d in our First
Lesson, we may think of "Spirit" as meaning the "essence" of Life and
Being--the Reality underlying Universal Life, and from which the latter
emanates.

In the Second Lesson we stated that this "Spirit," which we called "The
Absolute," expressed itself in the Universal Life, which Universal Life
manifested itself in countless forms of life and activity. In the same
lesson we showed you that the Universe is alive--that there is not a
single dead thing in it--that there can be no such thing as a dead
object in the Universe, else the theory and truth of the One underlying
Life must fall and be rejected. In that lesson we also showed you that
even in the world of inorganic things there was ever manifest life--in
every atom and particle of inorganic matter there is the universal life
energy manifesting itself, and in constant activity.

In the Third Lesson, we went still further into this phase of the
general subject, and showed you that the Creative Will--that active
principle of the Universal Life--was ever at work, building up new
forms, shapes and combinations, and then tearing them down for the
purpose of rebuilding the material into new forms, shapes, and
combinations. The Creative Will is ever at work in its threefold
function of creating, preserving and destroying forms--the change,
however, being merely in the shape and form or combination, the real
substance remaining unchanged in its inner aspect, notwithstanding the
countless apparent changes in its objective forms. Like the great ocean
the depths of which remain calm and undisturbed, and the real nature of
which is unchanged in spite of the waves, and billows of surface
manifestation, so does the great ocean of the Universal Life remain
unchanged and unaltered in spite of the constant play of the Creative
Will upon the surface. In the same lesson we gave you many examples of
the Will in action--of its wondrous workings in the various forms of
life and activity--all of which went to show you that the One Power was
at work everywhere and at all times.

In our next lesson--the Fifth Lesson--we shall endeavor to make plain
to you the highest teachings of the Yogi Philosophy regarding the One
Reality and the Many Manifestations--the One and the Many--how the One
apparently becomes Many--that great question and problem which lies at
the bottom of the well of truth. In that lesson we shall present for
your consideration some fundamental and startling