WORDS OF POWER
By Eugene Halliday
The nine parts that go to make up the
complete ‘Words of Power’ by Eugene Halliday, were first
published in the St Michael’s Church’s parish magazine between May and
December of 1978. I have added paragraph numbers to this edition
for ease of reference.
Bob Hardy
July 2012
Words of Power – Part 1 (May 1978)
1. In this series of articles we are going to
examine the nature of words, what they are, what they can do, and why
they have such power.
2. First of all we will say what a word is. A
word is first of all a sound used to produce some effect, either within
our mind or in that of someone else, and then, through the mind, to
stimulate some kind of response, either in some re-arrangement of
ideas, or in some system of behavior, emotional or physical. Secondly,
a word may be written or printed, and is then a number of visual shapes
which we call letters of the alphabet, and which stand for a spoken
word. Spoken words are very ancient; written words are only about six
thousand years old.
3. Long before words were written down, their
sounds had acquired associations with different things and
relationships of things, and with emotional reactions and attitudes,
and with tendencies to action. These associations were very complex,
and by means of spoken words could be invoked into consciousness, and
also triggered off certain kinds of unconscious associations and
action-tendencies.
4. The power of words depends upon their
associations, upon their relationships with things, with emotions, with
ideas and with the will. When we use a word we use a stimulus, a
certain kind of energy, formed in a certain way and used in a certain
situation.
5. This brings us to our second point: what a
word can do. A word is a sound, or a written or printed letter-pattern
visible to the eye, and able, under certain conditions to stimulate us
into some kind of action mental, psychical or physical. A word can
provoke us to respond to its associated feelings, emotions,
action-tendencies or ideas. Only if we accept this fact shall we be
able to look upon words with the deep respect they deserve. A word out
of its proper context may cause confusion. A word misunderstood might
cause a disaster. A word in season might save a wasted life.
6. We come now to our third point, why a word may have such power.
7. The Gospel of John begins with the
statement, "In the beginning was the Word." In the Greek original is
the word 'Logos'. 'Logos' means 'word' and 'ratio', the
ground of the possibility of
logical relationships, the substantial basis of all intelligent
communication. This 'Logos-Word' is the opposite of chaos or infinite
disorder. This Logos-Word introduced order into the unordered mass of
energy, which now constitutes the universe. The Logos-Word is an
order-bringer, a creative intelligent power that acts on unordered
forces to bring them into an orderly system of harmoniously
interrelated forms of energy. By means of this ordering power of the
Logos Word, infinite confusion has been given clarity of expression, so
that the previously chaotic, haphazard behavior of infinite forces has
been brought into the condition of an ordered universe.
8. Everything that is now in the universe
conducting its harmoniously ordered process was once a mass of totally
disordered forces, travelling with no purpose, traversing infinite
space to no established effect. In that sea of disordered forces there
was no stable ground on which to set our feet. The earth and other
planets had not yet been formed and set in their orbits; the sun had
not yet condensed its mass of energy into the orb we now know. Nothing
recognizable existed; there was no possibility there of what we call
perception, or of an ordered mental process, or of any permanent
emotional relationship of beings. There were no beings at all, in our
sense of the word.
9. Then, within the vast unordered mass of
dissembling forces, there arose an initiative act of God the Father, a
first movement towards order and harmony. This power-act initiated the
Logos-Word, the Divine Word referred to in the fourth gospel, the Word
that by its ordering power created out of an infinitely formless mass
of random forces a harmonious system of motions, a universe of stars,
suns, and rotating planets able to maintain their forms and serve as a
system of stable references by means of which an operative intelligent
power could lead a purposive life and evolve to the greatest heights of
joyful activity.
10. We are not to think of this Logos-Word,
this Divine Articulating Power, as a mere abstraction of the human
intellect. The human intellect itself is a precipitated creation of
this Divine Power, this Cosmic Word. Everything whatever that has been
made, or now exists, or will exist in the future, had, has, or will
have this Divine Logos-Word as its Creator.
11. Just as we have two kinds of word in our
language on earth, so also, in the balanced infinity of power that we
call Heaven, there are two kinds of words; a spoken and a written or
printed word. To understand the Spoken Word of God, the Divine
Logos-Word, we have to understand that sound itself is formative. We
have all heard the story of Caruso, the great Italian tenor, smashing a
wineglass with the power of his voice. Those of us who have studied a
little science know also that sound can be creative, that fine
particles of sand can be vibrated into geometrical forms by simply
sounding notes of particular pitches. Today the study of the formative
power of sound is bringing us nearer and nearer to the realization that
the whole universe is a colossal sound- structure, in which each thing
is held together as it is by the vibrational activity of ultra-sound,
sound beyond the range of human hearing, but nevertheless a real,
active and creative power, an energy process worthy of study by the
most advanced science.
12. What, then, shall we say of the written or
printed word? Quite simply, all the physical things that we see in the
world around us are these 'printed' things, these 'written' words. The
invisible sounding power of God, the Logos-Word, by its vibratory
activity brings into visibility the things of the universe that our
eyes see all around us. "From the things visible we know the
invisible." From the things our eyes show to us we know the activities
of the all-creative Divine Sound that is the Logos-Word. God said
...... and the world appeared. "The Word of God is quick and powerful,”
says St Paul. As the Divine speaks, the original sound vibrates in
infinite space, and so at once appears that signified by the spoken
word. When we look at visible objects we are seeing things that at
another level of consciousness are vibratory patterns of power
13. The first chapter of the Gospel of John,
verse fourteen, says of the Divine Logos-Word, the Creative Sounding
Power of God, "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth." To understand this great truth we are to remember
that the formative power of sound is the cause of all things visible.
14. The all-powerful sounding Word of God
vibrated into existence His own most powerful expression in Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ in His physical body was the precipitated
intelligence of the Divine Logos-Word, the very principle of Truth,
which brought into the primeval chaos the Divine Order of Cosmos. This
is why Jesus says in the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel, verse
six, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." And in Matthew chapter
twenty-four, verse thirty-five, "My Word shall not pass away." For the
word that speaks through Him is the Word of unalterable Truth, the
Divine Logos-Word, root of all true logic. The Words of Christ are
true, and they are life.
15. Let us examine this idea a little more
closely. There is a very intimate relation between truth and life,
because only if we know the truth of any thing can we adequately
adjust our actions to it. If we enter a strange city and ask a man to
direct us to a particular place within the city, and the man knows the
way to this place, and tells us truthfully how to get there, then, if
we follow properly his directions, we shall arrive at that place. The
truth will have led us to our destination.
16. But if we ask another man, who does not
know the place, but nevertheless, such is human nature, directs us, so
that finally we are lost in that city, and have to start our search
again, the non-truth has misled us, to our great inconvenience. We thus
see that truth is more useful as a directive than is non-truth.
17. Jesus calls the Devil a liar, and the
father of lies. A lie is a statement that something is, which is not,
or that something is not, which is. Jesus was very aware of the
all-too-human tendency to fall into lying, rather than into
truth-telling. Many people would rather tell a pleasant untruth than an
unpleasant truth, because of the undesirable reactions of the hearer.
Many people would rather be told pleasant untruths than unpleasant
truths because of the damage to their self-imagery and their fear of
social rejection.
18. Jesus was not conditioned by what men
thought of Him. He knew His own Being, and His destiny, and knew that
this could be known fully only to Himself and God.
19. The preference of most people for
pleasantries in conversation is the cause of 'polite' behavior and
'civility', both words referring to the behavior patterns of people
dwelling in cities. This is quite efficient for the general running of
civilizations with their very difficult problems of the management of
very large masses of mankind, but it is not very good for the internal
spiritual development of the human individual. For inner individual
development requires inner individual truth. The more inner truth we
have, the more consistent our inner processes of thought and feelings
and will. Thus Truth is intimately related to life.
20. Of course, the vulnerability of people
being what it is, the more we are required to control our tongues when
relating to them. But this is not a justification for treating our own
souls inwardly in the same polite or civil manner. Only if we tell
ourselves internally the truth about ourselves, our ideas, feelings and
motivations, can we participate in the Greater Life, which is Universal
Truth.
21. The words that we speak to ourselves
are words of power, words that produce responses inside us, to increase
or decrease the amount of truth we possess. If we desire the fuller
life possible for us, we are to, "lay no flattering unction to our
soul." Only the truth can direct us to our true destination in the
world city. We are not to misdirect ourselves, either through
carelessness or ill will or sheer lack of knowledge about ourselves.
Where we do not know what is essential for us to know, we owe it to
ourselves to find out, to broaden and deepen our self-understanding.
22. When we begin to look inside ourselves and
to seek greater self-knowledge, we can be helped by the use of words,
and these words must be true. Untrue words, sentences which represent
what is as if it were not, or what is not as if it were, cause
confusion, re-introduce us into the primeval chaos from which the
Divine Logos-Word rescued us.
23. All words are vibratory patterns that
tend to produce reactions whenever they are introduced. True words tend
to build harmonious patterns of thought and feeling and to produce
actions that make for increase of life. Untrue words act as
disintegrating forces, destroy the harmonious tendencies that are
natural in living beings. A forceful lie might overthrow a weakly held
truth. This is the secret of the confidence trickster, in whose
presence we cannot afford to have only feebly held convictions.
24. Luckily for us we have in Jesus
Christ a man whose words are words of power, words which, when we take
them into our souls, work powerfully for our deliverance from the
untruths that, if we had no defense, would destroy the unity of our
body, mind and soul. To build our defenses against untruth on the Words
of Jesus Christ, is to be like a wise man who builds his house on a
rock - the Rock of Ages.
Words of Power – Part 2 (June 1978)
25. Before we enter further into our
consideration of ‘words of power’, we will look at a problem which
occupies the minds of certain thinkers. Put simply, the problem is; can
we think without words? The answer to this depends on what we mean by
'words'. If by 'words' we mean the apparently arbitrary units of
language which human beings have developed for the purposes of
communication with each other and to economize the attainment of their
various goals, then we can say that we do not need words in order to be
able to think. We can think by using memory images of our
sense-impressions, of things seen by using our eyes, or heard by our
ears, or by manipulating memories of things smelled, tasted or touched.
