Lesson III. The Creative Will
In our first lesson
of this series, we stated that among the other qualities and attributes that we
were compelled, by the laws of our reason, to think that the Absolute possessed, was that of Omnipotence or
All-Power. In other words we are compelled to think of the One as being
the source and fount of all the Power there
is, ever has been, or ever can be in the Universe. Not only, as is generally
supposed, that the Power of the One is greater than any other Power,-
but more than this, that there can be no other power, and that, therefore, each
and every, any and all manifestations or forms of Power, Force or Energy must
be a part of the great one Energy which emanates from the One.
There is no escape
from this conclusion, as startling as it may appear to the mind unaccustomed to
it. If there is any power not from and of the One, from whence comes such power, for there is nothing else outside of
the One? Who or what exists outside of the
One that can manifest even the faintest degree of power of any kind? All power
must come from the Absolute, and must in its nature be but one.
Modern Science has
recognized this truth, and one of its fundamental principles is the Unity of
Energy -the theory that all forms of Energy are, at the last, One. Science
holds that all forms of Energy are interchangeable, and from this idea comes
the theory of the Conservation of Energy or Corelation of Force.
Science
teaches that every manifestation of energy, power,
or force, from the operation of the law of gravitation,
up to the highest form of mental force is but the
operation of the One Energy of the Universe.
Just
what this Energy is, in its inner nature, Science does not know. It has many theories, but does not advance
any of them as a law. It speaks of the Infinite
and Eternal Energy from which all things proceed,
but pronounces its nature to be unknowable. But some
of the latter-day scientists are veering around to the
teachings of the occultists, and are now hinting that it is something more than a mere mechanical energy. They are
speaking of it in terms of mind. Wundt, the
German scientist, whose school of thought is called voluntarism, considers the motive-force of Energy to be something that may be called Will. Crusius, as far back as 1744 said: "Will is
the dominating force of the
world." And Schopenhauer based his
fascinating but gloomy philosophyand metaphysics upon the underlying principle of an active form of energy which he called the Will-to-Live, which he
considered to be the Thing-in-Itself, or the Absolute. Balzac, the novelist, considered a something akin
to Will, to be the moving force of
the Universe. Bulwer advanced a
similar theory, and made mention of it in several of his novels.
This
idea of an active, creative Will, at work in the Universe, building up; tearing
down; replacing; repairing; changing-always at
work-ever active- has been entertained by numerous philosophers and thinkers,
under different names and styles. Some, like
Schopenhauer have thought of this Will as the final
thing-that which took the place of God-the First Cause. But others have
seen in this Will an active living principle
emanating from the Absolute or God,
and working in accordance with the laws impressed by Him upon it. In various forms, this latter idea is seen all through the history of
philosophical thought. Cudsworth, the English philosopher, evolved the idea of a something called the "Plastic
Nature," which so closely
approaches the Yogi idea of the Creative
Will, that we feel justified in quoting a passage from his book. He says:
"It
seems not so agreeable to reason that Nature, as a
distinct thing from the Deity, should be quite superseded or made to signify
nothing, God Himself doing all things immediately and
miraculously; from whence it would follow also that
they are all done either forcibly and violently,
or else artificially only, and none of them by any
inward principle of their own.
"This
opinion is further confuted by that slow and gradual process that in the
generation of things, which would seem to be hut a vain and idle pomp or a trifling formality if the moving power were
omnipotent; as also by those errors
and bungles which are committed where
the matter is inept and contumacious
; which argue that the moving power be not irresistible, and that Nature is such a thing as is not altogether incapable (as well as human art) of
being sometimes
frustrated and disappointed by the indisposition
of matter. Whereas an omnipotent moving power, as it could dispatch its work in
a moment, so would it always do it infallibly and irresistibly, no ineptitude and stubbornness of matter being ever able to
hinder such a one, or make him bungle or fumble in anything.
"Wherefore, since neither all things are produced fortuitously,
or by the unguided mechanism of matter, nor
God himself may be reasonably thought to do all
things immediately and miraculously, it may well be
concluded that there is a Plastic Nature under him,
which, as an inferior and subordinate instrument,
doth drudgingly execute that part of his providence
which consists in the regular and orderly motion of matter; yet so as there is also besides this a higher providence to be acknowledged, which, presiding over it, doth often
supply the defects of it, and sometimes overrules
it, forasmuch as the Plastic Nature cannot act electively nor with
discretion."
