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SPIRITUAL POWER: Infinite Fount for Law of Attraction & Limitless Manifestation - William Walker Atkinson · THE SECRET LAW OF ATTRACTION: Manifest Wealth, Success & Abundance

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Speaker 1: Spiritual power the infinite found by William Walker Atkinson, nineteen
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Speaker 1: twenty two The quest for truth. Man is a questioning creature.
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Speaker 1: From the early days of the history of the human race,
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Speaker 1: through all the intermediate stages of human evolution, up to
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Speaker 1: and including the present time, man has been questioning himself,
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Speaker 1: his companions, even nature itself, concerning the fundamental facts regarding
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Speaker 1: the world, himself and that which constitutes and moves both.
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Speaker 1: His mental evolution has always been accompanied by, indeed has
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Speaker 1: been largely caused by, his constant questioning in his discoveries
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Speaker 1: of at least partial answers to his everlasting why. Man's
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Speaker 1: intellectual life is represented by the term quest. He has
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Speaker 1: expressed the spirit of his intellectual craving in and through
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Speaker 1: his questions. Man's quest has ever been for the fundamental
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Speaker 1: facts concerning the world and himself. His questions have ever
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Speaker 1: been based upon that quest. He has always demanded the
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Speaker 1: answer to his questions, What, why, how? What of it?
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Speaker 1: In the earlier stage of his intellectual life, he contented
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Speaker 1: himself with asking merely the questions concerning the needs of
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Speaker 1: his physical life. Then, in turn, he began to inquire
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Speaker 1: concerning the laws which govern the activities manifest in the
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Speaker 1: world of things around and about him. Then he began
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Speaker 1: to inquire concerning the fundamental nature and substance of the
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Speaker 1: things of the physical world, and of the fundamental causes
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Speaker 1: which produced their appearance, their changes, their disappearance. Professor Nicholas
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Speaker 1: Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, says, an important step,
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Speaker 1: far reaching in its consequences, was taken when men first
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Speaker 1: sought the cause of change and decay in themselves and
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Speaker 1: in the laws which appear to govern things, rather than
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Speaker 1: in powers and forces outside of and beyond them. When
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Speaker 1: the question was first asked, what is it that persists
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Speaker 1: amidst all changes and that underlies every change, a new
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Speaker 1: era was about to dawn in the history of man's
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Speaker 1: wonder in his desire to know. When the world is
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Speaker 1: viewed as totality, there is obviously nothing to which it
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Speaker 1: can be related, nothing upon which it can be dependent,
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Speaker 1: no external source from which its energy can be derived.
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Speaker 1: We pass, therefore, at this stage of knowing, from the
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Speaker 1: plane of interdependence relativity to the plane of self dependence,
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Speaker 1: self relation, self activity, self active. Totality is the source
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Speaker 1: and origin of all the forces energies and motions which,
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Speaker 1: in one manifestation or another are observed in their inter
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Speaker 1: relations and interdependencies. The quest pursued in the present book
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Speaker 1: is that leading to the discovery of the nature and
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Speaker 1: character of this self activity of that totality which we
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Speaker 1: know as the universe or the cosmos, or that which,
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Speaker 1: in still more familiar thought, is known as nature. We
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Speaker 1: shall confine ourselves strictly to the plane of non nature.
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Speaker 1: We shall not attempt to invade the plane of the supernatural.
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Speaker 1: We shall limit our inquiry to the field of advanced
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Speaker 1: scientific philosophical thought. We shall carefully refrain from encroaching upon
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Speaker 1: the field of theology or that of abstract metaphysics. This
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Speaker 1: does not mean that we are opposed to theology or
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Speaker 1: its teachings, nor to abstract metaphysics and its manifold theories.
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Speaker 1: It means simply that we prefer to leave these respective
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Speaker 1: fields to those who specialize in the subjects belonging to them.
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Speaker 1: We shall, from time to time refer to certain theological
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Speaker 1: or metaphysical teachings, but this only for the purpose of illustration.
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Speaker 1: We are frequently reminded by certain schools of thought that
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Speaker 1: reason conceive this intellect is unable to peer behind the
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Speaker 1: veil of phenomenal appearance, which conceals but yet reveals the
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Speaker 1: presence and activity of the infinite power which abides in
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Speaker 1: a secret place of eternity. They quote approvingly the ancient
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Speaker 1: inscription carved on the old Temple of Isis in Egypt,
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Speaker 1: which announced to all readers isis I am all that
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Speaker 1: is that has been, that will be. No man hath
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Speaker 1: yet lifted my veil. They likewise bid us to recall
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Speaker 1: the celebrated statement of the ancient Buddhists. The imagination, the understanding,
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Speaker 1: and abstract thinking will always strive in vain to represent
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Speaker 1: the eternal infinity. For no form of finiteness to which
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Speaker 1: thought and speech belong can express infinity, nor can that
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Speaker 1: which is timed express eternity. Nor can thought resultant from
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Speaker 1: the chain of causation grasp the causeless and self existent. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: we set aside all such speculations and vain disputes, and
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Speaker 1: do not busy ourselves with them. In Sir Edwin Arnold's
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Speaker 1: poem The Light of Asia, the Buddhist says, O m
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Speaker 1: Amatiah measure not with words the immeasurable, nor sink the
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Speaker 1: string of thought into the fathomless. Who asks doth air,
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Speaker 1: who answers heirs say nought shall any gazer see with
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Speaker 1: mortal eyes, or any search or know with mortal mind.
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Speaker 1: Veil after veil will lift, but there must be veil
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Speaker 1: upon veil behind. But both the ancient Egyptians and the
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Speaker 1: ancient Buddhists as well knew and taught that there are
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Speaker 1: other ways of knowing than those of the sense limited intellect.
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Speaker 1: Both held that man may and does unfold higher faculties
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Speaker 1: of cognition, higher mechanism of knowledge, whereby the unknowable becomes known.
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Speaker 1: The ancient Egyptians taught that certain advanced souls had acquired
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Speaker 1: transcendental powers of cognition, whereby they were able to perceive
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Speaker 1: that which is beyond the powers of ordinary perception, and
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Speaker 1: to know that which remains unknowable to the ordinary powers
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Speaker 1: of the mind. The Buddhists likewise taught that the Buddhists
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Speaker 1: and other illumined minds of the race were able to
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Speaker 1: think about and know that which the lower level intellect
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Speaker 1: is unable to grasp. In fact, the Buddhist's supreme claim
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Speaker 1: is that their basic teachings are the result of thought,
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Speaker 1: the thought of the illumined Gaddoma, the Buddha of that period.
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Speaker 1: One of the hymns of the old Buddhist monks has
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Speaker 1: as its chorus the reiterated lines he thought it out,
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Speaker 1: He thought it out. The pride of Buddhism is that
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Speaker 1: its system is based upon thought, and not on faith alone.
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Speaker 1: But by thought they mean the higher reason, in which
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Speaker 1: the reports of intuition are blended with those of intellect.
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Speaker 1: These ancient schools of philosophic thought, as well as many
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Speaker 1: much later schools, teach that while it is true that
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Speaker 1: intellect of itself, depending as it must upon the interpreted
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Speaker 1: reports of the senses for its basic material and being
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Speaker 1: thus necessarily limited in its field and scope, is indeed
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Speaker 1: unable to free the riddle to report truthfully that which
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Speaker 1: lies behind the veil of materiality, it is equally true
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Speaker 1: that reason is able to transcend the limitations of unaided
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Speaker 1: intellect when she calls to her aid, that twin sister
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Speaker 1: of intellect known as intuition, and thus secures the materials
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Speaker 1: upon which the higher reason may work, and which it
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Speaker 1: may spin and weave into glorious fabrics of truth. Modern
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Speaker 1: philosophy is displaying much interest in certain forms of mental activity,
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Speaker 1: which are grouped under the category of intuition. In this
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Speaker 1: usage of the old term intuition, however, these philosophers do
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Speaker 1: not refer to the ordinary conscious or subconscious activities of
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Speaker 1: which the source remains hidden and which therefore are frequently
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Speaker 1: referred to as intuitive. Neither do they refer to those
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Speaker 1: acquired habits of action, once performed consciously but now manifested subconsciously,
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Speaker 1: which are known as instinctive. Instead, they employ the term
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Speaker 1: to indicate that higher form of reason made possible by
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Speaker 1: the reports of the super conscious faculties concerning their perception
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Speaker 1: of certain higher truths, which reports are then passed down
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Speaker 1: to the intellect for reasoning based upon induction or deduction,
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Speaker 1: or similar forms of thought. They hold that these reports
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Speaker 1: of intuition are not contrary to those of intellect, but
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Speaker 1: merely are more direct and convincing in feeling, and serve
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Speaker 1: rather to support the reports of the true intellect than
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Speaker 1: to oppose or contradict them. Reason being furnished the combined
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Speaker 1: reports of both intellect and intuition, is possessed of material
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Speaker 1: far surpassing in both quantity and quality those arising from
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Speaker 1: sense reports alone. Consequently, the higher reason is able to
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Speaker 1: produce materials of equality and beauty, far excelling those turned
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Speaker 1: out by it when it is limited to the comparatively
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Speaker 1: scanty and imperfect materials of the senses. Or employing another
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Speaker 1: figure of speech, we may say that the higher reason,
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Speaker 1: in which intellect is reinforced by intuition, acts like the
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Speaker 1: skilled geometer, who, being given certain sighted points, is then
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Speaker 1: able to measure, chart, and map great regions of land
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Speaker 1: or of space over which his feet have never trod,
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Speaker 1: his airplane wings never flown, nor his eyes ever scanned.
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Speaker 1: The higher reason, thus, given these sighted points furnished by intuition,
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Speaker 1: is able to measure, chart, and map great areas of
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Speaker 1: thought and knowledge over which his senses have not traveled
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Speaker 1: and which they cannot receive. Bergsen holds that intellect is
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Speaker 1: properly employed with the outer appearances of life, intuition with
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Speaker 1: the inner facts of life. Intellect, he says, is a
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Speaker 1: narrowing or focusing of consciousness, confined to a limited field
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Speaker 1: by its very nature. Outside of that narrow field lies
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Speaker 1: the region of intuition in its own field, says Bergsen,
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Speaker 1: Intellect is held to be supreme, intuition does not begin
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Speaker 1: to reach the efficiency of intellect in that field. In
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Speaker 1: its own field, in turn, intuition is supreme. It goes
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Speaker 1: far beyond intellect in that region and gives us knowledge
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Speaker 1: impossible to unaided intellect. But such higher knowledge, it should
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Speaker 1: be noted, does not contradict the report of intellect extended
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Speaker 1: to its full limits along the lines of trained logical thought.
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Speaker 1: It merely transcends and goes beyond the limits of intellect.
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Speaker 1: When intellect, throwing aside its prejudices and false pride, asks
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Speaker 1: questions of intuition concerning matters which lie in the field
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Speaker 1: of intuitional activity, and then takes over the report of
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Speaker 1: intuition and employs it as the basis of rational induction
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Speaker 1: and deduction. A wonderful result is thus obtained, a wondrous
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Speaker 1: blending is thus secured, and an entirely new field of
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Speaker 1: thought spreads itself out to the reason of the individual thinker.
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Speaker 1: The correlated and coordinated activities of intellect and intuition produce
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Speaker 1: what may be called the report of the higher reason
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Speaker 1: or the completed reason. Here the individual secures the faith
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Speaker 1: that knows and not merely believes there is a tremendous
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Speaker 1: truth expressed in a celebrated statement of Bergsen, there are
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Speaker 1: things that the intellect alone is able to seek, but
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Speaker 1: which by itself it will never find. Those things intuition
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Speaker 1: alone can find, but it will never seek them of itself.
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Speaker 1: Intuition never is moved of itself to explore its depth
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Speaker 1: for truth. It has no need for effort of that kind.
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Speaker 1: It knows and takes for granted that the answer is
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Speaker 1: known to all. It is not aware of the existence
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Speaker 1: of the problem involved, nor of the need of answering it,
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Speaker 1: nor has it the desire to have it answered. As
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Speaker 1: Bergson has told us, intuition, though alone capable of finding
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Speaker 1: the answer to certain questions concerning important facts, will of
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Speaker 1: itself never seek that answer. Only when intellect, which alone
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Speaker 1: is able to seek the answer, but which is unable
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Speaker 1: by itself to find it, deigns to ask intuition to
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Speaker 1: look within itself for the needed answer. Does intuition make
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Speaker 1: the inquiry and furnish the required report the question. Once
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Speaker 1: made clear to intuition by intellect, the former proceeds with
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Speaker 1: ease to answer it. The facts thus presented to intellect
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Speaker 1: are then subjected to the processes of logical reasoning being
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Speaker 1: employed as the premises of such reasoning, and the higher
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Speaker 1: reason finally hands down its logical judgment and conclusions. The
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Speaker 1: correlation and coordination of intellect and intuition in the work
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Speaker 1: of higher reason or completed reason frequently results in what
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Speaker 1: is called intellectual illumination, or the lighting up of the
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Speaker 1: u s intellect as if from above. Intuition superimposing its
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Speaker 1: reports upon intellect kindles the flame of illumination. That intellectual
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Speaker 1: illumination of which flashes have been obtained by many great
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Speaker 1: men and women, and accounts of which are frequently found
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Speaker 1: in their biographies or autobiographies. Some of the greatest discoveries
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Speaker 1: and other mental accomplishments have been performed under the influence
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Speaker 1: of this intellectual illumination so produced by the action and
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Speaker 1: reaction between intellect and intuition. Intellect constitutes the seeing aspect
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Speaker 1: of knowledge. Intuition the feeling aspect. When you apprehend the
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Speaker 1: truth by means of your intellect, you say that you
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Speaker 1: see it. When you apprehend it by means of your intuition,
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Speaker 1: you say that you feel it. The feeling is quite
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Speaker 1: as valid as is the seeing when rightly understood and interpreted.
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Speaker 1: In fact, the feeling seems, if anything, to be rather
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Speaker 1: deeper than the seeing. It has to do with the
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Speaker 1: inside rather than with the outside of experience. It seems
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Speaker 1: to belong essentially to the individual, while the seeing seems
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Speaker 1: rather to be bound up with the outside world. There
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Speaker 1: are certain fundamental laws, principles, and truths which intellect and intuition,
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Speaker 1: combined and correlated as higher reason or completed reason, must inevitably,
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Speaker 1: invariably and infallibly report to be necessary truth, the necessities
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Speaker 1: of thought, by the very nature of their respective characters
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Speaker 1: and essential facts. To see this intellectually and to feel
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Speaker 1: this intuitively is to know the truth, and what is
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Speaker 1: quite as important. Many think it still more important. This
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Speaker 1: intellectual perception and intuitive realization is equivalent to being able
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Speaker 1: to manifest and express that truth in your world of
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Speaker 1: experience in the form or phase of personal power of
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Speaker 1: the highest order. Such has always been the report, the
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Speaker 1: promise the prophecy of the great spiritual teachers of the race.
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Speaker 1: Here follows the report, promise and prophecy of some of
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Speaker 1: the great spiritual giants of mankind, based upon the experience
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Speaker 1: of such illumined souls gleaned in the many centuries of
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Speaker 1: philosophical and transcendental thought. When you are able to perceive
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Speaker 1: intellectually and to realize intuitively, truth as such is inevitably,
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Speaker 1: invariably and infallibly reported to you through the proper exercise
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Speaker 1: of your higher reason or completed reason, than will you
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Speaker 1: be able to manifest the truth in and through your thought,
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Speaker 1: your actions, your work, in the measure of your perception
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Speaker 1: and realization of the truth. Asking you to accept this report, promise,
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Speaker 1: and prophecy concerning truth as made in good faith and
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Speaker 1: in sincerity, according to the light possessed by those making it,
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Speaker 1: we shall now invite you to ascend with us the
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Speaker 1: path of attainment which winds up along the sides of
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Speaker 1: the mountain of truth. The attainment of the mountain top
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Speaker 1: will amply repay you for the rigors of the ascent,
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Speaker 1: the fatigue of the journey. Of this an inspired writer says,
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Speaker 1: the mountain summit typifies the highest point on which a
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Speaker 1: climber may stand and think in terms of consciousness drawn
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Speaker 1: from a material world. But we may look beyond it,
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Speaker 1: though it is a sublime elevation where many a pilgrim
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Speaker 1: is content to pause. Below him are the kingdoms. Above
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Speaker 1: him are the stars. The kingdom and the stars are
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Speaker 1: alike his. But it is not the end. Deeper than
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Speaker 1: the kingdoms and higher than the stars, is the sky
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Speaker 1: that holds them all. And there alone is peace, that
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Speaker 1: peace which the material world cannot give, the peace which
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Speaker 1: posseth understanding trained on material things, infinite and eternal peace,
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Speaker 1: the peace of limitless consciousness unified with limitless will. The
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Speaker 1: thinking individual, when he begins to contemplate the world which
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Speaker 1: he perceives to exist and to manifest activity around and
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Speaker 1: about himself, soon discovers three great classes of things in
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Speaker 1: that world. Then he begins at once to generalize and
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Speaker 1: classify these three great kinds of things into three fundamentals categories.
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Speaker 1: These three great categories are as follows. One, the substance
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Speaker 1: stuff or body of things in general, that which gives
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Speaker 1: them body form, shape, and substance their outer aspect, as
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Speaker 1: reported to him by his senses. Two, the powers, energies,
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Speaker 1: and forces which cause the movements and actions of things,
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Speaker 1: the changes in things, the inner aspect of things, imperceptible
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Speaker 1: to his senses, yet manifesting their effects so as to
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Speaker 1: be apprehended by the senses three, the livingness of things,
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Speaker 1: that something within which manifests in vital activities, voluntary actions,
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Speaker 1: and in feeling, thinking, willing. This he experiences in himself
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Speaker 1: and judges that other things also possess it by reason
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Speaker 1: of their actions, which be perceives. As man's intellectual evolution proceeds,
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Speaker 1: he discovers certain laws governing each of these three great
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Speaker 1: classes of things or facts. He perceives certain laws governing
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Speaker 1: the physical or material aspect of things, Certain laws governing
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Speaker 1: the forces producing activities in these physical or material things.
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Speaker 1: Certain laws governing the operations and activities of the vital
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Speaker 1: processes the mental processes. He groups these laws, and upon
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Speaker 1: their basis he erects his structure of science. So far,
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Speaker 1: the thinking man has had an easy time in his
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Speaker 1: thinking upon the subject of things. Like the young bear,
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Speaker 1: he has all his troubles ahead of him. It is
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Speaker 1: only when he indulges in philosophy or metaphysics that his
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Speaker 1: real troubles along these lines really begin. We shall now
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Speaker 1: show you why this is. The man of science is
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Speaker 1: concerned merely with the way things work, the principles governing
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Speaker 1: their actions and behavior. He asks merely how and is
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Speaker 1: satisfied with an answer to such questions. The metaphysical philosopher, however,
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Speaker 1: pursues the inquiry further. He is not satisfied with the
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Speaker 1: how stage of questioning. He asks for an answer to
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Speaker 1: his new question, Christian Why. He pursues his inquiries until
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Speaker 1: finally he demands an answer to his ultimate why, which
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Speaker 1: may be expressed as follows. What is that which is
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Speaker 1: the ultimate principle of all things, and of which all
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Speaker 1: things are manifestations. He is not content with the scientific
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Speaker 1: classification of natural things into the three great categories of
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Speaker 1: one substance, two energy, three, life or spirit. He holds
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Speaker 1: that some one of these three must be the ultimate principle,
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Speaker 1: the other two being subordinate aspects or manifestations of that
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Speaker 1: ultimate reality. He does not explain clearly just why all
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Speaker 1: things must be manifestations of but one principle. He takes
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Speaker 1: this for granted and asks you to do the same.
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Speaker 1: Ask him how and why this is, and he will
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Speaker 1: answer with great dignity of manner and tone. All philosophy
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Speaker 1: worthy of the name holds that at the last everything
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Speaker 1: must be reduced to one ultimate principle. The discovery of
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Speaker 1: that one ultimate principle is the aim and end of
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Speaker 1: all true, true philosophical thought. Pressed for a further answer,
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Speaker 1: he dismisses the subject with the remark Plato settled that
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Speaker 1: matter once and for all, many centuries ago, and pronounces
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Speaker 1: you in impudent ignoramus if you venture to demand to
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Speaker 1: be shown or told just how Plato knew this. There are,
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Speaker 1: it seems, certain limits beyond which you may not go
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Speaker 1: in your inquiries of certain metaphysical philosophers. It is a
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Speaker 1: case of thus set the Lord with them, with Plato
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Speaker 1: playing the part of the lord. The thinkers who in
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Speaker 1: this matter are from Missouri and who demand to be shown,
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Speaker 1: are dubbed unphilosophical, but they are increasing in number, and
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Speaker 1: their ranks now contain some of the brightest minds of
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Speaker 1: the race. The abstract metaphysicians are wedded to their idols.
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Speaker 1: It would seem this demand for the reduction of all
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Speaker 1: things to one ultimate principle long ago divided the army
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Speaker 1: of metaphysical philosophy into two great camps, each of which
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Speaker 1: is in turn divided into minor groups. These two two
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Speaker 1: great philosophical divisions are known respectively as one Materialism and
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Speaker 1: two idealism. Both of these great camps, while engaged in
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Speaker 1: continuous warfare against each other, nevertheless hold firmly to the
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Speaker 1: same fundamental idea that there exists some one ultimate principle.
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Speaker 1: One camp holds that this one ultimate principle is matter,
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Speaker 1: the other camp holds that it is spirit or mind.
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Speaker 1: While engaged in a bitter fight between themselves, these two
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Speaker 1: camps are united against a third camp, the one known
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Speaker 1: as realism, which holds that there are two universal principles
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Speaker 1: instead of one, one of which is material substance, the
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Speaker 1: other being spiritual essence. Let us see what are the
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Speaker 1: fundamental and basic ideas of these three several schools. Professor
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Speaker 1: Thomas Case, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, in
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Speaker 1: his great article upon Metaphysics in the Encyclopedia Britannica eleventh edition,
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Speaker 1: says physical materialism is the view that everything known is
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Speaker 1: body or matter. But while according to ancient materialists soul
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Speaker 1: is only another body, according to modern materialist's mind without
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Speaker 1: soul is only an attribute or function of body. Metaphysical
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Speaker 1: idealism is the view that everything known is mind or
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Speaker 1: some mental state or other, which some idealists suppose to
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Speaker 1: require a substantial soul, others not. While all agree that
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Speaker 1: body has no different being apart from mind. Metaphysical realism
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Speaker 1: is the intermediate view that everything known is either body
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Speaker 1: or soul, neither of which alone exhausts the universe of being. Aristotle,
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Speaker 1: the founder of metaphysics as a distinct science, was also
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Speaker 1: the founder of metaphysical realism, and still remains its main authority.
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Speaker 1: The strength of materialism consists in recognizing nature without explaining
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Speaker 1: it away. Its weakness consists in its utter inability to
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Speaker 1: explain consciousness, either in its nature or in its origin.
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Speaker 1: On the other hand, it is the virtue of idealism
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Speaker 1: to emphasize the fact of consciousness, but it is its
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Speaker 1: vice to exaggerate it, with the consequence of resorting to
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Speaker 1: every kind of paradox, to deny the obvious and to
22:10
Speaker 1: get rid of bodies. But it is unfair to argue
22:13
Speaker 1: as if the whole case were between materialistic or idealistic monism,
22:18
Speaker 1: leaving realism out of court. There are in reality two
22:21
Speaker 1: species of substances or entirely different things, each of the
22:26
Speaker 1: two respective philosophic schools holding to the basic theory of
22:30
Speaker 1: one ultimate principle is found to have its strong points
22:33
Speaker 1: and its weak points. The third school, that of realism,
22:37
Speaker 1: seeks to combine these respective strong points and to eliminate
22:41
Speaker 1: these respective weak points by means of a new synthesis
22:44
Speaker 1: in which material, substance and spiritual essence are regarded as
22:48
Speaker 1: dual principles or twin aspects of ultimate reality. Such a
22:52
Speaker 1: synthesis is found to include and retain the strong points
22:55
Speaker 1: of each of the other two schools, while rendering unnecessary
22:59
Speaker 1: the extreme hypotheses which constitute the weak points of each
23:02
Speaker 1: of these schools. If you will follow the analysis presented
23:06
Speaker 1: to you in the remaining pages of this section of
23:08
Speaker 1: the book, you will be able to recognize and realize
23:11
Speaker 1: the advantages held by the realistic school of philosophy and
23:14
Speaker 1: the disadvantages attached to each of the other two schools.
23:18
Speaker 1: The strong point of materialism has ever been that it
23:21
Speaker 1: satisfies the demand of intuition for a substantial, firm, constant,
23:25
Speaker 1: material basis to support and sustain the world of material things.
23:30
Speaker 1: This substantial basis is denied by idealism in its insistence
23:34
Speaker 1: that all is mind, mind is all. To This fact
23:38
Speaker 1: is due the regular reaction and swing back to materialism,
23:42
Speaker 1: which has always followed an extreme and uncompromising presentation of
23:46
Speaker 1: the doctrines of idealism. If materialism would content itself with
23:50
Speaker 1: the basic postulate that material substance is real, it would
23:54
Speaker 1: receive the full approval of intuition and of intellect as well.
23:58
Speaker 1: But it does not, and will not see so content itself. Instead,
24:01
Speaker 1: it adds the damning clause, and material substance is the
24:05
Speaker 1: only reality. The weak point of materialism, the point which
24:10
Speaker 1: is absolutely repugnant to intuition, is that in which it
24:13
Speaker 1: asserts that life, mind, spirit are the properties, attributes, aspects, phases,
24:19
Speaker 1: modes of matter, or else its creation, manifestation, or expression.
24:24
Speaker 1: Materialism has even gone so far as at one time
24:28
Speaker 1: to claim that matter secretes life and mind, just as
24:31
Speaker 1: the liver secretes bile intuition, realizing fully as it does,
24:36
Speaker 1: that it itself is spirit, absolutely refuses to admit this
24:41
Speaker 1: contention of materialism. It recognizes matter in its own place,
24:45
Speaker 1: on its own plane, but always regards it as the
24:48
Speaker 1: other to spirit, the antithetical opposite of spirit. It recognizes
24:54
Speaker 1: its essential identity with spirit, and knows that Spirit is
24:57
Speaker 1: ultimate and not a derivative or byproduct of matter or
25:00
Speaker 1: of anything else. The strong point of idealism has ever
25:04
Speaker 1: been that it posits spirit, life, mind as ultimate facts
25:08
Speaker 1: of existence, and not as derivatives or by products of
25:12
Speaker 1: matter or material force. Intuition meets it with open arms
25:16
Speaker 1: when it approaches bearing this message. The message is soul
25:20
Speaker 1: satisfying and produces a spiritual content. For that matter, it
25:25
Speaker 1: is very probable that no materialist, deep down in his soul,
25:28
Speaker 1: ever really feels that life, mind, spirit are the byproducts
25:32
Speaker 1: of matter. The materialist may think that he sees the
25:35
Speaker 1: truth of his contention, but he really never succeeds in
25:38
Speaker 1: feeling that it is true. Within him. Spirit itself cries
25:43
Speaker 1: to him, I am spirit and not matter nor a
25:45
Speaker 1: product of matter. His intuition, ever, protests against his extreme materialism.
25:52
Speaker 1: The weak point of idealism has ever been its claim
25:54
Speaker 1: that all is mind, mind is all matter is an
25:57
Speaker 1: illusion and has no real existence. The material world is
26:01
Speaker 1: a dream or an error of mortal mind. Intuition revolts
26:05
Speaker 1: at this, though intellect is frequently seduced by its plausible
26:09
Speaker 1: sophistry and fallacy. It is probable that no idealist ever
26:13
Speaker 1: really feels that there is no reality in matter, even
26:17
Speaker 1: when he is uttering the words, he continues to act
26:20
Speaker 1: as if matter is a reality. His every action is
26:24
Speaker 1: based upon the tacit recognition of the presence and reality
26:27
Speaker 1: of matter. Intellect, it is true, is often dazed and
26:31
Speaker 1: bewildered by the juggling of words so often employed in
26:34
Speaker 1: the philosophy of idealism under its many different names and forms.
26:39
Speaker 1: Idealism is ingrown metaphysics of such schools of thought. Or
26:43
Speaker 1: writer has said of such teachings, those who listen understand nothing,
26:47
Speaker 1: and those who teach do not really understand. That actual
26:51
Speaker 1: material objects really exist is the verdict of common sense
26:55
Speaker 1: and of the intuition of any person who will listen
26:57
Speaker 1: to its voice. Professor Ladd says common sense must be trusted,
27:02
Speaker 1: and virtually is trusted, for the inviolable and undiminished confidence
27:06
Speaker 1: in the existence of a real world full of actual events,
27:09
Speaker 1: some of which are known to be causally connected, and
27:13
Speaker 1: as well in its confident belief that while human knowledge
27:16
Speaker 1: does not create that world and knows it at best
27:18
Speaker 1: only imperfectly and partially, yet it does know it truly,
27:22
Speaker 1: so to say that is as it really exists and
27:25
Speaker 1: actually behaves. Reid says, I do perceive matter objectively, that is,
27:31
Speaker 1: something that is the intermediate object of my touch and sight.
27:36
Speaker 1: And this object I take to be matter and not
27:38
Speaker 1: an idea. And though I have been taught by philosophers
27:41
Speaker 1: that what I immediately touch is an idea and not matter,
27:45
Speaker 1: yet I have never been able to discover this by
27:47
Speaker 1: the most accurate attention to my own perceptions. Benjamin Paul
27:52
Speaker 1: Blood says, a modern man must indeed be tainted with
27:55
Speaker 1: one of mister Spencer's insanities of idealism to doubt that
27:58
Speaker 1: even if the earth were ripped of all living things
28:01
Speaker 1: and left barren as our moon appears, man and his
28:04
Speaker 1: philosophies and histories and religions vanished into less than air,
28:08
Speaker 1: the glorious stars among which by analogical reckoning, his earth
28:11
Speaker 1: is but a speck, would still revolve, as theoretically at
28:15
Speaker 1: least they have ever revolved, regardless of all impertinent sensitiveness
28:19
Speaker 1: to time or times. This report of common sense and
28:24
Speaker 1: intuition is practically accepted by all men, even the extreme idealists,
28:29
Speaker 1: in their everyday life and activities. They may talk one
28:33
Speaker 1: thing and act another. It is true, but the best
28:36
Speaker 1: test of a man's real intuitive truths is found in
28:38
Speaker 1: his actions rather than in his words. The highest test
28:42
Speaker 1: of truth is one's willingness to trust his life and
28:44
Speaker 1: well being to it. As Blood says, the profoundest idealist
28:49
Speaker 1: confesses to the integrity of matter. A rap on the
28:52
Speaker 1: head gives a conviction of reality that no idea that
28:55
Speaker 1: can come out of that head can refute. Criticism of
28:58
Speaker 1: common sense comes back in its own face. Like the
29:01
Speaker 1: wasp and the hornet. It leaves its sting in the
29:04
Speaker 1: wound and is fatal to itself. A critic might say
29:07
Speaker 1: to the average perfunctory idealist, you are up in the
29:10
Speaker 1: tree of life, indeed, but you are sawing off the
29:13
Speaker 1: limb that supports you. Dot And as Lad says, one
29:18
Speaker 1: might admit that he would be willing to dispense with
29:20
Speaker 1: the reality of all the physical world if only the
29:23
Speaker 1: idea of eating bread were but regularly followed by the
29:26
Speaker 1: idea of being no longer hungry and of being invigorated.
29:30
Speaker 1: Between the extremes of materialism and idealism is found the
29:33
Speaker 1: position of the golden mean, the point of balance represented
29:37
Speaker 1: by the philosophic school of realism. Realism recognizes the real
29:42
Speaker 1: and actual existence of both spiritual essence and material substance,
29:46
Speaker 1: the former constituting the soul of things, the latter the
29:49
Speaker 1: body of things. The world is accounted for and explained
29:54
Speaker 1: as the result of the action and reaction of spirit
29:56
Speaker 1: and matter. It holds that some things are material things,
30:00
Speaker 1: and that other things are spiritual things. The history of
30:04
Speaker 1: realism in the Western world runs back to Aristotle. In
30:07
Speaker 1: the Eastern world it runs back to still older Oriental philosophers.
30:12
Speaker 1: Both of these ancient schools held that spirit and matter
30:15
Speaker 1: are ultimate universal principles, distinct and different from each other,
30:19
Speaker 1: yet ever acting and reacting to and from the other.
