The Creative Process in the Individual - Thomas Troward
I have endeavored to answer this question in the chapter on the Divine
Ideal, but since this is the crucial point of the whole subject we may
devote a little further attention to it. The Normal Standard of Personality
must necessarily be the reproduction in Individuality of what the Universal
Mind is in itself, because, by the nature of the Creative Process, this
standard results from Spirit's Self-contemplation at the stage where its
recognition is turned toward its own power of Initiative and Selection. At
this stage Spirit's Self-recognition has passed beyond that of
Self-expression through a mere Law of Averages into the recognition of what
I have ventured to call its Artistic Ability; and as we have seen that
Self-recognition at any stage can only be attained by the realization of a
_relation_ stimulating that particular sort of consciousness, it follows
that for the purpose of this further advance expression through individuals
of a corresponding type is a necessity. Then by the Law of Reciprocity such
beings must possess powers similar to those contemplated in itself by the
Originating Spirit, in other words they must be in their own sphere the
image and likeness of the Spirit as it sees itself.
Now we have seen that the Creating Spirit necessarily possesses the powers
of Initiative and Selection. These we may call its _active_ properties--the
summing up of what it _does_. But what any power does depends on what it
_is_, for the simple reason that it cannot give out what it does not
contain; therefore at the back of the initiative and selective power of the
Spirit we must find what the Spirit _is_, namely, what are its
_substantive_ properties. To begin with it must be Life. Then because it is
Life it must be Love, because as the undifferentiated Principle of Life it
cannot do otherwise than tend to the fuller development of life in each
individual, and the pure motive of giving greater enjoyment of life is
Love. Then because it is Life guided by Love it must also be Light, that is
to say, the primary all-inclusive perception of boundless manifestations
yet to be. Then from this proceeds Power, because there is no opposing
force at the level of Pure Spirit; and therefore Life urged forward by Love
or the desire for recognition, and by Light or the pure perception of the
Law of Infinite Possibility, must necessarily produce Power, for the simple
reason that under these conditions it could not stop short of action, for
that would be the denial of the Life, Love, and Light which it is. Then
because the Spirit is Life, Love, Light, and Power, it is also Peace, again
for a very simple reason, that being the Spirit of the Whole it cannot set
one part in antagonism against another, for that would be to destroy the
wholeness. Next the Spirit must be Beauty, because on the same principle of
Wholeness it must duly proportion every part to every other part, and the
due proportioning of all parts is beauty. And lastly the Spirit must be
Joy, because, working on these lines, it cannot do otherwise than find
pleasure in the Self-expression which its works afford it, and in the
contemplation of the limitlessness of the Creative Process by which each
realized stage of evolution, however excellent, is still the stepping-stone
to something yet more excellent, and so on in everlasting progression.
For these reasons we may sum up the Substantive Being of the
All-originating Spirit as Life, Love, Light, Power, Peace, Beauty, and Joy;
and its Active Power as that of Initiative and Selection. These, therefore,
constitute the basic laws of the underlying universal mentality which sets
the Standard of Normal Personality--a standard which, when seen in this
light, transcends the utmost scope of our thought, for it is nothing else
than the Spirit of the Infinite Affirmative conceived in Human Personality.
This standard is therefore that of the Universal Spirit itself reproduced
in Human Individuality by the same Law of Reciprocity which we have found
to be the fundamental law of the Creative Process--only now we are tracing
the action of this Law in the Fifth Kingdom instead of in the Fourth.
This Standard, then, we may call the Universal Principle of Humanity, and
having now traced the successive steps by which it is reached from the
first cosmic movement of the Spirit in the formation of the primary nebula,
we need not go over the old ground again, and may henceforward take this
Divine Principle of Humanity as our Normal Standard and make it the
starting point for our further evolution. But how are we to do this? Simply
by using the one method of Creative Process, that is, the
Self-contemplation of Spirit. We now know ourselves to be Reciprocals of
the Divine Spirit, centers in which It finds a fresh standpoint for
Self-contemplation; and so the way to rise to the heights of this Great
Pattern is by contemplating it as the Normal Standard of our own
Personality.
