The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science

By Thomas Troward, Late Divisional Judge, Punjab, 1904

VIII. RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS.

It must be admitted that the foregoing considerations bring us to the
borders of theological speculation, but the student must bear in mind that
as a Mental Scientist it is his business to regard even the most exalted
spiritual phenomena from a purely scientific standpoint, which is that of
the working of a universal natural Law. If he thus simply deals with the
facts as he finds them, there is little doubt that the true meaning of many
theological statements will become clear to him: but he will do well to lay
it down as a general rule that it is not necessary either to the use or
understanding of any law, whether on the personal or the impersonal side of
Nature, that we should give a theological explanation of it: although,
therefore, the personal quality inherent in the universal underlying
spirit, which is present in all things, cannot be too strongly insisted
upon, we must remember that in dealing with it we are still dealing with a
purely natural power which reappears at every point with protean variety of
form, whether as person, animal, or thing. In each case what it becomes to
any individual is exactly measured by that individual’s recognition of it.
To each and all it bears the relation of supporter of the race, and where
the individual development is incapable of realizing anything more, this is
the limit of the relation; but as the individual’s power of recognition
expands, he finds a reciprocal expansion on the part of this intelligent
power which gradually develops into the consciousness of intimate
companionship between the individualized mind and the unindividualized
source of it.

Now this is exactly the relation which, on ordinary scientific principles,
we should expect to find between the individual and the cosmic mind, on the
supposition that the cosmic mind is subjective mind, and for reasons
already given we can regard it in no other light. As subjective mind it
must reproduce exactly the conception of itself which the objective mind of
the individual, acting through his own subjective mind, impresses upon it;
and at the same time as creative mind, it builds up external facts in
correspondence with this conception. “Quot homines tot sententiae”: each one
externalizes in his outward circumstances precisely his idea of the
Universal Mind; and the man who realizes that by the natural law of mind he
can bring the Universal Mind into perfectly reciprocal action with its own,
will on the one hand make it a source of infinite instruction, and on the
other a source of infinite power. He will thus wisely alternate the
personal and impersonal aspects respectively between his individual mind
and the Universal Mind; when he is seeking for guidance or strength he will
regard his own mind as the impersonal element which is to receive
personality from the superior wisdom and force of the Greater Mind; and
when, on the other hand, he is to give out the stores thus accumulated, he
must reverse the position and consider his own mind as the personal
element, and the Universal Mind as the impersonal, which he can therefore
direct with certainty by impressing his own personal desire upon it. We
need not be staggered at the greatness of this conclusion, for it follows
necessarily from the natural relation between the subjective and the
objective minds; and the only question is whether we will limit our view to
the lower level of the latter, or expand it so as to take in the limitless
possibilities which the subjective mind presents to us.

I have dealt with this question at some length because it affords the key
to two very important subjects, the Law of Supply and the nature of
Intuition. Students often find it easier to understand how the mind can
influence the body with which it is so intimately associated, than how it
can influence circumstances. If the operation of thought-power were
confined exclusively to the individual mind this difficulty might arise;
but if there is one lesson the student of Mental Science should take to
heart more than another, it is that the action of thought-power is not
limited to a circumscribed individuality. What the individual does is to
give direction to something which is unlimited, to call into action a
force infinitely greater than his own, which because it is in itself
impersonal though intelligent, will receive the impress of his personality,
and can therefore make its influence felt far beyond the limits which bound
the individual’s objective perception of the circumstances with which he
has to deal. It is for this reason that I lay so much stress on the
combination of two apparent opposites in the Universal Mind, the union of
intelligence with impersonality. The intelligence not only enables it to
receive the impress of our thought, but also causes it to devise exactly
the right means for bringing it into accomplishment. This is only the
logical result of the hypothesis that we are dealing with infinite
Intelligence which is also infinite Life. Life means Power, and infinite
life therefore means limitless power; and limitless power moved by
limitless intelligence cannot be conceived of as ever stopping short of the
accomplishment of its object; therefore, given the intention on the part
of the Universal Mind, there can be no doubt as to its ultimate
accomplishment. Then comes the question of intention. How do we know what
the intention of the Universal Mind may be? Here comes in the element of
impersonality. It has no intention, because it is impersonal. As I have
already said, the Universal mind works by a law of averages for the
advancement of the race, and is in no way concerned with the particular
wishes of the individual. If his wishes are in line with the forward
movement of the everlasting principle, there is nowhere in Nature any power
to restrict him in their fulfilment. If they are opposed to the general
forward movement, then they will bring him into collision with it, and it
will crush him. From the relation between them it results that the same
principle which shows itself in the individual mind as Will, becomes in the
universal mind a Law of Tendency; and the direction of this tendency must
always be to life-givingness, because the universal mind is the
undifferentiated Life-spirit of the universe. Therefore in every case the
test is whether our particular intention is in this same lifeward
direction: and if it is, then we may be absolutely certain that there is no
intention on the part of the Universal Mind to thwart the intention of our
own individual mind; we are dealing with a purely impersonal force, and it
will no more oppose us by specific plans of its own than will steam or
electricity. Combining then, these two aspects of the Universal Mind, its
utter impersonality and its perfect intelligence, we find precisely the
sort of natural force we are in want of, something which will undertake
whatever we put into its hands without asking questions or bargaining for
terms, and which, having undertaken our business, will bring to bear on it
an intelligence to which the united knowledge of the whole human race is as
nothing, and a power equal to this intelligence. I may be using a rough and
ready mode of expression, but my object is to bring home to the student the
nature of the power he can employ and the method of employing it, and I may
therefore state the whole position thus:–Your object is not to run the
whole cosmos, but to draw particular benefits, physical, mental, moral, or
financial into your own or someone else’s life. From this individual point
of view the universal creative power has no mind of its own, and therefore
you can make up its mind for it. When its mind is thus made up for it, it
never abrogates its place as the creative power, but at once sets to work
co carry out the purpose for which it has thus been concentrated; and
unless this concentration is dissipated by the same agency (yourself) which
first produced it, it will work on by the law of growth to complete
manifestation on the outward plane.

In dealing with this great impersonal intelligence, we are dealing with the
infinite, and we must fully realize infinitude as that which touches all
points, and if it does, there should be no difficulty in understanding that
this intelligence can draw together the means requisite for its purpose
even from the ends of the world; and therefore, realizing the Law according
to which the result can be produced, we must resolutely put aside all
questioning as to the specific means which will be employed in any case. To
question this is to sow that very seed of doubt which it is our first
object to eradicate, and our intellectual endeavour should therefore be
directed, not to the attempt to foretell the various secondary causes which
will eventually combine to produce the desired result, laying down
beforehand what particular causes should be necessary, and from what
quarter they should come; but we should direct our intellectual endeavour
to seeing more clearly the rationale of the general law by which trains of
secondary causes are set in motion. Employed in the former way our
intellect becomes the greatest hindrance to our success, for it only helps
to increase our doubts, since it is trying to grasp particulars which, at
the time are entirely outside its circle of vision; but employed in the
latter it affords the most material aid in maintaining that nucleus without
which there is no centre from which the principle of growth can assert
itself. The intellect can only deduce consequences from facts which it is
able to state, and consequently cannot deduce any assurance from facts of
whose existence it cannot yet have any knowledge through the medium of the
outward senses; but for the same reason it can realize the existence of a
Law by which the as yet unmanifested circumstances may be brought into
manifestation. Thus used in its right order, the intellect becomes the
handmaid of that more interior power within us which manipulates the unseen
substance of all things, and which we may call relative first cause.