30:22
Speaker 1: They held that Spirit is the inner essence, and matter
30:25
Speaker 1: the outer substance of the cosmos. Spirit, it is true,
30:30
Speaker 1: can never no matter in itself. It can know only
30:33
Speaker 1: the sensations arising from its contact with matter. But equally true,
30:38
Speaker 1: Spirit is compelled to depend upon these sensations arising from
30:42
Speaker 1: contact with matter for its raw materials of thought, feeling,
30:46
Speaker 1: and other mental processes. We no matter only through mind,
30:50
Speaker 1: but mind must depend upon matter for its crude objects
30:54
Speaker 1: of knowledge. There is a universal interdependence and coordination between
30:59
Speaker 1: mind and matter, and matter and mind. The action and
31:02
Speaker 1: reaction between spiritual essence and material substance. Such is the
31:07
Speaker 1: teaching of true philosophic realism. Upon this basic teaching, the
31:12
Speaker 1: instruction contained in the present book is grounded. In the
31:16
Speaker 1: course of this instruction, you will discover for yourself that
31:18
Speaker 1: these foundations are solid, and that the structure is well
31:21
Speaker 1: supported by them. If you have been repelled by the crude,
31:25
Speaker 1: crass doctrines of extreme materialism on the one hand, and
31:29
Speaker 1: made dizzy by the visionary, impractical doctrines of extreme idealism
31:33
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you will find in the teaching
31:36
Speaker 1: of rational realism a satisfactory position between the two extremes,
31:39
Speaker 1: where the reconciliation and explanation of the two opposing doctrines
31:43
Speaker 1: is not only made possible, but is actually rendered certain
31:48
Speaker 1: spiritual power. The Infinite Fount by William Walker Atkinson, nineteen
31:53
Speaker 1: twenty two. Material substance. One of the first important generalizations
32:00
Speaker 1: made by man in his philosophical reasoning is that all
32:02
Speaker 1: things have body, material substance, or stuff of which their
32:07
Speaker 1: outward form is composed. The realization of the universal presence
32:11
Speaker 1: of material substance, body, or stuff is a basic element
32:15
Speaker 1: of Man's thought. In fact, it is discovered to partake
32:19
Speaker 1: of the quality of intuitive knowledge. Our verbal terms employed
32:23
Speaker 1: in speech and writing illustrate the fundamental quality of this
32:26
Speaker 1: element of our thought. Our words were created primarily in
32:30
Speaker 1: response to the need of expressing our notions concerning material
32:34
Speaker 1: objects or activities. Even those terms designed to express our
32:37
Speaker 1: concepts of mental and spiritual things usually are really metaphorical
32:41
Speaker 1: terms in which material objects are employed as symbols illustrating
32:45
Speaker 1: the immaterial things. Thus, our terms spirit, psyche, ghost, et
32:51
Speaker 1: cetera were originally employed to indicate breath, blowing, wind, breezes,
32:56
Speaker 1: et cetera. Likewise, our minds almost instinctively identify material things
33:02
Speaker 1: as real things. Materiality is implicitly accepted as reality in
33:07
Speaker 1: our ordinary thought, at least until the latter has been
33:10
Speaker 1: disturbed by metaphysics. The term real represents a thing in
33:15
Speaker 1: substance of existence, and not imaginary or merely existing as
33:19
Speaker 1: an idea. That which is reported as really existent is
33:23
Speaker 1: that which is discovered to be apparent to the senses,
33:25
Speaker 1: or which registers its presence upon some physical instrument. That
33:30
Speaker 1: which is said to be all in your mind is
33:32
Speaker 1: not regarded as real inordinary thought. The legal term real
33:37
Speaker 1: property illustrates this basic thought. Real property is property consisting
33:42
Speaker 1: of land, and that which pertains to the land, and
33:45
Speaker 1: land is the most material thing known to man, therefore
33:48
Speaker 1: the most real thing to the ordinary thought. In view
33:52
Speaker 1: of these facts, it is not to be wondered that
33:54
Speaker 1: the human mind finds itself compelled to assume the existence
33:58
Speaker 1: of a universal material, substance, stuff, or body, serving as
34:02
Speaker 1: the fundamental material of which all physical things are made,
34:05
Speaker 1: and also serving as a material base and ground, supporter
34:09
Speaker 1: and sustainer of the universe of manifold things. All human
34:13
Speaker 1: thought tacitly assumes the existence of such a material, substantial
34:17
Speaker 1: ground and base, even where the mind has been muddled
34:20
Speaker 1: by too much metaphysical teaching and speculation. Human thought refuses
34:25
Speaker 1: really to believe that material things are mere fantasies or illusions,
34:29
Speaker 1: even though it tries to make itself believe. It does
34:31
Speaker 1: so no matter what it says. It always acts as
34:35
Speaker 1: if material things were real, present and in evidence that
34:39
Speaker 1: there must be a substantial material or stuff underlying the
34:42
Speaker 1: forms of the physical universe is seen to be true
34:45
Speaker 1: by intellect properly directed and employed, and intuition corroborates and
34:50
Speaker 1: substantiates the report. Intellect is unable to think except upon
34:55
Speaker 1: this fundamental premiss it finds itself dazed, bewildered, and confused.
34:59
Speaker 1: When it at stempts to proceed upon the opposite in
35:01
Speaker 1: contradictory fundamental premise, i e. That there is no fundamental
35:05
Speaker 1: material substance, and that all appearance of matter is an
35:09
Speaker 1: illusion or product of thought or imagination. Intuition likewise finds
35:14
Speaker 1: itself compelled to report a similar truth, which it finds
35:17
Speaker 1: within itself. When asked the question, so true is this?
35:22
Speaker 1: That intuition, confronted with the contentions of the extreme idealists
35:26
Speaker 1: and asked to corroborate their reports, experiences a sinking feeling,
35:30
Speaker 1: as though the bottom of things were giving way beneath
35:32
Speaker 1: its feet, leaving not but an empty void or abysmal
35:35
Speaker 1: abyss in place of the substantial foundation upon which it
35:39
Speaker 1: has been standing. It detects the falsity of the report
35:43
Speaker 1: in a moment, however, and indignantly rejects it. The average individual,
35:48
Speaker 1: the common sense person who has not indulged in too
35:51
Speaker 1: much metaphysical thought, also has this fundamental consciousness of the
35:55
Speaker 1: necessary existence of a basic substantial stuff, A fundamental material
35:59
Speaker 1: out of which the bodies and physical forms of things
36:02
Speaker 1: are composed and created. He finds himself unable to think
36:06
Speaker 1: of a universe in which materiality is absent. He finds
36:10
Speaker 1: that material, substance and stuff are necessities of his thought,
36:15
Speaker 1: facts without which his thought and reasoning cannot proceed. In
36:19
Speaker 1: spite of his pretended acquiescence in the teachings of idealism,
36:22
Speaker 1: no person ever has been able actually to conceive or
36:25
Speaker 1: imagine the universe as lacking the stuff of which its
36:28
Speaker 1: forms are made. The demand for stuff is persistent and
36:33
Speaker 1: insistent in the mind of man. Try as he may,
36:36
Speaker 1: man is never able actually to think away the primal
36:39
Speaker 1: concept of stuff. It refuses to be thought out of existence.
36:44
Speaker 1: Even the recent idea of the so called dematerialization of
36:47
Speaker 1: matter has not affected this necessity of thought. The dematerialized matter,
36:52
Speaker 1: though no longer matter in the old scientific conception, is
36:55
Speaker 1: none the less constituent substance or fundamental stuff. The intellectual
37:00
Speaker 1: and intuitive demand for the presence of an elemental substance
37:04
Speaker 1: or fundamental stuff arises not only by reason of the
37:07
Speaker 1: perception that there is a physical or material aspect to
37:10
Speaker 1: each and everything known to man, in experience, but also
37:13
Speaker 1: because the philosophic mind realizes the need for a substantial
37:17
Speaker 1: base and ground to explain an account for the changing
37:19
Speaker 1: forms of the physical and material universe. Substance, material, or
37:25
Speaker 1: stuff of some kind, even though it be conceived as
37:27
Speaker 1: infinitely rare, tenuous, fine, ethereal, subtle, is demanded by intellect
37:33
Speaker 1: and intuition. You may test this fundamental report for yourself
37:38
Speaker 1: if you so wish. You have merely to try to
37:41
Speaker 1: think of a thing, anything in fact, as existing without body, substance, material,
37:47
Speaker 1: or stuff to support it, give it form, and to
37:49
Speaker 1: afford it material upon which to work and manifest itself.
37:54
Speaker 1: You cannot think of form, configuration, appearance without this fundamental
37:58
Speaker 1: attribute of substance, material, or stuff. To try to escape
38:03
Speaker 1: from stuff or substance is like trying to run away
38:05
Speaker 1: from your own shadow, trying to turn around so quickly
38:08
Speaker 1: that you can kiss your own lips, or trying to
38:11
Speaker 1: make your face and the back of your head meat.
38:13
Speaker 1: It is like the effort to think of a stick
38:16
Speaker 1: with only one end, or of a lever without a support,
38:19
Speaker 1: or of a wheel without an axle. You will discover
38:23
Speaker 1: very soon and at the end, that the notion of
38:25
Speaker 1: at least an ethereal substance, material or stuff is required
38:29
Speaker 1: to support your concept of things. You may do without
38:32
Speaker 1: matter of the solid kind, or even of the liquid
38:36
Speaker 1: or gaseous kind. In fact, science itself has done this
38:39
Speaker 1: for you, and has given you something infinitely finer and
38:42
Speaker 1: rarer than these. But you must hold on to your
38:44
Speaker 1: conception of substance or stuff of some kind. You may
38:48
Speaker 1: think of it in terms of ethereal substance, astral substance,
38:52
Speaker 1: spiritual substance, or in other terms coined to designate substance
38:56
Speaker 1: more subtle and ethereal than ordinary matter. But the essential
38:59
Speaker 1: eye idea of substance and stuff must be involved in
39:02
Speaker 1: it if you intend to employ it in your thinking.
39:05
Speaker 1: Throw the idea of substantial stuff out of the door,
39:08
Speaker 1: and it returns through the windows. You are unable even
39:12
Speaker 1: to think of spirit other than as employing stuff. For
39:14
Speaker 1: that aspect of bodiness which is required for its manifestation,
39:18
Speaker 1: you must endow it with at least a ghost of
39:21
Speaker 1: stuff or a shadow of substance. Your only escape from
39:25
Speaker 1: the necessity of the idea of stuff is to think
39:27
Speaker 1: of things in the terms of algebraic symbols as X,
39:31
Speaker 1: Y or Z, and let it go at that even
39:34
Speaker 1: those thinkers who deny the ultimate reality of matter or
39:37
Speaker 1: material substance usually accept its presence as a derivative material
39:41
Speaker 1: or stuff. In order to account for and explain the
39:44
Speaker 1: constantly changing multitude of material things, there is perceived the
39:49
Speaker 1: need for a fundamental base and ground to support and
39:51
Speaker 1: sustain the changing material universe, the need of a something
39:55
Speaker 1: or somewhat which is the answer to the question what
39:57
Speaker 1: is it that changes? What is it that support and
40:00
Speaker 1: sustains the changes? What is it that remains itself constant
40:04
Speaker 1: and continuous throughout the universal changes? Philosophy has always had
40:09
Speaker 1: as its great aim and purpose the discovery of an ultimate,
40:12
Speaker 1: substantial reality sufficient to serve as the base or ground
40:15
Speaker 1: supporting and sustaining that continuous series or concatenation of changing things, processes,
40:21
Speaker 1: and events which constitute the phenomenal universe. In philosophy, the
40:26
Speaker 1: term reality denotes that which remains constant as the kernel
40:30
Speaker 1: or core of universal change and becoming. Plato asserts that
40:34
Speaker 1: the end of philosophy is the discovery of the essential
40:37
Speaker 1: identity supporting, sustaining, and underlying the changing universe of changing things.
40:43
Speaker 1: Kant held that ultimate reality is the real in time,
40:46
Speaker 1: that which persistently, constantly, and continuously abides while all else changes.
40:52
Speaker 1: Herbert Spencer held that only the real is permanent, Only
40:56
Speaker 1: the permanent is real. In the earlier stages of this incorpse,
41:00
Speaker 1: you became acquainted with Nicholas Murray Butler's question, what is
41:04
Speaker 1: it that persists amidst all changes? And that underlies every change?
41:08
Speaker 1: Philosophy demands an ultimate, constant, fundamental substance to support and
41:12
Speaker 1: sustain the material world of change and becoming, and to
41:16
Speaker 1: serve as its base and ground. By constant is meant steady, perpetual, unchanging, invariable, unceasing, continuous, uninterrupted, stable, firm,
41:28
Speaker 1: enduring permanent. By change is meant any variation or alteration,
41:33
Speaker 1: any passing from one state, form, or condition to another.
41:38
Speaker 1: Becoming means the act of entering into a new form, state,
41:42
Speaker 1: or condition from another. Here you should note the term
41:46
Speaker 1: form in scientific and philosophic usage means not only the shape, figure,
41:51
Speaker 1: or configuration of anything, but also the constitution, conditional arrangement, organization,
41:58
Speaker 1: or system of anything. As for instance, water assumes the
42:02
Speaker 1: form of ice or carbon manifests in the form of
42:05
Speaker 1: the diamond. Material change in becoming precede by means of
42:09
Speaker 1: transmutation i e. Change of one nature, character, or substance
42:14
Speaker 1: into another, or transformation i e. Change of one form, shape,
42:18
Speaker 1: or appearance to another. Scientific investigation in philosophical reasoning disclose
42:24
Speaker 1: the fact that all existing material things in the universe,
42:27
Speaker 1: all material objects, things, events, and activities, are constantly in
42:32
Speaker 1: continuously undergoing the process of change. In becoming, all material
42:36
Speaker 1: things a arise originally in come into existence from some
42:40
Speaker 1: preceding material thing or things through the process of change.
42:44
Speaker 1: In becoming, they be a bide temporarily poised in existence
42:49
Speaker 1: in a state of change and becoming. They c finally
42:52
Speaker 1: pass out of existence into subsequent material forms, states, or
42:57
Speaker 1: conditions through the process of change. And because nothing is
43:02
Speaker 1: constant but change, says the old philosopher, everything in all
43:06
Speaker 1: things exist in a state of flux. In becoming, says
43:09
Speaker 1: another of equal antiquity. Change and becoming are basic facts
43:13
Speaker 1: of objective material existence, and are manifest in every part
43:17
Speaker 1: of the physical universe, in everything, and in that universe
43:21
Speaker 1: as a whole. Nothing escapes change and becoming. That is,
43:26
Speaker 1: nothing except the power that causes the change and becoming.
43:30
Speaker 1: Creation proceeds by change, Evolution proceeds by change. The law
43:36
Speaker 1: of change enforces its edicts upon all alike, upon high
43:39
Speaker 1: and low, great and small, good and bad. None escape it.
43:44
Speaker 1: All physical activities, all phenomenal events, are perceived to be processes,
43:49
Speaker 1: processes of change and becoming. Everything has its birth in
43:54
Speaker 1: and from something else, its temporary, poised existence, its final
43:58
Speaker 1: passing away, all under process of change and becoming. The
44:02
Speaker 1: cosmos is perceived to be a cosmic process. Nothing abides,
44:07
Speaker 1: everything passes, Everything arises in something precedent and disappears into
44:12
Speaker 1: something subsequent. No thing arises from nothingness, nor passes into nothingness.
44:19
Speaker 1: The universe is like a great flame. It seems to
44:21
Speaker 1: be the same identical thing throughout its whole existence, and
44:25
Speaker 1: in one sense it is so, But in another sense
44:28
Speaker 1: it is not the same identical thing for even two
44:30
Speaker 1: consecutive seconds of time. From the strict technical viewpoint, the
44:35
Speaker 1: flame is seen to be merely a process of combustion,
44:38
Speaker 1: a series of successive burning particles. But from another viewpoint,
44:42
Speaker 1: it is seen and felt that there is an underlying
44:45
Speaker 1: something or somewhat, a constant, substantial unity and identity of
44:49
Speaker 1: reality in meaning underlying the process of changes. Intellect, made
44:54
Speaker 1: dizzy by this constant and continuous process of change and becoming,
44:58
Speaker 1: at times experiences the th fear that its world may
45:01
Speaker 1: be built upon sinking sand rather than upon solid rock. Accordingly,
45:06
Speaker 1: it demands and receives assurance and reassurance from intuition concerning
45:10
Speaker 1: the existence of a constant fundamental substance underlying all change
45:14
Speaker 1: and becoming. Intuition assures intellect that there is and must
45:18
Speaker 1: be a fundamental substance that persists and remains constant throughout
45:22
Speaker 1: all changes, that underlies and supports all changes of form, state,
45:26
Speaker 1: and conditions of material things, something constant and stable, immutable,
45:31
Speaker 1: and firm, forever and forever. Intellect, accordingly, two thousand years
45:36
Speaker 1: ago or more, formulated a law of thought which embodies
45:40
Speaker 1: this report of intuition. A thing always remains itself and
45:44
Speaker 1: nothing but itself, notwithstanding the manifold states forms and conditions
45:48
Speaker 1: which it assumes or undergoes, and under which it manifests
45:52
Speaker 1: and presents itself in appearance. This axiomatic truth, carried to
45:57
Speaker 1: its logical conclusion, leads directly to the final conception of
46:01
Speaker 1: an ultimate fundamental substance. As Dalka says, every consistent application
46:06
Speaker 1: of the laws of thought seems perforced to conduct to
46:09
Speaker 1: an unconditioned constant situated at the root of things. All
46:13
Speaker 1: human thinking, without exception, operates with the concept of a
46:17
Speaker 1: constant substens lying at the root of things. Thou critic
46:22
Speaker 1: must conform thyself to this rule. It is a necessity
46:25
Speaker 1: of thought. Much of the opposition to the conception of
46:29
Speaker 1: fundamental substance material or stuff as an ultimate fact or principle,
46:34
Speaker 1: both in ancient and in modern philosophic thought, both of
46:37
Speaker 1: Occidental and Oriental philosophy, has arisen from a misconception of
46:41
Speaker 1: the essential nature of that ultimate fact or principle. In
46:45
Speaker 1: its form of matter, it has been thought of as gross, solid,
46:48
Speaker 1: heavy stuff. When the term matter has been employed, the
46:53
Speaker 1: mind has proceeded immediately to conceive of a something like,
46:56
Speaker 1: for instance, a block of granite, an ingot of steel,
47:00
Speaker 1: lump of clay, or a mass of mud. This was
47:03
Speaker 1: particularly true in the case of Western World philosophy. The
47:07
Speaker 1: Oriental philosophy, on the other hand, has always held that
47:11
Speaker 1: substance matter or stuff, in its essential, elemental, ultimate state
47:16
Speaker 1: form or condition, is something quite different from this quite
47:19
Speaker 1: opposite to it. In fact, the ancient Oriental philosophies have
47:23
Speaker 1: always posited fundamental material substance as something infinitely fine, infinitely rare,
47:29
Speaker 1: infinitely tenuous, subtle, ethereal, something as much finer than the
47:33
Speaker 1: finest gas, as the latter is finer than a piece
47:36
Speaker 1: of hard metal or stone, something infinitely finer than even
47:39
Speaker 1: that hypothetical universal ether of modern Western science. Modern Western science,
47:46
Speaker 1: in time arrived at the conclusion that the ultimate elements
47:48
Speaker 1: of matter were infinitesimal particles, called atoms, of almost incredible fineness, lightness,
47:54
Speaker 1: and tenuity. Of these, the grosser and more solid forms
47:57
Speaker 1: of matter were held to be worked up, made, or
48:00
Speaker 1: manufactured by natural forces. There were held to be from
48:04
Speaker 1: eighty to ninety such classes of elemental atoms, and science
48:08
Speaker 1: was well on its way to resolving these into the
48:10
Speaker 1: lightest and finest of them, all ie, the atom of hydrogen,
48:14
Speaker 1: and of holding that the other atoms are compounds or
48:16
Speaker 1: derivatives of this ultimate stuff. But before this point was reached,
48:21
Speaker 1: radium was discovered, and the atom was found not to
48:24
Speaker 1: be the ultimate form of matter at all, but rather
48:27
Speaker 1: to be composed of something still finer and more elemental ie,
48:31
Speaker 1: the electrons, ions, or corpusals of an infinitely tenuous, ethereal substance.
48:37
Speaker 1: The present conception of modern science concerning the ultimate nature
48:41
Speaker 1: of matter is expressed in the following extracts from a
48:44
Speaker 1: lecture delivered a few years ago by Sir William Crook's
48:47
Speaker 1: physicists are now saying that there is a possibility that
48:50
Speaker 1: there is no such thing as matter as formerly understood
48:53
Speaker 1: by that term. Some say that the electron is pure
48:57
Speaker 1: disembodied electricity, thus approaching the old idea of Boskovich accepted
49:01
Speaker 1: by Faraday, that the atom is only a center of force.
49:05
Speaker 1: The idea of the chemical elements as something absolutely primary
49:09
Speaker 1: and ultimate has grown less and less distinct, until today
49:13
Speaker 1: we admit the possibility of resolving them into simpler forms,
49:16
Speaker 1: or else refining them away altogether. When we have split
49:20
Speaker 1: the atom into hundreds of little bits, these residual particles
49:23
Speaker 1: turn out to be nothing more than superimposed layers of
49:26
Speaker 1: positive and negative electricity. Another scientist adds Crooks, refrain from
49:32
Speaker 1: telling us what would happen if some clever researcher of
49:34
Speaker 1: the future should discover a method of making these alternative
49:37
Speaker 1: layers of plus and minus cancel each other out of existence.
49:42
Speaker 1: Einstein goes even further. He posits matter as consisting of
49:47
Speaker 1: infinitesimal centers of disturbance in something still more ethereal, the
49:51
Speaker 1: nature of which he does not even attempt to explain
49:53
Speaker 1: or speculate about. The electrons are estimated to be so
49:58
Speaker 1: extremely small that millions of them might be gathered on
50:00
Speaker 1: the point of the finest needle, and to be so
50:03
Speaker 1: tenuous and light that an atom of hydrogen gas would
50:06
Speaker 1: be solid as compared with them. But Einstein goes beyond this,
50:11
Speaker 1: as may be seen by reference to the statement of
50:13
Speaker 1: Sir Joseph Thompson in a recent article in a British
50:16
Speaker 1: scientific magazine. As follows, the size of the centers of disturbance,
50:21
Speaker 1: which in Einstein's theory are associated with matter, bears to
50:24
Speaker 1: the size of the electron about the same proportions that
50:27
Speaker 1: the size of the smallest particle visible under the most
50:30
Speaker 1: perfect microscope bears to the size of the Earth itself.
50:34
Speaker 1: These discoveries and experiments have been regarded as bringing about
50:37
Speaker 1: the dematerialization of matter, and so they do if the
50:41
Speaker 1: old conception of matter be employed in making the statement.
50:44
Speaker 1: But there are other and far better philosophical conceptions of
50:47
Speaker 1: ultimate substance, as we shall see presently. Before passing on,
50:52
Speaker 1: we may venture to call your attention to the fact
50:55
Speaker 1: that even these newly discovered ultimate particles are given the
50:58
Speaker 1: attributes of size, shape, and form. They are held to
51:02
Speaker 1: have extension and to occupy space. Whatever has size, shape, form,
51:08
Speaker 1: and extension. Whatever occupies space, no matter how little space,
51:13
Speaker 1: comes clearly within the basic category of substance, matter or stuff,
51:18
Speaker 1: And even the most extreme of the New school of
51:20
Speaker 1: physicists are forced to admit that the idea of electricity
51:24
Speaker 1: without substance, body or stuff is practically inconceivable. At the last,
51:30
Speaker 1: they are seen to have merely discovered a still finer
51:32
Speaker 1: and more elemental substance material or stuff in which electricity
51:36
Speaker 1: finds its necessary body. The comparative immateriality and dematerialization of
51:43
Speaker 1: this new form of substance, material or stuff discovered by
51:47
Speaker 1: science is indicated in the following statement of John Burroughs,
51:50
Speaker 1: the eminent naturalist science. The new science pursues matter to
51:56
Speaker 1: the vanishing point where it ceases to be matter and
51:59
Speaker 1: becomes pure force or spirit. What takes place in the
52:02
Speaker 1: imaginary world where ponderable matter ends and becomes disembodied force,
52:07
Speaker 1: and where the hypothetical atoms are no longer indivisible. We
52:10
Speaker 1: may conjecture but may never know. The atomic theory of
52:14
Speaker 1: matter leads us into a non material world, or a
52:17
Speaker 1: world the inverse of the solid, three dimensional world that
52:20
Speaker 1: our senses reveal to us, or to matter. In a
52:23
Speaker 1: fourth estate. We know solids and fluids and gases, but emanations,
52:28
Speaker 1: which are neither we know only as spirits or ghosts
52:31
Speaker 1: by dream or hearsay. Yet this fourth or ethereal a
52:35
Speaker 1: state of matter, seems to be the final, real and
52:38
Speaker 1: fundamental position. How it differs from spirit, it is not
52:42
Speaker 1: easy to define. Science strips matter of its grossness. When
52:48
Speaker 1: it has done with it, it is no longer the
52:50
Speaker 1: obstructive something that we know and handle. It is reduced
52:53
Speaker 1: to pure energy. The line between it and spirit does
52:56
Speaker 1: not exist. Burrows, however, was carried a bit too far
53:01
Speaker 1: in his wonder concerning the new conceptions of matter. Pure
53:05
Speaker 1: energy in the absence of substance or stuff is inconceivable.
53:09
Speaker 1: Pure force is meaningless, as we shall see when we
53:12
Speaker 1: pass on to the consideration of energy and force. In
53:15
Speaker 1: the following section of this book, and as we shall
53:18
Speaker 1: see elsewhere, there is a decided line of distinction between
53:22
Speaker 1: this conception and that of spirit, the distinction consisting of
53:25
Speaker 1: the fact that spirit explains life, whereas neither matter or
53:28
Speaker 1: pure force can do so. But Burroughs was quite correct
53:32
Speaker 1: when he referred to this fourth or ethereal, a state
53:35
Speaker 1: of matter, which seems to be the final, real and
53:38
Speaker 1: fundamental position. For this is just what the ancient Oriental
53:42
Speaker 1: sages have always held that ultimate substance is and must be,
53:46
Speaker 1: and what modern science was beginning to see that it
53:48
Speaker 1: must be, before its thought was distracted by the new
53:51
Speaker 1: discoveries above referred to, and to which position it must
53:54
Speaker 1: again return. Science has long been dreaming of an ethereal
53:59
Speaker 1: state of matter, and has made an attempt to posit
54:01
Speaker 1: it in its somewhat imperfect and indefinite hypothesis of the
54:04
Speaker 1: universal ether. After the discrepancies of the electronic theory have
54:09
Speaker 1: been ironed out, reconciled, or canceled away, it will be
54:13
Speaker 1: found that science will return to its former position concerning
54:16
Speaker 1: the ultimate ethereal state of matter. In fact, many eminent
54:19
Speaker 1: scientists have never entirely let go of that idea, and
54:23
Speaker 1: they are now beginning once more to push it to
54:25
Speaker 1: the front of scientific thought. Many careful scientific minds are
54:29
Speaker 1: even now holding that the electrons, ions or corpusals that
54:34
Speaker 1: disembodied electricity, or the centers of disturbance of the new
54:38
Speaker 1: theories are but points, vortex rings, or centers of disturbance
54:42
Speaker 1: in and of ethereal substance, matter or stuff. This ethereal
54:47
Speaker 1: substance or the ether, is held by science to fill
54:51
Speaker 1: all space, to be infinitely tight, tenuous, and imponderable, so
54:56
Speaker 1: much so that, as one critic said, it is matter
54:58
Speaker 1: with the properties of a vacu for it fills even
55:01
Speaker 1: the space from which the air has been extracted. It
55:04
Speaker 1: abides even between the particles of air and gas, even
55:08
Speaker 1: between the electrons, ions, points of electricity, or the centers
55:12
Speaker 1: of disturbance previously mentioned. So thoroughly essential and ultimate is it.
55:18
Speaker 1: So truly is it ethereal, that it has been called
55:21
Speaker 1: an infinite possibility of things, rather than a thing itself.
55:24
Speaker 1: Yet scientific experiments have proved conclusively that it exists, or,
55:29
Speaker 1: in extreme cases of conservative caution, that something like it exists.
55:34
Speaker 1: Thus is modern Western science reaching out its hand to
55:37
Speaker 1: the conception of ancient oriental philosophy. Thus, is it reaching
55:41
Speaker 1: an agreement with the ancient teaching of ultimate ethereal substance.
55:45
Speaker 1: The article in the Encyclopedia Britannica eleventh edition dealing with
55:50
Speaker 1: the subject of the ether says that the ether is
55:53
Speaker 1: a material substance of a more subtle kind than visible bodies,
55:57
Speaker 1: supposed to exist in those parts of space which which
56:00
Speaker 1: are apparently empty. It also refers to it as being
56:03
Speaker 1: regarded as differing from ordinary matter in degree, but not
56:07
Speaker 1: in kind. It also speaks of the scientific conception of
56:11
Speaker 1: the atomic particles of matter as being each the nucleus
56:14
Speaker 1: or core of an intrinsic modification impressed on the surrounding
56:18
Speaker 1: region of the ether. This might conceivably be of the
56:21
Speaker 1: nature of a vortical motion of a liquid round or
56:23
Speaker 1: ring core, thus giving a vortex atom, or of an
56:26
Speaker 1: intrinsic strain of some sort radiating from a core which
56:29
Speaker 1: would give an electric atom. Finally, it speaks of the
56:33
Speaker 1: recent scientific discoveries of radioactivity and of the free electron,
56:37
Speaker 1: et cetera, and adds these results constitute a far reaching
56:41
Speaker 1: development of the modern or electrodynamic theory of the ether,
56:45
Speaker 1: of which the issue can hardly be seen. We shall
56:48
Speaker 1: have more to say concerning the ethereal state of matter,
56:51
Speaker 1: the ether of science, as related to the ultimate ethereal
56:55
Speaker 1: substance of Oriental philosophy when we reach a later point
56:58
Speaker 1: of this instruction. For the present, we are content to
57:02
Speaker 1: leave it with you merely as a concept and idea
57:04
Speaker 1: of an infinitely ethereal substance extended throughout all space, in
57:08
Speaker 1: which all material things abide, move, and have their being,
57:12
Speaker 1: and which is the material substance and stuff from which
57:15
Speaker 1: the bodiness of all material things is constituted, composed, and
57:19
Speaker 1: made up. If you wish to form a mental picture
57:22
Speaker 1: of this essential substance, you may try the experiment by
57:25
Speaker 1: beginning with a mental picture of the hardest most solid
57:28
Speaker 1: form of matter, then passing through the stages of thinner solids,
57:32
Speaker 1: and through liquids from thickest to thinnest, than through gases
57:36
Speaker 1: from heaviest to lightest, and then on to an infinity
57:39
Speaker 1: of refinement, reduction, and resolution, resulting in an absolutely elemental essence.
57:45
Speaker 1: Then you will have found at least the direction in
57:48
Speaker 1: which the concept of that ultimate substance, that ultimate ether,
57:52
Speaker 1: must be looked for and sought spiritual power the infinite
57:56
Speaker 1: found by William Walker Atkinson nineteen twenty two. Actuating energy.
58:04
Speaker 1: You are now asked to consider the actuating energy which
58:07
Speaker 1: operates to move things, to produce changes in them, to
58:11
Speaker 1: cause them to perform actions. As Dalka says, there is
58:15
Speaker 1: present something given an actuality, which we designate by the
58:18
Speaker 1: collective name of world. The world system comes before us
58:23
Speaker 1: in a twofold aspect, on the one hand, as something
58:26
Speaker 1: that is i e. Things, on the other hand, as
58:30
Speaker 1: something that happens i e. The play of events among things.
58:35
Speaker 1: A thing without a happening attached is as little to
58:38
Speaker 1: be found as a happening without a thing in the
58:42
Speaker 1: world system. We know principally only processes, events, happenings. Intellect
58:48
Speaker 1: and intuition report that happenings, events processes occur only when
58:53
Speaker 1: and where there is present and active and actuating energy.
58:57
Speaker 1: By the term actuating is meant putting into action, motion, moving,
59:01
Speaker 1: or inciting to action. In this instruction, the term energy
59:06
Speaker 1: is employed in the sense and with the meaning of
59:08
Speaker 1: internal or inherent power, strength, potency, might, or capacity of acting, operating,
59:14
Speaker 1: or producing effects. The term power is frequently employed as
59:19
Speaker 1: if it were synonymous with energy, but power has also
59:22
Speaker 1: a special shade of meaning, ie that of the ability
59:26
Speaker 1: to perform work, particularly work directed to an end. The
59:30
Speaker 1: term force also is frequently employed as a synonym of energy,
59:34
Speaker 1: but it also has a special meaning, ie that of
59:37
Speaker 1: power to impose or enforce action and movement upon other things.
59:42
Speaker 1: The term strength, which indicates an essential element of energy
59:46
Speaker 1: force power, is defined as quality or state of being strong, ie.
59:51
Speaker 1: Having great power to act or to resist action, or
59:54
Speaker 1: to bear or endure the application of force. The special
59:58
Speaker 1: and peculiar characteristic of energy is indicated by the original
1:00:02
Speaker 1: meaning of the term employed to indicate it. The English
1:00:05
Speaker 1: term energy is derived from the Latin term energia, which
1:00:10
Speaker 1: in turn was derived from two Greek terms meaning in
1:00:13
Speaker 1: and work, respectively. So the English term energy is equivalent
1:00:18
Speaker 1: to energy or internal power. You will note that its
1:00:22
Speaker 1: definition carries the meaning internal or inherent. Energy is an
1:00:27
Speaker 1: in force and in power and in strength. It is
1:00:31
Speaker 1: in things and works in them and from within them.
