THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC OR How to Make Perfection Appear BY KATHARINE FRANCIS PEDRICK BOSTON SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 1915 Entered at Stationers' Hall All rights reserved ... • GOPYHIGHT,- 1915 Sherman, French & Company r - TO THOSE WHO BECOME AWARE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN WITHIN THEMSELVES THROUGH EFFORT 349353 " The kingdom of God is within you." Jesus. Luke 17: 21. " Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Jesus. Luke 12:32. 11 Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Jesus. John 3 : 3. PREFACE In the history of thought, the truly religious Mys- tics of all times have been idealists, but of a distinct type. It has been of interest to define this type again, that we may be quite sure of the modern mystic's place in the spiritual development of mankind. The experiences of the spiritually intuitive are of interest; but the laws underlying such experiences are of the utmost moment to us, and should be formulated. Especially at this time do these laws merit our at- tention, and for very practical reasons we are urged to their investigation. Indeed, to-day the Christian Scientists and other types of the modern mystic de- clare that they are consciously working in accord- ance with these laws and, at will, are able to arrive at definite spiritual realisations which make for the overcoming of evil and for the increase of good. An individual expression of spiritual truth and its application is given in chapters xm and xiv as an aid to those who may wish to avail themselves PREFACE of it. This expression began to shape itself after about eight years of exclusive devotion to the study of the subject. The thought gradually assumed the form in which it is here presented during seven addi- tional years in which it was being practically applied to everyday problems. For the mystic to attempt in detail to describe his heavenly vision and to point out to others a path leading to it, is at once to become aware of the im- possibility of conveying the pure meaning of spiritual thought in terms of the human understanding. So compelling, however, was the beauty of the vision, and so practical have been the benefits which it be- stowed, that the author has dared attempt to mark out a way to the spiritual experiences whence it is secured, and that in spite of the inconsistencies to which verbal language renders one liable. It will, of course, be obvious that my purpose has been, not to construct a philosophy upon a logical basis, but to give to a definite experience the support of philosophic analysis, and thereby disclose the way of its attainment. As an aid in the statement of my position, I have occasionally quoted from authors whose philosophy, as a whole, differs widely from my own. I have used the word mystic in its true, PREFACE technical sense, 1 and have applied it to that con- sciousness which knows the spiritual, to one who knows this truth through spiritual aspiration and in- tuition, and who ultimately understands it. It is with much appreciation of their helpful- ness that I acknowledge my indebtedness to Kant, Critique of Pure Reason; to Royce, The Spirit of Modern Philosophy; also to Science and Health and other Christian Science literature. 1 By which I mean the sense in which the word is used by Wil- liam James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures XVI and XVII; and by Evelyn Underhill, The Mystic Way. CONTENTS I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER PAGE I General Outline 3 II Outline Continued, and Reasons for Doubt 12 III Spiritual Knowledge and Material Be- lief 27 IV The Finite 32 V The Mystic 47 VI The Unfolding of the Mystic Conscious- ness 64 II IDEALISM VII A General Statement of Idealism . . 79 VIII Two Types of Idealists 87 III THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST IX The Way of the Spiritual Idealist . . 97 X Nature of Unreality as Conceived by the Spiritual Idealist 113 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XI The Spiritual Idealist's Remedy for the Illusion Called Evil 118 IV THE TECHNIQUE OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST XII The Conscious Attainment of a Larger Conception of Truth 135 XIII The Practical Application of Truth . 147 V CONCLUSION XIV An Individual Expression of Truth . .157 XV The Right Answer 204 I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I GENERAL OUTLINE Many experiences through which we pass are so dark, their waters are so deep, that the old state- ments of spiritual truth comfort and strengthen us no longer. Such experiences bring us to a new real- isation of evil, — a realisation of its asserted power, of its presence in every life, of the constant fear and dread of it which has possessed all of us in one form or another. And with this new and added realisa- tion of the nature of evil, its seeming power to hurt and almost overcome us, our natures have awakened from a sleep, and powers hitherto dormant are ris- ing up as though to save us, with a determination that will not be denied. When thus awakened, one has a vision that to the questions of life there must be right answers; that one can know these answers, these truths, and that the remedy for evil, as well as the maintenance of good, lies in such knowing. Moreover, this newly awakened self, — born again and of the Spirit, catch- 3 4 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC ing glimpses of the kingdom of heaven, and feeling itself, if ever so little, yet akin to the Divine, — longs for a knowledge and a power which is commensurate with the stature of which it has become even dimly aware. Therefore, not only would it overcome for itself and others the recognised evils and limitations of the material mind and body, but it would put off the material altogether, and know itself as perfect and spiritual, even unto " the measure of the stat- ure of the fullness of Christ," that it may perform the works of Christ and his followers, and may ex- perience his resurrection, his transfiguration and as- cension, proving itself to be like the beloved Son in whom God was well pleased. When once this longing for and assurance of di- vine understanding and power is awakened, it will not be put by. It demands the sacrifice of all lesser claims upon us. It leads us out of conventional high- ways, hammers through the walls of old prejudices, and breaks down our reliance upon ancient state- ments of Truth. w Glad Truth's yet mightier man-child Leaps beneath the Future's heart." 4 Lowell. GENERAL OUTLINE 5 And yet there seems always to be building for our use a new foundation upon which not only our future understanding, but our early faith, is quite secure. The stones of this new structure are the answers which come to us unfailingly in response to our ear- nest search for Truth. Thus a new birth may come to each one of us, — a new ideal of Truth, of Being. How many of us have ever thought of Being, much less filled it with any definite content? But could we make our conception of Being conform to that which is Being, we should find the secret of life, — hitherto so elusive that, disheartened, we have ceased to look for its solution, accepting it as a mys- tery. Our life has been thought to be physical and men- tal as well as spiritual, but Being has been put into the crucible again, and, as a result of the assay, a new formula for life has been written, in which the old supposed ingredients, matter and mortal sense, are left out. The new formula now reads: "Life is perfect consciousness," or, " Being is Spirit." Be- ings, therefore, are spiritual. One who defines Being in such a way, — thus hold- ing Spirit to be all in all, and any so-called thing out- side of it, as untrue and therefore as unreal, — must, 6 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC of necessity, feel that the spiritual in all of us has not only received but slight recognition, but has been much underestimated. In the moral life the spirit- ual has been given a place, but hardly more than as an ethical principle. In the world of affairs, few men are aware that it is their mind of Christ which brings them success. In the world of art the spirit- ual has, perhaps, received even less recognition as the secret of all creative power, and scientists must still define life in terms of what it does, because they do not know what it is. An article by M. G. Seelig gives us a quotation from Professor Ward which il- lustrates such a definition. 2 The " additional something " of the scientist 2 " Between living and non-living matter there is the fundamental difference that in living matter there is always something else present in addition to the properties found in non-living bodies. This additional something endows living bodies with a tendency to disturb existing equilibria, to reverse the dissipative processes which prevail throughout the inanimate world, to store and build up where they are scattering and pulling down; the tendency to conserve in- dividual existence against antagonistic forces, to grow and to progress, not inertly taking the easier way, but seem- ingly striving for the best, retaining every vantage secured and working for the new ones." — Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol CLXIIl, No. 22. GENERAL OUTLINE 7 which makes the difference between " living and non- living bodies," and which the vitalists call " vital force," we believe, as we have said, to be a spiritual force. This spiritual or life force is neither phys- ical, chemical, nor mechanical, and it does not ap- pear as such to those who truly see it. It is not res- ident in matter. It is the manifestation of Spirit, infinite Mind, or God, and it has a spiritual appear- ance of its own. If this conviction be true, it follows that one pos- sesses real life, real knowledge, real love, the beauti- ful, the good, only in so far as he is spiritually minded. Should one succeed, therefore, in any di- rection, it is by virtue of his mind that loves, that knows the good, the absolute truth. Should one fail in any direction, he does so through a lack of that " inward and spiritual grace " which underlies all power. Whatever the form, then, of our failure or suc- cess, our essential failure or success lies in the realm of the spiritual, and whoever wishes to achieve in any direction is consciously or unconsciously seeking for an increase in spiritual power. This spiritual conception of man's true being and activity is gradually taking the place of the so-called 8 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC normal, as conceived by material thought. And, in consequence, the old remedial and educational agencies adapted to the old ideas are giving way, and new ones are coming to light, adapted to the new. If the real man is spiritual, material means, — neither physical nor mental, — can help him in un- folding and maintaining his spiritual selfhood. Those who have caught a glimpse of the beauty of this new ideal no longer wait until they are defective from the world's point of view; but realising the somewhat low standard of its so-called normal, — at any point hardly above the material, — they reach out, before they are sick, for the substance which is always well ; seek, before they are ugly and deformed, for that beauty which will not fade ; and strive for a realisation of the sinless self before they fall. Their love for others also expresses itself in new ideals of service and in new forms of charity, based upon rais- ing those who are u normal " above the accepted standards. 3 8 Many mothers and fathers no longer feel that a young girl just out of college must needs dip down among the more degraded and unfortunate in order to render social service. Work among the so-called normal offers ample opportunity for all our youth to serve, and, moreover, in ways and under conditions where they run no danger of GENERAL OUTLINE 9 No one should be satisfied until he can express him- self in some form of art, and yet friends who are al- ready well and prosperous look indifferent as well as incredulous if one hints of their obligation to study the spiritual laws of thought in order to sing or paint. And those who have already attained to the level of expressing themselves in beautiful forms should study the higher laws that through their conscious operation they may achieve even greater things than before were possible to them. God, the Father, our teacher, is giving us, His pupils, questions, to which he demands correct, — that is, spiritual, — answers. Every act of our lives is the answer we give Him to one of His questions, and these answers make up the whole of the life of each one of us: poor (material) answers, poor lives; arresting their own development. There is such danger in surroundings which present problems too difficult for them to solve, and thus tend to make them either superficial or morbid. If our young people will work among our children, using all the forms of art to unfold their natures upon spiritual levels and keep them there, such efforts will reveal in the children hidden spiritual treasures which in later years will assert themselves and help to lift the ma- terial " yoke " and lighten the burden of " earthly freight " which inevitably awaits men in a seemingly material environ- ment like ours. io THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC right (spiritual) answers, rich lives. Many of us barely pass our examinations and so just get into life, and all through the course we fail and fail. Why do others get through with honours? Right answers, or wrong ones quickly corrected, tell the story. Spiritual insight gives us right (spiritual) answers, with their happy, successful lives. For this reason, training to enter more consciously and more fully into spiritual states of mind must be un- dertaken by all, and most of all by those who, by their constitution, seem to be incapable of experienc- ing them. Such training brings into service an hitherto unused thought plant. Our mental output has not stood the test; its quality has been inferior and could not compete, perchance, with that of others. It is necessary, therefore, to improve our mental equipment and raise our standard to the plane of the spiritual in order to meet the daily demands upon us for more satisfactory results. If another man's answers to life's questions be of such quality as to graduate him with honours, while our thoughts or answers, like base coin, can be ex- changed for little in God's kingdom, let us see quickly that the fault lies within us. We can make our own thought product such as to compete with the best; GENERAL OUTLINE n but to do so we must cultivate a thought territory which is going to waste in us. It is the mystic's spiritual territory which we must reclaim. Its fal- low tracts, full of promise of great yields, lie in every man's mind. The richness stored away in them may be made available through use, — spiritual use. We will plant the right thought seeds there, for only spiritual seeds will grow in this hitherto unused soil of our minds. We will bring the freedom of toler- ance, the stimulus of sympathy, the great nursing agencies of love, to the seeds down there in the dark. We will brood over this long neglected garden, pro- tect it from ridicule, and be patient with its unpromis- ing first appearances; so shall we reap its spiritual harvest for ourselves and for others, a harvest that will supply our daily bread. Moreover, we need no longer be forced by suffering, but may, if we choose, by seeking, enter at will into these truth-revealing states of mind, for the technique by which we arrive at such states is being made clear. 4 4 By technique we mean a specific kind of right thinking. CHAPTER II OUTLINE CONTINUED, AND REASONS FOR DOUBT What are the experiences which are strong enough to drive us to this belief in the spiritual as the only real, as the only right answer to all questions ; trans- cending, as it does, the material, visible, and so-called substantial order of things? There are petty tyrannies that bind us. There are aimless moments when we cease to know our way and cease to care. How and why the vision fades 1 we do not know, nor how to bring it back, but are only 1 " There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparell'd in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore ; — Turn wheresoe'er I may, By night or day, The things I have seen I now can see no more. 12 REASONS FOR DOUBT 13 aware of the utter weariness and fruitlessness of ex- istence. 2 Sometimes care may come too early in life, leaving no room for childhood's flowers, the natural Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream? Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy; But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, He sees it in his joy; The Youth, who daily farther from the east Must travel, still is Nature's priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended; At length the man perceives it die away, And fade into the light of common day." Wordsworth: Ode on Immortality. 2 " Why did they kill themselves?" Una asked, her chin in her hand. " Because they were heathen. When they grew tired of life (as if they were the only people) they would jump into the sea. They called it ' going to Wotan.' It wasn't want of food always, by any means. A man would tell you he felt grey in his heart, or a woman would say that she saw nothing but long days in front of her; and they'd saunter away to the mud-flats and — that would be the end of them, poor souls, unless one headed them off." — Kipling: Conversion of St. Wilfrid; Rewards and Fairies. i 4 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC fruits of which are joy and hope. Without knowing why, there are many of us who never feel at home, — the bitter fruit, perhaps, of our transplanted na- tion, in a country where families are frequently made up of uncongenial members, springing, as they do, from different races and cherishing ideals rooted in many and alien lands. During the travail of its birth our nation amalgated these differences in race and ideal, and dominated by the common passion for freedom, felt itself a unit; but in its secure maturity subordinated traits and desires come to light, and we hunger for an earlier people, an earlier home. 3 ' 4 There are the unconscious defects in us all, mak- ing us fail those who love and trust us, — the pride and obstinacy or mere lack of humour whereby we 8 " L'ame garde les char act eristiques de sa race, le cceur reste de son pays, de son clock er meme." * Many of us can recall a member of his family who kept himself aloof, whom even his parents failed to under- stand. In one family, a far away Scotch ancestor appeared in such a boy. He might have been sent abroad to school; but no one realised how Scotch he was until it was too late. What had a New England city full of material pros- perity to offer to him, who all unconsciously was dreaming of Scottish lake and hill, seeing their purple bloom, feeling the mystery of their dark places, listening to the call of romance and story, of Benledi and Roderick Dhu! REASONS FOR DOUBT 15 miss the rare nearness reserved for those who love; and that dark, dissatisfied spirit lurking about, mak- ing us never happy in ourselves, jealous of the hap- piness of others. There are the patient hopes that never are fulfilled, dull resignation to a bare exist- ence, love grown cold in middle age, friends es- tranged, and the loneliness of old age. There are the musicians whose songs will not finish themselves, 5 and those artists whose colour eludes them at times, and whose dreams will not come. 6 If to these less obvious and perhaps minor ills of life one adds poverty and its benumbing effects, actual sin, pain, sickness, and death, with the darkness, grief, and suspense attending them, what further spur is needed to make one long to break through and reach beyond this so-called order of things, and see if there may not be an interpretation of evil and a truth con- 8 Wolf's life illustrates this: — the times of inactivity when he feels himself as dead, followed by phenomenal crea- tive periods, then further lack of inspiration, finally ending in insanity." — Romain Rolland, Musicians of Today. 6 " In a fortnight I have had more phantasies than in four months before." While the mood was on him he gave it full sway, but presently he said, " Now I am stuck fast again, and no dreams come." — Memorials of Edward Burne- Jones. 1 6 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC cerning good whose significance he has failed to dis- cern, or, discerning, to realise? Whoever begins to rebel against the " actual," often with his heart first, and afterwards consciously with his reason, will rarely cease in his rebellion until he reaches that point where he doubts the reality of the whole natural order. He will then question the right of the intellect 7 to explain the universe from a purely physical standpoint, thus trying to re- duce to nothing that which it cannot weigh and meas- ure. He will go further, and in spite of the enforced limitation of his intellect, — which prevents it from testifying to a world in which it is superfluous, — he will not be deterred, when he once is awake, from making excursions into that same world and so re- assuring himself daily of the presumption of a phys- ical standpoint which takes corporeal objects and physical forces for the only realities. When one thus begins to wonder about, and then to challenge, the old, material ways of thinking, he 7 The word " intellect " is used throughout the book to signify that which seemingly presents the material world to us. See Kant's Empirical Ego. REASONS FOR DOUBT 17 is shaking off a mental chrysalis, and unfolding pow- ers for knowing which he has hitherto used but little, and of which he has been comparatively unaware. He then has a great joy in store for him, a large field of undreamed of knowledge, a new companion- ship. In the beginning, he enters into unseeing com- munion with the geniuses of the Spirit; in the end, he arrives at that Paradise where all eyes are opened to the same vision. He rejoices, and feels himself no longer alone as he reads his own thoughts in the illuminating words of others. 8 Henceforward the searcher stands for " the in- 8 " The unsatisfactory nature of the present world, the conflict of the natural order of events with the irrelinquish- able demands of the Spirit, is the strongest motive to transcend the visible order and seek an invisible one. The fact that in the natural course of events, as observation shows, the good and great are often oppressed and perish, while the vulgar and the wicked triumph, is the goad that drives us to deny the absolute reality of nature. It is and remains the final and indestructible axiom of the will that reality cannot be indifferent to good and evil. If, then, nature is indifferent, it cannot be the true reality. Then only behind and above nature, as mere phenomenon, can the true world be discovered, and in it the good is absolutely real, i.e., in God, who is the absolutely real and the ab- solutely good." — Paulsen : Immanuel Kant, His Life and Doctrine, page 318. 1 8 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC adequacy of common knowledge to attain the idea of true knowledge," and for the truth of the old idea that the senses deceive us. Henceforward, for him, the intellect or the knowing power of the natural man, which testifies to the reality of the world of the flesh, does not tell the truth. And he believes that God " forged that other influence, that heat of inward evidence, by which one doubts against the sense," and knows the Truth. It is with a feeling of new birth that we realise the truth of a vital idea. We see a new heaven and a new earth; unto us a Son is born; and a pent up joy overflows the waste places and fills the bare in- lets of our hearts. The dark is drowned in a golden flood of light, while a glad song mingles with the in- flowing tide. This true idea seems new, and like a clear flame it bursts from the smouldering fires deep down in us, and holds itself free and triumphant above the embers of our past. Such a vital idea is born in us when we realise that the intellect is not the only knowing power, but is, at best, only one side of that apparent mental duality which may seem to present itself wherever a mind appears. REASONS FOR DOUBT 19 One side of this seeming duality consists of that consciousness which may be called the mortal sense, — or, philosophically, the empirical ego, — whose knowing power is called the intellect. It involves material bodies and all material conditions which to the higher mind appear as limitation, poverty, sickness, sorrow, and sin. These are but the ap- pearances of the mortal sense belief in matter as substance, in law as physical, and in itself as truth- knowing. It has no idea of God as Spirit, or of law as moral. Discontent, irritability, fault find- ing, unhappiness, pain, sickness, and death are typi- cal signs of the seeming activity of the finite, so- called "mind." The other side of this mental dualism consists of that consciousness which we will characterise as the immortal mind or the spiritual ego, the essence and nature of which is to be conscious of, and to ex- press, Truth and Love. To it substance is Love (Spirit), and law is spiritual. It knows only the truth. It knows itself to be perfect, one with the Father or Spirit. It, too, has an appearance, vis- ible to the pure in heart; but since a belief in the physical universe is not a part of this consciousness, 20 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC its appearance is never material, and therefore is forever invisible to the carnal mind. This spiritual knowing power is always active, and we are con- scious of this activity when we are happy, well, and efficient. It is plain, therefore, that there appear to be not only two knowing powers, — one the mortal and the other the divine, — but that what is true to the one cannot be known to the other. In the words of Paul, " The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Corinthians 2: 14). If by any unhappy chance we should become so asleep to the truth that we should fail to realise this antagonism, this house divided against itself; and should also cease to see that the material order as a whole is antagonistic to the divine, — men and women would cease to be discriminating in their morals, and would submit with a so-called Christian spirit to physical inability, poverty, chance, and sor- row. If this gulf between the two opposing parts of our nature and of the world in general should seem to be obliterated, and their apparent fusion should be so complete that no seam could be found, REASONS FOR DOUBT 21 — the " false and true meeting with a kiss across the bound-mark where their realms confine," — men and women would foster and cherish the so-called normal appetites and desires of the flesh. They would look indulgently upon their excesses, consid- ering them different not in kind, but only in degree, from that which is popularly deemed their " per- fectly natural and therefore right " satisfaction. From the standpoint of a higher mind, the devil would then be included in the angelic circle. And this is just what is happening; for now the brain of man " claims equal suffrage " with Spirit, and while, theoretically, the existence of the two sides of a man is to-day popularly recognised, yet, as a matter of fact, many of us do not classify the ma- terial as apart from and antagonistic to the Spirit- ual. In allowing our vision thus to become blurred we should seem to have mislaid the key to the solution of our problems, for to become unconscious of the distinction between the divine origin of good thoughts and the alien origin of evil thoughts is ap- parently to cease to distinguish between the claims of our various thoughts to validity and authority. And since an inquiry into the pedigree of a thought no 22 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC longer saves us from evil, 9 — it having been crowded into our conception of God's universe, — sins are ap- parently innocently committed; children are brought into the world thoughtlessly; the good of those whom we ought to love is sacrificed for those whom we happen to love; immorality is applauded in the name of art: and all this with a plea as pure as snow, — God made the natural, the material. Each of us to-day, in some form, is presented with the idea that he ought to obey that which is material, and therefore immoral, on the ground that God made it. In spite of our theories, however, we have never fought evil more industriously than now. Yet upon what grounds can we consistently fight, while main- taining that the lower side of our nature and the finite side of things in general is of divine origin? In declaring the natural and spiritual to be of equal birth, and therefore of equal rank and having equal rights, do we not, in reason, cut ourselves off from any rational basis for successful resistance? 