Living ideals

Contents

CHAPTER

— An Every-Day Philosophy . .

PAGB I

Chapter I. An Every-day Philosophy

The Soul unfolds as its subjective instrument the mind, and its objective instrument the body, relate themselves consciously to a more expanded environment. By way of reaction, the mind expresses and the body manifests the Soul's degree of unfoldment. Impulse from without leads to awakening within. The incessant action and reaction of Soul, mind and body vitalize all of the instrumentalities of life.

With the Soul's increasing unfoldment, it becomes conscious of new correspondence, the mind acquires new or developed faculties, and the body new and evolved functions. The Soul's environment changes as one develops, and his degree of happiness represents the extent of his conscious adaptation to environment.

Each Soul in the infinitude of unfolding Souls is constantly seeking to harmonize itself consciously with all the other Souls of which it takes cognizance, and of which it is an integral part. In this search, it is most important that it secure a reliable guide for feeling, thought and act.

A reliable guide is that offering suggestions of permanent benefit, and which may be followed readily to one's moral advantage in solving the problems of life which unceasingly present themselves. The suggestions must be not only morally sound, but must be capable of practical application and adjustment to the demands of changing conditions and relations.

What is the most practical guide? Is it a prescribed act or method which may be duplicated? Is it a mental or physical exercise which may be followed automatically? Is it a formulated affirmation or denial? Is any outward form calculated to constitute a reliable or infallible guide?

As the relation between the Soul and its environment is subject to incessant change, no particular form of activity will continue to relate it harmoniously to its environment. Any special exercise, method or act, has its time, place and purpose, but its usefulness is outgrown when one realizes its underlying principles, the intelligent interpretation and adaptation of which supersedes imitation of form.

A particular outward exercise or act becomes of value to one today because his development has reached a point where it serves to relate him harmoniously to today's environment. As soon as it has fulfilled this purpose completely, its essence has been extracted, its purpose has been subserved, and it has assisted to develop a new environment in relation to which the exercise or act offers no essential service.

Man is not an automaton, nor can he live automatically. Each must think and act for himself. No one can live for another, and no one can duplicate another. No particular mental formulation or physical exercise has the same exact relation or effect upon different persons, although under similar conditions they may be related similarly. Intelligently to prescribe an exercise that will be beneficial, one must discern the particular need or requirement of the individual to be affected.

While there are changeless principles underlying mental formulations and physical exercises, their individual application is dictated by Soul unfoldment, which is ever and always enlarging and responding to a more inclusive environment. It is evident that the most reliable guide in this incessant external change and ferment, is one which accommodates itself continually to the ever-expanding consciousness of the individual.

As long as one looks without for aid and assistance, and until he has awakened to consciousness of his own inherent divinity, he will make use of automatic formulations and exercises, and rely upon distinctively intellectual and physical agencies for guidance. One looks to results rather than to causes, and his guides will ever be fluctuating and unreliable, until he holds firmly a conception of principle.

The only reliable guide is eternal, changeless principle. Principle is the guide of the individualized thinker, of the conscious creator of conditions, of the one who purposely designs the fabric of his life. The formulation of principle changes with his mental development. Its manifestation alters with his physical growth. He does not discard formulations or exercises, but he changes them continually to meet the dictates of his temporary though ever-developing requirements. He makes use of formulations and exercises as means instead of causes, and therefore discards their empty husks when the essence has been extracted.

A philosophy for a single day may be founded on prescribed outward observances, but an Every-day Philosophy of Life must be based on understanding of principle. Automatically to follow the example of another is utterly impracticable. He who wisely directs his life along methods which are peculiarly and exclusively his own, is most practical.

As one reaches deeper realizations of unity, clearer and simpler formulations of principle are disclosed, until it is evident that a few simple statements may form the solid foundation of life's philosophy. These statements are a combination of the present-day conceptions of physical science, including psychology, which conceptions it expresses in terms of Unity. An essential Oneness is seen to pervade the Universe — Oneness in Principle, Purpose and Object — from which proceed and into which return all of life's activities.

