, we are not making use of first cause; we have descended
to the level of secondary causation, which is the region of doubts, fears,
and limitations, all of which we are impressing upon the universal
subjective mind with the inevitable result that it will build up
corresponding external conditions. But if we realize that the region of
secondary causes is the region of mere reflections we shall not think of
our purpose as contingent on any conditions whatever, but shall know that
by forming the idea of it in the absolute, and maintaining that idea, we
have shaped the first cause into the desired form and can await the result
with cheerful expectancy.
It is here that we find the importance of realizing spirit's independence
of time and space. An ideal, as such, cannot be formed in the future. It
must either be formed here and now or not be formed at all; and it is for
this reason that every teacher, who has ever spoken with due knowledge of
the subject, has impressed upon his followers the necessity of picturing to
themselves the fulfilment of their desires as _already accomplished_ on the
spiritual plane, as the indispensable condition of fulfilment in the
visible and concrete.
When this is properly understood, any anxious thought as to the _means_ to
be employed in the accomplishment of our purposes is seen to be quite
unnecessary. If the end is already secured, then it follows that all the
steps leading to it are secured also. The means will pass into the smaller
circle of our conscious activities day by day in due order, and then we
have to work upon them, not with fear, doubt, or feverish excitement, but
calmly and joyously, because we _know_ that the end is already secured, and
that our reasonable use of such means as present themselves in the desired
direction is, only one portion of a much larger co-ordinated movement, the
final result of which admits of no doubt. Mental Science does not offer a
premium to idleness, but it takes, all work out of the region of anxiety
and toil by assuring the worker of the success of his labour, if not in the
precise form he anticipated, then in some other still better suited to his
requirements. But suppose, when we reach a point where some momentous
decision has to be made, we happen to decide wrongly? On the hypothesis
that the end is already secured you cannot decide wrongly. Your right
decision is as much one of the necessary steps in the accomplishment of the
end as any of the other conditions leading up to it, and therefore, while
being careful to avoid rash action, we may make sure that the same Law
which is controlling the rest of the circumstances in the right direction
will influence our judgment in that direction also. To get good results we
must properly understand our relation to the great impersonal power we are
using. It is intelligent and we are intelligent, and the two intelligences
must co-operate. We must not fly in the face of the Law by expecting it to
do _for_ us what it can only do _through_ us; and we must therefore use our
intelligence with the knowledge that it is acting _as the instrument of a
greater intelligence_; and because we have this knowledge we may, and
should, cease from all anxiety as to the final result. In actual practice
we must first form the ideal conception of our object with the definite
intention of impressing it upon the universal mind--it is this intention
which takes such thought out of the region of mere casual fancies--and then
affirm that our knowledge of the Law is sufficient reason for a calm
expectation of a corresponding result, and that therefore all necessary
conditions will come to us in due order. We can then turn to the affairs of
our daily life with the calm assurance that the initial conditions are
either there already or will soon come into view. If we do not at once see
them, let us rest content with the knowledge that the spiritual prototype
is already in existence and wait till some circumstance pointing in the
desired direction begins to show itself. It may be a very small
circumstance, but it is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be
taken into consideration. As soon as we see it we should regard it as the
first sprouting of the seed we have sown in the Absolute, and do calmly,
and without excitement, whatever the circumstances may seem to require, and
then later on we shall see that this doing will in turn lead to further
circumstances in the same direction until we find ourselves conducted step
by step to the accomplishment of our object. In this way the understanding
of the great principle of the Law of Supply will, by repeated experiences,
deliver us more and more completely out of the region of anxious thought
and toilsome labour and bring us into a new world where the useful
employment of all our powers, whether mental or physical, will only be an
unfolding of our individuality upon the lines of its own nature, and
therefore a perpetual source of health and happiness; a sufficient
inducement, surely, to the careful study of the laws governing the relation
between the individual and the Universal Mind.
X.
INTUITION.