Part Twenty
For many years there has been an endless discussion as to the
origin of evil. Theologians have told us that God is Love, and that
God is Omnipresent. If this be true, there is no place where God is
not. Where, then, is Evil, Satan and Hell?
Let us see:
God is Spirit.
Spirit is the Creative Principle of the Universe.
Man is made in the image and likeness of God.
Man is therefore a spiritual being.
The only activity which spirit possesses is the power to think.
Thinking is therefore a creative process.
All form is therefore the result of the thinking process.
The destruction of form must also be a result of the thinking
process.
Fictitious representations of form are the result of the creative
power of thought, as in Hypnotism.
Apparent representation of form are the result of the creative power
of thought, as in Spiritualism.
Invention, organization and constructive work of all kinds are the
result of the creative power of thought, as in concentration.
When the creative power of thought is manifested for the benefit of
humanity, we call the result good.
When the creative power of thought is manifested in a destructive or
evil manner, we call the result evil.
This indicates the origin of both good and evil; they are simply
words which have been coined in order to indicate the nature of the
result of the thinking or creative process. Thought necessarily
precedes and predetermines action; action precedes and predetermines
condition.
Part Twenty will throw more light upon this important subject.
PART TWENTY
1. The spirit of a thing is that thing; it is necessarily fixed,
changeless and eternal. The spirit of you is -- you; without the
spirit you would be nothing. It becomes active through your
recognition of it and its possibilities.
2. You may have all the wealth in Christendom, but unless you
recognize it and make use of it, it will have no value; so with your
spiritual wealth: unless you recognize it and use it, it will have
no value. The one and only condition of spiritual power is use or
recognition.
3. All great things come through recognition; the scepter of
power is consciousness, and thought is its messenger, and this
messenger is constantly molding the realities of the invisible world
into the conditions and environments of your objective world.
4. Thinking is the true business of life, power is the result.
You are at all times dealing with the magical power of thought and
consciousness. What results can you expect so long as you remain
oblivious to the power which has been placed within your control?
5. So long as you do this you limit yourself to superficial
conditions, and make of yourself a beast of burden for those who
think; those who recognize their power; those who know that unless
we are willing to think we shall have to work, and the less we think
the more we shall have to work, and the less we shall get for our
work.
6. The secret of power is a perfect understanding of the
principles, forces, methods and combinations of Mind, and a perfect
understanding of our relationship to the Universal Mind. It is well
to remember that this principle is unchangeable; if this were not
so, it would not be reliable; all principles are changeless.
7. This stability is your opportunity; you are its active
attribute, the channel for its activity; the Universal can act only
through the individual.
8. When you begin to perceive that the essence of the Universal
is within yourself -- is you -- you begin to do things; you begin to
feel your power; it is the fuel which fires the imagination; which
lights the torch of inspiration; which gives vitality to thought;
which enables you to connect with all the invisible forces of the
Universe. It is this power which will enable you to plan fearlessly,
to execute masterfully.
9. But perception will come only in the Silence; this seems to be
the condition required for all great purposes. You are a visualizing
entity. Imagination is your workshop. It is here that your ideal is
to be visualized.
10. As a perfect understanding of the nature of this power is a
primary condition for its manifestation, visualize the entire method
over and over again, so that you may use it whenever occasion
requires. The infinity of wisdom is to follow the method whereby we
may have the inspiration of the omnipotent Universal Mind on demand
at any time.
11. We can fail to recognize this world within, and so exclude it
from our consciousness, but it will still be the basic fact of all
existence; and when we learn to recognize it, not only in ourselves,
but in all persons, events, things and circumstances we shall have
found the "Kingdom of heaven" which we are told is "within" us.
12. Our failures are a result of the operation of exactly the
same principle; the principle is unchangeable; its operation is
exact, there is no deviation; if we think lack, limitation, discord,
we shall find their fruits on every hand; if we think poverty,
unhappiness or disease, the thought messengers will carry the
summons as readily as any other kind of thought and the result will
be just as certain. If we fear a coming calamity, we shall be able
to say with Job, "the thing I feared has come upon me"; if we think
unkindly or ignorantly we shall thus attract to ourselves the
results of our ignorance.
13. This power of thought, if understood and correctly used, is
the greatest labor-saving device ever dreamed of, but if not
understood or improperly used, the result will in all probability be
disastrous, as we have already seen; by the help of this power you
can confidently undertake things that are seemingly impossible,
because this power is the secret of all inspiration, all genius.
14. To become inspired means to get out of the beaten path, out
of the rut, because extraordinary results require extraordinary
means. When we come into a recognition of the Unity of all things
and that the source of all power is within, we tap the source of
inspiration.
15. Inspiration is the art of imbibing, the art of
self-realization; the art of adjusting the individual mind to that
of the Universal Mind; the art of attaching the proper mechanism to
the source of all power; the art of differentiating the formless
into form; the art of becoming a channel for the flow of Infinite
Wisdom; the art of visualizing perfection; the art of realizing the
omnipresence of Omnipotence.