With an abiding realization of life's essential simplicity, one expresses and manifests simply. On the circumference of life is seeming diversity and complexity, apparent opposition and discord, evident contest and inharmony. It is only as realization reaches toward the center that the region of love and peace, of co-operation and harmony, is approached. Nor is this the calm of inactivity. It is the poise of controlled intense activity.

Each Soul must unfold continually toward a more nearly complete individual consciousness of its inherent divinity. To this end, its instrumentalities of mind and body must be exercised. It must receive, assimilate and express on all planes of consciousness, physical, intellectual, spiritual. The complex activities of life must be simplified by a consciousness which has been ennobled by realization of principle and the influx of harmonies from the subconscious and superconscious planes.

Since man is a unit, it is essential to his peace and comfort that he live a unital life. He does this only as the planes of his consciousness cooperate, when feeling holds thought in a poise which enables it to direct and control action. The consciousness dictates to and educates the subconsciousness, and when the dictation and education are in terms of principle, the reaction is harmonious and healthful.

One who accepts automatic exercises as his guide is really groping for the principles they serve to manifest. He is seeking the substance through the shadow, mistaking the latter for the substance itself.

The difference between individuals is indicated by their degree of Soul unfoldment, their contrasting consciousness of purpose, and their comparative directness of methods. What one does consciously another does unconsciously, what one strives for directly another strives for indirectly. Slight as this difference may seem, one's consciousness of purpose and directness of method unerringly are measures of his wisdom.

Consciousness is all one knows of life. That of which he is not conscious has neither existence nor meaning for him. He realizes only that which he knows he possesses. Without this knowledge his possessions afford no satisfaction and confer no happiness. The greater joys of life accompany the conscious shaping of one's life along direct lines of purposeful activity.

While all are pressing forward to the same goal, what interests each individual particularly is the health, harmony and happiness attendant upon each step of his progress. Whether a particular achievement or a given development takes a day, a year, or a hundred years, is of extreme importance to him. The amount of energy required and the degree of suffering involved is of vital interest to him. All these accompaniments are measured by his realization of principle and his consequent directness of purpose.

A haphazard life is one of inevitable opposition, contest and warfare. Such a life constantly strikes against the adamantine wall of principle, and is filled with perplexity, discouragement, disappointment and defeat. One can live a purposeful individual life only as he realizes purpose in all life, and this is revealed as consciousness of principle deepens and broadens.

The tree of physical life is usually pictured with its sap or energy moving upward from the roots through the trunk, and outward to the most distant twig and leaf. The tree of conscious spiritual life may be pictured reversely. As through the agency of physical manifestations the spiritual consciousness is awakened, it seeks conjunction with its source and reacts toward its origin, through twig and leaf to trunk and root.

In the growing understanding and realization of its divinity, the Soul consciously relates the circumference experiences of life to a point toward the center of Being. Gradually this consciousness filters through successive strata of existence, ever reaching greater depths of realization of the Essential Unity of Life.

Starting from the leaf or twig of dawning consciousness, the Soul seeks the light of principle (unity) amid the comparative darkness of experience (diversity). As this light is discerned, he establishes a focusing point of experience, a common center of union. The light of principle so discerned serves both to illumine the path he has traveled as well as all other paths leading up to the focusing point he has reached. It also intimates the direction and meaning of his onward journey to the next larger focusing point nearer the center of Being.

As one connects focusing points of principle, and applies his newly acquired realizations to the illumination of the past as affording a guide to the future, his scope of vision enlarges and his horizon expands. He reaches successively to stem, branch, limb and trunk of the Tree of Life and toward its root or source.

When in the mirror of fundamental principle the identity of center and circumference is revealed, one glorifies his manifestation of life by animating it with a spiritual consciousness which harmonizes his entire being, and places it in right relation with environment.

