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from: It is the veriest folly to try to think of the One as It is "in
Itself"--for we have nothing but human attributes with which to measure
it, and It so far transcends such measurements that the mental
yard-sticks run out into infinity and are lost sight of.
The highest minds of the race inform us that the most exalted efforts of their
reason compels them to report that the One--in Itself--cannot be spoken
of as possessing attributes or qualities capable of being expressed in
human words employed to describe the Things of the relative world--and
all of our words are such.
All of our words originate from such ideas, and all of our ideas arise from
our experience, directly or indirectly.
So we are not equipped with words with which to think of or speak of
that which transcends experience, although our Intellect informs us
that Reality lies back of our experience.
Philosophy finds itself unable to do anything better than to bring us
face to face with high paradoxes. Science in its pursuit of Truth finds
it cunningly avoiding it, and ever escaping its net.
And we believe that the Absolute purposely causes this to be, that in
the end Man may be compelled to look for the Spirit within himself--the only place
where he can come in touch with it. This, we think, is the answer to
the Riddle of the Sphinx--"Look Within for that which Thou needest."
But while the Spirit may be discerned only by looking within ourselves,
we find that once the mind realizes that the Absolute Is, it will be
able to see countless evidences of its action and presence by observing
manifested Life without. All Life is filled with the Life Power and
Will of the Absolute.
To us Life is but One--the Universe is a living Unity, throbbing,
thrilling and pulsating with the Will-to-Live of the Absolute. Back of
all apparent shapes, forms, names, forces, elements, principles and
substances, there is but One--One Life, present everywhere, and
manifesting in an infinitude of shapes, forms, and forces All
individual lives are but centers of consciousness in the One Life
underlying, depending upon it for degree of unfoldment, expression and
manifestation.
This may sound like Pantheism to some, but it is very different from
the Pantheism of the schools and cults. Pantheism is defined as "the
doctrine that God consists in the combined forces and laws manifested
in the existing Universe," or that "the Universe taken or conceived as
a whole is God." These definitions do not fit the conception of the
Absolute, of the Yogi Philosophy--they seem to breathe but a refined
materialism.
The Absolute is not "the combined forces and laws manifested in the
universe," nor "the universe conceived as a whole."
Instead, the Universe, its forces and laws, even conceived as a whole,
have no existence in themselves, but are mere manifestations of the
Absolute. Surely this is different from Pantheism.
We teach that the Absolute is immanent in, and abiding in all forms of
Life in the Universe, as well as in its forces and laws--all being but
manifestations of the Will of the One.
And we teach that this One is superior to all forms of manifestations, and
that Its existence and being does not depend upon the manifestations,
which are but effects of the Cause.
The Pantheistic Universe--God is but a thing of phenomenal appearance,
but the Absolute is the very Spirit of Life--a Living, Existing Reality, and
would be so even if every manifestation were withdrawn from appearance
and expression--drawn back into the source from which it emanated.
The Absolute is more than Mountain or Ocean--Electricity
or Gravitation--Monad or Man--It is SPIRIT--LIFE--BEING--REALITY--the
ONE THAT IS. Omnipotent, Omnipresent; Omniscient; Eternal; Infinite;
Absolute; these are Man's greatest words, and yet they but feebly
portray a shadow thrown by the One Itself.
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