Your Hidden Power
Your Hidden PowerI THE HIDDEN POWERII THE PERVERSION OF TRUTHIII THE "I AM"IV AFFIRMATIVE POWERV SUBMISSIONVI COMPLETENESSVII THE PRINCIPLE OF GUIDANCEVIII DESIRE AS THE MOTIVE POWERIX TOUCHING LIGHTLYX PRESENT TRUTHXI YOURSELFXII RELIGIOUS OPINIONSXIII A LESSON FROM BROWNINGXIV THE SPIRIT OF OPULENCEXV SEPARATION AND UNITYXVI EXTERNALISATIONXVII HEPHZIBAHXVIII JACHIN AND BOAZCopyright
Your Hidden Power
Thomas Troward
I THE HIDDEN POWER
To realise fully how much of our present daily life consists in
symbols is to find the answer to the old, old question, What is
Truth? and in the degree in which we begin to recognise this we
begin to approach Truth. The realisation of Truth consists in the
ability to translate symbols, whether natural or conventional, into
their equivalents; and the root of all the errors of mankind
consists in the inability to do this, and in maintaining that the
symbol has nothing behind it. The great duty incumbent on all who
have attained to this knowledge is to impress upon their fellow men
that there is an inner side to things, and that until this inner
side is known, the things themselves are not known.
There is an inner and an outer side to everything; and the quality
of the superficial mind which causes it to fail in the attainment
of Truth is its willingness to rest content with the outside only.
So long as this is the case it is impossible for a man to grasp the
import of his own relation to the universal, and it is this
relation which constitutes all that is signified by the word
"Truth." So long as a man fixes his attention only on the
superficial it is impossible for him to make any progress in
knowledge. He is denying that principle of "Growth" which is the
root of all life, whether spiritual intellectual, or material, for
he does not stop to reflect that all which he sees as the outer
side of things can result only from some germinal principle hidden
deep in the centre of their being.
Expansion from the centre by growth according to a necessary order
of sequence, this is the Law of Life of which the whole universe is
the outcome, alike in the one great solidarity of cosmic being, as
in the separate individualities of its minutest organisms. This
great principle is the key to the whole riddle of Life, upon
whatever plane we contemplate it; and without this key the door
from the outer to the inner side of things can never be opened. It
is therefore the duty of all to whom this door has, at least in
some measure, been opened, to endeavour to acquaint others with the
fact that there is an inner side to things, and that life becomes
truer and fuller in proportion as we penetrate to it and make our
estimates of all things according to what becomes visible from this
interior point of view.
In the widest sense everything is a symbol of that which
constitutes its inner being, and all Nature is a gallery of arcana
revealing great truths to those who can decipher them. But there is
a more precise sense in which our current life is based upon
symbols in regard to the most important subjects that can occupy
our thoughts: the symbols by which we strive to represent the
nature and being of God, and the manner in which the life of man is
related to the Divine life. The whole character of a man's life
results from what he really believes on this subject: not his
formal statement of belief in a particular creed, but what he
realises as the stage which his mind has actually attained in
regard to it.
Has a man's mind only reached the point at which he thinks it is
impossible to know anything about God, or to make any use of the
knowledge if he had it? Then his whole interior world is in the
condition of confusion, which must necessarily exist where no
spirit of order has yet begun to move upon the chaos, in which are,
indeed, the elements of being, but all disordered and neutralising
one another. Has he advanced a step further, and realised that
there is a ruling and an ordering power, but beyond this is
ignorant of its nature? Then the unknown stands to him for the
terrific, and, amid a tumult of fears and distresses that deprive
him of all strength to advance, he spends his life in the endeavour
to propitiate this power as something naturally adverse to him,
instead of knowing that it is the very centre of his own life and
being.
And so on through every degree, from the lowest depths of ignorance
to the greatest heights of intelligence, a man's life must always
be the exact reflection of that particular stage which he has
reached in the perception of the divine nature and of his own
relation to it; and as we approach the full perception of Truth, so
the life-principle within us expands, the old bonds and limitations
which had no existence in reality fall off from us, and we enter
into regions of light, liberty, and power, of which we had
previously no conception. It is impossible, therefore, to
over-estimate the importance of being able to realise the symbol
for a symbol, and being able to penetrate to the inner substance
which it represents. Life itself is to be realised only by the
conscious experience of its livingness in ourselves, and it is the
endeavour to translate these experiences into terms which shall
suggest a corresponding idea to others that gives rise to all
symbolism.