Chapter II. Perception And Realization

The one reliable guide is principle, truth, God. Until one finds God, comprehends principle, or realizes truth, he is tossed about in a sea of doubt and confusion. The Universe seems a chaos, the dominant note of which is chance or luck. Principle must be formulated and accepted intellectually before one may comprehend or understand it spiritually.

Man is a unit, each plane of whose life is equally essential. The concurrent conscious development of each plane is essential to a symmetrical character. Man is spiritual, mental, and physical. His comprehension of principle, his realization of truth, or his finding of God demands the constant co-operation of the physical, intellectual and spiritual natures, for normal consciousness is incomplete in the degree that this co-operation is lacking.

Principles may be formulated simply, and truth may be stated in terms readily comprehended. A perception of truth does not demand great intellectual power.

It is sufficient that one knows what the words signify, that they are logical and consistent with the measure of his understanding.

In the Science of Numbers the solution of problems is dependent upon one's perception of principles. It is so in the Science of Life. In one's daily experiences the problems of life are involved, and these may be solved only through his perception and comprehension of the principles of life. As the solution of mathematical problems leads to the realization of the truth of the principles involved, so the solution of life's problems leads to the realization of the truths of Being.

Experience, perception and realization are representative respectively of the physical, intellectual and spiritual planes of being. One's perception of principle is tested and converted into realization through the avenue of experience. It is through the test of experience that he acquires knowledge of and faith in that which he believes to be true. That which is absorbed by the intellect, thereafter is assimilated by the understanding through the activities of life.

The physical, intellectual and spiritual are inseparable, and each is equally essential. In order to assimilate a truth completely one must make it his own on all three planes. This demands physical manifestation, intellectual expression and spiritual realization.

Most truths are capable of presentation in a manner acceptable to the average intellect, but intellectual perception alone is insufficient for practical demonstration. Truth must be tested in the laboratory of physical activity. The physical and intellectual faculties are the instrumentalities for the Soul's realization.

One who is developed normally tests each truth on every plane. One whose consciousness is concentrated abnormally on any plane demands abnormal tests on such plane. The distinctly intellectual person rejects as insufficient the presentation of a truth that is acceptable to one whose intellectual faculties are less developed or exacting.

While experience is indispensable to realization, there is no exact relation or proportion between the two. One may realize little or much from a given amount of experience. While the amount varies with the individual, the process is the same for all. Life is a unit, all manifestations of which are governed by the same principles. The realization gained from a specific experience may be imperceptible, but there is a gain, and it finds its appropriate place in life's mosaic. Whatever exists is necessary and has a purpose.

At any given time the experiences, perceptions and realizations of each individual differ from those of other individuals. One's perceptions are always convertible into realization through his discernment of the truth involved in them. The combination of experience and perception produces exactly the amount of realization for which one is prepared.

While growth is slow and the perception of truth is rapid, there are degrees of perception. There is an orderly process of development, both of perception and realization, although consciousness of either may come in an instant. The view from the mountain top bursts suddenly upon one's vision, but it is only after he has climbed up every elevation of the mountain side.

Life's development is by way of the spiral. Again and again does the Soul pass through similar experiences, but never through identical ones. At each new turn of the spiral one is able to extract a deeper realization from his combination of experience and perception. As life's spiral is eternal, his realization is limitless.

Experience without perception has no immediate value, nor has perception without experience. But in conjunction they are invaluable as preliminaries of realization. Experience and perception are necessary factors of realization, and in the absence of either there is no finished product.

A perception of the truth, "God is Love," is attained readily. But what this perception, or the realization resulting from it, means to any individual depends upon his stock of experiences, perceptions and realizations. Whatever his perception, however, it will not be his only and final one, for it will deepen and broaden as he traverses life's spiral. He tests it actively through experience and passively through silence and meditation. It penetrates and illumines every previous perception and realization, and thus modifies and changes them.

As a new perception is tested actively and passively, it is appropriated and assimilated by the whole being, and the Soul becomes conscious of more light and more life. Words and symbols lessen in importance as their underlying realities are reached and appropriated.