The
Yogi Philosophy teaches of the existence of a Universal
Creative Will, emanating from the Absolute-infilled
with the power of the Absolute and acting
under established natural laws, which performs
the active work of creation in the world, similar to that performed by "Cudsworth's Plastic Nature," just
mentioned. This Creative Will is not Schopenhauer's Will-to-Live. It is
not a Thing-in-itself, but a vehicle or
instrument of the Absolute. It is an emanation
of the mind of the Absolute-a manifestation in
action of its Will-a mental product rather than a
physical, and, of course, saturated with the life-energy of its projector.
This Creative Will is not a mere blind, mechanical energy or force-it is far more than this. We can explain
it only by referring you to the manifestation of the Will in
yourself. You wish to move your arm, and it moves. The immediate force may seem
to be a mechanical force, but what is back
of that force- what is the essence
of the force ? The Will! All manifestations
of energy-all the causes of motion-all forces-are
forms of the action of the Will of the One -the Creative Will-acting under natural laws established by the One, ever moving, acting, forcing,
urging, driving, leading. We do not
mean that every little act is a
thought of the moment on the part of the Absolute, and a reaching out of
the Will in obedience to that thought. On the contrary, we mean that the One set the Will into operation as a
whole, conceiving of laws and
limitations in its action, the Will
constantly operating in obedience to that conception, the results manifesting in what we call natural law; natural
forces, etc. Besides this, the Absolute
is believed to manifest its Will specially upon occasions; and moreover permits its Will to be
applied and used by the individual wills of individual Egos, under the general Law and laws, and plan of the
One.
But
you must not suppose that the Will is manifested only in the form of
mechanical forces, cohesion, chemical attraction,
electricity, gravitation, etc.
It does
more than this. It is in full operation in all forms of
life, and living things. It is present everywhere. Back of all forms of
movement and action, we find a moving
cause-usually a Pressure. This is true of that which we have been calling mechanical forces, and of all forms of that which we call
Life Energy. Now, note this, this
great Pressure that you will observe in all Life Action, is the Creative Will- the Will Principle of the One-bending toward the carrying out of the Great Plan of Life.
Look
where we will, on living forms, and we may begin to
recognize the presence of a certain creative energy at
work-building up; moulding, directing; tearing down; replacing, etc.-always
active in its efforts to create, preserve and
conserve life. This visible creative energy is what the
Yogi Philosophy calls "the Creative Will,"
and which forms the subject of this lesson. The Creative
Will is that striving, longing, pressing forward,
unfolding, progressing evolutionary effort, that all
thoughtful people see in operation in all forms of life-throughout all Nature.
From the lowest to the highest forms of life, the Effort, Energy, Pressure, may be recognized in action, creating,
preserving, nourishing, and improving its forms.
It is that Something that we recognize when we speak of "Nature's
Forces" at work in plant growth and
animal functioning. If you will but keep the word and
idea-"NATURE"-before you, you will be able to more clearly form the
mental concept of the Creative Will.
The Creative Will is that which
you have been calling "Nature at Work" in the growth of the plant; the sprouting of the seed; the curling and reaching of the tendril; the fertilization of the blossoms, etc.
You have seen this Will at work, if you have watched growing things.
We
call this energy "the Creative Will," because it is the objective
manifestation of the Creative Energy of the
Absolute-Its visible Will manifested in the direction of physical life. It
is as much Will in action, as the Will
that causes your arm to move in response
to its power. It is no mere chance thing, or mechanical law-it is life action in operation.
This
Creative Will not only causes movement in completed life, but all movement and
action in life independent of the personal will of
its individual forms. All the phenomena of the
so-called Unconscious belong to it. It causes the body
to grow; attends to the details of nourishment,
assimilation, digestion, elimination, and
all of the rest. It builds up bodies, organs, and
parts, and keeps them in operation and function.