1:00:36
Speaker 1: This fact is important and should be borne in mind.
1:00:39
Speaker 1: It is impossible to conceive of energy outside of or
1:00:43
Speaker 1: not within things. It is always the power within, the
1:00:47
Speaker 1: inner strength, the internal force. Physical science tacively. Adopting the
1:00:53
Speaker 1: materialistic view broadly defines energy as a condition or a
1:00:57
Speaker 1: tribute by virtue of which matter can affect in other matter.
1:01:02
Speaker 1: But this definition ignores all mental energy, of which will
1:01:05
Speaker 1: power is a characteristic example. However, as you see, even
1:01:10
Speaker 1: the materialistic view involves the idea of internal and inherent
1:01:14
Speaker 1: power in its conception of energy. A reference work in
1:01:18
Speaker 1: considering energy from the viewpoint of physical science says, of
1:01:22
Speaker 1: the ultimate nature of energy as that of matter, we
1:01:25
Speaker 1: are ignorant, nor do we know of energy except by
1:01:28
Speaker 1: direct observation, except as associated with matter. Materialism and physical
1:01:34
Speaker 1: science formally regarded energy as an attribute or property of
1:01:38
Speaker 1: the atoms and masses of matter. But since the discovery
1:01:41
Speaker 1: that matter is not ultimate substance, there is manifested a
1:01:44
Speaker 1: tendency to posit energy as an inherent attribute, property, quality,
1:01:49
Speaker 1: or power of the universal ether, matter, as you have seen,
1:01:52
Speaker 1: being regarded as a derivative product of the ether worked
1:01:56
Speaker 1: up by elemental energy. Actuating energy, where regarded as a
1:02:00
Speaker 1: general category or comprehensive principle, includes within its content all forms, kinds, classes,
1:02:07
Speaker 1: and degrees of energy, power, force, and active strength, physical, mental,
1:02:12
Speaker 1: or spiritual manifest or potential in the cosmos. It is
1:02:16
Speaker 1: this actuating energy which produces all change in becoming, and
1:02:20
Speaker 1: therefore all creative activity in the cosmos. By creation is
1:02:25
Speaker 1: meant all bringing into existence by change and becoming, and
1:02:29
Speaker 1: not that creation from nothing assumed by certainological theology. Although
1:02:34
Speaker 1: not by all theology, nor even by the best theology,
1:02:38
Speaker 1: the best thought, philosophical, scientific, or theological, holds that existence,
1:02:44
Speaker 1: in its essence and substance is eternal, and that from
1:02:47
Speaker 1: nothing no thing proceeds. Actuating energy therefore is seen to
1:02:53
Speaker 1: be the actuating cause of all forms of existence, of
1:02:56
Speaker 1: all events and happenings. It is the causative power working
1:02:59
Speaker 1: in upon all things and manifesting constant creation, evolution, change
1:03:04
Speaker 1: and becoming in its entirety, totality, and wholeness, and in
1:03:09
Speaker 1: its ultimate state, mode and condition. It is to be
1:03:12
Speaker 1: regarded as the cause of causes, as the supreme causative power.
1:03:17
Speaker 1: By supreme is meant highest in authority government or power
1:03:22
Speaker 1: by causative is meant effective cause, expressing in manifesting causation,
1:03:28
Speaker 1: i e. The production of effects. The full meaning of
1:03:32
Speaker 1: this last mentioned term will be brought out in the
1:03:34
Speaker 1: following paragraph. In which the term and concept cause is
1:03:37
Speaker 1: considered in detail. The general meaning of cause is that
1:03:42
Speaker 1: which affects a result or produces an effect. Cause an
1:03:45
Speaker 1: effect is regarded as regularity of sequence relating effective antecedents
1:03:50
Speaker 1: and affected subsequence. The following statement concerning causes should be
1:03:55
Speaker 1: carefully studied, for it embodies the essential spirit of the
1:03:58
Speaker 1: concept of causation. The causes of an event are the
1:04:01
Speaker 1: preceding events without which the event in question would not
1:04:04
Speaker 1: have occurred or have come into existence. The circumstances which
1:04:08
Speaker 1: must have preceded an event in order that the event
1:04:10
Speaker 1: should happen, The previous events without which the event in
1:04:14
Speaker 1: question could not have happened or have come into existence,
1:04:17
Speaker 1: but which, being present, the event in question must happen, occur,
1:04:21
Speaker 1: or come into existence. In the above statement, you will
1:04:25
Speaker 1: note that the term event is employed both in the
1:04:28
Speaker 1: sense of a happening which occurs and that of a
1:04:31
Speaker 1: thing which comes into existence. In philosophic and scientific usage,
1:04:36
Speaker 1: an event is that which comes, arrives or happens by
1:04:40
Speaker 1: way of change, in becoming, a change in things, or
1:04:43
Speaker 1: a changing thing. As all happenings are changes in things,
1:04:47
Speaker 1: and as all things are changing things. It is seen
1:04:51
Speaker 1: that all happenings, and all things in particular or as
1:04:54
Speaker 1: a whole, come under the general term events, and are
1:04:57
Speaker 1: governed by the general law of causation. Everything that comes, arrives, happens, changes,
1:05:04
Speaker 1: or becomes is under the law of causation, and comes, arrives, happens, changes,
1:05:10
Speaker 1: or becomes by reason of the supreme causative power, which,
1:05:14
Speaker 1: as we have seen, is the actuating energy, which is
1:05:17
Speaker 1: the subject of our present consideration. Science and all logical
1:05:22
Speaker 1: rational philosophy, whether materialistic or spiritual philosophy, and all rational
1:05:27
Speaker 1: theology as well, are in practical agreement upon the fact
1:05:31
Speaker 1: that the material universe, the cosmos, is a cosmic process.
1:05:36
Speaker 1: The cosmos, as you have seen, is the universe conceived
1:05:40
Speaker 1: as proceeding according to law and order, cause and effect.
1:05:44
Speaker 1: The term process, as employed in philosophic and scientific thought,
1:05:48
Speaker 1: is a series of actions, motions, or occurrences proceeding in
1:05:53
Speaker 1: continuous operation, regular sequence, and orderly trend. In all processes
1:05:59
Speaker 1: there is found many manifested causation the law of cause
1:06:02
Speaker 1: and effect. Under the operation of the actuating energy of
1:06:05
Speaker 1: the cosmos, the universe is perceived to proceed I e
1:06:10
Speaker 1: to move and pass onward and forward in regularity of
1:06:13
Speaker 1: sequence and orderly trend. Its activities constitute a procession of events,
1:06:20
Speaker 1: Like a great river, its movement carries it ever onward.
1:06:23
Speaker 1: The river is always there, but the same place never
1:06:26
Speaker 1: is the scene of the passage of the same particles.
1:06:28
Speaker 1: For even two consecutive seconds, new particles and forms replace
1:06:32
Speaker 1: those which have passed onward and forward. Set an ancient
1:06:36
Speaker 1: Greek philosopher, the same river is never the same river
1:06:39
Speaker 1: for two consecutive moments of time. It is a different river,
1:06:42
Speaker 1: yet we call it the same, or rather, in one
1:06:45
Speaker 1: sense it is the same river, while in another sense
1:06:47
Speaker 1: it is a different river. Or Employing the favorite figure
1:06:51
Speaker 1: of the ancient Buddhists, we may say that the preceding universe,
1:06:55
Speaker 1: or the universal process, is like the burning flame, which
1:06:59
Speaker 1: we think and speak of as the same identical flame
1:07:01
Speaker 1: so long as it burns, although its burning particles are
1:07:05
Speaker 1: ever passing away and being succeeded by new ones. Modern
1:07:09
Speaker 1: philosophers and modern poets liken the preceding universe to a
1:07:12
Speaker 1: cosmic moving picture film. It scenes ever move onward and
1:07:16
Speaker 1: are replaced by new ones following it in regular order.
1:07:20
Speaker 1: When we think that we are considering a stable universe
1:07:22
Speaker 1: or one of its scenes, we are but gazing at
1:07:25
Speaker 1: a clipped off section of the film. The clipping, however,
1:07:29
Speaker 1: is performed by our own act of attention, and the
1:07:31
Speaker 1: bit of film is not really detached from the role
1:07:34
Speaker 1: of time. It too moves on and is succeeded by another.
1:07:38
Speaker 1: As the poet has said, they say time passes alas
1:07:43
Speaker 1: no time stays while we pass. Heraclitis, the Grecian philosopher
1:07:49
Speaker 1: of living about two thousand, five hundred years ago, said
1:07:52
Speaker 1: the universe is in a state of flux. It flows
1:07:55
Speaker 1: ever onward, ever the same, yet ever different. Gaudma, the Buddha,
1:08:00
Speaker 1: who lived about the same time, said everything passes except
1:08:04
Speaker 1: the process of passing. Modern science says no forms abide,
1:08:09
Speaker 1: every form passes. Everything is a process. But there is
1:08:13
Speaker 1: no process, no passing on, no regularity of sequence and
1:08:17
Speaker 1: orderly trend without the operation of causation. And causation is creation,
1:08:22
Speaker 1: for even when it is tearing down, it is creating
1:08:24
Speaker 1: the materials for a subsequent building up process. Each and
1:08:28
Speaker 1: everything in the universe is perceived to have proceeded from
1:08:31
Speaker 1: some preceding thing, to have issued and come forth from
1:08:34
Speaker 1: something precedent, which is its relative source in origin, its
1:08:38
Speaker 1: so called cause. In turn, this relative cause, source or
1:08:42
Speaker 1: origin is perceived to have proceeded from some preceding cause,
1:08:46
Speaker 1: source or origin, and this in turn from one still
1:08:49
Speaker 1: more remote, and so on and on and on, until
1:08:53
Speaker 1: the sequential procession is lost to view in the regress
1:08:56
Speaker 1: of infinity or the eternal flux. Likewise, looking forward, the
1:09:02
Speaker 1: chain of cause effect is seen in imagination and thought
1:09:05
Speaker 1: to proceed onward and forward into infinity, into the progress
1:09:09
Speaker 1: of infinity or the eternal flux. Not only this, but
1:09:13
Speaker 1: the character of things is perceived to arise and to
1:09:16
Speaker 1: be determined by the influence and presence of other things,
1:09:19
Speaker 1: which likewise may be called causes, conditioning causes. There is
1:09:24
Speaker 1: a cause or reason for the form, character, and circumstances
1:09:28
Speaker 1: of everything in the universe. Everything is perceived to possess
1:09:32
Speaker 1: a definite character, form, and disposition which is directly or
1:09:36
Speaker 1: indirectly derived from the presence and influence of other things.
1:09:40
Speaker 1: It is not only true that everything is by reason
1:09:43
Speaker 1: of other things having been. It is also true that
1:09:46
Speaker 1: everything is just what it is and just where it
1:09:49
Speaker 1: is by reason of other things. Having been just what
1:09:52
Speaker 1: they were and just where they were. Everything in existence
1:09:56
Speaker 1: then is perceived to be but a link in an
1:09:58
Speaker 1: infinite chain of regulars of sequence and orderly trend, ever
1:10:02
Speaker 1: proceeding onward and forward by reason of the operation of
1:10:05
Speaker 1: the law of cause and effect. The chain proceeds so
1:10:09
Speaker 1: far in either direction, back to the past or forward
1:10:12
Speaker 1: into the future, that human thought reels in. Human imagination
1:10:15
Speaker 1: is dismayed when an attempt is made to think or
1:10:17
Speaker 1: to picture the extent of the chain. It is indeed
1:10:21
Speaker 1: an endless chain of infinite causation eternal creation, winding around
1:10:26
Speaker 1: the immeasurable wheel of infinite and eternal process. Human thought,
1:10:31
Speaker 1: exerted and extended to its limits along the lines of
1:10:34
Speaker 1: logical philosophical thought, inevitably, invariably and infallibly arrives sooner or
1:10:40
Speaker 1: later at the point where it finds itself compelled to
1:10:42
Speaker 1: posit the necessary existence, presence, power, and activity of a
1:10:47
Speaker 1: supreme creative power, a supreme creative cause, to account for
1:10:52
Speaker 1: and explain the presence and movement of the infinite process
1:10:55
Speaker 1: which the universe is discovered to be. This thought has
1:10:58
Speaker 1: been expressed strikingly in the following statement of a modern
1:11:01
Speaker 1: writer observing the uniformity the immutability of the processes of nature,
1:11:07
Speaker 1: we recognize that every fact has its antecedent, and this
1:11:10
Speaker 1: again its own, and so on and on, until in
1:11:13
Speaker 1: retracing the process we lose ourselves after a few or
1:11:16
Speaker 1: more steps in the single universal cause, we lose ourselves
1:11:21
Speaker 1: in infinity. We recognize the manifestations the workings of the
1:11:26
Speaker 1: eternal power in ourselves as well as in nature generally.
1:11:30
Speaker 1: And we know from history human, geological and astronomical, that
1:11:34
Speaker 1: thus has nature manifested itself since time has recorded. Sir
1:11:39
Speaker 1: Edwin Arnold, in his great poem The Light of Asia,
1:11:42
Speaker 1: has pictured the ancient Buddhistic conception of the eternal infinity
1:11:46
Speaker 1: of creation in the following beautiful lines and cause and sequence,
1:11:51
Speaker 1: and the course of time and being ceaseless tide, which
1:11:55
Speaker 1: ever changing, runs linked like a river by ripples, following ripples, fasts, slow,
1:12:01
Speaker 1: the same yet not the same, from far off fountain
1:12:04
Speaker 1: to where its waters flow into the seas. These steaming
1:12:08
Speaker 1: to the sun give the lost wavelets back in cloudy fleece,
1:12:12
Speaker 1: to trickle down the hills and glide again, having no
1:12:15
Speaker 1: pause or peace. But even in such poetical imagery, you
1:12:19
Speaker 1: will notice the constant and invariable implication of the supreme
1:12:23
Speaker 1: creative power, which is the ultimate actuating energy of creation.
1:12:27
Speaker 1: This is the power that animates, energizes, inspires, and causes
1:12:31
Speaker 1: the totality of the infinity of activity, which is manifested
1:12:35
Speaker 1: in the eternal creation. This is that actuating energy of
1:12:39
Speaker 1: being ceaseless tide, which proceeds and manifests through cause and
1:12:43
Speaker 1: sequence and the course of time. This is the eternal
1:12:47
Speaker 1: power which makes the wheels go round in the eternal
1:12:50
Speaker 1: creative process. This is that ultimate creative power which, in
1:12:55
Speaker 1: the eternal process creates, holds, poised, and then destroys all
1:12:59
Speaker 1: material forms of things, while creation as a whole continues
1:13:03
Speaker 1: and persists without cessation and without interruption. This is that
1:13:07
Speaker 1: eternal something of which Omar Khayam speaks, whose secret presence
1:13:12
Speaker 1: through Creation's veins running quicksilver like elude your pains, taking
1:13:17
Speaker 1: all shapes from Mah to mahi, and they change and
1:13:20
Speaker 1: perish all but he remains. Intellect and intuition are agreed
1:13:25
Speaker 1: upon this basic conviction that there is and must be
1:13:28
Speaker 1: present and active a supreme actuating energy which accounts for
1:13:32
Speaker 1: and explains, which causes and creates the infinity of finite changing,
1:13:37
Speaker 1: passing forms of which the created universe is composed, which
1:13:41
Speaker 1: governs and controls, regulates and determines the manifold and diverse
1:13:45
Speaker 1: activities which are manifested in the universe. If intellect tries
1:13:49
Speaker 1: to escape this conviction, intuition always operates to bring back
1:13:53
Speaker 1: the prodigal to the home of truth after he has
1:13:56
Speaker 1: lived on the husks of skepticism and among the swine
1:13:58
Speaker 1: of the styes of denial. Strive as it may, intellect
1:14:02
Speaker 1: is never really satisfied with the subterfuges, evasions, and verbal
1:14:07
Speaker 1: substitutes which are offered in place of this basic report
1:14:10
Speaker 1: of the necessary existence of a supreme actuating principle. If
1:14:14
Speaker 1: it is sufficiently active, it is usually able to brush
1:14:17
Speaker 1: aside and discard the mass of verbiage composing the body
1:14:20
Speaker 1: of such substitutes. They are defined in the heart of
1:14:23
Speaker 1: the idea a confirmation rather than a contradiction of the
1:14:25
Speaker 1: true basic principle. Fallacies frequently fail to hide entirely the
1:14:30
Speaker 1: truth they seek to deny. Often, indeed, they serve to
1:14:34
Speaker 1: reveal that truth. When sufficiently acute thought is applied to
1:14:38
Speaker 1: the problem. As for intuition, it never is even in
1:14:41
Speaker 1: the least disturbed in the matter it knows, and it
1:14:44
Speaker 1: knows that it knows. Intellect often runs around in circles,
1:14:49
Speaker 1: like the man lost in the forest, like the squirrel
1:14:51
Speaker 1: spinning the wheel of its prison cage, always traveling but
1:14:55
Speaker 1: never getting anywhere in its endeavors to escape this fundamental conviction.
1:14:59
Speaker 1: But soon, sooner or later it finds peace and certainty
1:15:02
Speaker 1: by reason of the influence of intuition which has been
1:15:04
Speaker 1: superimposed upon it. Intuition itself is never moved by this doubt.
1:15:10
Speaker 1: It never doubts this truth, for it knows and knows
1:15:13
Speaker 1: certainly that such is truth. You may satisfy yourself of
1:15:17
Speaker 1: the fact that the postulate of the presence and activity
1:15:20
Speaker 1: of this supreme creative power, this supreme actuating energy, is
1:15:24
Speaker 1: a necessity of logical thought. If you will but try
1:15:27
Speaker 1: to think of the changing universe as lacking such supreme
1:15:29
Speaker 1: actuating principle, you will soon discover that it is impossible
1:15:33
Speaker 1: to account for or explain the cosmos without such a
1:15:36
Speaker 1: fundamental postulate. Moreover, you will discover that at the heart
1:15:41
Speaker 1: of all philosophies scientific thought rational metaphysics, and similar reports
1:15:46
Speaker 1: of reason, there will always be found, though sometimes disguised
1:15:50
Speaker 1: or partially concealed, the actual or implied assertion of the
1:15:53
Speaker 1: presence in power of such a supreme principle of activity.
1:15:56
Speaker 1: Let it be called by whatever name the writers or
1:15:59
Speaker 1: teachers may see fit to apply to it. It is
1:16:02
Speaker 1: always there in philosophical thought. It must be there, for
1:16:05
Speaker 1: the entire concept of the cosmos falls without its presence
1:16:09
Speaker 1: in activity being involved in the idea. The universal actuating energy,
1:16:14
Speaker 1: which we have discovered to be the creative agency or
1:16:16
Speaker 1: cause of the cosmos, also has another important office in
1:16:20
Speaker 1: the cosmic process. In addition to being the actuating cause
1:16:24
Speaker 1: of the creative process of change and becoming, it also
1:16:27
Speaker 1: serves as the unifying agent which holds together, in combination, correlation,
1:16:32
Speaker 1: and coordination, the manifold, individual and apparently separate things into
1:16:36
Speaker 1: a system or unity in which universal and constant interdependence
1:16:39
Speaker 1: and reciprocal mutual action is manifested. This office of actuating
1:16:44
Speaker 1: energy may be stated as follows, the office of holding
1:16:48
Speaker 1: together the separate elements, parts, factors, and objects of the
1:16:51
Speaker 1: universe in a unity, a whole or system of things
1:16:54
Speaker 1: in which all things exist and work together in reciprocal,
1:16:58
Speaker 1: mutual interaction or coordination. The term coordination means the state
1:17:03
Speaker 1: of being coordinate, i e. Existing in common condition, movement,
1:17:08
Speaker 1: and action in which separate things are combined correlated in
1:17:11
Speaker 1: given mutual and reciprocal existence in activity. The term combined
1:17:16
Speaker 1: means to unite or join, to cause, to coalesce, to
1:17:20
Speaker 1: hold together by affinity or natural attraction. The term correlate
1:17:25
Speaker 1: means to put or place in reciprocal relation or mutual relation.
1:17:30
Speaker 1: All philosophical thought in scientific observation results in the report
1:17:34
Speaker 1: that the universe is composed and constituted of parts, elements,
1:17:38
Speaker 1: and factors which are placed and held together by natural forces,
1:17:42
Speaker 1: and which exist in mutual relation, connection, and condition, and
1:17:46
Speaker 1: in coordinated reciprocal interaction, and thus form a unified system,
1:17:50
Speaker 1: whole or entirety. The term universe is derived from two
1:17:55
Speaker 1: Latin terms meaning to turn or to move. As one.
1:17:59
Speaker 1: It is defined as the whole body of things viewed
1:18:02
Speaker 1: as constituting a whole or a system. A system is
1:18:06
Speaker 1: an assemblage of objects arranged or existing in regular subordination, dependence,
1:18:10
Speaker 1: in connection. Hence, the whole scheme of created things regarded
1:18:14
Speaker 1: as forming one complete plan or whole i e. The
1:18:17
Speaker 1: universe consisting of all created or phenomenal things viewed as
1:18:21
Speaker 1: constituting one system, unity, entirety, or whole. The ancient Greeks
1:18:27
Speaker 1: employed the term the cosmos in the sense and meaning
1:18:30
Speaker 1: of the world conceived as proceeding according to law and order,
1:18:34
Speaker 1: as opposed to chaos, or the world conceived as a
1:18:37
Speaker 1: great number of unrelated, uncombined, and uncoordinated separate things, existing
1:18:42
Speaker 1: and proceeding without organization and in a state of lawlessness
1:18:46
Speaker 1: and disorder. Science and philosophy are in full agreement upon
1:18:50
Speaker 1: the fact that the universe is a unified, combined, correlated,
1:18:54
Speaker 1: and coordinated system of things. As Professor Nicholas Murray Butler says,
1:18:59
Speaker 1: everything else illustrates the laws which bind the universe into
1:19:02
Speaker 1: coherent unity. It is now seen that no object is independent.
1:19:07
Speaker 1: Each depends upon each other, and dependence relativity is the
1:19:11
Speaker 1: controlling principle of the universe. Everything is held in combination, correlation,
1:19:16
Speaker 1: and coordination with every other thing. Everything is dependent upon
1:19:21
Speaker 1: some other thing or things. Interdependence is universal among things.
1:19:26
Speaker 1: Things are held together and formed into a universal cooperative
1:19:29
Speaker 1: society and made to perform teamwork. No thing is absolutely
1:19:34
Speaker 1: independent of and apart from any other thing, nor from
1:19:37
Speaker 1: the totality of things. There is no absolute separateness between
1:19:42
Speaker 1: any things in the universe. Things merely seem to be
1:19:45
Speaker 1: separated by reason of our failure to discern the connecting
1:19:49
Speaker 1: bonds or links which unite them in correlation coordination. Things
1:19:53
Speaker 1: may be separated in space, but they are held together
1:19:56
Speaker 1: and united by natural attractions and influences, and are a
1:20:00
Speaker 1: as truly in practical touch with each other, as are
1:20:02
Speaker 1: the compositive particles of the atom, the block of steel,
1:20:06
Speaker 1: or the human body. Likewise, things may be separated in time,
1:20:11
Speaker 1: but they are combined, correlated, and coordinated by the links
1:20:14
Speaker 1: of causation and continuity, just as truly as are the
1:20:17
Speaker 1: successive generations of men, or animals or plants, or as
1:20:20
Speaker 1: the self of the infant with the self of the
1:20:22
Speaker 1: aged man which has proceeded from the former. As an
1:20:26
Speaker 1: old writer once said, separation is but the working fiction
1:20:29
Speaker 1: of creation. The universe is found to exist in a
1:20:33
Speaker 1: state or condition of infinite relativity. Its objects exist and
1:20:38
Speaker 1: act in infinite combination, correlation, and coordination. Everything in the
1:20:43
Speaker 1: universe exists in a state or condition of interdependence. The
1:20:47
Speaker 1: universe is perceived to be a cosmic mechanism, the numberless
1:20:51
Speaker 1: parts of which act constantly and continuously in combination, correlation,
1:20:55
Speaker 1: and coordination. Just as things are because other things have been.
1:21:00
Speaker 1: So things are as they are because other things have
1:21:02
Speaker 1: been just what they have been. And equally true is
1:21:05
Speaker 1: it that things act as they do because other things
1:21:07
Speaker 1: have acted as they did as all other things have acted.
1:21:11
Speaker 1: In fact, there is no higgeldy, piggody, or hit or
1:21:15
Speaker 1: miss or blind chance action in the cosmos. The systematic
1:21:19
Speaker 1: arrangement and orderly procedure of the multitudinous objects and activities
1:21:23
Speaker 1: of the universe all point to the certainty of cosmic
1:21:26
Speaker 1: law and order. The axiom of philosophy, science, and theology
1:21:31
Speaker 1: is the universe is governed by law and proceeds according
1:21:35
Speaker 1: to order. Professor Bound says that things form a system,
1:21:40
Speaker 1: and that this system is one is the deepest conviction
1:21:43
Speaker 1: of reflective intelligence and is the supreme presumption of organized knowledge.
1:21:48
Speaker 1: Within this system, all things are determined in mutual relations,
1:21:52
Speaker 1: so that each thing is where and what it is
1:21:54
Speaker 1: because of its relations to the whole. The presence of system, combination, correlation,
1:22:00
Speaker 1: and coordination in the cosmos does not and clearly cannot
1:22:03
Speaker 1: arise from or be continued by chance. It is clearly
1:22:07
Speaker 1: the effect and result of the presence and activity of
1:22:10
Speaker 1: a universal coordinating in unifying agency, and that agency can
1:22:14
Speaker 1: be nothing less than a cause. Here once more we
1:22:18
Speaker 1: perceive the necessary presence and activity of a causative energy,
1:22:22
Speaker 1: a power that causes not only creative change and becoming,
1:22:26
Speaker 1: but also coordinative unity in the cosmos. This actuating energy force, power,
1:22:32
Speaker 1: which we have discovered to be the supreme creative power
1:22:35
Speaker 1: manifesting in the cosmos and the supreme unifying coordinating power
1:22:39
Speaker 1: manifesting in the universe, is seen necessarily to be ultimate.
1:22:43
Speaker 1: It must be this in order to be what it is,
1:22:46
Speaker 1: in order to fill the offices which it is found
1:22:48
Speaker 1: to be filling, and which nothing else can fill. If
1:22:52
Speaker 1: it were derivative or subordinate, if it were one of
1:22:54
Speaker 1: a number of coordinated forces operating under the power of
1:22:57
Speaker 1: a higher cause, than in that higher cause would be
1:23:00
Speaker 1: found the ultimate causative power. In any event, all human
1:23:05
Speaker 1: reason inevitably, invariably and infallibly arrives at the point in
1:23:09
Speaker 1: which an ultimate causative power, whatever it may be, conceived
1:23:13
Speaker 1: as being in its essential nature, must be positive in
1:23:16
Speaker 1: order to account for and explain the activities of the cosmos.
1:23:20
Speaker 1: The non materialistic philosophies have always firmly insisted that this
1:23:24
Speaker 1: ultimate actuating energy or causative power is and must be
1:23:27
Speaker 1: will power. Their axiom is all power is will power.
1:23:31
Speaker 1: At the last analysis, the materialistic philosophies have equally firmly
1:23:36
Speaker 1: insisted that this ultimate energy or power must be non
1:23:39
Speaker 1: spiritual power, though they fail to explain what else it
1:23:42
Speaker 1: may be and must be. The old materialism would have
1:23:45
Speaker 1: us believe that energy is but an attribute, property or
1:23:49
Speaker 1: quality of matter, or at least a twin aspect of reality,
1:23:53
Speaker 1: the other aspect being matter. The materialism that holds that
1:23:57
Speaker 1: energy is a reality or an aspect of reality insists
1:24:01
Speaker 1: that it may be thought of only as pure energy
1:24:04
Speaker 1: or pure force. It asserts also that this ultimate energy
1:24:07
Speaker 1: must be material energy inasmuch as it is not spiritual energy.
1:24:12
Speaker 1: Just what pure force is, However, no one seems able
1:24:16
Speaker 1: to explain. We no matter in our experience, we no
1:24:20
Speaker 1: mind or spirit in our experience, but we have no
1:24:23
Speaker 1: experience with pure force. It would appear that the idea
1:24:27
Speaker 1: of pure force had been dragged in by the years
1:24:29
Speaker 1: in order to avoid the admission that all power is
1:24:32
Speaker 1: will power. A modern writer has said that after we
1:24:36
Speaker 1: have summed up our stock of conceptions concerning energy, force, power,
1:24:40
Speaker 1: we will find that we can boil down the whole
1:24:43
Speaker 1: general notion until there is left merely the concept expressed
1:24:46
Speaker 1: by the term strength. Whatever else power, energy force may
1:24:51
Speaker 1: be or may not be, they must be regarded as
1:24:54
Speaker 1: being strength. The non materialists say that this strength is
1:24:58
Speaker 1: will strength, life strength, spiritual strength. The materialists say that
1:25:03
Speaker 1: it is material strength or pure strength, whatever the latter
1:25:06
Speaker 1: may be. Materialism seeks to account for and explain the
1:25:11
Speaker 1: world in terms of mechanical force and chemical energy, both
1:25:14
Speaker 1: being regarded as lifeless strength. As careful physicists have pointed out, however,
1:25:20
Speaker 1: the idea of universal mechanical force is a fallacy. Under it,
1:25:24
Speaker 1: the world would be like a wound up clock, wound
1:25:26
Speaker 1: and set going by something or somewhat whom what, and
1:25:31
Speaker 1: destined to run down and come to a full stop
1:25:33
Speaker 1: in time. Something else is needed, something in the way
1:25:37
Speaker 1: of a self renewing energy of a spiritual living order,
1:25:40
Speaker 1: something like living will, for instance. As for chemical energy,
1:25:45
Speaker 1: advanced scientific thought now regards this as a form of
1:25:48
Speaker 1: elemental life energy, rather than as a dead mechanical force.
1:25:53
Speaker 1: Careful thinkers have pointed out that our ideas and concept
1:25:56
Speaker 1: of energy are derived from our experience of the living
1:25:59
Speaker 1: energy will, which we experience in ourselves. It has been
1:26:03
Speaker 1: said as human will is a cause in nature and
1:26:06
Speaker 1: really constitutes the basis of our conception of all causation. Therefore,
1:26:11
Speaker 1: all causation is probably volitional in character. Again, the effort
1:26:16
Speaker 1: of moving the hand, the head, the eye is the
1:26:18
Speaker 1: type and norm by which we interpret as the result
1:26:21
Speaker 1: of energy the changes of position and of mass which
1:26:25
Speaker 1: we so frequently observe. In short, man obtains his ideas
1:26:29
Speaker 1: of energy from his experiences with his own will power,
1:26:32
Speaker 1: and observation reveals that all energy operates as if it
1:26:36
Speaker 1: were will power. We shall have more to say concerning
1:26:40
Speaker 1: this in the later sections of this book. Spiritual Power
1:26:44
Speaker 1: the Infinite Fount by William Walker Atkinson, nineteen twenty two,
1:26:50
Speaker 1: Imminent Spirit. In this instruction, we seek to convince you
1:26:54
Speaker 1: that the actuating energy of the cosmos, the source and
1:26:57
Speaker 1: fount the cause and reason of universal movement, motion, action, change, becoming, events, happenings,
1:27:05
Speaker 1: is spiritual power. The power of spirit. Spirit, as you
1:27:10
Speaker 1: shall see, is not only the something or somewhat that
1:27:13
Speaker 1: manifests life and livingness, that senses, perceives, knows, that feels, craves, desires,
1:27:20
Speaker 1: but is also the something or somewhat that acts, performs, creates.
1:27:25
Speaker 1: The cosmos i e. The world proceeding according to law
1:27:28
Speaker 1: and order by change and becoming. The cosmic process, in short,
1:27:33
Speaker 1: is explainable and understandable only under the hypothesis of spirit
1:27:37
Speaker 1: playing upon material substance, of Spirit, working upon and working
1:27:42
Speaker 1: up matter by the power of its will, directed by
1:27:45
Speaker 1: the power of its mentality, and animating the world with
1:27:48
Speaker 1: its breath of life. The world is material substance, animated, informed,
1:27:53
Speaker 1: and sold by imminent Spirit. The term imminent means indwelling,
1:27:59
Speaker 1: abiding within, remaining within, inherent intrinsic innate, inward internal. The
1:28:06
Speaker 1: term spirit, however, is frequently not understood, still oftener misunderstood.
1:28:12
Speaker 1: Most persons have but a vague and hazy concept of spirit,
1:28:16
Speaker 1: and in many instances are found to have failed to
1:28:19
Speaker 1: perceive and apprehend the most essential elements of the meaning
1:28:22
Speaker 1: of the term and of the spirit of its concept.
1:28:25
Speaker 1: Let us then, first arrive at a clear understanding comprehension
1:28:29
Speaker 1: of the true meaning of the term and concept of spirit.
1:28:33
Speaker 1: We must do this if we are to proceed intelligently
1:28:36
Speaker 1: with this instruction. The definitions of the term spirit very widely.