Living the life of principle is the essential of realization. One must act as well as think, and should act in rhythm with his thoughts. Passivity is important, but it is not all-important. Life's equilibrium requires that activity and passivity balance and complement each other.

One "lives the life" when he acts in accord with his higher perceptions of truth, when he exemplifies them in his daily life, and when he manifests his faith in principle. His being expands as he surrounds others with the atmosphere of his higher perceptions, and as he liberates the best he has through the activities of his life. This living and testing, this acting and manifesting, are inseparable from realization.

One's perceptions are his ideals. He possesses them, but he never lives up to his ideals. His horizon is always at a distance. But he always thinks and acts in accord with his realizations, for these are so identified with him that they possess him. He manifests his realizations always, for he cannot be or do other than what he is.

The difference between individual methods denotes the extent to which each approximates his ideals or higher perceptions in daily life. As one is faithful to his higher perceptions, he lives a life of principle, and more and more converts perceptions into realizations.

A life of principle does not lack in warmth of feeling, of sympathy or love — quite the contrary. A life of principle is the very embodiment of feeling, sympathy and love. While it is deeply emotional, the emotions are controlled, they are not permitted j o Living Ideals

to interfere with one's exercise of justice and love.

The Universe is governed by law, and is exact and invariable in all its activities. Mathematical accuracy does not preclude love ; on the contrary, it is love's highest expression; it is the guarantee of justice without which there is no expression of love. There is neither coldness nor lovelessness in infinite justice. And the more nearly just one is, the more nearly Godlike is he.

A normal life involves the perception and realization of unity. The normal Soul lives these, both in expression and manifestation. He has converted sense impressions and intellectual perceptions into spiritual conceptions and realizations. Impression and expression co-operate, and the inner and outer function in conscious harmony. With this realization of unity, the Soul expresses mental peace and manifests physical health.

The babbling mountain brook bubbles and is noisy and restless, as it hurries and scurries over its rocky bed. The great river moves silently, powerfully and undisturbed, without turmoil or excitement. The greatly developed Soul has outgrown the perturbations of its babbling consciousness and its life is as that of the majestic and mighty river.

Chapter III. Ideas And Ideals

Recognition is an essential of conscious attainment. Only as one recognizes an ideal can he appropriate it consciously. One can have clear recognition or certainty of possession only of that which is definite or defined. All word-pictures are appeals to the intelligence. They assist clear vision in so far as they present clear-cut ideas.

An idea is the mental picture of a material manifestation, and originates in the contemplation of objectivity. An idea is personal and is on the plane of separation. An ideal is a spiritual motive which springs from an idea. An ideal originates in a mental picture and translates it to the spiritual plane of unity and inclusiveness.

One's idea of the objective world is his only knowledge of it. He knows the outer world not as it is, but as it seems to him to be. Each person senses it relatively to himself. As the outer world is to each what his individual idea of it is, each dwells ever and always in a world of ideas.

Before projecting ideals, one must have ideas. The ideal is the spiritual essence distilled from the idea which has been extracted from the objective world. The ideal is vital mentally and physically to the extent that it has been appropriated consciously on each of these planes. One whose ideas are the result of careful and exact observations of objective life, and who scrupulously constructs his ideals from definite ideas, will reach a spiritual consciousness expressing and manifesting itself normally on all planes of existence.

Each of the great religions of the world has recognized the use and advantage of well defined and carefully constructed ideas as factors in the projection of uplifting and constructive ideals, and each has portrayed a word-picture of the life of its Great Teacher most effectually calculated to promote this purpose. Each of these religions has impressed upon the minds of its adherents that the life so portrayed is that from which alone their ideals must be extracted.

When the basis of one's ideal is solely a mental picture of objective life derived from a description or word-picture furnished by another, instead of being related directly to his own observations of life, such ideal is manifested abnormally on the physical plane. The mental has not been brought into direct relation with the physical and the ideal has only a superficial vitality. The idea not having been derived direct from life or from manifested actuality in individual experience, the ideal extracted from it fails to stimulate normal activity on the physical plane. The ideal is as artificial as the idea from which it has sprung.

