CONTENTS
PREFACE
- THE FOUNDATION
- THE METHOD
III. THE SECRET
- THE DISCOVERY
- THE LAW
- THE SPIRIT
VII. THE IDEAL
VIII. The Life
PREFACE
THE purpose of this little book is to simplify the problem of life. Its aim is also to increase the reader’s knowledge of self, to add to his powers of helpfulness, that through this added understanding of life and this greater power of service he may be the more ready to manifest the fullness and beauty of the Spirit. The author has endeavored to be as clear and practical as possible, to use simple language, and avoid all technical discussions. Yet the reader should bear in mind that a’ condensed exposition of a theory of conduct necessarily demands more thought from its readers. Consequently, the book should be read only as rapidly as its leading ideas are carefully considered and tested by application to daily life.
It may seem audacious to undertake to tell how one may live by the Spirit. But there are certain evidences which one may gather by observation of those whose lives are thus inspired. Help is gained also by the study of natural law. So far as possible, the author has based his statements on the commonest facts of daily existence. Even then he does not insist on his particular theory of the spiritual life. At best, a treatise like the present one is a mere steppingstone to individual thought and conduct, a helping hand by the wayside. They live by the Spirit who know that Spirit as it is personally perceived, as it illumines each soul. The Father has a special message for each which he will declare to those who listen in peace, in love and humility.
This book is not a compilation of the author’s larger volumes; it is a fresh statement written to meet a constant demand for a simpler treatise, one which shall voice the spiritual essence of what to him is the greatest truth of life. If it shall quicken a deeper interest in the wonders and beauties of the inner life, its purpose will be fulfilled. For it is there that the Spirit is found, there that one finds rest and food for the soul—in the kingdom of silence, the home of peace, of hope, and freedom ; the starting point in all that is noblest in humanity, the dominion of the Christ ideal.
CHAPTER I
THE FOUNDATION
AN irresistible desire possesses the human mind to master the secret of life. The ideal is, of course, differently conceived by different persons. Some are governed by selfish motives, while others long to understand life’s mystery because of the greater good they may do. Many desire only material things; others care naught for the things that perish. Very few are able to define the object of their search; still fewer recognize the spiritual significance of life.
Yet in some form the desire seizes all. It is either inspired by love of power, by love of truth, or art. There is either an ill-defined restlessness, or a conscious ambition — a movement of some sort the Spirit toward that which we do not possess. We are dissatisfied with our surroundings and seek to better them. We are ever casting about for new moorings, new companions, new interests. We are seeking peace, happiness, rest. We are hungry for a spiritual substance or food which our Church no longer gives. Our physician fails to find it for us. Our favorite authors no longer satisfy. Nor do we find the peace we seek in any organization or society.
The question arises, What shall feed the soul? How shall we solve those problems which all teachers and friends fail to solve for us?
In their solitude and longing, many have turned to philosophy for consolation. But in the works of theologians and philosophers, whose ponderous volumes one tries to master, the problem of life is made too complex. And so one turns away from these to a simple study of life itself.
In truth, life is simple. It must be simply interpreted. Even the little child knows those laws, the understanding and obedience to which lie at the basis of the profoundest systems of conduct. Our fault is that we look afar,, when the meaning of life is clearly revealed before our eyes.
Let us therefore begin by noting some of the plainest facts of life as it passes before us, while we sit by the window and look out over the great throbbing world.
What is life, and who are we that live it?
Life is just this passing experience, as we awaken each day, look out at the trees and sky, converse with men, and earn our daily bread. Never mind the fact now that it is difficult for many to earn their daily bread. Life is a passing panorama which sweeps by us, whether we are rich or poor. In the general sense in which we are at present considering it, it is independent of particular struggles, of either favorable or unfavorable conditions.
We sit by the window and observe the great drama, amused by the people who pass, and filled with speculative wonder concerning the life they lead, what social positions they hold, and whether or not they live happily at home. It is a motley assembly,—the stream of events and people which we call life, — now comical, now pathetic, now passing us indifferently by, now arousing our deepest concern. We laugh, mourn, and sympathize as we gaze. We fret and nod; we grow impatient or rejoice.
Yet amid all this interchange, incongruity, and amusement there appears after a time an undercurrent of truly philosophic thought about it. Our minds select striking details, as the artist seizes the objects which are to be grouped in his picture. The mind tries to reproduce, picture, or think about all things congruously, logically, rationally. Philosophic thought is at first like a child at play, trying to fit together the parts of a geographical puzzle, an artist joining bits of mosaic. Thought does not create; it rather discovers. It observes the relationship of things.
And so the truth about life is not a creation. It is not abstract. Nor does the ability to think systematically about it mean that one shall have mastered great words, many lettered and proud. Nor need one study the parched leaves of some vast treatise on logic.
Living logic is the true logic. That is learned by observing the course of nature, the march of history, the flow of the great stream of consciousness within us, the tide which sets in from the ocean of beginnings to the promised land of supreme accomplishment.
Therefore, as we sit by the window of life and philosophize, noting the close connection between certain traits of character and certain modes of living, or discovering why some are happy and some are sad, we gather the fragments of that living mosaic which our minds know how to fit into the great philosophic picture of life.
In order to realize the depth and meaning of this kind of thinking, let us consider for a moment under what circumstances conversation with another does each the most good. It is when the two converse on terms of entire equality. There must first be desire to know, humility, readiness to listen; and, second, desire to impart, with that gentle deference which ever characterizes true wisdom and opens the door for communion of heart with heart. In this spirit, the least may give to the greatest, and the greatest impart some measure of truth to the least.
Thought quickened by love is the great incentive to progress. For thought alone may lead to cold exclusiveness, to the feeling that one is right while others are wrong; and love alone may be mere attachment to what is old. But love united with thought grows side by side with it to maturity — two halves of the perfect whole.
Therefore we must be true to both sides of our nature. Let the calmness of your meditation be that of the thinker, its spirit that of natural, normal human life, that we may avoid both the stern frigidity of the savant and the excessive ecstasy of the saint.
The unthinking person glances for a moment, is pleased with an idea, and thereupon becomes convinced. He accepts a ready-made belief or religious creed because he likes it, because he is urged, or because it appeals to his emotions. But the thinker is not content simply to say,” I feel”; he wishes also to say, “I know.” His life is greatly enriched by studying the details of things, by seeking causes, analyzing to discover laws, and thinking to find reasons. The unthinking man is impetuous, easily led, emotional, lacking in poise. So far as the thinker has rationalized life’s problem, he has a basis of conviction, he is moderate, self-controlled, thorough in all things.
Thus from the point of view of those who think, all life is a continual discovery. Life is ever before us. It awaits the quickening of the mind to interpret it.
Out of the confused mass which constitutes life in infancy, the awakening self first begins to notice objects outside of itself, then discovers that His a self, something that is different from the objects moving about it.
Our entire human life is simply a development of this relationship. It is knowledge of things, persons, and selves in relation to the self that observes, feels, acts, and thinks. All experiences refer primarily to their relation with the self, the observer. It is I who feel, I who act, I who possess ideals. I cannot feel for another. At best I can have only a similar experience, of which each of us judges as the personal self regards it. I have a little world which surrounds and enlarges from myself, as a center of personal emotion and thought.
Here is the central principle. In all my endeavors to solve life’s problem I must remember the personal equation. Without my personal self or mind no experience is possible. Without my personal thought about life, as I observe and live it, no experience is intelligible. It is by building up knowledge of self, from the time the infant first learns that he is a separate self, that all understanding of life is gained.
We have, then, two factors on our hands,—the perceiving self and the world perceived. The desideratum is to develop to the full our knowledge of both.
As acquaintance with objects outside of us comes before we learn much about self, let us continue to give attention to the world which environs us as we gaze from our windows.
One of the first discoveries made by the child is that things happen in the world which he cannot control. If he strikes against the table, it invariably hurts. If he puts his hand in the fire, he cannot escape a burn. He thus early learns to associate certain effects with certain causes. Some effects are pleasurable, some are painful. He wishes to increase the one and avoid the other. He must therefore depend upon himself, upon knowledge gained from experience, and caution in regard to new Living by experiences. Here is the basis of his lifelong adjustment to the world.
Law is universal, absolute. Every effect has a cause. As we sow, we reap.
Here are the simple facts of life. No striving, no effort of will or thought, can escape them. Man has only to understand and make use of them universally in order to regulate his entire life.
He must first have as wide an acquaintance as possible with the forces of the universe, so that, as in the case of fire, he may make use of or avoid them. He must next know the resources of his own reaction upon or adjustment to these forces, that his relationship with them may be productive of the greatest amount of happiness, health, peace, truth, beauty, and service.
Man is a center of forces, acting upon him from outside and stirring him from within. In a measure, he is made by these forces. To a certain degree he moulds and uses them. But however these forces be regarded, the center where they are felt, where they are resisted or regulated, is within: that is, it springs from his individual life in every case.