The Creative Will is directed to the outward expression of Life-to the objectification of Life. You may call this
energy the "Universal Life Energy" if you wish,
but, to those who know it, it is a Will-an active, living Will, in full
operation and power, pressing forward toward the manifestation of objective
life.
The
Creative Will seems to be filled with a strong Desire to
manifest. It longs to express itself, and to give birth to forms of activity.
Desire lies under and in all forms of its
manifestations. The ever present desire of the Creative Will causes lower forms
to be succeeded by higher forms-and is the moving cause of evolution-it is the
Evolutionary Urge itself, which ever cries to its manifestations, "Move
on; move upward."
In the Hindu classic, the
"Mahabarata," Brahma created the most beautiful female being ever
known, and called her Tillotama. He presented her in turn to all the gods, in
order to witness their wonder and admiration. Siva's desire to behold her was
so great that it developed in him four faces, in succession, as she made the
tour of the assembly; and Indra's longing was so intense that his body became
all eyes. In this myth may be seen exemplified the effect of Desire and Will
in the forms of life, function and shape -all following Desire and Need, as in
the case of the long neck of the giraffe which enables him to reach for the
high branches of the trees in his native land; and in the long neck and high
legs of the fisher birds, the crane, stork, ibis, etc.
The Creative Will finds within
itself a desire to create suns, and they are formed. It desired planets to
revolve around the suns, and they were thrown off in obedience to the law. It
desired plant life, and plant life appeared, working from higher to lower form.
Then came animal life, from nomad to man, Some of the animal forms yielded to
the desire to fly, and wings appeared gradually, and we called it bird-life.
Some felt a desire to burrow in the ground, and lo! came the moles, gophers,
etc. It wanted a thinking
creature, and Man with his wonderful brain was evolved.
Evolution is more than a mere survival of the fittest; natural
selection, etc. Although it uses these laws
as tools and instruments, still back of them is that insistent urge-that
ever-impelling desire-that ever-active
Creative Will. Lamark was nearer right than
Darwin when he claimed that Desire was back} of it all, and preceded function and form. Desire wanted form and function, and produced them by
the activity of the Creative Will.
This Creative Will
acts like a living force-and so it is
indeed-but it docs not act as a reasoning, intellectual Something, in one sense-instead it manifests rather the "feeling," wanting,
longing, instinctive phase of mind,
akin to those "feelings" and resulting actions that we find within our natures. The Will acts on
the Instinctive Plane.
Evolution shows us Life constantly pressing forward toward higher and
still higher forms of expression. The urge is constantly upward and onward. It is true that some species sink out of
sight, their work in the world
having been done, but they are
succeeded by other species more in harmony with their environment and the needs
of their times. Some races of men decay, but others build on their foundations,
and reach still greater heights.
The Creative Will is something different from Reason
or Intellect. But it underlies these. In the lower forms of life, in which mind is in but small evidence, the Will is in
active operation, manifesting in Instinct and Automatic Life Action, so
called. It does not depend upon
brains for manifestation-for these lowly forms of life have no
brains-but is in operation through every part of the body of the living thing.
Evidences
of the existence of the Creative Will acting independently of the
brains of animal and plant life may be had in overwhelming quantity if we will
but examine the life action in the lower forms of life.
The testimony of
the investigators along the lines of the Evolutionary school of thought, show
us that the Life Principle was in active operation in lowly animal and plant life millions of years before
brains capable of manifesting
Thought were produced. Haekel
informs us that during more than half of the enormous time that has elapsed
since organic life first became
evident, no animal sufficiently advanced to have a brain was in existence.
Brains were evolved according to the law of desire or necessity, in accordance
with the Great Plan, but they were not needed for carrying on the wonderful
work of the creation and preservation of the living forms. And they are not
today. The tiny infant, and the senseless idiot are not able to think intelligently, but still their life functions
go on regularly and according to law, in spite of the absence of thinking
brains. And the life work of the plants, and of the lowly forms of animal life,
is carried on likewise. This wonderful thing that
we call Instinct is but another name for the manifestation of the
Creative Will which flows from the One Life, or the Absolute.