One can manifest his own ideals only. Manifestation is proof of ownership. Vitalized ideals cannot be borrowed ; they are acquired through individual effort. Ideals lacking in vitality lead to stagnation, for they have no vital relation to the realm of physical activity or manifestation.

Religious fanatics and monomaniacs have dwelt in abstract thought-pictures to the exclusion of the actualities of objective life. They manifest their ideals in conduct as abnormal as their thought-processes are incomplete. Of necessity such erratic idealists are inconsistent and degrade the concrete in seeking to exalt the abstract.

The ready-made or prepared idea has its place and purpose, exactly as "predigested" food has. Those who do not prepare ideas for themselves, use ready-made ones. In the infant stages of intellectual development, ready-made and "predigested" ideas are most acceptable. But that which is necessary in infancy may become worse than useless in manhood. When one is prepared to live his own life, he is unwilling to accept automatically the ideas of others.

It is easy to attribute abstract qualities to abstract conceptions. It is not difficult to attach imaginary and undefined attributes to that which is imaginary and undefined. It requires no great effort to associate flowery adjectives with equally flowery abstractions, nor does it involve any great mental strain to attribute every possible perfection to the Jesus of the New Testament. That which the imaging faculty pictures to the mind requires neither original observation nor thought, without which it denotes the appropriation of an abstract mental image as the basis of an equally abstract spiritual conception.

In idealizing the mission of Jesus, it has been assumed that his life and teachings were equally ideal. The typical Christian does not consider it possible for himself or for another to live or to have lived a life as ideal as that of Jesus. And yet one cannot know but that his nearest neighbor is living a life quite as nearly perfect. One cannot understand that to which he has not yet unfolded. One must live the Ideal Life before he is competent to recognize it in others. The recognition of perfection involves the manifestation of perfection in him who recognizes. If one were able to close his mind as effectually to the apparent imperfections of his neighbor as he does to every suggestion of imperfection in the life of Jesus, he could recognize the Christ in the one as readily as in the other.

Jesus is the idea of which the Christ is the ideal. Similarly, each man is a Jesus from which, or into which, the same Christ-ideal may and should be projected. This would seem to be the fundamental spiritual conception of the story of Jesus. In exalting Jesus (the idea) rather than Christ (the ideal) the general interpretation of the narrative has been material and dead rather than spiritual and living.

One must first recognize in one man that which he afterwards realizes is common to all men. The Ideal Man can be perceived most readily in a man invested arbitrarily with all spiritual and ideal qualities, and attributes. One is then able to recognize these in all men. One ascends to the impersonal through the personal and reaches the universal through the individual.

To the extent that one fails to recognize in others the same Christ (ideal) that he recognizes in Jesus (the idea), to that degree does he fail to idealize Jesus. One's ideal of Jesus is lacking to the extent that it fails to impel in him a similar idealization of each and every man. The life and teachings of Jesus would seem to be in vain in the degree that they fail to bring about a realization of the universally individual ideal man.

The Ideal Life is the life of Love. One idealizes that which he loves. Through love alone one recognizes the Christ (ideal) in another. It is far more meritorious, and equally more difficult, to love one's neighbor than it is to love Jesus. The latter is included in the former, while the former may not be included in the latter. One who recognizes the Christ in the physical man with whom he comes in contact, cannot fail to recognize the Christ in the ideally constructed idea of man.

The Ideal Life carries the consciousness of the ideal both within and without the Self. It is that life which, through idealizing the seemingly separate, removes the illusion of separation. It is that life which, gathering and preparing its ideas from the living activities of manifested life, actualizes its ideals normally on all planes by living them. Cloudiness of vision and mistiness of expression are not only not essential to the Ideal Life, but they fetter and hinder it.