9 Margaret's plea: " I myself am guilty of sin, But all that drove my heart thereto Was oh, so good, oh, so dear." Goethe: Faust. REASONS FOR DOUBT 23 If the " spiritual spins the natural as the spider his web," death, the last enemy, will never be over- come, to say nothing of lesser ones. If spirit is the u principle of our involuntary movements, of our involuntary nutritive functions upon which the nourishment, growth, and origin, and consequently the whole existence, of the material body depends," we have no source from which to derive the weapons with which to fight the evils of body and mind. We have no appeal if, in this realm in which we live, a " rigid order of nature is one with the most miracu- lously divine truth " ; and although u man has sprung from an animal ancestry," yet is he u the em- bodiment, the organ, of the absolute reason." If the material is God made, and therefore it is true that man has a physical, structural body, and is sub- ject to it and to physical law, — then man must have pain, be sick, and die; and having a physical brain upon which his thoughts are conditioned, he will in- evitably be liable to pettiness, ignorance, wickedness, and even insanity. If nature is lying in wait for man, seeking whom she " may devour " with vari- ous evil forces, he cannot fight against such odds with any assurance of success. In a word, if the universe is as it appears to be to finite sense, there 24 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC will never be a time when " God shall wipe away all tears," never an age when " there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying." Such a creed would take away our heavenly Father, and make us bow our helpless heads and say, u Thy will in heaven is, as it is done on earth." 10 But on the other hand, if we could but believe that, though seemingly blended, the evil is all in one cir- cle, the material; and the good is all in another cir- cle, the spiritual; and could but feel that because of their complete antagonism the two circles cannot overlap, — unity between God and the Devil being impossible, — we should have prepared the way for the solution of our problems. Any faith to-day which involves a realisation of the feud that has always existed between flesh and blood on one side and the kingdom of heaven on the other n is in advance of those beliefs in which soul 10 It may be argued that the so-called good of the material universe is ours, God-given and made, but not the evil; but since evil is irrevocably involved in the material, if God is in league with the material order at all, he is in league with evil, and it belongs to the divine order. If the material universe originates in Him, evil originates in Him. 11 Understanding will ultimately teach us to go farther than this mere separation of the material from the spiritual. REASONS FOR DOUBT 25 has not only ceased to revolt at flesh, but where even a reconciliation between them has seemed to take place. 12 Therefore to such questions as: "Does God give spiritual beings material minds and bodies, and does He surround them with material conditions, upon which their life is dependent?" we must an- swer: The material and the spTritual are opposites and are, therefore, mutually exclusive. Spirit and the spiritual do not know the material. In order to see this, one must " undo the imper- fection of his eyes"; but how? The power is within us. If we use it, it will bring us to our land of vision, the land of St. John. Through it we may look behind this mortal show, — through this life's evil, made of the stuff that dreams are made of, — and see the glory of the Real, which brighter and brighter grows until the evil fantasies which danced 12 " Let us not always say, 1 Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head,' . . . Let us cry, ' All good things Are ours; nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul.' " Robert Browning, 26 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC before us disappear, and we are blind to all but good. A cloister of glorious light is ours; we now know from whence it flows, and " the vision splen- did," " the glory and the dream," are ours at will. CHAPTER III SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE AND MATERIAL BELIEF In the foregoing introductory survey, which it is now desirable for us to work out somewhat more in detail, we have given a definition of Being that we believe involves the right answer to all life's ques- tions, viz: Spirit and Spirit's activity constitute all Being. This definition in itself implies that we dis- criminate against any opposing form of mind as be- ing untrue, and therefore, as involving the wrong answers to the questions of life. Upon what basis one may feel justified in classifying a certain so- called mind and its mental states under the head of Untruth, will be shown further on. At present it is only necessary for us to be clear as to what power for knowing we have, and what power we seem to have; and as to the kinds of facts which each gives us; so that when we discriminate against one form and in favor of another, it will be quite clear as to just what our discrimination implies. 27 28 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC There are apparently two forms of knowing by which we may learn about any given thing. One of these forms is divine or spiritual, 1 and the other is finite. 2 Both forms base their knowledge upon ex- perience. The finite, mortal form of belief is based upon the experiences gained through physical sense data and is testified to by the mortal or material con- sciousness; whereas the spiritual knowing, according to our interpretation, is based upon the experiences gained quite apart from sense data, and is testified to by the divine or spiritual consciousness, some- times called the u highest mystical consciousness." From this difference in standpoint it follows that two answers in regard to the nature of any given thing will inevitably be given: the one, by material sense, being finite and physical according to its na- ture; the other, by divine consciousness, being in- finite and spiritual according to its nature. These two answers, as will appear more clearly in our sub- sequent discussion, will not only be different, but they will be antagonistic to one another. For in- stance, should it be asked of what are we made, the 1 Corinthians 2: 11, 12, 16. Also Kant: Intuitive Un- derstanding. 2 Kant: Empirical Ego or Common Understanding. SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL 29 divine knowing power 3 must answer: "The chil- dren of Spirit are spiritual;" while the finite so- called power 4 will say: " Of matter, governed by physical law." " To all questions, the modern, em- pirical, finite consciousness answers with a system of physics which embraces all sciences, whether they have their sources in outer or inner experiences." 5 3 Corinthians 2 : II, 12, 16. Also Kant: Intuitive Un- derstanding. 4 Kant: Empirical Ego or Common Understanding. B " All that we know (says this finite consciousness) through outer experience is body, — that is, matter in space and time. The relations of time and space are investigated by mathematics, whilst the pursuit of matter in its trans- formations is the object of the natural sciences which as morphology (mineralogy, botany, zoology) deal with the forms of matter; as aetiology (physics, chemistry, physiology) with its changes and their causes. " These states and changes of matter in space and time, linked together by the chain of causality, are called phe- nomena. These phenomena are manifestations of an inner unity termed force, natural force, instances of which are gravity, impenetrability, electricity, crystallisation, etc. Every state in nature is a tension of conflicting forces — instances: a building, a chemical union, the human body in the states of health, disease, and death. . . . " The science of inner experience, according to the physi- cal standpoint, is psychology (in the empirical sense), as it has for its subject the entire phenomena of inner perception, 30 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC Shall we accept a finite answer to our questions? In asking this, we are again reminded that the interest of our discussion centres in the fact that life is a compulsory asking of questions and a finding of true answers. Life eternal is a knowing of the Truth; and therefore, whether we will or no, if we live, in any real sense of the word, we are forced to ask questions and find true answers as to the na- ture of things. Upon all men, therefore, sooner and accordingly embraces the whole domain of (empirical) knowing, feeling, willing." — Deussen: Elements of Metaphysics, pages 2, 12, 13. The finite consciousness may tell us that this world of phenomena (that is, states and changes of matter) is an outer world, but one which can be known to us because it is something that acts as an excitant upon our sense organs, and thereby produces physical sensations by means of which we may interpret the world without. On the other hand, this finite consciousness may tell us that this so-called physi- cal world is only an appearance of something, and that something is its own mentality. But whether the material universe is the sum of something without our finite minds plus these minds, or whether it is just the way that our men- tal processes look to our finite minds, does not change the fact that the universe seems finite to a finite sense, and a finite answer is sure to be given by a finite sense to any question whatsoever. SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL 31 or later will be forced this question now before us: — Shall we accept as true any finite statement? A study of the character of the finite will help us in making our decision. CHAPTER IV THE FINITE The study of the character of the finite reveals that which at least justifies us in believing that we shall find sufficient reason, before we have finished, for proving our discrimination against the truth of the material to be inevitable. Concerning this sub- ject we can do no better than to quote the vivid de- scriptions of those thinkers to whom the finite has appeared in its real light. 1 " There are few sights in Nature more restful to the soul than a daisied field in June. Whether it be at the dewy hour of sunrise, with blithe matin songs still echoing among the treetops, or while the luxuriant splendour of noontide fills the delicate tints of the early foliage with a pure glory of light, or in that more pensive time when long shadows are thrown eastward, and the fresh breath of the sea is felt, or even under the solemn mantle of dark- ness, when all forms have faded from sight, and 1 Fiske : Through Nature to God, page 59. 32 THE FINITE 33 the night air is musical with the murmurs of in- numerable insects, — amid all the varying moods through which the daily cycle runs, the abiding sense is of unalloyed happiness, the profound tran- quillity of mind and heart that nothing ever brings save the contemplation of perfect beauty. One's thought is carried back for the moment to that morn- ing of the world when God looked upon His work and saw that it was good. If in the infinite and eternal Creative Energy one might imagine some inherent impulse perpetually urging toward fresh creation, what could it be more likely to be than the divine contentment in giving objective existence to the boundless and subtle harmonies whereof our world is made? That it is a world of perfect har- mony and unsullied beauty, who can doubt as he strolls through this summer field? As our thought plays lightly with its sights and sounds, there is nothing but gladness in the laugh of the bobolink; the thrush's tender note tells only of the sweet domestic companionship of the nest; creeping and winged things emerging from their grubs fill us with the sense of abounding life; and the myriad butter- cups, hallowed with vague memories of June days in childhood, lose none of their charm in reminding 34 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC us of the profound sympathy and mutual depend- ence in which the worlds of flowers and insects have grown up. The blades of waving grass, the flut- tering leaves upon the lilac bush, appeal to us with rare fascination; for the green stuff that fills their cellular tissues, and the tissues of all green things that grow, is the world's great inimitable worker of wonders; its marvellous alchemy takes dead matter and breathes into it the breath of life. But for that magician, chlorophyl, conjuring with sunbeams, such things as" animal life and conscious intelligence would be impossible; there would be no problems of creation, nor philosopher to speculate upon them. Thus the delight that sense impression gives as we wander among buttercups and daisies, becomes deep- ened into gratitude and veneration till we quite un- derstand how the rejuvenescence of Nature should in all ages have aroused men to acts of worship, and should call forth from modern masters of music the most religious of the arts of expression, out- bursts of sublimest song. " And yet we need but come a little closer to the facts to find them apparently telling us a very dif- ferent story. The moment we penetrate below the superficial aspect of things, the scene is changed. In THE FINITE 35 the folklore of Ireland there is a widespread belief in a fairyland of eternal hope and brightness and youth situated a little way below the roots of the grass. From that land of Tir nan Og, as the peas- ants call it, the secret springs of life shoot forth their scions in this invisible world, and thither a few fa- voured mortals have now and then found their way. It is into no blessed country of Tir nan Og that our stern science leads us, but into a scene of ugliness and hatred, strife and massacre. " Macaulay tells of the battlefield of Neerwinden, that the next summer after that frightful slaughter the whole country side was densely covered with scarlet poppies, which people beheld with awe as a token of wrath in heaven over the deeds wrought on earth by human passions. Any summer field, though mantled in softest green, is the scene of butchery as wholesale as that of Neerwinden, and far more ruthless. The life of its countless tiny denizens is one of unceasing toil, of crowding and jostling, where the weaker fall unpitied by the way, of starvation, from hunger and cold, of robbery utterly shameless and murder utterly cruel. That green sward in taking possession of its territory has exterminated scores of flowering plants of the sort 36 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC that human economics and aesthetics stigmatise as weeds; nor do the blades of the victorious army dwell side by side in amity, but in their eagerness to dally with the sunbeams, thrust aside and supplant one another without the slightest compunction. Of the crawling insects and those that hum through the air with the quaint snail, the burrowing worm, the bloated toad, scarce one in a hundred but succumbs to the buffets of adverse fortune before it has achieved maturity and left offspring to replace it. The early bird who went forth in quest of the worm was lucky if, at the close of a day as full of strife and peril as ever knight-errant encountered, he did not himself serve as a meal for some giant foe in the gloaming. When we think of the hawk's talons buried in the breast of the wren, while the relent- less beak tears the little wings from the quivering, bleeding body, our mood toward Nature is changed, and we feel like recoiling from a world in which such black injustice, such savage disregard for others, is part of the general scheme." Looking still further into the matter, Fiske goes on to say: " We find that this hideous hatred and strife, this wholesale famine and death, furnish the indispen- THE FINITE 37 sable conditions for the evolution of higher and higher types of life. u Nay, more; but for the pitiless destruction of all individuals that fall short of a certain degree of fit- ness to the circumstances of life into which they are born, the type would inevitably degenerate, the life would become lower and meaner in kind. Increase in richness, variety, complexity of life, is gained only by the selection of variations above or beyond a certain mean, and the prompt execution of a death sentence upon all the rest. The principle of nat- ural selection is in one respect intensely Calvinistic; it elects the one and damns the ninety-and-nine. In these processes of Nature there is nothing that savours of communistic equality; but * to him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.' Through this selection of a favoured few, a higher type of life, — or at all events a type in which there is more life, — is attained in many cases, but not al- ways. Evolution and progress are not synonymous terms. The survival of the fittest is not always a survival of the best or of the most highly organised. The environment is sometimes such that increase of fitness means degeneration of type, and the animal 38 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC and vegetable worlds show many instances of degen- eration. One brilliant instance is that which has preserved the clue to the remote ancestry of the vertebrate type. The molluscoid ascidian, rooted polyp-like on the sea beach in shallow water, has an embryonic history which shows that its ancestors had once seen better days, when they darted to and fro, fishlike, through the waves, with the prophecy of a vertebrate skeleton within them. This is a case of marked degeneration. More often survival of the fittest simply preserves the type unchanged through long periods of time. But now and then, under favourable circumstances, it raises the type. At all events, whenever the type is raised, it is through the survival of the fittest, implying destruc- tion of all save the fittest. " This last statement is probably true of all plants and of all animals except that as applied to the hu- man race it needs some transcendently important qualifications which students of evolution are very apt to neglect. At present we may note that the development of civilisation on its political side has been a stupendous struggle for life, wherein the pos- session of certain physical and mental attributes has enabled some tribes or nations to prevail over others, THE FINITE 39 and to subject or exterminate them. On the indus- trial side the struggle has been no less fierce; the evolution of higher efficiency through merciless com- petition is a matter of common knowledge. Alike in the occupations of war and in those of peace, su- perior capacity has thriven upon victories in which small heed has been paid to the wishes or the wel- fare of the vanquished. In human history perhaps no relation has been more persistently repeated than that of the hawk and the wren. The aggression has usually been defended as in the interests of higher civilisation, and in the majority of cases the defence has been sustained by the facts. It has, in- deed, very commonly been true that the survival of the strongest is the survival of the fittest. " Such considerations effect our mood toward na- ture in a way that is somewhat bewildering. . . . A thought is likely to arise which in days gone by we should have striven to suppress as too impious for utterance; but it is wiser to let such thoughts find full expression, for only thus can we be sure of understanding the kind of problem we are trying to solve. Is not, then, this method of Nature which achieves progress only through misery and death, an exceedingly brutal and clumsy method? Life, one 4 o THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC would think, must be dear to the everlasting giver of Life, yet how cheap it seems to be held in the general scheme of things ! In order that some race of moths may maintain a certain fantastic contour and marking of their wings, untold thousands of moths are doomed to perish prematurely. Instead of making the desirable object once for all, the method of Nature is to make something else and reject it, and so on through countless ages, till by slow approximations the creative thought is realised. u Nature is often called thrifty; yet could anything be more prodigal or more cynical than the waste of individual lives? Does it not remind one of Charles Lamb's famous story of the Chinaman whose house accidentally burned down and roasted a pig, whereupon the dainty meat was tasted and its fame spread abroad until epicures all over China were to be seen carrying home pigs and forthwith setting fire to their houses? We need but add that the custom thus established lasted for centuries, dur- ing which every dinner of pig involved the sacrifice of a homestead, and we seem to have a close parody upon the wastefulness of Nature, or of what is other- wise called in these days the Cosmic Process. Upon such a view as this the Cosmic Process appears in THE FINITE 41 a high degree unintelligent, not to say immoral." Again says Fiske : 2 " Survival of the fittest, as such, has no sort of relation to moral ends. Beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice, are all alike to it. Side by side with the exquisite rose flourishes the hideous tarantula, and in too many cases the villain's chances of a livelihood are better than the saint's. As I said a while ago, if we confine our attention to the survival of the fittest in the struggle for exist- ence, we are not likely to arrive at conclusions much more satisfactory than Caliban's, ■ As it likes me each time, I do; So he.' " In such a universe we may look in vain for any sanction for morality, any justification for love and self sacrifice; we find no hope in it, no consolation; there is not even dignity in it; nothing whatever but resistless all-producing and all-consuming energy. 11 And," he continues, " if the spirit shown in Na- ture's works as thus contemplated is not one of wan- ton mockery, it seems at any rate to be a spirit of stolid indifference. It indicates a Blind Force rather than a Beneficent Wisdom at the source of things." It is in such mood as this that Huxley tells us, in his famous address delivered at Oxford in 1893, 2 Fiske : Through Nature to God, pages 77, 78. 42 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC that there is no sanction for morality in the cosmic process. " Men in society," he says, " are un- doubtedly subject to the cosmic process. As among other animals, multiplication goes on without cessa- tion and involves severe competition for the means of support. The struggle for existence tends to eliminate those less fitted to adapt themselves to the circumstances of their existence. The strongest, the most self assertive, tend to tread down the weaker. . . . Social progress means a checking of the cos- mic process at every step, and the substitution of it for another, which may be called the ethical process, the end of which is not the survival of those who may happen to be the fittest in respect of the whole of the conditions which exist, but of those who are ethically the best." Again says Huxley: " Let us understand, once for all, that the ethical progress of society depends, not on imitating the cosmic proc- ess, still less in running away from it, but in com- bating it." And yet again, " The cosmic process has no sort of relation to moral ends." 3 3 Fiske says afterwards, that Huxley was using the term, " cosmic process," as equivalent to what Darwin called " natural selection " and what Spencer called " survival of the fittest." THE FINITE 43 Continuing our investigation of the character of the finite, we will quote further from the descrip- tions of others. " There must be some sort of evil present when- ever there is a finite will. It is not joyous to be finite, in so far as one is finite. One longs always to know more and to possess more; and one lives in all sorts of paradoxical relations to other finite lives. One lives in time, or in some such imperfect form of appreciative consciousness, and one preserves one's finitude and so one's endless cares. 4 " Most of us had rather be finite than nothing, although even that is not necessarily our opinion. But to be bounded in a nutshell and to have bad dreams as well, is of the essence of temporality and finitude in so far as they are regarded as such. " In view of this truth one can well say that, speaking in temporal terms, there just now is in the world nobody who is content with it." 5 Proceeding with our characterisation of the finite, and still quoting from Professor Royce, " The worst 4 Josiah Royce: The Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 437- 5 Josiah Royce : The Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 438. 44 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC tragedy of the world is the tragedy of the brute chance to which everything spiritual seems to be subject amongst us, — the tragedy of the diabolical irrationality of so many among the foes of whatever is significant. An open enemy you can face. The temptation to do evil is indeed a necessity for spirit- uality. But one's own foolishness, one's ignorance, the cruel accidents of disease, the fatal misunder- standings that part friends and lovers, the chance mistakes that wreck nations, — these things we la- ment' most bitterly, not because they are painful, but because they are farcical, distracting, — not foe- men worthy of the sword of the spirit, nor yet mere pangs of our finitude that we can easily learn to face courageously, as one can be indifferent to physical pain. No, these things do not make life merely painful to us; they make it hideously petty. They are like the ' mean knights ' that beat down Lan- celot during his hopeless wandering in search of the Grail." 6 And again: " But this capriciousness of life is what really makes it seem like an evil dream. Con- sider once more that horror involved in hereditary 6 Josiah Royce: The Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 465. THE FINITE 45 disease, and in the fatal and unearned baseness which often goes therewith. Consider the way in which the wrong-doing of one person often entails not the physical pain, but the utter and inevitable corruption and endless moral degradation, of an- other. Consider how not mere disloyalty, but a transient mistake, may wreck the most spiritual of causes after years of devotion have built up its for- tunes nearly to the heights of success. These, alas ! are the mere commonplaces of our temporal order. Is it easy to say that these things are needed as a part of the gravity of the spiritual world? No, for they don't make the world spiritually grave. They make it rather insane and contemptible. Moral evil in the wilful sinner himself, you can look in the face and defy, and that, too, even if you are yourself the sinner. ' Here,' you can say, ' is my natural foe ; I know what he is and wherefore he is. I condemn him, and I rejoice in defeating him/ But the hope- less and helpless degradation of the sinner's passive victim, how shall you speak comfortably or even de- fiantly after that? Here is the place only for pity; and in a world that is full of such things, and that always will be full of such things so long as its or- der is the prey of the mechanical accidents of na- 46 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC ture, where is there room for anything but pity for its worthlessness? " Well, here, indeed, we find the enemy, of whose works Shakespeare wrote in the sonnet that begins: 1 Tired of all these, for restful death I cry.' And this will always be the cry of our darker moments so long as the tragedies of our world decline to ap- pear to us as mainly moral tragedies. Nay; if it were only our sin that kept us from God, might men not often hope to see his face? The true devil isn't crime, then, but brute chance. For this devil teaches us to doubt and grow cold of heart; he de- nies God everywhere, and in all his creatures ; makes our world of action that was to be a spiritual tragedy, too often a mere farce before our eyes. And to see this farcical aspect of the universe is for the first time to come to a sense of the true gloom of life. 7 7 Josiah Royce: The Spirit of Modern Philosophy, pages 468-9. CHAPTER V THE MYSTIC If with the foregoing description of the finite world, including our finitude, the last word had been spoken as to the solution of the problems of life, we should indeed be impressed with the " immitigability of the mortal predicament," and should " resign happiness," for, with Omar Khayyam: " Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate, And many a Knot unravel'd by the Road; But not the Master-Knot of Human Fate. 14 There was the Door to which I found no Key ; There was the Veil through which I might not see: Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee There was — and then no more of Thee and Me. " Earth could not answer; nor the Seas that mourn In flowing Purple, of their Lord forlorn ; Nor rolling Heaven, with all his Signs revealed And hidden by the sleeve of Night and Morn." 47 48 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC But must we stop before the door to which there seems to be no key, must the world, and must we, be finite, material? It is quite true that the finite in- telligence or intellect, the finite feelings and the finite will, bound as they are to the material, have no alternative to offer; but is this empirical ego the sole dictator of what we shall believe? What of our other states of consciousness, not material, not intellectual, but spiritual? Have they not an equal right to speak, and when they testify to a super- sensible kingdom, shall they not be given a hearing? There are many persons who tell of states of consciousness synonymous with faith and with un- derstanding states, thereby testifying not to the sensible world, but to a supersensible, spiritual or- der. Such states of consciousness have a " specific quality,'' and are peculiar to the mystic. In their more striking instances, these states are " not sim- ply an expansion and extension of the self-conscious mind," 1 but are " the super-addition of a function as distinct from any possessed by the average man as self-consciousness is distinct from any function pos- 1 The larger part of the quotations in this chapter are taken from William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures XVI and XVII. THE MYSTIC 49 sessed by one of the higher animals." They are states in which there occurs " an intellectual enlight- enment which alone would place the individual on a new plane of existence, would make him almost a member of a new species." They are u revelations full of significance," are " insights into depths of truth unplombed by the intellect," and stand for " an added dimension of emotion." " Whoever has become possessed by the mystic consciousness has overcome the barriers between himself and God." What is it that the mystic experiences in the fore- going states? What are these facts which the in- stinct and reason can never know? Passages from the mystics themselves answer these questions; and since it is with revelations of religious import that we are interested, we will confine ourselves to the citation of experiences in which the senses play no part. " St. John of the Cross, writing of the intuition and ' touches • by which God reaches the substance of the Soul, tells us that ■ they enrich it marvel- lously.' " " The Vedantists assure us that when a man comes out of the mystic state he remains enlightened, a sage, a prophet, and saint, his whole character 50 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC changed, his life illumined." u In India, training in mystical insight has been known from time im- memorial under the name of Yoga, which signifies the experimental union of the individual with the divine. The yogi, or disciple, learns .that the mind itself has a higher state of existence beyond reason, a superconscious state, and that when the mind gets to that higher state, then this knowledge beyond reasoning comes. Just as unconscious work is be- neath consciousness, so there is another work which is above consciousness, and which also is not ac- companied by the feeling of egoism. There is no feeling of ' I,' and yet the mind works, desireless, free from restlessness, objectless, bodiless. Then the Truth shines in its full effulgence, and we know ourselves for what we truly are, — free, immortal, omnipotent, loosed from the finite and its contrasts of good and evil, and identical with the Universal Soul." " When a fellow monk," says Luther, " one day repeated the words of the creed: ■ I believe in the forgiveness of sins,' I saw the Scripture in an en- tirely new light, and straightway I felt as if I were born anew. It was as if I had found the door of Paradise thrown wide open." THE MYSTIC 51 " I know," writes Mr. Trine, " an officer on our police force who has told me that many times when off duty and on his way home in the evening, there comes to him such vivid and vital realisation of his oneness with this Infinite Power, and this Spirit of Infinite Peace so takes hold of and so fills him, that it seems as if his feet could hardly keep to the pave- ment, so buoyant and so exhilarated does he become by reason of this inflowing tide." In the autobiography of J. Trevor we find: u These highest experiences that I have had of God's presence have been rare and brief, — flashes of con- sciousness which have compelled me to exclaim with surprise — ' God is here!' — or conditions of ex- altation and insight less intense, and only gradually passing away. It was in the most real seasons that the Real Presence came, and I was aware that I was immersed in the infinite ocean of God." St. Ignatius says that, a single hour of medita- tion has taught him more truths about heavenly things than all the teachings of all the doctors put together could have taught him. A Canadian psychiatrist, Dr. R. M. Bucke, gives to the more distinctly characterised of these phe- nomena the name of cosmic consciousness. " The 52 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC prime characteristics of cosmic consciousness is a consciousness of the cosmos, — that is, of the life and order of the universe. Along with the con- sciousness of the cosmos there comes an intellectual enlightenment which alone would place the in- dividual on a new plane of existence, would make him almost a member of a new species. To this is added a state of moral exaltation, an indescribable feeling of elevation, elation, and joyousness, and a quickening of the moral sense, which is fully as striking and more important than is the enhanced intellectual power. With these come what may be called a sense of immortality, a consciousness of eternal life; not a conviction that he shall have this, but the consciousness that he has it already." Dr. Bucke further tells of his own experience in cosmic consciousness : "I had spent the evening in a great city with two friends, reading and dis- cussing poetry and philosophy. We parted at mid- night. