So far as we can think, the ether is a manifest, perhaps a primary manifest, of Infinite and Eternal Reality.
It is coming to be scientific to hold that matter reduces in its last a.n.a.lysis to electricity and is a complex form of vibrations of the ether within the ether. Matter is not merely pervaded by the ether; it is a state of the ether.
Matter, then, is a manifest of Infinite and Eternal Reality.
Life is a phase of the activity of matter. If we think of matter in its grossest form, nearest to us in the process of evolution, life may be regarded as an ent.i.ty different from that matter. We do somehow feel that matter and life are distinct realities. But if we think of matter as a complex form of etheric vibrations, nothing forbids our saying that life also is a form of vibration of the ether within the ether. With this view in mind, we shall think of matter and life as comparatively simultaneous manifests of the ether, life, however, appearing only when the state of etheric vibrations resulting in matter has reached a stage in which vibrations resulting in life can be possible. We should then say that life is a product of etheric vibrations emerging through those that have resulted in matter; that is, life is a product of material activities. This view cannot justly be called materialism because Life is, then, also a manifest of Infinite and Eternal Reality.
We do not scientifically know any sort of mind that is not exhibited through matter. The human mind always exhibits through a human body. What we call mind is a complex of states of consciousness engaged in various activities. Consciousness involves certain physical activities within us. If nothing were acting within, we should not be conscious. This has always been true. The first dawn of consciousness in Nature involved activities within the organism. If we think of that first faintly conscious existence as a ma.s.s of crude matter, then the self and its body will appear to be distinctly separated in reality. But if we think of that body as a manifest of etheric vibrations in which life-vibrations also obtained, there is nothing to forbid our saying that consciousness was equally a product of such vibrations. If so, the psychic factor was a form of vibrations of the ether within the ether--and so, when it appeared, had evolved to higher forms, was consciousness.
Matter is an evolution, and out of it hare evolved life, the psychic factor, consciousness. But consciousness is, then, for the reasons above indicated, a manifest of Infinite and Eternal Reality.
Consciousness is the condition of personality. When the former first appeared, it was a product. Thenceforth, because personality was a psychic factor in consciousness, it became a creator. That is to say, it was capable of enlargement and enrichment, and so, began to unfold its powers, to enrich its own contents by appropriation, and to organize itself in various ways depending upon its nature in each case and the influence of environment. In seeking to realize itself, as it must do in the nature of things, and in adjusting to environment, which was a second necessity of its being, it began to direct the activities of matter comprising its own body, to select matter from without needful for its kind of body, and to build this material up into a kind of body best adapted to its existence, and thus, by its own character, to determine the character of the organism which it inhabited.
All this work seems entirely independent until we remember that ether, matter, life, the psychic factor, are manifests of Infinite and Eternal Reality. But when we so remember, we see that personality consisting of a conscious self and a body is similarly a manifest of that Reality.
This conclusion will appear to identify man and Deity unless we discriminate a little. Every object in Nature is a manifest of Infinite and Eternal Reality, but the latter transcends the former simply because the object is such a manifest, A thing which is a manifest or expression of something superior cannot be identified with the superior something. I am not the words which I write, although they manifest me and could not exist without me. Every object in Nature is precisely what it is as a manifest of Reality.
There is scant freedom in the natural world apart from man.
Nothing in Nature could be other than it is. Man, on the other hand, is a manifest of Infinite and Eternal Reality in the sense that he has a body, and must have one, and is a personality and must be one (if he is man); but in the man psychic factor has come to consciousness, and consciousness, as we have seen, always reveals itself in SELF-DIRECTION AND SELF-ORGANIZATION ACCORDING TO ITS DEVELOPED POWER TO THINK OF ITSELF AS SELF-CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE. Were it unable to so think of itself, it could not be self-directive in the fullest sense. And were it unable to self- direct its own activities, it could not be conscious in the fullest sense of the word. Our existence manifests Infinite and Eternal Reality, but the power to USE that existence is determined by the fact that we are psychic factors in the highest sense exhibited in the earth, and the use we make thereof is determined by our exercise of the power of self-direction and self- organization. We cannot help being human beings, but what KIND of human beings we are, within the limits of personal endowments, depends solely upon ourselves.
We may see, then, that the psychic factor within us builds the bodies we live in, so that our physical character is largely an expression of our personal character. Ages of wrong thought-life are behind us, yet even so, it is within our power to improve physical character very greatly indeed.
Now, the power of personal right thinking and harmony with the White Life of Infinite and Eternal Reality may be explained in the following way (you will understand, of course, that the outline is designed merely to be suggestive):
ALL MATTER IN THE REALM OF NATURE BEING A MANIFEST OF INFINITE AND ETERNAL REALITY, NATURE AND HER SUBSTANCES ARE PHASES OF ETERNAL THOUGHT. The study of Nature is just the study of that Thought, conducted in various ways and for various purposes. The Thought, in all its existences and relations, is a vast and complex whole, and yet, from the point of view of its highest value to man, a great Word, comparatively simple and open to every earnest and sincere seeker throughout all the ages. If you will ask yourself, What are the main and abiding thoughts which are embodied in Nature? your conclusion, I think, need not be elaborate and confusing. The question, however, must be asked in a receptive and unprejudiced mood, and not merely by the matter-of-fact intellect.