In living the Ideal Life one has not necessarily reached the ultimate, for the Ideal Life admits of infinite gradations or degrees of attainment. Not only this, but it is a subjective quality rather than an objective condition. It involves the consciousness of the universal ideal in each individual idea, and the ideal of the Ideal Life is the Perfect Life.

Chapter IV. The Guide To Conduct

Each individual differs from every other. No two are alike. Experiences are never identical, for a unique consciousness is an element of every individual experience.

It is impossible to duplicate exactly the example of another by repeating his actions, for the conditions under which they are performed necessarily differ. Even though such difference be inappreciable, in some degree it renders the same action inapplicable or inap^- propriate.

The automatic duplication of another's action as a guide to conduct is both unsafe and unsatisfactory. Besides being artificial and formal, it evidences lack of judgment and discrimination. Having no direct relation to the individual's growth or development, it is destitute of spiritual advantage, and therefore of vitality.

Another's conduct may be emulated to advantage only to the extent that one understands its relation to the circumstances and to the internal and external conditions impelling it. Assuming the fitness of an act under prescribed conditions, under changed conditions an equal fitness would demand a corresponding difference in action.

Simply acting as others do> under apparently similar external conditions is a delusive and fluctuating guide. To follow such guide to permanent advantage is practically impossible, for this demands a discrimination and judgment not associated with automatic conduct.

The conduct of another is available as a guide, however, when its relation with circumstances and conditions both internal and external is understood. What another does is of little moment compared to why he does it. It is not one's act that is important fundamentally, but rather the inner precept or rule of conduct that prompts the act.

Rules of conduct indicate the interpreted relation between the individual and the universal. They represent one's application of methods to his interpretations of eternal principle.

As example and guide, that conduct which is in most complete accord with principle affords the greatest benefit. Not that such conduct always promotes immediate external harmony, that it appears to manifest friendship or affection, that it is most attractive of external rewards, or that it conforms to accepted world standards. Its immediate external effects may be in marked contrast to all of these.

Conduct in accord with eternal principle is the true example and guide because, irrespective of immediate results, it confers permanent and enduring advantages in the way of spiritual, mental and physical harmony. It promotes consciousness of harmony with that which is permanent and enduring.

That conduct is most beneficial which conforms most nearly to principle. In so far as it manifests and reveals eternal principles of right thinking and right acting, it is of benefit as a guide. Conduct is admirable to the extent that it is illumined with the light of principle. Principle is the guide which conduct should reveal.

Principle is apprehended through judgment and reason, and the One Principle manifests in infinite contrasts of appearance. While appearances are accepted as the correspondences of equally contrasting principles, the external or manifest is even more likely to conceal principles than to reveal them.

Appearances might serve as acceptable guides were principles correspondingly diverse. The adoption of such a false premise leads to conflicting and changing conclusions. To act pursuant to the dictates of appearance, and thus to fashion one's conduct to an external conformity with that of another, involves spiritual and moral stagnation.

"When I am uncertain what to do I ask myself: 'What would Jesus do?' and act accordingly." To duplicate what Jesus would do is both useless and meaningless, unless such action be the manifestation of a conception of the principle prompting it, and thus harmonizing it with one's ideals.

It is the motive impelling an act and not the act itself which determines its spiritual value. Automatic action has no spiritual vitality. The consideration of others' conduct is of advantage only to the extent that it assists one to discover and formulate principle, and to demonstrate the result of living in accord with his highest ideals.

The real question is not, "What would Jesus do?" but What should one do who has the same understanding and conception of eternal and changeless principle? Principle is the one and only eternal guide for each and all. In accepting principle as his guide, Jesus indicated clearly that all who would think and live rightly must do likewise.

The relationship between God and man is direct. The one who merely copies the form of another's act does not live a life of principle. The great teachers who are regarded generally as having lived the ideal life are those who realized and manifested their direct relation to the Eternal, and refused to follow slavishly any form, custom, habit 01 tradition. Jesus is accepted as the ideal because he lived his own life in utter disregard of and unfettered by others' conduct as his guide.