26. A Beethoven thinks in terms of
musical sound patterns, a wine-taster by means of the sensations of
taste and bouquet, an athlete in terms of muscle sensations and
feelings of degree and effort, and so on.
27. But if by the word 'word', we mean
any ordering energy-process what ever, then we can not think without
words. When the Fourth Gospel begins with the statement, "In the
beginning was the Word," by the word 'Word' it does not mean some
arbitrary language-unit similar to that used in human language
communication. The word translated as the 'Word' in English, has
in the original Greek the word 'Logos', which means 'Ratio', 'rational
formulator'; 'Ground of our True Reason or Logic'.
28. If we accept that in the Fourth
Gospel's first paragraph the English word 'Word' has the same meaning
as the Greek word Logos, of which it is a translation, then we can say
in relation to this that we can not think without this word.
29. Without this 'Logos-Word' nothing in the
universe was ever created. This Logos-Word is itself the very creative
Word of God, the Rational Logical Power of God, which by its
formulating action brought forth every thing whatever that we have
found, find now, and may find in the future, into existence. The
universe of forms, shapes or ideas is the result of the rational
forming power of God, the power that, as manifestor of the invisible
God, we call God's Son.
30. We know scientifically today that all material things are behaviors
of energy, ways in which energy operates. The difference between one
thing and another, as all things are made of energy, is the pattern of
this energy's activity, the manner of the energy's relating to itself.
Each thing in the material world is made of an amount of energy, acting
in a certain way. By its pattern of action of its energy-mass, one
thing is distinguished from another. This is why we say we live in an
actual world, that we actually live different kinds of lives, and so
on. Everything in the world depends on actualization.
31. As everything is what it is because a certain amount of energy is
activated in some particular way in order to maintain it as it is,
there is a relation ship between all things, a relationship based on
two factors: (1) the energy amount contained in the things, and (2) the
pattern or form in which this energy activates or actualizes itself.
32. This relationship between the amount of energy involved in
constituting a thing, and the form or pattern taken by this energy
amount, when viewed by comprehending all things whatever taken as a
whole energy-mass and a whole pattern, is what we are to try to grasp
when we think of the Logos Word which has created and maintains the
universe and all things in it, including our own selves, our bodies,
minds and souls.
33. If a thing did not consist of a certain amount of energy, it could
not act upon another being. Only energy or power can act as a cause,
for a cause is whatever can strike a blow. We shall see that this is
most important when we come to consider more closely the nature of
Words of Power.
34. If a thing constituted of a certain amount of energy did not have a
definite form or shape or pattern, then it could not have a clearly
defined form of action; it could not act as a special kind of cause, a
cause that we could control and make operative in a known, clearly
defined manner.
35. Here we see the difference between ‘might’ and ‘right’. ‘Might’ is
an energy-mass able to produce effects, but without these effects being
controllable in all their details, or without these effects being
clearly defined beforehand. We cannot predict the particularized
effects of throwing an undefined energy-mass into a situation. So mere
‘might’ on its own, divorced from ‘right’ is not efficient. Hence the
joke about the plumber's bill: "To hitting with a hammer = four pence;
to knowing where and when to hit = four pounds; Total = Four pounds and
four pence."
36. 'Right' depends on 'know-how', on knowledge of the forms or
patterns that energy may take, the particular way in which energy
operates or may operate. Thus 'right' and 'might' are not
interchangeable terms. A man with big, powerful muscles, or a
government with big, powerful nuclear weapons is not necessarily
'right'. 'Might' may be present in very large measure, but unless this
'might' is accompanied with an appropriate amount of discriminative
intelligence able to see all the ultimate effects of its application,
then it cannot stand as identical with 'right'. Mere 'might' is simply
massenergy undirected by discriminative intelligence. 'Right' is might
controlled and directed by that intelligence which is concerned with
ultimate effects.
37. 'Unright' has a good example in the indiscriminate use of the
world's energy and material resources to destroy and pollute the
environment in which we live. Might, energy and power used
unintelligently, is unright. ‘Might is right’ is a false equation This
is why Jesus has so much to say in the Sermon on the Mount in favor of
those who lack “might”, those who are “poor in spirit”, who are "meek",
who are "merciful", who are "peacemakers", who are "persecuted for
righteousness sake". For those who lack might are more likely to
use what intelligence they have in order to discover the right way, the
discriminate intelligent way of dealing with the mighty.
38. This intelligent way of dealing with the mighty cannot confine
itself to the use of naked force to attain its goals; it cannot simply
launch intercontinental ballistic missiles as its contribution to a
world conference. The intelligent way must use ‘words of power’ to make
its points.
39. Words are very economic ways of directing energy. The words, “Press
the button,” might direct a missile from a nuclear submarine at some
target defined as ‘enemy’. Or they might simply result in the arrival
of a lift at the floor where one is waiting to descend or ascend in a
building. Here the context of the directive sentence is most important.
40. 'Context' means the way things are built or constructed and related
together. 'Context' is a very important word. We live within the
context of the universe, in the solar system, on earth, in the world of
living things, within the structure of human society, inside a
particular nation and family, within a circle of acquaintances or
friends, perhaps infiltrated with some enemies. We live in a very
complex context of daily life procedures and events, general and
particular, communal and personal. If we forget our context we can make
serious errors of judgment.
41. Here is where words show one of their chief values. They enable us
to remember the context of things. They supply us with very efficient
memory aids. When children first learn to read music they are given a
simple sentence by which they can remember the names of the notes on
the lines and in the spaces of the stave. Counting from below, the
initial letters of the sentence, "Every good boy deserves favor"
(E,G,B,D,F,) give the names of the notes on the lines of the stave
where the ‘G’ clef is used. The names of the four letters which
indicate the four spaces are contained in the letters of the word Face
(F,A,C,E,). By such easy memory aids the child is enabled quickly to
learn the names of the notes it will later use for the entertainment of
itself and others. Words properly used are very powerful aids to
memory. A memory well stocked with words well understood, is an arsenal
filled with powerful weapons, requiring only intelligent use for the
outcome of the battle of life, which we must all fight.
42. Of Jesus, it is said that when men were sent to arrest Him, they
returned without Him, saying, "Never man spake like this man." We know
that He could quote with great relevance the Mosaic scriptures, and we
know that not merely the overturning of the money-changer's tables
drove them out of the temple. Jesus gave powerful support to His
physical actions by words that rang even more powerfully in the ears of
the guilty: "It is written that My house shall be a house of prayer,
but ye have made it a den of thieves." Guilty men do not like words of
power that remind them of their guilt.
43. Psychologists and psychiatrists constantly encounter the effects of
repression-forces in the human mind. Actions that have been verbally
defined as socially unacceptable, if one is in a social situation, are
often repressed, pushed down out of the level of waking
consciousness. But not only the actions themselves are repressed,
but also the words that refer to these actions. Much so-called ‘bad
memory’ is the result of such verbal repressions. We try to recall an
event or a name, and we cannot. Often one can feel the hidden name "on
the tip of our tongue", as we say, but it will not come off and pass
into speech. Some hidden association with an unpleasant context has
perhaps seized this name, lest it make reference to some other
forbidden repressed name or event, which would be socially unacceptable.
44. Words, like every other event in the universe, are patterns of
energy. They are formed powers that impinge on other formed powers
stored in our memory, and may re-stimulate these, to the increase or
decrease of our pleasures or pains. Here is the secret of the, "Keys of
loosing and binding," which Christ gave to Peter. Words are formed
powers which may have effects on mental contents, and through these on
our physical behavior and general and particular conditions of, and
attitudes towards, life.
45. We know the conditioning effects of words, the powerful influence
that they exert upon the human soul, mind and body, because the world
is cut up into various groups of people who are distinguished most
obviously by the different languages they speak. Each nation has its
own language, often widely different from that of the immediately
neighboring country, so that, for example, French and German people
cannot understand each other's speech, unless they make a special and
often difficult study of it.
46. But not only the language of different nations make a communication
problem. Within each nation's language there are different levels of
vocabulary which tend to separate the social classes more or less into
three levels, lower, middle and upper, levels in which accents and ways
of pronouncing words may mean the difference between gaining or not
gaining acceptance in a given occupation or profession. Also, within
each social level exists, for each profession, a special vocabulary or
word-group, which may make understanding between the different
professions, and between these and the non-professionals, very
difficult. A trained lawyer and a doctor have such a specialized
vocabulary that usually neither can understand the other, and both
would be in difficulty with the special terms of a sub-atomic
physicist. Language, then, may not only allow communication, but may
also create divisions.
Words of Power – Part 3 (July 1978)
47. Language is therefore capable of a two-fold action: it can aid
communication, and it can cause division. Jesus, the supreme Master of
the double power of language, tells us that we are to love one another,
and yet we are not to think He comes to bring peace, but rather that He
will set even the members of the same household against each other. Why
are we given apparently contradictory directives?
48. Christ came into our world and sacrificed Himself so that we might
have more abundant life. How can His sacrifice act to enrich our lives?
Firstly by waking us up to reality, the reality that demonstrates that
everything in the world is what it is because of the fact of sacrifice.
49. Jesus divided people into two kinds, according to whether they are
aware of life's sacrificial nature or not. Those who see the necessity
of sacrifice He calls the ‘quick’. Those who fail to see this necessity
He calls ‘dead’. The ‘quick’ see that life necessarily involves
sacrifice, that every gain must be paid for with a corresponding loss,
that everything costs something, that we can get, "Nothing for nothing
and very little for a half-penny." The ‘dead’, on the other hand, think
that it is possible to get something for nothing, that the movement of
past history will carry on unchanged, or that if nothing is being
carried to us by the river of time, that it is of no use for us to make
special efforts to gain something. The dead suffer from inertia, are
dictated to by the pattern of past events, which they believe must
repeat itself according to some unbreakable law. The dead are not
creative. But the quick ones are very creative, because they can see
within the movement of time, particular points at which they can act
upon events in order to break their old patterns of reaction.
50. ‘Sacrifice’ is a basic word of power, which Christ not only tells
us about in words, as when He says "Greater love hath no man than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends." but also physically
demonstrated upon the cross. The power of that word derived from the
power of the act, which that word signifies. If there had been no
actual crucifixion, no real material nails in hands and feet to fasten
the real physical body of Jesus to the real wood of the cross, then the
word ‘sacrifice’ would not have the force with us that it has.
