LITMIR.BIZ

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is the original movement of Spirit _within itself_, of which we

      can best get an idea by calling it Self-contemplation.

      Now this may seem an extremely abstract conception and one with which we

      have no practical concern. I fancy I can hear the reader saying "The Lord

      only knows how the world started, and it is His business and not mine,"

      which would be perfectly true if this originating faculty were confined to

      the Cosmic Mind. But it is not, and the same action takes place in our own

      minds also, only with the difference that it is ultimately subject to that

      principle of Cosmic Unity of which I have already spoken. But, subject to

      that unifying principle, this same power of origination is in ourselves

      also, and our personal advance in evolution depends on our right use of it;

      and our use of it depends on our recognition that we ourselves give rise to

      the particular polarities which express themselves in our whole world of

      consciousness, whether within or without. For these reasons it is very

      important to realize that Evolution is not the same as Creation. It is the

      unfolding of potentialities involved in things already created, but not the

      calling into existence of what does not yet exist--_that_ is Creation.

      The order, therefore, which I wish the student to observe is, first the

      Self-contemplation of Spirit producing Polarity, and next Polarity

      producing Manifestation in Form--and also to realize that it is in this

      order his own mind operates as a subordinate center of creative energy.

      When the true place of Polarity is thus recognized, we shall find in it the

      explanation of all those relations of things which give rise to the whole

      world of phenomena; from which we may draw the practical inference that if

      we want to change the manifestation we must change the polarity, and to

      change the polarity we must get back to the Self-contemplation of Spirit.

      But in its proper place as the root-principle of all _secondary_ causation,

      Polarity is one of those fundamental facts of which we must never lose

      sight. The term "Polarity" is adopted from electrical science. In the

      electric battery it is the connecting together of the opposite poles of

      zinc and copper that causes a current to flow from one to the other and so

      provides the energy that rings the bell. If the connection is broken there

      is no action. When you press the button you make the connection. The same

      process is repeated in respect of every sort of polarity throughout the

      universe. Circulation depends on polarity, and circulation is the

      _manifestation_ of Life, which we may therefore say depends on the

      principle of polarity. In relation to ourselves we are concerned with two

      great polarities, the polarity of Soul and Body and the polarity of Soul

      and Spirit; and it is in order that he may more clearly realize their

      working that I want the student to have some preliminary idea of Polarity

      as a general principle.

      The conception of the Creative Order may therefore be generalized as

      follows. The Spirit wants to enjoy the reality of its own Life--not merely

      to vegetate, but to enjoy giving--and therefore by Self-contemplation it

      projects a polar opposite, or complementary, calculated to give rise to the

      particular sort of _relation_ out of which the enjoyment of a certain mode

      of self-consciousness will necessarily spring. Let this sentence be well

      pondered over until the full extent of its significance is grasped, for it

      is the key to the whole matter Very well, then: Spirit wants to Enjoy Life,

      and so, by thinking of itself as _having_ the enjoyment which it wishes, it

      produces the conditions which, by their re-action upon itself, give rise to

      the reality of the sort of enjoyment contemplated. In more scientific

      language an opposite polarity is induced, giving rise to a current which

      stimulates a particular mode of sensation, which sensation in turn becomes

      a fresh starting-point for still further action; and in this way each

      successive stage becomes the stepping-stone to a still higher degree of

      sensation--that is, to a Fuller Enjoyment of Life.

      Such a conception as this presents us with a Progressive Series to which it

      is impossible to assign any limit. That the progression must be limitless

      is clear from the fact that there is never any change in the method. At

      each successive stage the Creating Power is the Self-consciousness of the

      Spirit, as realized at that stage, still reaching forward for yet further

      Enjoyment of Life, and so always keeping on repeating the _one_ Creative

      Process at an ever-rising level; and since these are the sole working

      conditions, the progress is one which logically admits of no finality. And

      this is where the importance of realizing the Singleness of the Originating

      Power comes in, for with a Duality each member would limit the other; in

      fact, Duality as the Originating Power is inconceivable, for, once more to

      quote "Paddy's Philosophy," "finality would be reached before anything was

      begun."

      This Creative Process, therefore, can only be conceived of as limitless,

      while at the same time strictly progressive, that is, proceeding stage by

      stage, each stage being necessary as a preparation for the one that is to

      follow. Let us then briefly sketch the stages by which things in our world

      have got as far as they have. The interest of the enquiry lies in the fact

      that if we can once get at the principle which is producing these results,

      we may discover some way of giving it personal application.

      On the hypothesis of the Self-contemplation of Spirit being the originating

      power, we have found that a primary ether, or universal substance, is the

      necessary correspondence to Spirit's simple awareness of its own being. But

      though awareness of being is the necessary foundation for any further

      possibilities it is, so to say, not much to talk about. The foundation

      fact, of course, is to know that I Am; but immediately on this

      consciousness there follows the desire for Activity--I want to enjoy my I

      Am-ness by doing something with

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