GNANY YOGA/PART 3
THE THIRD LESSON
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 Correlation 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 philosophy and 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 but 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 does 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
specks 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 see the actors
representing the spirits, but they could see 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 "enation-morphic,"
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 bands 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 Benet. 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, 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 Power 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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