The Hidden Power Part 10

"_The Two Pillars_ of the Universe are Personality and Mathematics, represented by Boaz and Jachin respectively.

This is the broadest simplification to which it is possible to reduce things. Balance consists in preserving the Equilibrium or Alternating Current between these two Principles. Personality is the Absolute Factor. Mathematics are the Relative Factor, for they merely Measure different Rates or Scales. They are absolute in this respect. A particular scale having been selected all its sequences will follow by an inexorable Law of Order and Proportion; but the selection of the scale and the change from one scale to another rests entirely with Personality. What Personality can not do is to make one Scale produce the results of another, but it can set aside one scale and subst.i.tute another for it.

Hence Personality contains in itself the Universal Scale, or can either accommodate itself to lower rates of motion already established, or can raise them to its own rate of motion. Hence Personality is the grand Ultimate Fact in all things.

"Different personalities should be regarded as different degrees of consciousness. They are different degrees of emergence of The Power that knows Itself."]

XXI

HEPHZIBAH

"Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married"

(Isaiah lxii, 4). The name Hephzibah--or, as it might be written, Hafzbah--conveys a very distinct idea to any one who has lived in the East, and calls up a string of familiar words all containing the same root _hafz_, which signifies "guarding" or "taking care of," such as _hafiz_, a protector, _muhafiz_, a custodian, as in the word _muhafiz daftar_, a head record-keeper; or again, _hifazat_, custody, as _bahifazat polis_, in custody of the police; or again, _daim-ul-hafz_, imprisonment for life, and other similar expressions.

All words from this root suggest the idea of "guarding," and therefore the name Haphzibah at once speaks its own meaning. It is "one who is guarded," a "protected one." And answering to this there must be some power which guards, and the name of this power is given in Hosea ii, 16, where it is called "Ishi." "And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and thou shalt call me no more Baali."

"Baali" means "lord," "Ishi" means "husband," and between the two there is a whole world of distinction.

To call the Great Power "Baali" is to live in one world, and to call it "Ishi" is to live in another. The world that is ruled over by Baali is a world of "miserable worms of the dust" and such crawling creatures; but the world that is warmed and lightened by "Ishi" is one in which men and women walk upright, conscious of their own divine nature, instead of dodging about to escape being crushed under the feet of Moloch as he strides through his dominions. If the name Baali did not suggest a wrong idea there would be no need to change it for another, and the change of name therefore indicates the opening of the mind to a larger and sounder conception of the true nature of the Ruling Principle of the universe.

It is no imperious autocrat, the very apotheosis of self-glorification, ill-natured and spiteful if its childish vanity be not gratified by hearing its own praises formally proclaimed, often from lips opened only by fear; nor is it an almighty extortioner desiring to deprive us of what we value most, either to satisfy its greed or to demonstrate its sovereignty. This is the image which men make of G.o.d and then bow terrified before it, offering a worship which is the worship of Baal, and making life blank because all the livingness has been wiped out of it.

Ishi is the embodiment of the very opposite conception, a wise and affectionate husband, instead of a taskmaster exploiting his slaves. In its true aspect the relation of husband and wife is entirely devoid of any question of relative superiority or inferiority. As well ask whether the front wheel or the back wheel of your bicycle is the more important.

The two make a single whole, in which the functions of both parts are reciprocal and equally necessary; yet for this very reason these functions cannot be identical.

In a well-ordered home, where husband and wife are united by mutual love and respect, we see that the man's function is to enter into the larger world and to provide the wife with all that is needed for the maintenance and comfort of the home, while the function of the woman is to be the distributor of what her husband provides, in doing which she follows her own discretion; and a sensible man, knowing that he can trust a sensible wife, does not want to poke his finger into every pie.

Thus all things run harmoniously--the woman relieved of responsibilities which are not naturally hers, and the man relieved of responsibilities which are not naturally his. But let any perplexity or danger arise, and the woman knows that from her husband she will receive all the guidance and protection that the occasion may require, he being the wise and strong man that we have supposed him, and having this a.s.surance she is able to pursue the avocations of her own sphere undisturbed by any fears or anxieties.

It is this relation of protection and guidance that is implied by the word Hephzibah. It is the name of those who realise their ident.i.ty with the all-ordering Divine Spirit. He who realises this unity with the Spirit finds himself both guided and guarded. And here we touch the fringe of a deep natural mystery, which formed the basis of all that was most valuable in the higher mysteries of the ancients, and the substance of which we must realise if we are to make any progress in the future, whatever form we may adopt to convey the idea to ourselves or others. It is the relation of the individual mind to the Universal Mind, the combination of unity with independence which, though quite clear when we know it by personal experience, is almost inexpressible in words, but which is frequently represented in the Bible under the figure of the marriage relations.