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodg- ing. My mind, deeply under the influence of the ideas, images, and emotions called up by the read- ing and talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost passive, enjoyment, not ac- tually thinking, but letting ideas, images, and emo- THE MYSTIC 53 tions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once, without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-coloured cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense con- flagration somewhere close by in that great city; the next, I knew that the fire was within myself. Directly afterwards there came upon me a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumina- tion impossible to describe. Among other things, I did not merely come to believe, but I saw, that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is, on the contrary, a living Presence; I became con- scious in myself of eternal life. It was not a con- viction that I would have eternal life, but a con- sciousness that I possessed eternal life then; I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic order is such that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love ; and that the happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain. The vision lasted a few seconds and was gone; but the memory of it and the sense of the reality of what it taught has remained during the quarter of a cen- 54 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC tury which has since elapsed. I knew that what the vision showed was true. I had attained to a point of view from which I saw that it must be true. That view, that conviction, I may say that con- sciousness, has never, even during periods of the deepest depression, been lost." The following was taken from the autobiography of Al-Ghazzali, a Persian philosopher and theolo- gian who flourished in the eleventh century and ranks as one of the .greatest doctors of the Moslem church. " The Science of the Sufis," says the Mos- lem author, " aims at detaching the heart from all that is not God, and at giving to it for sole occupa- tion the meditation of the divine Being. Theory being more easy for me than practice, I read (certain books) until I understood all that can be learned by study and hearsay. Then I recognised that what pertains most exclusively to their method is just what no study can grasp, but only trans- port, ecstasy, and the transformation of the Soul. . . . Thus I had learned what words could teach of Sufism, but what was left could be learned neither by study nor through the ears, but solely by giv- ing one's self up to ecstasy and leading a pious life . . . The first condition for a Sufi is to purge THE MYSTIC 55 his heart entirely of all that is not God. The next key of the contemplative life consists in the humble prayers which escape from the fervent Soul, and in the meditations on God in which the heart is swallowed up entirely. But in reality this is only the beginning of the Sufi life, the end of Sufism be- ing total absorption in God . . . Wherefore, just as the understanding is a stage of human life in which an eye opens to discern various intellectual objects uncomprehended by sensation, just so in the .prophetic the sight is illumined by a light which uncovers hidden things and objects which the in- tellect fails to reach. The chief properties of prophetism are perceptible only during the trans- port, by those who embrace the Sufi life. The prophet is endowed with qualities to which you pos- sess nothing analogous, and which consequently you cannot possibly understand. How should you know their nature, since one knows only what one can comprehend? But the transport which one attains by the method of the Sufis is like an immediate per- ception, as if one touched the objects with one's hand." St. John of the Cross, one of the best of the mystical teachers, thus describes the condition called 5 6 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC " the union of love " which, he says, is reached by "dark contemplation." (^" In this the Deity com- penetrates the Soul, but in such a hidden way that the Soul finds no terms, no means, no comparison whereby to render the sublimity of the wisdom and the delicacy of the spiritual feeling with which she is filled. We receive this mystical knowledge of God, clothed in none of the kinds of images, in none of the sensible representations, which our mind makes use of in other circumstances. Accordingly, in this knowledge, since the senses and the imagina- tion are not employed, we get neither form nor im- pression, nor can we give any account or furnish any likeness, although the mysterious and sweet-tasting wisdom comes home so clearly to the inmost parts of our soul. Fancy a man seeing a certain kind of thing for the first time in his life. He can under- stand it, use and enjoy it, but he cannot apply a name to it, nor communicate any idea of it, even though all the while it be a mere thing of sense. How much greater will be his powerlessness when it goes beyond the senses! This is the peculiarity of the divine language. The more infused, inti- mate, spiritual, and supersensible it is, the more does it exceed the senses, both inner and outer, and im- THE MYSTIC 57 pose silence upon them. . . . The soul then feels as if placed in a vast and profound solitude, to which no created thing has access, in an immense and boundless desert, — desert the more delicious, the more solitary it is. There, in this abyss of wis- dom, the soul grows by what it drinks in from the well-springs of the comprehension of love, . . . and recognises, however sublime and learned may be the terms we employ, how utterly vile, insignificant, and improper they are, when we seek to discourse I of divine things by their means." From a French book, Professor James says he takes this mystical expression of happiness in God's indwelling presence: " Jesus has come to take up his abode in my heart. It is not so much a habitation, an associa- tion, as a sort of fusion. Oh, new and blessed life ! life which becomes each day more luminous. . . . The wall before me, dark a few moments since, is splendid at this hour because the sun shines on it. . . . My days succeed each other; yesterday a blue sky ; to-day a clouded sun ; a night filled with strange dreams; but as soon as the eyes open, and I regain consciousness and seem to begin life again, it is always the same figure before me, always the same 58 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC presence filling my heart. . . . Formerly the day was dulled by the absence of the Lord. I used to wake, invaded by all sorts of sad impressions, and I did not find Him on my path. To-day He is with me; and the light cloudiness which covers things is not an obstacle to my communion with Him. I feel the pressure of His hand; I feel some- thing else which fills me with a serene joy: shall I dare to speak it out? Yes, for it is the true expres- sion of what I experience. The Holy Spirit is not merely making me a visit; it is no mere dazzling apparition which may from one moment to another spread its wings and leave me in my night; it is a permanent habitation. He can depart only if He takes me with Him. More than that; He is not other than myself; He is one with me. It is not a juxtaposition; it is a penetration, a profound modifi- cation of my nature, a new manner of my being." From many examples I have chosen the following from Thomas a Kempis: "Give Thyself to me and it is enough; for be- sides Thee no other is of avail. Without Thee I cannot exist, and without thy visitation I cannot live. Therefore it behooves me often to draw near to Thee, and to receive Thee as a remedy for my THE MYSTIC 59 Soul's health: lest perchance I fall by the way, if I be deprived of this heavenly sustenance." The following quotation is taken from Science and Health: 11 When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death valley, I learned these truths in divine science : that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-power- ful and ever-present; that the opposite of Truth, — called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, — is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so- called mind names matter; thereby shutting out the true sense of spirit." The beauty of all this lies in the fact that these experiences are an evidence of the dawning revela- tion of the Christ Idea in human experience regard- less of environment or previous education. Here we find at-one-ment revealed between man and God, and man's own selfhood in his consciousness of the divine Presence. The poets have sometimes given expression to this feeling, as in the case of Lowell: 60 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC " Man cannot be God's outlaw if he would, Nor so abscond him in the caves of sense, But Nature still shall search some crevice out With messages of splendour from that Source Which, dive he, soar he, baffles still and lures. This life were brutish did we not sometimes Have intimation clear of wider scope, Hints of occasion infinite, to keep The soul alert with noble discontent And onward yearnings of unstilled desire. 11 Sometimes at waking, in the street sometimes, Or on the hillside, always unforewarned, A grace of being, finer than himself, That beckons and is gone, — a larger life Upon his own impinging. " Shall he not catch the Voice that wanders earth, With spiritual summons, dreamed or heard, As sometimes, just ere sleep seals up the sense, We hear our mother call from deeps of Time And, waking, find it vision, — none the less The benediction bides, old skies return, And that Unreal thing, pre-eminent, Makes air and dream of all we see and feel? " Yet for a moment I was snatched away And had the evidence of things not seen; For one rapt moment ; then it all came back — " The Cathedral THE MYSTIC 61 The student of the mystical inevitably recalls the wealth of such experiences offered to him in the Bible : There was the visit of the Angel Gabriel to a virgin in Nazareth, and his prophecy: " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." 2 There were the wise men who followed the star till it came and stood over where the young child was ; 3 and the Shepherds u keeping watch over their flock by night, and, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them. . . . And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." 4 In Jesus Christ, the most spiritual of mystics, is revealed, in clear outlines and marvellous depth, the consciousness which knows the spiritual, and the power which such a consciousness possesses. Proofs of this power are given in such miracles as Christ's feeding of the five thousand, His healing of the 2 The Annunciation; Luke l : 26-35. 3 Matthew 2: I-I2. 4 Luke 2: 8-14. 62 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC sick, His raising of Lazarus from the dead, followed by His transfiguration, His resurrection and His as- cension, which testify to His own growth in spiritual knowledge and power. Such a consciousness longs to show to others the way of power, and in obedience to this longing Jesus untiringly endeavoured to teach the disciples what he knew; and we realise with what measure of success, as we recall the day of Pentecost, or Peter's healing of the lame man and his restoration of Tabitha to life. Even Paul was filled with the Holy Ghost,' although he had never seen Jesus in the flesh. When contemplating such mystical experiences, they seem at first sight to form a tiny stream of thought, a golden thread, half hidden; but follow- ing its course as it winds down the centuries, from dimmest vistas of time till now, down through the mountains of experience which raise their snow-clad peaks to heaven, one sees this once tiny stream ever receiving into itself many waters and imaging within their depths, in radiant colours, the countless reflec- tions which it catches from above, until, like a river of life, it flows from the hearts of men to the feet of God, and voices to Him in tuneful measures the THE MYSTIC 63 pulse beats of His world. We trace this mystic river out wherever men have lived, and find in it the countless soils and myriad growths through which its path has flowed. We taste in it their fruits, and catch the fragrance of their flowers as we breathe the divine essence which it exhales, dis- tilled from the lifted hearts of many a people in prayer. And not only the prayers of heroes and of martyrs shall be preserved in this mighty hymn of men's souls, but as well the prayers of those uncounted beings, seeming driftwood on the sea of life, who, although their lips are silent, yet are lifting speaking hearts to heights above them in passionate petition to a higher power, that their hands may not fail nor their hearts falter. Could we know of all men's prayers, what a contribution it would make to this record of man's life in close and sustaining com- munion with his Father! From the high places of thought, everywhere, come also to this one stream of many waters the ecstasy of life, its laughter as well as its tears; and as its depths are filled with the spirit of service and high endeavour, its surface dances and sparkles with the spirit of play in men. CHAPTER VI THE UNFOLDING OF THE MYSTIC CONSCIOUSNESS After reading and analysing these mystical ex- periences, one may be satisfied with coming to the scholarly conclusions that " such states open out other orders of truth to us," and " their existence absolutely overthrows the pretention of non-mystical states to be the sole and ultimate dictators of what we may believe. " 1 No one could put such conclusions in a more con- vincing form than Professor James when he says: " Our normal waking consciousness, — rational con- sciousness," as we call it, — is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms 1 William James: Varieties of Religious Experiences, page 427. Mystical states break down the authority of the non- mystical or rationalistic consciousness, based upon the in- tellect and the senses alone. — James, page 423. 64 UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS 65 of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, — definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation." 2 These conclusions, couched in the cool language of scientific research, are inevitable if the reader of mystical experiences be of an open and disinterested mind. One equally hospitable to the experiences of others, but bringing to them a different tempera- ment, will find his imagination stirred as the mystics tell of a life passed on the farther side of that field of consciousness which most men call normal. And when they bring back across the border rumours of the aspects and occupations in a rarely explored land, and tell of dreams that come to fulfilment in some " shadowy isle of bliss midmost the beating of the steely sea," he may idly wish that he, too, with St. Martin, had seen u flowers that sounded," and " heard notes that shone " ; and with the Celtic poets had caught the " music of the sunfire on the waves at daybreak." 2 William James : Varieties of Religious Experiences, page 388. 66 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC Another may go even farther upon the hearing of mystical experiences, and with a worthy ambition to enlarge his horizon may consciously decide, as a matter of education, to try to enter into such experi- ences, since this mystical truth exists for him who enters this higher state of consciousness, and for him alone. If, however, one reads the experiences of the mystic, not with idle nor yet intellectual curiosity, but in the light of some definite finite experience through which he has just passed, his attitude is of a much more serious nature. His experience may be one of sorrow, loneliness, or pain, — perhaps one of sin; or it may be only that his heart beats low and fails of its desire. But whatever the experience may be, if he is conscious of its significance, the weight of it will be sufficient to make him rebel against the actual and long for that which shall trans- cend it. Must he be finite and subject to a finite or- der, is the question which will persistently force it- self upon him. At such a moment, no Omar Khayyam knows more of the keyless door than he, nor more of the veil through which we cannot see. He needs no Schopenhauer now, to tell him that life is through and through tragic and evil. At such UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS 67 a moment, he finds poor consolation in the " faith that looks through death," or in the philosophic mind, for the loss of that " bright radiance " which now fails him. The mystic experiences, read at such a moment, do more than appeal to that faculty which collects data; do more than kindle the imagination; do more than arouse our instinct for self-enlargement. They are the ship in sight as we are about to founder; they awaken a hope in us, and make a rift in the black cloud which bears down upon us, as we eagerly drink in the real significance of the mystical experiences. This significance consists in the fact that whereas the so-called normal, rational consciousness is paralleled by a finite world, the highest mystical con- sciousness is not only paralleled by a divine world, but it and its realm are antagonistic and destructive to the realm of the finite. And just here we catch a glimpse of the great truth that we ourselves may determine the world in which we live, by making a choice of the consciousness which we hold. 3 Should 3 We shall see that Idealism, of whatever kind, reduces the universe to thoughts and their outward appearances. Every thought has its outward appearance and this appear- 68 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC we choose to keep active the material, human con- sciousness, such a choice would assure to us the life of a material being in mind and body, subject to sensuous pleasure, sorrow, sin, pain, death, and all finite conditions. Should we, however, choose to bring into play and to keep active the highest spirit- ual consciousness, we should virtually be determining for ourselves the life of a spiritual being, subject to spiritual law, and free from the physical order with all its attendant evils and pleasures. When once intense suffering or even a lack of joy and interest has revealed to one this real sig- nificance of the mystical experience, and he sees, through others, the potential of his own nature and the possibility of determining to perfection his world, his one desire is to be more awake on the mystic ance is entirely dependent for its quality upon the kind of thought behind it. The material world is the outward ap- pearance of mortal thoughts only. There are, however, other appearances to be seen by those who hold their thoughts above the mortal plane. John saw " a new heaven and a new earth." Elisha saw Elijah taken from him. " And Jesus, when he was baptised, went up straightway out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him; and, lo, a voice from heaven, say- ing, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS 69 side. He is athirst for the fountain of Life, and a hope is born in him that he, too, shall overcome and inherit all things; that he, too, shall be led by the Spirit; and that the angel of the Lord shall come upon and the glory of the Lord shall shine about him. To be more awake on the mystic side, awake to the extent of having at will mystical experiences of religious rank, — that is now his desire ; and lest in a moment of weakness he should be overcome by his apparent unfitness to attain to these mental states, he must realise that if there exists one who can say that " there is a verge of his mind which these truths haunt," then all can say it. If but one has become a mystic to the extent of " overcoming all the usual barriers between the individual and the ab- solute," and " has become aware of that oneness," " that unity between man and God," — then all can be mystics, and reap all the truths which such states of mind yield. Moreover, if one has attained to the mystic state, it is compulsory for each one of us to attain to it. Christ, St. John, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, and numberless others are the first fruits, and all are destined to be the second. Having established the existence of the mystical 7o THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC consciousness and our obligation to cultivate it, it now devolves upon us to find a method of training the mystical power inherent within us. Before entering, however, upon the training of that faculty which makes for mystical experiences, let us further fortify ourselves against discourage- ment by realising again that we neither must nor can enter into the higher religious state of consciousness by means of the finite intellect. 4 The mystic him- self is aware of this fact. He knows that there is a mental state beyond the finite reason, and that only while he is in this state will the knowledge beyond the finite come to him. 5 *That these states of consciousness which yield spiritual truths do not depend upon the finite intellect is made plain by a comparison of the intellectual consciousness with the mystical. The finite intellect bases its authority upon the testimony of the senses; but the senses, in the religious moods which we are considering, are in abeyance. In these highest mystic states there is a feeling of having passed out of the body; space, time, and all sensations are obliterated, and the sense of physical relations is lost. 5 In the orison of union," continues St. Teresa, " the soul is fully awake as regards God, but wholly asleep as re- gards things of this world. Her intellect would fain un- derstand something of what is going on within her; but it has so little force now that it can act in no way whatso- UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS 71 The mystic, moreover, not only realises that the instrument or mind of Christ by which the super- sensible is revealed to him is not the finite intellect, but many of them feel that these two so-called know- ing powers, — the mind of Christ and the mortal sense, — are antagonistic to one another, 6 inasmuch as one " silences " the other; "the senses and the intellect swoon away " in the presence of the higher mind. 7 ever. . . . Thus does God, when He raises a soul to union with Himself, suspend the natural action of all her facul- ties." " Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." — John 3 : 3. " But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." — I Corinthians 2: 14. 6 " But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit; even so it is now." — Galatians 4: 29. 11 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other." — Galatians 5:17. 7 In the mystic consciousness, the " lower self is lost as the higher self appears. ... As the conditions of ordinary consciousness are subtracted the sense of an underlying, essen- tial consciousness acquires intensity." 72 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC We therefore see that whatever methods we adopt for the unfolding of our truth-knowing power, such methods will not be directed toward a finite intellect, but will be concentrated upon a spiritual capacity; since it, alone, can experience spiritual, — that is, truth-knowing, — states of consciousness. The unfolding of any power is brought about through its use. To this rule the capacity in ques- tion offers no exception. And since, in its ultimate analysis, our spiritual power to know is a capacity for knowing the truth, 9, such power will be exercised and so unfolded in proportion to our seeking for, and absorption in, truth or reality. Let us, therefore, try to find out and to realise as true the truth concerning all things; i.e., the right answers to all questions: questions about God, His nature and His relation to us; about ourselves and our natures; about that of which we are made and the laws we are meant to obey. Let us also try to find the true answers to questions concerning the ani- mals, the flowers, and all the out-of-door things. Of what are they made, by what laws are they gov- erned, and what is their relation to God and to us? 8 Becoming conscious of the truth involves the under- standing and the expression of it. UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS 73 Let us seek to know what evil is; if it has to be; and, if not, how we may rid ourselves of its seeming necessity. Let us try to understand why we ought to do right and what is right; why we ought to be happy, beautiful, and gifted, and how it is possible to bring this about. Such problems, yet unsolved, run in an undercur- rent through the minds of all of us; and since their true answers demand ever fresh activity on the part of our truth-knowing capacity, we will seek to know such truths, since our purpose is, through its activity, to unfold the truth-knowing capacity to its fullest. Many bring about this exercise and unfoldment of the Christ mind by having faith in the truth of what Christ, the disciples, and the saints have re- vealed, however foreign to their own experience such revelations may be. And to enter thus through an act of faith is the simplest, although not the deep- est way to arrive at spiritual experiences and to win the knowledge which they bring. But in our time there are many who will not be satisfied with what mere faith brings them; and, too, there are those to whom even faith is denied, for the strong develop- ment of the scientific, the material sense has silenced the mind that makes for faith in the supersensible. 