The nearer those we address have approached to the actual
experience, the more transparent the symbol becomes; and the
further they are from such experience the thicker is the veil; and
our whole progress consists in the fuller and fuller translation of
the symbols into clearer and clearer statements of that for which
they stand. But the first step, without which all succeeding ones
must remain impossible, is to convince people that symbols are
symbols, and not the very Truth itself. And the difficulty consists
in this, that if the symbolism is in any degree adequate, it must,
in some measure, represent the form of Truth, just as the modelling
of a drapery suggests the form of the figure beneath. They have a
certain consciousness that somehow they are in the presence of
Truth; and this leads people to resent any removal of those folds
of drapery which have hitherto conveyed this idea to their
minds.
There is sufficient indication of the inner Truth in the outward
form to afford an excuse for the timorous, and those who have not
sufficient mental energy to think for themselves, to cry out that
finality has already been attained, and that any further search
into the matter must end in the destruction of Truth. But in
raising such an outcry they betray their ignorance of the very
nature of Truth, which is that it can never be destroyed: the very
fact that Truth is Truth makes this impossible. And again they
exhibit their ignorance of the first principle of Life--namely, the
Law of Growth, which throughout the universe perpetually pushes
forward into more and more vivid forms of expression, having
expansion everywhere and finality nowhere.
Such ignorant objections need not, therefore, alarm us; and we
should endeavour to show those who make them that what they fear is
the only natural order of the Divine Life, which is "over all, and
through all, and in all." But we must do this gently, and not by
forcibly thrusting upon them the object of their terror, and so
repelling them from all study of the subject. We should endeavour
gradually to lead them to see that there is something interior to
what they have hitherto held to be ultimate Truth, and to realise
that the sensation of emptiness and dissatisfaction, which from
time to time will persist in making itself felt in their hearts, is
nothing else than the pressing forward of the spirit within to
declare that inner side of things which alone can satisfactorily
account for what we observe on the exterior, and without the
knowledge of which we can never perceive the true nature of our
inheritance in the Universal Life which is the Life
Everlasting.
II
What, then, is this central principle which is at the root of all
things? It is Life. But not life as we recognise it in particular
forms of manifestation; it is something more interior and
concentrated than that. It is that "unity of the spirit" which is
unity, simply because it has not yet passed into diversity. Perhaps
this is not an easy idea to grasp, but it is the root of all
scientific conception of spirit; for without it there is no common
principle to which we can refer the innumerable forms of
manifestation that spirit assumes.
It is the conception of Life as the sum-total of all its
undistributed powers, being as yet none of these in particular, but
all of them in potentiality. This is, no doubt, a highly abstract
idea, but it is essentially that of the centre from which growth
takes place by expansion in every direction. This is that last
residuum which defies all our powers of analysis. This is truly
"the unknowable," not in the sense of the 'unthinkable but of the
unanalysable. It is the subject of perception, not of knowledge, if
by knowledge we mean that faculty which estimates the relations
between things, because here we have passed beyond any questions of
relations, and are face to face with the absolute.
This innermost of all is absolute Spirit. It is Life as yet not
differentiated into any specific mode; it is the universal Life
which pervades all things and is at the heart of all
appearances.
To come into the knowledge of this is to come into the secret of
power, and to enter into the secret place of Living Spirit. Is it
illogical first to call this the unknowable, and then to speak of
coming into the knowledge of it? Perhaps so; but no less a writer
than St. Paul has set the example; for does he not speak of the
final result of all searchings into the heights and depths and
lengths and breadths of the inner side of things as being, to
attain the knowledge of that Love which passeth knowledge. If he is
thus boldly illogical in phrase, though not in fact, may we not
also speak of knowing "the unknowable"? We may, for this knowledge
is the root of all other knowledge.