And be it noted that the Pattern thus set before us is Universal. It is the
embodiment of all the great principles of the Affirmative, and so in no way
interferes with our own particular individuality--_that_ is something built
up upon this foundation, something additional affording the differentiating
medium through which this unifying Principle finds variety of expression,
therefore we need be under no apprehension lest by resting upon this
Pattern we should become less ourselves. On the contrary the recognition of
it sets us at liberty to become more fully ourselves because we know that
we are basing our development, not upon the strength of our own unaided
will, nor yet upon any sort of extraneous help, but upon the Universal Law
itself, manifesting through us in the proper sequence of the Creative
Order; so that we are still dealing with Universal principles, only the
principle by which we are now working is the Universal Principle of
Personality.
I wish the student to get this idea very clearly because this is really the
crux of the passage from the Fourth Kingdom into the Fifth. The great
problem of the future of evolution is the introduction of the Personal
Factor. The reason why this is so is very simple when we see it. To take a
thought from my own "Dore Lectures" we may put it in this way. In former
days no one thought of building ships of iron because iron does not float;
yet now ships are seldom built of anything else, though the relative
specific gravities of iron and water remain unchanged. What has changed is
the Personal Factor. It has expanded to a more intelligent perception of
the law of flotation, and we now see that wood floats and iron sinks, both
of them by the same principle working under opposite conditions, the law,
namely, that anything will float which bulk for bulk is lighter than the
volume of water displaced by it, so that by including in our calculations
the displacement of the vessel as well as the specific gravity of the
material, we now make iron float by the very same law by which it sinks.
This example shows that the function of the Personal Factor is to analyze
the manifestations of Law which are spontaneously afforded by Nature and to
discover the Universal Affirmative Principle which lies hidden within them,
and then by the exercise of our powers of Initiative and Selection to
provide such specialized conditions as will enable the Universal Principle
to work in perfectly new ways transcending anything in our past experience.
This is how all progress has been achieved up to the present; and is the
way in which all progress must be achieved in the future, only for the
purpose of evolution, or growth from within, we must transfer the method to
the spiritual plane.
The function, then, of the Personal Factor in the Creative Order is to
provide specialized conditions by the use of the powers of Selection and
Initiative, a truth indicated by the maxim "Nature unaided fails"; but the
difficulty is that if enhanced powers were attained by the whole population
of the world without any common basis for their use, their promiscuous
exercise could only result in chaotic confusion and the destruction of the
entire race. To introduce the creative power of the Individual and at the
same time avoid converting it into a devastating flood is the great problem
of the transition from the Fourth Kingdom into the Fifth. For this purpose
it becomes necessary to have a Standard of the Personal Factor independent
of any individual conceptions, just as we found that in order for us to
attain self-consciousness at all it was a necessity that there should be a
Universal Mind as the _generic_ basis of all individual mentality; only in
regard to the generic build of mind the conformity is necessarily
automatic, while in regard to the specializing process the fact that the
essence of that process is Selection and Initiative renders it impossible
for the conformity to the Standard of Personality to be automatic--the very
nature of the thing makes it a matter of individual choice.
Now a Standard of Personality independent of individual conceptions must be
the _essence_ of Personality as distinguished from individual
idiosyncrasies, and can therefore be nothing else than the Creative Life,
Love, Beauty, etc., viewed as a Divine Individuality, by identifying
ourselves with which we eliminate all possibility of conflict with other
personalities based on the same fundamental recognition; and the very
universality of this Standard allows free play to all our particular
idiosyncrasies while at the same time preventing them from antagonizing the
fundamental principles to which we have found that the Self-contemplation
of the Originating Spirit must necessarily give rise. In this way we attain
a Standard of Measurement for our own powers. If we recognize no such
Standard our development of spiritual powers, our discovery of the immense
possibilities hidden in the inner laws of Nature and of our own being, can
only become a scourge to ourselves and others, and it is for this reason
that these secrets are so jealously guarded by those who know them, and
that over the entrance to the temple are written the words "Eskato
Bebeloi"--"Hence ye Profane."