74 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC For these we must go further in pointing out the way to the spiritual experience. And although in some hearts faith is silenced, in others it has grown into a great prayer for understanding. Therefore, if there are those who are seemingly farther away from that state of mind which leads to God than were our forefathers, there are those who are nearer; for understanding, or even a desire to un- derstand God, is a greater realisation of ourselves as the Sons of God than an attitude of faith can be. Those whose faith seems gone, as well as those in whom faith has grown into something larger, must come to understanding. But who can teach us the way to understanding? We need technique. 9 Many a mystic goes into rap- tures over the visions which come to him unsought; but his descriptions leave us cold, for we have no visions, and he cannot tell us how his come. A great singer was once visited by a pupil who had trouble with her breath support. The question of how to breathe seemed to the artist to be beneath her con- sideration. " It is so easy/' she said; " even the beasts can breathe." It is needless to say that the 9 By M technique " we mean the activity of a specific kind of thinking. UNFOLDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS 75 pupil was not helped by the great, but unconscious, artist. Our need is not so much for the unconscious mystic as for one who is conscious of the laws which are operating to bring about his results. And our need has been met. The laws of thought operating in our old faiths, and which will be operative in our future understanding, have been discovered, and we may lay hold of these laws. This is the joy re- served for those who seek for the understanding of the truth. The first step to be taken by those who find it necessary to resort to the technique of spiritual mysticism, is the comprehension of the general doc- trine of Idealism. II IDEALISM CHAPTER VII A GENERAL STATEMENT OF IDEALISM In its simplest form, and in the form in which it is common to the doctrines of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Berkeley, and the Christian Scientists, the funda- mental truths of Idealism may be variously ex- pressed : " The external world is only a mass of ideas seen from without." Our world is of such stuff as ideas are made of." " Only ideas are the realities." " In the world of experience there is properly no such thing as material substance discern- ible at all. The world of sense experience is a world of ideas and their laws." 1 1 Additional statements of Idealism : "What do I mean by space? Only a vast system of ideas which experience and my own mind force upon me. . . . And when we put our world into space and call it real there, we simply think one idea into another idea ; not volun- tarily, to be sure, but inevitably, and yet without leaving the realm of ideas." — Josiah Royce: Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 358. " There is no being or fact outside of that which is com- 79 8o THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC Deussen brings this home when he tells us that " not only the movements of my limbs, but also the limbs themselves of which my body is composed, are intrinsically and in themselves Will." 3 Again he says : " My body is nothing but Will itself, ob- jectified in space and time through causality; and all its members, — hand, foot, brain, stomach, etc., — are the objectity of the various tendencies of Will." 2 And he defines Will as " that which indeed under- lies all inner emotions, all desiring, striving, wishing, longing, craving, hoping, loving, rejoicing, grieving, etc., but of which we first become fully conscious in performing externally any movement of our limbs, or in experiencing any influence on our body (hun- monly called the psychical existence, feeling, thought, and volition." — Bradley: Appearance and Reality. " The same thing which arises in my consciousness as sensation, idea, or feeling would manifest itself in the per- ception of the external senses as a physical process in my body." — Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, page 251. " Bodies in space are nothing but objectified perceptions. . . . The corporeal world is merely the construction of the understanding." — Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, page 141. 11 Christian Science explains all cause and effect as mental, not physical." — Science and Health. 2 Deussen: The Elements of Metaphysics, page 115. A STATEMENT OF IDEALISM 81 ger, thirst, pleasure, pain, etc.)-" 3 " Our body is just this undivided will, as it appears through the forms of our intellect." 4 These so-called material objects, then, — these stars, clouds, trees, houses, and even our own bodies, — are not made of a " solid something, called mat- ter." This external world, if the Idealists' stand- point is true, is not what people in general think it is, but is, in fact, a thought world which appears to us as material. Take away these thoughts, and their material projections, — this physical world, — would no longer appear. In order to make clear the Idealist's interpretation of events, let us tell the one story of Pelleas et Melisande in two ways, and first in the usual and most popular way. Golaud, while hunting in the forest, meets a weep- ing maiden at the edge of a fountain in which she has lost her crown. Golaud weds the mysterious Melisande, although he is much older than she. The home to which he takes her is dark and gloomy. The forest is so wild and old with trees that the sky 8 Deussen: The Elements of Metaphysics, page 106. 4 Deussen: The Elements of Metaphysics, page 116. 82 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC is hidden. Melisande loses her wedding ring while playing with it. She falls in love with Pelleas. Her husband kills Pelleas and wounds Melisande, who dies in a few weeks. Such a description dwells upon what happened outwardly , what was done and how things looked, rather than what was felt and thought. This way of describing a situation is perhaps the one best known to all of us. Take a day in our own lives, and, in describing it, we talk of what we did, what we saw, what the thermometer said; — that is, we dwell as a rule upon the outward features of the day's happenings. But there is another way of describing a day's do- ings. Let us still use the story of Melisande to illustrate this other way. It is a certain form of idealism which teaches that the half-light in and about Melisande's home is but an appearance, the essence of which is Melisande's own half-awakened mind, — a mind which is incapable of grasping the truth. It teaches that the terrors of the wood are but the images of Melisande's own inner fears, and the loss of her bright crown but the outer sign that all her inner light was gone : — the light that told her right from wrong, the light that makes for keep- A STATEMENT OF IDEALISM 83 ing faith, for living truly, for caring for the welfare and the happiness of others. This idealism would explain that Melisande's temperament, like Ophelia's, did not " couple with her fate " to make her life such a tragedy; but that fate was her tem- perament, only it failed to appear as such to eyes, to ears, to any one of the physical senses. Such a description is concerned with the mental states in a situation, and should we describe a day in our lives in this way, we should not dwell upon the fact of having a dinner party, but rather should we say: " I wanted so much to see my friends, and wishing to give them pleasure," etc. ; that is, we should describe the day's happenings by telling what we thought and felt, the ideas in the situation being counted as essentially interesting. Idealism, then, really means that thought is the essence of everything that becomes apparent to us. This outer world, the one that appears, is, after all, only the way in which thoughts become apparent to us, — is their projection. Our homes, our friends, our clothes, our incomes, our sickness, our health, our relations, — all of these things which in the case of each one of us are called " our circumstances," — what are they but the outward appearances or 84 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC projections of our thoughts? Under all circum- stances, says Idealism, that which appears to us, — whether a friend, a trip to Europe, or a world war, — is but the manifestation of processes of thought which are going on in consciousness, and of which we are often unconscious. One is tempted to challenge the reality or actuality of thoughts which make for a material world, a world of such questionable value; where sorrow, failure, sickness, pain, and death play so large a part. The validity , however, of any thought world depends upon its thinker. Thus one must ask: " Who thinks these thoughts which appear as the material world?" Kant answers: "The external world that we know is, then, the world not of dead outer things, but of human thoughts." " Kant had proved that the three main pillars of nature, — time, space and causality, — are nothing but the subjective forms of our intellect" 5 ' 6 "Space and time ap- pear to us to belong outside us merely because they are conditions in us of our seeing and feeling things, forms of our [finite] sense. It is with them as with 5 Deussen : The Elements of Metaphysics, page 64. 6 The word " intellect " is used in the sense of Kant's Empirical Ego or Common Understanding. A STATEMENT OF IDEALISM 85 coloured spectacles. If one always wore green gog- gles, all his world would seem green to him." 7 The finite sense is the source of the finite* It is the thoughts of the finite sense that present to us the physical world in which we seem to live. This finite sense corresponds to the green goggles which make the world look green to those who wear them. As one realises the significance of this ideal- ism, a door opens in his mind and he becomes pos- sessed with a growing suspicion that perhaps there really isn't any physical world out there at all. Can it really be true " that what we call [physical] Na- ture, all outside ourselves, is but our own conceit of what we see," and that, merely because of the 11 make " of the finite sense, we may be deceived in believing that we and others have a physical nature, subject to physical laws and a physical environment? We begin to see what the philosophers mean when they speak of the " phantom forms " of space, time, and sense, and use such expressions as " in this show world of our limitation and ignorance." Our feeling of doubt grows ; the new door into the unknown opens wider; possibilities, undreamed of 7 Royce: Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 124-25. 8 See notes on page 89. 86 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC before, begin to dawn upon, but serve only to vex and perplex, us. We dread to take a step in any direction. And, indeed, where shall we stay, where shall we go, — for no longer have we a sure foot- hold upon what once seemed so substantial, and as yet no other reality has appeared to take its place? But unless we have the courage and faith to pass beyond our old landmarks, we shall never be able to enter into that real world in which, alone, the problems of life find their solution. CHAPTER VIII TWO TYPES OF IDEALISTS Let us decide, therefore, in the spirit of individual quest and high adventure, to follow the new thought path opening before us. It may seem beset with perils, but perhaps it may lead to heights above us from which we may discern more truth. In obedi- ence to this resolution, let us look upon the physical world as constituted of finite thoughts, and the ques- tion will then present itself: Is this finite sense solely responsible for the physical world? That is, isn't the material world there at all, apart from this finite, so-called mind? In answer to this question, certain types of idealists would assure us that the thoughts behind the material world are in the di- vine Mind, too, — are in Spirit. As when Berkeley says : " Whose language, then, am I reading in the world before me? Whose ideas are those that ex- perience impresses upon me? Are they not God's 87 88 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC ideas? Is it not His language that I read in na- ture?" 1 There is, however, another type of idealist, of which the Christian Scientist is an example. These spiritual idealists also grant that what is called the material world is, in essence, a conception of the finite, so-called sense; but on the other hand they maintain that God could not possess a finite mind or think finite thoughts, neither could He accept from us a finite thought as the right answer to any ques- tion. 2 Therefore, when they assert that the thoughts underlying material appearances are finite, they mean that the so-called source of such thoughts is entirely within the material, finite circle of things. 1 " After all, then, would it deprive the world here about me of reality, nay, would it not rather save and assure the reality and the knowableness of my world of experience, if I said that this world, as it exists outside of my mind and of. any other human mind, exists in and for a standard, an universal mind, whose system of ideas simply constitutes the world? ... If the standard mind knows now that its ideal fire has the quality of burning those who touch it, and if I, in my finitude, am bound to conform in my experiences to the thoughts of this standard mind, then in case I touch that fire I shall surely get the idea of a burn." — Josiah Royce: The Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 361. 2 See Notes on the Real World, pages III, 112. TWO TYPES OF IDEALISTS 89 They mean that there is no material world apart from the finite so-called mentality, with its way of looking at things and putting them together; 3 that there isn't anything u yonder that corresponds in fact to this series of experiences " in us. Quite definitely one sees that they disagree with the ideal- ist who would interpret this physical nature as " in essence itself, a system of ideal experiences of some standard thought, of which ours is only the copy." To our early and somewhat inadequate character- isation of the finite, physical world, Idealism has added the fact of its being a thought world. Now a certain kind of Idealism reveals it as composed entirely of finite, material thoughts. Therefore, from its point of view, should we wish to escape from the desolate cage into which we are thrown 3 " These things, bodies, are not things-in-themselves. They are real as phenomena only, for a perceiving subject. Without any subject at all, without the content of its sensa- tions and the forms of its perception, we should never talk at all about bodies and their reality." — Paulsen: Im- manuel Kant, page 238. " Space and time . . . are the conditions prior to all physical nature. And now space and time can thus be found to be unreal outside of our minds." — Royce: Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 124. 9 o THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC by this finite, physical world, we now know that it is not only with thoughts that we have to cope, but with material thoughts. The fact that sorrow and lack, sickness and sin, are finite thoughts and their material appearances, would not keep us from having these thoughts, and so from being sad, poor, sick, and sinful. Neither would the fact that such thoughts are the fabrication of the finite intellect, in itself offer us a way of es- cape. If, however, these finite thoughts are not God's ideas and therefore another reality, His reality, can be found, in the light of which this finite sense and its thoughts are seen to be unreal; then will the way of escape be plain. But how can the spiritual Idealist hope to prove to us that God's reality is such another reality; and this finite sense, therefore, not a real mind; and the things it tells us not really so? For even if it were true that this physical nature is, as they say, " just a conception of mine " and " no outer fact at all," and thus without any material sense one would never talk at all about bodies and their realities, why should that give us hope that this physical world is an illusion? Why doesn't just our thinking with the brain make a thing real? Why does a thing TWO TYPES OF IDEALISTS 91 have to be thought outside of finite sense in order to make it real? But even if it must, why isn't this sense thinking things, as they are thought outside of us; why isn't it given to us, if not to create, at least to see things as they are created? Why not go farther, and instead of using the term " finite sense," why not call it " God talking to us in the language of the sense," as Berkeley puts it; or, in the idiom of the constructive idealist, why aren't these " intellectual ideas at least a part of that sys- tem of ideas which is held by the universal Mind, and therefore an aspect of reality "? Or to go to the other extreme, suppose the finite intellect to be destitute of all organs for the com- prehension and conception of the spiritual; why, upon that ground, quarrel with its message? Nay, more; since it cannot tell us of a world in which it and its message are superfluous, why isn't that in itself sufficient proof of there being no such world? In spite, however, of all this plausible pleading on the part of the finite intellect, or sense, our hearts still long, say the spiritual idealists, for a Reality which, by its nature, excludes the finite, the physical. But does a mere longing justify us in drawing Deussen's conclusion that " since time and space are 92 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC only functions originating in the intellect, they are not external truths "; or in asserting with Kant that we have " made room for another order of things " when once we have demonstrated that infinite space, infinite time, and infinite causality are but subjective forms of our perceiving. No; a mere longing cannot carry one so far, but — and here is an end to all our questioning — these spiritual idealists hear a voice, and it is not the voice of the finite u mind." Moreover, this voice is more than a longing. It tells in detail of an order and how to reach it, which is not the physical order and which contradicts its pretensions. 4,5 4 Kant wanted to find the world of true being, the real world; and in 1770 he made a new attempt to discern the method by which this real world (" mundus intelligibilis") might be found. This attempt resulted in the conviction that " by means of pure concepts of the understanding it is possible to reach a pure intelligible reality that is free from the conditions of sensibility." — Paulsen: Doctrines of Kant , page 283. Too little credit is given to Kant for his conception of the real world and the real man or selfhood. 5 The founder of Christian Science was also concerned with the Reality beyond the physical, finite world. Her spiritual or " intuitive " understanding, went so far as to find and state laws of knowing or thinking by which each of TWO TYPES OF IDEALISTS 93 In such hearing and seeing lies our hope of escape from this whole physical and finite order of things. When this divine voice made itself felt only as a longing, we still listened to the voice of the finite mentality, and allowed it to dictate so-called laws of belief to us. But the divine Voice or conscious- ness has now spoken, in unmistakable terms, to the spiritual Idealist. He has become aware of the spiritual consciousness as having authority, and sees that only as it awakes and unfolds to its fullest shall he come to know those truths which are unplombed by the finite intellect, which are unknown to finite feelings, and which will save him from both. Those of us who entered upon the study of Ideal- ism for the sake of ridding ourselves of the finite, may rejoice that so early in our course we may be led by a type of idealist which denies God's author- ship of the finite. This is the first step in the right direction. Let us now follow the way, the thought path, of these mystic or spiritual Idealists, and make it our own. It is mystical, but not mysterious. Having arrived at understanding for themselves, us may voluntarily unfold his consciousness of the Real, and, in proportion to this unfolding, may make the Real appear in his daily life. 94 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC they can give to us that which we may understand. Their " way " is given in detail in the following three chapters. Ill THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST CHAPTER IX THE WAY OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST THE DIVINE MIND WAY Spiritual Idealism, in its highest development, de- fines the Real and teaches us how to lay hold of it. It defines evil. It has rediscovered and formulated the laws which make for the overcoming of evil as well as for the maintenance of good. i. OUR DIVINE KNOWING POWER Before the spiritual Idealist begins to lead our thoughts out of the old paths into the new, he makes it clear that there is a way for thoughts to come to us, a way of knowing, other than by the finite in- tellect. This is not a new fact to most of us; and our study of mystic experiences, Chapter V, revealed anew our higher knowing power and gave us a glimpse into its higher world. But the spiritual Idealist would have us dwell upon the truth of this 97 98 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC knowing power, which is distinct from the finite, 1 lest we become blind to it and the priceless signifi- cance of our possession of it. As soon as the spiritual Idealist has pointed out to us the truth of a power to know, other and higher than the finite intellect, he calls it divine, and claims that it is the knowing power which Paul names the " mind of Christ " ; that same " mind " which is operative in all the transports of the spiritually in- tuitive, which the founder of Christian Science has brought into conscious and efficient operation, and of which Christ Jesus was the supreme embodiment. Thus the spiritual idealist would have us see that 1 " Our cognitive faculty has two realms, that of natural concepts and that of the concept of freedom." — Kant: Kritik of Judgment, Introduction, page 10. The empirical ego is that for which bodies are real. . . . It is a " presupposition of the possibility of the corporeal world, which is a product of its activity. . . . That is the one aspect. The same subject has, however, still another side, . . . practical reason ; and the moral law is the form of its functioning. . . . And here we have reality itself, as it is in itself. . . . Reason is just homo noumenon." — Paulsen: Immanuel Kant, pages 248-9. u Thus the reason which thinks and realises ideas, leads beyond the spatial and temporal world of phenomena to an ideal eternal reality." — Paulsen: Immanuel Kant, page 284. WAY OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST 99 not only a divine power to know is expressing itself in us, but that the whole infinite Mind is accessible to each of us, for this Mind images itself in the in- dividual consciousness as a divine power to know, to love, and to act, apart from the finite. 2 This type of Idealist dwells primarily upon our divine power to know, and upon the necessity of our becoming awake to this power, because we have talked a good deal about divine loving as something to which we should strive to attain; and have also been alive to divine acting, or being good, as a duty and as within our power. But we have not yet realised with the force we might, say the spiritual idealists, that each of us is a divine capacity, which is ever operating to be conscious of Life's knowing, loving, and acting. This means, upon our part, consciousness of the truth, loving that of which we are conscious, and putting it into action or expressing it. Thus the spiritual idealist would lead us out of the realm of mystery into the realm of spiritual understanding. 3 2 The eastern sages point to the Will to life which makes for this varied world and, on the other hand, to the denial of the Will to life which expresses itself in self-denying deeds of morality, belonging to another realm from that of the physical. 3 " Mystery, miracle, sin and death will disappear when ioo THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC Although Jesus explained that the truth would make us free, and although we are in dire need of such a remedy for evil, still we have not held the knowing of the truth to be a duty, but have ever been satisfied with mystery, with a realm into which we did not try to enter; or, having set out to win knowledge, have doomed ourselves to failure by losing sight of the fact, — which the Bible tells us, which Kant and the Christian Scientists teach, — that the power to know the truth, as well as to love and act truly, is a spiritual power, inherent in the real man. 2. THE REAL MAN As soon as the spiritual Idealist has brought into relief the Christ mind activity, he calls it the activity which belongs to the Real man. Such a man we may characterise in the following way: He is a member of a supersensible order. His origin is God, Mind. He is an individual capacity for knowing, loving and expressing the truth, and this capacity is always operating. At any given moment he is knowing the truth, in all the forms in it becomes fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and man has no Mind but God." — Science and Health, page 319. WAY OF THE SPIRITUAL IbgAtfeT 101 which it is necessary for him to know it, and has full power and freedom to realise and to manifest this truth of which he is conscious. Thus all his needs are supplied. He is becoming more and more conscious all the time of Mind and Mind's ideas, and is manifesting this in an ever unfolding consciousness. He does not see things through ma- terial sense; his perception is spiritual. Being an idea of God, he is necessarily a moral being; is con- cerned with " right and the best way " ; has a good will; has a consciousness of duty, of vocation, a sense of fitness, beauty, and justice. He is space- less and timeless, a pure reflection of Spirit, and is, therefore, free from the mechanism of the so-called physical universe and its so-called laws. 3. CHRIST JESUS REPRESENTS THE REAL MAN But the spiritual Idealist does not have to con- tent himself with the mere ideal of what the real man should be. Jesus was born again and of the Spirit, and could see the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3, 5). Through his true self-realisation, the real Man in his instance appeared, and was recognised by illumined sense as the Son of God (Matthew 16: 16) ; as having no sin ( Hebrews 4 : 1 5 ) ; as hav- 102 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC ing life in Himself as the Father had (John 5 : 26). And although He could do nothing of Himself (John 5:19 and 30) , He could do whatsoever things the Father doeth (John 5 : 19), for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). Christ Jesus was the expression of the di- vine law and nature. He had overcome the world (John 16: 33), and was no more in the world (John 17: 11). He had power over the flesh, and could give eternal life to others (John 17: 2). There was truth in Him (John 1: 17), and eternal life (John 15:6). • 4. IN OUR REAL NATURES WE ALSO REPRESENT THE GENUS MAN Wishing to reveal man's real nature to us, Christ Jesus made clear what the term " Son of God " stands for: " I and the Father are one "; that is, one in consciousness. Mind formulates or images Its knowing, loving, and acting, in individual right consciousness, qualitatively, not quantitatively. That is, an individual consciousness in which God is knowing, loving, and acting is a Son of God. Then with what irresistible yearning, with what tender and loving persuasiveness, did He try to convince WAY OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST 103 us that the " Son of God " was no term which ap- plied exclusively to Himself, but was a name for the real nature of each one of us, — for that " mind of the spirit " which the Father hath given to us and called "Christ in you" (Colossians 1: 27). And fearing lest He had failed in this which seemed nearest His heart, He talked about it with His dis- ciples just before going away. 4 Paul knew that u as many as are led by the spirit of God are the sons of 4 " In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. " And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. " And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. " I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. " Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. " At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." — John 14: 2, 3, 4, 12, 18, 19, 20. " Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. — John 15: 15. 104 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC God "; that we are the children of God and " joint- heirs with Christ" (Romans 8: 14-17); and that our lives are hid in this Christ nature of ours (Colos- sians 3: 3, 4). This mystery of " Christ in us " had been hid for generations, and the Master came to reveal it to us (Colossians 1 : 26, 27), came to tell each one of us that He is a Son of God, and a Son of God now (I John 3 : 1, 2), and that God has given to us this divine nature which can never change or die (I John 5: 11, 12) or sin (I John 5: 18). We dwell in Him and He in us 5 because He hath given us of His Spirit (I John 4: 13). The possession of the Christ nature means that spiritual thought activities constitute our true self- hood; that we are capacities for knowing and mani- festing the truth, and these capacities are always in operation. Therefore, being truth knowing capac- ities just as Christ Jesus was, we can know the same truths which He knew, have the same work to do 5 The Spiritual Idealist interprets this passage as meaning that we are in God as Ideas must be in the Mind that thinks them ; while " He is in us," means that His knowing, loving, and acting functions are imaged in us. WAY OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST 105 and the same power to do it which was manifested in him. (John, Chapters 14, 15, 16, 17.) 