1:28:41
Speaker 1: The term is employed with several shades of meaning, apparently
1:28:44
Speaker 1: having no relation to each other, but which, when carefully
1:28:47
Speaker 1: analyzed and compared, are found to have a common basis
1:28:50
Speaker 1: of agreement in essential nature. We shall ask you to
1:28:54
Speaker 1: follow us in our brief examination of the root meaning
1:28:57
Speaker 1: of the term and its several shades of acquired meaning,
1:29:00
Speaker 1: so that you may be able to share with us
1:29:01
Speaker 1: the understanding of the full essential meaning of the concept
1:29:05
Speaker 1: and term, which has been squeezed out and extracted by
1:29:08
Speaker 1: concentrated attention and exhaustive examination. The English term spirit is
1:29:13
Speaker 1: derived from the Latin term spiritus, which in turn was
1:29:17
Speaker 1: derived from the older Latin term spy rare, meaning to breathe,
1:29:21
Speaker 1: to blow as the wind or breath. Examination of the
1:29:25
Speaker 1: usage of the word spiritus in the place and at
1:29:28
Speaker 1: the time of its origin shows that it employed the
1:29:30
Speaker 1: idea of breath or blowing wind figuratively and symbolically to
1:29:34
Speaker 1: indicate essential existence, i e. Existence of such an ethereal character,
1:29:39
Speaker 1: that the term matter failed to convey an idea of
1:29:42
Speaker 1: its nature. The term essentia, from which our English word
1:29:46
Speaker 1: essence was derived, came nearer to illustrating the spirit and
1:29:50
Speaker 1: essence of meaning of the term spirit than did any
1:29:53
Speaker 1: other Latin term. Here it should be noted that the
1:29:55
Speaker 1: term essentia was derived from the Latin term essy, meaning
1:29:59
Speaker 1: to be a na, and indicates being reduced to its
1:30:01
Speaker 1: ultimate and final state of refinement. We call your attention
1:30:05
Speaker 1: to these facts that you may grasp the idea originally
1:30:08
Speaker 1: sought to be conveyed by the root term of spirit,
1:30:11
Speaker 1: the idea of essential existence, i e. Existence reduced and
1:30:15
Speaker 1: refined to its ultimate state. It should be noted here
1:30:19
Speaker 1: that one of the several modern uses of the English
1:30:21
Speaker 1: term spirit is that of tenuous or vaporous essence possessed
1:30:25
Speaker 1: of active qualities, hence any liquid produced by distillation, refinement, concentration,
1:30:31
Speaker 1: et cetera, in which it is reduced to its ultimate, essential,
1:30:35
Speaker 1: elemental and pure state. You should also note that the
1:30:39
Speaker 1: term is frequently employed to indicate the real meaning or
1:30:42
Speaker 1: essential character of anything, as, for instance, the spirit of
1:30:46
Speaker 1: the address, the spirit of the play, the spirit of
1:30:49
Speaker 1: the term et cetera. This last meaning is stated in
1:30:53
Speaker 1: the dictionaries as the intent or real meaning, as opposed
1:30:57
Speaker 1: to the letter or form of a word, statement, expression,
1:31:00
Speaker 1: or discourse of any kind. Here then we have the
1:31:04
Speaker 1: identification of the term spirit with the term essence, the
1:31:08
Speaker 1: latter being defined as the final ultimate fundamental state, mode, form, condition, character,
1:31:15
Speaker 1: or nature of anything, the basic and elemental nature of
1:31:18
Speaker 1: anything after its grosser aspects and its temporary forms have
1:31:22
Speaker 1: been abstracted from it, the thing in itself of anything
1:31:25
Speaker 1: which is left after it has ceased to manifest phenomenal
1:31:28
Speaker 1: forms and appearances, that which is present when a thing
1:31:31
Speaker 1: has been reduced to its purest possible state of existence.
1:31:36
Speaker 1: Following close upon this essential meaning, we find that the term,
1:31:40
Speaker 1: as originally employed, also indicated actuating principle, i e. The
1:31:45
Speaker 1: inherent inner principle moving and inciting the thing to action
1:31:48
Speaker 1: or motion. To grasp more fully this fact, compare the
1:31:52
Speaker 1: following definitions of the term activity and the term spirited.
1:31:58
Speaker 1: Activity means state or quality of being active, vigorous, agile, brisk, energetic.
1:32:05
Speaker 1: Spirited means energetic, full of vigor and energy, lively, quick, active, brisk.
1:32:13
Speaker 1: In the dictionaries, one of the meanings of the term
1:32:15
Speaker 1: spirit is that of energy, vivacity, activity, ardor enthusiasm, courage,
1:32:22
Speaker 1: et cetera. Here, then we have the idea of spirit
1:32:26
Speaker 1: as being active, energetic, lively, vigorous, of being, in short,
1:32:31
Speaker 1: the actuating energy. But there is a third and a
1:32:35
Speaker 1: very important meaning involved in both the old Latin term
1:32:39
Speaker 1: spiritus and its English descendant spirit, the meaning of life, livingness, vitality, liveliness,
1:32:46
Speaker 1: vital energy, the essence of life. The dictionaries give as
1:32:50
Speaker 1: one of the meanings of spirit that of life or
1:32:53
Speaker 1: living substance considered independently of corporeal existence, or that which
1:32:58
Speaker 1: gives life and vigor to the use human body in
1:33:00
Speaker 1: the bodies of plant and animals, the vital principle or
1:33:04
Speaker 1: life force. This meaning of spirit may be stated as
1:33:08
Speaker 1: life in its original, elemental, pure, and essential ultimate state
1:33:13
Speaker 1: mode or condition. In that meaning of the term spirit,
1:33:17
Speaker 1: which is given in the dictionaries as the soul or
1:33:20
Speaker 1: essential entity of a living thing conceived as either embodied
1:33:23
Speaker 1: or disembodied. There is combined the idea of ethereal existence
1:33:27
Speaker 1: and that of essential life or livingness. The term spirit
1:33:32
Speaker 1: frequently used as synonymous with ghost is simply one form
1:33:36
Speaker 1: of this particular meaning. It is interesting to note that
1:33:40
Speaker 1: the equivalence of the term spirit employed in other languages
1:33:43
Speaker 1: carry with them the same fundamental and essential meaning as
1:33:46
Speaker 1: that found in the Latin term spiritus and its English
1:33:49
Speaker 1: derivative spirit. Such terms have as their rootsome term meaning
1:33:54
Speaker 1: breath or moving wind. They also express the respective meanings
1:33:58
Speaker 1: of aerial existence or quintessence of existence, be actuating principle
1:34:04
Speaker 1: or active energy, c life, livingness, vitality and lively actions
1:34:10
Speaker 1: expressing abundant life and vitality, and d embodied or disembodied
1:34:15
Speaker 1: souls or entities. This correspondence is significant, particularly when it
1:34:20
Speaker 1: is noted that it is found in tongues not originally
1:34:23
Speaker 1: derived from Latin sources. The early people of these several
1:34:27
Speaker 1: races all seem to have found in the symbol of
1:34:29
Speaker 1: breath or moving wind the best figurative illustration of a tenuous, ethereal,
1:34:34
Speaker 1: something possessing activity in life. It represented something present and
1:34:39
Speaker 1: felt but not seen, manifesting its presence by its motion
1:34:43
Speaker 1: and not by its form. Breath and wind were the
1:34:46
Speaker 1: two most ethereal and tenuous things known to the early man,
1:34:49
Speaker 1: and he naturally employed them as symbols for that something
1:34:52
Speaker 1: or somewhat which he intuitively felt to be present and
1:34:55
Speaker 1: active in the universe of things, forces, and events. It
1:34:59
Speaker 1: represented to him existence, energy, and life reduced to their
1:35:03
Speaker 1: ultimate form of refinement and purity. Illustrating the above significant fact,
1:35:08
Speaker 1: we give the following examples in the Hebrew scriptures. In
1:35:12
Speaker 1: Genesis two seven, it is stated that the Lord God
1:35:17
Speaker 1: formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed
1:35:20
Speaker 1: into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became
1:35:23
Speaker 1: a living soul. In the original Hebrew, the phrase the
1:35:27
Speaker 1: breath of life is stated as neshemet ruach chaim, the
1:35:31
Speaker 1: term neshemet meaning the physical breath or act of breathing,
1:35:36
Speaker 1: the term ruach meaning the spirit or essence of life,
1:35:39
Speaker 1: and the term chaim meaning life, lives or livingness. Thus,
1:35:45
Speaker 1: the literal meaning of the passage of the scriptures in
1:35:48
Speaker 1: question is as follows, the Lord God breathed into Man's
1:35:52
Speaker 1: nostrils the breath of the spirit or essence of life
1:35:54
Speaker 1: or livingness, or that the Supreme Being so transmitted life
1:35:58
Speaker 1: to his creation or creature and made him a living soul. Likewise,
1:36:03
Speaker 1: in the ancient Greek tongue. The term numa, meaning wind
1:36:07
Speaker 1: breath to blow as the wind, was also employed in
1:36:10
Speaker 1: the sense of the spirit or essence of life, or
1:36:13
Speaker 1: the life principle or spirit. Even to this day. In
1:36:18
Speaker 1: English we find theology and philosophy employing the term pneumatology
1:36:22
Speaker 1: to indicate the science of spiritual being or spiritual phenomena
1:36:26
Speaker 1: of any description, while physics employs the term pneumatics to
1:36:30
Speaker 1: indicate the science treating of the power and properties of air,
1:36:34
Speaker 1: the double meaning thus being clearly illustrated again. The Greek
1:36:38
Speaker 1: term psyche, meaning soul, mind, spirit, and from which the
1:36:43
Speaker 1: term psychology is derived, originally meant moving wind or the breath.
1:36:49
Speaker 1: The English word ghost is derived from the Anglo Saxon
1:36:52
Speaker 1: term just, the German term geist and the Old English
1:36:56
Speaker 1: term gosst, each in all of which terms originally meant
1:37:00
Speaker 1: breath or wind, and afterward became employed to express the
1:37:03
Speaker 1: idea of soul, spirit or living entities embodied or disembodied.
1:37:09
Speaker 1: In this connection, it should be noted that the English
1:37:11
Speaker 1: word ghost and the German word geist both are employed
1:37:15
Speaker 1: to indicate a phase or aspect of deity, i e.
1:37:18
Speaker 1: The Holy Ghost. In the English theology, it is held
1:37:22
Speaker 1: as axiomatic that God is Spirit. This following upon the
1:37:25
Speaker 1: original statement of this doctrine in the original Greek, in
1:37:28
Speaker 1: which the term numa is employed in the sense of spirit.
1:37:33
Speaker 1: A similar double meaning of breath or wind and essential living,
1:37:37
Speaker 1: active ethereal existence, soul or spirit is also found in
1:37:41
Speaker 1: the Sanskrit and in other ancient Oriental languages. This is
1:37:46
Speaker 1: believed to be more than a mere coincidence. The same
1:37:48
Speaker 1: necessities of thought sought, the same forms of illustration, the
1:37:52
Speaker 1: same causes brought the same results. When you stop to
1:37:56
Speaker 1: consider this necessity of human thought and the difficulty of
1:37:59
Speaker 1: expressing in the terms of materiality, you will appreciate the
1:38:02
Speaker 1: almost intuitive employment of terms like spirit, numa, geist, et
1:38:07
Speaker 1: cetera to represent pure essence, energy, and life. Even today,
1:38:12
Speaker 1: the term spirit serves but imperfectly to express a concept
1:38:16
Speaker 1: almost inexpressible in material terms. Edgar Allan Poe pointed out
1:38:21
Speaker 1: this difficulty in the following significant passage. This merest of
1:38:25
Speaker 1: words and some other expressions of which the equivalent exists
1:38:29
Speaker 1: in nearly every language, is by no means the expression
1:38:32
Speaker 1: of an idea, but of an effort at one. It
1:38:36
Speaker 1: stands for the possible attempt at an impossible conception. Man
1:38:40
Speaker 1: needed a term by which to point out the direction
1:38:42
Speaker 1: of this effort, the cloud behind which lay forever invisible
1:38:46
Speaker 1: the object of the attempt. A word in fine was
1:38:50
Speaker 1: demanded by means of which one human being might put
1:38:53
Speaker 1: himself in relation at once with another human being with
1:38:56
Speaker 1: a certain tendency of the human intellect. Out of this
1:39:00
Speaker 1: arose a term which is thus the representative but of
1:39:03
Speaker 1: a thought, of a thought. While man knows, certainly, more
1:39:06
Speaker 1: certainly than he can know anything else, that spirit exists
1:39:10
Speaker 1: and is present and active within him, yet he finds
1:39:13
Speaker 1: is almost impossible to define that reality in ordinary terms
1:39:16
Speaker 1: denoting material qualities, properties, and attributes. So many opposing qualities
1:39:22
Speaker 1: are found in its manifestations, properties which mutually canceled each other,
1:39:27
Speaker 1: and thus cannot be regarded as essential attributes of the
1:39:30
Speaker 1: manifesting reality, that very little is left upon which the
1:39:33
Speaker 1: mind may seize, and which will serve as the substance
1:39:36
Speaker 1: of mental mastication in the processes of reasoning. Indeed, a
1:39:41
Speaker 1: writer has expressed the thought that spirit must be regarded
1:39:45
Speaker 1: as an infinite possibility, or the possibility of an infinity
1:39:48
Speaker 1: of manifestation and expression rather than his entity. But he
1:39:52
Speaker 1: is only stating a half truth. Spirit is true entity,
1:39:56
Speaker 1: i e. Real being, real essence, real existence, although it
1:40:00
Speaker 1: may be known only through its manifestations, except in one instance,
1:40:05
Speaker 1: the experience of self consciousness. The difficulty of apprehension and
1:40:09
Speaker 1: comprehension of it as entity arises from the fact that
1:40:12
Speaker 1: being infinite and being pure essence, therefore being devoid of
1:40:17
Speaker 1: finite qualities and characteristics, and being free from the appearances
1:40:21
Speaker 1: of its forms of expression, it cannot be taken hold
1:40:24
Speaker 1: of by the intellect or imagination, because these are designed
1:40:28
Speaker 1: and fitted merely to cognize and to represent the forms
1:40:31
Speaker 1: and images of material things, and the qualities and characteristics
1:40:34
Speaker 1: of these. But notwithstanding this difficulty, intellect, when properly applied
1:40:40
Speaker 1: and directed by intuition, is able to perceive the presence
1:40:44
Speaker 1: of several aspects or modes of the essential reality of Spirit.
1:40:48
Speaker 1: Whatever else Spirit may be or may not be, it
1:40:51
Speaker 1: must possess these several aspects or modes of itself in
1:40:55
Speaker 1: order to be Spirit. Without intending to limit or restrict
1:40:58
Speaker 1: the essential reality of Spirit to the following aspects or
1:41:02
Speaker 1: modes of itself, we must insist that these are always
1:41:05
Speaker 1: perceived to be present in all of the manifestations and
1:41:08
Speaker 1: expressions of the presence power of spirit of which the
1:41:11
Speaker 1: human intellect or intuition has any knowledge or experience. These
1:41:15
Speaker 1: knowable and perceptible aspects or modes of spirit to which
1:41:19
Speaker 1: we have just referred are as follows. Presence, manifesting, essence, reality, actuality, life, manifesting, sentience, conation, volition, power, manifesting, strength, energy, force.
1:41:36
Speaker 1: You are now invited to consider in further detail the
1:41:39
Speaker 1: above stated several aspects or modes of spirit and their
1:41:42
Speaker 1: several manifestations. The presence of spirit Spirit is perceived in
1:41:48
Speaker 1: self consciousness to be entity, actually present and in being,
1:41:52
Speaker 1: and not the mere idea or thought of mind, nor
1:41:55
Speaker 1: a mere verbal symbol or word expressing something lacking real existence.
1:41:58
Speaker 1: And presence by presence is meant state of being present,
1:42:03
Speaker 1: i e. Existing in reality at a certain time and
1:42:06
Speaker 1: in a certain place. That Spirit is present is evidenced
1:42:10
Speaker 1: by the report of self consciousness, the inevitable, invariable, and
1:42:14
Speaker 1: infallible report that I am present, which is implicit in
1:42:17
Speaker 1: every conscious thought, and which is intensely impressed upon consciousness
1:42:21
Speaker 1: when it is directed inward. This accompanied by the invariable,
1:42:25
Speaker 1: an infallible report of intuition that I am spirit. Moreover,
1:42:30
Speaker 1: as spiritual activity is apparent even when manifested by others
1:42:34
Speaker 1: in acts of the living will, and as it is
1:42:36
Speaker 1: axiomatic that whenever and wherever a thing acts, then and
1:42:40
Speaker 1: there must it be present, it follows that the actual
1:42:42
Speaker 1: presence of spirit must be conceded. The aspect or mode
1:42:47
Speaker 1: of spirit, known as presence, manifests in essence, reality, actuality.
1:42:52
Speaker 1: Let us briefly examine each of these in the above order.
1:42:56
Speaker 1: Essence has been defined in the course of this instruction.
1:42:59
Speaker 1: You are familiar with the meaning of the term and concept.
1:43:02
Speaker 1: You understand that it indicates the ultimate nature and pure
1:43:05
Speaker 1: being of the existence to which the term is applied,
1:43:08
Speaker 1: in which the concept covers. You are now asked to
1:43:11
Speaker 1: realize that spirit is pure spiritual essence, the pure essence
1:43:16
Speaker 1: of life, mind, consciousness, will, the pure essence of everything
1:43:20
Speaker 1: that is not material, substance, or the manifestations of the latter.
1:43:24
Speaker 1: Spirit is the ultimate essence of spirituality and spiritual things.
1:43:30
Speaker 1: Spirit is spiritual essence, just as ethereal material is material substance.
1:43:35
Speaker 1: Each represents the thing in itself of its class or category.
1:43:40
Speaker 1: Just as material substance fills all space, so does spiritual
1:43:43
Speaker 1: essence fill all time. Bergsen and Einstein will tell you
1:43:47
Speaker 1: more about this wonderful fact if you wish to acquire
1:43:50
Speaker 1: that knowledge. It is too deep for the present consideration,
1:43:53
Speaker 1: and you must learn to swim before you venture to
1:43:55
Speaker 1: explore its waters. The much talked of and long sought
1:44:00
Speaker 1: after fourth dimension belongs to time and spirit, not to
1:44:03
Speaker 1: space and matter, in whose realm it has been sought.
1:44:07
Speaker 1: This also is another deep subject, which we shall not
1:44:10
Speaker 1: undertake to explain fully. Here we have indicated the direction
1:44:15
Speaker 1: in which the explanation lies. You must seek it for yourself,
1:44:18
Speaker 1: if you are so minded. Reality means the state of
1:44:22
Speaker 1: being real, actual, truly existent, and in being not imaginary, fictitious, vague,
1:44:28
Speaker 1: or lacking in substantiality. Spirit is real and not imaginary
1:44:34
Speaker 1: or fictitious. It is a fact, not a dream. You
1:44:38
Speaker 1: can doubt your senses, but you can never doubt the
1:44:41
Speaker 1: fact that you are alive, and life is an aspect
1:44:44
Speaker 1: or mode of spirit. You may dream of matter without
1:44:48
Speaker 1: that matter being present, but you can never dream of
1:44:50
Speaker 1: life or mind without life and mind being present and
1:44:54
Speaker 1: active in you. And these are aspects or modes of spirit.
1:44:58
Speaker 1: You can no matter only through living mind, but you
1:45:01
Speaker 1: cannot know either matter or mind through matter lacking the
1:45:03
Speaker 1: imminent presence of life and mind. Your consciousness that I
1:45:08
Speaker 1: am is the most certain, most real thing that you
1:45:11
Speaker 1: can know. All the rest may be a dream for
1:45:13
Speaker 1: that matter, but that cannot be a dream unless there
1:45:16
Speaker 1: be a dreamer. And if there is a dreamer, that
1:45:19
Speaker 1: dreamer is you a focal point or center of living spirit.
1:45:23
Speaker 1: You may find it difficult to discover just what the
1:45:26
Speaker 1: spirit that is you really is, but you can never
1:45:29
Speaker 1: doubt that at I s and that it is real.
1:45:32
Speaker 1: The fundamental difficulty attached to human thought on the subject
1:45:35
Speaker 1: of spirit is this that it is spirit trying to
1:45:38
Speaker 1: contemplate itself, an attempt justly likened to the effort to
1:45:41
Speaker 1: turn oneself inside out. Just as the eye, while seeing
1:45:46
Speaker 1: everything else, is unable to see itself, so is spirit
1:45:49
Speaker 1: hampered in its efforts to see itself in thought. Just
1:45:53
Speaker 1: as the stomach digests all living substance placed in it,
1:45:57
Speaker 1: but never digests itself, so is spirit able to experience,
1:46:00
Speaker 1: through the senses everything else except itself, but it may
1:46:05
Speaker 1: know itself feel itself in the experience of self consciousness,
1:46:10
Speaker 1: and it may intuit itself in the processes of intuition,
1:46:14
Speaker 1: such knowing and feeling and intuiting. Moreover, always bring the
1:46:19
Speaker 1: report I am and I am real. Through intuition, spirit
1:46:24
Speaker 1: reports inevitably, invariably infallibly I am, I am I, or,
1:46:30
Speaker 1: when pressed closer by intellect for a more definite report,
1:46:34
Speaker 1: even I am that I am the I am I.
1:46:38
Speaker 1: That focal point of conscious imminent spirit, which is you,
1:46:41
Speaker 1: reports through intellect and through intuition. I think, I feet,
1:46:45
Speaker 1: I act, I move of my own will and by
1:46:47
Speaker 1: my own power. Therefore I am and I am real
1:46:51
Speaker 1: and not fictitious, a reality and not the figment of
1:46:54
Speaker 1: a dream. Even if I were a dream, there would
1:46:57
Speaker 1: needs be a dreamer, and that dreamer would be involved
1:47:00
Speaker 1: in his dream idea, and this I am I would
1:47:03
Speaker 1: then be the I am of the dreamer as well
1:47:05
Speaker 1: as of the dream person. You can never truthfully say
1:47:09
Speaker 1: I am not real, for in your very denial would
1:47:12
Speaker 1: be implied the fact that the I that is denying
1:47:15
Speaker 1: must be real. No sane man can ever deny his
1:47:19
Speaker 1: own reality and feel convinced that he is stating the truth.
1:47:23
Speaker 1: His troubles begin only when he stops to consider whether
1:47:26
Speaker 1: the things external to him the material universe, is also real.
1:47:31
Speaker 1: If the reality of Spirit be doubted or denied, then
1:47:34
Speaker 1: the realty of everything must be doubted or denied. For
1:47:37
Speaker 1: that everything is known only to spirit, and by reason
1:47:40
Speaker 1: of the reality of spirit deny, the reality of the knower,
1:47:44
Speaker 1: and the reality of the known is also denied, and
1:47:47
Speaker 1: in that case there is nothing left to know or
1:47:49
Speaker 1: to be known. Actuality means the state of being actual,
1:47:54
Speaker 1: i e. Really and truly acting or active, existing in
1:47:58
Speaker 1: real act. The actuality of Spirit can no more be
1:48:02
Speaker 1: doubted than can be its reality. Any individual who has
1:48:06
Speaker 1: ever performed an act of volition or will has experienced
1:48:08
Speaker 1: an inevitable, invariable, and infallible proof of the actuality of spirit.
1:48:14
Speaker 1: He need not fall back upon the final report of
1:48:16
Speaker 1: philosophy and of advanced science as well, that all power
1:48:20
Speaker 1: is will power, all action is will action. He need
1:48:24
Speaker 1: refer only to his own experience in willing. In another
1:48:28
Speaker 1: part of this book, we relate the story of Edison
1:48:30
Speaker 1: wagging his finger and at Boireman and demanding the answer
1:48:34
Speaker 1: to his question, what is this? Edison knew the actuality
1:48:38
Speaker 1: of his imminent Spirit, and his simple question overwhelmed the
1:48:41
Speaker 1: other great scientist. The simplest, voluntary act of the living
1:48:46
Speaker 1: creature proves the actuality of Spirit in every movement, in
1:48:50
Speaker 1: every motion, in every action, in every change of position,
1:48:54
Speaker 1: even in every thought. The living creature gives undoubted evidence
1:48:58
Speaker 1: of the fact that Spirit is active, actual actuality. It
1:49:01
Speaker 1: possesses the power to act and at acts. And so
1:49:06
Speaker 1: you see that we are warranted in positing in spirit
1:49:09
Speaker 1: the aspects and modes, the attributes and properties, if you will,
1:49:13
Speaker 1: of presence and its manifestations, known as essence, reality, actuality.
1:49:19
Speaker 1: We ask you to fix these in your mind, so
1:49:21
Speaker 1: that when you think of Spirit, you will think of
1:49:23
Speaker 1: it first of all in the terms and ideas of
1:49:25
Speaker 1: presence i e. Essence, reality, actuality. In the next two
1:49:31
Speaker 1: following sections of this book, we shall ask you to
1:49:33
Speaker 1: consider the other two great aspects or modes of spirit viz.
1:49:37
Speaker 1: Life manifesting, sentience, conation, volition and power manifesting strength, energy, force,
1:49:45
Speaker 1: spiritual power, the infinite found by William Walker Atkinson nineteen
1:49:50
Speaker 1: twenty two, spirit essential life. Having considered the first great
1:49:57
Speaker 1: mode or aspect of spirit, ie that of pres manifesting, essence, reality, actuality.
1:50:03
Speaker 1: You are now invited to consider the second great mode
1:50:06
Speaker 1: or aspect of spirit, namely life, manifesting, sentience, conation, volition.
1:50:13
Speaker 1: This is the unique, original distinguishing characteristic of spirit. Life
1:50:18
Speaker 1: and livingness are the very quintessence of spirit, the very
1:50:21
Speaker 1: spirit of spirit. Spirit is life. Life is spirit by
1:50:27
Speaker 1: life is meant state of being alive, living or vital
1:50:32
Speaker 1: force animation, livingness. The standard definitions are poor, meager, unsatisfying.
1:50:39
Speaker 1: But inasmuch as life can be defined only in terms
1:50:41
Speaker 1: of livingness, there is no possible improvement in such definitions.
1:50:46
Speaker 1: There is nothing else in existence like life, tou or
1:50:49
Speaker 1: with which it may be compared and likened, contrasted, and classified,
1:50:53
Speaker 1: and which may be employed to illustrate or define it.
1:50:57
Speaker 1: One must have experienced life in order to understand and
1:51:00
Speaker 1: its real meaning. The term livingness is no better. Its
1:51:04
Speaker 1: definition is merely suggestive, namely, the state of being alive, lively, active, vigorous, spirited,
1:51:11
Speaker 1: and capable of quickening and invigorating. All such definitions refer
1:51:16
Speaker 1: back to life, and life is found to be sway
1:51:19
Speaker 1: generous in a class by itself, over and above any
1:51:23
Speaker 1: definition or explanation, any accounting for or illustration in the
1:51:27
Speaker 1: terms of anything else. Life is known only through being experienced.
1:51:32
Speaker 1: To know life is to live. To live is to
1:51:35
Speaker 1: know life. Life is a basic fundamental attribute of spirit.
1:51:41
Speaker 1: Spirit would not be spirit, or it devoid of livingness.
1:51:45
Speaker 1: You may conceive of spirit as being unconscious, but you
1:51:48
Speaker 1: cannot conceive of it as being lifeless. Life is more
1:51:52
Speaker 1: fundamental than consciousness. A creature may become unconscious yet still
1:51:57
Speaker 1: be alive, but it cannot become lifeless and still be conscious.
1:52:02
Speaker 1: All feeling, thought, and will may be inactive in a creature,
1:52:05
Speaker 1: yet it may still be alive, But if it is lifeless,
1:52:08
Speaker 1: then it can never manifest thought, feeling, or will. If
1:52:12
Speaker 1: you wish to think of spirit in its most essential,
1:52:15
Speaker 1: fundamental and basic inner nature and character, then think of
1:52:19
Speaker 1: it as life or livngness. The three particular manifestations of
1:52:24
Speaker 1: the life of spirit are as follows, sentience, conation, volition.
1:52:29
Speaker 1: Each of these we shall now consider briefly. Sentience, by
1:52:34
Speaker 1: sentience is meant the faculty or power of sensation, perception,
1:52:39
Speaker 1: mental apprehension, and cognition. These are the several primary and
1:52:43
Speaker 1: elemental mental powers. The higher mental processes are merely more
1:52:47
Speaker 1: complex phases of these simpler mental activities. These faculties supply
1:52:52
Speaker 1: the raw materials of knowledge, which are worked over and
1:52:55
Speaker 1: made into the completed mental product. In sensation, spirit receives
1:52:59
Speaker 1: a depressions from material objects. In perception, spirit recognizes and
1:53:04
Speaker 1: interprets the reports of sensation. In mental apprehension, spirit takes
1:53:08
Speaker 1: hold of and conceives ideas. In cognition, spirit knows things
1:53:13
Speaker 1: partially or completely. The idea of sentience is closely bound
1:53:18
Speaker 1: up with that of consciousness. The latter term, though, like life,
1:53:22
Speaker 1: being beyond adequate definition, is best defined by the term awareness.
1:53:27
Speaker 1: Consciousness has been likened to mental livingness or a liveness,
1:53:31
Speaker 1: this being a valuable suggestive illustration. In modern psychology, consciousness
1:53:37
Speaker 1: is regarded merely as present mind or mind here and
1:53:40
Speaker 1: now the cross section of mental process a focusing of
1:53:44
Speaker 1: attention upon a certain limited portion of the entire mental process.
1:53:49
Speaker 1: Much of the mental activity, most of the mental processes
1:53:52
Speaker 1: manifest on planes of mentation outside, below or above the
1:53:56
Speaker 1: plane of ordinary consciousness. Many persons, most persons, in fact,
1:54:01
Speaker 1: are accustomed to regard spirit as identical with mind. They
1:54:05
Speaker 1: find it difficult to think of spirit in any other way,
1:54:09
Speaker 1: but mind in modern psychology is regarded as process rather
1:54:13
Speaker 1: than as entity. As an authoritative reference work states, not
1:54:18
Speaker 1: only is mind as a whole a stream of thought
1:54:20
Speaker 1: and feeling. Each separate element of mind or mental formation
1:54:24
Speaker 1: that our analysis teases out of the total consciousness is
1:54:27
Speaker 1: itself a process. Every sensation rises, poises falls in its
1:54:32
Speaker 1: own characteristic way. Even the idea is termed a variable process.
1:54:37
Speaker 1: And such formations as emotion and volition bear the mark
1:54:40
Speaker 1: of process stamped upon them. Spirit, on the contrary, is
1:54:45
Speaker 1: absolute and actual entity, not process. It is the essence,
1:54:49
Speaker 1: base and ground, support and sustainer, and constant identity of
1:54:53
Speaker 1: mental process. Spirit is not limited to mind, nor is
1:54:58
Speaker 1: mind another name for spirit. Rather, spirit has mind, uses
1:55:03
Speaker 1: mind employs mind i e. Mental process as an instrument, tool,
1:55:08
Speaker 1: or machine helpful in its creative and other activities. Nor,
1:55:13
Speaker 1: at the last, is it proper to regard consciousness as
1:55:16
Speaker 1: identical with or as an absolute, essential, and permanent state
1:55:20
Speaker 1: or condition of spirit. G. E. Moore, in a leading
1:55:24
Speaker 1: reference work upon philosophy and psychology, says, common to all
1:55:28
Speaker 1: meanings of spirit is the conception of that which is conscious.