The child observes that fire burns. It learns the source of the heat, and that by withdrawing the hand it can avoid the pain. All this is a product of thought. It is by taking thought that he avoids pain. It is by reaching a mental decision that he is able to withdraw his hand, and thereafter avoid the fire. Thought is the decisive factor by which we regulate life, so far as it comes within the province of the will. Our entire education, our entire experience, is a development of thought.
Thus far all is perfectly plain. But these principles, so clear in regard to the simple illustrations from childhood, are apt to be forgotten the moment life becomes more complex.
We forget that we are not merely observers at the window of life, but also participants. We forget that the law of action and reaction, of sowing and reaping, applies not merely to putting the hand into the fire, but to the thoughts we think, the spirit with which we send out thought into the world.
Yet here again it is the little child which shall lead us. No one responds so quickly as the little child, if approached in the spirit of love. In our heart of hearts we know that we could create a far more beautiful world for the child if we would always choose the loving thought.
A little thinking also shows us that the deeds of kindness we do are effective in proportion to the love we put into them.
More depends upon the motive than upon the gift.
If the thought be selfish, if we expect compensation, or are guilty of close calculation, the result will be like the attitude of mind which invited it.
” We who hold Some glimmer of the Eternal, hold the keys
Of grander or of meaner, with our thought
Uplifting or debasing.”
If someone uses abusive Ianguage and ill-treats us so that we reply angrily, then suffer a nervous or emotional reaction, we are inclined to blame the one who has abused us, once more forgetting that action and reaction are equal. Yet it is in our power to avoid all this, as the child avoids the fire, by taking thought, and so giving our forces another turn.
Again, if we sit in a draught and take cold, we insist that the cold air is the cause. But another person sitting in the same draught does not catch cold, because there is no superfluous heat in the body to invite it, because he has accustomed himself to enjoy the fresh, pure air without fear that it is contaminated.
We complain that this is a nervous, hurrying age. We find ourselves stricken with nervous prostration, dyspepsia, heart trouble, and the like, and consult a physician, in the belief that we have caught some disease. Yet it is our habit of life that is primarily at fault. We could change it all if we would. But we are proud, and must keep up with our fellows. Moneymaking is an enticing game, which we enter with a rush. Thus we become slaves of our own selfish impulses.
All this results from our decision to participate in life’s headlong strife. No one need suffer these ills who lives moderately. The cure for nervous diseases is not to take medicine, but to change the life, build new habits, master self and the forces which self controls, and so remove the nervous strain. Like the experience of the child with fire, it is purely a matter of individual control.
If our servitude to nervous tension be a habit of lifelong standing, it must be undermined by long and patient endeavor to build ourselves anew. Action and reaction are still equal: every effort tells.
If we live in an attitude of apprehensiveness, of self-absorption, or hatred, we must continually reap as we perpetually sow. No religious or medical remedy possesses the power to spare us the consequences. It is futile to beseech, futile to apply external remedies. The cause must first be removed, and it must be removed by the one who reared it. The only permanent remedy is self-understanding and self-development.
For our entire external life is regulated by the attitudes we assume within, by our decisions, our motives, or our spirit.
It is the spirit, the intent with which we act, which regulates the subsequent effect upon us.
Kindness, for example, is a universal language to which all respond. Every one, everywhere, remembers those who were kind.
Both man and child quickly detect hatred, and turn aside.
Confidence wins its way.
Distrust is met with distrust.
Meanness instantly imprisons the soul, while liberality prepares the way for a nobler and richer life.
Consequently, the starting-point in all endeavor to solve either our individual problem, or the problem of the universe as a whole, is to form a habit of thinking about events and things, diseases and struggles, in the light of their origin, their obedience to the decisive, directive power of thought.
CHAPTER II
THE METHOD
HAVE you ever realized, as you sat by the window looking out over the landscape, how large a percentage of the objects which you behold are made intelligible by what you have read and thought, by what your understanding tells you?
The entire past history of the rocks, trees, clouds, animals, men, out there before you, is mental; it is called forth from the realm of memory. Your judgment of distance is solely due to the memory of past experience, which has taught you what things are near, what objects are far.
How little the world would mean to you, were your consciousness of it limited to the mere feeling of a given moment!
What a marvelous work has been wrought by the human mind, — the wresting of the history of nature from the rude fragments of past ages!
What we see from the window depends upon the intelligence which looks forth. The entire progress of life is the development of the mind, from the crude stage where the infant reaches indiscriminately for the moon or for a toy, with no idea of distance, to the time when we shall at last eliminate the final vestiges of superstition, and behold nature as it really is.
Thus we trace a gradual evolution from the crudest feeling to the sublimest spiritual insight, which embodies all the treasures of our complex consciousness.
The proper training of these tendencies of consciousness enables the mind so to control them that it may at will transcend the rushing thought of daily life and enter the solitudes of the Spirit as one might seek the isolation of the forest.
But when one undertakes this higher development, one realizes with renewed emphasis what a depth of meaning there is in the saying that “man is a creature of habits.”
Not merely have the affairs of daily life become matters of habit, but our general attitudes toward life, and our methods of thinking, even religion and the ceremonies by which we adhere to it. Ordinarily we are as little conscious of our bondage to habit as we are unaware of the fact that our life is largely an affair of thought — that is, understood and regulated by thought.
We have unwittingly accustomed ourselves to fear disease, apprehend misfortune and the approach of death. The entire conventional theory of disease and its cure is a habit so deeply rooted that people unconsciously deal with pain in all its forms as though it arose solely from an external cause.
Whenever we meet an unusual experience, the first tendency is to act in accordance with some habit, to rush impulsively into an emotional state, or arrive at a hasty decision. We are largely governed by precedent, by ancestral tradition, or by conventional authority. Through ages we have accustomed ourselves to certain limited lines of conduct, and it is but seldom that any one possesses the courage or originality to experiment in new directions. We are in bondage to custom to such an extent that nothing short of a process of coming to judgment persistently carried on for years suffices to awaken us.
We are not only creatures of mental habit, but slaves of impulse, of the flesh, to an extent which no one dreams of until he begins the great task of becoming self-masterful. Truly, man has advanced but a little way. He is evolving. There is every reason to be hopeful. At the same time it is well to recognize what he must accomplish in order to free the soul.
It is difficult to say precisely the word which shall arouse this self revelation. This deeper consciousness is apt to begin when the mind really begins to philosophize, to inquire into the meaning of life. When people have won their freedom in some measure, they exclaim with suggestive emphasis, “What a slave I have been! How I have been ruled by fear, by ‘ the correct thing,’ by conventionality and tradition! And how disloyal to my true self, to the powers of creative thought!”
Sometimes the revelation begins with the discovery that one is sacrificing individuality to the dictates of another mind. Or, one learns that one’s appetites have been masters, not servants. Some discover it first in regard to religion: they find that all their lives they have believed, or tried to believe, in a man-like God whom they really hated, in a doctrine of salvation, sin, and a future state with which they really had no sympathy.
But this self-revelation is more apt to begin with the discovery of what a slave one has been to fear, and the discords and troubles which it invites. One is astonished to learn that one’s whole life has been hedged about by the fear of taking cold or catching some contagious disease, by fears in regard to certain articles of food, loss of property, accident, and the like. However the revelation begins, when once started, the soul makes a thorough investigation into all its habits, desires, beliefs, and impulses.
The discovery of the soul’s bondage is valuable from two points of view : it shows how our attitude, our thought or spirit, influences daily life and the body ; and it shows how, by taking thought, by building new habits, one may change the entire aspect of life, improve the health, increase one’s happiness and power of service.
In the foregoing chapter we have seen that all our activities are regulated by the discoveries and decisions of individual thought, governed by the law of cause and effect. And we have noted that to understand ourselves and our ills we must study them in the light of their origin, their relation to our mental attitudes.
Here is an opportunity to free the soul,—by understanding and mastering habit, then by evolving new habits which shall serve, not govern us.
How are habits formed? By first taking thought, through ideals, desires, fixed determinations.
The little child sees its elders walking and desires to imitate them. The entire lifelong habit of walking thus begins in the mental world, in a desire or attitude of mind.
The desire to walk is soon followed by efforts to imitate, by partial failure, repeated endeavor, and ultimate success.
Although the physical organism is adapted to walking, a certain amount of resistance must be overcome before the body begins to yield and respond. It is not enough simply to desire, to will or affirm. The body must be trained to respond to the mind. Once consciously put through the motions a sufficient number of times to make a lasting impression, to wear a channel in the brain, it acquires the habit, which is henceforth largely involuntary or subconscious.
This is a most important point. It is not sufficient simply to affirm that we will be true, or kind, or spiritual. We have the resistance of all our past, the inertia of custom and selfishness, to overcome. We must make an effort to realize the ideal—we must act, turn the current of life into a new channel. The process of action, like the effort to walk, is of course an application of power directed by thought and set free by will. But it is force which accomplishes that which thought has chosen.