51. A word not based on a real deed is a sound or written number of
shapes of no real significance. Strictly it is not properly even a
word, for a real word has actual meaning. It refers to some act, some
accomplished deed. A word of power witnesses a deed of power. Every
word uttered by Jesus Christ is rooted in a deed. He utters nothing
except those words which stand firmly upon His decisive acts. His word
and His deed are one power.
52. This is why Jesus Christ is equated with the Logos, the Creative
Word of God. It is quite permissible to translate the first words of
the Gospel of John thus; "In the beginning was the Word-Deed," the Word
that was also the Creative Deed by which God brought into existence the
World in which we, "Live and move and have our being."
53. We are to remind ourselves that matter is only energy, force-power
behaving in certain specialized ways. This is no longer a mere theory;
it is a scientifically demonstrable fact. The whole universe and all
things in it are constituted of power. The forms of things are but the
ways in which energy habitually behaves.
54. But every energy behavior makes a sound pattern, whether audible or
not to human ears. This sound pattern is the correspondent word of the
deed that the energy generates. Recognition of this fundamental
identity of the word and the deed makes it possible for Jesus to say to
us, "The words I say to you are truth, and they are life." His words
correspond exactly with His deeds of life-power.
55. Absolutely, God is the totality of all conceivable power, the
infinite spirit-energy, which operates within and beyond all created
things. There is nothing anywhere but His power and His intelligence
and His activity. The world is actual because He is Actual. "My Father
works," says Jesus, "and I work." All work is an act of energy, a
demonstration of force, an application of power.
56. In the parable of the talents, Jesus teaches us that the world is a
world of energy, that a man given ten talents, or five talents or only
one, is required by God to make use of what has been given to him, to
show a profit. Each talent is a special kind of energy, a capacity for
a certain kind of creative activity. The whole universe is a
demonstration of the activities of creative power. The whole history of
the human race and all its accomplishments is an expression of talents
given by God to chosen men and women and children-yes, to children
also, for the talents which children are given interact with those of
their parents and so determine the next steps of human evolution and
its effects upon the world.
57. Deed and Word are exactly correspondent in God. In man they are
required to become so. Here is a saying of power: A man's word must be
matched by his deed for him to give birth to his own true self, that
self which, after death, he will carry with him in eternity. After
death the human soul has only its own self-knowledge, its memories of
its deeds and words. If these exactly correspond then the soul is
perfectly integrated and can face itself. Such a soul shall not be hurt
by the ‘second death’.
58. We may die two deaths; one, the death of our physical body, the
other, the death of the disintegration of our body of ideas about
ourselves. If our deeds match our words, we have a condition of
integration, we are not inconsistent with ourselves, we do not fall
apart. While living in our physical body, the inertia of this body and
its organic processes serves as an anchor for our consciousness, so
that under ordinary conditions we have a sufficient degree of
relatively permanent reference in our body to give us enough
integration for the tolerable conducting of our daily life.
59. But at the death of our physical body, our soul no longer has its
organic inertia to serve as a means of stabilizing and integrating the
energies of our soul. It is then we need a consistent ‘body of truths’
to refer to, so that we can hold our consciousness together without the
support of the physical body we have left in death.
60. This body of truths is the record within our soul of the totality
of all our ‘deed-words’, the things that we have said we would do and
have actually matched with correspondent deeds. These ‘deed-words’ are
words of power. They are forms of energy entirely
self-consistent. The word is matched by the deed; the deed
exactly matches the word. Where the word and deed match, there is no
quarrel, no battle of conflicting energies. There is unity of being.
61. When we talk of God's Unity, we are not talking about a simple
oneness, a oneness of a non-difference of a uniform energy; we are
talking about a oneness built by the affirmation of the simultaneous
Word-Deed, the bringing together into a structured unity of Deed and
Word by an act of Will.
62. In the Christian religion, the act of will is God the Father's, the
Word is God the Son, and the deed is the action of God the Holy Spirit.
The deed comes out from the divine will as it is accepted by the Son,
Jesus Christ.
63. Thus Unity is a word of power. It signifies not a simple oneness of
a non-different substance, such as a piece of clay appears to be, but a
bringing together of will, idea, and action, where the word ‘idea’
corresponds to the divine Son, mediator between the will and the act.
64. Here we have another word of power: the word ‘Trinity’,
three-in-one. If we think carefully about the relation between the
Will, the Idea and the Action which demonstrates the presence of the
Will and Idea, we shall not find the doctrine of the Trinity as
difficult as it might otherwise be. The Holy Spirit is said to come
equally from the Father and the Son. This means that the divine deed
emerges from the exactly correspondent Will of God the Father and with
the Supreme Idea or Logos-Word of God the Son.
65. We can see this possibility at our own human level in a very
simplified way when we first will to define an idea which we intend to
use to guide one of our actions, and then deliberately obey, by act of
our will, our defined idea. For example, I will to make a statement
that at the end of this sentence I will put a full stop. (I hope the
printer won't forget to put one!) In this example my will corresponds
with the generative power which carries my whole intention into
existence. My idea is of a full stop placed at the end of this
sentence. My deed (if I accomplish it) will be the placing of the dot
at the sentence's end.
66. In this simple example we, as human beings, have to discuss
separately what we intend to do, and then do it. We have to will to
think of an idea and then will to obey the idea that we have defined,
in act. With God, because of His Immediate Presence to Himself, there
is no time lag between His will to generate His idea, His generation of
the idea, and His operation on the basis of His idea. God defines His
idea, and then obeys it in act. This is the origin of Jesus Christ's
obedience on the Cross. Here is a great word of power: Obedience.
67. On this word of power is based a Latin proverb which translates,
‘Obey in order to rule’. If we obey the Truth, the Truth will guide our
actions and free us from errors that otherwise would impede the
attainment of our goal. By obedience to the truth of any situation we
gain maximum power of effective adjustment. If we know nothing of the
truth of a situation we cannot successfully adapt to it. ‘Truth’ itself
is a word of power.
68. ‘Truth’ means the form of anything. To understand this we must
again remind ourselves that the ultimate reality underlying all things
of the universe is power, the Power of God the Father. This power as
such is invisible to all creatures. Thus, in order to manifest His
power, God must formulate it, and this information we call the Truth,
and the Son of God. This is why Jesus refers to Himself as the Truth:
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
69. We cannot see power as it is in itself. We can see it only if it is
formulated. What we see is form, the expressed way in which power,
itself invisible, brings itself to manifestation. This way of
self-expression of the infinite power involves that mode of action,
which we call ‘rotation’. By rotating or spinning on an axis the
invisible brings itself from invisibility into visibility. This is why
everything in the manifest universe rotates, why planets spin on their
axis, why they orbit round the sun, why the sun itself rotates on its
axis, why the stars spin in the vast distances of outer space, why
electrons inside atoms spin and orbit around the atomic nucleus. And
this is why the word ‘Torah’ is used in Hebrew for the ‘Divine Law’.
Words of Power – Part 4 (August 1978)
70. Torah, the Hebrew name for the Law of God, implies rotation, a
cyclic reality, the repeated restatement of eternal Truth. Without this
restatement, the continual re-positing of Truth, Truth would
vanish from , the world. As we have seen, the world is an energy
formulation, not a so-called world of inert matter different from
energy. ‘Substance’ does not mean matter; it means ‘that which stands
underneath’ the forms of reality, and what stands underneath is not
dead matter as conceived by the disproved atomists, but power -the
Power of God the Father.
71. Everything that exists in the universe is a behavior of this power.
There are no non-powers. Whatever is, is power. Our physical bodies,
our minds, and the words we use to formulate our thoughts, are ways of
action of power. Each kind of power interacts with other kinds. Our
physical actions supply stimulus energies to our mind, and generate
ideas inside it. Our ideas can influence the patterns of our physical
activities. Emotional reactions to our actions and to the actions of
others on us may become associated with our ideas. Ideas may be
represented in words. Here a question of economy is raised.
72. Economy originally meant ‘good household management’ or the
efficient use of energy. Efficiency is the ‘least energy expenditure
for the greatest effect’. If we say, "I will raise my hand," but do not
raise it, we do not expend as much energy as if we actually sent nerve
impulses down our arm into our muscles to contract them and lift the
weight of our hand. It is easier to give verbal commands to build a
pyramid than to build it. Pharaoh may say in a few moments to his grand
architect, "Build me a pyramid," without exhausting himself in giving
the command. Years later, after untold amounts of energy expenditure,
the pyramid may stand.
73. What is it that causes one man to obey another? The superior power
of the one who gives the commands. When Jesus called the
Fishermen to follow Him and He would make them, "Fishers of men," they
left their boats and nets and followed Him. Why? Because they felt His
words to be the words of a man of power. He spoke with an inner
conviction that they had never heard in any other man.
74. The source of this inner conviction in Jesus was in His deep
self-knowledge. He knew himself to be the Son of God: He knew Himself
to be the Logos-Word incarnate: He knew himself to be the only man on
earth fit to serve as the Supreme Sacrifice by which the heart and mind
and will of mankind would be saved. He knew that the whole future
history of the human race depended on His powerful Word-Deed, His call
and demonstration of divine love.
75. Sacrifice, Unity, Trinity, Obedience: Words of Power. The sacrifice
of Jesus Christ, Son of God, to re-establish man's lost unity with the
divine Trinity, by a supreme act of obedience. Words of Power which are
powerful because they are also deeds of power, deeds in which the mind
and heart and will of Jesus were exactly coincident.
76. It is useless for us to think one thing, feel another, and will
something else quite different. We have to mean what we say, to feel
it, to will it with equal power, a trine act, a three-fold gathering
together of our whole being's energies. As we strive to do this we
become closer and closer to Jesus Christ, we begin to become what God
wills us to become, beings of clarity, of sensitivity, of power, each
one of us uniquely, in the way proper to each of us; "From the one
divine spirit many diverse gifts".
77. To gain each of us our true uniqueness, willed for us by God, we
must understand thoroughly these words of power: Sacrifice, Unity,
Trinity, Obedience.