5. EACH INDIVIDUAL MUST COME TO A REALISATION OF THE CHRIST IN HIMSELF. THE PROGRESS IN THIS REALISATION MADE BY THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST The spiritual idealist has already arrived at the point where he realises that every Son of Man be- longs to a supersensuous world, and such knowing involves a distinction between his true self and the mortal, sensuous personality. He realises to a cer- tain extent the worth of the spiritual, and looks upon the physical body as necessarily allied to the sensu- ous, and so at variance with the pure and spiritual life. He knows that the real laws are not based upon matter and its changes, and not upon that men- tality which argues for the truth of this matter and its changes. The spiritual Idealist has a conception of the In- finite, of the unconditioned, of God. He thinks of God as the sum total of reality; as an intelligible be- ing; as a universal, all-inclusive spiritual conscious- ness or Mind; as Life. He realises to some ex- tent his freedom under the government of divine io6 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC law. In so far as he does all this, he contradicts the finite and reaches out beyond any arbitrary limit. He does not yield to the order of things as they ap- pear, but acts with spiritual spontaneity, determining his own course. Asserting himself in opposition to the dictates of material sense, he obeys spiritual law. Thus do spiritual Idealists, though in smaller meas- ure, make the Son of God appear, even as did Christ Jesus. 6 6. GOD THE FATHER, THE SOURCE OF HIS SONS A Son of God is not the Source of himself; God is his Source. 7 Christ Jesus is ever referring to the 6 In the foregoing characterisations, pages 100-106, I have, in many instances, used Kant's words or those of his commentators, finding them of service in making my meaning clear. 7 M He [God] determines reality by his thought." — Paulsen: Doctrine of Kant, page 151. " Kant's view of the nature of what is ' actually real ' remained unaltered throughout his life. Reality is in itself a system of existing thought — essences brought into a unity by teleological relations that are intuitively thought by the divine Intellect, and by this very act of thought posited as real." — Paulsen. " God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, WAY OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST 107 Father from whom He came forth (John 16: 28), without whom He could do nothing (John 5 : 19). Also, the highest experiences of the spiritual ideal- ists are those which are " selfless," with " no feeling of I," but in which God is the all in all. In the light of such experiences the true, spiritual mystic, the Son of God, knows that God is the Mind of him, the Self. He is an individual, spiritual conscious- ness; an activity in and of Mind. God is the Source of true being only. 8 To the highest mystic ideal- ists, then, and to Christ Jesus, the greatest of them all, there is only one Mind or independent Self, and that is God. That which, according to Paul, we call the M mind of Christ " is the activity of divine and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them." — Science and Health, page 295. 8 " God is the supramundane principle by means of which the ■ nature of things,' — existing ideas, or things-in-them- selves, — are posited. Obviously, this does not include bodies, which are nothing but the representation of things in our sense-perception. That which God creates is the in- telligible world, the world of noumena." — Paulsen, Im- manuel Kant, page 262. " This differentiation of God from the world — not from the corporeal world of phenomena which does not exist at all for Him — . . ." — Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, pages 262-3. 108 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC Mind imaged. Man is always an effect; there are no " secondary causes." 7. THE GOD OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST Can we form any concept of this God whose off- spring we are, in whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17: 28), who is our Father and Jesus Christ's Father (John 20: 17), and so know more about ourselves and all things? We can, says the Spiritual Idealist, because the Christ idea is always with us, and it is an understand- ing of God. (I John 5:20.) Jesus Christ said, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father " (John 14: 9). 9 Spiritual Idealists translate Christ's 9 ■■ No such discoursive understanding as the human un- derstanding is attributable to God, since he has no sense perception to which objects are given, but only an intuitive understanding ' which posits things by means of its think- ing." — Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, page 267. 11 God, as the absolutely transcendent being, could natur- ally have only intelligible reality, the reality of a thought entity, or an idea." — Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, page 222. " The indestructible faculties of Spirit exist without the conditions of matter and also without the false beliefs of a so-called material existence." — Science and Health, page 162. 11 Spirit is not materially tangible." — Science and Health, page 78. "God is what the scriptures declare him to be: — Life, Truth, Love." — Science and Health, page 330. WAY OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST 109 sayings in terms of Mind and its ideas : Jesus cried and said, " He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me " (John 12: 44). If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him" (John 14: 7). John tells us that God hath life in Himself; that God is love (I John 4:8); that He is a Spirit (John 4: 24) ; and that Spirit is truth (I John $: 6) : that " God is light, and in him is no darkness at all " (I John 1:5). 8. THE REAL WORLD TO WHICH THE REAL MAN BELONGS There is a real world order to which the real man belongs. It is composed of all the spiritual activi- ties of divine Mind. This real world is defined as free from the physical sense world with its natural phenomena, governed by natural law. The new- born mystic sees the real, spiritual world, but not with his eyes; hears it, but not with his ears; knows what it is like, but is not indebted to the finite rea- son for the vision which, nevertheless, he believes to be true. He sees individual beings in it, having form and colour, but does not see material objects. no THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC His real world has no sorrow in it, no sin, no evil, and all needs are supplied. Should this mystic try to picture the beauty of his real world, Tennyson's mystical city " with nothing in it saving the King," the " King who could not brook a lie," pricks through the mist. With Gareth and his friends he sees at times the summit of the high city flash, at times its spires and turrets, and hears the music to which it is always building. Now he seems about to enter the great gate and, anon, the whole fair city disappears. St. John's description of the heavenly Jerusalem also comes to him. " And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. " And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. " And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. " And God shall wipe away all tears from their WAY OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST in eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sor- row nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things are passed away." — Revela- tions 21 : 1-4. " And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. u And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever. 11 And I, John, saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things." 10 — Revelations 22: 4, 5, 8. 10 u The real itself is an ideal nature. The intelligible world is a system of concrete ideas. It is thus thought with intuitive knowledge by the absolute understanding." — Paul- sen: Immanuel Kant, page 248. " The notion of the noumenon we cannot make real by means of perceptual filling." — Paulsen: Immanuel Kant, pages 154-5. " Reality, in this sense of empirical reality, is, as a matter of course, not attributable to things-in-themselves, but a supersensuous or transcendent reality is ascribed to them." — Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, page 156. " There are things in themselves ; which exist in complete independence of our representation and thought. They are ii2 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC not, indeed, given in [sense] perception, and consequently empirical reality is not attributable to them, like bodies." — Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, page 238. " Space and time are merely forms of our sense-perception, and as such belong to the mundus sensibilis. Hence the real world is free from them." — Paulsen, Immanuel Kant, page 159. " Thought will finally be understood and seen in all form, substance, and colour, but without material accompaniments." — Science and Health, page 310. " The universe of spirit is peopled with spiritual beings." — Science and Health, page 264. " Spirit and its formations are the only realities of Be- ing. Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit." — Science and Health, page 264. CHAPTER X NATURE OF UNREALITY AS CONCEIVED BY THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST The foregoing outline of Reality as understood by the spiritual idealist will reveal to even the casual student that his definition of Reality — as God, Mind and Its Ideas — excludes a material order. To the true spiritual Idealist this exclusion is in- evitable on the ground that to contain a thought, — that is, to think it, — God, or Mind, must be able to entertain such a thought; but Mind, being defined as 11 spiritual and infinite," can entertain only its own spiritual and infinite ideas. This is clearly seen by those spiritual idealists who have ever allowed themselves to become ab- sorbed in the heavenly vision. To them, God could not be " an artist, a poet, who pours out the wealth of His beautiful life in all the world of the physical senses," for their own spiritual experiences "3 ii 4 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC reveal the impossibility of attributing to spiritual consciousness any material activity. 1 Thus the new order of mystic reduces the universe to two insulated minds, the material and the spiritual, each of which has its own realm of thought with its own appear- ances. These two realms are mutually exclusive, and by their natures are free from one another. 2 But what does such a reduction mean? It means that the physical laws of the finite, material order do not hold in the spiritual order; that matter, the sub- stance of the material realm, is not the substance of 1 " The properties of matter and change, together with space and time, belong merely to phenomena, while thought which constructs the idea of God and immortality is pro- tected against the ' insinuations of sense-perceptions.' " — Paulsen: Immanuel Kant, page 159. 2 " It is thus — the human understanding, to which the perception of the ideal world is permanently denied, since it possesses only sense-perception." — Paulsen : Immanuel Kant, page 248. " To the physical order of things is opposed the meta- physical order, to the realm of affirmation a realm of denial, which yet remains completely closed and incomprehensible to the intellect, framed as it is of space, time and causality." — Deussen : Elements of Metaphysics, page 292. " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."— John 3: 3. Also see / Corinthians 2: 11 and 14; and John 14: 16, 77. NATURE OF UNREALITY 115 the spiritual realm; that the ideals of the spiritual kingdom are antagonistic to the ideals of the ma- terial kingdom; that these two systems, therefore, cannot work together, and obedience to the one means disobedience to the other. But it means more than this. The reduction of the universe to two insulated thought systems, one of which is divine, is a fatal verdict against its an- tagonist; for that which the Divine Mind excludes is untrue and unreal, and therefore the finite sense, its conceptions and the material world, — but the ap- pearances of these false conceptions, — are unreal, are illusion. This to which our thinking has brought us, comes to many a higher mystic through vision. 3 The Mystic Idealist, then, agrees with the " con- structive idealist M that if a world order is to be 3 " Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but God and His Idea." — Science and Health, page 71. " The objects cognised by the physical sense have not the reality of substance." — Science and Health, page 311. u Matter is an error of Statement." — Science and Health, page 377- " Evil is a suppositional lie. ... In reality there is no mortal mind. . . . Life and being are of God." — Science and Health, page 103. n6 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC real, it must be " the thought of the Logos," " the world of the Standard Mind." And it is just be- cause we, as conscious spiritual idealists believe this, that we stand for the unreality of the material world. Why is this? How can two sorts of ideal- ists agree perfectly as to the basis of reality and yet come to exactly opposite conclusions with regard to the material world? Because the constructive idealist does not see what is irresistibly clear to us, as we have said, that the ideas which appear as the finite, material world cannot have been thought by infinite Spirit. Many suggestions of this conclusion may be found in such varied sources as the Kantian Philosophy, Vedantism, and Platonism. To the Christian Scientist, the material world is but a false sense of Reality. It is but illusion, dream, shadow, no more to be feared than " the rope we took in the darkness for a serpent! " It is clear, therefore, after reading this and the foregoing chapter, that we are not to be denied the conception of a spiritual order, even though the finite intellect cannot conceive of such an order. On the contrary, if any one of us, seeking for Life, will study the Bible, Kant, the Christian Science Text Books and the writings of the saints in many lands, NATURE OF UNREALITY 117 he will so enter into and understand the spiritual experiences of others, as well as his own, that there will come to him a satisfying conception of what constitutes the heavenly order. This vision will come to him in some form of Spiritual Idealism, even if called by another name. No mere nega- tive terms will suffice for its description, and it will be clear to him who discovers it, however unintelli- gible it may appear to others, at least for a time. CHAPTER XI THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST'S REMEDY FOR THE ILLUSION CALLED EVIL The Spiritual Idealist assures us that the King- dom has come ; but in spite of this comforting testi- mony, he must admit that the so-called knowledge, the feelings and desires of the finite sense, still pre- sent themselves and appear as real things to many of us. Its physical forces still govern our lives in large measure; its ills are ever present with us; it " bars our view into the inner being of things," and begets that plurality of sense from which all egoism and discord spring. What good has it done, then, to reduce the ma- terial universe to a " mind " that possesses no real knowing power, — whose ideas, therefore, are false, — if such ideas and their appearances, false though they may be, yet persistently pursue and seem real to us? Being false, they need not pursue us. Since untruth is not included in Truth, and is unknown to him who knows the truth, it may be unknown to us. 118 IDEALIST'S REMEDY FOR EVIL 119 The significance of this revelation gives us the key to the victory over evil in all its forms. Let us make this clear to ourselves. That all forms of evil are but the thoughts and feelings of the finite sense, — and their appearances, — was revealed to us in our study of Idealism. That this finite sense, its thoughts and feelings are unknown, that is, are unreal and untrue to Mind or God, manifested in us as the " mind of Christ," was revealed to us in our study of Spiritual Idealism. Thus we see that in so far as we realise what the spiritual truth is which is active in our mind of Christ, are we turning away from the material, and thus are freeing ourselves from the shadows which would hide the divine. By the full light of spiritual vision we see all the ills of human life as the result of illusion, false sense, and know that only the Good and the Spiritual are true. It is only through such understanding that evil can be corrected, and the good, the beautiful and the spiritual be made to ap- pear in our lives. The woman had faith, — a kind of thinking, an activity of the Christ mind, — and it made her whole. 1 1 Luke 8:48. 120 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC Jairus was commanded to " fear not," and to " believe only," — that is, to realise the truth of Christ's thoughts, — and his daughter was raised from the dead. 2 " For the laws of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the laws of sin and death." 3 " And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 4 We believe it to be the Christ way to see evil as illusion, through a consciousness of the Real as per- fect. Potentially we have the same spiritual ca- pacity for realising ever present perfection or truth that Christ Jesus had. We must be conscious, not only of a realisation of the power which we pos- sess, but of the obligations and responsibilities in- volved in the possesison of a capacity for the know- ing and expressing of perfection. The following quotations further illustrate and serve to make clear the law of right thinking which, in operating, proves evil to be powerless : — " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that be- lieveth in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my father" (John 14: 12). 2 Luke 8 : 5, 55. * 77 Corinthians 3:17. 8 Romans 8 : 2. IDEALIST'S REMEDY FOR EVIL 121 " If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you " (John 15: 7 ) . " I am that bread of life " (John 6: 48). " Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. u This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. " I am the bread of life : he that cometh to me, shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me, shall never thirst" (John 6: 48, 49, 50, and 35). " He that eateth of this bread shall live forever " (John 6: 58). "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink " (John 7: 37). " Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live " (John 9: 25). " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life " (John 6: 63). " And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free " (John 8: 32). " For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6). 122 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC " But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord " (II Corinthians 3 : 18). Using another vocabulary, these sayings of the Master would read: He that believeth in my ideas, the works that I do shall he do also; and he that abideth in the Christ consciousness shall ask what he will, and it shall be done unto him. The Ideas of the Christ are the bread of life; and if a man realise the truth of them, he will not die. The re- alisation of truth is that which gives us life : — free- dom from untruth; while to hold as true false con- ceptions concerning Reality, is death. There is a new understanding, then, to be gained, in the light of which, old misconceptions vanish like a mist. The sun does not battle with dark powers, but stands radiant, conscious only of its own light; and by reason of this the clouds, if ever so dense, are ultimately dissipated. We are given to eat of the Tree of Life and the hidden manna; we receive a new name, and the morning star. It is also promised that we shall be clothed in white raiment, shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, and shall be made pillars in IDEALIST'S REMEDY FOR EVIL 123 the temple of our God. (Revelations, chapters 2, 3 and 7O 5 In Chapter VII, we told the story of Pelleas et Melisande as one type of Idealist would tell it. Thoughts were the real actors. Let us now in- terpret the same story as a spiritual idealist must interpret it. In his interpretation thoughts are still the essence of the so-called things and events; but, to spiritual idealism, only true thoughts or Ideas are real. To this higher form of idealism, Melisande, in spite of her seeming incapacity, yet in reality is a capacity for knowing, loving, and expressing the truth; in spite of her seeming fear, she could not be afraid. Spiritual idealism contends that since Melisande is an Idea of God or Mind — a mode of God's consciousness, — the activity in that Idea is spiritual, — just like God, — and therefore she could not lose her inner light by which she always knew 5 " The Kritik of Practical Reason was written in which is unfolded the doctrine of man's freedom, standing in sharp contrast with the necessity of natural law." — Kant : Kritik of Judgment, translated by Bernard; Introduction, page xv. " In so far as a man realises this law (the moral law) in his life, he belongs directly to a different order of things from that of nature." — Paulsen : Immanuel Kant, page 309. i2 4 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC the right from wrong. God's activity can be noth- ing less than moral, says spiritual idealism, noth- ing less than truth knowing, nothing other than lov- ing and good; and the realisation of this truth, as true, is powerful over human illusions. In such a light, the so-called " victim of circum- stance," " environment," and " heredity " may no longer be looked upon by us as helpless; and when things go wrong one can no longer feel justified in pitying himself, since the fault lies at his own door. What has happened is simply the result of one's own unnecessary misconceptions. That each one of us is responsible for what happens to himself and to others is one of the great keynotes sounding through this doctrine of spiritual idealism. " Mis- fortune " is the sequence of our lack of realisation of the possession of a truth knowing capacity which, in reality, is always present and always operating. This capacity we must realise as ours if Peace, Joy, Plenty, — but the outward signs of the activity of right thinking, — are to appear. Melisande is not to be pitied as an innocent crea- ture, left, through no fault of her own, alone, to wander in a dim wood where lurked unknown evil; IDEALIST'S REMEDY FOR EVIL 125 at the mercy of a man who took advantage of her fears to bind her to him in marriage, ignorant of what it meant; having no way of knowing that by allowing Golaud to become her feudal lord, she gave to him her love in fief. Rather has spiritual ideal- ism taught us to see the whole tragedy of Melisande as but the externalisation of false conceptions, the essence of which is Melisande's unnecessary failure to realise the truth. Even a dragon and a Mimi she could have killed; and the birds themselves had led her to her own, had she, like Siegfried, realised that she could not be afraid; that she, a guileless fool, like Parsifal, could never sin. Let us remember then, as spiritual idealists, that neither sorrow, nor fear, nor any evil, is necessary to our progress toward truth knowing; that no cruel taskmaster is inflicting pains upon us against which we have no refuge, and out of which we have no way of escape; but that all the blame for this need- lessly sad world lies in misconceptions which will not present themselves if we, by searching, come to re- alise what the truth is, — that each divine idea is already knowing. But although evil is not neces- sary to the knowing of the truth, nevertheless, if in 126 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC our process of attainment we seem to go in the wrong direction, let us not, in seeking for a remedy, be un- faithful and superficial and resort to other than the Truth, even though our healing may seem slow and attended by what we call sorrow and pain. Let us realise that the law of perfection is always working in us, teaching us to turn for help where only lasting help can come. My God ! My God ! That is the only cry, and His answer, the only true one, will surely come. In time of sorrow to absorb one's mental powers in pleasure, or even in profitable pursuits, for the purpose of forgetting, and for silencing that earnest questioning in our hearts, is but to delay the finding of just that truth which we can and must know if we would save ourselves and others, too, from this same valley of suffering through which we are now passing. We now have clearly in mind that peculiar kind of mental activity which is characteristic of the re- ligious mystic or spiritual Idealist. And what fol- lows? Upon sober thought there is no one of us who can disguise the fact that he has this spiritual activity within himself. Merely revealed as IDEALIST'S REMEDY FOR EVIL 127 " Fallings from us, vanishings, Blank misgivings of a creature Moving about in worlds not realised," 6 perhaps, but there , somewhat aware, and striving to realise and fulfil itself; sufficiently realised, even now, to be clung to in times of stress. Therefore, at the present moment, let each of us look within himself and find there that affection, that early recollection, or perhaps those fragments of something he can hardly call a faith; yet defined, at least, as different, and confessed to be the deep thing upon which all his life is builded. Let him lay hold of these fragments, know them, now, as spiritual, and piece them together in some sort of design; call- ing them his creed, or whatever name he dislikes less. The possession of a simple creed, because it im- plies spiritual activity, is as effective in ridding one's self of the appearances called evil as the knowing of truth in more complex forms, provided the know- ing of the simpler forms of truth represents the re- sult of our best efforts. 7 We are always going on 6 Wordsworth: Ode on Immortality. Rodin's " Primitive Man," Luxembourg, Paris. 7 " ' Nothing will happen,' said Marco. ' Nothing can. . . . Because,' — the boy spoke in an almost matter-of-fact 128 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC to a fuller understanding of spiritual truth, and our next chapter will point out a method by which one may do this ; but just now we are setting a value upon the simple faith; for each spiritual idea, hozvever tone, — in quite an unexalted tone at all events, — ' you see I can always make a strong call, as I did to-night.' " ' Did you shout ? ' the Rat asked. ' I didn't know you shouted.' 14 ' I didn't. I said nothing aloud. But I, — the myself that is in me,' Marco touched himself on his breast, ' called out, " Help ! Help ! " with all its strength. And help came.' " The Rat regarded him dubiously. "'What did it call to?' he asked. " ' To the Power, — to the Strength-place, — to the Thought that does things. The Buddhist hermit who told my father about it called it " The Thought that thought the World."'" — Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Lost Prince, chapter 21. " * It was called 44 The Law of Earthly Living." It was for every day,' said Marco. 4 It was for the ordering of common things, — the Small things w r e think don't matter, as well as the big ones. . . . This was it: Let pass through thy mind, my son, only the image thou wouldst desire to see become a truth. Meditate only upon the wish of thy heart, — seeing first that it is such as can wrong no man and is not ignoble. Then will it take earthly form and draw near to thee!