It is a basic principle, and in various modes pervades all Nature, and has been symbolised in every religion the world has known; and in proportion as the individual realises this relation he will find that he is able to _use_ the Universal Mind, while at the same time he is guided and guarded by it. For think what it would be to wield the power of the Universal Mind without having its guidance. It would be the old story of Phaeton trying to drive the chariot of the Sun, which ended in his own destruction; and limitless power without corresponding guidance would be the most terrible curse that any one could bring upon his head.

The relation between the individual mind and the Universal Mind, as portrayed in the reciprocally connected names of Hephzibah and Ishi, must never be lost sight of; for the Great Guiding Mind, immeasurably as it transcends our intellectual consciousness, is not another than _ourselves_. It is The One Self which is the foundation of all the individual selves, and which is, therefore, in all its limitlessness, as entirely one with each individual as though no other being existed.

Therefore we do not have to go out of ourselves to find it, for it is the expansion to infinity of all that we truly _are_, having, indeed, no place for those negative forms of evil with which we people a world of illusion, for it is the very Light itself, and in it all illusion is dispelled; but it is the expansion to infinity of all in us that is Affirmative, all that is really living.

Therefore, in looking for its guiding and guarding we are relying upon no borrowed power from _without_, held at the caprice and option of another, but upon the supreme fact of our own nature, which we can use in what direction we will with perfect freedom, knowing no limitation save the obligation not to do violence to our own purest and highest feelings. And this relation is entirely _natural_. We must steer the happy mean between imploring and ignoring. A natural law does not need to be entreated before it will work; and, on the other hand, we cannot make use of it while ignoring its existence.

What we have to do, therefore, is to take the working of the law for granted, and make use of it accordingly; and since that is the law of Mind, and Mind is Personality, this Power, which is at once _ourselves_ and above ourselves, may be treated as a Person and may be spoken with, and its replies received by the inner ear of the heart. Any scheme of philosophy that does not result in this personal intercourse with the Divine Mind falls short of the mark. It may be right so far as it goes, but it does not go far enough, and fails to connect us with our vital centre. Names are of small importance so long as the intercourse is real. The Supreme Mind with which we converse is only to be met in the profoundest depths of our own being, and, as Tennyson says, is more perfectly ourselves than our own hands and feet. It is our natural Base; and realising this we shall find ourselves to be in very truth "guarded ones," guided by the Spirit in all things, nothing too great and nothing too trivial to come within the great Law of our being.

There is another aspect of the Spirit in which it is seen as a Power to be used; and the full flow of life is in the constant alternation between this aspect and the one we have been considering, but always we are linked with the Universal Mind as the flower lives by reason of its root. The connection itself is intrinsic, and can never be severed; but it must be consciously realised before it can be consciously used. All our development consists in the increasing consciousness of this connection, which enables us to apply the higher power to whatever purpose we may have in hand, not merely in the hope that it _may_ respond, but with the certain knowledge that by the law of its own nature it is bound to do so, and likewise with the knowledge that by the same law it is bound also to guide us to the selection of right objects and right methods.

Experience will teach us to detect the warning movement of the inner Guide. A deepseated sense of dissatisfaction, an indescribable feeling that somehow everything is not right, are the indications to which we do well to pay heed; for we are "guarded ones," and these interior monitions are the working of that innermost principle of our own being which is the immediate outflowing of the Great Universal Life into individuality. But, paying heed to this, we shall find ourselves guarded, not as prisoners, but as a loved and honoured wife, whose freedom is a.s.sured by a protection which will allow no harm to a.s.sail her; we shall find that the Law of our nature is Liberty, and that nothing but our own want of understanding can shut us out from it.

XXII

MIND AND HAND

I have before me a curious piece of ancient Egyptian symbolism. It represents the sun sending down to the earth innumerable rays, with the peculiarity that each ray terminates in a hand. This method of representing the sun is so unusual that it suggests the presence in the designer's mind of some idea rather different from those generally a.s.sociated with the sun as a spiritual emblem; and, if I interpret the symbol rightly, it sets forth the truth, not only of the Divine Being as the Great Source of all Life and of all Illumination, but also the correlative truth of our individual relation to that centre. Each ray is terminated by a hand, and a hand is the emblem of active working; and I think it would be difficult to give a better symbolical representation of innumerable individualities, each working separately, yet all deriving their activity from a common source. The hand is at work upon the earth, and the sun, from which it is a ray, is shining in the heavens; but the connecting line shows whence all the strength and skill of the hand are derived.