But if we recognize and accept this Standard of Measurement then we need
never fear our discovery of hidden powers either in ourselves or in Nature,
for on this basis it becomes impossible for us to misuse them. Therefore it
is that all systematic teaching on these subjects begins with instruction
regarding the Creative Order of the Cosmos, and then proceeds to exhibit
the same Order as reproduced on the plane of Personality and so affording a
fresh starting point for the Creative Process by the introduction of
Individual Initiative and Selection. This is the doctrine of the Macrocosm
and the Microcosm; and the transition from the generic working of the
Creative Spirit in the Cosmos to its specific working in the Individual is
what is meant by the doctrine of the Octave.
CHAPTER VI
THE STANDARD OF PERSONALITY
We have now got some general idea as to the place of the personal factor in
the Creative Order, and so the next question is, How does this affect
ourselves? The answer is that if we have grasped the fundamental fact that
the moving power in the Creative Process is the self-contemplation of
Spirit, and if we also see that, because we are miniature reproductions of
the Original Spirit, our contemplation of It becomes Its contemplation of
Itself from the standpoint of our own individuality--if we have grasped
these fundamental conceptions, then it follows that our process for
developing power is to contemplate the Originating Spirit as the source of
the power we want to develop. And here we must guard against a mistake
which people often make when looking to the Spirit as the source of power.
We are apt to regard it as sometimes giving and sometimes withholding
power, and consequently are never sure which way it will act. But by so
doing we make Spirit contemplate itself as having no definite action at
all, as a plus and minus which mutually cancel each other, and therefore by
the Law of the Creative Process no result is to be expected. The mistake
consists in regarding the power as something separate from the Spirit;
whereas by the analysis of the Creative Process which we have now made we
see that the Spirit itself _is_ the power, because the power comes into
existence only through Spirit's self-contemplation. Then the logical
inference from this is that by contemplating the Spirit _as_ the power, and
_vice versa_ by contemplating the power _as_ the Spirit, a similar power is
being generated in ourselves.
Again an important conclusion follows from this, which is that to generate
any _particular sort_ of power we should contemplate it in the abstract
rather than as applied to the particular set of circumstances we have in
hand. The circumstances indicate the sort of power we want but they do not
help us to generate it; rather they impress us with a sense of something
contrary to the power, something which has to be overcome by it, and
therefore we should endeavor to dwell on the power _in itself_, and so come
into touch with it in its limitless infinitude.
It is here that we begin to find the benefit of a Divine Standard of Human
Individuality. That also is an Infinite Principle, and by identifying
ourselves with it we bring to bear upon the abstract conception of infinite
Impersonal Power a corresponding conception of Infinite Personality, so
that we thus import the Personal Factor which is able _to use_ the Power
without imposing any strain upon ourselves. We know that by the very nature
of the Creative Process we are one with the Originating Spirit and
therefore one with all the principles of its Being, and consequently one
with its Infinite Personality, and therefore our contemplation of it as the
Power which we want gives us the power to use that Power.
This is the Self-contemplation of Spirit employed from the individual
standpoint for the generating of power. Then comes the application of the
power thus generated. But there is only one Creative Process, that of the
Self-contemplation of Spirit, and therefore the way to use this process for
the application of the power is to contemplate ourselves as surrounded by
the conditions which we want to produce. This does not mean that we are to
lay down a hard and fast pattern of the conditions and strenuously endeavor
to compel the Power to conform its working to every detail of our mental
picture--to do so would be to hinder its working and to exhaust ourselves.
What we are to dwell upon is the idea of an Infinite Power producing the
happiness we desire, and because this Power is also the Forming Power of
the universe trusting it to give that form to the conditions which will
most perfectly react upon us to produce the particular state of
consciousness desired.
Thus neither on the side of in-drawing nor of out-giving is there any
constraining of the Power, while in both cases there is an initiative and
selective action on the part of the individual--for the generating of
power he takes the initiative of invoking it by contemplation, and he makes
selection of the sort of power to invoke; while on the giving-out side he
makes selection of the purpose for which the Power is to be employed, and
takes the initiative by his thought of directing the Power to that purpose.