* * " ' " This is the Law of That Which Creates." ' "—Fran- ces Hodgson Burnett : The Lost Prince, chapter 22. IDEALIST'S REMEDY FOR EVIL 129 simple, contains all the essential elements of truth. It is not so much what truths we know, therefore, as it is the activity of truth knowing, which enables us to bring to light existing perfection. The practical value, however, of any true thought, — the dynamic force of it, — depends entirely upon one's realisation of its truth, and this realisation of spiritual truth does not come by itself. It comes by voluntary practice in realisation. This is our daily prayer. It is the going up " into the mountain," this getting away in thought from the sense world every day, if only for one hour. The " world is too much with us, late and soon; getting and spend- ing, we lay waste our powers " ; whereas we need to shut the world of affairs out and be alone with our heavenly Father, that the channels of communion between us may be kept wide open. When we see a divine thought, even dimly, if we will hold it in our minds for a definite period daily, it will be surprising, say the spiritual idealists, to see what results will follow. One may do this at first in the attitude of a scientist who but experiments to see if an hypothesis be true; who u observes " merely his own mind, under given conditions, he being de- tached. i 3 o THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC It is claimed for instance: (i) That spiritual ideas are true, whether simple or complex, whether expressed in words or only felt. (2) That the re- alisation of these Ideas as true, or the effort to do this, for at least one-half hour daily, will result in power over evil, and will make for perfection under conditions which are popularly held to be but " good." We shall be doing much if we will use our minds as an experiment station to help prove or dis- prove this position. As our daily concentration begins to make us more fully aware of our divine knowing power, we shall begin to realise more and more the true significance of spiritual Ideas, and then our finite knowing pow- ers will take offence, and will hasten to be on the de- fensive; and, in proportion to the disclosure of the logical conclusions involved in true Ideas, will the feud which has always existed between the material and spiritual make itself felt. Conflict between the two is inevitable. A truce is impossible. If nec- essary, this antagonism between the mortal sense and the divine knowledge, feelings and will, will be forced upon us by sin, suffering, and sorrow; but instead it may be revealed as a result of daily train- ing. IDEALIST'S REMEDY FOR EVIL 131 The finite mental machinery is developed and trained each day by hours of study, and one-half hour is very little to give to the training of its op- ponent. The university man who wins in football against his antagonist has not trusted to the inci- dental use of his muscles, will, and courage, de- manded in the uneventful routine of his ordinary days. But knowing that he must fight a hard battle against picked men, he trains himself by selective ex- ercise for a definite period daily. This is the only course for him to pursue, should he even hope to win, to say nothing of being sure of victory. And now a perplexity awaits us. Upon realising the truth, we shall obtain results which still seem to be material. This is puzzling, for we know that a realisation of the truth can only bring us the Real, and that it and its appearances are, of course, spir- itual. And yet here we are surrounded by a wealth which apparently is material. How do we account for this? Divine Mind, Its ideas and their appear- ances, at this period are seemingly paralleled by mortal sense, its conceptions, and their material ap- pearances. One may call them a veil, in that they tend to hide the real and its spiritual appearances. One may mistake this veil, this " sense curtain," for 132 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC the Real, or the appearance of the Real. Both are wrong. The Real consists of the divine Mind and its spiritual ideas, and these ideas have an appear- ance of their own. In so far as we realise this, we tend to make thin the material veil, and thus to bring the spiritual into view. Indeed, there are moments, even now, when our realisation of the truth of true ideas is sufficient to wipe out entirely the material sense of things. Then, not only do their appear- ances go, too, but there flashes into view a spiritual vision. Eye hath not seen this vision, neither hath ear heard it, neither hath it entered into the heart of man but when it appears, the pure in heart are see- ing God and His Ideas. IV THE TECHNIQUE OF THE SPIRITUAL IDEALIST CHAPTER XII THE CONSCIOUS ATTAINMENT OF A LARGER CONCEPTION OF TRUTH What we call lack of anything, failure of any kind, suffering and sin, are but false conceptions and their appearances. Therefore in a world contain- ing so much sin and suffering of all kinds, it is natural that we should hear a good deal about " coming into the Truth," it being the only remedy for untruth and its appearances or material phenomena. We shall all have to " come into," — that is, come to understand and realise, — the Truth fully sooner or later, for God and our best nature demand it. The way of our coming may be hard and terrible if we wait to be driven by suffering and sin to the tak- ing of every new step. But we do not need to go down into the deep, dark valley of suffering and sin before we look up and try to find out what our Father is thinking about. If we take the way of virtue and love, our coming 135 136 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC to realise existing truths will be a joyous and spon- taneous process. Wishing to know the truth for truth's sake will save us from its enforced discovery through suffering. Being good and loving, we shall realise the deficiencies of this human life, realise that it, at its best, is far from being wise, strong, beauti- ful; far from giving love to all and receiving love from all; far from being powerful over evil to any satisfying extent. The better and more loving we are, the keener will our realisation be of the suffer- ing about us ; and such a realisation will force us to reach out for that truth which, when we realise it as true, will give us power over the evil of the world; will save us and others from its shrinkages and limi- tations, its lack of joy and sympathy, its ignorance and wasted effort. Hence, at the outset our purpose is to search con- stantly for more truth, and not merely because it is an interesting pursuit in itself, but because the know- ing of the truth is the only thing which makes the good appear. And there is ever a fresh step in truth knowing to be taken, for ever larger visions of truth are necessary to solve the more complex problems which life brings. Hence, in our search for truth we always have the practical end in view, THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH 137 and whatever we ultimately accept as true shall have proved itself all along the way to be of practical value when applied to everyday living. Holding on to what we have ourselves in the way of spiritual truth, and adding to it what life brings, we shall some day hear of the faith of another which seems to us altogether lovely. We cannot under- stand it and can, therefore, only wish it were true. This is enough; at first known as something lovely, it will soon reveal itself as something good, and, — perhaps not until the last, — as something true. How is it that we have come to distrust the beauti- ful? Rather is it always good and the good is true. That we should demand understanding of ourselves, ultimately, is right, but should we wait to under- stand before giving our highest instincts play! When we find our understanding weak, we must not, in mistaken pride, or through the reserve of scepticism, be reluctant to seek the light from oth- ers; rather let us gratefully dwell upon their spir- itual experiences that our own capacity for under- standing may be stimulated to unfold. We must always be led by those whose understanding is, in some directions, greater than our own; whose way, therefore, is more triumphant. People are but ideas 138 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC which God sends us, as He sends those still, small voices to our hearts in response to our needs and our searching for the light. < Having decided to look for more truth, not only within ourselves but within the minds of others, we may, perhaps, be led to enter upon such larger ef- fort through the study of spiritual ideas as held by some friend, — perhaps at her earnest request, she having recognised our needs, and having told us that there is something that we do not know. She, know- ing what this truth is, orally and silently teaches us each day these spiritual ideas which she has proved to herself to be true. For a time, perhaps a long time, we may not be aware of improved conditions, however apparent they may be to those about us; but at last we shall become sufficiently awake to see that, in proportion as we allow spiritual ideas to take possession of us, do conditions improve. As a result our attitude changes. A shade of curiosity takes the place of indifference and scepticism, and we say to ourselves half-apologetically, " How can one help wondering a little about a thought which acts like a charm?" Encouraged, we continue to hold on to the thoughts, — considered by others to be true, — with greater THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH 139 seriousness and persistence. At first it seems dif- ficult to keep the mind concentrated even for a few seconds upon these almost meaningless ideas. They are strangers in the nest, and the old nestlings are jealous and try to crowd them out; but gradually, as one holds firmly to his purpose, old thoughts fly away ; the new ones gain in strength, begin to feel at home, and sometimes seem to think themselves. This is epoch-making. Another and yet another new idea is given us, and at the coming of every new one an old one makes ready for flight. The process is not one of addition only, but of subtraction also. The old oak leaves are pushed off as the new ones stir. At last comes a moment of crisis. One says spontaneously: " Of course this idea is true; and, what is more, in many instances I can say that I have known it to be true before. Indeed, it seems as though I had always known it to be true." From that moment the whole attitude is changed; this we now know to be true, and have before known to be true, at which but lately we scoffed ! At what other ideas are we scoffing which in some forgotten yesterday we have known to be true? We have now made a discovery about our mental i 4 o THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC life which puts us into an attitude of humility and gratitude. The Source of our knowledge is now felt to be outside of ourselves, and He and His gift are not for us to measure. The spiritual nature in us has been speaking, but we have not known it to be ourselves. It has spoken and we have heard, but it did not seem like our hearts speaking, and we have not listened seriously to its messages. This coming to know ourselves, to know what we really are and what we really know, this is what is happen- ing and what must happen to each of us. This state of mind into which we have now entered appears to us as a spiritual activity, a truth-knowing activity. It has always been operating, has always been un- derstanding more and more truths, has always been laying up treasures for us; but not until now have we consciously come to our own. When once any form of spiritual experience has revealed us to ourselves in this way, we can hardly be patient until we become more aware of the real nature and power of this truth knowing activity, — this sesame to untold treasures which has always been ours, and of which we have made but uncon- scious use. With the confident assurance that we have always THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH 141 possessed a truth-knowing capacity, we suddenly feel a sense of wealth possessed and in store for us, and an unparalleled scope of possible achievement opens before us in all directions. We see the ocean for the first time, and breathe mountain air after living a weary time in the lowlands. Not only do new vistas of knowledge spread themselves before us, but wider ranges of feeling and doing, richer intercourse with men, greater eagerness to give and to receive from others. Life has a new meaning, and the spirit of adventure and discovery seizes upon us. The spiritual realm has always been open, and we are destined to go in and take possession of it throughout eternity by means of a truth-knowing capacity which is inalienably ours; and now we know that just in proportion as we knock, shall it be opened unto us, and in proportion to our seeking shall we find. Joy already fills our hearts at the thought of what the past has yielded and what the future holds in store for all men. And our delight is not for a moment checked, although we realise that in order to make this vision last and come to fulfilment much real work must be done. We must have a period each day when we do concentrated work upon spir- itual conceptions, new as well as old; for all concep- 1 42 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC tions of Reality, in so far as they are spiritual, con- tain that truth the knowing of which gives us power over evil. We will not be afraid, therefore, to en- ter upon the study of faiths which are strange to us; but, on the contrary, anchored to well tried ideals and waiting upon God's guidance, let us deem it a duty to dwell upon such " new " ideas as He puts in our way. Let us seriously and without prejudice consider them. Let us come to understand what they mean, even if we do it but doubtingly and in the spirit of experimentation merely; even if we do it for no other reason than that we may be numbered among those who are trying to find out if certain thoughts, believed by some to be true, — are true and, therefore, are life giving, joy and plenty bring- ing, and thus may be used as food, as preventive of evil, as a tonic, as recreation, as medicine for mind and body. In thus undertaking to test the value of any given thought, one must remember that he is unable to judge as to its remedial value until he can let it take possession of him wholly. This complete occupa- tion of the mind by the thoughts with which one is experimenting does not come through simply read- ing words, with a feeble grasp of their meaning; nor THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH 143 does a full knowledge of their meaning signify a complete surrender on the part of the mind to any given idea ; neither does the knowing of certain ideas to be true tax the powers of the spiritual mind to its utmost. But, as when the air seems drenched with sunlight, as when our hearts can scarcely hold their weight of grief or joy, as when a bird has filled its throat to overflowing with its song, so is the mind drenched and thrilled and filled to overflowing when it realises that certain ideas are true. Then we know that it is not alone the heart which sings and dances; the mind, too, feels itself young when palpi- tating with truth, and in spontaneous and buoyant action it carries us, effortless, where it will, but al- ways to some joy, some good, to new love, to new life, to undreamed of power, provided it is uninter- rupted and unchoked by mere seemings, by those false conceptions which appear to spring up and cut off its onward movement. We must realise this great danger. If the spir- itual thought current be interrupted, we shall lose connection with our Source of energy. Then our spiritual idea will fade away, like a new plant bereft of sun, and we shall not bring it to completion in action. That we have high ideals, but are non-pro- i 4 4 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC ductive, will be the verdict against us. This prema- ture break in our careers, this " failure to connect," is due, seemingly, to a setting in of a lower thought force, which assumes many forms, — the guise of fear, of self-distrust, of suspicion of others. This counter current may come from some one who is dear to us, but who does not yet understand. It may come in the form of some erstwhile duty. But what- ever the form of the interruption, let us choose the better part, and struggle above these false voices which would tempt us. We rise above the " mean knights " by listening, listening for the ideas which are God's and which He is producing in us. And when we discover what they are, we dwell upon them. And we lose our- selves in this listening and repeating attitude until God and His ideas are for us the sole Truth. Noth- ing less than a consecrated effort to realise the truth will sweep the mind strings into music, that each day tells us something beautiful and new, and makes us know that it is true, until our pain is gone, our joy returned, and all the good is here that we were promised. This listening for God's messages and realising our obligation to obey them will also give us larger THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH 145 things to do, and although the old fear and discour- agement will try to reassert themselves, it will be in vain, for now a hidden strength is stirring; a joy is welling up in us; we feel new-born, as though cut loose from self and all its limitations, its M cannot," " would not try," to do and be. To have ideas float into one's mind like the words of some unbidden song and bring themselves to ful- filment is indeed a new way of living. The empti- ness of seldom having ideas, and then, when they came, the anxiety and fear lest they would never come to fruition, is being melted away by the gentle- ness of some new touch. Let us, therefore, remem- ber during our first years of initiation, — when it is hard for us to learn even the mere words of certain ideas, to say nothing of being able for even a few seconds to dwell upon them to the exclusion of oth- ers, — that not yet is it fair for us to pass judgment upon their power. We must remember that not until we know what an idea means, and can realise it as true, and can keep up this realisation without letting the current be broken by any false concep- tion, — not until then will the right thought or the Idea get a purchase upon us, and prove its value through some good effect upon our minds, our bodies, i 4 6 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC and our circumstances. This high tide of thought activity in us neither remembers nor respects old boundaries; it breaks over them all, and is a law unto itself as it mounts and flows out and makes for the knowing of true ideas in every region over which it flows. And now, at this point, we feel that we may give " treatment " to ourselves and to others. CHAPTER XIII THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF TRUTH When we have become so absorbed in listening to God's Ideas and realising them to be true as to be absolutely uplifted, and neither hear, see, nor know aught but man in his true being, this full flood of spiritual thought activity begins to flow out, quite irrespective of ourselves, apparently, although we retain the power of directing its course. Then we see the one who turns to truth for help, in his true spiritual selfhood or as like Christ, and such know- ing is soon seen to be remedial in its effects. Truth itself always does the healing. It is for me to be- come conscious of Truth's presence and its power of radiation. To explain further: Whenever one suffers in mind or body, the trouble to him seems physical; but in fact it is an indication of a lack of the realisa- tion upon his part of the truth of his being: modes H7 i 4 8 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC of knowing activites in operation. He must, there- fore, become more and more aware of what these activites are and that they are constantly going on; and this realisation will always manifest itself in normal conditions. The work of the practitioner consists in silently realising, for the patient, the presence in his consciousness of these true knowing activities of which he is seemingly ignorant, such as the knowing that spiritual good is all in all, that Love and right consciousness are ever present, that there is no reality in evil, nothing of which to be afraid, hence no fear. If the practitioner succeeds in bringing himself to a keen realisation of these great truths, they become radiant, and thus the pa- tient, too, in some measure becomes aware of their truth and presence; and in so far as he does, his shadows of false sense vanish. To apply this principle to a particular case : Sup- pose our patient " has a headache." The " exact spot," — figuratively speaking, for it is in conscious- ness, — where the ache seems to be is apparently bar- ren of true ideas. This barrenness is, of course, an illusion, for the consciousness of true ideas must be everywhere, in spite of appearances to the contrary. Therefore, the "spot " where the pain seems to be THE APPLICATION OF TRUTH 149 is, in reality, full of thought activity, — the activity of divine Mind, — although the patient may know this only in subconscious fashion. It is necessary for the practitioner to consciously realise that truth knowing is active, in spite of the patient's seeming misconceptions, and, as a result, he will also begin to realise health. Every state of discord or disharmony which we experience gives proof that we are not thinking rightly about ourselves. The seeming wrong condi- tion can only be changed by awakening to our spir- itual origin and inheritance, our perfection in truth; and our false conceptions will then disappear. If the patient be sufficiently spiritually minded, the practitioner may, through a silent realisation of the truth about man, succeed in relieving him from the burden of false beliefs that have bound him. In order to obtain the best results, the patient must help himself all that he can by thinking true thoughts in so far as he knows them. Let us now take another typical case and outline its treatment. Suppose the ache, this time, be clearly a mental condition, such as heartache from a sense of loss or separation. In reality all God's ideas exist forever 150 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC in the divine consciousness and are always related to one another as the ideas of Spirit must be. By holding such true thoughts for the one who needs help, we teach him to be aware of his inalien- able relation with his friend, and thus effect an escape from sorrow by a realisation of a truth. In accordance with spiritual law, " his " untruth will disappear in proportion to this realisation. Thus ultimately, through experience, we arrive at a point where we can judge of the remedial value of the Christ ideas. To treat any condition, reduce things to thoughts. Analyse these thoughts; and in the light of what we have learned, discriminate be- tween those which are divine and those which are finite. Realise the truth of those which are divine. In so far as our minds are occupied with the truth of these true ideas will the invisible good become visible. Our effort has not been to make any good come true, but only to know all good as true and so to make it appear. If I know that man, the true selfhood, is loving, and the patient wants to know the truth, he will soon realise his true self to be lov- ing, and love's rule will appear in him. So if I know man to be free from pain, and the patient wishes to know the truth, he will soon find himself THE APPLICATION OF TRUTH 151 free from pain, for painlessness will appear in re- sponse to his realisation of his true selfhood. What- ever I know as true of him, he will come to know as true of his true self. Sometimes we shrink from being treated by an- other, feeling that there is perhaps some undue force or hypnotic influence used in making us believe cer- tain things against our will; but the process of treat- ing a person is merely the process of teaching him to realise as true that which, in his real selfhood, he already knows to be true. God has no secrets which He tells to a chosen few. His truth is open to all, and each one of us, in his real nature, is a truth-know- ing capacity and thus is protected from untruth. Everyday life is constantly attesting to this existence of the same kind of knowing capacity in all people, which enables each to communicate his thoughts to others, and to arouse in the minds of others an ac- tivity similar to his own. Suppose we feel depressed when a friend with a " contagious laugh n and a happy faculty of " putting a joke " comes in. How long do we feel downhearted? What has hap- pened? We have "seen the joke"; that is, our minds have become active in a manner similar to his He has not mesmerised us, used any " control " over 1 52 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC us; we simply see the point, the trtuh, which we are all bound to see. It is as though he merely called our attention to something meant to be equally evi- dent to us both. The work of teaching the truth to another, which results in his knowing the truth in greater measure than before, has a remedial effect in all directions which once would have surprised us. During this realisation of the truth, in loving obedience to a re- quest for help, we feel the presence of our heavenly Father, and know that the power by which good comes to the patient is not our own. As a result of spiritual activity, in the conscious realisation of the truth, one may gradually attain to a state of consciousness where his ideas may no longer be clothed in words; and spiritually poised, as it were, on the height attained, he may seem to be im- mersed in a golden flood of light. He may also see the patient and himself as one, in substance, with this sea of light, and both may rest there in perfec- tion. This new appearance of ourselves and of others is not a material appearance at all, but a vision of the ideal. It is like pure sunlight, only it is a heavenly sunlight, — more luminous, more pure, than anything we experience in physical seeing. THE APPLICATION OF TRUTH 153 Then, as the realisation of spiritual truths becomes more intense, this ideal radiates more and more of that intelligence, love, joy, freedom, and power which are inherent in God and which man expresses. There is also to be seen a looking out and upward, on the part of the patient, to the Source of Being. This appearance is a spiritual experience, and comes to one only when his spiritual sight is clear. Doubtless there are a variety of appearances which are incident to the realisation of spiritual ideas as true ; but whatever these experiences may be, they will carry with them a conviction that they, as well as the ideas which bring them, are spiritual and real. To realise spiritual truth and attain to these uplift- ing experiences which follow, — whatever they may be, — is to be forever relieved of doubt as to the reality of spiritual substance. Suppose my friend be in pain or sorrow; when this vision of Truth has taken the place of a dark- ness which seemed to oppose us, the patient is usually relieved. If the relief does not show itself at once, as sometimes will be the case, this is no reason for disappointment, for the process of spiritual attain- ment is going on and will manifest itself. V CONCLUSION CHAPTER XIV AN INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION OF TRUTH As a result of this foregoing experimental study, during which our truth-knowing capacity has been doing faithful and critical work, we shall find our- selves in possession of a body of truth; and in our efforts to make this truth practical, it will shape it- self. The following individual conception illus- trates this. At first, I did not try to put into words that truth which had come to me through my own experience and through the teaching of others. They came gradually, as the thoughts defined them- selves, during years of daily effort to make these truths practical for the overcoming of evil and for the maintenance of good. When the words do come, one feels that the in- dividual expression of universal thought is his; but not the thought itself. That is forever in Mind. Only God possesses it, but it is there, for every one i57 158 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC to grasp and to express in his own way. Indeed, this individual and conscious expression of truth is the duty of each one of us; for although these great words, — Spirit, Love, Truth, Power, Reflection, — these chalices of life, have been given to us, yet we cannot take the gift of such words lightly. The passion of the giver of words is to liberate us; to make us rewin the victories won by those who have led men on. A poor return it were to be a slave to the letter, and so allow love's labour to be lost. None know better than those to whom we are in- debted for the gift of words that each individual must scale the Horeb heights of thought for him- self, as though for the first time, and read for him- self the tablets of the law, and inscribe them in the language of his own heart, before they are really his. Have we tried to reach down into the depths and up into the heights of consciousness which the givers of words, always at the expense of ease, often at the expense of life, have reached? Have we even vaguely realised what sacrifice, what courage, devo- tion and selflessness the gain of one word may sig- nify? The gift of a true, living word lays upon us the burden of a quest. 