wer outside of the Absolute
to limit, confine, or conflict with It. Any laws of the Universe must
have been imposed by It, for there is no other law-giver, and every
manifestation of Energy, Force, or Power, perceived or evident in
Nature must be a part of the Power of the Absolute working along lines
laid down by it. In the Third Lesson, which will be entitled The
Will-to-Live, we shall see this Power manifesting along the lines of
Life as we know it.
Next, the Intellect informs us that it is compelled to think of the
Absolute as containing within Itself all possible Knowledge or Wisdom,
because there can be no Knowledge or Wisdom outside of It, and
therefore all the Wisdom and Knowledge possible must be within It. We
see Mind, Wisdom, and Knowledge manifested by relative forms of Life,
and such must emanate from the Absolute in accordance with certain laws
laid down by It, for otherwise there would be no such wisdom, etc., for
there is nowhere outside of the All from whence it could come. The
effect cannot be greater than the cause. If there is anything unknown
to the Absolute, then it will never be known to finite minds. So,
therefore, ALL KNOWLEDGE that Is, Has Been, or Can Be, must be NOW
vested in the One--the Absolute.
This does not mean that the Absolute _thinks_, in any such sense as
does Man. The Absolute must Know, without Thinking. It does not have to
gather Knowledge by the process of Thinking, as does Man--such an Idea
would be ridiculous, for from whence could the Knowledge come outside
of itself. When man thinks he draws to himself Knowledge from the
Universal source by the action of the Mind, but the Absolute has only
itself to draw on. So we cannot imagine the Absolute compelled to Think
as we do.
But, lest we be misunderstood regarding this phase of the subject, we
may say here that the highest occult teachings inform us that the
Absolute _does_ manifest a quality somewhat akin to what we would call
constructive thought, and that such "thoughts" manifest into
objectivity and manifestation, and become Creation. Created Things,
according to the Occult teachings are "Thoughts of God." Do not let
this idea disturb you, and cause you to feel that you are nothing,
because you have been called into being by a Thought of the Infinite
One. Even a Thought of that One would be intensely real in the relative
world--actually Real to all except the Absolute itself--and even the
Absolute knows that the _Real_
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