16. An understanding and appreciation of the fact that the
infinite power is omnipresent and is therefore in the infinitely
small as well as the infinitely large will enable us to absorb its
essence; a further understanding of the fact that this power is
spirit and therefore indivisible will enable us to appreciate its
present at all points at the same time.
17. An understanding of these facts, first intellectually and
then emotionally, will enable us to drink deeply from this ocean of
infinite power. An intellectual understanding will be of no
assistance; the emotions must be brought into action; thought
without feeling is cold. The required combination is thought and
feeling.
18. Inspiration is from within. The Silence is necessary, the
senses must be stilled, the muscles relaxed, repose cultivated. When
you have thus come into possession of a sense of poise and power you
will be ready to receive the information or inspiration or wisdom
which may be necessary for the development of your purpose.
19. Do not confuse these methods with those of the clairvoyant;
they have nothing in common. Inspiration is the art of receiving and
makes for all that is best in life; your business in life is to
understand and command these invisible forces instead of letting
them command and rule you. Power implies service; inspiration
implies power; to understand and apply the method of inspiration is
to become a superman.
20. We can live more abundantly every time we breathe, if we
consciously breathe with that intention. The IF is a very important
condition in this case, as the intention governs the attention, and
without the attention you can secure only the results which every
one else secures. That is, a supply equal to the demand.
21. In order to secure the larger supply your demand must be
increased, and as you consciously increase the demand the supply
will follow, you will find yourself coming into a larger and larger
supply of life, energy and vitality.
22. The reason for this is not difficult to understand, but it is
another of the vital mysteries of life which does not seem to be
generally appreciated. If you make it your own, you will find it one
of the great realities of life.
23. We are told that "In Him we live and move and have our
being," and we are told that "He" is a Spirit, and again that "He"
is Love, so that every time we breathe, we breathe this life, love,
and spirit. This is Pranic Energy, or Pranic Ether, we could not
exist a moment without it. It is the Cosmic Energy; it is the Life
of the Solar Plexus.
24. Every time we breathe we fill our lungs with air and at the
same time vitalize our body with this Pranic Ether which is Life
itself, so that we have the opportunity of making a conscious
connection with All Life, All Intelligence and All Substance.
25. A knowledge of your relation and oneness with this Principle
that governs the Universe and the simple method whereby you can
consciously identify yourself with it gives you a scientific
understanding of a law whereby you may free yourself from disease,
from lack or limitation of any kind; in fact, it enables you to
breathe the "breath of life" into your own nostrils.
26. This "breath of life" is a superconscious reality. It is the
essence of the "I am." It is pure "Being" or Universal Substance,
and our conscious unity with it enables us to localize it, and thus
exercise the powers of this creative energy.
27. Thought is creative vibration and the quality of the
conditions created will depend upon the quality of our thought,
because we cannot express powers which we do not possess. We must
"be" before we can "do" and we can "do" only to the extent to which
we "are," and so what we do will necessarily coincide with what we
"are" and what we are depends upon what we "think."
28. Every time you think you start a train of causation which
will create a condition in strict accordance with the quality of the
thought which originated it. Thought which is in harmony with the
Universal Mind will result in corresponding conditions. Thought
which is destructive or discordant will produce corresponding
results. You may use thought constructively or destructively, but
the immutable law will not allow you to plant a thought of one kind
and reap the fruit of another. You are free to use this marvelous
creative power as you will, but you must take the consequences.
29. This is the danger from what is called Will Power. There are
those who seem to think that by force of will they can coerce this
law; that they can sow seed of one kind and by "Will Power" make it
bear fruit of another, but the fundamental principle of creative
power is in the Universal, and therefore the idea of forcing a
compliance with our wishes by the power of the individual will is an
inverted conception which may appear to succeed for a while but is
eventually doomed to failure - because it antagonizes the very power
which it is seeking to use.
30. It is the individual attempting to coerce the Universal, the
finite in conflict with the Infinite. Our permanent well-being will
be best conserved by a conscious cooperation with the continuous
forward movement of the Great Whole.
31. For your exercise this week, go into the Silence and
concentrate on the fact that "In him we live and move and have our
being" is literally and scientifically exact! That you ARE because
He IS, that if He is Omnipresent He must be in you. That if He is
all in all you must be in Him! That He is Spirit and you are made in
"His image and likeness" and that the only difference between His
spirit and your spirit is one of degree, that a part must be the
same in kind and quality as the whole. When you can realize this
clearly you will have found the secret of the creative power of
thought, you will have found the origin of both good and evil, you
will have found the secret of the wonderful power of concentration,
you will have found the key to the solution of every problem whether
physical, financial, or environmental.
The power to think consecutively and deeply and
clearly, is an avowed and deadly enemy to mistakes and blunders,
superstitions, unscientific theories, irrational beliefs, unbridled
enthusiasm, fanaticism.
Haddock |