For we have already noted that man is a center of forces. He is played upon by the forces of nature, by changes in the weather, by emotions, the influences, loves, hatreds, and winning powers of his fellows. The young man or woman who is infatuated, the sensitive man who is swayed by those who are stronger, and all who are won over by pressure in any of its forms, are mastered by power, by impulse or emotion, even before they are captivated by thought. The power of those lives which are inspired by the Spirit consists more in their attitude as centers of well-poised spiritual power than in their thought. For many have beautiful thoughts; many people inculcate beautiful theories whose lives are without influence. It is when the peace and love of God have entered the life, become the motive factors of one’s very existence, that they touch other lives, quickening and inspiring them, even though no word be spoken.
Thought is often superficial, insincere. It may pass by as a mere good intention, or as a procrastinating hope. It is action, conduct, that is fundamental. It is when we work, when we do something, that results are forthcoming.
The entire problem of self-mastery and the attainment of health, purity, and spirituality is therefore a question of understanding and wisely directing the forces that play upon us, or arise from within.
Suppose, for example, that I become aware of the fact that I am a slave to the habit of nervous hurry. I find myself rushing when I walk, plunging forward -when I talk, or eating my dinner as if I had but a few moments to live. I desire to live by the Spirit, and believe that I must begin by controlling the body.
I first send out my thought in this direction, I form the ideal. Then, realizing that it is not enough simply to think or to hold the ideal, I take myself in the very act of hurrying. I shut off steam, as it were, pause for a moment. By so doing, I store away energy. I take hold of myself, assume control of my forces where, before, they swept all before them.
I begin my new mode of life by taking each step consciously, at first; by speaking, walking, or writing very deliberately, by moving about so as to observe the law of economy in the expenditure of force.
In other words, I put my mind on what I am doing. I apply all the powers of thought, that I may discover the lines of least resistance, the method of working by which I shall not only do my work •well, but spend my energy to the best advantage, with the least friction and nervous tension.
When I have thus drilled myself — it requires much persistence and thought — I again permit my walking, speaking, or writing to become matter of habit: this time a poised, reposeful habit.
After a vigorous impulse has been given in the new direction, followed by constant vigilance and thought, the organism tends to obey the new habit.
This is a principle of incomparable value. Our entire life, so far as man has made it, is the product of ideals carried into action and made habitual. Consciously or unconsciously, man has raised himself to higher and higher planes by the power of his habitual thought and conduct. It is for us, if we will, to understand the process better, and so lift ourselves to a yet higher plane. Let us, therefore, examine the process still more minutely.
The child’s first desire to imitate its elders, when it sees them walking, is made effective and is regulated by the law of attention.
The mind attends where it is interested. All our mental discoveries begin in this way, all our moods are governed by this law. Our moods, thoughts, and emotions continue in mind only while the attention or interest is sufficient to hold them.
Attention may be compelled, it is true; for example, by violent emotion, by pain, or the influence of another mind. But, ordinarily, our states of mind are ruled by the attention which we shift or concentrate, at will. Therefore, in order to acquire a habit, we must begin by centering our attention or interest upon the ideal until it shall have made sufficient impression upon the organism to modify the life, to express itself in action.
At the same time, it is important to note that the subconscious mind, that part of us which lies below the threshold of our more active thoughts, tends to carry out the ideals or directions impressed upon it.
The child becomes aware of and clings to the desire to walk because his attention or interest is, for the time being, absorbed or centered upon one object. Interested attention is thus the starting point round which the forces of mind and body tend to gather, thence to carry out the bidding of the will.
That the persistence of interest is the secret is proved by the fact that we take great pains to win the attention of both young and old, and by the fact that we remember only what engages our attention. When the interest lags, we neither remember nor bear away any definite result. The instant one’s attention is turned from a painful sensation, the discomfort begins to decrease. The entire process of discovering what lies about us, when we philosophize, is first dependent upon what attracts our attention, then upon the continued interest it arouses when the objects about us have become subjects of thought.
If, as some affirm, we were merely living a life of thought, it would sufficient simply to think. But it is a jaw of life that, as action and reaction are equal, all things come through work, just as we take ourselves in the very act of rushing and compel the body to move moderately.
The will commands a greater force than the physical power and so performs its work. By taking thought, paying persistent attention, then making a move toward the object of our desire, just as the child starts to walk, we put the superior power in motion. It is thus that the mind rules the body. It is thus that thought is translated into deed.
Yet as great as is the power of will, our volitions become physically expressed only through evolution or gradual change. The will makes the choice and effort; it does not dictate the law of realization or growth.
The development of a habit is a growth, just as the plant grows from a seed. The ideal or desire corresponds to the seed. The will or volitional attention is the vitality which gives the ideal sufficient power to grow. The subconscious mind is the soil into which the ideal is sown when we dismiss it from consciousness and turn the attention elsewhere. The laws of growth, whereby the ideal subconsciously matures, are the principles of development in the universe at large.
Consequently, we must have patience, remembering that there is resistance to be overcome, that the physical organism responds more slowly than the mind.
If the process seems long, if regeneration ensues, remember the law. Do not misunderstand the processes of transformation by which the lower nature is evolved or transmuted into the higher.
Trust the subconscious mind. Hold firm in your faith, and think not so much of the process as of the outcome. For it is primarily our thoughts that make us, our ideals, the spirit or mental attitude in which we approach the world.
CHAPTER III
THE SECRET
IN the light of the foregoing chapter, it is clear that if man Is to control his forces, attain self-mastery, and live by the Spirit, he must cultivate the habit of repose. There must be a calm center, a peaceful point of view, where he may take his stand, discriminate between lower and higher promptings, and rule all impulses and influences.
It is because we have no point of resistance that we are swept on by the nervous, hurrying stream. We have not found our center. We know not what it is to pause and meditate. We are unaware of the value of spiritual peace.
It needs no argument, however, to show the power of inward repose. A moment’s thought assures us of the superiority of the man of reserve power.
It is possible for everyone to develop a deep center of spiritual reserve. We have noted that simply to pause for a moment, and let the rushing tide of forces surge on without us, is to increase our store.
By holding still at the center, there is much less expenditure of energy. One immediately feels the power accumulating. There is a quick response in the nerves and in the circulation, particularly if the tension is very great when the process begins. The body has opportunity to enjoy its life before the life is exhausted. There is assimilation of power instead of a wasting of it.
This physical response is the result of a calm, commanding thought, such as, “Peace, be still!” The repose begins within and works outward. It is first spiritual, then physical.
One may cultivate the habit of repose by pausing many times a day, in the midst of the greatest activity. After a time this inner repose will affect the entire life.
The voice will be fuller and richer. The breathing will be deeper, and the body generally stronger.
But my chief reason for emphasizing the need of this deep center of reserve and poise, is its value as the starting-point of greater spiritual attainments. When one has gained control of the lower nature, established new habits, and found this deep center, there will be an instinctive tendency to seek it whenever any new experience arises. One will pause to ask, What is wisest? Shall I obey this prompting or disregard it? What is the higher law? What says the Spirit? And so one will learn from practical experience that the soul can master anything, even passion and selfishness, and the greatest pressure brought to bear upon us by dominating minds. For no power can resist the Spirit. ” In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
Selfishness is largely an impulse or habit, which we follow ignorantly through absence of self-control. We are selfish because of lack of thought. If we have repose we will think.
By the development of self dominion and a more acute self scrutiny, we may seize in the bud all that is unholy and selfish, and turn the thought into a purer direction.
When the first prompting comes, pause and examine—not with morbid conscientiousness, but in the light of the highest ideals of the Spirit. Remember that ideas have life, that they grow in proportion as we give them our attention or volitional assent. Therefore one must be ever on the alert.
All states of mind are readily controlled if seized in their inceptive stages. The tiny seed or tendril is easily crushed; it is the tree that is hard to fell.
The moment a selfish moving seizes the mind, give the impulse another turn. If a fear arises, face it on the spot and dispel it. If you are tempted to be angry, pause for a moment and still the rising activities.
Deal in the same way with impatience, the tendency to be annoyed, resentful, discouraged, or depressed. Remember that if you spare yourself these useless expenditures of force, you husband and increase your energy. For our greater power comes through victory, transmutation.
Another way to arrest wrong states of mind and harmful expenditures of force, is suggested by the fact that all emotional states which shut one into self produce distressing results. Desirable states of mind are expansive, outgoing, uplifting, hopeful. Morbid and depressing states are always caused or accompanied by an ingoing thought of self.
The control of our ingoing states and the cultivation of the outgoing, or, in other words, the development of optimism instead of pessimism, is therefore one of the secrets of progress, and our knowledge of these contrasted states must be so acute that we shall readily detect the difference. On the positive, outgoing side are to be classed all the virtues, trust, patience, hope, love, service, the search for the good, and the doing of good.
To the ingoing half belong all our petty annoyances, our servitudes, cares, fears, anxieties, our painful consciousness of self, our despondency, want of balance, and restlessness.
When the mind is in the outgoing attitude, we are balanced, poised, adjusted to the forward pulse of life.
The attitude of self is fundamental. All is traceable to that. All may be regulated by that.
Therefore, seek first poise, the spiritual center, that you may have the power to reverse the machinery each time the mind is turned in the wrong direction. All else shall follow from this. This is the kingdom of heaven or spiritual power, the home of creative thought, where the real master resides.