Even
as far down the scale of life as the Monera, we may see the Creative Will
in action. The Monera are but tiny bits of
slimy, jelly-like substances- mere
speeks of glue without organs of any kind, and yet they exercise the organic
phenomena of life, such as nutrition, reproduction, sensation and movement, all of which are usually associated with an
organized structure. These creatures
are incapable of thought in
themselves, and the phenomenon is due to the action of the Will through them. This Instinctive impulse
and action is seen everywhere,
manifesting upon higher and still
higher lines, as higher forms of organisms are built up.
Scientists
have used the term, "Appetency," defining
it as, "the instinctive tendency of living organisms to perform certain actions; the tendency of an unorganized body to seek that which satisfies the wants of its
organism." Now what is this tendency? It cannot be an effort of reason,
for the low form of life has nothing with
which to reason. And it is impossible
to think of "purposive tendency" without assuming the existence of mental power of some
kind. And where can such a power be
located if not in the form itself?
When we consider that the Will is acting
in and through all forms of Life, from highest to lowest-from Moneron to Man-we can at once recognize the source of the power and activity. It is
the Great Life Principle-the Creative
Will, manifesting itself. We can
perhaps better form an idea of the Creative Will, by reference to its
outward and visible forms of activity. We cannot see the Will itself-the
Pressure and the Urge-but we can see its action through living forms. Just as
we cannot see a man behind a curtain, and
yet may practically see him by watching
the movements of his form as he presses up against the curtain, so may we see the Will by watching it as
it presses up against the living curtain of the forms of life. There was a play
presented on the American stage a few years ago, in which one of the scenes pictured the place of departed spirits
according to the Japanese belief. The audience could not sec the actors
representing the spirits, but they could sec their movements as they pressed up
close to a thin silky curtain stretched across the stage, and their motions as
they moved to and fro behind the curtain
were plainly recognized. The deception was perfect, and the effect was
startling. One almost believed that he saw
the forms of formless creatures. And this is what we may do in viewing
the operation of the Creative Will-we may
take a look at the moving form of the Will behind the curtain of the
forms of the manifestation of life. We may see it pressing and urging here, and bending there-building up here, and changing there-always acting, always
moving, striving, doing, in response to that insatiable urge and craving,
and longing of its inner desire. Let us take a few peeps at the Will moving
behind the curtain! Commencing with the cases of the forming of the crystals,
as spoken of in our last lesson, we may pass on to
plant life. But before doing so, it may be well for us to
take a parting look at the Will manifesting crystal
forms. One of the latest scientific works makes mention
of the experiments of a scientist who has been devoting
much attention to the formation of crystals, and
reports that he has noticed that certain crystals of organic compounds, instead of being built up symmetrically, as is usual
with crystals, were "enantionmorphic,"
that is, opposed to each other, in rights and
lefts, like hands or gloves, or shoes, etc. These crystals are never found alone, but always form in pairs.
Can you not see the Will behind the curtain here?
Let us look for the
Will in plant-life. Passing rapidly over
the wonderful evidences in the cases of the fertilization of plants by insects, the plant shaping its blossom so as to admit the entrance of the
particular insect that acts as the carrier of its pollen, think for a moment how the distribution of the
seed is provided for. Fruit trees and
plants surround the seed with a sweet covering, that it may be eaten by insect
and animal, and the seed distributed. Others have a hard covering to protect the seed or nut from the winter frosts, but which covering rots with
the spring rains and allows the germ
to sprout. Others surround the seed
with a fleecy substance, so that the wind
may carry it here and there and give it a chance to find a home where it is not so crowded. Another tree has a little pop-gun arrangement, by means of
which it pops its seed to a distance
of several feet.
Other
plants have seeds that are covered with a burr or
"sticky" bristles, which enables them to attach themselves
to the wool of sheep and other animals, and thus
be carried about and finally dropped in some spot far
away from the parent plant, and thus the scattering of the species be
accomplished. Some plants show the most
wonderful plans and arrangements
for this scattering of the seed in new homes where there is a better opportunity for growth and development, the
arrangements for this purpose displaying
something very much akin to what we would call "ingenuity" if it were the work of a reasoning mind. There are plants called cockle-burs whose
seed-pods are provided with stickers
in every direction, so that anything
brushing against them is sure to pick them up. At the end of each
sticker is a very tiny hook, and these
hooks fasten themselves tightly into anything that brushes against it, animal
wool, hair, or clothing, etc. Some
of these seeds have been known to
have been carried to other quarters of the globe in wool, etc., there to find new homes and a wider
field.
