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The preceding
pages have made the student in some measure aware of the immense
importance of our dealings with the sub-conscious mind. Our relation to
it, whether on the scale of the individual or the universal, is the key to
all that we are or ever can be. In its unrecognized working it is the
spring of all that we can call the automatic action of mind and body, and
on the universal scale it is the silent power of evolution gradually
working onwards to that “divine event, to which the whole creation moves”;
and by our conscious recognition of it we make it, relatively to
ourselves, all that we believe it to be. The closer our rapport
with it becomes, the more what we have hitherto considered automatic
action, whether in our bodies or our circumstances, will pass under our
control, until at last we shall control our whole individual world. Since,
then, this is the stupendous issue involved, the question how we are to
put ourselves practically in touch with the sub-conscious mind is a very
important one. Now the clue which gives us the right direction is to be
found in the impersonal quality of sub-conscious mind of which I
have spoken. Not impersonal as lacking the elements of personality;
nor even, in the case of individual subjective mind, as lacking the sense
of individuality; but impersonal in the sense of not recognizing the
particular external relations which appear to the objective mind to
constitute its personality, and having a realization of itself quite
independent of them. If, then, we would come in touch with it we must meet
it on its own ground. It can see things only from the deductive
standpoint, and therefore cannot take note of the inductive standpoint
from which we construct the idea of our external personality; and
accordingly if we would put ourselves in touch with it, we cannot do so by
bringing it down to the level of the external and non-essential but only
by rising to its own level on the plane of the interior and essential. How
can this be done? Let two well-known writers answer. Rudyard Kipling tells
us in his story of “Kim” how the boy used at times to lose his sense of
personality by repeating to himself the question, Who is Kim?
Gradually his personality would seem to fade and he would experience a
feeling of passing into a grander and a wider life, in which the boy Kim
was unknown, while his own conscious individuality remained, only exalted
and expanded to an inconceivable extent; and in Tennyson's life by his son
we are told that at times the poet had a similar experience. We come into
touch with the absolute exactly in proportion as we withdraw ourselves
from the relative: they vary inversely to each other.
For the purpose,
then, of getting into touch with our sub-conscious mind we must endeavour
to think of ourselves as pure being, as that entity which interiorly
supports the outward manifestation, and doing so we shall realize that the
essential quality of pure being must be good. It is in itself pure Life,
and as such cannot desire anything detrimental to pure Life under whatever
form manifested. Consequently the purer our intentions the more readily we
shall place ourself en rapport with our subjective entity; and a
fortiori the same applies to that Greater Sub-conscious Mind of which
our individual subjective mind is a particular manifestation. In actual
practice the process consists in first forming a clear conception in the
objective mind of the idea we wish to convey to the subjective mind: then,
when this has been firmly grasped, endeavour to lose sight of all other
facts connected with the external personality except the one in question,
and then mentally address the subjective mind as though it were an
independent entity and impress upon it what you want it to do or to
believe. Everyone must formulate his own way of working, but one method,
which is both simple and effective is to say to the subjective mind, “This
is what I want you to do; you will now step into my place and do it,
bringing all your powers and intelligence to bear, and considering
yourself to be none other than myself.” Having done this return to the
realization of your own objective personality and leave the subjective
mind to perform its task in full confidence that, by the law of its
nature, it will do so if not hindered by a repetition of contrary messages
from the objective mind. This is not a mere fancy but a truth daily proved
by the experience of increasing numbers. The facts have not been
fabricated to fit the theory, but the theory has been built up by careful
observation of the facts; and since it has been shown both by theory and
practice that such is the law of the relation between subjective and
objective mind, we find ourselves face to face with a very momentous
question. Is there any reason why the laws which hold good of the
individual subjective mind should not hold good of the Universal Mind
also? and the answer is that there is not. As has been already shown the
Universal Mind must, by its very universality, be purely subjective, and
what is the law of a part must also be the law of the whole: the qualities
of fire are the same whether the centres of combustion be great or small,
and therefore we may well conclude these lectures by considering what will
be the result if we apply what we have learnt regarding the individual
subjective mind to the Universal Mind.