78. 'Sacrifice' means 'deed done in secret'. "Pray in secret," says
Jesus, "and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly."
Prayer is inner work. It is meditation on what is to be done to raise
one's level of being. It is self-examination of one's innermost
motives, and the elimination of all that is unworthy of one's slightest
aim. Without such inner self-examination we cannot disclose to
ourselves those inertic inner patterns of ideas and feelings which
inhibit our true pattern of development. Our body is a body bequeathed
to us by our ancestors. It has in it innumerable records of our
ancestors' purposes which tend under certain stimuli to react and force
us into behavior patterns which are not our own. Not all the fears and
envies, the angers and ambitions we feel are ours. Rather we suffer
them because we do not understand that they are not our own. We are
sacrificial lambs slaughtered by ancestral impulses.
79. If we were able to project onto a T.V. screen pictures of our
ideas, feelings, emotions and impulses to action, so that we could see
them clearly and objectively, we would discover that most of them are
not willed by us, that in relation to them we are sacrificial figures,
doorways through which, without our permission, they act.
80. It is most important to understand that the behavior-tendencies of
our ancestors which tend to operate_ through us, are not our own,
unless we make them our own by our own conscious will to agree with
them and to reinforce them. Only those of our ancestral impulses are
our own which we make our own by conscious personal agreement with and
reinforcement of them, and only for these are we held personally
responsible by God.
81. The secret (unconscious) doings of our ancestors in the depths of
our mind are the sacrificers of our life to theirs. Only by secret
inner self-examination, therefore, can we disclose to ourselves these
ancestral tendencies and gain control over our own being.
82. The totality of evil impulses, impulses of destruction, envies,
hates, angers, etc., of our ancestors, is their collective sin, their
‘missing of the mark’ set for mankind by God. The mark set is Jesus
Christ, the supreme example of conscious sacrifice. Jesus is the Mark
Man, the target to be aimed at, the figure of what mankind is to
become. Not to attain this Mark is sin. Sin means 'to miss the mark'.
83. To attain this Mark we have to extricate our mind, feeling and will
from the total mass of ancestral misdirections. For this we must first
become innerly conscious of this mass. This mass of ancestral errors is
the enemy of our own individuality. Until we recognize this, we will
remain enslaved by unconscious forces, sacrificed to ancestral purposes
by our forerunners who never knew us, never thought about our possibly
different purposes from their own. We were too far in the future for
them to see, too high up on the evolutionary tree.
84. Once our ancestors were swimming in the primordial oceans newly
condensed on earth. How then did they think and feel and act? Could
they foresee us as we are today? Later, some of the original life-forms
crawled out of the ocean and developed from their fins four legs on
which they could move about the dry earth. Could these first quadrupeds
conceive of a biped animal, an animal able to stand unaided on only two
legs, able to transform its front legs into arms, its forepaws into
hands able to accomplish sensitive manipulations? Could the dim brains
of our early ancestors imagine the operations of mathematics which
today every school child accomplishes? Could the amoeba pre-form
the equation of Einstein which gave us nuclear power?
85. No. In each period of the earth's history the particular form of
life then existing had its own physical and mental horizon. The mind
develops as the body accumulates experiences which allow new ways of
life to be seen. But although our ancestors could not see what we now
see, they have bequeathed to us their own views of reality as they know
it, and along with these views their own emotional attitudes and
impulses to action. The protoplasm, the very material of our physical
bodies, is passed to us by our ancestors. Physically, we are actual
portions of our parents' protoplasm. The ovum from our mother, the
sperm from our father, are actual portions of their body-substance, and
as such contain records of their experiences, and of their attitudes
and decisions in relation to these experiences. We are inheritors not
only of nose-shapes, eye-colors, general complexions, but also of
tendencies of thought, feeling and action. If we do not take ourselves
in hand, our ancestors rule us. If we do not see this truth we cannot
escape the viewpoints of our forerunners. We will act like the amoeba,
like the fish, like the quadruped, like the primitive man, and not like
the divine man we are destined to become. Where inertias of ancestral
impulses rule us we are not conscious of our own true being, our own
personal individuality; we are the dead of whom Jesus spoke; we are not
the 'quick', the awake to life's new possibilities. Somehow these
inertias must be broken. For this we need a procedure. Christ's life
illustrates this for us.
86. Amongst the mass of evil misdirections of ancestral energies, we
need to see the very principle of disintegration, the principle of
disunity. We need to see that our personal individual unity is daily
sacrificed by our unconscious slavery to ancestral impulses. This
disunity, this disharmony of opinions of our ancestors is rooted in the
principle we call the 'devil'. The devil is the principle of
disruption, the force which moves ever towards disintegration of being,
towards dissolution, towards corruption and death. Once we have
understood this, we can, by contrast, understand its opposite, the
principle of unity, of harmonious integration and life.
87. When we see such a pair of opposites we are to choose for ourselves
a path. "I have set before you life and death; therefore choose life,"
says God. This means "I have set before you harmonious integration of
being-powers, and disintegration: therefore choose harmonious
integration." Simple to say. Difficult to do. Why so? Because we live
in a world already fallen. The physical world in which we live is a
world where the forces of disintegration strongly operate. Our sense
organs are stimulated from all directions and tend to react by moving
in every direction in which pleasure appears to be offered, by moving
away from anything which appears possibly causative of pain or
displeasure.
88. What do we mean when we say that the physical world is fallen? To
understand this we are to remind ourselves that the so-called
'material' world is really a world composed of energies, energies once
not compacted into the solid earth-forms that we see around us. In
their uncompacted forms these energies were free from inertia; they
could change direction in each moment, undetermined by their previous
activities. Such energies were free spirits, similar in their freedom
to God. "God is Spirit," says Jesus. We do not know from where this
spirit comes, or to where it is going, but we can hear it in the
present moment, now. The Spirit of God is infinitely creative,
infinitely unpredictable, because absolutely free front inertia. Before
the Fall there was no inertia; all energies were free, and all such
energies were spirits, modes of the divine Spirit. The Fall occurred
when certain spirits or energies compacted themselves and in so doing
made themselves the slaves of inertia. The material world is only a
mass of spiritual energy trapped in inertia.
Words of Power – Part 5 (August 1978)
89. We cannot too strongly stress this fact: the material world and all
the things in it are but spiritual energy trapped in inertia.
90. Inertia is the tendency of things to behave in the manner to which
they have become habituated unless some external force compels them to
act in a different way. There are inertias of the body, of the mind,
and of the soul. Inertias of the body are exampled in the fixed ways
the physical body tends to react to the events that occur around and
within it. Inertias of the mind are seen in the tendencies of
established thought processes to resist change, and to persist in
holding the same old opinions about things regardless of changes that
may occur in them. Inertias of the soul are felt in the unchanging
likes and dislikes born out of uncontrolled reactivity to pleasures and
pains of the past.
91. Inertia stops our free responses to reality unless we teach
ourselves how to overcome it. We cannot act as the free spiritual
beings we really are unless we conquer inertia, and we cannot conquer
it unless we understand how it arises and what makes it continue.
92. When we do a new act that we have never done before, this act has
no inertia governing it; it is a free, unconditioned act that will not
be repeated unless we deliberately do it again. But if we do it again,
and then again, and repeat it many times, this act may become a habit.
We may actually forget that this habitual act was once a free act of
will. We may come to think of it as a necessary part of our being, as
something that we cannot stop, cannot get rid of. Addiction to heavy
smoking and alcohol may seem so much a part of our being that we cannot
imagine ourselves without it. Yet, once upon a time, the cigarette we
were smoking, the alcohol we were drinking, was our first.
93. So with all our other action patterns which we find so difficult to
drop. When attacked, by word or deed, we tend to leap into
self-defense. Why? Because we have been hurt so often in the
past, and have thought about our hurts and how to avoid them in the
future, and have mentally rehearsed how we will defend ourselves, how
we will retaliate; therefore our rehearsed patterns spring into action
before we have time to consider a better and freer response.
94. 'Becoming enslaved by inertias' is another way of describing the
Fall of the Soul. A once-free being, the soul, by acting in a
separative way over and over again, comes to believe that it is really
a separative being, a being separated from other souls and separated
from God.
95. Living in this belief in one's separativity is what is meant by
Sin. Sin is the state of a soul which believes that it is separate from
other souls and from God. In this state an individual believes that
what he wants to do is his own business and nobody else's. He believes
that the effects of his act ions do not go any further beyond him than
he wants them to. He is' oblivious of the fact that he himself, his
very being, is but a patterned play of the universal ocean of energy.
He does not know that his actions, his thoughts, and his feelings
cannot be confined merely to his own being, but must radiate their
influence into the surrounding space and affect other beings. He does
not remember that he is a zone of operation of the infinite divine
spirit, and that nothing can separate him from his infinite source.
96. Words of power may be positive or negative, that is, they can
produce tendencies towards an increase or a decrease of life. In one
sense 'separateness' is a negative word. It tends to focus our mind on
the idea that individual human beings are unrelated to each other. If I
say, "I am separate from you," and if I believe this, then the idea
ruling in my mind is one of separativity of my being from yours. If I
were entirely separate from you, then nothing I could do would affect
you. We would be as if we were in two wholly unconnected worlds.
97. But actually, if you read these words, then it is proved that we
are not entirely separate; the words I write and you read have mediated
between us. We are connected, at least through these words. Even if you
were to disagree with me about the ideas we are discussing, this
disagreement would not prove us to be entirely separate. Disagreement
would be a proof of our relationship.
98. 'Separativeness' as a negative word of power may be used by persons
aiming to create differences of opinion between individuals or groups.
'Apartheid' is the word for 'separativeness' of white and black people
in South Africa.
99. But separativeness may be used in a positive sense, as when we say
that we can separate ourselves from people who believe in separativity
in the negative sense. "I have separated me a peculiar people," says
God of the Jews, whom He intended to carry the message in a world where
many gods were worshipped. "There is truly only One God."