Remember that you are first of all a spiritual being, a soul. The mind is only the instrument of expression by which you manifest Living by yourself through the body. The mind is not you, the body is not you. These reveal you and reveal the world to you. Therefore, think within yourself until you find yourself a living soul.
Remember that our life is ultimately regulated by our highest thought; therefore trust while the outer is becoming adjusted to the inner.
Remember that this highest thought is strengthened by the will we put into it, the attention we give it, and the activity which is inspired by it.
If you know not what to do, pause and wait, in silence, in peace and confidence. The higher prompting makes itself known when there is receptivity, when the attention is less absorbed in the cares and sensations of daily life. For it is clear that if one is to realize the full significance of these calm moments of receptivity, if one is to sound the depths of spiritual repose, one must advance far beyond mere self-examination or repose in self.
Mere self-study, or introspection, like the old theology, is gloomy, depressing: spiritual meditation of the right sort is joyful, uplifting, outgoing ; it is soul communion in the kingdom of the omnipresent Spirit, the heaven of peace, of divine love and beauty.
If you find this world of peace and love, where all souls are equal, you will be free, you will rise above your mere self, and look down upon it as it were from the loftier height of spiritual intuition. Moreover, you will feel a spirit of reverence, of worship, of calm humility. You will look up as if to receive the divine blessing, then bow your head in thankfulness that all this joy, this beauty, this peace is for you.
This it is to feel the divine presence, this it is to possess, to be comforted and inspired by, the thing itself, the reality, as opposed to mere theories, mere talk about it. You may know that you really feel what I am but half describing when you are conscious of this change of attitude resulting from actual contact with the superior presence.
Again, this experience in the silence is illustrated by the restful solitude of nature. Sometimes, after cue has left the last clearing, where all railroads, towns, and houses are miles away, one discovers a region in the forest where one may “hear the silence.” This is the sort of solitude I mean, when one really lives with nature.
Can one attain such solitude amid the complexities of a great city? In a measure, yes. One could not enjoy it in the forest unless one had attained it within. When seeking it in the city, therefore, command the same attitude of listening enjoyment which invites it in the forest.
Observe for a time, without thinking. A forgotten duty occurs to mind. Decide when you will fulfill it, and dismiss it. An unpleasant sensation intrudes. Regard it with serenity and let it enjoy itself, alone, in the outskirts of your consciousness.
If the nerves are tense in some portion of your body, remove the tension by reclining easily, restfully; saying to yourself, “Peace, be still!”
If noises from -without disturb you, hear them without being disturbed.
We should not expect to attain serenity in a moment. When one seeks it in downright earnestness, one is astonished at the number of obstacles that must be removed.
What a strained, nervous, hurrying, intense life we lead! And what profits it all? Why not eliminate a thousand fears, anxieties, plans, conceits, and undertakings pursued for pride’s sake only, and live happier with the rest?
Half the people one meets in society seem to confess by the way they live that the day is arranged to avoid the ennui of existence, ‘yet is made the greater bore by the mere endeavor to escape from its real meaning.
It is no wonder that under such conditions people find it difficult to realize the simplicity of the Spirit. Only a certain amount of time is apportioned to spiritual thought, and the consciousness that the meditation must end at an appointed time is of itself sufficient to defeat the object.
But let us suppose that, after many trials, you and I have really entered the silent primitive forest, and found such stillness that we are as unconcerned as a child at play.
Why not play occasionally? Why this dread seriousness and sense of old age? Is there anything undignified in drawing figures on the sand, cutting new channels for a tiny stream, or making men out of snow?
This innocence, unconcern, spontaneity, youthfulness, is another name for the solitude of which I speak. It is the return to nature, the process of recreation or renewal.
When one steps into the solitude one passes from time to eternity, where there is no age, neither beginning nor ending, sorrow nor strife—simply existence, peaceful, restful, calm, and free.
Therefore, the starting-point is serenity. As you sit there by the window of life, let no wrinkle furrow your brow. Calmly observe, though before your mind should pass sensations of the most intensely discomforting nature. Wait, with the patience of one who is content to let Nature complete her task though it require a million years.
What profits all this despondency, fear, anxiety, condemnation, and complaint?
Ask what Nature is trying to do, how she is setting about to accomplish it, and what she is likely to encounter ere her ideal be realized.
Settle yourself into an easy, peaceful adjustment to the creative rhythm, the march of events, the flow of time.
Half our aches and pains are due to our opposition to Nature’s remedial power.
The other half are due to excess, fear, and nervousness.
What peace falls upon us, how the soul is soothed, as we penetrate farther into the spiritual solitude, breathing the fresh, invigorating atmosphere of the world that never ages feeling the thrill of the heart that never grows old!
What beauty resides at the center of things, what order, system! While the great machinery of life goes on throughout the vast sphere, here at the starting-point of all is peace, here unending harmony abides, a repose which no calamity can disturb. Storms may blow, terrible accidents may happen, wars may be fought, and earthquakes shake the face of things. But still the universe moves forward, the pulse of life never stops, the center remains unhurt.
What a lesson this discovery teaches us, what a possibility it suggests—the regulation of our lives as the life of the universe is regulated.
Here, surely, is the essence of practical wisdom, the secret of all evolution into the spiritual life. To the degree that one attains this poise one may be oblivious of the processes of growth. For this spiritual self-mastery is itself the habit, the outgoing attitude, the freedom, the economy of motion and concentration which we have been considering. All these are means to this one end which, when attained, itself becomes a means to the higher end whose ideals the Spirit knows. It is centrality, unity, consistency. It is harmony, love, power, the silence of the primitive forest regained, the recovery of spontaneity, the genuine and complete dedication of self to the purposes of God.
CHAPTER IV
THE DISCOVERY
A GRAND discovery awaits the mind when it realizes the full significance of the principles which we have considered in the preceding chapters. The law whereby we control and direct our forces from within is the law of evolution in the universe at large, the method by which the entire world was made. All growth springs from the indwelling life, at first active at a point, in the center or seed, then expanding to the circumference. It is the invisible involution, or creative energy of the higher Power, which causes the visible evolution, or progressive growth.
Thus the growth of our ideas through the various stages of thought, choice, effort.and physical expression, gives the clue to world growth and universal evolution.
The part played by our decisive thought corresponds to the creative activity of the supreme Spirit. The mind first gathers itself at a point. Like the child observing its elders walking and talking, the mind seizes upon an idea which it desires to realize. It becomes interested, absorbed, it pays attention, concentrates or focuses upon a single thought; then issues the half subconscious command: Let this be realized. The external expression bears the image and likeness of the creative thought The mind declares the result “good ” or “bad,” according to the degree of spiritual consciousness it has attained.
If our standards are high, if we have attained some measure of inner peace and poise, the thought is freighted with a calmer and therefore greater power. It carries, it is effective, in proportion to its life. It is doubly powerful if it carries the Spirit with it, if it is a thought of love, outgoing and unselfish.
The discovery that our powers of thought are powers of universal evolution naturally brings with it a heightened sense of responsibility, the realization that a tremendous opportunity is put before us.
It appeals to the mind with new emphasis that as we sow, we reap; that by taking thought, and possessing sufficient self-control, we may turn all our activities from the disease-making, selfish direction to the health-bringing, altruistic direction.
All evolution, that is, all growth, has proceeded by this same law— the gradual change from lower to higher, from selfish to unselfish. The changes which are even now taking place in your mind and mine, in your life and mine, are as important as the processes whereby the entire physical world was created.
Creation means gradual transformation from lower to higher. It proceeds by almost insensible degrees, as the immanent Spirit moves upon it from within.
This discovery brings new insight into the meaning of life.
The purpose of our existence is evidently spiritual perfection, the attainment of the beautiful, exalted life of the Christ. We are not always to be creatures of habit, and the flesh. We are to be masters, creators, Men.
It was not without purpose that we were left in ignorance and darkness, to struggle and suffer, to learn the laws of life by disobedience to them, as the child discovers the painful nature of fire by burning its hand. For it is only by personal experience that we know, only through contest that we grow strong, only through contact with passion, hatred, and selfishness that we learn by contrast the beauty of tenderness, and the unselfish devotion of the Christ.
All these experiences have a meaning. All these lower planes, where we were immersed in ignorance, with all the pain and sorrow which ignorance involves, all the wrong-doing and animalism, are secondary, evolutionary. It is on these planes that we store away experience, accumulate material for thought and the growth of character.
When we begin to think, to search for laws, causes, origins; when the spiritual awakening comes, we turn all this to account: the lower furnishes the stimulus, the motive power which lifts us to the higher plane.
Then life ceases in a measure to be a mystery, and becomes a science, an art. For we learn that life is largely what we make it, that it is mathematically exact, and if we would alter it we must first change ourselves, change our habits and our thought.
Henceforth, one ideal is foremost — the development of the soul. We seek, above all, to express the spiritual nature, to attain peace and manifest love — love to all creatures, to all mankind. All the energy once spent in bitterness of thought, in jealousy, anger, fault-finding, and condemnation, is lifted to the higher plane, and sent forth as hope, trust, confidence, sympathy, and good fellowship.