He thus fulfils the fundamental requirements of the Creative Process by
exercising Spirit's inherent faculties of initiative and selection by means
of its inherent method, namely by Self-contemplation. The whole action is
identical in kind with that which produces the cosmos, and it is now
repeated in miniature for the particular world of the individual; only we
must remember that this miniature reproduction of the Creative Process is
based upon the great fundamental principles inherent in the Universal Mind,
and cannot be dissociated from them without involving a conception of the
individual which will ultimately be found self-destructive because it cuts
away the foundation on which his individuality rests.
It will therefore be seen that any individuality based upon the fundamental
Standard of Personality thus involved in the Universal Mind has reached the
basic principle of union with the Originating Spirit itself, and we are
therefore correct in saying that union is attained through, or by means of,
this Standard Personality. This is a great truth which in all ages has been
set forth under a variety of symbolic statements; often misunderstood, and
still continuing to be so, though owing to the inherent vitality of the
idea itself even a partial apprehension of it produces a corresponding
measure of good results. This falling short has been occasioned by the
failure to recognize an Eternal Principle at the back of the particular
statements--in a word the failure to see what they were talking about. All
_principles_ are eternal in themselves, and this is what distinguishes them
from their particular manifestations as laws determined by temporary and
local conditions.
If then, we would reach the root of the matter we must penetrate through
all verbal statements to an Eternal Principle which is as active now as
ever in the past, and which is as available to ourselves as to any who have
gone before us. Therefore it is that when we discern an Eternal and
Universal Principle of Human Personality as necessarily involved in the
Essential Being of the Originating Universal Spirit--_Filius in gremio
Patris_--we have discovered the true Normal Standard of Personality. Then
because this standard is nothing else than the principle of Personality
expanded to infinitude, there is no limit to the expansion which we
ourselves may attain by the operation in us of this principle; and so we
are never placed in a position of antagonism to the true law of our being,
but on the contrary the larger and more fundamental our conception of
personal development the greater will be the fulfilment which we give to
the Law. The Normal Standard of Personality is found to be itself the Law
of the Creative Process working at the personal level; and it cannot be
subject to limitation for the simple reason that the process being that of
the Self-contemplation of Spirit, no limits can possibly be assigned to
this contemplation.
We need, therefore, never be afraid of forming too high an idea of human
possibilities provided always that we take this standard as the foundation
on which to build up the edifice of our personality. And we see that this
standard is no arbitrary one but simply the Expression in Personality of
the ONE all-embracing Spirit of the Affirmative; and therefore the only
limitation implied by conformity to it is that of being prevented from
running on lines the opposite of those of the Creative Process, that is to
say, from calling into action causes of disintegration and destruction. In
the truly Constructive Order, therefore, the Divine Standard of Personality
is as really the basis of the development of specific personality as the
Universal Mind is the necessary basis of generic mentality; and just as
without this generic ultimate of Mind we should none of us see the same
world at the same time, and in fact have no consciousness of existence, so
apart from this Divine Standard of Personality it is equally impossible for
us to specialize the generic law of our being so as to develop all the
glorious possibilities that are latent in it.
Only we must never forget the difference between these two statements of
the Universal Law--the one is cosmic and generic, common to the whole race,
whether they know it or not, a Standard to which we all conform
automatically by the mere fact of being human beings; while the other is a
personal and individual Standard, automatic conformity to which is
impossible because that would imply the loss of those powers of Initiative
and Selection which are the very essence of Personality; so that this
Standard necessarily implies a personal selection of it in preference to
other conceptions of an antagonistic nature.