100. In the ancient world people worshipped thousands of gods, gods who
were believed to have power over particular little territories, over a
certain mountain, or a forest, or a well-spring. Such territorial gods
were believed to be powerful only in their little domain. It was no use
praying for help to the god of the mountain if what was wanted was a
drink of water; for this one had to go to a well and pray there - and
'prayer' meant 'work'; one had to let down into the well a jug or a
bucket in order to be able to drink of its water. Orare est laborare
101. Abraham, who lived at the crossing place of many caravan routes
heard much about the numerous territorial gods that particular peoples
worshipped, and he conceived the idea that there must be, beyond all
these little gods, a supreme 'God of Gods', a God whose power was not
limited to a particular place, a God to whom one could pray wherever
one was, in what ever territory one might pitch one's tent.
102. Once this idea of the One Supreme, non-territorial God was
conceived it was necessary for Abraham to view this God as separate
from all other gods, and to view himself as separate in his idea from
all those peoples who worshipped territorial gods. Here was a positive
use of the idea of separativeness, the idea of separation of the man
who believed in the One Supreme God from all those who believed only in
little local gods.
103. As Abraham taught his friends and his children about the One
Supreme God, so gradually a people who accepted his teaching were
separated off from other peoples. Abraham's followers became known as
the 'peculiar people' the believers in the One Supreme God, a God
infinite in Power and Wisdom and Presence. This 'peculiar people'
became known as the 'Jews'. The word 'Jew' is a form of the word we
translate as Jehovah, and means 'worshipper of the One Supreme God'.
104. 'Separateness' here had become a great word of power. Those who
believed in the One Supreme God were no longer confined to the worship
of little local gods, gods of particular territories. They did not have
to go to a particular well, or to a particular river or mountain in
order to do their acts of worship; they could worship wherever they
were, in whatever country they entered. The whole world had become
their place of worship. Wherever they were they could call on the One
Supreme God's blessing upon their work, their co-believers, and on
themselves. The One Supreme God had conferred upon His Worshippers a
mobility unknown to the worshippers of merely local gods.
105. 'There is but One Supreme God' had become a great word of power.
The One Supreme God gave to His worshippers a superiority over all the
worshippers of the little gods. The One Supreme God gave liberty from
all the restricted petty rituals needed to worship the god of the well,
at such and such a place, the mountain in such and such a territory.
The One Supreme God conferred rights on His worshippers unknown to the
worshippers of the little local gods. The believers in the One Supreme
God could now think of themselves as the 'Chosen People' the People
Chosen by the One Supreme God to be His worshippers.
106. Here was the source of the tremendous positivity and vitality of
the Jews. As long as they believed in the One Supreme God, they were
freed from the petty ritualistic worships of the merely local gods. But
if they became back-sliders, if they returned to the worship of the
petty territorial gods, they at once lost power, became enslaved by the
local worship pattern of those gods, and they ceased to deserve to bear
the name of a 'Jew', that is, the name of the One Supreme God, Jehovah.
107. A word spoken is an invocation of an idea into one's mind. The
idea invoked may lead towards increase or decrease of our vitality.
Certain words open the mind to new possibilities, gladden the soul and
strengthen the will. Certain other words may close the mind, make
miserable the soul, and make one's will like a straw in the wind.
108. To a tremendous degree words rule the mind, determine its images,
its emotions and impulses to action. If we prefer freedom to slavery,
we cannot afford to disregard the power of words. The illiterate person
is at a disadvantage over against the well-lettered. The man of
well-controlled vocabulary can open doors closed to the man of
ill-controlled words. The greatest leaders of men have known how to
match their utterances to the level of their listeners' mentalities. We
cannot afford to ignore the power of words.
109. When Abraham explained to his followers the idea of the One
Supreme God, he did so in words, in words carefully chosen. It is said
of Jesus "Never spake man like this man". When he called the fishermen
to follow him, he spoke in words familiar to them. Not accidentally did
he say, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men". It would have
been useless to say to these fishermen, "Follow me and I will show you
how to catch men's imaginations with a market gardener's vocabulary.”
The fishermen would have thought him either a joker or a madman.
110. Words, to be powerful, to be effective in moving men's minds, must
talk first to men's hearts, to their feelings and desires, and only
later to their reason. For this the word-user must know what is basic
in the souls of men.
111. All men except those driven to despair seek more, not less of life
and its joys. Christ came that we may have life, and have it more
abundantly. He did not come to weigh us down with the conviction of
sin, but by reminding us that sin is negative separation from humanity
and from God, to lift us up, to reverse our fall, help us climb out of
our false separativity and attain living relationship with each other
and with God. For this Christ used words of power, words addressed
first to the heart of man and only then to his intellect. It is the
emotional charge on a word that empowers it. For behind every emotion
is love, and God is love. Hate is but love frustrated, and so,
absolutely, there is no effective power other than love. ‘Love’ is the
greatest word of power.
Words of Power – Part 6 (September 1978)
112. What is Love? Love is intelligent power working for the
development of all its possibilities of action in such a way that they
do not nullify each other. It is the will to infinite harmonious
interaction, the will to the infinite increase of joyous interfunction
of all possible forms of being
113. As referring to such intelligent working power, 'Love' is the most
powerful of all words. Millions of books have been written around the
idea of love and what it has done, is doing, and will do for the world
and for all creatures in it. Without the idea of love, expressed or
implied, every book would read like dust in our mouths. Even the most
coldly scientific book has for its motive and reason for existence the
love of its writer for its subject matter.
114. Hate is merely love frustrated of its object and determined to
destroy that which has impeded its love. There is no hate in itself as
such. Hate is always directed to avenge injured love, to sweep out of
love's way whatever hinders its loving purpose. This is why there can
be such energy in hate, because hate is love and love is the infinite
power of God Himself working to fulfill His divine purpose.
115. In the word 'Hate' we can feel the crucifixion of Love-power. In
the word 'Love' we can feel the warm-hearted benevolence of God, the
will of the Creator for His creatures, for the increase of their
capacity for life, the giving to them of His infinite abundance of joy
in living..
116. When we use a word we trigger off associated words and their
corresponding ideas, feelings, emotions and impulses to action. If we
repeatedly utter, with all the emotion we can generate, the word
'Hate', we will find our mind becoming clouded with memories of all the
things we have ever hated, and not only our own, but also the things
that our ancestors have hated, for the substance of our body, our
living protoplasm, has recorded not only the things that have happened
to us since we were born, but also deep within our unconscious mind the
joys and sorrows of all our ancestors. This is why it is easy to be
swamped by emotional reactions triggered by words, flooded with
emotions so strongly that we cannot ac count for all their energy on
the basis merely of our own individual experience.
117. Triggered by a word, a man may find himself thrown into such a
whirlpool of rage that, before he can do anything about it, he has
committed some act of violence that shortly he will deeply regret.
Words, then, can be very powerful stimuli to action.
118. Writers in general, and poets especially, study the trigger-power
of words. So do salesmen, advertising copywriters and
politicians. Without knowledge of the trigger-power of words, no
man can adequately present his case for the acceptance of his ideas,
and no man can move another to action in pre-determined directions.
119. "In the beginning was the Word," the Logos, the Rationale of all
being. From this prime word of God, all other true words derive
whatever power and authority they have. Insofar as this Word, this
Logos, signifies the harmonious interrelation of all things, this Word
is a synonym of love'. We might legitimately start the Gospel of St
John with the words, "In the beginning was Love, and Love was with God,
and Love was God." For God is Love and the Word of God is the Word of
Love, and the Word that comes out of the mouth of God is the Spirit of
Love, and this Spirit of Love vitalizes and dynamises all living
things, brings them from nothingness to some thingness, from death to
life, from mechanical repetitiveness to living responsive immediacy.
120. Everywhere in the universe we see the operation of the infinite
spirit of divine Love. Inside the atoms the nuclear protons attract the
orbiting electrons; in the chemist's world molecules interact and cling
to each other to make the building units of living organisms; in
the plant world, strange, powerful invisible forces lift chemistry of
the earth and atmosphere to raise the mighty trunks and branches of
great trees; in the animal world love begets and cares for
progeny; in the human world great thinkers construct
philosophies, scientists seek out the 'how' of the world's mysteries,
artists paint the beauties of nature and of their creative imagination,
poets sing of the power of Love and sacrifice.
121. Love is the most mysterious of all powers. We cannot see it, as it
is in itself, with our physical eyes, but we can feel it within our
souls, and we know its powerful healing effect in our life. We can feel
its warm, flowing energy coursing through our arteries. Always where we
feel love we feel better for its presence. Always where love is
thwarted we feel that our very life is being dammed and we struggle to
remove the impedance to its flow.
122. We can feel that hate is only impeded love, and we can feel that
cold indifference is not good for the circulation of our blood. We can
feel processes that we can never adequately put into merely
intellectual forms.
123. Feeling is love evaluating its own condition, love in process of
self-examination, determining how much freedom of action and how much
impedance it has to face.
124. Emotion is feeling overflowing its boundaries, either to increase
the flow of energies, or to battle against inhibiting forces imposed
upon it from outside itself.
125. Feeling and emotion are conditions of love, evaluating and flowing
out from the center of the living being to encounter the world and all
beings in it. We could draw the seed of a tree, a tree as large as the
universe itself, and call this seed the portal of divine love through
which must grow every living being in the whole of reality. This seed
of love is eternally the doorway of universal joy, sprouting throughout
infinite space to the continuous increase of cosmic harmony and the
delight of all living beings.
126. What keeps mankind from sharing in this ever-increasing delight is
nothing but our erroneous belief in our negative separativity.
What will save us from this negative separativity is the acceptance of
the way of life demonstrated for us by Jesus Christ, the way of
intelligent self-sacrifice. ' What tends to keep us from following His
example is the lack of understanding of the principle on which His life
was based.
127. Whenever we perform any act, we necessarily expend energy to some
amount. We live in an infinite field of energy, the power of God.