One learns that all men are, in deepest truth, engaged in the same great work — the search for and development of spiritual peace and freedom. They may not know it. But the Spirit is present with every soul, perfecting it. It is for us who are in some measure enlightened to help our fellow-souls to come to consciousness of the deep spiritual significance of life.
And so this great discovery in regard to the law of evolution leads to the greater truth, that the entire universe of beings and things is one system. It is not a scene of strife, where we are liable to be attacked by hostile beings or forces. There is no devil. There is no ultimate, independent power of evil. Evil is not an objective reality. There is one beneficent law, one universal creative Spirit, whose progressively revealed life includes all forms, all beings, all forces and tendencies.
No man is wholly perverse or depraved. No man is without a soul, struggling for freedom. The Spirit is never absent, even from those whom we deem most wicked.
The power behind all passion is good. It is only the thought, the use or direction of it, which is wrong. The force that creates our diseases is beneficent; it is our manner of life, our ignorant opposition to it, which misdirects it and causes suffering.
Thus all our misery, all our pain, is traceable to ignorance and misuse of our forces. Enlightenment is the sovereign cure alike for physical and for moral ills.
No man would do wrong if he understood his real nature as a spiritual agent. It is short-sightedness, lack of thought, ignorance of the law of cause and effect, more than perversity, which causes wrongdoing in the world.
Therefore, there should be no condemnation; only charity, sympathy, helpfulness.
The real tendency of things is to work together for good. Only the ignorant man condemns the universe, or complains that God is unjust and cruel. The wise man knows that he has only himself to blame.
The forces of the universe will bring health and peace when we are harmoniously adjusted to them. Disease and evil are ill-adjustments to the creative life. They are removed in so far as each individual understands their origin, awakens to a knowledge of law, and begins to co-operate instead of to oppose.
It is adjustment that we need, above all, — understanding, self control, and adjustment. Not affirmation, not self-assertion, or the attempt to force things to go our way, but the question, Whither is evolution tending? What is the divine creative purpose? What saith the Spirit?
This is a hard lesson for the willful, the self-conceited, and the selfish to learn.
There are many in these days who have learned just enough about the power of individual thought to send out demands or claims for personal wealth and power. They try to influence certain minds to bestow gifts. They try to build their own thought world from within.
Their life is a continual self-affirmation.
But all this is a deviation. There is nothing spiritual in it.
The truly spiritual life begins when one asks, in profound humility, What wilt Thou? What is Thy will, O Spirit, to whom I owe all that I am, whose purpose for me includes all that I need, whose love is ever ready to sustain and perfect, whose presence I have so long opposed and ignored?
Is not this the attitude of the Christ soul?
The Christ soul seeks to harmonize its will with the immanent will of the Father, with the forces of the universe which make for beauty, love, and the freedom of the soul. In this spirit one should approach every experience in life, seeking its underlying law of harmony and love. Thus shall every experience bring health and freedom, not for self alone, but for humanity; for the Christ law is social as well as universal.
Here is the simplicity of life, its deepest purpose and essence. The Father sends himself out in creative activity, forming worlds, physical beings, souls. He adapts all things so that they shall ultimately manifest love, beauty, justice, so that social perfection and harmony shall be attained. Consequently, the relation of means to ends is far reaching, so broad and deep that the majority of men, mistaking the creative purpose, complain and rebel.
But ever on and on the advancing Love moves within and upon us, uplifting, sustaining, perfecting. It pauses not, nor sleeps. It ever watches and guards. Our part is to become acquainted with its presence; and so, dwelling with it, to withdraw all opposition, and be faithful in the least and the greatest to its guidance.
CHAPTER V
The Law
IT is clear that, if one is to apply the law of the Spirit in all details of daily life, there must be a radical change in one’s methods and standards. Ordinarily, man is swayed by many standards, financial principles, rules of etiquette, personal interests, and the like. Some care most for material things, some for ideas, for the ideals of science and art. There is little consistency, and consequently almost no simplicity, of conduct.
In the spiritual life, however, one standard rules, and all problems are to be settled by reference to that. The soul must dedicate itself unqualifiedly to the life of the Spirit, seek that first and last. Just as, in the earlier stages of one’s development, all experiences are to be understood in relation to the individual, so now all are to be regulated in the light of the inspirations of the Spirit. If outer circumstances must be disregarded, if the change means the withdrawal of manifold personal interests and relationships, the neglect of many social demands —let it be so. Seek first the kingdom of the Spirit and let all these be added in the light of their importance when judged by the spiritual law.
But do not seek the kingdom for the sake of the things which shall be added unto you. Seek it as an end in itself, though fidelity to it seems to involve the surrendering of all that is most dear.
The Spirit will see to it that you are clothed and fed. You will not lack friends or congenial surroundings. All this will be given back glorified, if you take the great step which many find so hard,—if you trust the Spirit, if you deny yourself.
Genuine spirituality is not only true simplicity, it is practical, warm, loving, tender, and social. It is not exclusive, but inclusive.
The spiritual grows up through the common, lifting and purifying it forever more. It is already here, latent, resident in the common, awaiting our recognition. It will attain fullness and beauty of outward expression if, like the seed which attains maturity, it is placed in the proper environment.
Consequently one’s thought should be centered on the ideal outcome, even though this trust be literally like a step in the dark. This trust, this love or equanimity, amidst the surging play of apparently fatal circumstances, is one of the prices demanded of all who would attain the highest spiritual level.
If one sees the end, has a spiritual conviction, the means will be forthcoming.
When one seeks to do the work of the universe, the conditions are wholly favorable, although they may not at first seem so. The Spirit never forgets, it never fails to provide. Its purposes are wholly spiritual. The entire creative scheme is founded with this object in view.
The spiritual life, with the opportunities it involves and the inspirations it brings, is never due to one’s self alone. It is some part of the universal plan, the conditions of which have place in the nature of things. One’s faith is therefore founded on reason, upon knowledge of the laws of the universe.
For example, it is the will of the universe that all should attain health. Evolution is ever working for it. Its agents are both physically and mentally present with each of us. If we recognize these powers, instead of attributing the pains of growth to the activity of some hostile power, if we perceive the inner tendency and harmonize our organism with it, all things must follow, and we shall be guided in regard to the attainment of health in particular details.
When, for instance, the nervous man strikes at the root of all his ailments—his headaches, depressed states of mind, indigestion, heart trouble, and the rest—by cultivating inward repose, he is taking the shortest road to the reformation of his entire life.
Inward repose must transform the outer life; no power can stop it.
To work upon or doctor external effects without altering the inner habit which lies at the basis of them, is mere waste of force.
To become involved in the sensation-process, to suppress or resist one’s forces, is to show ignorance of the law. It is wise use, not suppression, that conquers. It is first inward change, then outward correspondence.
The Spirit is the essential—to feel that, think of that, trust in that, then grant it freedom to do its work.
No cure of any evil or disease is permanent which fails to remove its deepest cause. If we remove the cause, the effect will cease without assistance on our part.
The highway to all reform is, therefore, the line of least resistance whose vantage-point is within.
If you follow external methods, use force and mental pressure, you will call out force in return.
Every man responds according to the spirit in which he is approached.
Anything you may say or do to call out the best in a man, his love and sympathy, will result in external good, though you have said nothing about the way he treats his servants, his disregard of the poor, or his attitude in regard to the private monopoly of land.
It is when the soul is touched that the outer life responds.
All the social problems center about the inner or spiritual world. It is there that the egoist, the monopolist, and the oppressor must come to consciousness and understand.
For, remember, all real growth is from within outward; it begins by taking thought. All real growth is governed by one law, the law of spiritual evolution.
The inner man is the commander. It is he who utters the decisive word, he who assents or resists, he who Hates or loves. Consequently, all spiritual development begins with the conscious individual effort, with the choice of the spiritual ideal.
Belief does not accomplish the purpose. No acceptance of creed or dogma—not even the doctrine that Jesus died for us—can take the place of the soul’s own change of attitude, the persistent determination and self-denial required to attain the spiritual goal.
Therefore concentrate upon this ideal, and remember that it is an inclusive, social ideal, not a law which applies to one’s self only.
Attribute to men the highest motives. Consider the difficulties of attaining spiritual freedom, and take these into account in all your relations with men.
Hold up the ideal which you would see your associates realize. Do not be impatient if they fail to change externally as soon as you wish. It is only the Spirit that knows the fitness of time.
It is impossible to practice this purely spiritual method if one is living for self. Personal preference must be as unknown as all impatience and personal influence through pressure.
He who seeks to rule his fellows should not expect to be served by the higher law. He who tries to manage brother or sister, wife or child, is spending his force against, not for, the Spirit. It is not for us either to dictate or to govern.
The dominating mind stands in its own light as surely as does the self-conceited.
Not self-assurance, but receptive humility, is the door to spiritual knowledge and power.
One may win apparent success by bringing one’s self forward, by judicious advertising, by the use of money or flattery. One may win it by policy or strategy. For the world is easily deceived. Very few possess discernment. The false Christ deceives even the elect. The borrower is accepted as an original genius, while the great man is temporarily neglected.