1:55:33
Speaker 1: Consciousness is not regarded as being spirit, but as being
1:55:36
Speaker 1: an attribute of it, so that spirit is conceived as
1:55:39
Speaker 1: something capable of existing when it is not conscious. On
1:55:43
Speaker 1: the other hand, there is no positive conception of what
1:55:46
Speaker 1: this permanent element in spirit is. It is only conceived
1:55:49
Speaker 1: abstractly as that whatever it may be, which is the
1:55:52
Speaker 1: subject or substance of consciousness and negatively is not identical
1:55:56
Speaker 1: with any known quality. But we ask you to know
1:56:00
Speaker 1: here that although it is possible to conceive spirit as
1:56:03
Speaker 1: not conscious, it is not possible to conceive it as
1:56:06
Speaker 1: not alive, nor as not capable of consciousness. Life is
1:56:11
Speaker 1: the primary attribute, consciousness is the secondary property. But as
1:56:16
Speaker 1: Spirit is always life, and as life always has the
1:56:19
Speaker 1: faculty of work capacity for sentience and consciousness, then we
1:56:23
Speaker 1: see that wherever and whenever Spirit is present, then and
1:56:26
Speaker 1: there must be present the capacity for sentience and consciousness
1:56:29
Speaker 1: in some form, kind, manner, or degree. Conation by conation
1:56:36
Speaker 1: is meant tendency toward effort, attempt, experiment, action arising from
1:56:41
Speaker 1: the presence of feeling, emotion, or desire. A leading reference
1:56:46
Speaker 1: work states conation consists of an endeavor, a striving to
1:56:49
Speaker 1: attain something. The attempt to recall a name from memory
1:56:53
Speaker 1: is a conation conation is common to desire, yearning, longing, craving, wishing,
1:56:59
Speaker 1: in willing, indeed to all mental states which have an
1:57:02
Speaker 1: inherent tendency to pass beyond themselves. Conation has for its
1:57:07
Speaker 1: object the attainment of its desire for that which it
1:57:09
Speaker 1: likes and finds pleasant, or the escape or release from
1:57:12
Speaker 1: that which it does not like and finds unpleasant. In short,
1:57:16
Speaker 1: conation is desire seeking to pass into action in the
1:57:20
Speaker 1: direction most contenting, satisfying, and agreeable to it. Conation, or
1:57:25
Speaker 1: active desire, is a universal element of life. It is
1:57:29
Speaker 1: found in all living things and is the mainspring of
1:57:32
Speaker 1: all the actions of all living creatures, including plants, animals,
1:57:36
Speaker 1: human beings, from single living cells to the most complex
1:57:40
Speaker 1: living forms and organisms. Many philosophers have regarded it as
1:57:44
Speaker 1: the most essential element in life and as being the
1:57:47
Speaker 1: kernel and core of the mind, soul, or spirit of
1:57:50
Speaker 1: all living things and of life in general, and as
1:57:53
Speaker 1: a totality. Schopenhauer postulates it as the fundamental fact of
1:57:58
Speaker 1: all activities inorganic as well as organic. Vunt says the
1:58:03
Speaker 1: mechanical universe is the outer wrapper behind which is hidden
1:58:06
Speaker 1: a spiritual, creative activity, a striving feeling, sensing like that
1:58:11
Speaker 1: which we experience in ourselves, conation being the fundamental essence
1:58:15
Speaker 1: of that activity. Conation is a fundamental property of life,
1:58:19
Speaker 1: and is more elemental than even sentience, for in the
1:58:22
Speaker 1: lower classes of living creatures it manifests strongly, even where
1:58:25
Speaker 1: sentience manifests merely in its simplest forms in plant life,
1:58:30
Speaker 1: it represents the chief psychic element, sentience being expressed only
1:58:34
Speaker 1: in the slightest degree. Certain philosophers, like Schopenhauer and his
1:58:38
Speaker 1: school hold that the world spirit is animated chiefly by
1:58:42
Speaker 1: its will to live, i e. Its desire to express
1:58:46
Speaker 1: life activities, and accordingly they regard the universal life principle
1:58:50
Speaker 1: as being essentially conative desire rather than reason. Others have
1:58:54
Speaker 1: modified this view and give sentence an equal rank with conation,
1:58:58
Speaker 1: although admitting that in the lower face of life the
1:59:00
Speaker 1: latter is predominant. Inasmuch as conation is an essential element
1:59:05
Speaker 1: of life, and as life and livingness constitute a primary,
1:59:09
Speaker 1: fundamental essential attribute of spirit, it follows that wherever and
1:59:12
Speaker 1: whenever Spirit is present and active, then and there also
1:59:16
Speaker 1: is conation present and active. Even without accepting the extreme
1:59:20
Speaker 1: position of the schools of philosophy, just referred to. It
1:59:23
Speaker 1: is impossible to escape the conviction that when spirit, the
1:59:27
Speaker 1: cosmic spirit, manifests creative power, it must experience the conative
1:59:31
Speaker 1: desire to do so, and that this conation is the
1:59:34
Speaker 1: actuating cause and because of the creative activity of spirit.
1:59:39
Speaker 1: Without it, creation would never have been manifested. Without it,
1:59:43
Speaker 1: creation would not have continued and would not now be
1:59:46
Speaker 1: under way. Volition, by volition, is meant the act of
1:59:51
Speaker 1: willing or the exercise of will. The power of willing
1:59:54
Speaker 1: in determining that property of life known as volition may
1:59:59
Speaker 1: be stated as as the power to will or will power.
2:00:03
Speaker 1: Will is the power of self activity, self motion, and
2:00:07
Speaker 1: the exercise of voluntary effort and action. Professor Halleck says
2:00:11
Speaker 1: of will, will concerns itself with action, no matter how
2:00:15
Speaker 1: complex the process seems. Whenever there is a mental motor element,
2:00:19
Speaker 1: that element is will. Our acts are the result of
2:00:23
Speaker 1: a peculiar active power, which we call will. From the
2:00:27
Speaker 1: cradle to the grave, we are never without this activity
2:00:30
Speaker 1: of will in the broadest sense of the term. Whenever
2:00:33
Speaker 1: there is an emotion a motor element which tends to
2:00:36
Speaker 1: go out in action, that element is will. In some emotions,
2:00:40
Speaker 1: the voluntary element may be so small as to baffle detection,
2:00:44
Speaker 1: but the germ is there. The distinguishing characteristic of will
2:00:49
Speaker 1: activity is that important element of life known as spontaneity.
2:00:53
Speaker 1: So essentially is spontaneity bound up with life that many
2:00:57
Speaker 1: careful thinkers have regarded it as a touchstone by which
2:00:59
Speaker 1: the livingness of things may be tested and decided upon.
2:01:04
Speaker 1: This view expresses itself in the axiom, Where spontaneity is present,
2:01:08
Speaker 1: their life is present. Where life is present, their spontaneity
2:01:12
Speaker 1: is present. The present writers accept this view and regard
2:01:16
Speaker 1: the axiom as self evident truth and as setting up
2:01:19
Speaker 1: an infallible standard by means of which the presence of
2:01:22
Speaker 1: life and livingness may be decided conclusively. Spontaneity by spontaneity,
2:01:29
Speaker 1: is meant the state of being spontaneous, i e. Proceeding
2:01:33
Speaker 1: from internal impulse, energy, or natural tendency without external force.
2:01:39
Speaker 1: In its manifestation by living creatures, spontaneity is defined as
2:01:43
Speaker 1: action proceeding from or manifesting by natural feeling, tendency, emotion, temperament, disposition,
2:01:51
Speaker 1: or desire, modified perhaps by reflection, consideration, or judgment based
2:01:56
Speaker 1: upon the results of previous experience, but always without constraint
2:02:00
Speaker 1: or external force. Spontaneity then is seen to be a
2:02:04
Speaker 1: phase of self activity, volition, or will, the objective phase
2:02:09
Speaker 1: of that of which conation and volition are the subjective
2:02:11
Speaker 1: phases or aspects. Every voluntary act arising from conative feeling
2:02:17
Speaker 1: or desire is self activity. Self activity is activity arising
2:02:22
Speaker 1: from the conative volitional will of the individual and not
2:02:25
Speaker 1: from external force, pressure, or energy. Every voluntary act or activity,
2:02:31
Speaker 1: mental or physical, is self activity. All self activity is spontaneity.
2:02:37
Speaker 1: The essence of conation, volition, will, self activity, and spontaneity
2:02:42
Speaker 1: is the same. Each represents will power, which is life power,
2:02:45
Speaker 1: which is spiritual power. An ancient Greek philosopher once said,
2:02:50
Speaker 1: will is the inherent capacity for spontaneous action or self motion,
2:02:54
Speaker 1: and does not proceed from external force, though its direction
2:02:58
Speaker 1: may be influenced by external cause, is represented in the mentality.
2:03:02
Speaker 1: Keras says, by spontaneity is to be understood that kind
2:03:06
Speaker 1: of activity which springs from the nature of the thing
2:03:08
Speaker 1: or being which is active. A motion that is caused
2:03:12
Speaker 1: by pressure or push is not spontaneous, but a motion,
2:03:16
Speaker 1: the motive power of which resides in the moving object
2:03:19
Speaker 1: is spontaneous. In the character of a thing lies the
2:03:22
Speaker 1: source of its spontaneous action. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives three
2:03:28
Speaker 1: terms i e. Voluntary, uncompelled, and willing as synonyms for
2:03:32
Speaker 1: the term spontaneous, adding what is voluntary is the result
2:03:36
Speaker 1: of a volition or active choice. It therefore implies some
2:03:40
Speaker 1: degree of consideration, and may be the result of mere
2:03:43
Speaker 1: reason without excited feeling. What is spontaneous springs wholly from feeling,
2:03:48
Speaker 1: or a sudden impulse which admits of no reflection. This
2:03:52
Speaker 1: distinction is properly made and is worthy of respect. It
2:03:57
Speaker 1: should be noted, however, that while some volitions press without
2:04:00
Speaker 1: excited feeling, there is always at least some degree of
2:04:03
Speaker 1: feeling and desire present. Else there could and would be
2:04:06
Speaker 1: no motive for conative and voluntary action. As we have said,
2:04:11
Speaker 1: many careful thinkers hold that spontaneity or self activity, is
2:04:15
Speaker 1: the invariable characteristic of life. In this view, anything in
2:04:20
Speaker 1: everything that manifests the property of spontaneity must be alive
2:04:24
Speaker 1: and living. The presence of spontaneity in things usually considered
2:04:28
Speaker 1: non living is held to indicate livingness, As spontaneity is
2:04:33
Speaker 1: found to be present even in the atoms and chemical elements.
2:04:36
Speaker 1: It is held by these thinkers that they manifest livingness,
2:04:39
Speaker 1: and that the universe is alive in its every part
2:04:42
Speaker 1: and as a whole, as life is an attribute of spirit.
2:04:46
Speaker 1: In this view, it would follow that the universe is
2:04:48
Speaker 1: animated and inspired by spirit. It was formerly a favorite
2:04:53
Speaker 1: objection urged by materialism, that if spirit is the origin
2:04:57
Speaker 1: and source of all things, then Spirit i e. Eight
2:05:00
Speaker 1: hundred seventeen life, mind, and will should be found in
2:05:04
Speaker 1: at least some degree or form in everything. The answer
2:05:08
Speaker 1: of the modern spiritual philosophy is everything does manifest life, mind,
2:05:12
Speaker 1: and will i e. Spirit in some degree or form.
2:05:17
Speaker 1: The ancient sages always intuitively believed and taught this truth,
2:05:21
Speaker 1: but it remained for modern physical science to demonstrate it
2:05:24
Speaker 1: by observation and experiment. Today, the advanced minds of philosophy
2:05:29
Speaker 1: and science are assenting to the proposition that the universe
2:05:32
Speaker 1: is alive as a whole and in every part. Each
2:05:35
Speaker 1: new discovery serves to substantiate this idea, and each year
2:05:39
Speaker 1: adds to the ranks of its advocates. Luther Burbank, as
2:05:43
Speaker 1: the result of his lifetime study of life, says all
2:05:46
Speaker 1: my investigations have led me away from the idea of
2:05:49
Speaker 1: a dead universe tossed about by various forces, to that
2:05:52
Speaker 1: of a universe which is absolutely all life, soul or thought,
2:05:57
Speaker 1: or whatever name we choose to call it. Life on
2:06:00
Speaker 1: our planet is, so to speak, just on the outer
2:06:03
Speaker 1: fringe of this infinite ocean of force. The universe is
2:06:07
Speaker 1: not half dead, but all alive. Heckel, the eminent scientist philosopher, says,
2:06:13
Speaker 1: I regard all matter as in sould, that is to say,
2:06:16
Speaker 1: as endowed with feeling, pleasure and pain, and with motion,
2:06:20
Speaker 1: or better the power of motion, as elementary atomic attraction
2:06:25
Speaker 1: and repulsion. These powers are asserted in every simplest chemical process,
2:06:30
Speaker 1: and on them is based every other phenomena. Consequently, also
2:06:33
Speaker 1: the highest developed sole activity of man. The molecules or
2:06:38
Speaker 1: atoms of two elements, when brought into proper distance, mutually
2:06:42
Speaker 1: feel each other and by attraction move toward each other,
2:06:45
Speaker 1: or the contrary takes place by reason of repulsion and
2:06:48
Speaker 1: Pedocles doctrine of the love and hatred of atoms. I
2:06:52
Speaker 1: cannot imagine the simplest chemical and physical process without attributing
2:06:56
Speaker 1: the movements of the material particles to unconscious sensation. The
2:07:01
Speaker 1: idea of chemical affinity consists in the fact that the
2:07:04
Speaker 1: various chemical elements perceive the qualitative differences in other elements,
2:07:08
Speaker 1: experience pleasure or revulsion at contact with them, and execute
2:07:12
Speaker 1: specific movements on this ground. Heckel also quotes approvingly the
2:07:17
Speaker 1: statement of Negalie, another scientist, who said, if the molecules
2:07:21
Speaker 1: possess something that is related, however distantly, to sensation, it
2:07:25
Speaker 1: must be comfortable to be able to follow their attractions
2:07:28
Speaker 1: and repulsions, uncomfortable when they are forced to do otherwise.
2:07:32
Speaker 1: Flamarau says mind gleams in every atom. There is mind
2:07:37
Speaker 1: in everything, not only in human and animal life, but
2:07:40
Speaker 1: in plants, in minerals, in space. Cope says the basis
2:07:45
Speaker 1: of life and mind lies back of the atoms and
2:07:48
Speaker 1: may be found in the universal ether. Hemstreet says mind
2:07:52
Speaker 1: in the ether is no more unnatural than his mind
2:07:55
Speaker 1: in flesh and blood. Sealibi says life is potential in matters.
2:08:00
Speaker 1: Life energy is not a thing unique and created at
2:08:03
Speaker 1: a particular time in the past. If life is potential
2:08:06
Speaker 1: in matter, it is a thousand times more evident that
2:08:09
Speaker 1: mind is potential in life. The evolutionist is impelled to
2:08:13
Speaker 1: believe that mind is potential in matter. The microscopic cell,
2:08:18
Speaker 1: a minute speck of matter that is to become man,
2:08:20
Speaker 1: has in it the promise and germ of mind. May
2:08:24
Speaker 1: we not then draw the inference that the elements of
2:08:26
Speaker 1: mind are present in those chemical elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, sodium, potassium,
2:08:35
Speaker 1: chlorine that are found in a cell. Not only must
2:08:39
Speaker 1: we do so, but we must go further, since we
2:08:41
Speaker 1: know that each of these elements and every other is
2:08:44
Speaker 1: built up out of the one invariable unit, the electron,
2:08:47
Speaker 1: And we must therefore assert that mind is potential in
2:08:50
Speaker 1: the unit of matter, the electron itself. Kris says, I
2:08:54
Speaker 1: am willing to concede to Professor Heckel that all nature
2:08:57
Speaker 1: is alive. Indeed, I have most emphatically insisted that there
2:09:02
Speaker 1: is a spontaneity pervading all nature. The term life is
2:09:06
Speaker 1: used here in a broader sense than ordinarily. It here
2:09:10
Speaker 1: means spontaneity or self motion, while in its common significance
2:09:14
Speaker 1: it is restricted to the spontaneous actions of organized beings
2:09:18
Speaker 1: i e. Of plants and animals. I propose what might
2:09:22
Speaker 1: best be called panbiotism. Briefly set forth in the maxim
2:09:26
Speaker 1: everything is fraught with life, It contains life, it has
2:09:29
Speaker 1: the ability to live. Dot. We have not the space
2:09:33
Speaker 1: here to describe in detail the experiments and observations that
2:09:36
Speaker 1: have brought science to this conclusion. To the conclusion that
2:09:40
Speaker 1: there is life in everything, everything is alive, interesting and
2:09:44
Speaker 1: instructive though such description would be. In fact, we can refer,
2:09:48
Speaker 1: but briefly, even to the general results. Reference to the
2:09:52
Speaker 1: records of modern physics and biology will serve to substantiate
2:09:55
Speaker 1: our claims of life in even the simplest animal forms.
2:10:00
Speaker 1: They need not speak. Science has demonstrated beyond question the
2:10:04
Speaker 1: presence of life and elemental mind in plant life, even
2:10:07
Speaker 1: in its simplest forms. Crystals are now regarded as quasi
2:10:12
Speaker 1: living forms, just a little lower in the scale than plants.
2:10:15
Speaker 1: Some scientists have even ascribed elemental sex to them. In
2:10:20
Speaker 1: this connection, it is interesting to compare ordinary crystals with
2:10:24
Speaker 1: the lowly life forms known as the diatoms, or living crystals,
2:10:28
Speaker 1: or living geometrical forms, as they have been called. Also
2:10:32
Speaker 1: to note how closely the crystals of frost and ice
2:10:35
Speaker 1: resemble the forms of leaves, branches, foliage, et cetera. To
2:10:39
Speaker 1: examine the garden of frost flowers formed on the pane
2:10:43
Speaker 1: of glass in winter time, experiments have produced an orchid
2:10:47
Speaker 1: like crystal flower from a disk of saltpeter subjected to
2:10:50
Speaker 1: polarized light. The celebrated Bose experiments prove conclusively that inorganic
2:10:56
Speaker 1: substances may be weakened, made ill, and even killed by
2:10:59
Speaker 1: pressure or electric currents. The process of dyeing registering itself
2:11:03
Speaker 1: unmistakably through the delicate mechanism employed. Moreover, metals and machinery
2:11:09
Speaker 1: made of metals suffer from fatigue and are benefited by
2:11:13
Speaker 1: rest tuning. Forks and razor blades are familiar example of
2:11:18
Speaker 1: this fact. Every machinist knows that there is something in it.
2:11:23
Speaker 1: Metals may be poisoned by certain chemicals and actually killed
2:11:27
Speaker 1: in some cases. There is a window glass disease known
2:11:31
Speaker 1: to science. It is contagious and spreads from one pain
2:11:35
Speaker 1: to another under certain conditions. Instances illustrating this general fact
2:11:40
Speaker 1: of the livingness of inorganic things might be multiplied indefinitely.
2:11:44
Speaker 1: The list is being added to every year as the
2:11:47
Speaker 1: result of new experiments. Life mind will consciousness, desire, volition, spontaneity,
2:11:55
Speaker 1: self activity, conative energy. These are discovered to be in
2:11:59
Speaker 1: existence throughout all nature. You know them directly through your
2:12:03
Speaker 1: own experience. By scientific observation. You perceive them indirectly as
2:12:07
Speaker 1: manifest in all other things. They are beyond chemical analysis
2:12:12
Speaker 1: or physical dissection. They are revealed neither by the test
2:12:16
Speaker 1: tube nor by the retort. The scalpel does not reveal
2:12:19
Speaker 1: their presence. The microscope does not make them visible. The
2:12:22
Speaker 1: finest scales of the physicist does not record their weight,
2:12:26
Speaker 1: though certain delicate instruments have been invented which register the
2:12:29
Speaker 1: physical effects manifested by them. They cannot be produced synthetically
2:12:33
Speaker 1: by combinations, correlations, or coordinations of chemical elements. Neither can
2:12:38
Speaker 1: mechanical power account for or explain them, much less produce them.
2:12:43
Speaker 1: Biology reports that all life proceeds from life. Livingness has
2:12:48
Speaker 1: never been known to proceed from non livingness. Life at
2:12:52
Speaker 1: the last is perceived to be ultimate and universal. Livingness
2:12:56
Speaker 1: is seen to be a manifestation of an infinite life principle,
2:12:59
Speaker 1: and that principle is discovered to be spirit and nothing else.
2:13:03
Speaker 1: Honest thought and logical reasoning make an invariable inevitable and infallible.
2:13:08
Speaker 1: Report to this effect, had there ever been a time
2:13:11
Speaker 1: in which life was not present, then there would be
2:13:14
Speaker 1: no livingness today. Life being present today is evidence that
2:13:18
Speaker 1: life has always been present in some form, phase, or condition.
2:13:22
Speaker 1: Philosophical thought finds the only thinkable source or origin of
2:13:26
Speaker 1: life in the ultimate principle of spirit. Wherever there is life,
2:13:30
Speaker 1: there must be spirit. As life is universal, then spirit
2:13:35
Speaker 1: must be universal. Spirit reduced to its ultimate nature, reports
2:13:39
Speaker 1: itself as life. Lifeless Spirit is inconceivable. Life reduced to
2:13:45
Speaker 1: its ultimate nature, reports itself as spirit. Spiritless life is unthinkable.
2:13:51
Speaker 1: Thus life and spirit are seen to be but different
2:13:54
Speaker 1: names for the same ultimate fact principle power. If you
2:13:59
Speaker 1: wish to think of spirit in its simplest terms, employ
2:14:02
Speaker 1: the terms of life and livingness. Whatever else Spirit may
2:14:06
Speaker 1: be or not be, it is always life and livingness.
2:14:10
Speaker 1: Spiritual power, the infinite found by William Walker Atkinson nineteen
2:14:16
Speaker 1: twenty two. Spirit essential power. Having considered Spirit in its
2:14:22
Speaker 1: two respective modes or aspects of presence manifesting essence reality actuality,
2:14:29
Speaker 1: and of life manifesting sentience, conation, volition, you are now
2:14:33
Speaker 1: invited to consider Spirit in its third great mode, or aspect,
2:14:37
Speaker 1: namely that of power manifesting strength, energy, force. We have
2:14:42
Speaker 1: defined the several terms power, strength, energy, and force in
2:14:47
Speaker 1: a preceding section of this book, and shall assume that
2:14:49
Speaker 1: you are familiar with the several shades of meaning involved
2:14:52
Speaker 1: in them, and which you are asked to combine in
2:14:54
Speaker 1: your concept of spiritual power. We hold it to be
2:14:58
Speaker 1: beyond question that spirit is possesses strength of an infinite
2:15:01
Speaker 1: degree and extent, That Spirit possesses that in dwelling power
2:15:05
Speaker 1: known as energy of an infinite degree and extent, That
2:15:08
Speaker 1: spirit possesses that form of power known as force, or
2:15:11
Speaker 1: ability to act upon other things of an infinite degree
2:15:15
Speaker 1: and extent. In short, we believe it axiomatic and self
2:15:19
Speaker 1: evident that spirit not only possesses infinite power, all the
2:15:22
Speaker 1: power there is, but also that it itself is the
2:15:26
Speaker 1: very essence of power. This in dwelling power of spirit,
2:15:30
Speaker 1: manifesting as strength, energy, and force, is called forth, exerted
2:15:35
Speaker 1: and applied by will and will, you know, is a
2:15:38
Speaker 1: manifestation of life, which in turn is an aspect or
2:15:41
Speaker 1: mode of spirit. Accordingly, spiritual power in a sense may
2:15:46
Speaker 1: be regarded and spoken of as will power in the individual.
2:15:50
Speaker 1: It is expressed as personal will power. In the cosmos,
2:15:53
Speaker 1: it is expressed as cosmic will power in the individual.
2:15:58
Speaker 1: It is the manifestation and expression of spirit in the cosmos.
2:16:01
Speaker 1: It is the manifestation and expression of Spirit, the infinite Spirit,
2:16:05
Speaker 1: or the totality of Spirit. Hereafter, when we use the
2:16:09
Speaker 1: term spirit in capital letters, we seek to indicate spirit,
2:16:14
Speaker 1: the infinite spiritual principle, which is the totality of Spirit,
2:16:18
Speaker 1: that the spirit of the cosmos, the world Spirit, the
2:16:21
Speaker 1: universal Spirit, as man has been pleased to style it.
2:16:25
Speaker 1: It has long been the contention of many philosophers, and
2:16:28
Speaker 1: of many scientists as well, and of certain theologians of
2:16:31
Speaker 1: philosophic tendencies, that all power is willpower at the last analysis.
2:16:37
Speaker 1: Many have interpreted Herbert Spencer's infinite and eternal energy as
2:16:42
Speaker 1: essentially infinite willpower, or at least as acting like willpower.
2:16:48
Speaker 1: Wherever power is included or referred to in the spiritual philosophy,
2:16:52
Speaker 1: it means willpower of some kind, form, phase, or degree.
2:16:57
Speaker 1: Professor Nicholas Murray Butler says, a mighty group of modern
2:17:01
Speaker 1: scientists believe that matter itself, in its ultimate state, may
2:17:05
Speaker 1: be analyzed into energy, which again is explainable only as will.
2:17:09
Speaker 1: Philosophy interprets in terms of will, the name for the
2:17:13
Speaker 1: only energy that consciousness knows directly, the energy which so
2:17:17
Speaker 1: abundantly manifests itself on every hand in nature and in history.
2:17:22
Speaker 1: The dominant tendency in philosophy, powerfully supported by the results
2:17:26
Speaker 1: of scientific knowing, is that which sees totality as energy,
2:17:30
Speaker 1: which is will. Professor Fleming says, in its ultimate essence,
2:17:34
Speaker 1: energy may be incomprehensible to us except as an exhibition
2:17:38
Speaker 1: of the direct operation of that which we call mind
2:17:40
Speaker 1: and will. Professor George Trumbull lad says, the modern man
2:17:45
Speaker 1: of science, in his use of the principle of causation,
2:17:48
Speaker 1: ascribes the event to the action and reaction of various
2:17:51
Speaker 1: forms of energy. But where does he get his conception
2:17:54
Speaker 1: of energy? Where is warrant for applying the conception to
2:17:58
Speaker 1: the behavior of physical things, As those most skillful in
2:18:02
Speaker 1: psychological analysis are pretty nearly unanimous in holding the conception
2:18:06
Speaker 1: comes from his experience with himself as will. His acts
2:18:10
Speaker 1: of will are often, if not customarily, accompanied with the
2:18:14
Speaker 1: feeling of effort, and they are followed by important changes
2:18:17
Speaker 1: in his own bodily organism. And in the things which
2:18:20
Speaker 1: environ him, so far as they are in suitable relations
2:18:23
Speaker 1: with that organism. Things, so far as they are separate
2:18:27
Speaker 1: and individual, are endowed by modern science with wills of
2:18:30
Speaker 1: their own. So far as they influence one another, they
2:18:34
Speaker 1: are recognized as having a certain regard for each other's wills.
2:18:38
Speaker 1: So far as they constitute one great system a universe
2:18:42
Speaker 1: of things, they are esteemed as being under the control
2:18:44
Speaker 1: of one will. Other writers and teachers have pointed out
2:18:48
Speaker 1: the fact that science, under the hypothesis of materialism, is
2:18:52
Speaker 1: utterly unable to explain an account for the perpetual motion
2:18:55
Speaker 1: manifested in the cosmos. They hold that under such hypothesis,
2:18:59
Speaker 1: it would follow that the cosmos, at some point in
2:19:02
Speaker 1: eternity would come to a standstill dead center, a state
2:19:06
Speaker 1: of being run down like a clock. Likewise, they hold
2:19:10
Speaker 1: that under that hypothesis it could never have been wound
2:19:13
Speaker 1: up or set a going. Here, theology scores a possible
2:19:17
Speaker 1: point with its offer to supply the hand that wound
2:19:20
Speaker 1: it up and the finger that set it a going.
2:19:24
Speaker 1: But philosophy and science have another explanation, namely that of
2:19:28
Speaker 1: the operation of an infinite will power an infinite self
2:19:31
Speaker 1: activity which is inexhaustible and self renewing, and which is
2:19:35
Speaker 1: capable of changing the direction of its activity under the
2:19:38
Speaker 1: influence of the living consciousness with which it is associated.
2:19:42
Speaker 1: Such a cosmic self activity or will power could unwind
2:19:46
Speaker 1: as well as wind up. It could set a going,
2:19:49
Speaker 1: keep a going, and change the direction of the going
2:19:52
Speaker 1: at will by its own living will power. The material
2:19:56
Speaker 1: energy or pure force of the new materialism is admittedly
2:20:00
Speaker 1: the non living blind force. Just as the old materialism
2:20:04
Speaker 1: was wont to regard the universe of things as the
2:20:06
Speaker 1: fortuitous concourse of atoms fortuitous meaning happening by chance, incidental
2:20:11
Speaker 1: accidental concourse meaning the coming together or gathering or meeting,
2:20:16
Speaker 1: so this non living blind force must be regarded as
2:20:19
Speaker 1: a fortuitous process or happening. In either cage, the element
2:20:23
Speaker 1: of chance is involved in the conception. This notwithstanding that
2:20:27
Speaker 1: nothing in science is more firmly asserted than that everything
2:20:31
Speaker 1: proceeds according to law and order. There is no such
2:20:34
Speaker 1: thing as blind chance. The non spiritual power conception fails
2:20:38
Speaker 1: utterly to explain or account for the combining, correlating, coordinating
2:20:43
Speaker 1: agency discovered to be ever present and ever active in nature, law, order,
2:20:48
Speaker 1: and system can result only from the power of living
2:20:51
Speaker 1: mind and will, and as these are found to be
2:20:53
Speaker 1: omnipresent in nature, the conclusion that there must be living
2:20:56
Speaker 1: mind and will present an active in nature's processes is unescapable.
2:21:01
Speaker 1: Intellect so reports, and intuition positively insists upon its truth.
2:21:07
Speaker 1: Spiritual philosophy, on the other hand, asserts that all power
2:21:11
Speaker 1: is will power, the will power of the living spirit.
2:21:15
Speaker 1: Even the purely material forces are regarded by it as
2:21:18
Speaker 1: phases or forms of this will power. If the atoms
2:21:22
Speaker 1: and particles of matter be and sold with the elements
2:21:25
Speaker 1: of sentience and of will, as Heckel and others positively assert,
2:21:29
Speaker 1: then the aggregations of these atoms and particles must also
2:21:32
Speaker 1: be so and sold. If the attractions and repulsions of
2:21:37
Speaker 1: the particles of matter be evidences of likes and dislikes,
2:21:40
Speaker 1: and the responsive will thereto then a like explanation is
2:21:44
Speaker 1: logical also in the case of the attractions and repulsions
2:21:47
Speaker 1: of masses of matter. As most of the manifestations of
2:21:51
Speaker 1: physical power are seen to result from attraction and repulsion
2:21:55
Speaker 1: of particles or masses of matter, the logical conclusion is obvious. Likewise,
2:22:00
Speaker 1: the same conclusion is inevitable in the case of the
2:22:03
Speaker 1: atomic attraction and repulsion which result in chemical affinity and
2:22:07
Speaker 1: its opposite, which constitute the reason and cause of chemical
2:22:11
Speaker 1: processes and changes. That life has force, power, energy. You
2:22:16
Speaker 1: know from your own observation and experience you have seen
2:22:20
Speaker 1: the moving power of growing plants, tree roots, et cetera.
2:22:25
Speaker 1: Life power raises the giant redwood trees far above the ground,
2:22:29
Speaker 1: using gravitation as a lever, as a something with which
2:22:32
Speaker 1: to press back or to kick backward. Life power in
2:22:36
Speaker 1: the growing tree trunks splits apart solid rock. Life power
2:22:40
Speaker 1: in the growing giant mushroom raises and cracks heavy concrete pavements.
2:22:45
Speaker 1: All this life power is living will power. Great thinkers
2:22:49
Speaker 1: believe that the power of gravitation, and of electricity, and
2:22:52
Speaker 1: all the other great forms of natural power are living
2:22:55
Speaker 1: will power. In some form or phase of manifestation and expression,
2:23:00
Speaker 1: natural power, so interpreted becomes something far more understandable than
2:23:04
Speaker 1: when interpreted as blind force. You can understand it far
2:23:08
Speaker 1: better in this way because it seems so much more
2:23:11
Speaker 1: like yourself, more in accordance with the life power manifesting
2:23:15
Speaker 1: in and by yourself self. Motion is explainable in terms
2:23:19
Speaker 1: and concepts of living will power. In fact, it is
2:23:22
Speaker 1: explainable and understandable under no other interpretation. As we have
2:23:27
Speaker 1: seen in the foregoing instruction, the very idea of energy
2:23:30
Speaker 1: arose in the human mind only because man had first
2:23:33
Speaker 1: experienced will power present and active in himself. Energy means
2:23:38
Speaker 1: energy in force, these being ideas derived from actual experience
2:23:43
Speaker 1: with will power. Will power is self activity, spontaneity, the
2:23:48
Speaker 1: power within You send a current of will power to
2:23:51
Speaker 1: your arm, and it moves you bend your finger, a
2:23:55
Speaker 1: most stupendous task. When you come to consider it carefully,
2:24:00
Speaker 1: and simplicity of the task and your familiarity with it
2:24:02
Speaker 1: causes you to overlook its significance and importance. You take
2:24:06
Speaker 1: it for granted, whereas it requires the highest degree in
2:24:09
Speaker 1: quality of explanation to be really understandable. Only the greatest
2:24:13
Speaker 1: minds are able to appreciate the almost inconceivable wonder of
2:24:17
Speaker 1: this small, familiar action. Edison, one of the greatest minds
2:24:21
Speaker 1: of our times, has shown his appreciation of this fact
2:24:24
Speaker 1: in his account of his interview with du Boiremand, another
2:24:27
Speaker 1: great scientist. Here is Edison's account of it. When I
2:24:31
Speaker 1: was in Berlin. I met du Boremand wagging the end
2:24:35
Speaker 1: of my finger. I said to him, what is that?
2:24:38
Speaker 1: He said, he didn't know that. Investigators had been for
2:24:41
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred years trying to find that out. If
2:24:45
Speaker 1: anybody could tell him what wagged that finger, the problem
2:24:48
Speaker 1: of life would be solved. Nature is a perpetual motion machine,
2:24:52
Speaker 1: and perpetual motion implies a sustaining and impelling force. Nicholas
2:24:58
Speaker 1: Murray Butler also holds that the p perpetual motion of
2:25:01
Speaker 1: nature is accountable and explainable only under the hypothesis of
2:25:04
Speaker 1: a cosmic living will power. Think of what your own
2:25:08
Speaker 1: will power does, has done, and can do. Then raise
2:25:11
Speaker 1: that idea of will power to infinity, and consider whether
2:25:15
Speaker 1: or not it would then be capable of running the
2:25:17
Speaker 1: machinery of the cosmos, or performing the office of creative
2:25:20
Speaker 1: power and of coordinative agent. What does your intellect report?
