|
The expression “relative
first cause” has been used in the last section to distinguish the action
of the creative principle in the individual mind from Universal
First Cause on the one hand and from secondary causes on the other. As it
exists in us, primary causation is the power to initiate a train of
causation directed to an individual purpose. As the power of initiating a
fresh sequence of cause and effect it is first cause, and as referring to
an individual purpose it is relative, and it may therefore be spoken of as
relative first cause, or the power of primary causation manifested by the
individual. The understanding and use of this power is the whole object of
Mental Science, and it is therefore necessary that the student should
clearly see the relation between causes and conditions. A simple
illustration will go further for this purpose than any elaborate
explanation. If a lighted candle is brought into a room the room becomes
illuminated, and if the candle is taken away it becomes dark again. Now
the illumination and the darkness are both conditions, the one positive
resulting from the presence of the light, and the other negative resulting
from its absence: from this simple example we therefore see that every
positive condition has an exactly opposite negative condition
corresponding to it, and that this correspondence results from their being
related to the same cause, the one positively and the other
negatively; and hence we may lay down the rule that all positive
conditions result from the active presence of a certain cause, and all
negative conditions from the absence of such a cause. A condition, whether
positive or negative, is never primary cause, and the primary
cause of any series can never be negative, for negation is the condition
which arises from the absence of active causation. This should be
thoroughly understood as it is the philosophic basis of all those
“denials” which play so important a, part in Mental Science, and which may
be summed up in the statement that evil being negative, or privation of
good, has no substantive existence in itself. Conditions, however, whether
positive or negative, are no sooner called into existence than they become
causes in their turn and produce further conditions, and so on ad
infinitum, thus giving rise to the whole train of secondary causes. So
long as we judge only from the information conveyed to us by the outward
senses, we are working on the plane of secondary causation and see nothing
but a succession of conditions, forming part of an endless train of
antecedent conditions coming out of the past and stretching away into the
future, and from this point of view we are under the rule of an iron
destiny from which there seems no possibility of escape. This is because
the outward senses are only capable of dealing with the relations which
one mode of limitation bears to another, for they are the instruments by
which we take cognizance of the relative and the conditioned. Now the only
way of escape is by rising out of the region of secondary causes into that
of primary causation, where the originating energy is to be found before
it has yet passed into manifestation as a condition. This region is to be
found within ourselves; it is the region of pure ideas; and it is
for this reason that I have laid stress on the two aspects of spirit as
pure thought and manifested form. The thought-image or ideal pattern of a
thing is the first cause relatively to that thing; it is the
substance of that thing untrammelled, by any antecedent conditions.
If we realize
that all visible things must have their origin in spirit, then the
whole creation around us is the standing evidence that the starting-point
of all things is in thought-images or ideas, for no other action than the
formation of such images can be conceived of spirit prior to its
manifestation in matter. If, then, this is spirit's modus operandi for
self-expression, we have only to transfer this conception from the scale
of cosmic spirit working on the plane of the universal to that of
individualized spirit working on the plane of the particular, to see that
the formation of an ideal image by means of our thought is setting first
cause in motion with regard to this specific object. There is no
difference in kind between the operation of first cause in the universal
and in the particular, the difference is only a difference of scale, but
the power itself is identical. We must therefore always be very clear as
to whether we are consciously using first cause or not. Note the
word “consciously” because, whether consciously or unconsciously, we are
always using first cause; and it was for this reason I emphasized the fact
that the Universal Mind is purely subjective and therefore bound by the
laws which apply to subjective mind on whatever scale. Hence we are
always impressing some sort of ideas upon it, whether we are aware of
the fact or not, and all our existing limitations result from our having
habitually impressed upon it that idea of limitation which we have imbibed
by restricting all possibility to the region of secondary causes. But now
when investigation has shown us that conditions are never causes in
themselves, but only the subsequent links of a chain started on the
plane of the pure ideal, what we have to do is to reverse our method of
thinking and regard the ideal as the real, and the outward manifestation
as a mere reflection which must change with every change of the object
which casts it. For these reasons it is essential to know whether we are
consciously making use of first cause with a definite purpose or not, and
the criterion is this. If we regard the fulfilment of our purpose as
contingent upon any circumstances, past, present, or future, we are
not making use of first cause; we have descended to the level of secondary
causation, which is the region of doubts, fears, and limitations, all of
which we are impressing upon the universal subjective mind with the
inevitable result that it will build up corresponding external conditions.