When we expend energy, the energy we put out of ourselves passes into
the surrounding energy-field and produces some kind of reaction, for
all energy is responsive to interferences coming to it from outside
itself and adjusts itself in some way to these interferences
128. In classical physics we are told that to every action there is an
equal and opposite reaction But we must be very careful how we
interpret his statement. It may apparently be true for things of the
gross material world, but it is not necessarily true for the world of
free intelligent spirit. We know that by practice we can inhibit
certain reactions that ordinarily tend to arise when we are subjected
to certain kinds of external stimuli. There is no reason why, if
we practice sufficiently, we should not altogether control our own
being-energies, so that no energy acting upon us from outside could
force us to react. In oriental philosophy this attained condition of
controlled non-reactivity is called the ‘transparency of the
wise’. This is the condition that Jesus recommends us to attain
when He tells that when we are attacked we are to, "Turn the other
cheek."
129. Free spiritual intelligence does not have to react to energies
that attack its organism from outside itself. It can determine for
itself whether or not it will show a response to anything that happens
to it. Free spiritual intelligence, the highest level of man's
soul-consciousness, is able to make it self absolutely transparent to
any energy inputs from outside the organism it uses for its earthly
expression. By so doing it places itself above all kinds of attack from
the things of the material world.
130. To gain this freedom from reactivity, this 'transparency of the
sage', this power to 'turn the other cheek', we must understand that
spirit is eternal and indestructible, that we are ourselves spiritual
beings, although for a time resident in physical bodies. As spiritual
beings we are immortal. Mortality belongs only to the material body and
to ideas derived from it. It has no meaning for free spirit. When, by
practice, we become able to remember our essential spirituality in each
moment, fear begins to lessen in us.
131. Fear belongs to the state when our consciousness is identified
with the idea of separative negativity. If we believe that we are
separate from other beings and from God, we can believe that we are
exposed to some form of attack from some other separative being. This
belief makes us tend to defend our finite territory, our little zone of
enclosed selfhood, and in the process of self-defense to anticipate a
self-defensive attack on our imagined enemy.
132. Here is a word of power worth remembering and worth believing with
all the energy we can gather: I am an eternal Spiritual intelligence.
Remembering this and understanding it, we can say at once, "I am
an immortal being. My essential self is indestructible. Mortality
refers to my material body. It has no meaning for my essential
spiritual self, which is of God, which has never been, nor can ever be,
separated from God."
133. God is Love. God is Spirit. My essential self is Spirit, is
of God, participates of God's invulnerability to the things of the
material world. Whatever may be done to my material body, as was done
to the physical body of Jesus, yet my spirit and intelligence cannot be
marred by it.
134. The physical, material body which we use on earth to gain
experience of the world, of Mammon, is but a garment spun of that
world's substance. If that garment is destroyed, my spiritual self is
not destroyed with it, but is merely released to return into the
spiritual world from which it came. In that spiritual world, like the
prodigal son, my soul will be received once more into the arms of the
eternal intelligent spirit who is my Father and
Creator and original source.
135. With this word of power: I am one with God, who is Love,
fear is cast out. God is infinite power. Against what finite powers
shall I waste my time defending myself? If God wills me to be in
existence, then in existence I shall be. If He wills to withdraw me
from the world of Mammon-matter, then I shall be withdrawn. In either
case I shall remain what I am, a spiritual being, of Good Will, of
Love, and of Truth, for of such is God's spirit, which I can never
lose, for it is myself.
136. All who believe in the One Supreme God who rules over and beyond
all local territories, and in His power to incarnate His
spirit in Jesus Christ and in all of us, are saved
absolutely, and are children of God. Here is a great word
of power for all of us who believe in the divine spirit, and in its
separateness from error: We are all children of the One Supreme God,
and all inheritors of His kingdom.
137. Perfect love of this One Supreme God casts out fear, and this
perfect love is itself a gift from that God to everyone who wills to
receive it.
Words of Power – Part 7 (October 1978)
138. Just as there are words of power, so also are there words of
powerlessness, words of weakness, words of negativity, words of
despair. All negative words are potentially harmful and are to be
shunned as such.
139. We must remind ourselves that when we pronounce a word we invoke
in our mind its corresponding meanings and also with these, all
associated words and meanings. To say, "I doubt," is to place one's
mind in a condition of doubtness in relation to the things one doubts.
It is to put uncertainty into one's mind. Doubt places alternatives in
our mind without allowing us to choose between them. Doubt thus
paralyses our will to act in a particular direction.
140. The essence of being human is being able to chose between
alternative courses of action. Doubt destroys our ability to choose.
Thus doubt dehumanizes us. How are we to cure doubt? The answer is, by
decision.
141. 'Decision' is a word of power as 'doubt' is a word of deficiency.
When we are in doubt our mind oscillates between alternatives. If
it is allowed to continue in this oscillation, this continuous changing
of sides, our mind dissipates its energies, loses its unity, and our
will does not operate.
142. 'Decision' means 'cutting away' from all the alternatives except
one, so that this one can be dynamised by the will and so set into
operation. The whole of life's effectiveness results from decision.
Doubt makes life ineffective by not allowing it to choose a course of
action. Doubt is a word of weakness.
143. Some people would say that we have to doubt when we have
insufficient information about a thing or situation, but it is better
for us in such a case to say to ourselves quite clearly that we have
insufficient information to be able to assess that thing or situation.
We suspend judgment because we know without doubt that our information
is not enough to allow us to make an intelligent evaluation. This
knowledge that we have not enough information does not feel like doubt.
It is a knowledge that tells us that we must make a decision to acquire
the information needed to make a further decision possible. This
knowledge is the basis of all profitable human enquiry, in philosophy,
art, science or any other area of possible human advance.
144. Let us be aware, then, of words, which by their emotional
associations, can lead us into negative, profitless states of mind.
Such words are the enemies of true living, for they set up impedances
in the nervous system so that effective action becomes very difficult.
145. The names of the seven deadly sins are such words: pride,
covetousness, envy, anger, gluttony, concupiscence and sloth. All these
are words, which by their associations, tend to rouse unprofitable
ideas and emotions. If we take any one of those words and repeat it and
feel for its associations inside our mind, we will feel other related
words, other feelings, coming into our consciousness and tending either
to reinforce them, or if we have in the past suffered pain or
discomfort in situations related to them, to react against them.
146. One of these seven words is often used as if it did not refer to
sin, the word 'pride'. We tend to think that it is a good thing to
'Take a pride in one's good works', for a man of superlative
performance to be 'justified' in his capacity. We tend to push out of
our mind the proverb that says, "Pride goes before a fall". We forget
that the first listed sin was the pride of Lucifer.
147. 'Pride' has been used so often as meaning something justifiable
whenever good work is done, that it seems like a word of power. Pride
of race, pride of nation, pride of family, pride of individual talents,
have been, and still are, encouraged in our competitive societies. But
such pride has been the occasion of racial hatred, international wars,
inter-family squabbles, and individual separativity.
148. Is there, then, no justification for pride? Is a man not to take a
pride in his well-done work? Is the craftsman not to be proud of his
craftsmanship, the athlete of his physical and mental capacity to drive
himself to excellent performance, the social worker not to be proud of
the good he does in society? The answer to this depends on whether we
prefer truth to falsity, reality to illusion.
149. For a man to be justified in his pride in his personal,
superlative performance in any area of human activity, he must first
have created himself. He must not be dependent on any other being for
his talents and capacities. But every man who has ever appeared in
history has been born of a woman, a mother whose own nature has been at
least partially a source of some of his characteristics. And leaving
aside the question of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, every man has
also had a father whose own characteristics have not been without some
effect upon his child. No man is freed from the effects of heredity
except by divine grace. Not only are the sins of the fathers visited
upon the children, but also their gifts and talents. None of us can
legitimately claim total freedom from the forces of heredity. We are
inheritors of talents as we are inheritors also of deficiencies. We
cannot rightly claim to be the only creator of our being. But if not,
then our pride cannot be justified.
150. Whatever tendencies to inferior or to excellent performance we
have are firstly given to us. Whatever work we are able to do to modify
these tendencies depends upon the primary gift of freedom, a Gift of
God. To be proud is to view oneself as the source of one's own capacity
for superlative performance. But we are not the source of our own
freedom, by which whatever talents we may possess can be developed. To
justify our pride, we should have to be able truthfully to claim our
own self as the only source of our freedom.
151. Pride then, cannot be justified. Every intelligent thinker knows
this, for it is the mark of intelligence to know its deep indebtedness
to its forerunners and to the original source-power of the universe.
What then, are we to put in the place of our discredited pride? The
answer is in another word, a word of power, the word gratitude.
Gratitude is the condition of the whole being, mind, heart and will, in
the presence of the knowledge of the real source of our talents and
especially of the primary gift of freedom which God conferred on the
human soul.
152. If we look honestly at ourselves we will find nothing in us that
has not been given to us, either by the Creator of the universe, or by
our parents and educators. We are taught the alphabet and how to put
its letters together to make words, how from words we can build
sentences, expressions of sense. We are taught what to eat, how to keep
ourselves clean and healthy, how to relate to each other within human
society. I once saw two little boys who had been taught none of these
things because their mother had an erroneous idea that if they were
left to themselves they would develop their inner talents unaided. The
behavior of these little boys was sub-human.
153. We are profoundly indebted to others for the first movements that
we are able to make towards whatever is good for us. We are indebted
firstly to God for our freedom and for our primary capacity to respond
to the things offered to us from our environment. Then we are
indebted to our parents, whose care helps us to survive the first
hazards of existence. Then we indebted to our educators for our
initiation into the nature of human society. But whatever good we
receive from our parents and educators is made possible by the capacity
that God has given them to do such good. All good gifts come ultimately
from God, the Creative Source Power of the universe.
154. 'Gratitude' is a word of power. To feel and recognize the truth
that everything is good for us, everything that makes for more abundant
life, is ultimately from God, though mediated often through human
beings, is to experience true gratitude, especially for our primary
God-given gift of freedom.
155. Although every good gift comes from God, we are also the receivers
of gifts that are not good. The sins of our ancestors have passed down
to us and have impaired our action-tendencies, so that we do not always
move uninterruptedly towards what is truly good. We are the recipients
of erroneous ideas of the past, misconceptions of less enlightened
ages. But we are also the receivers of wrong ideas current in our time,
for not every con temporary view of reality is a true one. Because
this is so, we need another word of power to help us. This word is
discrimination.