The presence of this undifferentiated universal life-power is the
final axiomatic fact to which all our analysis must ultimately
conduct us. On whatever plane we make our analysis it must always
abut upon pure essence, pure energy, pure being; that which knows
itself and recognises itself, but which cannot dissect itself
because it is not built up of parts, but is ultimately integral: it
is pure Unity. But analysis which does not lead to synthesis is
merely destructive: it is the child wantonly pulling the flower to
pieces and throwing away the fragments; not the botanist, also
pulling the flower to pieces, but building up in his mind from
those carefully studied fragments a vast synthesis of the
constructive power of Nature, embracing the laws of the formation
of all flower-forms. The value of analysis is to lead us to the
original starting-point of that which we analyse, and so to teach
us the laws by which its final form springs from this centre.
Knowing the law of its construction, we turn our analysis into a
synthesis, and we thus gain a power of building up which must
always be beyond the reach of those who regard "the unknowable" as
one with "not-being."
This idea of the unknowable is the root of all materialism; and yet
no scientific man, however materialistic his proclivities, treats
the unanalysable residuum thus when he meets it in the experiments
of his laboratory. On the contrary, he makes this final
unanalysable fact the basis of his synthesis. He finds that in the
last resort it is energy of some kind, whether as heat or as
motion; but he does not throw up his scientific pursuits because he
cannot analyse it further. He adopts the precisely opposite course,
and realises that the conservation of energy, its
indestructibility, and the impossibility of adding to or detracting
from the sum-total of energy in the world, is the one solid and
unchanging fact on which alone the edifice of physical science can
be built up. He bases all his knowledge upon his knowledge of "the
unknowable." And rightly so, for if he could analyse this energy
into yet further factors, then the same problem of "the unknowable"
would meet him still. All our progress consists in continually
pushing the unknowable, in the sense of the unanalysable residuum,
a step further back; but that there should be no ultimate
unanalysable residuum anywhere is an inconceivable idea.
In thus realising the undifferentiated unity of Living Spirit as
the central fact of any system, whether the system of the entire
universe or of a single organism, we are therefore following a
strictly scientific method. We pursue our analysis until it
necessarily leads us to this final fact, and then we accept this
fact as the basis of our synthesis. The Science of Spirit is thus
not one whit less scientific than the Science of Matter; and,
moreover, it starts from the same initial fact, the fact of a
living energy which defies definition or explanation, wherever we
find it; but it differs from the science of matter in that it
contemplates this energy under an aspect of responsive intelligence
which does not fall within the scope of physical science, as such.
The Science of Spirit and the Science of Matter are not opposed.
They are complementaries, and neither is fully comprehensible
without some knowledge of the other; and, being really but two
portions of one whole, they insensibly shade off into each other in
a borderland where no arbitrary line can be drawn between them.
Science studied in a truly scientific spirit, following out its own
deductions unflinchingly to their legitimate conclusions, will
always reveal the twofold aspect of things, the inner and the
outer; and it is only a truncated and maimed science that refuses
to recognise both.
The study of the material world is not Materialism, if it be
allowed to progress to its legitimate issue. Materialism is that
limited view of the universe which will not admit the existence of
anything but mechanical effects of mechanical causes, and a system
which recognises no higher power than the physical forces of nature
must logically result in having no higher ultimate appeal than to
physical force or to fraud as its alternative. I speak, of course,
of the tendency of the system, not of the morality of individuals,
who are often very far in advance of the systems they profess. But
as we would avoid the propagation of a mode of thought whose
effects history shows only too plainly, whether in the Italy of the
Borgias, or the France of the First Revolution, or the Commune of
the Franco-Prussian War, we should set ourselves to study that
inner and spiritual aspect of things which is the basis of a system
whose logical results are truth and love instead of perfidy and
violence.
Some of us, doubtless, have often wondered why the Heavenly
Jerusalem is described in the Book of Revelations as a cube; "the
length and the breadth and the height of it are equal." This is
because the cube is the figure of perfect stability, and thus
represents Truth, which can never be overthrown. Turn it on what
side you will, it still remains the perfect cube, always standing
upright; you cannot upset it. This figure, then, represents the
manifestation in concrete solidity of that central life-giving
energy, which is not itself any one plane but generates all planes,
the planes of the above and of the below and of all four sides. But
it is at the same time a city, a place of habitation; and this is
because that which is "the within" is Living Spirit, which has its
dwelling there.