But if we realize that the region of secondary causes is the region of
mere reflections we shall not think of our purpose as contingent on any
conditions whatever, but shall know that by forming the idea of it in the
absolute, and maintaining that idea, we have shaped the first cause into
the desired form and can await the result with cheerful expectancy.
It is here that
we find the importance of realizing spirit's independence of time and
space. An ideal, as such, cannot be formed in the future. It must either
be formed here and now or not be formed at all; and it is for this reason
that every teacher, who has ever spoken with due knowledge of the subject,
has impressed upon his followers the necessity of picturing to themselves
the fulfilment of their desires as already accomplished on the
spiritual plane, as the indispensable condition of fulfilment in the
visible and concrete.
When this is
properly understood, any anxious thought as to the means to be
employed in the accomplishment of our purposes is seen to be quite
unnecessary. If the end is already secured, then it follows that all the
steps leading to it are secured also. The means will pass into the smaller
circle of our conscious activities day by day in due order, and then we
have to work upon them, not with fear, doubt, or feverish excitement, but
calmly and joyously, because we know that the end is already
secured, and that our reasonable use of such means as present themselves
in the desired direction is, only one portion of a much larger
co-ordinated movement, the final result of which admits of no doubt.
Mental Science does not offer a premium to idleness, but it takes, all
work out of the region of anxiety and toil by assuring the worker of the
success of his labour, if not in the precise form he anticipated, then in
some other still better suited to his requirements. But suppose, when we
reach a point where some momentous decision has to be made, we happen to
decide wrongly? On the hypothesis that the end is already secured you
cannot decide wrongly. Your right decision is as much one of the necessary
steps in the accomplishment of the end as any of the other conditions
leading up to it, and therefore, while being careful to avoid rash action,
we may make sure that the same Law which is controlling the rest of the
circumstances in the right direction will influence our judgment in that
direction also. To get good results we must properly understand our
relation to the great impersonal power we are using. It is intelligent and
we are intelligent, and the two intelligences must co-operate. We must not
fly in the face of the Law by expecting it to do for us what it can
only do through us; and we must therefore use our intelligence with
the knowledge that it is acting as the instrument of a greater
intelligence; and because we have this knowledge we may, and should,
cease from all anxiety as to the final result. In actual practice we must
first form the ideal conception of our object with the definite intention
of impressing it upon the universal mind—it is this intention which takes
such thought out of the region of mere casual fancies—and then affirm that
our knowledge of the Law is sufficient reason for a calm expectation of a
corresponding result, and that therefore all necessary conditions will
come to us in due order. We can then turn to the affairs of our daily life
with the calm assurance that the initial conditions are either there
already or will soon come into view. If we do not at once see them, let us
rest content with the knowledge that the spiritual prototype is already in
existence and wait till some circumstance pointing in the desired
direction begins to show itself. It may be a very small circumstance, but
it is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into
consideration. As soon as we see it we should regard it as the first
sprouting of the seed we have sown in the Absolute, and do calmly, and
without excitement, whatever the circumstances may seem to require, and
then later on we shall see that this doing will in turn lead to further
circumstances in the same direction until we find ourselves conducted step
by step to the accomplishment of our object. In this way the understanding
of the great principle of the Law of Supply will, by repeated experiences,
deliver us more and more completely out of the region of anxious thought
and toilsome labour and bring us into a new world where the useful
employment of all our powers, whether mental or physical, will only be an
unfolding of our individuality upon the lines of its own nature, and
therefore a perpetual source of health and happiness; a sufficient
inducement, surely, to the careful study of the laws governing the
relation between the individual and the Universal Mind. |
