tion of man's
relation to the universe, as it appears in the light of cosmic
consciousness, or liberation.

CHAPTER II

MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN

The riddle of the Sphinx is no riddle at all. The strange figure, the lower
part animal; the upper part human; and the sprouting wings epitomize the
growth and development of man from the animal, or physical (carnal),
consciousness to the soul consciousness, represented by woman's head and
breast, to the supra-conscious, winged god.

No higher conception of life has ever emanated from any source, than the
concept of man developed to a state of perfection represented by wings (a
symbol of freedom). These winged humans are sometimes called angels and
sometimes gods, although the words may not be synonymous.

The point is, that no theory of life and its purposes seems more general or
more unescapable than that of man's growth from sin (limitations) to
god-hood--freedom.

Whether this consummation is brought about through an unbroken chain of
upward tendencies from the lowest forms of life to the highest; or whether
it is symbolized by the old theologic idea of man's fall from godhood to
sin, the fact remains that we know no other ideal than that represented by
perfected man; and we know no lower idea than that of man still in the
animal stage of consciousness.

Artists, painters, sculptors, wishing to depict the beauty of spiritual
things, must still use the human idea for a model--refined, spiritualized,
supra-human, but still man.

It is a truism that man epitomizes the universe. Therefore, the law of
growth, which science names evolution, may be studied and applied with
equal precision and accuracy to the individual; to a body of individuals
called a nation; and to worlds, or planets.

The evolution of an individual is accomplished when he has learned through
the various avenues of experience, the fact of his own godhood; and when he
has established his union with that indescribable spiritual essence which
is called Om; God; Nirvana; Samadhi; Brahm; Kami; Allah; and the Absolute.

A Japanese term is _Dai Zikaku_. The Zen sect of Japanese Buddhists say
_Daigo Tettei_, and one who has attained to this superior phase of
consciousness is called Sho-Nin, meaning literally "above man."

Emerson, the great American seer, expressed this Nameless One, as The
Oversoul, and Herbert Spencer, the intellectual giant of England, used the
term Universal