'Tis a cup, a grail, holy in con- AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 159 tent, consecrated to high uses. Acceptance of it upon our part signifies no mere quaffing of the foam at its brim, but the taking of a vow to discover the eternal truth it symbolises. One follows where it leads, o'er seas of thought, perhaps o'er waste and barren places, with willingness to tread with burning feet the hot sands; while the thirsty soul pleads in constant prayer for truth. Only to such a weary, but never faltering, explorer upon life's way, shall winged Mercurys of thought, in swift flight, flash into view. To him alone, the clouds clear away, the heavens open, and he drinks anew the eternal truths from ancient and time-worn words, but freshly filled to overflowing with new wine crushed from the rich, ripe fruit of his own experience. Whatever Life or Being is, all things must be in- volved in it in order to have life, to exist. Whatever is a quality or a condition of Life or Being, all things must possess it, if they are to qualify for existence. Life or Being is all there is, in all existing things. What is Life or Being? Life or Being is perfect Consciousness (Divine 160 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC Mind) manifesting itself through its perfect Ideas. Life or Being knows, feels, and acts. Being is Spirit; therefore its consciousness is al- ways true, good, beautiful, perfect, and complete; that is, the Divine Mind knows Ideas of a certain kind; has feelings of a certain kind; acts in a certain way. Therefore anything unlike the foregoing ideas, feelings, and will, cannot be ascribed to this Divine Mind which is Being; cannot be " predicated of Reality." He is Love (John 4: 8). He is our Father in heaven (Luke 11:2), "the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort" (II Corinthians To be, then, or to have life, is to partake of, — be involved in, — this Perfect Consciousness or Di- vine Mind. But how do I partake of this Perfect Consciousness, this Mind which is Being? What is the relation between me and Being? I am born of God; I am His Son; we are also His offspring (Acts 17: 28). But I do not take the initiative in this birth. I cannot primarily partake of Him. He first loves me. That is to say, when God or the Per- fect Consciousness thinks, I am one of the ideas of which He is conscious. He thinks me; thus I am. AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 161 To be embraced in the Mind of God, as an idea, is to be. I do not originate myself; I am involved. God is my original; I but reflect Him. I am, only because He is. I am a corollary of God or Mind. I have no self of my own, no will of my own, no substance, no life, apart from my original. He is the Self. We, in our spiritual selfhood, are His ideas, His activity, and have no other sources of action. Our source or Principle is God. He de- termines what we are, and therefore what we shall always do. The processes called loving, thinking the good, and knowing the truth, are going on in this idea which I call by my name; but God is the one who initiates and carries on these processes. He is de- fining the Idea called by my name. We say " I love," but we really mean by this that our capacity to love, which is always operating, is involved in God's activity. As the ocean, in moving, breaks into waves, each of which is but the ocean itself in action; or as the sun, in shining, diffuses itself in rays; so the Divine Mind makes for spiritual ideas, one of which I call by my name, another you call by yours. Man's activity is, therefore, God's activity. He is always a child. The everlasting arms are 1 62 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC always about him: he feels the flow of life, and knows that it is God who is his Father and his Mother, his all-in-all. " I and my Father are one," said the Master. God delighteth in you and in me, and in all beings. " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God " (Romans 8 : 16). An idea cannot exist at all without its original, its Mind, and it is one in nature and essence with this original. All true ideas are spiritual, for the God Mind that thinks them is Spirit. We and all things, as God's ideas, are spiritual, and our spirituality is as- sured by virtue of this, our divine origin. We, the Sons (individual spiritual beings), image the ful- ness of divine Mind. Moreover, as we have said, all real being is protected from anything unlike the divine, the spiritual, — that is, from the so-called finite and physical, — since only that which is in- volved in God has being. All real men, therefore, are through and through spiritual. They are experiencing true ideas, good and loving ideas, joy, power, and peace; that is, our experiences are confined to those which belong to Life or Being. In a word, spiritual experiences con- AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 163 stitute the whole of my real being. God is my Life. If some one should ask of what are all beings made, what constitutes their life, we must answer: the living and substantial thought-forces of the di- vine Mind. That we may try to make this conception of our- selves clear, let us consider the nature of our experi- ence when we love our neighbours as ourselves. This spiritually mental state is a Life force, a sub- stance-force. Think " how it feels " to be conscious of good; again remind yourself that this spiritual state is also a Life force, a Substance force. Recall your state of mind when at some moment you knew a truth. That spiritual experience is also substantial and living. Joy and peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit which we know so well, are spiritual experi- ences which are substantial and living. We live by virtue of just these spiritual experiences, whose source is God. Contrast such a conception of what is substantial and living with the popular conception, made up, as it is, of the false belief that the nervous system, the heart and lung action, are life giving; the belief, 1 64 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC also, that those knowings and feelings which are based upon material sense belong to our real being. We have the spiritual assurance that all being is of the nature of Mind, Spirit; that there is only this one Source from which life can spring. And since only thoughts belong wholly to the mental realm, and only spiritual thoughts have their being in Mind, Spirit, we shall gain the spiritual apprehension of man, and so of our true selfhood, by the substitution of the activity of divine Mind for all phenomena of sense experience. We are beginning to realise that spiritual life currents, fresh from the heart of God are active everywhere, without fatigue or effort, without cessation and without change. When we say that the activities of Spirit consti- tute all being, we make a definition of being which is all inclusive. That the physical is left out in this definition of Being, is a little startling at first, but nevertheless very much to be rejoiced over. Such a definition does not annihilate the physical order, but shows that it has always belonged to the realm of false sense, and never to that of real being. If this seems to be destructive, it will be seen upon closer investigation that wherever we have assaulted the seeming, we have done it to disclose the real. AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 165 And now that we have defined what to us is the real, we will define the unreal. Our definition of Reality shows that to us noth- ing can be included in Being which is not in accord with the nature and essence of God; and that, there- fore, anything unlike Him must be recognised as un- real. There are so-called ideas, feelings, and will, which cannot be u predicated of Reality," which can- not be thought by God, because unlike Him. These are, therefore, but seemings, and the seeming activity involved is not thinking. The word M unreality M stands for just these thoughts which God could not think, together with the suppositional sense which seems to think them. This suppositional sense which seemingly thinks " our " finite thoughts and shares their illusory character is, in scriptural lan- guage, called " the carnal mind " or " the devil." 11 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it M (John 8 : 44) . Why this illusory mind and its beliefs seem to be present and claim to be real, we do not know; but 1 66 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC the important thing, from a practical standpoint, is that we should recognise their illusory character. All the material beliefs which appear as the physical world come under the head of that which is not so; and the appearance of a false conception is also false, — but the sign of nothing. This physical, so- called world is such a sign. Looking back upon what we have said, we find that we have defined Reality as divine Mind and its manifestations. We have defined man and all real beings as the ideas of divine Mind. We have de- fined unreality as a false material sense and its phenomena. Our claim that this suppositional sense, its conceptions and its appearance world, are unreal, is based upon our understanding that its own nature excludes it from the divine, and, therefore, from the Real. The whole problem has thus re- duced itself to two minds, one suppositional and the other real; and this gives us the keynote to all ef- fective work. To successfully unsee evil we must direct our efforts, not toward a denial of that which is not, but toward a realisation of the perfection which is. It already exists. We are now ready to draw conclusions from these main statements, and to illustrate the way in which AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 167 they may be put to practical use. 1 And our success in applying the following conclusions to everyday problems will depend largely upon our first knowing just what the false beliefs are which are bringing evil appearances into our lives. To this end, one must analyse all the thoughts in any given situation in the light of what is true. By this light he will see that some of these thoughts in the situation are true, while others are but false beliefs; the elements called physical M substance " and law being no excep- tion. After the analysis has revealed the thoughts which are untrue, the next step is to see that although the untrue beliefs have seemed to be presented to us, yet they can never be accepted as true by a truth- knowing capacity. They and their appearances are always outside of my real self. They are appar- ently trying to gain admittance to the realm of the real, — yet always in vain. This takes away our fear. No matter what seems to happen, our real natures are as untouched by illusion as is the gold by the earth which clings to it. Could the gold know it- self as we can, the earth would fall away from it. 1 See chapter XIII. 1 68 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOW THE CONCLUSIONS DERIVED FROM OUR MAIN STATEMENTS MAY BE PUT TO PRACTICAL USE 2 The analysis of the situation shows that the false belief of worthlessness seems 3 to be present. THE WAY TO GAIN AN ENLARGED SENSE OF BEING We must realise that our real life and being con- sists of experiencing, loving and manifesting God and His ideas. Therefore, when we seem to be lacking in any activity, let us hasten to become con- scious of our perfection, as a perfect capacity which is operating to love and express God and His Ideas. Perhaps the most effective way of making one aware that the perfect activity of the Christ mind is going on in each of us, is in quietness to realise the full truth of that which it alone can realise, viz: that 2 The author suggests that the following arguments can best be understood by not merely reading them over ; but that when any temptation — some small ignoble thought — arises, that then it might be found here; and, as a remedy, the contradicting argument should be persistently held in thought and the results noted. 8 " We say seems because, in reality, truth alone is defined to us." AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 169 man, our true selfhood, is good, truth knowing, strong, beautiful, full of life, and joyful, because he is God's image and likeness. In proportion to our realisation of the reality of our infinite and God- given capacity we make its truth knowing, its strength, joy and life apparent to others. In trying to render true service to those about us, without fail- ing any one in any way, we become keenly alive to the need of a divine capacity and any action, how- ever small, which is truthful, loving and adequate demands activity of such a capacity, and thus gives us an added and a nobler sense of Being or Life, in that which we call by our name. Loyalty to its original is a foregone virtue in a reflected thing; since, therefore, my true being lies in reflecting God; being for me, means being sure that I do reflect Him. In all I do I must be as happy, as full of joy and peace, as full of life as He is; I must know what He knows (the truth) ; love as He loves; act as He acts. All His love, joy, truth, goodness, wells up in " us," His ideas. We are as springs fed from a pure and inexhaustible source; as flames kept clear by a divine fire; this is the Christ life. If one demonstrably knows the truth, is consciously joyous, loving, and good, in spite of the temptations of the mortal mind, 170 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC he experiences a feeling that he is being himself, as indeed he is. The analysis of the situation shows that the false belief in inefficiency seems to be present. THE WAY TO GAIN EFFECTIVENESS AND EASE IN ACTION, IN ART We must realise that " our " real activity is a func- tion of God, infinite Mind, and is therefore perfect and always operative. This real activity upon our part, which is always going on, is a consciousness: a knowing, loving, and expressing of that which Mind is imaging in us. Through such a realisation, single- ness of purpose, directness, ease, spontaneity, grace, rhythm, fearlessness, and success are manifested in all of " our " activities. To realise that we are a " flash of the will that can," that God is, in all cases, the primary actor, in which our action is inevitably involved, is to lose the sense of strife and enter a region where we find ourselves without effort and without fear; where there is only the seeing of a goal and the steps leading to its attainment; and we, not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. The artist looks and listens and when he has heard and AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 171 seen what God is thinking and doing, he reproduces God's ideas in sound, in colour, and in form, un- conscious of technique. The analysts shows the false beliefs to he the de- mands of the flesh. THE WAY TO AWAKEN A DESIRE FOR GOOD, AND STILL MORTAL IMPULSES, THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH We must realise that in our real natures, we can only desire to know, to love, and to express the activi- ties of Mind; since the real nature of each of us, as an idea of God, is to image or reflect Him. Therefore, I can have no other desire than to experi- ence Love, and manifest its divine knowings, its di- vine feelings, its divine will. I long for and am satisfied in the divine Mind, as every thought must long for and be satisfied by the Mind that thinks it; as every reflected thing must long for and be satis- fied by its source; by that one and only Being, which, by its nature, it is bound to desire. In that one and only Being which completes and perfects it, it is content. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness (Psalms 17: 15). 172 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC The analysis shows the false beliefs to he fear and the desire to do wrong. MAN IS A SPIRITUAL IDEA; HENCE HE IN HIS SPIRITUAL SELFHOOD CAN HAVE NO MORTAL MIND AND CANNOT SIN We must thus realise that our real or spiritual con- sciousness with its phases called knowing, loving, and expressing the truth is put in operation by God mo- mentarily and forever; and therefore, the constancy and perfection of the spiritual activity constituting my true individuality is everlastingly guaranteed. Seeming activity differing from this perfection has no true existence. All the fruits of the Spirit; — peace, joy, love, are ours to experience; whereas, thoughts of pain, doubt, loneliness, discouragement, malice, selfishness, and loss really cannot be real ex- periences of ours, inasmuch as not being experienced by infinite Mind, they cannot be experienced by man, whose only function is to image His activities. The false belief in the body as physical seems to be present. We must realise that Being is spiritual and there is no other. Spiritual Consciousness alone is Life. AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 173 To realise this truth is to realise that there is no ma- terial sense being. 4 In reality, then, we have no physical structures. Our parent Mind, God, sup- ports us, His ideas. The material sense appear- ances called bones, muscles, etc., represent the ficti- tious thoughts of what we call the mortal mind; and as we realise true spiritual being its own embodiment will appear. Since real Life is spiritual, it is utterly divorced from so-called organic, physical being. We are liv- ing, not because of heart and lungs and other physi- cal organs, but because we are embraced in the Spiritual Consciousness which is Life. All so-called physical processes and organs are a seeming, a part of the veil. No physical organ could bring spiritual ideas into being or relation, for spiritual ideas can have only a spiritual being and relation, and this is sustained by Mind or Spirit. Knowing divine truth, loving and expressing it, constitutes the activity of our being; but such states of activity are spiritual, and therefore it is a self-evi- 4 To thus see that the material sense and its thoughts are untrue is also to reveal as unreal the appearances called the physical world; for if a so-called mind is unreal, its pro- jections are manifestly unreal also. i 7 4 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC dent impossibility to attribute them to a physical or- gan called brain. When we say that we are men- tally tired, we have based our statement upon a be- lief that we think by means of a brain, a physical organ which is subject to weariness. To rest our- selves we turn away from corporeal consciousness, which holds thought as dependent upon the physical, and realise that all our real activity is spontaneous and tireless, for it is spiritual and involved in Spirit. Divine Mind is the great " organ," if you will, which is present everywhere, imaging Itself and thinking all Ideas; thus bringing man and all real activity into being and into relation. But God is not physical; He is Spirit. There are no sensations either of pleasure or pain, and the " nervous mech- anism " which is supposed to be responsible for such sensations is itself unreal. But we do not for that reason take away joy from our lives; on the contrary, we can lose nothing when we have all. The analysis shows the false belief to be that of undue responsibility. THERE ARE NO BURDENS TO CARRY Activity upon our part is spontaneous. We can have no burden, no care in life, for God is support- AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 175 ing us. This can only be made manifest here and now, however, through our recognition that man's activity is involved in God's activity. As we know and realise this, we suddenly find ourselves doing the necessary thing almost without knowing it, and cer- tainly without the old sense of burden bearing. The analysis of the situation shows the false belief to he antagonism. HARMONY EXISTS IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN We must realise that we are related to all per- sons and things and they to us, as those ideas must be which go to make up the unity called the Divine Mind. Therefore, there can be no such condition as lack of companionship or friends, as lack of brother- hood, or co-operation in work. The true desire can assure itself of complete co-operation from others. Even in the face of apparent antagonism we may realise that since harmony is the law of Being, there can be no real resistance in the minds of others to our true aims, but rather the spirit of divine helpful- ness. Man must bring out his world by reason of the power that worketh in him, for as Jesus said: 176 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC — " It is the Father that doeth the works and it is His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom." Since there can be no antagonism between the ideas embraced in divine Mind, which is a unity, no man can dislike us, no friend in truth cease to love us, nothing can poison us, no plague come nigh our dwelling. Suppose, however, we find an apparent discord and antagonism between ourselves and others, or be- tween ourselves and the east wind, between our eyes and light, between our ears and sound. We must banish such false conceptions by understanding that there is nothing anywhere, the real nature of which is unlike God. Any two things, each wholly reflect- ing God, cannot be at any point in discord with one another. Harmony reigns in the kingdom of Mind. We and all beings, the ideas of that Mind, are at peace. 3 We love one another. We must realise 5 If two disagree, it must be due to the fact that one or both are not thinking things as they are. Therefore, in apparent disagreement, our comfort consists in knowing that in the bottom of each of our hearts lies that which, when we both find it, will make us aware of our oneness. The hold- ing of this hidden unity in mind makes our understanding of, and sympathy with, one another appear more and more; AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 177 that each person and thing, in its real nature, is the most lovable being that could be, and therefore is just what we by our own natures are impelled to love. It follows also, since our experiences image His, that we see every other idea of God's just as He sees it, that is, as perfect. In the light of such see- ing we cannot help loving one another. The analysis shows that the false belief in the reality of evil seems to be present. THERE IS NO EVIL We must realise, when once we have granted the truth of the spiritual insight, that the Real is a king- dom where God, the One, is all in all; we know that there can be no evil, for God, — that One, that All in All, — is good. We must realise that since there can be no kingdom but that of the Real, and that Real being good, in reality there is left no place for evil of any kind anywhere. We and all beings must be sinless in our real natures, since we are the expression of the activities of good. in reality we are all congenial, and there is no exception to this rule of universal comradeship. 178 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC Analysis of the situation shows that the false be- liefs of ignorance and of an uncongenial environment seem to be present. Education is the only remedy for illusion. EDUCATION IS A SPIRITUAL PROCESS It consists in coming to know the truth about the ideas which God has imaged in us, and in learning to express that which we know. As we know an idea, its form is revealed to us. We must realise that we know the truth because God is always telling it to us. We are His image, and in this image all God's knowing activities are always being imaged by Him. Moreover, we are that through which God manifests His ideas. Therefore it is not enough for one to be aware that he is a truth-know- ing, a loving, activity; but he must become aware of what he knows and what he feels, that he may manifest to others his individual consciousness of truth. He must realise this individual expression to be a duty. It is his vocation. He must be obedient unto his heavenly vision. All this has a very direct bearing upon our rela- tion with our environment, which takes on a very AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 179 sacred significance when we interpret it as made up of ideas which God has imaged in us for the purpose of having them expressed. God gives us our en- vironment, and means that this particular form of perfection shall come to individual expression through us. It is our duty then, to know the perfect about all these ideas which God puts in our way, — whether they are what we call people or things. We must love this real part of each person and each thing, and we discover it through knowing it to be there. We then express that which we see. We are in this way responsible for the world of appearance about us. If perfection does not appear in our environment, we are obliged to attach a meas- ure of blame to ourselves; for a full realisation of its perfection upon our part, could not have failed to make the existing perfect appear. In this matter of education we must remember that there are things which we now know, love, and express, but that God is always bringing us to a greater realisation of the significance of these fa- miliar ideas, and is also imaging in us additional ideas which we must learn to know; and our expres- sion must keep pace with our knowledge. This, 180 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC the only real progress, results from activity on the part of that Christ Consciousness which alone can know God's ideas, or the truth. Since man originates in God, he is spiritual; and the aim of education, therefore, must be to awaken men to the realisation of their spiritual capacity and lead them to the point of expressing it. Then man will have fulfilled the saying of Jesus: u I and my Father are one." Thus mankind has much to learn upon a spiritual basis. This can only be effected by leaving the old landmarks, and making a new be- ginning in the spiritual direction by using the spirit- ual consciousness alone as a means of knowing all truth. It follows from the foregoing that ILLUSIONS AND THEIR CONDITIONS ARE UNNECESSARY It is the allowing wrong assertions, — illusory be- liefs, — " to present themselves to us " without con- tradicting them, which makes us subject to such illu- sory appearances as sorrow, fatigue, failure, sin, sickness, and death. Since we are equipped to un- derstand God's ideas, which invariably lead us to good, why do we allow a wrong assertion, such as 2x2 equals 5, to go uncorrected? But if we insist upon doing so, we must admit that we are remaining AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 181 under a self-imposed and unnecessary bondage. In thinking out any problem, then, we must listen to God's voice speaking in our hearts, telling us what we shall know and do, and thus we shall be led into all good, through obedience to His truth. When we do wrong, we can under no condition defend our- selves with the plea of innocence, for the ability to know the truth, which each of us possesses, includes the knowing of the right from wrong. The analysis shows that the false beliefs of lack and loss seem to be present. POSSESSION IT IS OUR FATHER'S GOOD PLEASURE TO GIVE US THE KINGDOM a. WE POSSESS OUR OWN BEING We can never cease to possess our being, and in its fulness; for the very source of all being is the eternal Mind, whose ideas we are. Eternal Mind cannot be otherwise than active, and therefore permanence is assured to that individual intelligence, love, power, my real self, which is the manifestation of this activity. To put it quite simply, we may say: — Since ideas necessarily co-exist with the Mind that contains and sustains them, permanence 1 82 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC is assured to real being, for this Mind is eternal. The gift of God is eternal life. b. WE POSSESS GOD We possess our consciousness of God and of our indissoluble relation to Him, to Mind that thinks us, which is our origin. It is not sufficient to con- ceive of this relationship as a mere at-one-ment, but we must realise that God includes us; in this sense are we one with our Father, — one in nature and es- sence with God. C. WE POSSESS OUR RELATIONS WITH OTHER PEOPLE Divine Mind involves individual being and also related being. Each one of us is, therefore, perfect, not only as an individual, but as an individual in re- lation. We know, love, serve, and take joy in, one another. This constitutes our possession of one another. We must remind ourselves often that this spir- itual relation or possession is the only one which can exist between the ideas of spirit. d. WE POSSESS OUR RELATION WITH " THINGS " We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8 : 17). We inherit all good things; that is, God gives them to us to know and to love. In knowing and loving the good and expressing what AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 183 we know, we are related to it spiritually, and such a relation is possession, and cannot be broken. In the spiritual kingdom to which we belong, what I possess does not impoverish another. Therefore, in true possession or relation I need not fear lest I be selfish. Nor, conversely, need I fear that I shall lose anything, though love demands that it be " given away." Suppose that we seem to have lost something which we once possessed; or that we lack something that we would have. Let us know that it is ours in a spiritual sense; that is, it is ours to know and love and manifest as God's idea and so as perfect. This unselfish loving and true knowing will make to ap- pear that spiritual relation between us which never ceases to exist between the ideas of God. We must be sure that the thoughts which we know and love are given to us by our Christ Mind, — that is, are from God; otherwise, we shall apparently possess things for a time which are unreal; and then in- evitably we shall apparently pass through the valley of loss, for we cannot be in relation with unreality. Furthermore, we must always remember that spiritual relations can only be attained to by the use of spiritual means. Thus it is only by knowing, lov- 1 84 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC ing, and taking joy in, good for its own sake (for all other means are unspiritual) that we can make to appear the real relation or possession which ex- ists between ourselves and the other ideas of God. The appearance in our lives of spiritual or real good, although apparently gained for a time, — but by false means, by untrue conceptions, — will dis- appear. This knowing and loving of God and his states of consciousness constitutes the only real relation or possession. This genuine possession has its real ap- pearance, which, however, rarely comes into un- clouded view now; for while the mortal sense seems to act at all, its material appearances may be likened to a veil through which the Real is made to appear as material things. This accounts for the fact that after having a true idea and realising to a certain extent its truth, loving it devotedly, and acting upon it unquestioningly, the result may appear, in our present stage of spiritual development, as under ma- terial forms. These forms are not the real, how- ever, even though they appear as a seeming result of seeking the Kingdom of Heaven. Neither are they like to the Real. We, not understanding, often think that " material things " constitute the good, AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 185 and we try to hold on to these " things," which are but an inadequate symbol of the real. We sometimes may be obliged to learn this noth- ingness of things by apparently going through the valley of loss. But the so-called loss of things is only illusory, since we cannot lose by letting the un- real go. And we might call such an experience the valley of awakening to possession, for in it, as the untrue conceptions are seen to stand for things we cannot keep, the real ideas come more and more clearly into view, and make to appear our everlasting possessions. Let us each day remind ourselves, then, that spirit- ual thoughts, ideas, alone constitute our possessions; that from the standpoint of the real, we