But all this is for a season. It is superficial and selfish. All the people are not to be deceived all the time.
In the end merit tells, as well as honesty, fidelity, humility. The man who has been silently and faithfully working shall have due recognition. He may have long to wait. It is sometimes years before our ideals are realized. But patience, patience! It is not our part to look for results, but to be loyal to the Spirit.
Of what value is a purchased success when compared with the success which the Spirit brings, in the fullness of time?
If you do not yet believe in the adequacy of the Spirit, that all depends on your motive, your spirit or love, obey the lower law for a while longer. Seek things for yourself. Make money. Use personal influence and pressure. When someone injures you, become righteously indignant. Stand up for your rights. Condemn, criticize, and hold yourself up as a model of virtue, exacting of others that they attain and obey your standard. Seek possessions instead of the Spirit. Then examine the results and compare them.
The Spirit is not content with half-heartedness. It asks us to give all. If we give all, we receive all. It is therefore -well to experiment long enough to be convinced of the universality and superiority of the higher law.
Again and again we think we have dedicated ourselves to the Spirit, but discover that there has been an admixture of personal desire or interest. If the motive is mixed,—if the desire is partly for the Spirit and partly for self, if mercenary motives have entered in,—the result will be mixed. For action and reaction are unflinchingly equal.
Thus we learn through our failures the inexorableness of the spiritual law. If the least atom of envy, jealously, hatred, or self interest be present, the outcome will be modified in that exact proportion. No one can escape it. No one can by pressure or the use of money purchase a pure result. Just as surely as an undesirable element mars an experiment in chemistry, so surely are our spiritual endeavors defeated by all foreign admixtures.
The temptation to become impatient and use compulsion or external pressure is very great. But it is all misspent energy. Only the Spirit knows the direct way.
When we fail, we learn that we must have greater trust, more poise. The spiritual life is not like a garment, which may be put on for occasions, not a mood which we work ourselves into for the sake of talking “beautifully,” or making a prayer. It is and must become a habit of life. Every moment should be inspired by a deep consciousness of the Spirit. It is a life of uncompromising consecration to the highest ideals of love and service.
When we fail, we must recall the method of childhood. There must first be desire, earnest, unfaltering, determined desire. Then one must consciously try, as the child learns to walk, until the organism is trained so that the spiritual life is expressed spontaneously.
There is a faculty within us through which the Spirit is directly perceived. To the degree in which we exercise that, the life will grow in the consciousness and power of the Spirit. Therefore seek its development above all else. Commend your spiritual desires to the Father through the exercise of this faculty, then patiently wait. Everything, literally everything, will be provided—if your trust is perfect.
As you sow in the inner world, you will reap in the outer. The law is perfect, beneficent, eternal. Every man shall receive in exact proportion to his desire, his trust, and his love.
CHAPTER VI
Spirit
THE greatest truth of human existence is the fact that God lives with us. All spiritual philosophy starts with this truth. All true religion is founded upon it. No argument is needed in these days to show that it is in every sense the substitute for the lifeless formulas of the old theology.
Yet, easy as it is to convince the modern mind that God dwells with us, it is one thing to convince the intellect, — to show that God is the resident or immanent cause of evolution, — and quite another to show how this truth of truths is to become the basis of practical life.
The difficulty is that we fail to realize the significance of this great truth in detail. The thought is quickly grasped that God is everywhere present, that he is all goodness, wisdom, and love, the abiding source of all life. But this is too general. It does not bring him near enough.
Furthermore, the term “God ” is still associated in many minds with the conception of a great man or power outside of the universe, beyond the grasp of our human life.
The term “Spirit” overcomes some of these difficulties, and suggests the living, practical presence, wisdom, or love, since it is not thought of as excluded by physical forms or limited to a particular organism, but as the indwelling life of them all.
The Spirit may therefore be defined as the invisible Being, Life, Power, which enters and manifests itself through us wherever it finds recognition, receptivity, and conscious co-operation. It is the one, eternal reality, the source of all, the sustainer of all that exists. From it have come all worlds, all forces, forms, and beings. In its presence all beings and things, all worlds and souls, abide.
It is the permanent that abides through the transient, yet is permanent only because it ever sends itself forth in newness of life, in perennial manifestation.
It is the power which holds all worlds, all atoms, and beings together in one system, the source of the law and order, the goodness, the central purpose, of the universe. It is beyond all forms, yet is their cause and life. It is beyond all words; yet, in naming its attributes, we name it, the indefinable. It is love, peace, goodness, wisdom, gentleness, and so is known to man wherever these qualities are revealed.
We know the Spirit as it passes into manifestation. We know it, above all, as life, as the life of nature and of ourselves. We know it as we attain goodness and wisdom, peace, poise, unselfishness, and love. We know it as the Father.
In its noblest manifestation it is personal, in intimate relation with every living soul. It should not be conceived as in any sense separate from us. It is our own density or ignorance which causes the sense of separation. For it is like light, ever waiting to shine through.
From the practical point of view the Spirit should therefore be regarded as we consider the air we breathe; that is, as immediately surrounding the soul and, like the atmosphere, adequate to meet all our demands.
Not only this: the Spirit interpenetrates and animates in a sense in which the atmosphere does not, nor any atmosphere or gas, nor the finest vibrations of light or heat, the most rapid activity of ether or thought. The Spirit is within and around these. It is not only their source, but it holds them, it owns and masters them. Consequently, the most tightly shut door in the most infinitesimal atom would not be proof against the Spirit.
No activity, whether of an atom or the radiation of energy from a sun, can pass beyond it. It is the inmost of substance, the heart of force, the life of form, the essence of motion, at once the center and circumference of the universe.
As the plant is environed by and draws energy from the sun, at need and according to capacity, so the heart and mind of man absorb and assimilate wisdom, love, and beauty from the illuminations of the Spirit.
When the soul rises above itself and speaks better than it knows, the Spirit is there. When love becomes unselfish, and the peace which follows struggle comforts the soul, it is then that the Spirit speaketh.
It is this which enters to sustain and feed the soul when, hungry and disconsolate and weak in itself, it cries out in anguish for the Father’s love. No soul strives and searches and loves without the Father. Though we deny and doubt him, he is ever here, present in our speculations, near to our hearts even when we spurn him.
He may not concern himself with our thoughts or know them as we regard them; but they are, in reality, activities within his total life, in the same way that the least and the greatest manifestations of physical force are encompassed by the Spirit.
The moral law is of the Spirit. No ethical decision is made without the Father. Not that the decision is his, not that there is no finite power of reasoning; for I am not advocating the theory that all this universe is simply and solely the one Spirit. The universe is rather the manifestation of Spirit, the embodiment or language. Its full glory is seen, not when we deem God, nature, and the soul one and the same, but when we regard nature and the soul as produced by and revealing the Spirit of God.
In like manner, individual souls are truly appreciated when we recognize both their difference and their likeness, their special genius, and their kinship with God. Each of us is individual, as we have repeatedly noted in the foregoing chapters. Each of us possesses a separate organ of consciousness, a distinct will, and an independent power of action.
That this is the fact of life, we know perfectly from individual experience; for all our experiences prove intelligible only in relation to the individual who owns and evolves through them.
We find further evidence of this in our freedom of will, our power of choice or liberty to pursue the selfish course, indefinitely to postpone the day of righteousness.
The Spirit is not aggressive. It does not force itself in nor compel assent. It is silent, moderate, faithful. It never deserts us, yet it never interferes.
In moments of half-unconsciousness of its presence the peace and love of the Spirit enter the soul. In due time we consciously recognize its illuminations, and so learn its law, so learn that the Spirit is never wholly absent from us.
Thus we learn to turn to divine account all the powers and faculties which we formerly regarded as belonging solely to ourselves.
In awaiting and studying the manifestations of the Spirit, the mind applies the same methods and obeys the same laws which have governed its growth from infancy to maturity.
The prime essential is habitual receptivity, the training of our organisms to note and to make the most of the presence of the Spirit. It is literally “the practice of the presence of God,” as a devoted soul puts it, the setting aside of a part of our nature for the conscious observation and manifestation of the Spirit.
It must be matter of habit to turn first to the Spirit for guidance, for information on any point. There must be a deep undercurrent of thought, ready to well up into consciousness the moment the Spirit is there.
The Spirit knows the way. It will lead us to those whom we can help, to new friends, new opportunities, greater truth. It is adequate, it is abundant, it is loyal and constant
The discovery of the Spirit’s presence is like the study of our fellow-beings and the contemplation of nature, as we sit by the window, wondering and philosophizing. Life is ever before us; it is for us to discover its meaning and beauty. All that we would know and possess is here; it is for us to awaken to knowledge of its laws and purposes.
We are by nature constituted to reveal the Spirit. It is only ignorance, not an insurmountable barrier, that keeps it away.
When we meditate, or find the peace and repose of the primitive forest, we are preparing to receive the Spirit. The best of all methods of acquiring self-control, inward peace and poise, is the concentration of thought upon the perpetual presence of the Spirit.