Other plants, like the thistle, provide their seed with downy wings, by which the wind carries them afar to other fields.
Other seeds have a faculty of tumbling and rolling along
the ground to great distances, owing to their peculiar
shape and formation. The maple provides its seed with
a peculiar arrangement something like a propeller
screw, which when the wind strikes the trees and
looses the seed, whirls the latter through the air to
a distance of a hundred yards or more.
Other seeds are provided with floating apparatus,
which enables them to travel many miles by stream or river, or rain
washes. Some of these not only float, but
actually swim, having spider-like filaments,
which wriggle like legs, and actually propel the tiny seed along to its new home. A recent writer says of these seeds that "so curiously
lifelike are their movements that it
is almost impossible to believe that these tiny objects, making good progress
through the water, are really seeds,
and not insects."
The leaves of the Venus' Fly-trap fold upon each other and enclose the insect which is attracted by the sweet juice on the
leaf, three extremely sensitive bristles or
hairs giving the plant notice that the insect is touching them. A recent writer gives the following description
of a peculiar plant. He says: "On the shores
of Lake Nicaragua is to be found an uncanny product of the vegetable kingdom
known among the natives by the
expressive name of 'the Devil's Noose.' Dunstan, the naturalist, discovered it long ago while wandering
on the shores of the lake. Attracted by the cries of pain and terror from his
dog. he found the animal held by black
sticky hands which had chafed the
skin to bleeding point. These bands were branches of a newly-discovered carnivorous plant which had
been aptly named the 'land octopus.'
The branches are flexible, black,
polished and without leaves, and secrete a viscid fluid."
You
have seen flowers that closed when you touched them. You remember the Golden Poppy that closes when the
sun goes down. Another plant, a variety of orchid, has a long, slender, flat
stem, or tube, about one-eighth of an inch thick,
with an opening at the extreme end, and a series of fine
tubes where it joins the plant. Ordinarily this tube remains coiled up into a spiral, but when the plant needs water (it usually grows upon the
trunks of trees overhanging swampy places)
it slowly uncoils the little tube and bends it over until it dips into the water, when it proceeds to suck up
the water until it is filled, when it slowly coils
around and discharges the water directly upon the plant, or its roots. Then it repeats the process
until the plant is satisfied. When
the water is absent from under the plant the tube moves this way and that way
until it finds what it wants-just
like the trunk of an elephant. If one touches the tube or trunk of the plant
while it is extended for water, it
shows a great sensitiveness and rapidly coils itself up. Now what causes
this life action? The plant has no brains,
and cannot have reasoned out this
process, nor even have acted upon them by reasoning processes. It has nothing
to think with to such a high degree.
It is the Will behind the curtain,
moving this way and that way, and doing things.
There
was once a French scientist named Duhamel. He
planted some beans in a cylinder-something like a long
tomato can lying on its side. He waited until the beans
began to sprout, and send forth roots downward,
and shoots upward, according to nature's invariable
rule. Then he moved the cylinder a
little-rolled
it over an inch or two. The next day he rolled it over a
little more. And so on each day, rolling it over a
little each time. Well, after a time Duhamel shook
the dirt and growing beans out of the cylinder, and what did he find? This,
that the beans in their endeavor to grow their roots
downward had kept on bending each day downward; and in
their endeavor to send shoots upward, had kept
on bending upward a little each day, until at last there had been formed two
complete spirals-the one spiral being the roots ever
turning downward, and the other the shoots ever bending upward. How did the
plant know direction? What was the moving power. The
Creative Will behind the curtain again, you see !
Potatoes in dark cellars have sent out roots or sprouts
twenty and thirty feet to reach light. Plants will send out roots many feet to
reach water. They know where the water and light
are, and where to reach them. The tendrils of a
plant know where the stake or cord is, and they reach
out for it and twine themselves around it. Unwind them, and the next day
they are found again twined around it. Move the
stake or cord, and the tendril moves after it. The insect-eating plants are able to distinguish
between nitrogenous and
non-nitrogenous food, accepting the one
and rejecting the other. They recognize that cheese has the same nourishing properties as the insect, and they accept it, although it is far
different in feeling, taste,
appearance and every other characteristic from their accustomed food.