156. 'Discrimination' is the capacity to separate from each other
things that are different in substance, form or function. Jesus
discriminated between different kinds of persons, which He defined as
sheep and as goats, those who were happy to follow the voice of Truth,
and those who preferred to follow their own will regardless of Truth.
He discriminated also between the 'quick' and the 'dead', those who
were quick to see the implications of His teaching, and those who were
dull of understanding, locked in inertia, cloaked in habitual modes of
thought which allowed no inbreak of new light or understanding.
157. To cultivate discrimination, we must make ourselves more conscious
of the fact of consciousness, what consciousness is, what it can do for
us, how it is related to creative freedom. Consciousness is a state of
awareness in which things, though held together in relation, are not
allowed to lose their differences of matter, form or
function. Consciousness is not a mere vague awareness that
something exists,. It is essentially analytic and synthetic at once. It
discriminates the differences between things, and yet holds these
differences in relationship with each other so that they can be seen as
parts of a whole pattern.
158. We discriminate the earth from the moon, the other planets from
each other, all the planets from the sun. Yet we hold all these bodies
together in one large idea we call the solar system, the existence of
which gives sense to all its constituent bodies by embracing them all
in a large pattern.
159. In the same way we discriminate different peoples of different
nations from each other, Hindus from Pakistanis, African negroes from
West Indian negroes, and so on. Yet we hold all together in the larger
idea of humanity, the greater community of beings whose nature has in
it the power of free choice which discriminates the human being from
the animal.
160. In every act of true consciousness, as opposed to mere vague
awareness, these functions concur, the function of analysis, by which
we mentally take the elements of a situation and discriminate them one
from another, and the function of synthesis, by which we put the
separated or discriminated elements back together
again in a meaningful pattern.
161. There is a very intimate relationship between consciousness and
the degree of richness of the self. The more the self or soul has
consciousness of its own content, the richer is that soul and the more
substantial it becomes. This brings us back to the doctrine of the two
deaths that we suffer, the death of our physical body, and the death of
the idea-structure which serves the soul in life as a center of focus
and reference.
162. If we gather our ideas at random and do not
bother to relate them together in an intelligent way, these
ideas will not cohere into a meaningful patterned whole. The only thing
then that keeps them all in relation with each other is the fact that
they are recorded in the same brain.
Words of Power – Part 8 (November 1978)
163. The brain of the living human being stores and holds together all
the records of experiences had by that being, however randomly those
experiences have been gained or filed. Thus a living man's brain
contains the records of all that he has undergone during his life, all
his thoughts, words, feelings, emotions and deeds. But if these
records have not been related together in some comprehensible pattern
which may be held harmoniously together by the soul, so that its
experiences are understood in relation to each other, thus giving a
meaning to the soul's life as a whole, then, as only the brain is
holding them together, at death, when the brain-processes cease, the
unrelated experience records fall apart or disintegrate. In the
Revelation this disintegration is called the 'second death'. We have
touched upon this idea before, but it is of great importance for the
future of our souls.
164. Now, here are some words of Power; "Blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no
power; but they shall be priests of God and Christ .... " Here is
stated very clearly that the disintegration of the mental content which
follows the death of the unbeliever shall have no power over the true
follower of Christ. Why not? The reason is simple.
165. Christ is incarnate Truth, Truth embodied. To follow Christ is to
place Truth centrally in one's being. What is the essence of
Truth? It is self consistency. Every part of Truth presupposes every
other part. Strictly, we cannot talk of 'parts' of Truth in any
separative sense, for Truth is One and Whole. This is symbolized in the
'seamless garment' of Christ. When a man is self-consistent in his
thoughts, words and deeds, we say that we can rely on him. His
self-consistency allows us to evaluate him as being a 'man of his
word'. What he says he will do, he will do. In this he is near to
Christ.
166. Christ as Truth embodied is entirely self-consistent. The nearer
we can approach to embodying Truth as He does, the more nearly we
approach to perfect self-consistency. Our thoughts will be matched by
our words, our words by our deeds. Then our mental content will be a
whole, perfectly integrated pattern of our experience records. Such a
perfectly integrated pattern cannot fall apart, for every part of it
supposes every other part and recalls every other part to memory. The
perfectly integrated mind is a mind that can get hold of its own whole
pattern, starting from any area of its experience.
167. When a man's experiences have been gained haphazardly or at random
and he has not bothered to try to link them together in some patterned
way, his mind lacks coherent unity. We say that he has a 'bitty' mind.
If during life a man's mental content lacks coherence, we have no
logical ground for assuming that at death he will suddenly prove
himself full of unity. Rather the contrary.
168. When we go to sleep at night, we temporarily let go of our
habitual self-references, the ideas and patterns of thought by which we
recognize ourselves to be ourselves. In the morning, when
we re-awaken, we gather together the things we know about ourselves and
restate them to ourselves and so re-cognize or re-know ourselves. Apart
from the recognizable ideas of ourselves, the memories of our
experience of ourselves, we would have no recognizable awareness of
ourselves as the kind of persons we are. This is why when a person,
either by accident or other means, loses his memory, he does not know
who he is.
169. Now, if we wish to know who we are, what kind of persons we are,
if we wish to be able to recognize ourselves, we must attain to some
degree of self-consistency, to some recognizable pattern of ideas of
ourselves. Only a self-consistent pattern of ideas or
experience-records can help us here. Random ideas having no logical
relationship with each other will not serve our purpose.
170. But the only really consistent ideas are ideas that are true.
Untrue ideas cannot cohere together, cannot adequately define each
other, cannot fit together. If an apple is red, it is of no use to me
to say that it is green or yellow. This will not be consistent with its
real color. So also, if I know that a certain action has been done from
a ce1tain motive, it is of no use for me to pretend that it has been
done from quite another motive. We would hardly believe a pickpocket
caught in the act of removing the victim's wallet, if the thief said
that he was merely reducing the weight upon his victim on account of
compassion for his obvious tiredness.
171. Only Truth fits Truth perfectly; and only the perfectly fitting
can resist disintegration. A mind full of untruths is a mind full of
inconsistencies, a mind doomed to disintegration.
172. The only final evidence we have for death is disintegration. Death
is another word for disintegration. Life is a process of integration,
an activity which brings into intimate relationships things which
otherwise would fall apart. In the absence of the integrational
activity of life, all the chemistry of our body would fall into dust.
Dust, disintegrated, blown willy-nilly anywhere, is the symbol of death.
173. The fact that life is an integrational process, that it can bring
together and hold in a pattern separate elements of the chemical world,
proves that life aims at self-consistency, not a static
self-consistency as of stone, but the dynamic self-holding together of
purposive intelligence aiming to fulfill certain valuable projects.
174. As long as we are living inside a physical body, all its vital
processes help us to hold our mind and soul together. Through our sense
organs we collect information about our world and about the universe at
large. By our reason we are enabled to find a pattern of relation
between the things we experience. By our feeling we can evaluate how
far we wish to retain or to re-experience or to avoid certain events.
By our will we can give ourselves a direction in which to develop our
lives. We live in our minds, in our bodies. What happens to our bodies
when we die? We lose the body's inertia, its tendencies to continue its
habitual processes by which it serves us as an established reference
point for our mind and soul. When at death we have lost our physical
body reference, we are left with the records of our life experiences,
records which in the absence of our physical body are our only
references for our consciousness. If these records are sufficiently
selfconsistent and so hold together in a recognizable pattern, we can
re-member ourselves, recognize the pattern of our experiences as the
same as that which we had during our life in our bodies.
175. But if these experience-records have no self-consistency, if they
do not logically fit together in a comprehensive pattern, then at the
loss of the physical body, these records fly apart or disintegrate, so
that our consciousness has then no stable reference, no established,
formed center which we can recognize as our own, derived from our own
life-experience.
176. All our sense of self-identity depends upon our mental furniture,
our ideas and concepts of the world and of our own being as we have
gained awareness of them through our life-experiences. Without such
mental furniture we could not recognize ourselves to be what we are.
177. Each individual human being is what he is because of his
experiences of the world and of himself, recorded within his mind, and
replayable under certain circumstances or conditions. Because the
experience pattern of each being is unique in certain respects, every
human being is uniquely himself in those respects, and insofar as he
can replay his experience records to himself, he has a recognizable
self-pattern to which he may relate himself, thus sustaining his
identity.
178. But an experience-complex, a set of life records which has been
stored randomly without relating their forms together, has no logical
coherence, and, when deprived of the physical body as its reference
point, must fall apart. It is this falling apart or disintegration
which is meant by 'mortality'. A 'mortal' is a being, which, when
deprived of its physical body, must fall apart. Lacking the support of
the physical body as a reference center, the mortal self must
disintegrate.
179. An 'immortal' is a being so well integrated in his experience
records that no external force can cause him to fall apart, and in whom
no internal conditions of inconsistency exists. As finally only the
eternal Truth is free from inconsistency, so only a man given without
reserve to eternal Truth can be immortal. To be an immortal is to be
perfectly consistent in every aspect of one's being. That in us which
is inconsistent must at some time, somewhere, fall apart.
180. There is much in us that is inconsistent, that ca1mot logically
stay together. To account for this fact we are to remind ourselves that
we are born into a world in which a battle is being waged between Truth
and Untruth. The education offered to us as children is an education
based largely, not on ascertained Truth, but on opinions of
educationalists, who in many countries have certain private interests
to further. Not only the education of German children under Hitler was
falsely based; biased interests can be found almost everywhere exerting
their influence. Thus it would be surprising if our minds were
furnished only with Truth.
181. This being so we are placed in a position where we must choose
what we shall believe of what we are told. We must choose for ourselves
what kind of beings we will to become. We must select from all
that is offered to us what we hold most close to our hearts. We must
decide whether or not we desire to be immortal. In this matter we are
to notice that certain parts of our being do not desire immortality.
These are the ones which feel themselves to be inconsistent with
themselves, which feel internally at war with themselves, which feel
profoundly uncomfortable and so do not wish to continue to be what they
are. These are the parts, which, because of their natural misery, are
usually pushed down below conscious awareness. But even in the
unconscious they have their effect on the soul, often holding it for
long periods in negativity.
182. What we have to do about these parts, these inconsistent, unhappy
zones of our being, is to remember that they are the products of
mis-education and error, of mis-direction and blind willfulness.
