The Hidden Power And Other Papers upon Mental Science. Thomas Troward

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СКАЧАТЬ to be argued about, but an axiom which may be assumed as the

      foundation on which to build up the edifice of further knowledge. But,

      laying aside mathematical formulæ, we may say that because the Infinite

      is infinite there can be no limit to the extent to which the vital

      principle of growth may draw upon it, and therefore there is no limit to

      the expansion of the individual's powers. Because we are _what_ we are,

      we may _become_ what we will.

      The Kabbalists tell us of "the lost word," the word of power which

      mankind has lost. To him who discovers this word all things are

      possible. Is this mirific word really lost? Yes, and No. It is the open

      secret of the universe, and the Bible gives us the key to it. It tells

      us, "The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." It is

      the most familiar of all words, the word which in our heart we realise

      as the centre of our conscious being, and which is in our mouth a

      hundred times a day. It is the word "I AM." Because I am what I am, I

      may be what I will to be. My individuality is one of the modes in which

      the Infinite expresses itself, and therefore I am myself that very power

      which I find to be the innermost within of all things.

      To me, thus realising the great unity of all Spirit, the infinite is not

      the indefinite, for I see it to be the infinite of _Myself_. It is the

      very same I AM that I am; and this not by any act of uncertain favour,

      but by the law of polarity which is the basis of all Nature. The law of

      polarity is that law according to which everything attains completion by

      manifesting itself in the opposite direction to that from which it

      started. It is the simple law by which there can be no inside without an

      outside, nor one end of a stick without an opposite end.

      Life is motion, and all motion is the appearance of energy at another

      point, and, where any work has been done, under another form than that

      in which it originated; but wherever it reappears, and in whatever new

      form, the vivifying energy is still the same. This is nothing else than

      the scientific doctrine of the conservation of energy, and it is upon

      this well-recognised principle that our perception of ourselves as

      integral portions of the great universal power is based.

      We do well to pay heed to the sayings of the great teachers who have

      taught that all power is in the "I AM," and to accept this teaching by

      faith in their bare authority rather than not accept it at all; but the

      more excellent way is to know _why_ they taught thus, and to realise for

      ourselves this first great law which all the master-minds have realised

      throughout the ages. It is indeed true that the "lost word" is the one

      most familiar to us, ever in our hearts and on our lips. We have lost,

      not the word, but the realisation of its power. And as the infinite

      depths of meaning which the words I AM carry with them open out to us,

      we begin to realise the stupendous truth that we are ourselves the very

      power which we seek.

      It is the polarisation of Spirit from the universal into the particular,

      carrying with it all its inherent powers, just as the smallest flame has

      all the qualities of fire. The I AM in the individual is none other than

      the I AM in the universal. It is the same Power working in the smaller

      sphere of which the individual is the centre. This is the great truth

      which the ancients set forth under the figure of the Macrocosm and the

      Microcosm, the lesser I AM reproducing the precise image of the greater,

      and of which the Bible tells us when it speaks of man as the image of

      God.

      Now the immense practical importance of this principle is that it

      affords the key to the great law that "as a man thinks so he is." We are

      often asked why this should be, and the answer may be stated as follows:

      We know by personal experience that we realise our own livingness in two

      ways, by our power to act and our susceptibility to feel; and when we

      consider Spirit in the absolute we can only conceive of it as these two

      modes of livingness carried to infinity. This, therefore, means infinite

      susceptibility. There can be no question as to the degree of

      sensitiveness, for Spirit _is_ sensitiveness, and is thus infinitely

      plastic to the slightest touch that is brought to bear upon it; and

      hence every thought we formulate sends its vibrating currents out into

      the infinite of Spirit, producing there currents of like quality but of

      far vaster power.

      But Spirit in the Infinite is the Creative Power of the universe, and

      the impact of our thought upon it thus sets in motion a veritable

      creative force. And if this law holds good of one thought it holds good

      of all, and hence we are continually creating for ourselves a world of

      surroundings which accurately reproduces the complexion of our own

      thoughts. Persistent thoughts will naturally produce a greater external

      effect СКАЧАТЬ