2:25:25
Speaker 1: What does your intuition insist upon? Is not this notion
2:25:29
Speaker 1: clearer and more understandable, more thinkable, more conceivable, more reasonable
2:25:34
Speaker 1: than is that of this great work being performed by
2:25:36
Speaker 1: blind non living power, force or energy? What is the
2:25:40
Speaker 1: report of your entire mental and spiritual nature concerning this
2:25:44
Speaker 1: of your intellectual, intuitional, emotional, esthetic, ethical, and religious nature.
2:25:51
Speaker 1: As Professor Brown was wont to say, no one can
2:25:54
Speaker 1: understand the history of this belief without taking all these
2:25:57
Speaker 1: grounds and factors into consideration. But objects the ancient materialism
2:26:03
Speaker 1: and its offspring material energism. How can we conceive of
2:26:06
Speaker 1: spirit as creating material forms, building up hard rock and crystals,
2:26:11
Speaker 1: hard metals, and solid substances, solid firm, hard matter. Let
2:26:16
Speaker 1: us answer in the proverbial Hyhernian way, which is also
2:26:19
Speaker 1: the Socratic method, i e. By asking another question. Let
2:26:24
Speaker 1: us ask the materialists, for the material energist, how does
2:26:27
Speaker 1: your pure force or material energy create this solid, firm,
2:26:31
Speaker 1: hard matter. They answer by creating vortex rings or centers
2:26:37
Speaker 1: of disturbance in the ether or ultimate state of matter.
2:26:40
Speaker 1: Force or energy work up these into more solid forms,
2:26:43
Speaker 1: states and conditions of matter into electrons, into atoms, into molecules,
2:26:49
Speaker 1: into masses, into radiant matter, into gases, into fluids into solids.
2:26:54
Speaker 1: The difference between which states is merely a matter of
2:26:57
Speaker 1: degree of vibration and of the relative distance between particles.
2:27:02
Speaker 1: The hard block of steel is but congealed gas, or
2:27:05
Speaker 1: even but worked up electrons or etheric vortex rings or
2:27:09
Speaker 1: centers of disturbance. This is how pure force or material
2:27:13
Speaker 1: energy creates solid, firm, hard matter. We answer well, Then,
2:27:19
Speaker 1: in order to simplify the explanation, let us assume that
2:27:22
Speaker 1: pure spiritual energy, force or power in its aspect of
2:27:26
Speaker 1: the infinite will power of spirit, proceeds just as you
2:27:29
Speaker 1: claim that pure force or material energy does. Let us
2:27:33
Speaker 1: assume that this infinite will power begins its work by
2:27:36
Speaker 1: creating vortex rings or centers of disturbance in the etheric substance,
2:27:41
Speaker 1: which we assume to be the ultimate state of material substance,
2:27:44
Speaker 1: then proceeding to work up these into electrons, atoms, molecules, masses,
2:27:50
Speaker 1: into radiant matter, gases, fluids, solids by means of vibration
2:27:55
Speaker 1: and mutual and reciprocal attraction and repulsion. Don't you think
2:27:59
Speaker 1: that our in definite, living will power is quite as
2:28:01
Speaker 1: capable of performing this work in just this way as
2:28:05
Speaker 1: is your non living energy and blind force. Don't you
2:28:08
Speaker 1: think that it might perform it even more easily and
2:28:11
Speaker 1: more effectively in view of the fact that it has
2:28:14
Speaker 1: infinite mind to guide and direct it, whereas your material
2:28:17
Speaker 1: energy or pure force is lifeless and mindless, and must
2:28:20
Speaker 1: go it blindly by mere chance instead of by mental rule.
2:28:25
Speaker 1: We might then point out that life power is no
2:28:27
Speaker 1: novice at the task of building up solid substance. To
2:28:31
Speaker 1: realize this, you have but to remember that life power
2:28:34
Speaker 1: manufactures the hard ivory tusk and teeth of the elephant,
2:28:38
Speaker 1: the hard vegetable ivory nut, the weapon of the swordfish,
2:28:41
Speaker 1: the horns of the ox, the hard, firm, solid block
2:28:45
Speaker 1: of ebony, mahogany, rosewood, teak, wood, hickory, or oak. Has
2:28:50
Speaker 1: the blind, pure force, or material energy any better products
2:28:54
Speaker 1: to its credit than these. There is a bone in
2:28:56
Speaker 1: the human body, of which it is said that even
2:28:59
Speaker 1: the hottest coal fireire will not reduce to ashes, even
2:29:02
Speaker 1: a fire that will melt the hardest metals. Life power
2:29:05
Speaker 1: produce this hard bone from the elements of the food
2:29:07
Speaker 1: of the human being. Do you not think that, given
2:29:10
Speaker 1: the basic materials, it could likewise produce flint, granite, the diamond,
2:29:15
Speaker 1: or steel in the same way under the proper conditions.
2:29:19
Speaker 1: In fact, in the light of the dawning knowledge of
2:29:22
Speaker 1: the livingness manifested in the processes of crystallization, life power
2:29:26
Speaker 1: is already seen to be doing just this kind of work.
2:29:30
Speaker 1: The elements of life and mind superimposed upon energy, force
2:29:34
Speaker 1: and power surely do not rob the latter of their
2:29:36
Speaker 1: power and potency, their effectiveness, and their capacities. Rather, it
2:29:41
Speaker 1: would seem that any thoughtful intelligence would perceive that such
2:29:45
Speaker 1: would be a most desirable addition to the concept, serving
2:29:48
Speaker 1: to give it a sense and meaning which it had
2:29:50
Speaker 1: lacked previously. Think over this, intoit it for a few moments,
2:29:55
Speaker 1: and you will get your answer. And we feel assured
2:29:57
Speaker 1: that we know just what that answer will be. When
2:30:00
Speaker 1: you have once caught the spirit of the idea of
2:30:03
Speaker 1: infinite will power, you will resent the suggestion of infinite
2:30:06
Speaker 1: blind force as an insult to your intelligence and as
2:30:09
Speaker 1: an affront to your intuitive powers of mentality. And now
2:30:13
Speaker 1: let us ask you to submit this matter of the
2:30:15
Speaker 1: ultimate character and nature of ultimate power to an unusual
2:30:19
Speaker 1: test to attest, devised by certain Oriental sages many centuries ago,
2:30:23
Speaker 1: several thousand years ago. In fact, these ancient sages reasoned
2:30:28
Speaker 1: among themselves as follows, If there be an ultimate and
2:30:31
Speaker 1: essential energy, force or power in nature, then such must
2:30:36
Speaker 1: abide and be present in every individual thing in nature,
2:30:39
Speaker 1: at the very core and kernel of the being of
2:30:41
Speaker 1: such thing. If it is to be found at all,
2:30:44
Speaker 1: it will be found there. And so they proceeded to
2:30:48
Speaker 1: search for its presence in all things, at the very
2:30:51
Speaker 1: core and kernel of all things. First, they discovered that
2:30:55
Speaker 1: they could find evidences of it in the actions of
2:30:58
Speaker 1: every living thing, and of many things things previously deemed
2:31:01
Speaker 1: to be non living. Everything was perceived to act spontaneously
2:31:05
Speaker 1: at times, thus manifesting a self activity which was at
2:31:09
Speaker 1: least something like will action. But this was merely the
2:31:13
Speaker 1: observation of actions and the judgment upon their source. While
2:31:17
Speaker 1: satisfying in a way and to a degree, it was
2:31:20
Speaker 1: not conclusive nor absolutely convincing. Then, said the sages, let
2:31:25
Speaker 1: us look within ourselves. If I T is everywhere, I
2:31:29
Speaker 1: T must be there at the center kr or kernel
2:31:32
Speaker 1: of our own being. And so they looked within themselves
2:31:35
Speaker 1: for I T and lo at the center kor and
2:31:40
Speaker 1: colonel of the soul of each of themselves was found
2:31:43
Speaker 1: as something or somewhat which was possessed of the power
2:31:45
Speaker 1: of self activity, self motion, spontaneity. This was what they
2:31:49
Speaker 1: called will power. When they questioned this abiding power, they
2:31:53
Speaker 1: found that it was living and conscious. They asked it
2:31:57
Speaker 1: who it was, and it answered, I am I They
2:32:00
Speaker 1: asked it what it was, and it answered I am
2:32:03
Speaker 1: that I am. They tried to separate it from themselves,
2:32:07
Speaker 1: but it could not be separated from its owner even
2:32:09
Speaker 1: in thought. Then said the wise men, we have found
2:32:13
Speaker 1: that which is at the colonel corps and center of
2:32:16
Speaker 1: all things, and have found it to be the living
2:32:18
Speaker 1: will of the Spirit, that spirit which is the self
2:32:21
Speaker 1: of all things, and of the totality of things as well.
2:32:25
Speaker 1: Make this test for yourself, by yourself, upon yourself, perhaps
2:32:30
Speaker 1: you will find what the ancient Oriental wise men found.
2:32:33
Speaker 1: In fact, we are sure that you will do so.
2:32:37
Speaker 1: And having found this, you will have found a great
2:32:39
Speaker 1: secret of nature, of life, of being, of power, spiritual power,
2:32:45
Speaker 1: the infinite found by William Walker Atkinson nineteen twenty two.
2:32:51
Speaker 1: Creator and Creation. In this instruction, it is held that
2:32:55
Speaker 1: the cosmos is continuously undergoing the process of creative evolution
2:32:59
Speaker 1: or progress creation, a process without beginning, without interruption, without ending.
2:33:05
Speaker 1: This is the view accepted by the best scientific, philosophic,
2:33:09
Speaker 1: and theological thought of the present day, and of the
2:33:12
Speaker 1: best thought in these fields in the past as well.
2:33:16
Speaker 1: Worlds appear continue in existence for a time, then disappear
2:33:20
Speaker 1: to be succeeded by other worlds composed of the same
2:33:23
Speaker 1: fundamental substance and energized by the same actuating power. Cosmic
2:33:28
Speaker 1: creation is conceived as constituting an infinite cycle of cycles.
2:33:33
Speaker 1: The creative spirit is eternal, the creative substance is eternal,
2:33:37
Speaker 1: the creative activity is eternal. This is the report of
2:33:40
Speaker 1: the best thought of all times, all lands, all peoples. Creation.
2:33:45
Speaker 1: The process of creation results from the action and reaction,
2:33:49
Speaker 1: the coordination and correlation of the positive creative principle i e.
2:33:54
Speaker 1: Creative spirit and the negative creative principle i e. Creative
2:33:58
Speaker 1: material substance. Positive spirit plays upon negative matter, energizing it
2:34:03
Speaker 1: and stirring it into activity, working upon it and working
2:34:07
Speaker 1: it up into forms and conditions more and still more
2:34:09
Speaker 1: complex and intricate through the creative process of change and becoming.
2:34:14
Speaker 1: Creation has its minor and major cycles, its tides, its
2:34:18
Speaker 1: ebb and flow. But the creative process as a whole
2:34:21
Speaker 1: is held to be continuous, constant, uninterrupted, endless, coequal in
2:34:26
Speaker 1: eternity with the positive and negative principles which manifest it.
2:34:30
Speaker 1: But you may ask us where is God to be
2:34:33
Speaker 1: found in creation? Has He no place in the creative process.
2:34:38
Speaker 1: In answering this question, we are mindful of our promise
2:34:41
Speaker 1: not to invade the field of theology any more than
2:34:43
Speaker 1: is actually necessary. Theology is the science of God and
2:34:48
Speaker 1: of religion, which treats of the existence, character, attributes, and
2:34:52
Speaker 1: works of God. Therefore, we prefer that you obtain your
2:34:56
Speaker 1: theology from the authorized sources and founts. We feel that
2:35:00
Speaker 1: there is nothing in the present instruction, however, to conflict
2:35:04
Speaker 1: with any sound, rational theological view. On the contrary, we
2:35:08
Speaker 1: believe that in this instruction such views will find an
2:35:10
Speaker 1: earnest and staunch support. This instruction is not designed, nor
2:35:15
Speaker 1: is it desired, to supplant theology or your own particular
2:35:19
Speaker 1: theological views. We see no difficulty in the reconciliation of
2:35:22
Speaker 1: our own teachings with those which you have received from
2:35:25
Speaker 1: the authorized theological founts. But nevertheless, we feel that we
2:35:30
Speaker 1: would be leaving something unsaid were we to neglect to
2:35:33
Speaker 1: point out to you certain important implications of our teaching,
2:35:36
Speaker 1: although in doing so we may seem to be invading
2:35:38
Speaker 1: the realm of theological thought, at least to the extent
2:35:41
Speaker 1: of setting our foot over the borderline. Accordingly, we shall
2:35:45
Speaker 1: ask you to consider the following logical deductions from the
2:35:48
Speaker 1: premises previously set forth in the present instruction. First, we
2:35:53
Speaker 1: ask you to remember that all theological teachings inform you
2:35:57
Speaker 1: that God is spirit. If this be so, and you
2:36:00
Speaker 1: cannot conceive that God is matter, then God must be
2:36:04
Speaker 1: found in spirit, if he is to be found at
2:36:06
Speaker 1: all by you. But where should he be looked for
2:36:09
Speaker 1: in spirit? Let us answer you in the Highernian or
2:36:12
Speaker 1: Socratic fashion by asking you the question where are you
2:36:16
Speaker 1: yourself found in that real essence of your being which
2:36:19
Speaker 1: you know to be spirit? You must answer at the
2:36:23
Speaker 1: very center, corps or colonel of my spiritual being. Then
2:36:27
Speaker 1: we ask you what does this self report that it is?
2:36:30
Speaker 1: When you ask it the question comes your answer. It says,
2:36:34
Speaker 1: first of all, I, Then it says I am. Then
2:36:38
Speaker 1: it says I am I, And when pressed for its
2:36:41
Speaker 1: final answer, it says I am that I am. And
2:36:45
Speaker 1: I understand that bite that it means pure spirit. Then
2:36:49
Speaker 1: we ask once more, what has the God you believe
2:36:52
Speaker 1: in answered? When asked who and what he was? You
2:36:55
Speaker 1: answer he said merely I am that I am. Then
2:36:59
Speaker 1: we say to you, you yourself have answered the question that
2:37:03
Speaker 1: you had asked of us, namely, the question where is
2:37:06
Speaker 1: God to be found? Has he no place in the cosmos?
2:37:11
Speaker 1: He has a place in the cosmos, and you have
2:37:13
Speaker 1: found that place. That place is at the very center, core,
2:37:17
Speaker 1: or kernel of spirit. Your spirit is the microcosm. Spirit
2:37:22
Speaker 1: is the macrocosm. Remember the ancient hermetic axiom, as above,
2:37:27
Speaker 1: so below, as within, so without, as the great so
2:37:31
Speaker 1: the small. God. By whatever name he may be called,
2:37:35
Speaker 1: or even when he is given no name, is the I.
2:37:38
Speaker 1: The I am, the I am I the self of spirit.
2:37:42
Speaker 1: And he says all that he can possibly say concerning
2:37:44
Speaker 1: his nature when he announces I am that I am.
2:37:48
Speaker 1: If in spite of our desire to keep out of
2:37:50
Speaker 1: the field of theology, you still insist upon another answer.
2:37:54
Speaker 1: The answer to the question is God personal or impersonal spirit?
2:37:59
Speaker 1: We feel justify in answering. If by impersonal you mean
2:38:02
Speaker 1: a being infinitely transcending the limitations of finite personal existence
2:38:06
Speaker 1: as we know it, then we must say that, in
2:38:09
Speaker 1: our opinion, God is impersonal. But if by personal you
2:38:14
Speaker 1: meana being possessed of the attribute of self consciousness and
2:38:17
Speaker 1: capable of the consciousness of I am, I am I,
2:38:20
Speaker 1: or I am that I am, then, in our opinion,
2:38:24
Speaker 1: such a being properly may be regarded as personal. Further
2:38:28
Speaker 1: than this, we shall not go in our statements concerning theology. Frankly,
2:38:33
Speaker 1: we feel that you should be able to work out
2:38:35
Speaker 1: the balance of the problem for yourself, aided by the
2:38:37
Speaker 1: theological teachings which are acceptable to both intellect or intuition,
2:38:41
Speaker 1: to completed reason as we have defined it. An ancient
2:38:45
Speaker 1: Oriental teacher once said, it is not enough that men
2:38:48
Speaker 1: believe in God. They must get God. We add, men
2:38:52
Speaker 1: get God through the medium of the something within themselves,
2:38:55
Speaker 1: the indwelling spirit. If God is the essential entity of space,
2:39:00
Speaker 1: and if the spirit within you is a focal point
2:39:02
Speaker 1: or center of expression of spirit, then God must be
2:39:05
Speaker 1: within your spirit, just as he is within the spirit
2:39:08
Speaker 1: of the universe. And if He is there within your spirit,
2:39:12
Speaker 1: surely you should be able to find him and to
2:39:14
Speaker 1: get God. As the old Sage said, we can but
2:39:18
Speaker 1: point the way you must travel, the road spirit. And
2:39:22
Speaker 1: that which is the self of spirit is not only
2:39:25
Speaker 1: infinity of being in existence everywhere, but is also the
2:39:29
Speaker 1: in dwelling spirit which abides within yourself, and which is
2:39:32
Speaker 1: the ultimate reality or real self. Of your individuality. In
2:39:37
Speaker 1: your contemplation of the infinity of outside existence, do not
2:39:40
Speaker 1: ignore the something within yourself. All is in the all,
2:39:44
Speaker 1: and the all is in all. You cannot escape beyond
2:39:48
Speaker 1: the realm of infinite spirit. But equally true is it
2:39:51
Speaker 1: that spirit cannot escape from existence within you. It is
2:39:55
Speaker 1: in you, as truly as you are in it. In
2:39:59
Speaker 1: this last statement is contained the essence of the great
2:40:02
Speaker 1: truth of the inner teachings, of all philosophies and all religions.
2:40:05
Speaker 1: When you master this truth, you will know that which,
2:40:08
Speaker 1: when known, all is known. Strive to catch its spirit.
2:40:13
Speaker 1: Let us here ask you to read and consider the following, significant,
2:40:17
Speaker 1: though somewhat whimsical, lines of an unknown writer. Thou great eternal, infinite,
2:40:22
Speaker 1: the great unbounded whole, whose body is the Universe, whose
2:40:26
Speaker 1: spirit is its soul. If thou dost fill immensity, if
2:40:30
Speaker 1: thou art all in all, then I must be within
2:40:33
Speaker 1: thyself or not be here at all. How could I
2:40:37
Speaker 1: live outside of thee When thou fill earth and air.
2:40:40
Speaker 1: There surely is no place for me outside of everywhere.
2:40:44
Speaker 1: If thou art God, and thou dost fill infinity of space,
2:40:47
Speaker 1: then I am in God. Think as men will or else,
2:40:50
Speaker 1: I have no place. And if I have no place
2:40:53
Speaker 1: in THEE. And if I am not there, where can
2:40:56
Speaker 1: I be? Where could I dwell and still not be somewhere?
2:41:00
Speaker 1: Then I must be a part of THEE, no matter
2:41:02
Speaker 1: if I'm small, For if I'm not a part of God,
2:41:04
Speaker 1: there's no such God at all. The concept of in
2:41:08
Speaker 1: dwelling deity is not a new one in philosophical and
2:41:11
Speaker 1: theological thought. Indeed, it is one of the oldest philosophical beliefs,
2:41:15
Speaker 1: and it appears very early in the theological thought of
2:41:18
Speaker 1: practically all religions. Technically, it is known as the doctrine
2:41:23
Speaker 1: of imminence, from the Latin term immaneir, meaning remaining within.
2:41:28
Speaker 1: The Encyclopedia Britannica eleventh edition, in its article upon eminence,
2:41:33
Speaker 1: says imminence in philosophy and theology is a term applied
2:41:38
Speaker 1: in contradistinction to transcendence, to the fact or condition of
2:41:42
Speaker 1: being entirely within something. Its most important use is for
2:41:47
Speaker 1: the theological conception of God as existing in and throughout
2:41:50
Speaker 1: the created world, as opposed, for example, to deism, which
2:41:54
Speaker 1: conceives Him as separate from and above the universe. It
2:41:58
Speaker 1: should be observed that the imminence dots doctri need not
2:42:00
Speaker 1: preclude the belief in the transcendence of God. Thus God
2:42:04
Speaker 1: may be regarded as above the world, transcendent, and at
2:42:07
Speaker 1: the same time as present in and pervading it imminent.
2:42:11
Speaker 1: The conception of God as wholly external to man, a
2:42:14
Speaker 1: purely mechanical theory of the creation is throughout Christendom regarded
2:42:18
Speaker 1: as false to the teaching of the New Testament, as
2:42:20
Speaker 1: also to Christian experience. The contrary view has gained ground
2:42:25
Speaker 1: in some quarters so far as to postulate a divine
2:42:28
Speaker 1: element in human beings, so definitely bridging over the gap
2:42:31
Speaker 1: between finite and infinite, which was to some extent admitted
2:42:35
Speaker 1: by the bulk of early Christian teachers. The development of
2:42:38
Speaker 1: the imminence theory of God has coincided with the deeper
2:42:41
Speaker 1: recognition of the essentially spiritual nature of deity, as contrasted
2:42:45
Speaker 1: with the older semi pagan conception found very largely in
2:42:49
Speaker 1: the Old Testament, of God as primarily a mighty ruler,
2:42:52
Speaker 1: obedience to whom is comparable with that of a subject
2:42:55
Speaker 1: to an absolute monarch. Modern philosophical, theological and mind metaphysical
2:43:00
Speaker 1: thought has inclined strongly towards the general doctrine of imminence,
2:43:04
Speaker 1: and the influence of this general idea is manifest in
2:43:07
Speaker 1: practically all recent discussion and writing upon the subject. Professor
2:43:12
Speaker 1: William James expresses this fact in the following statement contained
2:43:15
Speaker 1: in one of his works. Those of us who are
2:43:18
Speaker 1: sexagenarians have witnessed in our own persons one of those
2:43:21
Speaker 1: gradual mutations of intellectual climate, due to innumerable influences that
2:43:26
Speaker 1: make the thought of a past generation seem as foreign
2:43:29
Speaker 1: to its successor as if it were the expression of
2:43:31
Speaker 1: a different race of men. The theological machinery that spoke
2:43:35
Speaker 1: so livingly to our ancestors, with its finite age of
2:43:38
Speaker 1: the world, its creation out of nothing, its judicial morality
2:43:42
Speaker 1: in eschatology, its relish for rewards and punishments, its treatment
2:43:46
Speaker 1: of God as an external contriver an intelligent and moral governor,
2:43:50
Speaker 1: sounds as odd to most of us as if it
2:43:52
Speaker 1: were some outlandish, savage religion. Our contemporary mind, having once
2:43:57
Speaker 1: for all grasped the possibility of a more intimate veltan schau,
2:44:01
Speaker 1: the only opinion quite worthy of arresting our attention, will
2:44:04
Speaker 1: fall within the general scope of what may roughly be
2:44:06
Speaker 1: called the pantheistic field of vision, the vision of God
2:44:10
Speaker 1: as the in dwelling divine rather than the external creator,
2:44:13
Speaker 1: and of human life as part and parcel of that
2:44:15
Speaker 1: deep reality. Several years ago, a writer in one of
2:44:19
Speaker 1: the leading magazines presented a series of articles in which
2:44:22
Speaker 1: he set forth that which his investigations had revealed to
2:44:25
Speaker 1: be the dominant principles of the philosophical and theological teaching
2:44:29
Speaker 1: of our great universities. The following passage is quoted from
2:44:33
Speaker 1: one of the articles of the series. It correctly represents
2:44:36
Speaker 1: the modern tendency of thought along these lines. Now that
2:44:40
Speaker 1: man has discovered that there resides in his nature a
2:44:43
Speaker 1: spirit or energy that is divine, the collegests say that
2:44:46
Speaker 1: he can summon it to work his will. The potency
2:44:50
Speaker 1: and future operation of this spiritual force no man can compute.
2:44:55
Speaker 1: Science has found a way, through psychology to God. The
2:44:58
Speaker 1: opportunities for the race through it, invoking in the human
2:45:01
Speaker 1: consciousness the brooding spirit that fills all space, are absolutely infinite.
2:45:06
Speaker 1: Science therefore is demonstrating along new lines, or at least
2:45:10
Speaker 1: is claiming to demonstrate that man is God made manifest,
2:45:15
Speaker 1: and modern philosophy as set forth in American universities holds
2:45:19
Speaker 1: this incarnation not as a fanciful and merely beautiful ideal,
2:45:23
Speaker 1: but as a working and understandable principle in the soul
2:45:26
Speaker 1: of humanity. The professors, therefore, who are digging what they
2:45:30
Speaker 1: believe to be the graves for dead dogmas, stand as
2:45:33
Speaker 1: exponents of the teaching that man is the embodiment and
2:45:36
Speaker 1: conscious expression of the force that guides all life and
2:45:39
Speaker 1: holds all matter in its course. Man has begun the
2:45:42
Speaker 1: cycle of that triumphal, daring prophesied by ancient seers, and
2:45:46
Speaker 1: which appealed so potently to the imagination of Poe, not
2:45:50
Speaker 1: merely in religious rhetoric, but in reality. The school men say,
2:45:54
Speaker 1: is Man the avatar of God. In this connection we
2:45:58
Speaker 1: also ask you to consider them The following excerpts from
2:46:01
Speaker 1: the remarkable lecture on the Religion of the Future, delivered
2:46:04
Speaker 1: a few years ago by Professor Charles W. Eliot, former
2:46:08
Speaker 1: President of Harvard University, before the Harvard Summer School of Theology.
2:46:13
Speaker 1: The New Thought of God will be its most characteristic element.
2:46:17
Speaker 1: This ideal will comprehend the Jewish Jehovah, the Christian universal Father.
2:46:21
Speaker 1: The modern physicists on the present and exhaustless energy and
2:46:25
Speaker 1: the biological conception of a vital force. The infinite spirit
2:46:29
Speaker 1: pervades the universe, just as the spirit of a man
2:46:32
Speaker 1: pervades his body and acts consciously or unconsciously in every
2:46:37
Speaker 1: atom of it. The twentieth century will accept literally and
2:46:41
Speaker 1: implicitly Saint Paul's statement in him we live and move
2:46:45
Speaker 1: and have our being, and God is that vital atmosphere
2:46:48
Speaker 1: or incessant inspiration. The new religion is therefore thoroughly monotheistic,
2:46:54
Speaker 1: its God being the one infinite force. But this one
2:46:57
Speaker 1: God is not withdrawn or removed, but in well, selling
2:47:00
Speaker 1: and especially dwelling in every living creature. The scientific doctrine
2:47:05
Speaker 1: is that there is one omnipresent, eternal energy in forming
2:47:08
Speaker 1: and inspiring the whole creation at every instant of time
2:47:12
Speaker 1: and throughout the infinite spaces. The doctrine of God's eminence
2:47:16
Speaker 1: is inconsistent with the conception that He set the universe
2:47:19
Speaker 1: agoing and then withdrew, leaving the universe to be operated
2:47:22
Speaker 1: under physical laws which were his vice regents or substitutes.
2:47:27
Speaker 1: If God is thoroughly imminent in the entire creation, there
2:47:30
Speaker 1: can be no secondary causes in either the material or
2:47:34
Speaker 1: the spiritual universe. The contemplation of the concept of the
2:47:38
Speaker 1: indwelling spirit, the imminence of Divinity tends to bring the
2:47:42
Speaker 1: individual into the feeling and consciousness of his underlying unity
2:47:45
Speaker 1: with the ultimate source of being. He then realizes in
2:47:49
Speaker 1: his own consciousness the fact that, as the poet has
2:47:52
Speaker 1: expressed it, the all is one, and all are part,
2:47:56
Speaker 1: but not a part as they seem to be, And
2:47:58
Speaker 1: the blood of life has a sain heart pulsing through
2:48:01
Speaker 1: God and Clod and me. In the spirit of this
2:48:05
Speaker 1: new conception of the relation between the infinite spirit and
2:48:08
Speaker 1: the individual spirit, we ask you to consider carefully the
2:48:11
Speaker 1: following wonderful statement of Professor Josiah Royce of Harvard, that
2:48:15
Speaker 1: eminent philosopher and teacher of philosophical truth. The Infinite Self,
2:48:21
Speaker 1: in the very least of the daily experiences, is known
2:48:24
Speaker 1: to you as something present. This is the deepest tragedy
2:48:27
Speaker 1: of our finitude, that continually he comes to his own
2:48:30
Speaker 1: and his own receive him, not that he becomes flesh
2:48:33
Speaker 1: in every least incident of our lives. Whilst we gazing
2:48:37
Speaker 1: with wonder upon his world, search here and there for
2:48:40
Speaker 1: first causes look for miracles, and beg him to show
2:48:43
Speaker 1: us the Father, since that alone will suffice us. No
2:48:47
Speaker 1: wonder that we remain agnostics. Hast thou been so long
2:48:51
Speaker 1: time with me, and yet hast not known me? Such
2:48:55
Speaker 1: is the eternal answer of the Logos to every doubting question.
2:48:59
Speaker 1: Seek him not as an outer hypothesis to explain experience.
2:49:03
Speaker 1: Seek him not anywhere yonder in the clouds. All experience
2:49:07
Speaker 1: contains him. He is the reality, the soul of it.
2:49:12
Speaker 1: If we have the true insight of the deeper idealism,
2:49:15
Speaker 1: we can turn from our chaos to Him who is
2:49:17
Speaker 1: our true and divine self, and can hear from him
2:49:20
Speaker 1: with absolute assurance. This one word, oh ye who despair,
2:49:24
Speaker 1: I grieve in you. Your sorrow is mine, no pang
2:49:28
Speaker 1: of your finitude, but is mine too. I suffer at all,
2:49:32
Speaker 1: for all things are mine. I bear it, and yet
2:49:35
Speaker 1: I triumph. This word of the Self, I say we
2:49:39
Speaker 1: can be sure of, for it is the one final
2:49:41
Speaker 1: word of our whole philosophic thought. Some philosophers hold that
2:49:45
Speaker 1: the creative power is wholly and completely involved in its creation.
2:49:50
Speaker 1: Others hold that only a part or portion of the
2:49:52
Speaker 1: creative power is involved in its creation. Some of the
2:49:56
Speaker 1: Oriental schools, in fact, hold that only an infant kine,
2:50:00
Speaker 1: the tessimal portion of the infinite being, is involved in
2:50:03
Speaker 1: or concerned with the manifestation of creation. Again, some schools
2:50:07
Speaker 1: hold that the creative spirit enters into and pervades the
2:50:10
Speaker 1: material substance as salt enters into and pervades the water
2:50:14
Speaker 1: of the ocean. Others hold that the action of the
2:50:17
Speaker 1: creative spirit upon the material substance is akin to that
2:50:20
Speaker 1: of the magnet upon a mass of steel filings, i e.
2:50:24
Speaker 1: By induction, the magnetic emanation being held to in soul
2:50:28
Speaker 1: the tiny particles of steel, causing them to take form
2:50:31
Speaker 1: and manifest motion, just as spirit so and sols the
2:50:35
Speaker 1: material substance with similar results. Others employ the symbol of
2:50:39
Speaker 1: the Sun of Spirit shining upon the surface of the
2:50:42
Speaker 1: great ocean of material substance and being reflected from its face.
2:50:47
Speaker 1: The sun is regarded as penetrating the ocean by means
2:50:50
Speaker 1: of its emanated rays, being reflected from any point of
2:50:53
Speaker 1: its surface, and causing motion and surface manifestations of form
2:50:57
Speaker 1: in the superficial portion of the great body of water.
2:51:00
Speaker 1: In this view, it is held that the Sun of
2:51:03
Speaker 1: Spirit in itself never actually enters into the material substance.