We have learnt
that the three great facts regarding subjective mind are its creative
power, its amenableness to suggestion, and its inability to work by any
other than the deductive method. This last is an exceedingly important
point, for it implies that the action of the subjective mind is in no way
limited by precedent. The inductive method works on principles inferred
from an already existing pattern, and therefore at the best only produces
the old thing in a new shape. But the deductive method works according to
the essence or spirit of the principle, and does not depend on any
previous concrete manifestation for its apprehension of it; and this
latter method of working must necessarily be that of the all-originating
Mind, for since there could be no prior existing pattern from which it
could learn the principles of construction, the want of a pattern would
have prevented its creating anything had its method been inductive instead
of deductive. Thus by the necessity of the case the Universal Mind must
act deductively, that is, according to the law which has been found true
of individual subjective mind. It is thus not bound by any precedent,
which means that its creative power is absolutely unlimited; and since it
is essentially subjective mind, and not objective mind, it is entirely
amenable to suggestion. Now it is an unavoidable inference from the
identity of the law governing subjective mind, whether in the individual
or the universal, that just as we can by suggestion impress a certain
character of personality upon the individual subjective mind, so we can,
and do, upon the Universal Mind; and it is for this reason that I have
drawn attention to the inherent personal quality of pure spirit
when contemplated in its most interior plane. It becomes, therefore, the
most important of all considerations with what character we invest the
Universal Mind; for since our relation to it is purely subjective
it will infallibly bear to us exactly that character which we
impress upon it; in other words it will be to us exactly what we believe
it to be. This is simply a logical inference from the fact that, as
subjective mind, our primary relation to it can only be on the subjective
plane, and indirectly our objective relations must also spring from the
same source. This is the meaning of that remarkable passage twice repeated
in the Bible, “With, the pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the
froward thou wilt show thyself froward.” (Ps. xviii., 26, and II. Sam.
xxii., 27), for the context makes it clear that these words are addressed
to the Divine Being. The spiritual kingdom is within us, and as we
realize it there so it becomes to us a reality. It is the unvarying
law of the subjective life that “as a man thinketh in his heart so is he,”
that is to say, his inward subjective states are the only true reality,
and what we call external realities are only their objective
correspondences. If we thoroughly realize the truth that the Universal
Mind must be to us exactly according to our conception of it, and that
this relation is not merely imaginary but by the law of subjective mind
must be to us an actual fact and the foundation of all other facts, then
it is impossible to over-estimate the importance of the conception of the
Universal Mind which we adopt. To the uninstructed there is little or no
choice: they form a conception in accordance with the tradition they have
received from others, and until they have learnt to think for themselves,
they have to abide by the results of that tradition: for natural laws
admit of no exceptions, and however faulty the traditional idea may be,
its acceptance will involve a corresponding reaction upon the Universal
Mind, which will in turn be reflected into the conscious mind and external
life of the individual. But those who understand the law of the subject
will have no one but themselves to blame if they do not derive all
possible benefits from it. The greatest Teacher of Mental Science the
world has ever seen has laid down sufficiently plain rules for our
guidance. With a knowledge of the subject whose depth can be appreciated
only by those who have themselves some practical acquaintance with it, He
bids His unlearned audiences, those common people who heard Him gladly,
picture to themselves the Universal Mind as a benign Father, tenderly
compassionate of all and sending the common bounties of Nature alike on
the evil and the good; but He also pictured It as exercising a special and
peculiar care over those who recognize Its willingness to do so:—“the very
hairs of your head are all numbered,” and “ye are of more value than many
sparrows.” Prayer was to be made to the unseen Being, not with doubt or
fear, but with the absolute assurance of a certain answer, and no limit
was to be set to its power or willingness to work for us. But to those who
did not thus realize it, the Great Mind is necessarily the adversary who
casts them into prison until they have paid the uttermost farthing; and
thus in all cases the Master impressed upon his hearers the exact
correspondence of the attitude of this unseen Power towards them
with their own attitude towards it. Such teaching was not a narrow
anthropomorphism but the adaptation to the intellectual capacity of the
unlettered multitude of the very deepest truths of what we now call Mental
Science. And the basis of it all is the cryptic personality of spirit
hidden throughout the infinite of Nature under every form of
manifestation. As unalloyed Life and Intelligence it can be no
other than good, it can entertain no intention of evil, and thus all
intentional evil must put us in opposition to it, and so deprive us of the
consciousness of its guidance and strengthening and thus leave us to grope
our own way and fight our own battle single-handed against the universe,
odds which at last will surely prove too great for us. But remember that
the opposition can never be on the part of the Universal Mind, for in
itself it is sub-conscious mind; and to suppose any active opposition
taken on its own initiative would be contrary to all we have learnt as to
the nature of sub-conscious mind whether in the individual or the
universal; the position of the Universal Mind towards us is always the
reflection of our own attitude. Therefore although the Bible is full of
threatening against those who persist in conscious opposition to the
Divine Law of Good, it is on the other hand full of promises of immediate
and full forgiveness to all who change, their attitude and desire to
co-operate with the Law of Good so far as they know it. The laws of Nature
do not act vindictively; and through all theological formularies and
traditional interpretations let us realize that what we are dealing with
is the supreme law of our own being; and it is on the basis of this
natural law that we find such declarations as that in Ezek. xviii., 22,
which tells that if we forsake our evil ways our past transgressions shall
never again be mentioned to us. We are dealing with the great principles
of our subjective being, and our misuse of them in the past can never make
them change their inherent law of action. If our method of using them in
the past has brought us sorrow, fear and trouble, we have only to fall
back on the law that if we reverse the cause the effects will be reversed
also; and so what we have to do is simply to reverse our mental attitude
and then endeavour to act up to the new one. The sincere endeavour to act
up to our new mental attitude is essential, for we cannot really think in
one way and act in another; but our repeated failures to fully act as we
would wish must not discourage us. It is the sincere intention that is the
essential thing, and this will in time release us from the bondage of
habits which at present seem almost insuperable.