Let every thought lead you to a new sense of oneness with the Spirit. Let every moment be inspired by the consciousness that it is not you alone, not your own power and virtue, that accomplishes and builds and perfects; it is the Spirit that worketh in you.
Let this thought so fill you that it shall remove all sentiments of personal credit, all jealousy, envy, distrust, and discontent. There is no room for these, when the consciousness of the Spirit is there.
Instead, all life becomes a divine poem, a symphony whose harmonies give boundless delight to the soul.
Thus every atom is thought of as an agent of divine expression. Every moment is known to be a fresh revelation of God. Every faculty of one’s being is made an avenue through which the Spirit may round out and beautify one’s life.
Peace, be still! and know the Spirit. Become inwardly calm, restful, trustful. Open out in thoughts of hope and thanksgiving. Rejoice that the Spirit is here.
CHAPTER VII
The Ideal
IT is clear that, to co-operate with the Spirit, we must know what it is seeking to accomplish through us.
In the highest sense, as we have already noted, the Spirit is seeking to perfect the soul, to exalt character until it shall not merely glorify the individual life, but ennoble all humanity through the rearing of an ideal social state, through service, through brotherhood, and the home.
Yet many still conceive of the spiritual ideal as a kind of supernal life, visionary, vague, and impractical.
Is it necessarily so?
Should one who lives by the Spirit be one-sided, self-centered, or ascetic?
If not, there must be a broader, healthier ideal, a mode of life in which one is true to all the planes of being on which the Spirit manifests itself.
For all life in the profoundest sense is spiritual. The Spirit is the only ultimate reality, the only cause, the only Creator.
It is only when we mistake the cause, or regard matter as an end or power in itself, that materialism triumphs.
The flesh is not degraded in itself. Our passions (be it repeated and remembered) are inherently good. But the flesh is put in right relations only when viewed in the light of the Spirit, when we ask ourselves, What is its divine place? How can it become a temple of the living God?
What, then, is the divine ideal, not as man states it, but as the whole broad universe reveals it? It is unquestionably beauty.
As one looks forth over the face of nature in search of a clue to the method of the Spirit, one is everywhere inspired by the presence of beauty. Other purposes doubtless led to the production of the universe. Other laws are involved in its constitution. But without beauty the universe could not be. This dependence of all things upon beauty is well suggested by the Greek word Kosmos, which signifies not merely the universe, but the world-system, — law, order, beauty. It is in this comprehensive sense, as a universal law, that I shall use the word in this chapter.
Beauty having been defined as at once an ideal and an ultimate, necessary part of the universe, we find that it fulfills a twofold purpose in life. Each moment reposes in beauty, possesses a value of its own; it also suggests the nobler ideal toward which life as a whole is aspiring. We are to be satisfied, delighted, by passing forms and accomplishments; yet we should be contented only through progress to the greater beauty beyond. Thus the law of beauty is intimately related to the law of evolution. To know beauty in its fullest sense, we must know it as the totality of advancing life reveals it. To know it in its profoundest sense, we must know it as the beauty of the Spirit.
The constitution of the universe, seen from this general point of view, is variety in unity. The world is not founded in mere sameness or bare monotony. It is not to be absorbed in a severely simple and therefore ugly Absolute. It is compounded of infinite parts. It fulfils numberless purposes or ends. The power that carries it forward is infinitely rich in character. We have arrived at this conclusion in our interpretation of Spirit: the Spirit is beautiful, not because it is alone, because it is all that exists; but because it is manifested through an infinite number of souls, forms, species, and worlds; because of its fatherhood.
Consequently, human life is to be understood in relation to this universal ideal of beauty in unity. Just as no organ or portion of the body is sufficient in itself, but is useful or beautiful in relation, so no phase of daily existence may be singled out as an end in itself. It is impossible to select any factor or ideal as adequate without its related factors and. ideals. Thought is incomplete without action. We do not exist for pleasure only; yet pleasure is essential to the beautiful, it is necessary to the useful life. We were not born to work merely, yet nothing is nobler than work. Individuality is a necessary characteristic of the ideal man, but it is not beautiful by itself. Art is highly valuable; yet it is fortunately compelled to be practical, in order to subsist in this practical world. Thus one might pass in review all the ideals and vocations of life, finding them one and all necessary, but dependent, related, secondary, or contributory.
When we turn from a consideration of life in general to the character and constitution of man, we find the same great law exemplified. Mau is a physical, an intellectual, a moral, social, and spiritual being; and you will not find him well balanced unless he is giving attention to all these planes of life. One need only point to this age of specialists to prove the inadequacy of a single pursuit. Obviously, we are still unfinished in our development. The great Artist is at work upon us. His law is the law of beauty amid unity. His method is the appeal to all our instincts, — the instinct for the good, the beautiful, the healthy, the true, the happy. Wherever we are one-sided, we are subjected to the creative power. Wherever we are receptive or have come to consciousness, we may receive help from the evolutionary beauty, and so round out our organisms.
The meaning of pain, the heart of desire, the significance of all our restlessness, is the prompting of this great evolutionary instinct for the beautiful. When we are ill, when we have lost our poise, when we are in sorrow, the great heart of Nature is opened; and she seeks to restore harmony.
Harmony is beauty. Poise is beauty. Happiness and health are beauty. But they are of the composite character of variety in unity. They are to be attained only when we become acquainted with their constituents, and seek them not as mere ends in themselves, but as dependent and contributory.
For example, health is not perfect if merely physical. It must be conscious; that is, it must be based on self-knowledge. But self knowledge, as we have noted, must be followed by self-control, and self-control is in turn both moral and spiritual. It means the understanding, mastery, and mutual adjustment of all our forces. He is sound who has attained organic beauty, and an organism is the harmonious co-operation of many well-adjusted parts.
Thus the problem of beauty is for the ages to solve. The first step is the realization that the Spirit is making for beauty, that it is imminent in us, and that we can co-operate with it. The second essential is the knowledge that the Power that makes for beauty has chosen the infinitely varied, many-sided ideal of the universe at large. The general task in hand, our problem reduces itself to the search for beauty in minute detail.
Every discord may be regarded as a part of this great endeavor to adjust one’s self to the beauty of the universe. To live by the Spirit is to love and realize this ideal.
When we meet annoyances good naturedly, we have made a beginning. To accept adverse criticism in the right spirit or to be helped rather than to be down cast by misfortune is to manifest the same beauty. Beauty is peace, beauty is love. Sympathy and devotion are beautiful. And he who attains these realizes in some measure the great law.
Thus the contemplation of life from the point of view of hope, optimism, is the discovery of the beauty which reigns at the heart of things. He who is despondent, pessimistic, has not yet reached the plane of this broad vision. There is something ugly in him which he has not yet overcome. Consequently, he reads his own state of mind or body into the universe. But when we begin to put off fear, worriment, nervousness, ill-will, complaint, despair, by making ourselves physically and mentally beautiful, we begin to see things as they are, to recognize that they are wrought into an environment of beauty.
The supreme beauty of life therefore begins to find expression only after that period when the ugliness of self is in some measure set aside. Beauty at its best is spiritual, that is, invisible; and so must begin in the illuminations of the soul.
Consequently, those who live with the poets, whose souls are quickened by music and art, more readily express the beauty which shines from within. Its basis lies in the spiritual constitution of the universe.
In its highest essence, beauty is also spiritual because it is not perceived until the mind is sufficiently purified to take into itself the gifts of the senses and discover their beauty. The world grows beautiful in proportion as man’s own ugliness is eliminated. The beauty of nature is most fully apprehended by the most refined, sensitive soul. It is worded, pictured, sculptured, or sung, only by those who have attained a high inward development. And beauty becomes more and more spiritual as we pass from the beauty of nature, of forms and faces, to the beauty of friendship, of the home, and the soul.
The noblest product of the universe is the beautiful soul, that is, the manly, developed, masterful soul; one that has attained peace through trial and grace through exercise. The supreme grace is the beauty of spiritual devotion, the love that denies itself, the heart and genius of the Christ.
The transition to another life will be beautiful beyond all description if the soul have attained this high level in the present existence. Death itself, sorrow, suffering, all that is hardest to bear in life, is thus rendered beautiful by the strength, the peace, and serenity of the soul.
Nothing in life reaches its true level until it reveals this higher law; for all things are capable of attaining the artistic stage, the plane of finished performance, of many-sided perfection. The realization of beauty in its fullest sense is thus the attainment of self abandonment, the passing from selfishness to service, where the soul no longer imposes itself upon the universe, but asks: What is thy will, O Eternal Beauty? What is thy law?
CHAPTER VIII
The Life
IT is said that philosophy begins in wonder. And so our study began, as we sat together by the window of life, looking out over the fields and mingling in thought with the hurrying throng. We wondered what it all meant, — why we were here, and where we should find peace.
In search of a clue to the deep spiritual significance of life, we turned first to childhood. There we found beauty — the beauty of the eternal relationship between cause and effect.