There is another side to us, the side that has a degree of
self-consistency, that is built of Truths that we have preferred to
believe. To these Truths others can be in-built; a structure of
unbreakable eternal Truth can be raised, a being worthy of immortality
can be created, and this being is glad to affirm its immortality,
joyful to know that its earned, freely willed, self-consistent
dedication to Truth must bring it to its highest estate, and not
only this, but ensure also its infinite value to others.
183. We fight a hard battle in a world where untruth thinks itself Lord
of all. But we do not fight alone. There is the Eternal Truth on our
side, the Truth which only has the self-consistency which by its nature
untruth cannot have. Untruth at last must fall apart, for parts deny
each other. Only Truth must finally endure, for all its areas define
and support each other and functionally relate to each other, and so
finally guarantee their self-consistency, their power and capacity to
dwell together in harmony.
184. To aid us in our hard battle we have some words of Power: "To him
that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I
also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne."
Words of Power – Part 9 (December 1978)
185. As we have seen, Consistency must be a word of power, a very
important word. It means the 'affirmation of the togetherness of
being'. All real being, as opposed to phantasy, holds together, or is
consistent. Every smallest truth in any particular, existent thing
necessarily holds together with every other truth, including the great
Truth that we call the Universe or Cosmos, and which is the expression
of the Eternal Creative Word or Logos of God.
186. Unlike untruths, which are inconsistent with each other in their
inner structure, truths always relate together in such a way that they
necessarily build a larger and larger truth until they become one with
the Universal Truth, which, because of its perfect self-consistency,
can never disintegrate, and so is immortal, undying, eternal. By
participation in this Universal Truth we can attain the same
immortality, the same undying eternality of life which belongs to us
all who will follow the same way.
187. This means that if we have inside us even one little truth to
which we have given our will, this truth has a necessary connection
with universal truth, and so can serve as an anchor to this truth.
Given only this one truth we can slowly disclose its connections with
all other truths and so gradually build up a body of truths which
necessarily must harmonize with the whole universal truth.
188. One great difficulty for most of us is the problem of the relation
of the mind and the body. We live in a period in which scientific ideas
of the nature of man tend to gain more credence than do the ideas
revealed to us by religious reaching. Before the development of modem
science man was believed to be a soul in a physical body. But this
'soul' was invisible and intangible and so not scientifically provable
under laboratory conditions, so the idea of 'mind' was substituted for
the idea of the 'soul'. At least the mind processes could be watched in
an act of inner observation. But science was still not satisfied; it
decided to view 'mental processes' as belonging to the activities of
the physical brain. Psychology thus descended to the level of 'brain
mechanics'. Why the physical brain possessed the capacity for mental
processes was not asked. How these processes were conducted was
explained by the analogy of electrical currents in circuits similar to
those used in telephone systems.
189. Today, however, this explanation is seen to be an
over-simplification. Science has gone beyond the simple telephone
system model. There are forces at work in the living organism which are
not confined to the flow of electrons in the communication lines of the
physical nerves. There are bio-magnetic processes much more subtle than
the mere electronic phenomena in the actual nerve-lines. The measurable
magnetic forces found in living cells demand a finer level of
explanation of the life-processes which everywhere surround us.
190. Instead of the crude heat-engine theories of the human body which
were current in the 19th Century we now find that a much more complex
theory of the life-processes is required. Slowly we are being forced by
the increasing sensitivity of scientific instruments to recognize that
life-processes are not merely mechanical or chemical or
electrical. When we enter the problem of the influence of magnetic
fields on living tissues we are beginning to re-trace our footsteps
towards the re-discovery of the soul.
191. All things in the universe are the products of energy. The
universe is an energy play. Some of the patterns of this energy have in
the past been called 'matter' and have been believed to be quite other
than the patterns called 'forces'. Today we know that 'matter' is but a
particular way in which energy may operate. Mind is also a way in
which energy may activate itself. Feeling, emotion and thought also are
ways of energy operation. All that we are, and do, and will, and
feel, and think, are but energies. But what is energy?
There is nothing other than it at work. Why does it attain in our
thinking and feeling and willing to the state of consciousness?
192. Energy is simply spirit expressing itself at the manifest levels
of universal action. Energy is defined as 'that which does work'.
Jesus says, "My Father works, and I work." Here He states the basic
characteristic of spirit. Spirit is the Supreme Worker. Spirit is
the highest level of conceivable activity, the first cause of all work,
all energy expenditure and application. To work is to do as God does.
He, the Supreme Spirit, is the First Worker, who, because He is
essentially a worker, makes possible all other work. If He had not
worked to bring the world into being, if He had not exerted His will
throughout millions of years of evolution, the world could not have
reached its present state, the earth on which we stand could not have
come into existence, the vegetation which covers the ground could not
have grown, the animals which rove the forests and
plains could not have developed their
present forms, and we ourselves
would not have become able to think and feel and will
to participate in the great work of world evolution.
193. Everything that exists, and every event that occurs is a play of
energy. In mankind this energy displays a capacity for feeling, thought
and will, three different kinds of work. 'Work' is a word of power, a
very powerful word indeed.
194. There are many kinds of work or energy activation aimed at a
specific result. Energy expenditure not directed to some
particular effect is not work. Work is an activity with an idea
directing it to attain some defined goal. All kinds of work have this
in common; they are the products of Will, sensitivity and intelligence.
If there were no will to apply the energy, none would have an
application. If there were no intelligence there would be no definition
of an aim to be attained. If there were no sensitivity there would be
no balanced relation between the energy to be applied and the object on
which it was to be exerted. But these three, intelligence, will and
sensitivity, are qualities or properties belonging to living beings,
and especially to those in which the forces of evolution have reached
their highest level of development.
195. But the source of intelligence, will and sensitivity cannot be
other than the original power which has evolved everything in the
universe. We cannot conceive that something can emerge from a source
that is not already there in principle, either actually or potentially.
Thus the source power of all the things in the universe must in itself
be intelligent, possess will, and be sensitive to everything it creates
or evolves. But it is precisely because of its will, sensitivity
and intelligence that we call the universal source power 'GOD'.
196. If all the power in the whole of reality had no sensitivity, no
intelligence and no will or initiative, it would not deserve to be
called 'God' and would not be worthy of worship. But because
these three qualities must necessarily be inherent in the originating
source of the universe, then this source must be the natural and
essential being which all intelligent and sensitive creatures must from
their own centers, will to worship.
197. Intelligence worships intelligence, will worships will,
sensitivity worships sensitivity, and all three are infinitely
inter-related so that they operate as one. This is another way of
thinking about the meaning of the Holy Trinity. God the Father
corresponds with the Will, God the Son with the Intelligence, and God
the Holy Ghost with the Sensitivity. The three are not to be
confused, but their unity is not to be divided.
198. In the human being, the same three qualities are present, but at
the level of evolution so far attained most people have not yet
realized, or made real to themselves, the vital significance of their
threefold nature. Few persons at this stage of the world's development
actually ask themselves what is the essential relation of their three
talents, the capacity to feel, to think and to will. Fewer still
actually work hard at bringing the three into close dynamic
relationship. Yet the intimate working relationship of these three
qualities is at the foundation of top performances in any field of
human endeavor, in the Olympic Games, in record-breaking performances
in every competitive sport and game, in the superb creations of great
artists and musicians and composers. Everywhere that talent springs up
and develops itself to its highest degree, these three qualities are at
work. Everywhere that genius shows itself the three are in harmonious
and dynamic co-operation. A Michelangelo, a Beethoven, an Einstein, any
superbly outstanding human being, all draw upon the hidden trinity, the
three-in-oneness at the center of their being, the Source Being of all
beings.
199. We cannot too often remind ourselves of this fact of the threefold
quality of our being. If it were not for the working activity of this
threefold nature, the physicality of our body would not help us in any
way. With these three operative inside it, our body is a useful center
of reference and a vehicle through which we can work out, each of us,
our own pattern of life and destiny. Without these three our material
body would merely be a mass of intractable atoms with no purpose in
existence.
200. We are not to think of the Threefold Source of our being as
existing somewhere far away in the past, as if it were, millions of
years ago, a substance that somehow had begun a process of evolution
and had dimly striven to rise to a state higher than its being
possessed at the start. Such a process is impossible. No force can rise
higher than its origin. If there had been no intelligence, sensitivity
and will in the source power of the universe, there could have been no
evolution of these qualities in ourselves. Whatever we have attained of
talent, whatever we have been able to express of will, of compassion,
of intelligent purpose, all that we value as worthy to develop, all
that we could possibly come to worship, has come to us, or will come to
us, from the infinite original power source which has built the
Universe and every good thing in it.
201. But what of the not-good things, the evil things? They are the
product of unbalanced energies, the results of non-co-ordination of
thought, feeling and will. When any of these three acts independently
of the others there is an unbalance of forces, and the result is a less
perfect act. If the will ignores the directives of the intelligence and
the warnings of sensitive feelings there will be an unintelligent,
insensitive act, which will have an unfortunate or even destructive
result. If the intelligence cuts itself off from the will and feeling
and occupies itself only with its own thought processes, whatever
conclusion it internally reaches will be of no external use or
application. A man might think of a very intelligent way of rescuing
another man in danger, but leave his idea unexpressed or
unactivated.
202. A very sensitive person might feel all the distress and pain of
the whole of humanity, yet not allow his intelligence to devise a way
of giving help, nor let his will activate itself. All the evils of the
world have arisen from such unbalanced energies. Evil will is
will separated from sensitivity and intelligence. If a man wills an act
without regard to the judgment of his intelligence upon this act, and
without sensitivity to the effects of this act upon his own being and
that of others, the probability of unfortunate evil results will be
very high.
203. Co-ordination is, then, a word of power. Like consistency it
reminds us of the necessity of bringing together the best qualities of
our being. It reminds us of the way to integration and to immortality,
the way trodden by Jesus to complete the work started for Him by God,
His Father and ours.
204. Co-ordination, consistency, immortality, and everlasting life are
but different ways of saying the same thing: the Way of Jesus Christ,
possible for all who will believe Him. We have but to remember our
words of power and to act on them.