Case after case might be mentioned and cited to show the operation of
the Will in plant-life. But wonderful as are many of
these cases, the mere action of the Will as shown in
the growing of the plant is just as
wonderful. Just imagine a tiny seed, and see it
sprout and draw to itself the nourishment from water,
air, light and soil, then upward until it becomes a
great tree with bark, limbs, branches, leaves, blossoms,
fruit and all. Think of this miracle, and consider
what must be the power and nature of that Will that causes it.
The growing plant manifests sufficient strength to crack great stones, and lift great slabs of pavement, as may be noticed by examining the sidewalks of suburban towns and parks. An English paper prints a report of four enormous mushrooms having lifted a huge slab of paving stone in a crowded street overnight. Think of this exhibition of Energy and Power. This wonderful faculty of exerting force and motion and
energy is fundamental in the Will, for indeed every physical
change and growth is the result of motion, and
motion arises only from force and pressure. Whose
force, energy, power and motion ? The
Will's!
On all sides of us we may see this constant and steady urge and pressure behind living forces, and inorganic forms as
well-always a manifestation of Energy and Power. And all this Power is in the Will-and the Will is but the manifestation of the
All-Power-the Absolute. Remember this.
And this power manifests itself not only in the matter
of growth and ordinary movements, but also in some
other ways that seem quite mysterious to even modern
Science. How is it that certain birds are able to fly
directly against a strong wind, without visible movement
of their wings ? How do the buzzards float in the
air, and make speed without a motion of the wing? What is the explanation
of the movements of certain microscopic
creatures who lack organs of movement?
Listen to this instance related by the scientist Benct. He states that
the Polycystids have a most peculiar manner
of moving-a sort of sliding motion, to the right or left, upward, backward,
sideways, stopping and starting,
fast or slow, as it wills. It has no
locomotive organs, and no movement can be seen to take place in the body from within or without. It simply slides. How?
Passing on to the higher animal life-how do eggs grow into chickens? What is the power in the germ of the egg? Can the germ think, and plan, and move, and grow into a
chicken? Or is the Will at work there? And what is true in this case, is true
of the birth and growth of all animal
life-all animal life develops from a
single germ cell. How, and Why ?
There is a mental energy resident in the germ cell- of this there can be no doubt. And that mental energy is the Creative
Will ever manifesting. Listen to these words
from Huxley, the eminent scientist. He
says:
"The
student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished
the less, the more conversant he becomes with her
operations; but of all the perennial miracles she
offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of his admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its
embryo. Examine the recently laid egg of
some common animal, such as a salamander
or a newt. It is a minute spheroid in which the best microscope will reveal nothing but a structureless sac, enclosing a glairy fluid, holding
granules in suspension. But strange possibilities lie dormant in that semi-fluid globule. Let a moderate supply
of warmth reach its watery cradle,
and the plastic matter undergoes
changes so rapid, and so purposelike in their succession, that one can only compare them to those operated by a skilled modeller upon a
formless lump of clay. As with an invisible trowel, the mass is divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller
portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation of granules not too large to build withal the finest
fabrics of the nascent organism.
And, then, it is as if a delicate finger
traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal column, and moulded the contour of the body; pinching up the head at one end, the tail at the other,
and fashioning flank and limb into
due salamanderine proportions, in
so artistic a way that, after watching the process hour by hour, one is almost involuntarily possessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to
vision than the achromatic lens would
show the hidden artist, with his
plan before him, striving with skilful
manipulation to perfect his work.
"As life advances and the
young amphibian ranges the waters, the terror of his
insect contemporaries, not only are
the nutritious particles supplied by its prey (by the
addition of which to its frame growth takes place)
laid down, each in its proper spot, and in due proportion to the rest, as to
reproduce the form, the color, and the size, characteristic
of the parental stock; but even the wonderful powers of
reproducing lost parts possessed by these animals
are controlled by the same governing tendency. Cut off
the legs, the tail, the jaws, separately or all
together, and as Spallanzani showed long ago, these parts not only grow
again, but the new limb is formed on the
same type as those which were lost.