"Every inch of earth, of water, of fire, and of air contains the fundamental principles of the universe, and man is the connecting link between dust and Deity, and can bridge the gulf through the illumination of his mind. The most powerful telescope known to man is mind"s eye." "He who has cultivated and learned to open his heart to the touch of outward Nature illuminates his inner being by the elevation and refinement of his emotional and imaginative nature. This is the first principle in the objective world of the higher education of mind and soul. The first lesson of Mother Earth is to instruct her children to be softened and sympathetic toward the moods of outward Nature. Thus mankind softens, broadens, and grows, becoming more susceptible to impressions, taking in the glory of the Divine Architect, which is in the world revealed, and the golden gates of the soul are opened."
Seeking with such a spirit, then, the main Thoughts which Nature embodies, I venture to say that Infinite and Eternal Reality has there expressed itself in these great Words:
Reality, Truth, Law, Beauty, Goodness, Harmony, Power, Development, Happiness, Love, Service, LIFE.
These are the Thoughts expressed in Nature which are manifest of the White Life. For such the nature of things always declares, when free to do so. By so much as any object of existence fully realizes itself, by so much are these Thoughts, so far as such realization requires, made concrete if only we have the seeing mind and the feeling heart. With these powers of perception, the seeing mind and the feeling heart, we come to know that all in Nature is good and means good to every man and woman and child in this world. There is no evil in Nature. All so-called evil in Nature is due either to some phase of her existence wrongly used or to some false interpretation in human thinking. Nature is REAL, TRUE, LAW-FULL, BEAUTIFUL, GOOD, HARMONIOUS, FULL OF POWER, A GROWING ORGANISM, A MINISTER OF SERVICE AND WELL-BEING, A LIVING THING, A LITERATURE OF LOVE. If you refer to microbes, poisons, deadly serpents, and the like, I reply that the perfect WHITE LIFE in man, together with the knowledge of science, would teach him to avoid wrong relations and develop within him physical, mental and moral tone (tonus, in the language of the schools). Thus would he be rendered immune from all so-called evils.
If your inner life contains nothing alien to these great Nature- Thoughts, if you see to it that their character is given your personal character, you will secure in the body a degree of the power of harmony which they possess, and your health will infallibly correspond. Do no mistake this sentence. Will you kindly read it--again until you see what it really means? The only limit to your health will be the limit of your ability to realize in yourself the mighty Thoughts which make Nature what she is. I do not mean that splendid results must immediately issue from the course indicated. Patience and time are important factors. I do not mean that a dying man can inevitably realize these Thoughts sufficiently to recover health. There are limits, not to the law, but to one"s ability to use the law. In spiritual effort, effort of the inner self to lay hold upon the Universal Forces, you can make your own personal discoveries. I may not say a greater word.
Above all, I do not mean that merely thinking the Thoughts will be enough, in any case. The method is one of realization as well as affirmation. But by so much as you become that which the Nature- Thoughts suggest, by so much will your physical and psychic health come to buoyancy, joy and power. You are now invited, then, to adopt the following as the permanent law of your thought-life:
I am, in every function of my body and every activity of my deeper self, entirely GENUINE, representing TRUTH, obeying LAW, loving BEAUTY, striving for GOODNESS, coming to HARMONY, possessed of POWER, GROWING to better things, full of HAPPINESS, eager to SERVE, a LIVING white life, and a Lover of all that is good.
If you will thoughtfully and believingly repeat this law twice a day say, for one hundred days, you will find life unfolding new meanings, fears fading and dying, and courage growing to real greatness.
8. IN THE MYSTERY OF THE SILENCE THE POWER OF REALIZATION BECOMES GREATEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE BECAUSE IN SUCH A STATE THE SELF MAKES ITS HIGH THOUGHTS A CONSCIOUS CLAIM ON ALL GOOD THINGS. The direct utility of the right thought-life is nowhere doubted. By this the psychic factor largely molds the body and influences its functions. Preceding methods or laws have all referred to the truth involved. But the law of direct realization is needed in order to complete the workings of the truth. By direct realization the self consciously claims the present benefit of the spirit or att.i.tude of harmony. You may think of yourself as splendidly well and fearless: that is one thing-you REGARD yourself as in such conditions. And you may claim yourself NOW to be well and courageous: that is another thing--you TREAT yourself for health and fearlessness. When you think of your arm as moving, it does not necessarily move; you have merely entertained the idea. When you will your arm to move, you have claimed your power to move it and have realized the power--realized in actual thought that power. The difference would obtain if your arm were bound: you could still realize in thought the sense of movement. Realization of the Eternal Thoughts is a conscious claim in spirit and appropriation in spirit of the Thoughts as actual within yourself.
Realization of benefits for health is a conscious holding of them in mind as present in you. One may in time acquire the fixed mood of realization, but it will a.s.sist you to bring about that mood if you will occasionally, say once a day, shut out all disturbances and alien thoughts and feelings, and try to come into communion with the White Life--go into the silence and, by quiet affirmation and sincere, trustful realization, claim the Universal Forces as your helpers in building up your physical tone and the spirit of courage. A sentence like the following may be used:
"Conscious of psychic uprightness in the white life, and of the beauty, utility and wonder of my physical being in its nature, and function, I now claim, and without doubt am receiving, the Universal Forces for my best tone and courage-spirit in all- improving health."