2:51:08
Speaker 1: Merely its emanated rays enter into the latter, there working
2:51:11
Speaker 1: upon and working up the material stuff, thus creating forms
2:51:15
Speaker 1: and activities, and manifesting the process of becoming. Carrying still
2:51:20
Speaker 1: further this symbolic illustration of the Sun and the ocean,
2:51:24
Speaker 1: it is shown that the Sun continually causes portions of
2:51:27
Speaker 1: the water of the ocean to rise upward in the
2:51:29
Speaker 1: form of vapor. This vapor condensing then falls upon the
2:51:33
Speaker 1: ocean in the form of rain or dew. Here attention
2:51:36
Speaker 1: is called to the fact that in every falling rain
2:51:38
Speaker 1: drop or dewdrop, as in the ocean itself, there is
2:51:42
Speaker 1: ever reflected the image and form of the Sun. Each
2:51:45
Speaker 1: drop has its Sun, its light, its radiance. Each drop
2:51:50
Speaker 1: is as a miniature ocean. In this respect, the Sun's
2:51:53
Speaker 1: reflection appears in the great ocean and in every tiny
2:51:57
Speaker 1: rain drop or dewdrop. Yet the Sun itself, ever remin
2:52:00
Speaker 1: means over and above all, though its emanations are ever
2:52:03
Speaker 1: in all. Thus by the symbol of Sun and ocean
2:52:06
Speaker 1: is explained the nature of the presence power of spirit
2:52:09
Speaker 1: in the material substance, thus is illustrated. The transcendence, and
2:52:14
Speaker 1: the imminence of the creative presence power. It is a
2:52:17
Speaker 1: wonderfully effective symbolic illustration, one worthy of respect. Whether or
2:52:22
Speaker 1: not it is accepted as properly and fully representing the truth,
2:52:26
Speaker 1: you will find that it will grow upon you as
2:52:28
Speaker 1: you consider it. It will stick in your mind like
2:52:31
Speaker 1: the birds in the wool of the sheep. The sun
2:52:34
Speaker 1: has always been a favorite symbol for the supreme Power
2:52:37
Speaker 1: or the supreme being. It seems to appeal powerfully to
2:52:40
Speaker 1: the religious, emotional nature, the poetic imagination, and the philosophical
2:52:45
Speaker 1: intuition of man. Perhaps intuition recognizes it as the most
2:52:49
Speaker 1: appropriate and most fitting symbol of a truth that can
2:52:52
Speaker 1: be expressed only by means of symbols. Just as the
2:52:56
Speaker 1: mind of man has ever speculated concerning the how of creation,
2:53:00
Speaker 1: so has it sought earnestly for an explanation of the
2:53:03
Speaker 1: why of creation. In all developed philosophic, metaphysical, and theological thought,
2:53:09
Speaker 1: there is found at least an attempt to answer the
2:53:11
Speaker 1: question why did the Supreme Power create the universe? In
2:53:15
Speaker 1: some cases there is found the attempt to dismiss the
2:53:18
Speaker 1: subject as part of the great mystery. Something beyond the
2:53:21
Speaker 1: knowledge or thought of man. But even in such cases
2:53:24
Speaker 1: there is usually found an attempt at some kind of explanation.
2:53:28
Speaker 1: Many of these so called explanations are so crudely anthropomorphic,
2:53:32
Speaker 1: so evidently the naive answers of childlike minds, that they
2:53:36
Speaker 1: require no serious philosophical consideration or discussion. Those who originated
2:53:42
Speaker 1: them certainly lacked the philosophic imagination. Of these would be explanations.
2:53:47
Speaker 1: Some merely offend the intelligence of the thinker, as for instance,
2:53:51
Speaker 1: the statement that he desired to be worshiped and glorified,
2:53:55
Speaker 1: and so he created beings to worship him and sing
2:53:58
Speaker 1: his praises. Other use offend the heart of man as
2:54:01
Speaker 1: well as his intellect, as for instance, the idea that
2:54:05
Speaker 1: the cosmos is merely an amusement affording moving picture show
2:54:09
Speaker 1: operated by God in order to serve as the pastime
2:54:12
Speaker 1: of eternity, or again the idea that life is but
2:54:15
Speaker 1: a great game played by God with his creatures as
2:54:18
Speaker 1: the pieces or as the ball, a game played by
2:54:21
Speaker 1: him for the purpose of exhibiting his own infinite power,
2:54:24
Speaker 1: or perhaps for the purpose of defeating an imagined bogie.
2:54:29
Speaker 1: Intuition revolts at such ideas. It knows that there must
2:54:32
Speaker 1: be an infinite rational meaning attached to the infinite manifestation
2:54:36
Speaker 1: of the infinite presence power. Nothing less than this will
2:54:39
Speaker 1: satisfy the needs of intuition. Far more satisfying to both
2:54:44
Speaker 1: intellect and intuition is the interpretation furnished by that general
2:54:48
Speaker 1: philosophical school known as vitalism. Vitalism, under several names, is
2:54:53
Speaker 1: well represented in the history of philosophical thought, ancient and modern.
2:54:58
Speaker 1: Bergsen is one of its more prominent modern advocates. Its
2:55:02
Speaker 1: spirit is expressed in a somewhat unpleasant form by Schopenhauer
2:55:06
Speaker 1: and his followers. It is also found implicit in the
2:55:10
Speaker 1: basic teachings of ancient Buddhism. This broad philosophic trend of
2:55:14
Speaker 1: thought known as Vitalism, may be indicated by the following
2:55:17
Speaker 1: general statement of its basic conception viz. Spirit has its
2:55:22
Speaker 1: most essential and active attribute in life or livingness, the
2:55:26
Speaker 1: life principle of the universe, which is spirit in one
2:55:29
Speaker 1: of its aspects. Being essentially in characteristically livingness, naturally finds
2:55:34
Speaker 1: its normal expression in the activities of life through the
2:55:37
Speaker 1: multitudinous forms of life which it has created for the
2:55:40
Speaker 1: purpose of such expression. The expression and manifestation of life
2:55:45
Speaker 1: and livingness constitute the legitimate and natural activity of its
2:55:48
Speaker 1: essential nature and character. Accordingly, the life principle, which is
2:55:53
Speaker 1: an aspect of spirit eternally creates the infinite series of
2:55:57
Speaker 1: universes in order to manifest and express in objective form
2:56:00
Speaker 1: that essential livingness, which is within itself as the innermost core, kernel,
2:56:04
Speaker 1: and heart of itself. It creates in order that it
2:56:08
Speaker 1: may live, i e. Express its livingness in objective form.
2:56:12
Speaker 1: In order to do this, it works upon and works
2:56:15
Speaker 1: up the universal material substance in order to produce material
2:56:19
Speaker 1: forms to be animated, energized, and inspired by its living
2:56:23
Speaker 1: spiritual energy. It creates bodies of material substance in order
2:56:28
Speaker 1: to breathe into them the breath of the spirit of life,
2:56:31
Speaker 1: and thereafter to live and act in and through them.
2:56:35
Speaker 1: Bergson's basic concept may be stated as follows. A free
2:56:38
Speaker 1: and spontaneous life is the very essence of the real,
2:56:42
Speaker 1: pushing out from within seeking expression, Life buds and breaks
2:56:46
Speaker 1: forth into original creation. The laws of nature are life's habits,
2:56:51
Speaker 1: its ways of proceeding in doing things. Reality is pure
2:56:55
Speaker 1: creative life. Life, fed from within rather than from without,
2:57:00
Speaker 1: evolves and creates by means of its own inherent and
2:57:02
Speaker 1: spontaneous creative power. Life is not static, not something that
2:57:07
Speaker 1: was once something different, not a past left behind and
2:57:11
Speaker 1: a future spread out in front. It is a single,
2:57:13
Speaker 1: continuous movement, carrying all its past with it and pressing
2:57:17
Speaker 1: forward into a future which it is forever creating. Evolution
2:57:21
Speaker 1: is the original impetus of life, the living act in progress.
2:57:25
Speaker 1: This general conception of the presence and activity of a
2:57:29
Speaker 1: will to live in nature is found to pervade many
2:57:32
Speaker 1: and varied forms of philosophical thought. It exerts a peculiar
2:57:36
Speaker 1: fascination upon the philosophic mind. The philosopher, once falling under
2:57:40
Speaker 1: its influence, rarely ever entirely, escapes from it. Thereafter, the
2:57:45
Speaker 1: conception is supported by the observable facts concerning the evident
2:57:48
Speaker 1: presence in nature of an active principle, energy or force,
2:57:52
Speaker 1: which manifests the characteristics attributed to this hypothetical will to live.
2:57:57
Speaker 1: There undoubtedly is a conative energy working in and through nature,
2:58:01
Speaker 1: which has as its evident end in purpose, the manifestation, expression, perpetuation,
2:58:06
Speaker 1: and continuance of life of living forms. In fact, the
2:58:11
Speaker 1: very idea of nature implicitly involves the notion of this element,
2:58:15
Speaker 1: which constantly inspires the natural processes. The instinct of self
2:58:19
Speaker 1: preservation and that of the perpetuation of the species constitute
2:58:23
Speaker 1: two of nature's strongest and most active forces. In them,
2:58:27
Speaker 1: the will to live shows itself most plainly. The will
2:58:31
Speaker 1: to live is found ever at work, striving, endeavoring, seeking,
2:58:35
Speaker 1: and attempting to manifest and express itself in objective actuality,
2:58:39
Speaker 1: in livingness. Its presence is plainly discernible in the germinating
2:58:43
Speaker 1: seed and the growing plant, in the developing germ embryo
2:58:47
Speaker 1: and young of animal life, in the adaptation of the
2:58:49
Speaker 1: living creature to its environment, and in its differentiations designed
2:58:53
Speaker 1: to meet the requirements of changing environments, in the provision
2:58:57
Speaker 1: for the sustenance, support, and survival of the living creature,
2:59:00
Speaker 1: and the arrangements for the perpetuation of life and livingness
2:59:04
Speaker 1: in the offspring. When you think and speak of nature's
2:59:07
Speaker 1: processes concerned with living creatures, you are thinking of the
2:59:11
Speaker 1: manifestation and expression of this will to live, which is
2:59:14
Speaker 1: one of the aspects of spirit. Schopenhauer was so impressed
2:59:18
Speaker 1: with this idea of the will to live, and found
2:59:21
Speaker 1: so many evidences of its presence and activities on all
2:59:24
Speaker 1: sides in nature, that he felt warranted in postulating it
2:59:27
Speaker 1: as the most essential element and factor of the world, spirit,
2:59:30
Speaker 1: which he regarded as being the creative agent of the universe. Indeed,
2:59:35
Speaker 1: he went so far as to apply to this creative
2:59:38
Speaker 1: spirit itself the name of the will to live. The
2:59:42
Speaker 1: Buddhists likewise regarded as the actuating energy of the universe,
2:59:46
Speaker 1: holding that it the will to live, is the creator,
2:59:50
Speaker 1: the preserver, the destroyer of the universe. They also regard
2:59:54
Speaker 1: all forms of desire or will as forms, phases, or
2:59:57
Speaker 1: modes of the activity of this universal will to live. Others,
3:00:02
Speaker 1: in the same spirit regard the universal actuating energy or
3:00:05
Speaker 1: creative spirit as power with the desire to act, or
3:00:09
Speaker 1: desire with the power to act, the chief end, aim, purpose,
3:00:13
Speaker 1: and intention of such action being to manifest livingness. In
3:00:17
Speaker 1: this consideration of the creative Spirit as life, however, you
3:00:21
Speaker 1: must not lose sight of the fact that wherever there
3:00:24
Speaker 1: is life, there is mind. Wherever there is mind, there
3:00:26
Speaker 1: is life. Life and mind are attributes of spirit, life
3:00:30
Speaker 1: being the more fundamental mind being a form of the
3:00:33
Speaker 1: expression of life. If the universe is instinct with life,
3:00:38
Speaker 1: then mind must be involved in its every part. And
3:00:41
Speaker 1: so it is, as all careful thinkers sooner or later
3:00:44
Speaker 1: discover that mind is present in the creative processes of
3:00:49
Speaker 1: the material universe, has ever been evident to thinking reflective minds.
3:00:54
Speaker 1: The presence of law, order, and system is an inevitable, invariable,
3:00:58
Speaker 1: and infallible indication of the presence power of living mind. Law, order,
3:01:04
Speaker 1: and system are apparent in nature on every hand. Strive
3:01:08
Speaker 1: as we may, we cannot escape from this conviction. Moreover,
3:01:13
Speaker 1: in the cosmic processes, there is to be found an
3:01:15
Speaker 1: invariable logical sequence of cause and effect, a pure logic
3:01:19
Speaker 1: knowing no exceptions, variations, or contradictions. This being present, that becomes,
3:01:26
Speaker 1: this being active that results, is the rule of the
3:01:29
Speaker 1: cosmic logic. A reverent scientist once said that science is
3:01:33
Speaker 1: but a reading by the human mind of the thoughts
3:01:36
Speaker 1: of the infinite mind. A famous astronomer once said that
3:01:40
Speaker 1: his work consisted merely of thinking God's thoughts. After him,
3:01:44
Speaker 1: there must be mentation involved in nature's processes, else the
3:01:48
Speaker 1: human mind could not read logical process in them. Science
3:01:52
Speaker 1: is based upon the presence and result of this logic
3:01:55
Speaker 1: of nature. Logic, however, is impossible and inconceivable with the
3:01:59
Speaker 1: out the premiss of a logical mind, and mind is
3:02:02
Speaker 1: impossible and inconceivable without the premise of life. Nature being
3:02:07
Speaker 1: what it is must be the manifestation of living mind.
3:02:12
Speaker 1: And so then we have discovered that the cosmos, the universe,
3:02:16
Speaker 1: the world in which we live and move and have
3:02:18
Speaker 1: our being, is the creative activity of an infinite and
3:02:21
Speaker 1: eternal living spirit, from which all things flow and proceed,
3:02:25
Speaker 1: and of which all things are forms of manifestation and expression. You,
3:02:30
Speaker 1: the individual who is reading these lines, you are a
3:02:33
Speaker 1: focal point or center of the manifestation of life mind will.
3:02:37
Speaker 1: In that world of manifestation and expression. You are the microcosm,
3:02:42
Speaker 1: corresponding in nature and essence with the macrocosm of which
3:02:45
Speaker 1: you are the focal point of expression. You partake of
3:02:48
Speaker 1: its nature and being. You are like unto it in spirit.
3:02:52
Speaker 1: You are made in its spiritual image. Like it, You
3:02:57
Speaker 1: possess the creative spirit, and you are manifest, to a
3:03:00
Speaker 1: greater or less extent, the activities of creation In your
3:03:04
Speaker 1: everyday life. The individual spirit which is you, is constantly
3:03:09
Speaker 1: at work, manifesting its creative power, playing upon material substance,
3:03:13
Speaker 1: working upon and working up this plastic medium by the
3:03:16
Speaker 1: power of your will. You have been doing this work
3:03:20
Speaker 1: chiefly unconsciously, instinctively, unaware of the source of your power,
3:03:24
Speaker 1: uninformed as to the methods of effectively employing this great
3:03:27
Speaker 1: creative power within you. You will see at once that
3:03:31
Speaker 1: if you can but open up a more direct channel
3:03:33
Speaker 1: of communication with the infinite found of power, then you
3:03:36
Speaker 1: may partake of a greater share of that creative power.
3:03:40
Speaker 1: The spiritual creative power is available to you. You may
3:03:44
Speaker 1: secure its services and employ them in the tasks and
3:03:47
Speaker 1: work of your everyday life and toward the attainment of
3:03:50
Speaker 1: your ideals. You, the individual creative spirit, are entitled by
3:03:55
Speaker 1: your birthright to claim and demand the aid and assistance
3:03:57
Speaker 1: of the infinite and eternal spirit in which you live
3:04:00
Speaker 1: and move and have your being, and from which your
3:04:02
Speaker 1: life and power proceed and flow. You have the natural
3:04:06
Speaker 1: and inalienable right to draw upon the infinite found of
3:04:09
Speaker 1: creative power, and to apply that power through your own
3:04:12
Speaker 1: creative channels. Let us carry this thought with us into
3:04:16
Speaker 1: our study of the next section of this book. Spiritual
3:04:20
Speaker 1: Power The Infinite Fount by William Walker Atkinson nineteen twenty two.
3:04:26
Speaker 1: Unison with Infinity. The esoteric or inner teachings of many
3:04:31
Speaker 1: schools of ancient and modern mysticism and occultism of Oriental
3:04:35
Speaker 1: and Occidental lands, under many names and guises, have inevitably,
3:04:39
Speaker 1: invariably and infallibly pointed to a supreme end to be
3:04:43
Speaker 1: gained by the student of the inner doctrine or ancient
3:04:46
Speaker 1: wisdom of the sages. That supreme end may be called
3:04:50
Speaker 1: unison with Infinity, or conscious contact and attainment with the
3:04:53
Speaker 1: infinite spiritual principle of life, consciousness power. The essential spirit
3:04:59
Speaker 1: and essence of this inner teaching is expressed in the
3:05:01
Speaker 1: statement of the message of Truth, as announced in one
3:05:04
Speaker 1: form or another by the great spiritual giants and illumined
3:05:08
Speaker 1: teachers of the past and the present of all lands
3:05:11
Speaker 1: and peoples of all great religions. To the message of truth,
3:05:15
Speaker 1: the truly wise listen, They commit it to memory, and
3:05:18
Speaker 1: make it the essential and basic fact of their mental
3:05:21
Speaker 1: and spiritual life. Hearken ye to it, ponder over it,
3:05:26
Speaker 1: analyze it, dissect it, subject it to mental mastication, mental rumination,
3:05:33
Speaker 1: mental digestion, mental assimilation. Return to it again and again
3:05:38
Speaker 1: you make it your very own. The message of truth,
3:05:42
Speaker 1: you yourself, in your essential and real being. Nature and
3:05:46
Speaker 1: entity are spirit and naught, but spirit in and of spirit,
3:05:50
Speaker 1: spiritual and not material. Matter, in any and all of
3:05:55
Speaker 1: its forms, is your instrument of expression, the stuff created
3:05:58
Speaker 1: for your use and service in your expression of life, mind,
3:06:02
Speaker 1: and will. It is your servant, not your master. You condition, limit,
3:06:07
Speaker 1: and form it not at you. You fashion it, not
3:06:10
Speaker 1: at you. When you recognize and realize your true and
3:06:12
Speaker 1: real nature and awaken to a perception of your real
3:06:15
Speaker 1: relation to Spirit and of its relation to you, the
3:06:19
Speaker 1: report of Spirit received by its accredited individual centers of
3:06:23
Speaker 1: expression and by them transmitted to you. Is this in
3:06:26
Speaker 1: the degree that you perceive, recognize, and realize your essential
3:06:30
Speaker 1: identity with Me, the supreme Presence, Power, the ultimate Reality.
3:06:34
Speaker 1: In that degree will you receive and be able to
3:06:36
Speaker 1: manifest my spiritual power. I am over and above you,
3:06:40
Speaker 1: under and beneath you. I surround you on all sides.
3:06:44
Speaker 1: I am also within you, and you are in me.
3:06:46
Speaker 1: For me you proceed, and in me you live and
3:06:49
Speaker 1: move and have your being. Seek me by looking within
3:06:52
Speaker 1: your own being, and likewise by looking for me in infinity.
3:06:56
Speaker 1: For I abide both within and without your being. If
3:07:00
Speaker 1: and when you will adopt and live according to this truth,
3:07:03
Speaker 1: then will you be able to manifest that truth. In
3:07:06
Speaker 1: and by it alone are freedom and invincibility and true
3:07:09
Speaker 1: and real presence in power to be found, perceived, realized,
3:07:12
Speaker 1: and manifested. The message of truth informs you that you
3:07:16
Speaker 1: must perceive, recognize, and realize your essential identity with the
3:07:21
Speaker 1: infinite presence power in order to be able to manifest
3:07:24
Speaker 1: that spiritual power. This perception, recognition, realization is experienced in
3:07:31
Speaker 1: completed reason i e. By combined and coordinated intellect and intuition.
3:07:36
Speaker 1: In the foregoing instruction, we have sought to awaken the
3:07:39
Speaker 1: intellectual perception, recognition, and realization. We trust that we have
3:07:44
Speaker 1: succeeded in doing so. The intuitional perception, recognition, and realization
3:07:50
Speaker 1: differ from the intellectual achievement inasmuch as intuition does not
3:07:54
Speaker 1: need to be taught, it already knows. All that is
3:07:57
Speaker 1: required here is to awaken in intuition the fact of
3:07:59
Speaker 1: its time, its own knowing, so that it may pass
3:08:01
Speaker 1: down to the field of intellect its report. This awakening
3:08:05
Speaker 1: may be effected in two ways, viz. One, by considering
3:08:09
Speaker 1: the reports of the experience of those illumined souls who
3:08:12
Speaker 1: have preceded you on the path of attainment, and who
3:08:15
Speaker 1: have left behind them a record of their spiritual experiences. Two.
3:08:19
Speaker 1: By cultivating the actual spiritual contact between your individual spirit
3:08:24
Speaker 1: and the universal Spirit, thus coming into actual unison and
3:08:27
Speaker 1: attument with the latter. The contemplation and sympathetic reception of
3:08:32
Speaker 1: the reports of the great spiritual leaders of the race,
3:08:35
Speaker 1: those illumined souls who have reached the mountain top of
3:08:37
Speaker 1: spiritual wisdom and spiritual consciousness will serve to set up
3:08:41
Speaker 1: in your soul a degree in quality of spiritual vibration
3:08:44
Speaker 1: which will be sufficient to induce a responsive unison and
3:08:47
Speaker 1: attument with the infinite spiritual principle, the infinite oversoul. In
3:08:52
Speaker 1: reading the words of such reports, you will often actually
3:08:55
Speaker 1: catch the spirit of their writers and enter the same
3:08:58
Speaker 1: plane of spiritual consciousness upon which their writers dwelt at
3:09:01
Speaker 1: the time of their writing, and from which their messages
3:09:04
Speaker 1: were delivered. For this reason we ask you to consider
3:09:08
Speaker 1: the following quotations from the over Soul that remarkable essay
3:09:12
Speaker 1: of Emerson. It is written from one of the highest
3:09:15
Speaker 1: planes of spiritual consciousness, and its words and lines are
3:09:18
Speaker 1: saturated with the highest quality of spiritual vibrations, it is
3:09:22
Speaker 1: practically certain to awaken a responsive note in the soul
3:09:25
Speaker 1: that comes in sympathetic contact with it. Here follow the quotations.
3:09:31
Speaker 1: The heart, which abandons itself to the supreme Mind, finds
3:09:34
Speaker 1: itself related to all its works, and will travel a
3:09:37
Speaker 1: royal road to particular knowledge and powers. For in ascending
3:09:41
Speaker 1: to this primary and aboriginal sentiment, we have come from
3:09:44
Speaker 1: our remote station on the circumference instantaneously to the center
3:09:47
Speaker 1: of the world, where we see causes and anticipate the universe,
3:09:51
Speaker 1: which is but a slow effect. This communication is an
3:09:55
Speaker 1: influx of the divine mind into our mind. It is
3:09:59
Speaker 1: an ebb of the individ vidui rivulet before the flowing
3:10:01
Speaker 1: surges of the sea of life. Every distinct apprehension of
3:10:05
Speaker 1: this central commandment agitates men with awe and delight. A
3:10:09
Speaker 1: thrill passes through all men at the reception of a
3:10:12
Speaker 1: new truth, or at the performance of a great action
3:10:15
Speaker 1: which comes out of the heart of nature. In these communications,
3:10:19
Speaker 1: the power to see is not separated from the will
3:10:21
Speaker 1: to do. But the insight proceeds from obedience, and the
3:10:25
Speaker 1: obedience proceeds from a joyful perception. Every moment when the
3:10:29
Speaker 1: individual feels himself invaded by it is memorable. Always, I believe,
3:10:35
Speaker 1: by the necessity of our constitution, a certain enthusiasm attends
3:10:39
Speaker 1: the individual consciousness of the divine presence. The character and
3:10:43
Speaker 1: duration of this enthusiasm varies with the state of the individual.
3:10:48
Speaker 1: There are varying forms of that shudder or awe and
3:10:51
Speaker 1: delight with which the individual soul always mingles with the
3:10:54
Speaker 1: universal soul. The nature of these revelations is always the same.
3:10:59
Speaker 1: They are perception of the absolute law. They are solutions
3:11:03
Speaker 1: of the soul's own questions. They do not answer the
3:11:06
Speaker 1: questions which the understanding asks. The soul answers, never by words,
3:11:11
Speaker 1: but by the thing itself that is inquired after Behold
3:11:16
Speaker 1: it seth. I am born into the great, the universal mind.
3:11:20
Speaker 1: I the imperfect, adore my own perfect I am somehow
3:11:24
Speaker 1: receptive to the great Soul. And thereby do I overlook
3:11:28
Speaker 1: the sun and the stars and feel them to be
3:11:30
Speaker 1: but the fair accidents and effects which change and pass.
3:11:34
Speaker 1: More and more the surges of everlasting nature enter into me,
3:11:38
Speaker 1: and I become public and human in my regards and actions.
3:11:42
Speaker 1: So I come to live in thoughts and to act
3:11:44
Speaker 1: with energies which are immortal. Does this idea of drawing
3:11:48
Speaker 1: to yourself the inspiration and illumination of the infinite Spirit
3:11:51
Speaker 1: seem presumptuous, irreverent, forbidden to your will? If so, turn
3:11:56
Speaker 1: to your own favored book of religious authority, whatever it
3:12:00
Speaker 1: may be Jewish, Christian, Mohammedan, Brahman, Buddhist, Zoroastrian. It matters
3:12:06
Speaker 1: not which, for each and all of them carry the
3:12:08
Speaker 1: message of truth in some form, and you will find
3:12:11
Speaker 1: there the invitation to ask and the promise to furnish
3:12:14
Speaker 1: the intuitional, inspirational, and illuminating messages of truth, of help, strength,
3:12:20
Speaker 1: aid and comfort in the hours of need. For instance,
3:12:25
Speaker 1: if any man need wisdom, let him ask of God.
3:12:27
Speaker 1: Also before they call, I will answer, and while I
3:12:31
Speaker 1: am speaking, they will hear. Also ask, and ye shall receive,
3:12:34
Speaker 1: and knock, and it shall be opened. Unto you. The
3:12:38
Speaker 1: invitation always is there, the promise of fulfillment always accompanies it. Next,
3:12:44
Speaker 1: we offer for your sympathetic consideration the following quotations from
3:12:47
Speaker 1: a little esoteric manual highly esteemed by many, and which
3:12:51
Speaker 1: some believe to have been inspired by high spiritual authority.
3:12:54
Speaker 1: The manual is known as Light on the Path, and
3:12:57
Speaker 1: its words were written down by Mabel Collins. Its quality
3:13:01
Speaker 1: speaks for itself in the following lines culled from its
3:13:04
Speaker 1: great wealth of the inner teachings. Seek it the truth
3:13:08
Speaker 1: by plunging into the mysterious and glorious depths of your
3:13:11
Speaker 1: own inmost being. Seek it by testing all experience, by
3:13:16
Speaker 1: utilizing the senses in order to understand the growth and
3:13:19
Speaker 1: meaning of individuality, and the beauty and obscurity of those
3:13:23
Speaker 1: other divine fragments which are struggling side by side with you,
3:13:26
Speaker 1: and form the race to which you belong. Seek it
3:13:30
Speaker 1: the truth by the study of the laws of being,
3:13:33
Speaker 1: the laws of nature, the laws of the supernatural. And
3:13:36
Speaker 1: seek it by making the profound obeisance of the soul
3:13:39
Speaker 1: to the dim star that burns within steadily. As you
3:13:43
Speaker 1: watch and worship, its light will grow stronger. Then you
3:13:46
Speaker 1: will know that you have found the beginning of the way,
3:13:49
Speaker 1: and when you have found the end, its light will
3:13:52
Speaker 1: suddenly become the infinite light. To have seen thy soul
3:13:56
Speaker 1: in its bloom is to have obtained a momentary glimpse
3:13:58
Speaker 1: in thyself of the trends configuration which shall eventually make
3:14:01
Speaker 1: thee more than man. To recognize is to achieve the
3:14:05
Speaker 1: great task of gazing into the blazing light without dropping
3:14:08
Speaker 1: the eyes, and not falling back in terror as before
3:14:11
Speaker 1: some ghastly phantom. This happens to some. And so when
3:14:15
Speaker 1: the victory is all but one it is lost. Then
3:14:19
Speaker 1: will come a calm, such as comes in a tropical
3:14:21
Speaker 1: country after a heavy rain, when nature works so swiftly
3:14:25
Speaker 1: that one may see her action. Such a calm will
3:14:28
Speaker 1: come to the harassed spirit, and in the deep silence
3:14:32
Speaker 1: the mysterious event will occur, which will prove that the
3:14:35
Speaker 1: way has been found again and again. The battle must
3:14:39
Speaker 1: be fought and won. It is only for an interval
3:14:42
Speaker 1: that nature can be still. But to learn is impossible
3:14:46
Speaker 1: until the first great battle has been won. The mind
3:14:49
Speaker 1: may recognize truth, but the spirit cannot receive it. Once
3:14:54
Speaker 1: having passed through the storm and attained its peace, it
3:14:57
Speaker 1: is then always possible to learn. Even though the decire
3:15:00
Speaker 1: wi waver, hesitate and turn aside, the voice of the
3:15:04
Speaker 1: silence remains within him, And though he leave the path utterly,
3:15:07
Speaker 1: yet it will resound and rend him asunder, and separate
3:15:10
Speaker 1: his passions from his divine possibilities. Then, with pain and
3:15:15
Speaker 1: desperate cries from the deserted lower self, he will return.
3:15:19
Speaker 1: Only fragments of the great song come to your ears
3:15:22
Speaker 1: while you are but man. But listen to it, remember
3:15:26
Speaker 1: it faithfully, so that none which has reached you is lost,
3:15:29
Speaker 1: and endeavor to learn from it the mystery which surrounds you.
3:15:33
Speaker 1: In time, you will need no teacher, For as the
3:15:36
Speaker 1: individual has voice, so has that in which the individual exists.
3:15:41
Speaker 1: Life itself has speech and is never silent. And its
3:15:45
Speaker 1: utterance is not as you that are deaf may suppose
3:15:48
Speaker 1: a cry. It is a song. Listen to the song
3:15:51
Speaker 1: of life. Store in your memory the melody you hear.
3:15:56
Speaker 1: Learn from it the lesson of harmony. Look for it
3:15:59
Speaker 1: and listen to it first in your own heart. At
3:16:03
Speaker 1: first you may say that it is not there. When
3:16:05
Speaker 1: I search, I find only discord. Look deeper. If again
3:16:10
Speaker 1: you are disappointed, pause and look deeper again. There is
3:16:14
Speaker 1: a natural melody, an obscure fount in every heart. It
3:16:19
Speaker 1: may be hidden over and utterly, concealed and silenced dot
3:16:22
Speaker 1: but it is there, at the very base of your nature.
3:16:25
Speaker 1: You will find faith, hope, and love. Look for it
3:16:29
Speaker 1: there we shall not attempt to explain or to comment
3:16:33
Speaker 1: upon the inspired statements above presented to you, they will
3:16:37
Speaker 1: become more and more apparent to you as you ponder
3:16:39
Speaker 1: over them. The study and meditation over them will open
3:16:43
Speaker 1: your spiritual ears and make keen your spiritual hearing enough
3:16:48
Speaker 1: to say that the song, the hidden melody, is the
3:16:51
Speaker 1: song of the soul, the harmonious voice of the spirit
3:16:54
Speaker 1: within which speaks without words. It is the voice of
3:16:57
Speaker 1: the silence, which chance I dwelleth within them, just as
3:17:00
Speaker 1: thou dwellest within me. The kingdom of Heaven is within
3:17:03
Speaker 1: thee just as thou art in the Kingdom of Heaven.
3:17:06
Speaker 1: Of spirit of that which I am, spirit abides within
3:17:10
Speaker 1: its creation within you, just as you are present in
3:17:13
Speaker 1: your thoughts, your ideas, your will, actions, and your life processes.
3:17:18
Speaker 1: It wells up in your spiritual consciousness, and when your
3:17:21
Speaker 1: ears are properly attuned to its high vibrations, you will
3:17:25
Speaker 1: catch occasional notes of its great song of infinite life.
3:17:28
Speaker 1: Blessed is he who is able to sow still the
3:17:31
Speaker 1: sounds of the phenomenal world, that his ears may receive
3:17:33
Speaker 1: the notes of the voice of the silence, to catch
3:17:36
Speaker 1: the rhythms of the soundless sound of the infinite harmony.
3:17:39
Speaker 1: By cultivating actual spiritual contact between your individual spirit and
3:17:44
Speaker 1: the universal Spirit, you act as does the person who
3:17:47
Speaker 1: steps out into the open places and allows the rays
3:17:50
Speaker 1: of the sun to fall upon him like a great
3:17:53
Speaker 1: son of spiritual power. Spirit is present above you, radiating
3:17:57
Speaker 1: its beams of presence power upon you. When you recognize
3:18:01
Speaker 1: and realize its presence and open the channels of your
3:18:04
Speaker 1: being to the inflow of its beneficent forces, than it energizes, animates,
3:18:08
Speaker 1: and inspires your entire being, as you have seen in
3:18:12
Speaker 1: the Message of Truth. The available strength of these rays
3:18:15
Speaker 1: and beams and the degree of your receptivity to them,
3:18:18
Speaker 1: depend upon your degree of perception, recognition, and realization of
3:18:22
Speaker 1: the presence power of the Sun of Spirit. That sun
3:18:26
Speaker 1: is always there, radiating its power upon all alike, But
3:18:30
Speaker 1: unless the individual opens himself to its influence, he will
3:18:33
Speaker 1: not receive it. Inasmuch as Spirit is infinite life, infinite mind,
3:18:38
Speaker 1: infinite will, its radiations partake of the presence and power
3:18:41
Speaker 1: of each of these three aspects of itself, these rays
3:18:45
Speaker 1: received into your being will give you more and more
3:18:48
Speaker 1: efficient life, more and more efficient mentality, more and more
3:18:52
Speaker 1: efficient will, all life power, all mind power, all will
3:18:56
Speaker 1: powerflow from this original source, and you may receive a great,
3:19:00
Speaker 1: greater and fuller store of each and all these phases
3:19:02
Speaker 1: and forms of spiritual power if you will but follow
3:19:05
Speaker 1: the spirit of the message of truth which has been
3:19:07
Speaker 1: announced to you. As a writer has said, as one
3:19:11
Speaker 1: comes into and lives continually in the full conscious relation
3:19:14
Speaker 1: of his oneness with the infinite life and power, than
3:19:17
Speaker 1: all else follows. This it is that brings the realization
3:19:21
Speaker 1: of such splendors and beauties and joys as a life
3:19:25
Speaker 1: that is thus related with the infinite power alone can
3:19:27
Speaker 1: know this. It is to come into the realization of
3:19:31
Speaker 1: Heaven's richest treasures while walking the earth. This it is
3:19:34
Speaker 1: to bring Heaven down to earth, or rather to bring
3:19:37
Speaker 1: earth up to Heaven. This it is to exchange weakness
3:19:41
Speaker 1: and impotence for strength, to exchange sorrows and sighings for joy,
3:19:45
Speaker 1: to exchange fears and forebodings for faith, to exchange longings
3:19:48
Speaker 1: for realizations. This it is to come into fullness of peace, power,
3:19:53
Speaker 1: and plenty. The inner teachings of all great religions contain
3:19:58
Speaker 1: references to a silent place of the soul, in which
3:20:00
Speaker 1: the individual spirit communes with the infinite spirit of life.
