truths, but before we
reach that point in our teachings, we must fasten upon your mind the
basic truth that all the various manifestations of Life that we see on
all hands in the Universe are but forms of manifestation of One
Universal Life which is itself an emanation of the Absolute.

Speaking generally, we would say to you that the emanation of the
Absolute is in the form of a grand manifestation of One Universal Life,
in which the various apparent separate forms of Life are but centers of
Energy or Consciousness, the separation being more apparent than real,
there being a bond of unity and connection underlying all the
apparently separated forms. Unless the student gets this idea firmly
fixed in his mind and consciousness, he will find it difficult to grasp
the higher truths of the Yogi Philosophy. That all Life is One, at the
last,--that all forms of manifestation of Life are in harmonious Unity,
underlying--is one of the great basic truths of the Yogi Teaching, and
all the students of that philosophy must make this basic truth their
own before they may progress further. This grasping of the truth is
more than a mere matter of intellectual conception, for the intellect
reports that all forms of Life are separate and distinct from each
other, and that there can be no unity amidst such diversity. But from
the higher parts of the mind comes the message of an underlying Unity,
in spite of all apparent diversity, and if one will meditate upon this
idea he will soon begin to realize the truth, and will _feel_ that he,
himself, is but a center of consciousness in a great ocean of
Life--that he and all other centers are connected by countless
spiritual and mental filaments--and that all emerge from the One. He
will find that the illusion of separateness is but "a working fiction
of the Universe," as one writer has so aptly described it--and that All
is One, at the last, and underlying all is One.

Some of our students may feel that we are taking too long a path to
lead up to the great basic truths of our philosophy, but we who have
traveled The Path, and know its rocky places and its sharp turns, feel
justified in insisting that the student be led to the truth gradually
and surely, instead of attempting to make short cuts across dangerous
ravines and canyons. We must insist upon presenting our teachings in
our own way--for this way has been tested and found good. We know that
every student will come to realize that our pl