If we look at the microcosm of our own person we find this principle exactly reproduced. Our hand is the instrument by which all our work is done--literary, artistic, mechanical, or household--but we know that all this work is really the work of the mind, the will-power at the centre of our system, which first determines what is to be done, and then sets the hand to work to do it; and in the doing of it the mind and hand become one, so that the hand is none other than the mind working. Now, transferring this a.n.a.logy to the microcosm, we see that we each stand in the same relation to the Universal Mind that our hand does to our individual mind--at least, that is our normal relation; and we shall never put forth our full strength except from this standpoint.

We rightly realise our will as the centre of our individuality, but we should do better to picture our individuality as an ellipse rather than a circle, a figure having two "conjugate foci," two equilibriated centres of revolution rather than a single one, one of which is the will-power or faculty of _doing_, and the other the consciousness or perception of _being_. If we realise only one of these two centres we shall lose both mental and moral balance. If we lose sight of that centre which is our personal will, we shall become flabby visionaries without any backbone; and if, in our anxiety to develop backbone, we lost sight of the other centre, we shall find that we have lost that which corresponds to the lungs and heart in the physical body, and that our backbone, however perfectly developed, is rapidly drying up for want of those functions which minister vitality to the whole system, and is only fit to be hung up in a museum to show what a rigid, lifeless thing the strongest vertebral column becomes when separated from the organisation by which alone it can receive nourishment. We must realise the one focus of our individuality as clearly as the other, and bring both into equal balance, if we would develop all our powers and rise to that perfection of Life which has no limits to its glorious possibilities.

Keeping the ancient Egyptian symbol before used, and considering ourselves as the hand, we find that we derive all our power from an infinite centre; and because it is infinite we need never fear that we shall fail to draw to ourselves all that we require for our work, whether it be the intelligence to lay hold of the proper tool, or the strength to use it. And, moreover, we learn from the symbol that this central power is generic. This is a most important truth. It is the centre from which all the hands proceed, and is as fully open to any one hand as to any other. Each hand is doing its separate work, and the whole of the central energy is at its disposal for its own specific purpose. The work of the central energy, as such, is to supply vitality to the hands, and it is they that differentiate this universal power into all the varied forms of application which their different apt.i.tudes and opportunities suggest. We, as the hands, live and work because the Central Mind lives and works in us. We are one with it, and it is one with us; and so long as we keep this primal truth before us, we realise ourselves as beings of unlimited goodness and intelligence and power, and we work in the fulness of strength and confidence accordingly; but if we lose sight of this truth, we shall find that the strongest will must get exhausted at last in the unequal struggle of the individual against the universe.

For if we do not recognise the Central Mind as the source of our vitality, we are literally "fighting for our own hand," and all the other hands are against us, for we have lost the principle of connection with them. This is what must infallibly happen if we rely on nothing but our individual will-power. But if we realise that the will is the power by which we give out, and that every giving out implies a corresponding taking in, then we shall find in the boundless ocean of central living Spirit the source from which we can go on taking in _ad infinitum_, and which thus enables us to give out to any extent we please. But for wise and effective giving out a strong and enlightened will is an absolute necessity, and therefore we do well to cultivate the will, or the active side of our nature. But we must equally cultivate the receptive side also; and when we do this rightly by seeing in the Infinite Mind the one source of supply, our will-power becomes intensified by the knowledge that the whole power of the Infinite is present to back it up; and with this continual sense of Infinite Power behind us we can go calmly and steadily to the accomplishment of any purpose, however difficult, without straining or effort, knowing that it shall be achieved, not by the hand only, but by the invincible Mind that works through it. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."

1902.

XXIII

THE CENTRAL CONTROL

In contemplating the relations between body, soul, and spirit, between Universal Mind and individual mind, the methodised study of which const.i.tutes Mental Science, we must never forget that these relations indicate, not the separateness, but the unity of these principles. We must learn not to attribute one part of our action to one part of our being, and another to another. Neither the action nor the functions are split up into separate parts. The action is a whole, and the being that does it is a whole, and in the healthy organism the reciprocal movements of the principles are so harmonious as never to suggest any feeling than that of a perfectly whole and undivided self. If there is any other feeling we may be sure that there is abnormal action somewhere, and we should set ourselves to discover and remove the cause of it. The reason for this is that in any perfect organism there cannot be more than one centre of control.

A rivalry of controlling principles would be the destruction of the organic wholeness; for either the elements would separate and group themselves round one or other of the centres, according to their respective affinities, and thus form two distinctive individualities, or else they would be reduced to a condition of merely chaotic confusion; in either case the original organism would cease to exist.