3:20:05
Speaker 1: Many are the references to the inner chamber, the door
3:20:08
Speaker 1: to which will be open to him who gives the
3:20:09
Speaker 1: right knock. Many are the admonitions to enter into Thine
3:20:14
Speaker 1: inner chamber and shut the door. This inner chamber is
3:20:17
Speaker 1: not the physical place which so many have considered it
3:20:20
Speaker 1: to be. It is the quiet place of the soul,
3:20:23
Speaker 1: the sanctuary of the spirit, the state of spiritual consciousness.
3:20:28
Speaker 1: There is a mental state in which you may still
3:20:30
Speaker 1: the waters of the ocean of life, so that the
3:20:32
Speaker 1: image of the infinite Sun may be clearly and distinctly
3:20:35
Speaker 1: reflected in its bosom. This state is called the silence.
3:20:40
Speaker 1: It is the quiet place of the soul, the value
3:20:43
Speaker 1: of which is taught by the mystics. It is the
3:20:46
Speaker 1: silence in the midst of the storm of life. They
3:20:49
Speaker 1: are the winds of the senses, and the waves of
3:20:52
Speaker 1: the passions are stilled, and the waters of the mind
3:20:54
Speaker 1: cease their troubled movement, their whirlings and their swirlings, and
3:20:58
Speaker 1: permit the bosom of the ocean to rest quiet and still,
3:21:01
Speaker 1: allowing the great Son of Spirit to picture itself on
3:21:04
Speaker 1: its placid surface. In that state of quiet and peace,
3:21:08
Speaker 1: the soundless sound is heard. The voice of the silence
3:21:11
Speaker 1: breathes words of comfort and encouragement, of courage and strength
3:21:15
Speaker 1: to the tired soul. In that silence, man communes with
3:21:19
Speaker 1: the great flame of spirit, from which has emerged the
3:21:21
Speaker 1: divine spark within himself. From it he emerges refreshed and strengthened,
3:21:27
Speaker 1: comforted and contented, better able to meet the requirements of duty, work,
3:21:31
Speaker 1: and service in the outside world, the world in which
3:21:34
Speaker 1: the storms of change and becoming rage in the heart
3:21:38
Speaker 1: of the storm, in the quiet place of the soul,
3:21:40
Speaker 1: in the silence of the spirit, their raign peace and power,
3:21:44
Speaker 1: wisdom and will, life and livingness, the quintessence of the
3:21:47
Speaker 1: presence power of spirit. He who is wise will seek,
3:21:51
Speaker 1: find and avail himself of the peace and strength of
3:21:54
Speaker 1: the silence. The spirit of the silence is breathed in
3:21:58
Speaker 1: the Old him written by Martin over seventy five years ago,
3:22:02
Speaker 1: the hymn entitled the Secret Place. Its words have brought
3:22:06
Speaker 1: comfort and peace to thousands of weary souls seeking strength, life,
3:22:09
Speaker 1: and wisdom. Here are the words of the first verse
3:22:13
Speaker 1: of that hymn. He who himself and God would know
3:22:16
Speaker 1: into the silence, let him go, and lifting off Paul.
3:22:19
Speaker 1: After Paul reached to the inmost depth of all, A
3:22:23
Speaker 1: writer says, whenever you are in doubt as to the
3:22:26
Speaker 1: course you should pursue, after you have turned to every
3:22:29
Speaker 1: outward means of guidance, let the inward I see, let
3:22:32
Speaker 1: the inward ear hear, and allow this simple, natural, beautiful
3:22:35
Speaker 1: process to go on, unimpeded by questionings or doubts. In
3:22:39
Speaker 1: all dark hours and times of unwonted perplexity, we need
3:22:43
Speaker 1: but to follow one simple direction, found as all needed
3:22:46
Speaker 1: directions can be found in that old book which so
3:22:49
Speaker 1: many read but alas so few interpret. Enter into Thine
3:22:53
Speaker 1: inner chamber and shut the door dot. Another writer says,
3:22:57
Speaker 1: one of the most intuitive men we have ever met
3:23:00
Speaker 1: had a desk in a city office where several other
3:23:02
Speaker 1: men were doing business constantly and often talking loudly. Entirely
3:23:07
Speaker 1: undisturbed by the many in various sounds about him, This
3:23:11
Speaker 1: self centered, faithful man would, in any moment of perplexity,
3:23:15
Speaker 1: draw the curtains of privacy so completely about him that
3:23:18
Speaker 1: be would be as fully enclosed in his own aura,
3:23:21
Speaker 1: and thereby as effectually removed from all distractions, as though
3:23:24
Speaker 1: he were alone in some primeval world. Taking his difficulty
3:23:29
Speaker 1: with him into the mystic silence in the form of
3:23:31
Speaker 1: a direct question to which he expected a direct answer,
3:23:34
Speaker 1: He would remain entirely passive until the reply came, And
3:23:37
Speaker 1: never once, through many years experience, did he ever find
3:23:40
Speaker 1: himself disappointed or misled. Never forget that expectation and desire
3:23:46
Speaker 1: are bride and bridegroom, and forever inseparable. And you will
3:23:49
Speaker 1: soon find your hitherto darkened way grow luminous with celestial radiance.
3:23:53
Speaker 1: For with the heaven within all heavens without you will
3:23:56
Speaker 1: incessantly co operate. Ralph Waldo Trine, the popular writer of
3:24:01
Speaker 1: In Tune with the Infinite, says in that work, the
3:24:04
Speaker 1: great central fact in human life, in your own life
3:24:07
Speaker 1: and in mind, is the coming into a conscious, vital
3:24:10
Speaker 1: realization of our oneness with this infinite life, and the
3:24:13
Speaker 1: opening of ourselves to this divine inflow. In just the
3:24:17
Speaker 1: degree that we come into a conscious realization of our
3:24:20
Speaker 1: oneness with the infinite life and open ourselves to this
3:24:23
Speaker 1: divine inflow, do we actualize in ourselves the qualities and
3:24:26
Speaker 1: powers of the infinite life. In the degree that we
3:24:30
Speaker 1: come into this realization and connect ourselves with this infinite source,
3:24:34
Speaker 1: do we make it possible for the higher powers to play,
3:24:37
Speaker 1: to work, to manifest in us. In the degree that
3:24:41
Speaker 1: we recognize him as the infinite spirit of life and
3:24:43
Speaker 1: power that is today at this moment, working and manifesting
3:24:47
Speaker 1: in and through all, And in the degree that we
3:24:50
Speaker 1: come into the realization of our oneness with this life,
3:24:53
Speaker 1: then in that degree do we become partakers thereof And
3:24:56
Speaker 1: so do we actualize in ourselves the qualities of his life.
3:25:00
Speaker 1: In the degree that we open ourselves to the inflowing
3:25:03
Speaker 1: tide of this imminent and transcendental life, do we make
3:25:06
Speaker 1: ourselves channels through which the infinite intelligence can work? In
3:25:10
Speaker 1: the above quotations, we see the insistence placed upon the
3:25:14
Speaker 1: degree of recognition and realization of the infinite Presence Power.
3:25:18
Speaker 1: The same insistence has always been placed upon it by
3:25:21
Speaker 1: the great spiritual teachers of all times, lands and creeds.
3:25:25
Speaker 1: It is found to occupy a prominent place in the
3:25:28
Speaker 1: message of truth herein announced to you. It is an
3:25:31
Speaker 1: axiom of ancient and modern spiritual philosophy that spirit, the
3:25:35
Speaker 1: supreme presence Power, the ultimate Reality, identifies itself with the individual,
3:25:40
Speaker 1: in the degree of the completeness and earnestness with which
3:25:43
Speaker 1: the individual identifies himself with it. This is the secret
3:25:47
Speaker 1: of spiritual power. Make it your own, and carry its
3:25:51
Speaker 1: spirit and meaning ever with you. Guard it well, never
3:25:55
Speaker 1: allow it to leave your possession. Above all, never lose it.
3:26:00
Speaker 1: Not merely in the silence should you make the mental
3:26:02
Speaker 1: contact with Spirit outside of it. Also must you carry
3:26:07
Speaker 1: your consciousness of the essential identity of your individual spirit
3:26:10
Speaker 1: with the infinite Spirit. You must always live and move
3:26:14
Speaker 1: and have your being in the consciousness that you your
3:26:17
Speaker 1: eye am I, is a focal point and center of consciousness, life, will,
3:26:22
Speaker 1: and power of Spirit. And in the knowledge that your
3:26:24
Speaker 1: consciousness of Spirit is only a part of Spirit's consciousness
3:26:28
Speaker 1: of itself. All bodies are modes of infinite extension, All
3:26:31
Speaker 1: souls but modes of infinite spiritual presence power. Never lose
3:26:36
Speaker 1: sight of this tremendous truth of your essential being. Let
3:26:39
Speaker 1: it ever constitute a background for your thought, feeling, willing.
3:26:43
Speaker 1: In this consciousness of your essential identity with Spirit, you
3:26:47
Speaker 1: may dwell in peace, security, and freedom. You become aware
3:26:51
Speaker 1: that you verily rest in the hollow of His hand
3:26:54
Speaker 1: and that the sheltering and protecting arms are ever around
3:26:57
Speaker 1: and about you, That the unseen hand is ever extended
3:27:00
Speaker 1: to you, ready and willing to clasp your own hand,
3:27:03
Speaker 1: and to lead, assist, guide, and support you in the
3:27:06
Speaker 1: journey of life. In it, in hours of distress or need,
3:27:10
Speaker 1: you will feel yourself pressed up to the infinite breast,
3:27:13
Speaker 1: as the babe is to that of its mother. In it,
3:27:16
Speaker 1: you will become aware that the kindly light is ever there,
3:27:20
Speaker 1: shining amidst the encircling gloom, and ever leading you on,
3:27:24
Speaker 1: step by step, one step at a time, a true step,
3:27:27
Speaker 1: a sure step, a step toward attainment and victory. With
3:27:31
Speaker 1: the light of spiritual consciousness kindled within you, alive and
3:27:35
Speaker 1: burning bright, you may supplant fear with indomitable courage, supplant
3:27:39
Speaker 1: doubt and skepticism with the faith that knows, supplant sorrow
3:27:43
Speaker 1: with joy, supplant unrest with peace. In that infinite light,
3:27:47
Speaker 1: the brooding presence of spirit will hover over you, around you,
3:27:51
Speaker 1: about you. Standing on the solid rock of truth, you
3:27:55
Speaker 1: will find that its presence, its power, its peace, its
3:27:59
Speaker 1: joy will be superimposed upon you, and its essence and
3:28:02
Speaker 1: livingness will enter into and permeate your entire being. When
3:28:06
Speaker 1: you wish to draw to yourself the rays of the
3:28:08
Speaker 1: presence power of Spirit, in hours of special need, make
3:28:12
Speaker 1: use of the following mediation, which is in substance and
3:28:15
Speaker 1: in spirit, that which has been handed down from teacher
3:28:18
Speaker 1: to student, from generation to generation, for many ages, in
3:28:22
Speaker 1: all lands, by the adherents of the Great Spiritual Philosophy.
3:28:26
Speaker 1: It will help you to rediscover the light if you
3:28:29
Speaker 1: have temporarily lost it. It will help you to discover
3:28:32
Speaker 1: the light if you have not already found it. In
3:28:35
Speaker 1: it burns brightly, the flame of Spirit, the only source
3:28:38
Speaker 1: of light, from whence all light comes in it will
3:28:41
Speaker 1: be heated your cry for light, more light. This infinite
3:28:45
Speaker 1: light of Spirit will illumine the dark places of your soul.
3:28:48
Speaker 1: Banishing doubt, gloom, fear, distrust, spiritual meditation. Banish from your
3:28:55
Speaker 1: consciousness the disturbing thoughts, ideas, feelings, and mental images of
3:29:00
Speaker 1: your finite and conditioned environment, and concentrate your entire attention
3:29:04
Speaker 1: upon Spirit, the infinite and eternal presence power, the ultimate
3:29:08
Speaker 1: reality of existence. Think of its infinite and eternal life,
3:29:12
Speaker 1: its infinite and eternal consciousness, its infinite and eternal will
3:29:16
Speaker 1: its infinite and eternal power. In this way, you will
3:29:20
Speaker 1: flood your mind and soul with the infinite light, and
3:29:23
Speaker 1: all darkness of the soul will disappear. The dark night
3:29:26
Speaker 1: of the soul will be transformed into the high noon
3:29:29
Speaker 1: of spiritual daytime. Lift your thoughts from the temporal and
3:29:33
Speaker 1: fix them upon the eternal. Raise your thoughts from the
3:29:36
Speaker 1: finite and fix them upon the infinite. Elevate your thoughts
3:29:39
Speaker 1: from the changing and fix them upon the changeless. Then,
3:29:43
Speaker 1: having done this, you are prepared to return to the
3:29:45
Speaker 1: things and scenes of personal, finite, temporal, changing existence again
3:29:50
Speaker 1: to take up your work duties service, to return, however,
3:29:55
Speaker 1: infinitely refreshed, reinvigorated, and filled with new life, spirit, courage, wisdom,
3:30:01
Speaker 1: and will. Here we would call your attention to another
3:30:05
Speaker 1: important point concerning this contact with spirit, this unison with Infinity,
3:30:10
Speaker 1: of which we have told you. The term unison means harmony, agreement,
3:30:15
Speaker 1: concord union. In the present usage, the term carries with
3:30:20
Speaker 1: it the idea involved in its meaning when it is
3:30:22
Speaker 1: employed in relation to music, i e. Identity and pitch
3:30:26
Speaker 1: coincidence of sounds proceeding from an equality in the number
3:30:29
Speaker 1: of vibrations made in a given time by two or
3:30:31
Speaker 1: more sonorous bodies. Even still more significant in this connection
3:30:36
Speaker 1: is the familiar idea of the attunement of the receiving
3:30:39
Speaker 1: and sending instruments in wireless telegraphy or in the even
3:30:43
Speaker 1: more wonderful wireless radiophone. As you know, the ether may
3:30:47
Speaker 1: be filled with countless wireless messages or transmitted sounds, Yet
3:30:51
Speaker 1: the receiving instrument will not pick up or record any
3:30:54
Speaker 1: of them unless it first be tuned to a pitch
3:30:57
Speaker 1: corresponding to that of the sending instruments. To all the
3:31:00
Speaker 1: receiving instruments not so attuned, it is practically as if
3:31:04
Speaker 1: these messages and waves of power were non existent. Here
3:31:08
Speaker 1: we have a remarkable instance of those wonderful analogies which
3:31:11
Speaker 1: are found on all sides in nature, and which are
3:31:14
Speaker 1: indicated in that axiom of the hermetic teachings, as above,
3:31:17
Speaker 1: so below, as within so without, as in great so
3:31:21
Speaker 1: in small. The fundamental idea involved in our thought concerning
3:31:26
Speaker 1: the unison between the individual spirit and the infinite spirit
3:31:29
Speaker 1: is based upon the fact expressed in the term vibrations.
3:31:33
Speaker 1: Rightly understood, not only are all material things in vibration
3:31:37
Speaker 1: vibrating by reason of the influence of spirit upon them
3:31:41
Speaker 1: and of the spirit dwelling within them. But all spirit
3:31:44
Speaker 1: and spirit itself is to be conceived as vibrating. Nothing
3:31:48
Speaker 1: is motionless, Everything is in motion wherever there is spirit
3:31:52
Speaker 1: or spirit. It is true, as the ancient sages and
3:31:56
Speaker 1: their modern successors inform us, that there is a state
3:31:59
Speaker 1: of being in which the vibrations are of such infinite
3:32:02
Speaker 1: intensity and rapidity that all seems to be motionless, standing
3:32:06
Speaker 1: still and at rest. But at the last this is
3:32:09
Speaker 1: perceived to be infinite motion and not motionlessness. Spiritual vibrations
3:32:14
Speaker 1: radiate and may be picked up by spiritual instruments. Properly attuned,
3:32:20
Speaker 1: spirit is radioactive. When the individual soul becomes attuned to
3:32:24
Speaker 1: the over soul. When the individual spirit is key to
3:32:27
Speaker 1: the pitch of spirit, then does the life, mind, will
3:32:31
Speaker 1: strength of spirit flow into the individual spirit, which is
3:32:34
Speaker 1: its focal center of expression and manifestation. When the individual
3:32:39
Speaker 1: spirit is so attuned to Spirit, then not only do
3:32:42
Speaker 1: the messages of Spirit reach its mind and soul, but
3:32:45
Speaker 1: also the power of Spirit. Its spiritual power flows into
3:32:49
Speaker 1: the channels of the individual spirit. They are to be
3:32:51
Speaker 1: used and employed by the latter when it has learned
3:32:53
Speaker 1: how to apply it properly. You have heard of the
3:32:57
Speaker 1: mental second wind, which, like the physical second second wind
3:33:00
Speaker 1: that comes to the tired runner, so often is attained
3:33:03
Speaker 1: by one when he has become mentally exhausted. You have
3:33:08
Speaker 1: moreover most likely noted the suggestion of Professor William James,
3:33:11
Speaker 1: that there is a third wind, a fourth, a fifth,
3:33:14
Speaker 1: a sixth, a seventh wind of physical, mental, and spiritual
3:33:19
Speaker 1: energy which become available to the individual who has learned
3:33:22
Speaker 1: to tap their sources. These sources are really phases of
3:33:27
Speaker 1: the infinite fount of all power, which in this instruction
3:33:29
Speaker 1: we have called power, and which in its ultimate essence
3:33:32
Speaker 1: and nature is spiritual power. The great spiritual teachers of
3:33:37
Speaker 1: the race have always taught and teach today that this
3:33:40
Speaker 1: infinite fount of power is unlimited and inexhaustible in extent
3:33:44
Speaker 1: amount and degree, its apparent limitations being caused solely by
3:33:48
Speaker 1: the incapacity of the individual to receive and apply that power.
3:33:53
Speaker 1: By contacting the infinite supply, by becoming in unison with Infinity,
3:33:58
Speaker 1: by adjusting your spiritual receiving apparatus, you may pick up
3:34:02
Speaker 1: and make use of the constant and unfailing current of
3:34:04
Speaker 1: spiritual vibrations, which are forever being radiated and emanated by Spirit,
3:34:09
Speaker 1: the fount of all power. This is far more than
3:34:12
Speaker 1: a mere figure of speech or metaphorical representation. It is
3:34:16
Speaker 1: the expression in physical terms of a tremendous truth of
3:34:19
Speaker 1: spiritual power. Its truth may be proved by you in
3:34:22
Speaker 1: your own actual experience, provided that you will but go
3:34:26
Speaker 1: about it in the right way. And we have pointed
3:34:28
Speaker 1: out to you that right way. It is not enough
3:34:31
Speaker 1: that you should perceive, recognize, and realize the truth concerning
3:34:35
Speaker 1: spiritual power. You should also manifest its energies which are
3:34:40
Speaker 1: available to you. You should demonstrate the truth in your
3:34:43
Speaker 1: everyday life and work. The infinite spiritual power is not static.
3:34:48
Speaker 1: It is dynamic. It is not for rest. It is
3:34:51
Speaker 1: for use, action, and employment in the activities of the world.
3:34:56
Speaker 1: It is impossible, however, for you to possess any marked
3:34:59
Speaker 1: degree of the perception, recognition, and realization of this truth
3:35:03
Speaker 1: without also manifesting in demonstrating it in at least some degree.
3:35:08
Speaker 1: Even a partial perception and realization of the infinite presence
3:35:11
Speaker 1: power of Spirit will impart to you an increased efficiency, proficiency,
3:35:15
Speaker 1: and method of application of its energies and forces. Conscious
3:35:19
Speaker 1: application of spiritual power soon passes down to the plane
3:35:23
Speaker 1: of your subconscious and thereafter becomes habitual and instinctive with you.
3:35:28
Speaker 1: By the right application of spiritual power, you open the
3:35:31
Speaker 1: doors of the storehouse of the infinite supply. The infinite
3:35:35
Speaker 1: supply furnishes the material and means wherewith wants, necessities, and
3:35:39
Speaker 1: needs are supplied, filled, gratified, satisfied, All material and all
3:35:45
Speaker 1: forces are under the control of spiritual power. You are
3:35:49
Speaker 1: entitled to all that is necessary for your full rightful
3:35:52
Speaker 1: expression of the life and spirit within you. The material
3:35:56
Speaker 1: for your needs is contained within the substance, which is
3:35:59
Speaker 1: plastic and responsive to the power of the spirit. Spirit
3:36:03
Speaker 1: contains all the power necessary to mold and shape that
3:36:06
Speaker 1: material into objective form. All that is needed by you
3:36:10
Speaker 1: is the faith and will to apply that power which
3:36:13
Speaker 1: is within you. Throughout all nature we find the operation
3:36:17
Speaker 1: of the law of supply, the law of use. All
3:36:20
Speaker 1: life instinctively draws upon the infinite supply for all that
3:36:23
Speaker 1: is required for its normal needs, requirements, necessities. The existence
3:36:29
Speaker 1: of an instinctive want implies the existence of the supply
3:36:32
Speaker 1: of material which will satisfy it. This implicit promise of
3:36:36
Speaker 1: supply is found in all nature. Its spirit is voiced
3:36:40
Speaker 1: in the inspired statement that the Lord will provide. This
3:36:44
Speaker 1: promise is not a vain mockery. It is a grand
3:36:47
Speaker 1: truth of existence. The supply is always there. The creature
3:36:52
Speaker 1: has but to open its channels to the inflow and
3:36:55
Speaker 1: to reach out toward the source. Having obtained lawful and
3:36:59
Speaker 1: rightful access to the great storehouse of the infinite supply,
3:37:02
Speaker 1: and knowing yourself to be the true heir to its treasures,
3:37:05
Speaker 1: your supply is then limited only by your capacity for
3:37:08
Speaker 1: finding out that which you need for your rightful expression
3:37:10
Speaker 1: of life. That capacity may be developed and perfected by
3:37:14
Speaker 1: you by means of an increasing degree of unison with Infinity,
3:37:18
Speaker 1: of a fuller perception, recognition, and realization of the truth
3:37:22
Speaker 1: concerning spiritual power. The supply is equal to the demand,
3:37:27
Speaker 1: but the demand must be made properly, confidently, and with
3:37:31
Speaker 1: faith and courage. When you set into operation the spiritual
3:37:35
Speaker 1: power at your disposal, you will begin to attract to
3:37:38
Speaker 1: yourself that which is necessary for your use, need, and support,
3:37:42
Speaker 1: that which will relieve and remove your lack and want.
3:37:45
Speaker 1: You will do this in precisely the same way that
3:37:47
Speaker 1: the lilies of the field attract to themselves that which
3:37:50
Speaker 1: they need for their support, and use that which raises
3:37:53
Speaker 1: them up to that state of natural magnificence, excelling even
3:37:56
Speaker 1: Solomon in all his glory. As you have been told
3:37:59
Speaker 1: by a high spiritual authority, you are a creator. You
3:38:04
Speaker 1: create your environment. You have always done so, whether you
3:38:08
Speaker 1: consciously will to do so or not. Your spiritual forces
3:38:11
Speaker 1: are always working in this way, consciously or unconsciously. Willingly
3:38:16
Speaker 1: or unwillingly, you are setting into operation great spiritual forces
3:38:20
Speaker 1: which produce certain material effects. You are a builder, a creator,
3:38:25
Speaker 1: even though you know it not. This being so, wisdom
3:38:29
Speaker 1: dictates that you build intelligently and in accordance with your
3:38:33
Speaker 1: heart's desire. So build the more stately mansions, O, my soul,
3:38:38
Speaker 1: should ever be your demand, build for yourself the kind
3:38:42
Speaker 1: of world of which you have dreamed. Make your dreams
3:38:45
Speaker 1: come true. Trying voices a great truth when he says
3:38:49
Speaker 1: each is building his own world. We build from within,
3:38:53
Speaker 1: and we attract from without. Thought is the force with
3:38:57
Speaker 1: which we build, And thoughts are forces like builds like
3:39:01
Speaker 1: and like attracts like. In the degree that thought is spiritualized,
3:39:06
Speaker 1: does it become more subtle and powerful in its workings.
3:39:10
Speaker 1: This spiritualizing is in accordance with law, and is within
3:39:13
Speaker 1: the power of all. Everything is first worked out in
3:39:17
Speaker 1: the unseen, before it is manifested in the scene, in
3:39:19
Speaker 1: the ideal, before it is realized in the real, in
3:39:22
Speaker 1: the spiritual, before it shows forth in the material. The
3:39:26
Speaker 1: realm of the unseen is the realm of cause. The
3:39:30
Speaker 1: realm of the scene is the realm of effect. The
3:39:33
Speaker 1: nature of an effect is always determined and conditioned by
3:39:36
Speaker 1: the nature of its cause. In this book we do
3:39:39
Speaker 1: not attempt to give you specific directions for the employment
3:39:42
Speaker 1: of spiritual power in any of its many possible particular
3:39:45
Speaker 1: forms of use and application. In other books of this series,
3:39:50
Speaker 1: we have pointed out to you how you may effectively
3:39:52
Speaker 1: employ this spiritual power transmuted into personal power, in many
3:39:56
Speaker 1: different forms of its effective application. In the the first
3:40:00
Speaker 1: book of the series, the one entitled Personal Power, we
3:40:03
Speaker 1: have shown you that all personal power proceeds directly or
3:40:07
Speaker 1: indirectly from a great principle of all power, which we
3:40:10
Speaker 1: call simply power. In the present book, we have identified
3:40:13
Speaker 1: this power principle with spirit and have shown you that
3:40:16
Speaker 1: all power is spiritual power. At the last analysis, in
3:40:20
Speaker 1: this book also we have shown you that this spiritual power,
3:40:24
Speaker 1: this power of spirit, may be drawn upon freely by
3:40:28
Speaker 1: your individual spirit when it enters into conscious unison with
3:40:31
Speaker 1: Infinity in a tument with spirit. Each other book of
3:40:35
Speaker 1: this series is a key unlocking some particular door of
3:40:38
Speaker 1: personal power. The present volume is the master key, which
3:40:42
Speaker 1: releases the master lock, without which the individual key will
3:40:46
Speaker 1: not be able to turn the individual lock and thus
3:40:48
Speaker 1: open its particular door. If you are acquainted with the
3:40:52
Speaker 1: operation of the locks upon the boxes of the safe
3:40:54
Speaker 1: deposit vaults of the large cities, you will understand more
3:40:57
Speaker 1: clearly this illustration. Lacking the master key, you will never
3:41:02
Speaker 1: be able to secure the full measure of personal power
3:41:04
Speaker 1: in any of its phases, nor will you ever be
3:41:07
Speaker 1: able to employ that power most intelligently to the best
3:41:10
Speaker 1: advantage and with the highest degree of efficiency. The knowledge
3:41:14
Speaker 1: of Spirit, the infinite and eternal, ultimate and sovereign presence
3:41:19
Speaker 1: power constitutes that which, when known, causes all else to
3:41:23
Speaker 1: be known. Concerning the manifestation of personal power. A writer
3:41:28
Speaker 1: has said of this knowledge of truth and power that
3:41:30
Speaker 1: it hewes open the path as the lightning splits the darkness.
3:41:35
Speaker 1: It dissolves, doubts, cuts knots of chronic impossibility, melts circumstances,
3:41:40
Speaker 1: pierces shadows like a flash of glory, dashes through the
3:41:43
Speaker 1: jungle of appearances like the horn of a unicorn. The
3:41:46
Speaker 1: Little Occult Manual, believed by many to have been inspired
3:41:50
Speaker 1: to which we have previously referred, contains the following instructive
3:41:54
Speaker 1: and suggestive bit of esoteric teaching. It refers to the
3:41:57
Speaker 1: battle of life on the plane of material, exits, distance,
3:42:00
Speaker 1: and of the real self spirit, which abides as the
3:42:03
Speaker 1: inner self of the individual spirit, and which springs to
3:42:06
Speaker 1: action when it is perceived, recognized, realized, and acknowledged by
3:42:11
Speaker 1: the individual's soul, and when its aid and service is
3:42:13
Speaker 1: demanded by the latter as its rightful heritage. Listen to
3:42:17
Speaker 1: the voice of the message, stand aside in the coming battle.
3:42:22
Speaker 1: And though thou fightest be not thou the warrior. Look
3:42:26
Speaker 1: for the warrior, and let him fight in thee. Take
3:42:29
Speaker 1: his orders for battle, and obey him. Obey him not
3:42:33
Speaker 1: as though he were a general, but as though he
3:42:35
Speaker 1: were thyself, yet infinitely wiser and stronger than thyself. Look
3:42:40
Speaker 1: for him else in the fever and hurry of the fight,
3:42:42
Speaker 1: thou mayest pass him, and he will not know THEE
3:42:45
Speaker 1: unless thou knowest him. If thy cry reach his listening year,
3:42:49
Speaker 1: then will he fight in THEE and fill the dull
3:42:52
Speaker 1: void therein. And if this is so, then canst thou
3:42:56
Speaker 1: go through the fight cool and unwearied, standing aside and
3:42:59
Speaker 1: letting him battle for THEE? Then it will be impossible
3:43:03
Speaker 1: for THEE to strike one blow amiss. But if thou
3:43:06
Speaker 1: look not for him, if thou pass him by, there
3:43:09
Speaker 1: is no safeguard for THEE. Thy brain will reel, thy
3:43:13
Speaker 1: heart will grow uncertain, and in the dust of the
3:43:15
Speaker 1: battle field, thy sight and senses will fail, and thou
3:43:19
Speaker 1: wilt not know thy friends from thy enemies. He is thyself,
3:43:23
Speaker 1: Yet thou art but finite and liable to error. He
3:43:27
Speaker 1: is eternal and is sure. He is eternal truth. When
3:43:32
Speaker 1: once he has entered THEE and become thy warrior, he
3:43:34
Speaker 1: will never utterly desert THEE, and in the day of
3:43:37
Speaker 1: the great peace, he will become one with THEE. You
3:43:40
Speaker 1: can stand upright now, firm as a rock amid the turmoil,
3:43:44
Speaker 1: obeying the warrior who is thyself and thy king, unconcerned
3:43:48
Speaker 1: in the battle, save to do his bidding, having no
3:43:51
Speaker 1: longer any care as to the result of the battle.
3:43:53
Speaker 1: For one thing only is important that the warrior shall win,
3:43:57
Speaker 1: and you know that he is incapable of defeat. Standing
3:43:59
Speaker 1: thy us cool and awakened. Use the hearing that you
3:44:02
Speaker 1: have acquired by pain and the destruction of pain. Carry
3:44:06
Speaker 1: with you the echo of the concluding words of the
3:44:08
Speaker 1: message of truth as presented to you in this instruction.
3:44:11
Speaker 1: In the degree that you perceive, recognize, and realize your
3:44:15
Speaker 1: essential identity with Me, the supreme presence, Power, the ultimate reality.
3:44:19
Speaker 1: In that degree will you receive and be able to
3:44:21
Speaker 1: manifest my spiritual power. I am over and above you,
3:44:26
Speaker 1: under and beneath you. I surround you on all sides.
3:44:30
Speaker 1: I am also within you, and you are in me.
3:44:32
Speaker 1: For me you proceed, and in me you live and
3:44:35
Speaker 1: move and have your being. Seek Me by looking within
3:44:38
Speaker 1: your own being, and likewise by looking for Me in infinity,
3:44:42
Speaker 1: For I abide both within and without your being. If
3:44:46
Speaker 1: and when you will adopt and live according to this truth,
3:44:49
Speaker 1: then will you be able to manifest that truth. In
3:44:52
Speaker 1: and by it alone are freedom and invincibility, and true
3:44:55
Speaker 1: and real presence in power to be found, perceived, realized,
3:44:58
Speaker 1: and manifested