CHAPTER VII
RACE THOUGHT AND NEW THOUGHT
The steady following up of the successive stages of the Creative Process
has led us to the recognition of an Individuality in the All-creating
Spirit itself, but an Individuality which is by its very nature Universal,
and so cannot be departed from without violating the essential principles
on which the further expansion of our own individuality depends. At the
same time it is strictly _individual_, for it is the Spirit of
Individuality, and is thus to be distinguished from that merely _generic_
race-personality which makes us human beings at all. Race-personality is of
course the necessary _basis_ for the development of this Individuality; but
if we do not see that it is only the preliminary to further evolution, any
other conception of our personality as members of the race will prevent our
advance toward our proper position in the Creative Order, which is that of
introducing the Personal Factor by the exercise of our individual power of
initiative and selection.
It is on this account that Race-thought, simply as such, is opposed to the
attempt of the individual to pass into a higher order of life. It limits
him by strong currents of negative suggestion based on the fallacy that the
perpetuation of the race requires the death of the individual;[5] and it is
only when the individual sees that this is not true, and that his race-
nature constitutes the ground out of which his new Individuality is to be
formed, that he becomes able to oppose the negative power of race-thought.
He does this by destroying it with its own weapon, that is, by finding in
the race-nature itself the very material to be used by the Spirit for
building-up the New Man. This is a discovery on the spiritual plane
equivalent to the discovery on the physical plane that we can make iron
float by the same law by which it sinks. It is the discovery that what we
call the mortal part of us is capable of being brought under a higher
application of the Universal Law of Life, which will transmute it into an
immortal principle. When we see what we call the mortal part of us in this
light we can employ the very principle on which the negative race-thought
is founded as a weapon for the destruction of that thought in our own
minds.
The basis of the negative race-thought is the idea that physical death is
an essential part of the Normal Standard of Personality, and that the body
is composed of so much neutral material with which death can do what it
likes. But it is precisely this neutrality of matter that makes it just as
amenable to the Law of Life as to the Law of Death--it is simply neutral
and not an originating power on either side; so then when we realize that
our Normal Standard of Personality is not subject to death, but is the
Eternal Essence and Being of Life itself, then we see that this neutrality
of matter--its inability to make selection or take initiative on its own
account--is just what makes it the plastic medium for the expression of
Spirit in ourselves.
In this way the generic or race-mind in the individual becomes the
instrument through which the specializing power of the Spirit works toward
the building up of a personality based upon the truly Normal Standard of
Individuality which we have found to be inherent in the All-originating
Spirit itself: and since the whole question is that of the introduction of
the factor of personal individuality into the creative order of causation,
this cannot be done by depriving the individual of what makes him a person
instead of a thing, namely, the power of conscious initiative and
selection.
For this reason the transition from the Fourth Kingdom into the Fifth
cannot be forced upon the race either by a Divine fiat or by the generic
action of cosmic law, for it is a _specialising_ of the cosmic law which
can only be effected by _personal_ initiative and selection, just as iron
can only be made to float under certain specialized conditions; and
consequently the passage from the Fourth into the Fifth Kingdom is a
strictly individual process which can only be brought about by a personal
perception of what the normal standard of the New Individuality really is.
This can only be done by the active laying aside of the old race-standard
and the conscious adoption of the new one. The student will do well to
consider this carefully, for it explains why the race cannot receive the
further evolution simply as a race; and also it shows that our further
evolution is not into a state of less activity but of greater, not into
being less alive but more alive, not into being less ourselves but more
ourselves; thus being just the opposite of those systems which present the
goal of existence as re-absorption into the undifferentiated Divine
essence. On the contrary our further evolution is into greater degrees of
conscious activity than we have ever yet known, because it implies our
development of greater powers as the consequence of our clearer perception
of our true relation to the All-originating Spirit. It is the recognition
that we may, and should, measure ourselves by this New Standard instead of
by the old race-standard that constitutes the real New Thought. The New
Thought which gives New Life to the individual will never be realized so
long as we think that it is merely the name of a particular sect, or that
it is to be found in the mechanical observance of a set of rules laid down
for us by some particular teacher. It is a New Fact in the experience of
the individual, the _reason_ for which is indeed made clear to him through
intellectual perception of the real nature of the Creative Process, but
which can become an actual experience only by habitual personal intercourse
with that Divine Spirit which is the Life, Love and Beauty that are at the
back of the Creative Process and find expression through it.