The initial step,
then, consists in determining to picture the Universal Mind as the ideal
of all we could wish it to be both to ourselves and to others, together
with the endeavour to reproduce this ideal, however imperfectly, in our
own life; and this step having been taken, we can then cheerfully look
upon it as our ever-present Friend, providing all good, guarding from all
danger, and guiding us with all counsel. Gradually as the habit of thus
regarding the Universal Mind grows upon us, we shall find that in
accordance with the laws we have been considering, it will become more and
more personal to us, and in response to our desire its inherent
intelligence will make itself more and more clearly perceptible within as
a power of perceiving truth far beyond any statement of it that we could
formulate by merely intellectual investigation. Similarly if we think of
it as a great power devoted to supplying all our needs, we shall impress
this character also upon it, and by the law of subjective mind it will
proceed to enact the part of that special providence which we have
credited it with being; and if, beyond the general care of our concerns,
we would draw to ourselves some particular benefit, the same rule holds
good of impressing our desire upon the Universal Subjective Mind. And if
we realize that above and beyond all this we want something still greater
and more enduring, the building-up of character and unfolding of our
powers so that we may expand into fuller and yet fuller measures of joyous
and joy-giving Life, still the same rule holds good: convey to the
Universal Mind the suggestion of the desire, and by the law of relation
between subjective and objective mind this too will be fulfilled. And thus
the deepest problems of philosophy bring us back to the old statement of
the Law:—Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it
shall be opened unto you. This is the summing-up of the natural law of the
relation between us and the Divine Mind. It is thus no vain boast that
Mental Science can enable us to make our lives what we will. We must start
from where we are now, and by rightly estimating our relation to the
Divine Universal Mind we can gradually grow into any conditions we desire,
provided we first make ourselves in habitual mental attitude the person
who corresponds to those conditions: for we can never get over the law of
correspondence, and the externalization will always be in accord with the
internal principle that gives rise to it. And to this law there is no
limit. What it can do for us to-day it can do to-morrow, and through all
that procession of to-morrows that loses itself in the dim vistas of
eternity. Belief in limitation is the one and only thing that causes
limitation, because we thus impress limitation upon the creative
principle; and in proportion as we lay that belief aside our boundaries
will expand, and increasing life and more abundant blessing will be ours.
But we must not
ignore our responsibilities. Trained thought is far more powerful than
untrained, and therefore the more deeply we penetrate into Mental Science
the more carefully we must guard against all thoughts and words expressive
of even the most modified form of ill-will. Gossip, tale-bearing, sneering
laughter, are not in accord with the principles of Mental Science; and
similarly even our smallest thoughts of good carry with them a seed of
good which will assuredly bear fruit in due time. This is not mere
“goodie, goodie,” but an important lesson in Mental Science, for our
subjective mind takes its colour from our settled mental habits, and an
occasional affirmation or denial will not be sufficient to change it; and
we must therefore cultivate that tone which we wish to see reproduced in
our conditions whether of body, mind, or circumstance.
In these lectures
my purpose has been, not so much to give specific rules of practice as to
lay down the broad general principles of Mental Science which will enable
the student to form rules for himself. In every walk in life, book
knowledge is only a means to an end. Books can only direct us where to
look and what to look for, but we must do the finding for ourselves;
therefore, if you have really grasped the principles of the science, you
will frame rules of your own which will give you better results than any
attempt to follow somebody else's method, which was successful in their
hands precisely because it was theirs. Never fear to be yourself. If
Mental Science does not teach you to be yourself it teaches you nothing.
Yourself, more yourself, and yet more yourself is what you want; only with
the knowledge that the true self includes the inner and higher self which
is always in immediate touch with the Great Divine Mind.
As Walt Whitman
says:—“You are not all included between your hat and your boots.”
* * * * *
The growing
popularity of the Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science has led me to add
to the present edition three more sections on Body, Soul, and Spirit,
which it is hoped will prove useful by rendering the principles of the
interaction of these three factors somewhat clearer. |