The new jaw. or leg. is a newt's, and never by any accident more like that of a
frog's."
In this passage from Huxley one may see the actual working of the
Creative Will of the Universe,-moving behind
the curtain-and a very thin curtain at that. And this
wonderful work is going on all around us, all the
time. Miracles are being accomplished every second-they
are so common that we fail to regard them.
And
in our bodies is the Will at work? Most certainly. What built you up from
single cell to maturity? Did you do it with your intellect? Has not every bit of it been done without your conscious
knowledge? It is only when things
go wrong, owing to the violation of
some law, that you become aware of your internal organs. And, yet,
stomach and liver, and heart and the rest
have been performing their work steadily-working
away day and night, building up, repairing, nourishing, growing you into
a man or woman, and keeping you sound
and strong. Are you doing this with your reason or with your personal will? No,
it is the great Creative Will of the Universe,-the expression of the purpose
and power of the One, working in and through you. It is the One Life
manifesting in you through its Creative Will.
And not only is
this all. The Creative Will is all around us in every force, energy and
principle. The force that we call mental
power is the principle of the Will directed by our individual minds. In
this statement we have a hint of the great mystery of Mental Force and Power,
and the so-called Psychic Phenomena. It also gives us a key to Mental Healing.
This is not the place to go into detail
regarding these phases-but think over it a bit. This Will Power of the Universe, in all of its forms and phases,
from Electricity to Thought-power, is always at the disposal of Man, within limits, and subject always to
the laws of the Creative Will of the Universe. Those who acquire an
understanding of the laws of any force may use it And any force may be used or
misused.
And
the nearer in understanding and consciousness that we get to the One Life
and Power, the greater will be our possible power, for we are thus getting closer and closer to the source of All Power. In
these lessons we hope to be able to tell you how you may come into
closer touch with this One Life of which you and all living things are but
forms, shapes and channels of expression, under the operation of the Creative
Will.
We trust that this
lesson may have brought to your minds the
realization of the Oneness of All-the fact that we are all parts of the one
encircling unity, the heart-throbs and pulsations of which are to be
felt even to the outer edge of the circle of life-in Man, in Monad, in Crystal, in Atom. Try to feel that
inner essence of Creative Will that
is within yourselves, and endeavor to realize your complete inner unity
in it, with all other forms of life. Try to realize, as some recent writer has expressed it, "that all the
living world is but mankind in the making, and that we are but part of
the All." And also remember that splendid vistas of future unfoldment spread themselves out before the gaze of
the awakened soul, until the mind fails to grasp the wondrous sight.
We will now close
this lesson by calling your attention to its
CENTRAL THOUGHT.
There is but One
Power in the Universe-One Energy-One Force. And that Power, Energy and
Force is a manifestation of the One Life. There can be no other Power, for
there is none other than the One from whom Tower may come. And there can be no
manifestation of Power that is not the Power of the One, for no other Power can
be in existence. The Power of the One is visible in its manifestations to us in the natural laws and forces of
Nature-which we call the Creative Will. This Creative Will is the inner
moving power, urge and pressure behind all forms and shapes of Life. In atom, and molecule; in monad, in
cell, in plant, in fish, in animal, in man,- the Life
Principle or Creative Will is constantly in action,
creating, preserving, and carrying on life in its functions. We may
call this Instinct or Nature, but it is the
Creative Will in action. This Will is back of all Power, Energy, or Force-be it physical, mechanical or mental force.
And all Force that we use, consciously
or unconsciously, comes from the One Great Source of Power. If we could
but see clearly, we would know that back of us is the Power of the Universe, awaiting our intelligent uses, under the
control of the Will of the All.
There is nothing to be afraid of, for
we are manifestations of the One Life, from
which all Power proceeds, and the Real Self is above the effect, for it is part of the Cause. But over and above-under and behind-all forms of Being,
Matter. Energy, Force and Power, is the ABSOLUTE -ever Calm; ever Peaceful; ever Content. In knowing this it becomes us
to manifest that spirit of absolute
Trust, Faith and Confidence in the Goodness and Ultimate Justice of That which is the only Reality there is.
Peace be with you.
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