Seen in this light, therefore, it is a self-evident truth that, if we are to retain our individuality; in other words, if we are to continue to exist, it can be only by retaining our hold upon the central controlling principle in ourselves; and if this be the charter of our being, it follows that all our future development depends on our recognising and accepting this central controlling principle. To this end, therefore, all our endeavours should be directed; for otherwise all our studies in Mental Science will only lead us into a confused labyrinth of principles and counter-principles, which will be considerably worse than the state of ignorant simplicity from which we started.

This central controlling principle is the Will, and we must never lose sight of the fact that all the other principles about which we have learnt in our studies exist only as its instruments. The Will is the true self, of which they are all functions, and all our progress consists of our increased recognition of the fact. It is the Will that says "I AM"; and therefore, however exalted, or even in their higher developments apparently miraculous, our powers may be, they are all subject to the central controlling power of the Will. When the enlightened Will shall have learnt to identify itself perfectly with the limitless powers of knowledge, judgment, and creative thought which are at its disposal, then the individual will have attained to perfect wholeness, and all limitations will have pa.s.sed away for ever.

And nothing short of this consciousness of Perfect Wholeness can satisfy us. Everything that falls short of it is in that degree an embodiment of the principle of Death, that great enemy against which the principle of Life must continue to wage unceasing war, in whatever form or measure it may show itself, until "death is swallowed up in victory." There can be no compromise. Either we are affirming Life, as a principle, or we are denying it, no matter on how great or how small a scale; and the criterion by which to determine our att.i.tude is our realisation of our own Wholeness. Death is the principle of disintegration; and whenever we admit the power of any portion of our organism, whether spiritual or bodily, to induce any condition _independently of the intention of the Will_, we admit that the force of disintegration is superior to the controlling centre in ourselves, and we conceive of ourselves as held in bondage by an adversary, from which bondage the only way of release is by the attainment of a truer way of thinking.

And the reason is that, either through ignorance or carelessness, we have surrendered our position of control over the system as a whole, and have lost the element of _Purpose_, around which the consciousness of individuality must always centre. Every state of our consciousness, whether active or pa.s.sive, should be the result of a distinct _purpose_ adopted by our own free will; for the pa.s.sive states should be quite as much under the control of the Will as the active. It is the lack of _purpose_ that deprives us of power. The higher and more clearly defined our purpose, the greater stimulus we have for realising our control over _all_ our faculties for its attainment; and since the grandest of all purposes is the strengthening and enn.o.bling of Life, in proportion as we make this our aim we shall find ourselves in union with the Supreme Universal Mind, acting each in our individual sphere for the furtherance of the same purpose which animates the ruling principle of the Great Whole, and, as a consequence, shall find that its intelligence and powers are at our disposal.

But in all this there must be no strain. The true exercise of the Will is not an exercise of unnatural force. It is simply the leading of our powers into their natural channels by intelligently recognising the direction in which those channels go. However various in detail, they have one clearly defined common tendency towards the increasing of Life--whether in ourselves or in others--and if we keep this steadily in view, all our powers, whether interior or exterior, will be found to work so harmoniously together that there will be no sense of independent action on the part of any one of them. The distinctions drawn for purposes of study will be laid aside, and the Self in us will be found to be the realisation of a grand ideal being, at once individual and universal, consciously free in its individual wholeness and in its joyous partic.i.p.ation in the Life of the Universal Whole.

XXIV

WHAT IS HIGHER THOUGHT?

Resolution pa.s.sed October, 1902, by the Kensington Higher Thought Centre.

_"That the Centre stands for the definite teaching of absolute Oneness of Creator and Creation--Cause and Effect--and that nothing which may contradict or be in opposition to the above principles be admitted to the 'Higher Thought' Centre Platform._

_"By Oneness of Cause and Effect is meant, that Effect (man) does consist only of what Cause is; but a part (individual personality) is not therefore co-extensive with the whole."_

This Resolution is of the greatest importance. Once admit that there is _any_ Power outside yourself, however beneficent you may conceive it to be, and you have sown the seed which must sooner or later bear the fruit of "_Fear_" which is the entire ruin of Life, Love and Liberty. There is no _via media_. Say we are only reflections, however accurate, of The Life, and in the admission we have given away our Birthright. However small or plausible may be the germ of thought which admits that we are anything less in principle than The Life Itself, it must spring up to the ultimate ruin of the Life-Principle itself. We _are_ It itself. The difference is only that between the generic and the specific of the _same_ thing. We must contend earnestly, both within ourselves and outwardly, for the _one great foundation_ and never, now on to all eternity, admit for a single instant any thought which is opposed to this, the Basic Truth of Being.