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

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      consists, not in the mere aggregation of its parts, whether spiritual or

      corporeal, but in the _unity_ of power resulting from the intimate

      association into which those parts enter with one another, which unity,

      according to this law of the generation of power by attraction, is

      infinitely superior, both in intelligence and power, to any less fully

      integrated mode of spirit. Thus a natural principle, common alike to

      physical and spiritual law, fully accounts for all claims that have ever

      been made for the creative power of our thought over all things that

      come within the circle of our own particular life. Thus it is that each

      man is the centre of his own universe, and has the power, by directing

      his own thought, to control all things therein.

      But, as I have said above, there is no reason why this principle should

      not be recognised as expanding from the individual until it embraces

      the entire universe. Each man, as the centre of his own world, is

      himself centred in a higher system in which he is only one of

      innumerable similar atoms, and this system again in a higher until we

      reach the supreme centre of all things; intelligence and power increase

      from centre to centre in a ratio rising with inconceivable rapidity,

      according to the law we are now investigating, until they culminate in

      illimitable intelligence and power commensurate with All-Being.

      Now we have seen that the relation of man to the lower modes of spirit

      is that of superiority and command, but what is his relation to these

      higher modes? In any harmoniously constituted system the relation of the

      part to the whole never interferes with the free operation of the part

      in the performance of its own functions; but, on the contrary, it is

      precisely by means of this relation that each part is maintained in a

      position to discharge all functions for which it is fitted. Thus, then,

      the subordination of the individual man to the supreme mind, so far from

      curtailing his liberty, is the very condition which makes liberty

      possible, or even life itself. The generic movement of the whole

      necessarily carries the part along with it; and so long as the part

      allows itself thus to be carried onwards there will be no hindrance to

      its free working in any direction for which it is fitted by its own

      individuality. This truth was set forth in the old Hindu religion as the

      Car of Jaggarnath--an ideal car only, which later ages degraded into a

      terribly material symbol. "Jaggarnath" means "Lord of the Universe," and

      thus signifies the Universal Mind. This, by the law of Being, must

      always move forward regardless of any attempts of individuals to

      restrain it. Those who mount upon its car move onward with it to

      endlessly advancing evolution, while those who seek to oppose it must be

      crushed beneath its wheels, for it is no respecter of persons.

      If, therefore, we would employ the universal law of spirit to control

      our own little individual worlds, we must also recognise it in respect

      to the supreme centre round which we ourselves revolve. But not in the

      old way of supposing that this centre is a capricious Individuality

      external to ourselves, which can be propitiated or cajoled into giving

      the good which he is not good enough to give of his own proper motion.

      So long as we retain this infantile idea we have not come into the

      liberty which results from the knowledge of the certainty of Law.

      Supreme Mind is Supreme Law, and can be calculated upon with the same

      accuracy as when manifested in any of the particular laws of the

      physical world; and the result of studying, understanding and obeying

      this Supreme Law is that we thereby acquire the power to _use_ it. Nor

      need we fear it with the old fear which comes from ignorance, for we can

      rely with confidence upon the proposition that the whole can have no

      interest adverse to the parts of which it is composed; and conversely

      that the part can have no interest adverse to the whole.

      Our ignorance of our relation to the whole may make us appear to have

      separate interests, but a truer knowledge must always show such an idea

      to be mistaken. For this reason, therefore, the same responsiveness of

      spirit which manifests itself as obedience to our wishes, when we look

      to those degrees of spirit which are lower than her own individuality,

      must manifest itself as a necessary inflowing of intelligence and power

      when we look to the infinity of spirit, of which our individuality is a

      singular expression, because in so looking upwards we are looking for

      the higher degrees of _ourself_.

      The increased vitality of the parts means the increased vitality of the

      whole, and since it is impossible to conceive of spirit otherwise than

      as a continually expanding principle of Life, the demand for such

      increased vitality must, by the inherent nature of spirit, be met by a

      corresponding supply of continually growing intelligence and power.

      Thus, СКАЧАТЬ