can pos- sess nothing but those spiritual ideas which are al- ways in divine Mind for us to know and love. The material veil, the appearance woven by mortal thought, seems to clothe the spiritual ideas and dis- tinguish them; but let us not mistake this sheep's clothing for the white raiment in which all true ideas will appear, as mortals put off the old man and be- come clothed in their right minds. In proportion as we set our hearts upon loving, knowing, and expressing true ideas, and realising 1 86 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC that they do not appear as material things, do we pass beyond the stage where the beautiful Real is hidden under the guise of temporal things; and lit- tle by little come into that heavenly estate where, unblinded by mortal sense, we see ourselves in ever- lasting possession of the ideas of Truth, appearing in their own way, and without a material accompani- ment. Thus it is plain to us that the secret of loss lies in the simple fact that we are apparently deceived into thinking that possession is other than the ac- tivity of the Christ mind. The analysis shows that inertia seems to he present. THE CHRIST MIND IS ALWAYS ACTIVE AND FEARLESS The realisation of truth leaves one in no passive condition. To know that in the nature and essence of one's being he is loving, will impel him to an ac- tive expression of his love. He will feel its nat- uralness and become spontaneous. So, too, to know that in the nature of one's being he is a truth-know- AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 187 ing activity, will, in a sense, compel him to express the truth. It is clear, furthermore, that since Mind can hold no thought of fear, we, as we come to realise our true selfhood, cannot fear. This is made easy, also, by an awakening to the fact that because of the all- ness and omnipresence of good, fear is groundless. The analysis shows that the false belief of sadness seems to be present. JOY IS OURS There is nothing left to the people of God but to be joyful. As Paul says, " Rejoice evermore." " Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, re- joice. " Surely we must rejoice, when we know that all good, all beauty and all truth are ours, — peace, strength, love, power, — throughout all time. All good things are the gifts of the Spirit, and there- fore we cannot escape them. 6 6 As quickly as possible we must learn to enter into spirit- ual states of mind, and that without dwelling upon a denial of the reality of matter and the mortal sense, — which very denial seems oftentimes to give place and power. Let us rather bring the light by dwelling upon the spiritual, the 188 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC The foregoing realisation of Truth has brought me a certain sense of immunity from evil which has been of infinite value, and it has led me to see that a more detailed and more exact knowledge of my capacity, of my life functions, and of my body and its relation to me, would increase this sense of im- munity and better enable me to bring it to others. The following pages give a richer, fuller concept of that which has given me this added sense of free- dom. TRUTH KNOWING AND TRUE SELFHOOD The Christ Activity, or the consciousness begot- ten of God, is the real consciousness of each one of us. It alone can know God's ideas. It knows that it knows some Ideas, knows what they are, and knows where its knowledge comes from, and it is always coming to understand more and more of what God knows ; and like God, man always expresses his consciousness of Being. Whatever the occasions may be with which we are dealing in our life experiences, we must recog- true, the good, the beautiful, — all that is real ; upon its omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. This is the more effectual, the better way. AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 189 nise that the outward appearances are only the visi- ble signs of that which is invisible, and which we call Ideas. These are perfect and unchangeable and can never be taken from the Mind that defines them. Spirit is the source of all right ideas. There are essential elements of Truth, and they belong to every divine idea. Consciousness of any idea, therefore, necessitates the consciousness of these essential elements such as rhythm, harmony, beauty, purity, unity, love, morality, relativity, etc. When one has solved even the simplest problem in mathematics, he has acquired a knowledge of mathematics, and his further progress in this direc- tion will consist simply in an increase of this knowl- edge and its expression. If I know one melody, I have a knowledge of music, its nature and appeal. Then I must go on to know more melodies, and must come to apprehend more of those ideas which are involved in each melody. This may be called a process of definition, and will take all eternity. Although the truth will be apprehended by us in its more complex forms as time goes on, the con- sciousness of the Source of Truth, and the capacity which is operating to know the truth, remains the same, and always with us; thus, our activity differs 190 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC only in degree from time to time; while, in kind, it is the same. One person may know one idea, an- other two ideas. The capacity, however, is not dif- ferent in the two men. They are both knowing the truth. Since every Idea contains the same essential elements of truth, I do not have to know all ideas at once in order to make sure that I have found and am maintaining my true selfhood, my spiritual in- tegrity. I am fulfilling the conditions of a truth- knowing capacity, in that I have a real consciousness, at any given moment, of some ideas; and they are just those ideas which are essential to the needs of my individuality at that moment. It may not be essential for me to know what painting is until some to-morrow; yet meanwhile, because of my needs, I know what music is, or botany, and shall know, as time goes on, not only what painting is, but all that God knows. Thus each one of us, as a Truth-Knowing Ca- pacity, is always, in this sense, a perfect being; for there is never a moment when he is not knowing some divine ideas, knowing that he knows them, and knowing what they are; and his progress simply consists in knowing more ideas in the same way. The real, individual man or consciousness is AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 191 always going from perfection to perfection; and God Himself is urging us on to this knowing, and is giving us all power and freedom to express what we know. When a new manifestation of an eternal truth presents itself, which, of course, involves a new ex- perience for me, I can immediately predicate of it perfection. That is, the essential elements of all right Ideas, — such as beauty, rhythm, and harmony, — are there, although manifested in a form which is new to me. If, whatever may happen, we realise perfection, there is no possibility of our experienc- ing or expressing anything else. Defining, loving, enjoying, etc., are all fundamental thinking proc- esses in God, or Mind, dealing with ideas, and I must be conscious of all these processes, as well as of His ideas, which are the objects with which His thinking processes are occupied. God is never without a witness. We can always know Him. That is, God, the origin of ideas, is revealing Himself to our consciousness through the ideas which He is always defining to us. Ideas speak of their Origin. The truths which we need to know to-day are at hand. We seek for them; God defines them; and they reach us. Therefore, 192 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC in any crisis it is only for us to realise what these truths are that we are already knowing, 7 in order to be equal to any emergency. LIFE Life and Spirit being one, all life processes are really spiritual, not material. These spiritual proc- esses originate and are carried on primarily in Spirit, divine Mind. These processes are knowing processes. God makes these knowing activities ap- parent to man through the Christ Consciousness. The Christ Consciousness, the Son of God, is the full manifestation of Mind. In that consciousness all functions of Life are imaged, and consequently it expresses all the functions and capacities of Mind. 7 " Few see the familiar. Nothing is more common than for people to think that they mean objects that have nothing to do with themselves." — Josiah Royce. " The self that inquires, either inquires without meaning, or, if it has a meaning, this meaning exists in and for the larger self that knows." — Josiah Royce: Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 372. " Kant it was, who, despite his things in themselves, first showed us that nobody really means an object, really knows it, or doubts or aims at it, unless he does so by aiming at a truth that is present to his own larger self." — Josiah Royce: Spirit of Modern Philosophy, page 373. AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 193 Every individual man, in his real consciousness, is a son of God, and as such is capable of experiencing and expressing in some form all these knowing proc- esses and their products, which originate and are carried on, primarily, in Mind. And in addition man becomes aware of what these capacities for thought and action are and he expresses them, makes his consciousness of them appear. God's capacities for knowing and acting are produced, imaged in His every child, — they are thus individualised. 8 Seeing, — in the spiritual sense a mode of thought, — is a function of Life; that is, it is going on in Life, in Mind, all the time, and it is defined for us in man. Seeing is thus one of the knowing func- tions of Life individualised in man of which men become aware and express as the Sons of God. In each individual man seeing is one mode of knowing. What is happening when one says, " I hear " ? In any such study we must first of all remember, as we have said, that the true fact concerning any man is that every function which God is imaging in him and which belongs to him as an individual man, is present and operative in consciousness whether he is 8 In nature and in essence the activities in each Son are just the same as the activities in the Father. i 9 4 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC yet aware of it or not. We will now apply this to the particular function of Hearing. Hearing, in its true meaning, is a knowing activity of God, Spirit. This spiritual function is defining itself to me, my true selfhood, imaging itself in my consciousness, and thus I hear. There is never a time when the individual consciousness is not hearing in this sense, 9 and there is nothing that can interfere with the un- broken continuity of this perfect, spiritual activity of hearing, whether I am aware of it or not. That is, my truth-knowing capacity is always operative. But I must become awake to this function of hearing which is active in my consciousness, so that it may fulfil itself in me, to the end that I shall give expres- sion to all that it brings me. Every man has all power and freedom to do this, and in so far as he does it, the ideas of infinite Mind appear. Deaf- ness, or any other limitation, seems to be true to human sense, because that sense has not yet reached, with respect to the given limitation, the realisation of man's perfection, his oneness with his source, 9 To make the fact of hearing as a subconscious process clear, we may recall a time when perhaps we have been very much absorbed in reading, and therefore have not realised that we have been hearing bells ringing all the time. AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 195 Spirit. This oneness insures the unbroken continu- ity of perfect, spiritual hearing. It is for us only to understand and realise that perfection which is always there, in all right consciousness, including my own; and what I realise, must appear. When I first caught a glimpse of this it was new to me. I had hitherto thought of all my life processes as physical, and as carried on by so-called physical organs. Hereafter, I will use the terms, hearing, seeing, and so forth, not to characterise a physical process, but to signify a complex, spiritual process of Mind which is functioned in me. And in the seeming ab- sence of any function I will take the first step to- ward its reappearance by thinking it entirely away from the physical, seeing it as a mode of thought in God or Life. I will reach out for the realisation of what the function is, as I would try to catch a melody by listening for it and finding it as thinkable. This persistent effort will bring the realisation of God with us, and will result in the perfect appearance of the function in question. I am urged by God to the realisation of Truth. It is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. In this process of becoming aware of an individualised function of i 9 6 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC God there is no pain involved, no fear, no excite- ment. The process involved in real knowing is a spiritual process in God. It is therefore harmoni- ous and joyous. I have but to become aware and can only become aware of whatever knowing activ- ity is already going on in me. Every spiritual individuality involves the capacity to become aware of itself as an individualisation of the Knowing Functions of Life; to become aware of what this individualised Knowing is and what it knozvs; and the individuality involves the capacity to manifest that of which it is aware. And now one may say, / know what I am. I am one of the individualisations of Consciousness, of Mind, which each day, in proportion to its seeking, becomes more and more aware of itself and is al- ways manifesting that of which it is aware. There- fore, whatever I am doing, — whether I walk, sing, or work with my hands, — I am simply realising and objectifying my consciousness of what God has de- fined to me. All knowing and acting functions secure in the citadel of Mind, — therefore safe; I, an individual consciousness or spiritual truth-knowing activity, an AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 197 individualisation of God's functions for knowing and acting (also secure in Mind and therefore perfect in operation) ; — what opportunity is there in such a plan for the imperfect ! In such a Reality discord of every description has no place, no power, and I see this. THE REAL BODY Every idea is in Spirit, in Mind. It exists there forever, and is unchangeable. For instance, melody is a musical Idea. This Idea and all its individual expressions, as a national hymn, or a Beethoven Symphony, are ideas which are in Mind, and they are forever unchangeable. God's definition of every idea involves the spirit- ual activities by which the idea itself becomes ap- parent to consciousness, and to these activities of Mind we give the name of Modes of Identification. These musical Ideas, like all others, have their own Modes of Identification in divine Mind; that is, they are expressed in modes of thought by which Mind makes them apparent to consciousness. In the case of musical Ideas, the modes of identifica- tion are aural modes of thought, and through them, i 9 8 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC — its own particular modes, — the musical ideas themselves become apparent to us. Let us explain this somewhat in detail. Mind has made a musical Idea or any other idea apparent to me, when Mind has individualised and imaged it in my individual consciousness; that is, in my capacity for knowing it. This image of the Idea or its spiritual phenomenon in my consciousness, is the real body of the idea. It is the only body it has. This image or body of an idea by which the idea becomes known to me is Mind's individualisation in my consciousness of the idea's modes of identifica- tion, viz : those spiritual activities in Mind by which the Idea becomes apparent to consciousness. 10 As Mind manifests the idea of melody in individ- ual melodies, so it manifests the Idea Man in in- dividual men or the Sons of Man. Mind has a mode of identification for Man, and Mind's indi- vidualisation, — in an individual consciousness, or Son of Man, — of this mode, is that image or spirit- ual phenomenon to which we give the name of body. 10 The activities of Mind by which an idea becomes ap- parent to consciousness we call modes of identification. When Mind individualises these same modes in Man's con- sciousness, we call them the body of the Idea. AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 199 Thus every Son of Man presents two aspects: the individual consciousness which experiences and ex- presses God's knowing, loving and acting; and that divine mode of thought or image by which this in- dividual consciousness or Son of Man is made ap- parent. We now see that the body of an individual Son of Man, like every real body of every idea, is spirit- ual and perfect; that its office is to make the idea itself apparent; u that it is involved in the definition of the Idea as a whole, but is distinct from, although in inseparable relation with, the individual conscious- ness. The relation between any individual con- sciousness and its body is analogous to the relation between a melody and the tones which express it. The melody is not in the tones. Melody governs the tones, which are but a phenomenon which differ- entiates this melody from others. To conceive, therefore, of the real body of any Son of God as being material and as having physical 11 A homely illustration may serve to make this clearer: The body of an individual may be likened to the hands of a clock. They do not make themselves go; neither do they make the clock's mainspring go. They merely serve to show what the hidden mainspring is doing. 200 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC functions is impossible, and such a seeming concep- tion must be false. To conceive it to be the true, the real, function of the body to give man life and strength, as is popularly supposed, is to ascribe to the body a power which it never had. And to con- ceive of spiritual consciousness as in a material body and subject to it, is another familiar error which we are obliged to correct. The coming to a realisation of the true nature of Man's body and its relation to consciousness is an essential part of the work which I have to do, and is the result of my coming to a knowledge of my true self. Let us dwell a moment upon the way in which the body of an idea is made to appear. SPIRITUAL PHENOMENON AND ITS APPEARANCE The moment that Mind has individualised and embodied an idea in you or me, it goes on to arouse the individual consciousness — yours or mine — to a realisation of what these spiritual activities (the Idea and its spiritual phenomenon) are which Mind is carrying on in the individual consciousness. This action of Mind results in the seeking, knock- ing, and finding, of the Idea on the part of the in- dividual. And when he has so striven to know an AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 201 idea, — a spiritual activity going on within himself, a melody, for instance, — that he does know it, then the body or spiritual phenomenon of the Idea is also revealed to the individual consciousness. That is, one hears the melody being sung. He hears it in his consciousness, and it is not as yet audible to those about Him. Then Mind awakens love in men for that which they find going on within themselves, and they long to make the idea known to others through the appearance of that image which is revealed to them. In response to this desire, Mind uses the in- dividual consciousness as an instrument by which the real appearance which is apparent to it, is made to appear to others. And the song is then sung in the true voice. The same process may be applied to man and will eventually lead to the right understand- ing of his spiritual representation or true body. 12 As this spiritual conception of Man's true form and its appearance becomes clear, the seeming bur- den of my body is lifted; its needless travail and 12 When we realize that the individual consciousness is but an activity of Mind, we see that, through all this proc- ess, it is Mind which is acting as my capacity to bring the truth into objective being. An Idea is in God. He forms it in me, and I mani- fest what He has formed in me." 202 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC pain are over; it carries no weight, neither does it do any work. It is not with the body that men see and hear. It does not carry them about. The body is not the Thinker; neither do the thoughts of spiritual men depend upon its operations. 'Tis a living picture merely, and I demand of it nothing more, yet its service is great. Having no strength of its own, it yet images the might of God; having no life to give, 'tis yet a witness to the gift of Life; thinking no thought of its own, 'tis the picture of Truth itself. Sometimes a coat of mail it seemed, or again a silken sheath, — the first a torment and the last a snare; but both were figments, unknown in Love's domain, and I need no longer dread lest fatigue over- take me in the heat of the day, or temptation assail me upon untried paths. Agony has spent itself, and the fear of death is passing. A hymn of thanksgiving rises in my heart, for as the mantles of error slip from me, I see how heavy they were; as the fetters of belief loosen, as the chains of sense fall, I know how great was the bond- age by the freedom which is mine. When the veil of illusion is rent, all the tyranny of lies, all the mis- rule of the flesh, like shadows melt away ; and Love, AN EXPRESSION OF TRUTH 203 the real substance, reigns. As the blood of the physical body is spilled, the wine of the spirit glows, and Life everlasting wells up that all our wounds may be healed. And sometimes after a night of darkened experi- ence and these truths come clearly to me, Love, the thought of God, appears, and stands there watching o'er the sleeping world lying in its sheepfold, safe, in sweet surrender of all other sense save that of the Shepherd's presence. His radiant robes alight as though fresh filled with new born stars, fallen from the skies now dark about Him. And a great star sets close upon his forehead, and lights the dark place where His sheep lie, and finds its way into each tired heart. They were so weary an hour ago, but listen now, and hear the myriad sighs, like rested wings in flight, that rise and leave their looked-for message at His feet. The earth is no more wet with tears; men sleep, and only know when they awake their dreams were sweet. To those in pain an angel came — so softly — as though its feet were flowers and its substance light, and holding in its heart the key which now unlocks its lips, that men may hear the message : Love is the substance found by loving; know that it is all, and pain will cease. CHAPTER XV THE RIGHT ANSWER Our manifold and efficient charities attest to a widespread sympathy with those in need, and to a recognition that such needs demand immediate re- lief. And after supplying food and clothing we realise that our ministry must go farther, since the fundamental need, after all, of each of us, is spirit- ual. One hears occasionally that faith is all right in its place, but that it will not buy shoes nor alter the fact that labour is at the mercy of capital; that men grow rich only at the expense of their brothers ; that peace can only be maintained by arms ; and that even an understanding of Truth would be powerless to keep us from being the victims of circumstance, heredity, and environment. Such a creed ignores a Heavenly Father and His Kingdom of Spirit. Can one wonder that our capacity for worship hun- gers and spends itself upon false gods! 204 THE RIGHT ANSWER 205 But the fact that an outworn statement of spirit- ual Truth is found to be inadequate to the ameliora- tion of modern conditions, cannot lead us to infer that spiritual truth Itself is inadequate; for God, the solver of all problems, is the Source of that Truth. Truth is the right and only answer to all our daily questions, and our realisation of what this an- swer is, and of its truth, is the remedy for all so- called evil. Moreover, this remedy is within our reach, for we, in our real natures, are capacities for being conscious of the Truth, under all conditions, in every period of our existence. We, therefore, are not at the mercy of the ap- parent injustices, inherent in a seemingly material social and industrial order, and need not even seem to be the victims of any circumstance whatsoever; for each individual may, at any moment, make a direct appeal to and receive without delay the true answer from his Heavenly Father, and through obedience to it he will bring to light the ever opera- tive spiritual Law, — the only law, — against which no other so-called law can militate. Then will his life be lived on the plane of true ideas. On such a plane the real conditions and laws reveal them- selves as perfect. Reality is perfect. Our work, 206 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC therefore, consists not in changing anything, but in seeing that perfection already exists in God and His manifestation. That is the right, the one answer to all questions. Through a realisation of its truth and presence, we express this perfection constantly, in terms of daily life. The calm faces we wear! Resignation is written there, — patience, the grace to bear burdens and suffer loss. So read those who are themselves pa- tient and resigned. Rather is slavery written there, obedience to wrong ideals, and, too often, the sloth of thoughtlessness, the stupor of ignorance. The Sons of God, patient under unjust burdens; the brothers of Christ, resigned and tolerant under the feet of triumphant evil, 1 complacent in the midst of mediocre surroundings and achievements, ready with excuses in the face of failure and mistake ! Where is our self reliance, our courage; where the insight which keeps us from building upon the quick- sands of illusion? Why have we ceased to make the high endeavour, the sincere struggle that will not brook defeat or bear unquestioningly an unjust act. How have we buried the sense of our high birth- 1 Did not Christ teach the true meaning of resignation to be obedience only to the will of God, Good? THE RIGHT ANSWER 207 right with its rightful claims to power? With sin. A wrong conception it is which writes submission on our faces, stains the tablets of our hearts, and blots all out of recognition our divine rights, written there by our own Heavenly Father. But to all of us who have not realised our true selfhood the birth of Fear will come, and there will be a moment when we shall know that we are afraid. Such moments, as compared with those of sin and ignorance, might be regarded as occasions for joy did we but face our fear, ferret out its cause, and then, as a result, should seek for release, and find ourselves on the threshold of a new understanding. This understanding, revealing evil as an illusion, a false sense of things, teaches us to deny its reality and thus we break its seeming power and open the doors into fearlessness and peace. Hitherto we have been asleep, unseeing. Fear and sorrow make things shake about us, rouse our "drowsy blood," take the scales from our eyes; and nothing now can soothe us back again into the old feeling that some way everything is coming out all right. When this fear and sorrow come, with their awakening to a seeming power other than good, we 208 THE PRACTICAL MYSTIC may sink back among those resigned and so-called patient ones of whom we have spoken, and with them bow down before an unknown master, bribe him with gifts, pay tribute to him, obey his demands unquestioningly, be good slaves, — forgetting that we are the Sons and Daughters of a King! But there are those who do not forget, and in the face of fear and sorrow will rebel, and will ques- tion wherein, within themselves, they have failed. How we love them, — those who, when evil comes, defy it, search for more truth, and thus re- veal a great, unshaken trust in good. We cannot bear to have them suffer. We answer life's questions primarily for those we love. This fills us with a passionate longing to find the right answer. When a woman remembers her motherhood, what will she not sacrifice that the fountain at which her children must drink shall be of the waters of Truth. What will she not endure that she, too, may win a " Blessed Spear " for the healing of their wounds; may make the "mystic cup " glow red and bring to those whom God has given her, all the blessings of the Holy Grail, for lack of which they perish. " Our Soul's east window has had its divine sur- THE RIGHT ANSWER 209 prise. " Let us, therefore, cease to be lip loyal to what once seemed truth. Our new-risen star shows us a new way. It makes " air and dream of all we see and feel." It teaches us to overcome, and we eat of the tree of life and the hidden manna. We shall be given a new name, shall be clothed in white raiment, and be made pillars in the temple of our God. God dwells with us. He is wiping away all tears from our eyes; " and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; " for the former things are pass- ing away; — all things are becoming new. We are given of the water of life freely; we inherit all things; God is all and He is ours. We are in the realm of the Spirit and the real is appearing in the measure of our realisation that we are Spiritual. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALT^ WILL .NCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOUR™ oCerdT. T ° " 00 ° N ™ e — t2 U d™ 7K 6&^«PM RECTD LD mr-& i 943 wmm± INTER^UBRSRT -^W*4BW ~ehrn — h ,UO LD OCfMtmZi "RECEIVED — a — ^EFTslm m^®* 1 omcuLAnotLDEPH l7Apr'59E! re^eTcd- APR 6 1959 LD 21-100m-8,'34 YB 29630 $C&- 349333 4- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY v--