As one plane of the cube implies all the other planes and also "the
within," so any plane of manifestation implies the others and also
that "within" which generates them all. Now, if we would make any
progress in the spiritual side of science--and every department of
science has its spiritual side--we must always keep our minds fixed
upon this "innermost within" which contains the potential of all
outward manifestation, the "fourth dimension" which generates the
cube; and our common forms of speech show how intuitively we do
this. We speak of the spirit in which an act is done, of entering
into the spirit of a game, of the spirit of the time, and so on.
Everywhere our intuition points out the spirit as the true essence
of things; and it is only when we commence arguing about them from
without, instead of from within, that our true perception of their
nature is lost.
The scientific study of spirit consists in following up
intelligently and according to definite method the same principle
that now only flashes upon us at intervals fitfully and vaguely.
When we once realise that this universal and unlimited power of
spirit is at the root of all things and of ourselves also, then we
have obtained the key to the whole position; and, however far we
may carry our studies in spiritual science, we shall nowhere find
anything else but particular developments of this one universal
principle. "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you."
III
I have laid stress on the fact that the "innermost within" of all
things is living Spirit, and that the Science of Spirit is
distinguished from the Science of Matter in that it contemplates
Energy under an aspect of responsive intelligence which does not
fall within the scope of physical science, as such. These are the
two great points to lay hold of if we would retain a clear idea of
Spiritual Science, and not be misled bat arguments drawn from the
physical side of Science only--the livingness of the originating
principle which is at the heart of all things, and its intelligent
and responsive nature. Its livingness is patent to our observation,
at any rate from the point where we recognise it in the vegetable
kingdom; but its intelligence and responsiveness are not, perhaps,
at once so obvious. Nevertheless, a little thought will soon lead
us to recognise this also.
No one can deny that there is an. intelligent order throughout all
nature, for it requires the highest intelligence of our most
highly-trained minds to follow the steps of this universal
intelligence which is always in advance of them. The more deeply we
investigate the world we live in, the more clear it must become to
us that all our science is the translation into words or numerical
symbols of that order which already exists. If the clear statement
of this existing order is the highest that the human intellect can
reach, this surely argues a corresponding intelligence in the power
which gives rise to this great sequence of order and interrelation,
so as to constitute one harmonious whole. Now, unless we fall back
on the idea of a workman working upon material external to
himself--in which case we have to explain the phenomenon of the
workman--the only conception we can form of this power is that it
is the Living Spirit inherent in the heart of every atom, giving it
outward form and definition, and becoming in it those intrinsic
polarities which constitute its characteristic nature.
There is no random work here. Every attraction and repulsion acts
with its proper force collecting the atoms into molecules, the
molecules into tissues, the tissues into organs, and the organs
into individuals. At each stage of the progress we get the sum of
the intelligent forces which operate in the constituent parts, plus
a higher degree of intelligence which we may regard as the
collective intelligence superior to that of the mere sum-total of
the parts, something which belongs to the individual as a whole,
and not to the parts as such. These are facts which can be amply
proved from physical science; and they also supply a great law in
spiritual science, which is that in any collective body the
intelligence of the whole is superior to that of the sum of the
parts.
Spirit is at the root of all things, and thoughtful observation
shows that its operation is guided by unfailing intelligence which
adapts means to ends, and harmonises the entire universe of
manifested being in those wonderful ways which physical science
renders clearer every day; and this intelligence must be in the
generating spirit itself, because there is no other source from
which it could proceed. On these grounds, therefore, we may
distinctly affirm that Spirit is intelligent, and that whatever it
does is done by the intelligent adaptation of means to ends.
But Spirit is also responsive. And here we have to fall back upon
the law above stated, that the mere sum of the intelligence of
Spirit in lower degrees of manifestation is not equal to the
intelligence of the complex whole, as a whole. This is a radical
law which we cannot impress upon our minds too deeply. The degree
of spiritual intelligence is marked by the wholeness of the
organism through which it finds expression; and therefore the more
highly organised being has a degree of spirit which is superior to,
and consequently capable of exercising control over, all lower or
less fully-integrated degrees of spirit; and this being so, we can
now begin to see why the spirit that is the "innermost within" of
all things is responsive as well as intelligent.