Following this clue, we have found all life characterized by the same beautiful law. As we act, so we are acted upon. As we desire, or make effort; as we think, or send out love, so does the universe reward us. In the silent, inner the Spirit realm of the individual soul our life is understood, our life is directed. The universe began to be intelligible to us from the moment we recognized the place and power of the soul as the home of decisive thought, the starting-point of all activities and emotions, the center of all our experiences.
We saw that ere we could become spiritually free we must understand and master ourselves. We must build new habits, cultivate repose, learn to control our thoughts and emotions in their inceptive stages. All future conduct must be governed by one standard — that which is in harmony with the Spirit, that which reveals the Spirit. And all progress must be governed by one law — the law of spiritual evolution, out from the center to the circumference, out from the inner world to the world of conduct and society.
Let us then systematize the philosophical facts and principles which we have thus considered, that this brief discussion of them may serve as a guide for our future thinking.
- We start with the world as it exists before us, its limitless variety, its busy throngs of men and women, struggling and rejoicing, failing and succeeding, in search of power and happiness, impressed with the magnitude and mystery of life.
- The most noticeable characteristic in this complex mass of beings and things is forward activity. Life advances. The days come and go. Time flits and man moves with it.
- Amid this perpetual advance of life, carrying all things forward, man, history, the stars and planets, we observe systematic growth from infancy to maturity. The seed becomes the plant by successive stages. The cell becomes physical man. The desire to walk develops into a lifelong habit. A thought in the mind of a reformer becomes known to the entire world. Everywhere in the broad universe we find evidences of this systematic, progressive evolution.
- Since the cell becomes physical man because of the resident life which surrounds and nourishes it, since to-day is the product of yesterday, and every successive step in the great forward movement is the effect of the condition immediately preceding it, there must be a continuously active Power or Cause by whose advancing life the great stream of successive changes is carried forward.
- This continuous creative presence is the Spirit, the imminent, omnipresent, all-inclusive Life whence all beings and things originate.
- The methods and purposes of the Spirit are discovered by observation of the perpetual forward movement of life as it passes day by day. The Spirit has attained perfection in the tree, the animal, in nature at large; it is now attaining it through man, through nations, through our moral and spiritual life. Hence our struggles and our pains, our ambitions and strivings.
- In the mental world we find a corresponding pulsation of life, ever forward. We find ourselves taking certain attitudes toward the advancing stream of physical and social life. The problem arises, Shall we complain, rebel, fear, or shall we harmonize, love, trust? Shall we try to stem the incoming tide of divine, creative activity, or move forward with it?
- Experiment teaches us that the wisest course is adjustment, cooperation with the creative activity of the Spirit, the choice of the Father’s way, the ideals of beauty, love, service, the Christ.
- Here is the secret of life, the simplicity of thought and conduct. Seek poised, trustful, many-sided adjustment to the advancing Spirit as it moves upon the soul within, and carries the perfect ideal forward to completion.
All wisdom, all service, all real success in life, is summed up in that.
Seek first the kingdom of the Spirit and be faithful to each of its promptings, and all that is needed for the fullness of life shall be added.
For the Father has already provided it is for the soul to know and be true to its own.
And the standard whereby we are to discern the promptings of the Spirit from the dictates of self, is that the former are unselfish, outgoing, abounding in satisfaction and peace; while the latter are purely personal, self – absorbing, accompanied by uncertainty and unrest.
There is one rule, then, for all cases, without exception and without limit. In all times of doubt, of trouble and need, when promptings and theories conflict, when there is discouragement, sorrow, or pain, first pause for a moment to reflect. Remember that within and behind, around and through every human life, and every detail of each human experience, there is an all-sufficient Spirit, an ever-sustaining Love, an all-seeing Wisdom. It is this Power which carries all things forward. It is this which inspires, underlies, and fulfils the individual purposes of all souls. It is here. It abounds. It abides. Listen in stillness and peace for its helpful presence.
Slacken speed and rest. Relax the pressure on the tightened muscles and nerves. Cease to fear and to be anxious. Seek the cause, the origin, the starting-point. Observe the tendencies of your life and seek harmony with those which make for peace and health. See how all is governed by law, how all is affected by what you think, what you are, and what you do. Ask what is wisest, then be true to that. Simply do the best you know, then trust. He who seeks to live by the Spirit and who cares above all for that, will not be without guidance.
One also learns how to live from the Spirit by observing the lives of those about us who are true to its inner illuminations.
He who lives by the Spirit is the consecrated soul. He is kind, tender, gracious, broadly sympathetic and charitable. His voice is pure and resonant, his smile reveals the sweet serenity and saintliness of his soul.
Such a man cares most for eternal things. He preserves the simplicity of childhood, that childlikeness which is near the kingdom of heaven.
With some the Spirit speaks as devotion, philanthropy, benevolence. Some manifest it as peace, others as modesty, humility, sincerity; the noblest reveal it as love.
When we need help physically, as well as morally and spiritually, therefore, we should put ourselves, as far as possible, in the attitude of receptivity which characterizes the lives of these great and devoted souls.
Become as a little child. Open mind and heart, open the entire organism, to receive.
Think of the Spirit as immediately surrounding you like the atmosphere, waiting to be received. And so create room in yourself. Send out the thought until it enlarges to the dignity and magnitude of the universe.
Think also of the Spirit as resident in you, as the creative ideal of beauty. Instead of opposing the creative life and thereby feeling it as pain, harmonize, unite with it by holding before you an ideal thought-picture of the beauty it seeks to attain.
Do not think of the sensation, the trouble, or wrong from which you seek freedom. Be concerned rather with the outcome, the ideal.
Painful consciousness of sensation is undue consciousness of self.
Transfer your attention, little by little, from self and from sensation to the Spirit, and the ministrations of the Spirit will relieve the discord.
It is hard indeed to attain a sense of entire oneness with the Spirit. It demands thought, patience, and the ability to concentrate the mind.
Yet this is the ideal, the simple, direct road. Therefore follow this, day by day, and hour by hour, remembering the starting-point— to love first the Spirit, to become in all humility as a little child.
Thus, our ideal is a life, not a theory. They know the Spirit only who live by it. It is not to be bought. No man can declare its highest revelations, for they are the inmost illuminations in the sacred precincts of the individual soul.
The Spirit gives an essence, a power, a food; and he who lives by it can give that essence itself.
The wisest attitude is to live with a constant remembrance that the Spirit may enter at any time. It comes when it will. No one knows fully its coming and going, for in its highest aspect it is above and beyond the merely self-conscious. We know only that it comes when we are least conscious that we are receptive.
If a man paints a great picture, writes a great book, or composes a masterpiece, he tries to repeat the master-stroke. But his work is second-rate. He must bide his time until he receives a new inspiration. The secret of genius is in the keeping of the Highest.
An inimitable spontaneity presides over these first performances; it is governed by a higher law. It overleaps all barriers and succeeds where failure seems inevitable. It outreaches the keenest and outwits the subtlest. It is art for art’s sake, truth for truth’s sake, the virtue which is its own reward.
Our work is a task, an effort, until we thus take advantage of the higher law.
At first we obey selfish and mercenary motives in our art and life, then discover their low character, and choose the higher way.
A book, for example, may be written for money, to display learning, or for the general good. But the best books are written because the Spirit prompts their authors to attain self-expression. Many have been written without thought of publication, then published regardless of the praise or money they might bring.
In the same way, we perform many acts of service because they are “the correct thing,” or because we think we ought. But a day comes when it is a part of our spiritual life to be altruistic: because we love.
We compensate those who have been good to us, but it is a low motive. The higher way is to give when the Spirit prompts, not for personal reasons.
My conversation shall be worth hearing, or my letters worth reading, when I have something to say, not when I force my thought into words.
In all things, in all peoples, governments, nations, the Spirit is achieving high ends by this higher law of spontaneity, genius. We know of its presence through what it has achieved, which no man planned or foresaw. We know not until a result slips in where it was most active.
There are times when things seem to be going to ruin, and governments to be on the verge of failure. But the Spirit is at the helm. Out of temporary failure success shall come, out of calamity compensation, and out of threatened ruin a new lease of life.
Thus does one detect evidences of the Spirit’s presence, both in the personal life and in society.
The Spirit is here: that is enough. It is wisdom and goodness, it is love and beauty; why need we distrust? Only goodness can triumph, only love can reign. There is no hostile power, there is naught that can wreck the universe.
Seek first, last, and always the Spirit. Abide with that, hold to that, trust in that, and all shall be cared for, all shall lead to the haven of peace and love.
The prime essential, I repeat, is to remember the spiritual law. All changes begin in the inner world where man alters his mental attitude, his belief or mode of action. All growth is from a center. All progress is through gradual evolution. If the center be touched, if the heart be changed, if the soul comes to consciousness, the external result will follow.
Therefore concentrate. Be true to the Spirit, hold to the ideal through thick and thin. Remember the law of change; and all the forces of the universe shall come to your aid. Naught can hinder. Nothing can upset you. Here is the rock, the basis of life. Knowledge and power and freedom shall come to him who is true to this supreme possession of the soul.
The End