Section 8 - Part B:

 The Doorway to the Temple of Light 

You may have wondered why the Realm of Error should be a part of the Universal Mind. There is a reason - a good reason - and we will now discuss it as we come to consider that phase of the human mind which is called the Subconscious Mind. 

An important truth which I urge you to grasp is that you are partly good and partly evil, for you are an individualised expression of the one Universal Mind which contains within itself both of these characteristics. You are not something apart from God. You are actually part of God Himself. You are not something apart from the devil. You are actually part of the devil himself. A part of your business in life is to subdue the devil by burning the light of truth into the darkness of the Realm of Error. Wrong beliefs are enslaving and destructive, but the truth is liberating and constructive. If you have the courage to face and know the truth, you will become free and move forward into a higher, nobler, happier life, and into greater abundance of the things that make life worth living. If you cling to false beliefs about yourself, your duty and destiny, you are doomed to unhappiness, sickness, disappointment and final failure. They shall believe a lie and be damned" (cp. 2 Thess. ii. 11-12). It is true and always will be true that one who believes a lie about himself and one's relations to God and to other human beings will surely be doomed to a life of unhappiness; because one acts upon one's beliefs, and when one acts upon a false belief, one acts falsely and wrongfully and brings down upon oneself the penalties for violating the law of one's being. 

We come now to a consideration of the general nature of what has come to be known as the human Subconscious Mind. This mind is also merely a phase of the one Universal Mind. As we saw in Lesson TWO, it is the phase of mind which, among other things, builds, repairs, and operates the body and its organs. A part of the brain and the sympathetic nervous system are set in tune with it alone, and are not in tune with the objective and subjective phases of the Universal Mind. It uses these parts of the brain and nervous system for sending to the liver instructions for the manufacture and distribution of bile; to the pancreatic gland for the manufacture and distribution of pancreatic and insulin; to the thyroid gland for the manufacture and distribution of thyroxin; and so on through the thousands of other delicate functions of the body and its organs, some of them so profound and complex that the objective phase of mind cannot even remotely understand them.  

While the human Subconscious Mind is a reflection of the Universal Creative Mind, it is greatly reduced in its scope and power because it must act upon and through brain-tissue, nerves and the other parts of the body. In the open spaces of the universe the Creative Mind is unhampered and all-powerful; but in the body it is hampered by reason of having to act on more or less imperfect matter, and its power is limited. In other words, the mental plans and specifications of the human body existing in the Universal Mind are perfect plans and specifications; but the body itself is not a full response to these perfect plans, because of the sluggish response to the plans by the matter of which the body is composed. The materials of which the body is composed are not perfectly psycho-plastic to the Universal Mind, and therefore show numerous defects and imperfections. 

The Power of Thought 

The human Subconscious Mind is also impeded in its creation, repair and operation of the body because its parts of the brain and nervous system are so closely tied up with the parts of the brain and nervous system used by the other two phases of mind that the "wires" are more or less crossed and short-circuited, so causing interference with the messages constantly being sent by the Subconscious Mind to the different parts and organs.  

Here lies the reason for the Realm of Error. The body is not built, repaired nor operated with hands or tools, but solely by the power of thought. This building and repairing thought is very different from the fleeting and rapidly changing thought of the Objective Mind; and if these thoughts of the Objective Mind were to become mixed with the building and repairing thought of the Subconscious Mind, the result to the body would be disastrous. It is necessary that the studio and workshop of the Subconscious Mind shall be isolated from the rapidly changing and often wrong thoughts of the Objective Mind; and so, the Realm of Error acts as a "shock-absorber" by which every chain of objective thought is caught, distorted and disintegrated into unintelligible nothingness before reaching the studio and workshop. This is how the Subconscious Mind is isolated from the destructive thoughts of the Objective Mind. Now, however, we know how to get certain thoughts of the Objective Mind through to the Subconscious Mind, so as to give it conscious directions for the health and healing of the body, and for the improvement of our financial and social positions.  

Your position in life is fixed and determined by your fixed attitudes of mind, and your success and happiness are measured by your deep-seated habits of thought. This has been suspected for a long time, and some progress has been made in devising ways and means of controlling thoughts and mental attitudes so as to give a larger measure of health, success and happiness. But at last, we have discovered the very mechanics of creation and the power of the Universal Creative Mind itself, so that our suspicion of the truth has been confirmed and we can proceed intelligently to set ourselves in better tune with the Universal Creative Mind.  

How to Make Life Worth Living  

While I have tried to state the truth so simply, scientifically and logically that anyone of average intelligence can understand and apply it, this Course is also specially addressed to those progressive intelligences of the age to whom all former presentations of the truth have been unacceptable. Whatever your station in life, whatever your degree of learning, whatever your religious beliefs or lack of beliefs, you are respectfully invited to put the teachings of this Course to the test of all your knowledge, and to examine them in the clearest light of reason. If after these tests these teachings appeal to you as being the truth, then I urgently suggest that you put them to the test of practical application in your own life and affairs. If it may be of any help in reaching a decision, I give you every assurance that others have put these things to the test of practical application, and have gained the reward of more abundance of the things that make life worth living.  

Let us pause here briefly to reflect that all things in the universe are what they are because of the play of mind-forces upon them and through them. The suns are the results of mental pictures in the Universal Creative Mind, and so are the planets and all the forms of life. When we consider the suns and planets from their purely physical aspects, we find them in a state of perfection. Everything stays in its proper place, follows its proper course and perfectly performs its functions. Only in the realms of "life " do we find flaws and imperfections.  

The unthinking mineral elements of which the suns and planets are composed fall into perfect and unthinking response to the perfect plan and purpose of the Universal Mind playing through them in the form of cosmic rays; but as soon as any collection of matter shows life, it draws to itself the power of individual thought, which develops a resistance to the operation of the Universal Mind. In the experiment of developing individualised expressions of itself, and making them capable of individual thought and reason, the Universal Creative Mind so builds up individual resistances to its perfect operation.  

Remember that in the beginning the Universal Creative Mind did not exercise the function of reason. It KNEW, and upon that knowledge it ACTED by sending forth its creative mental pictures. Now it is engaged in the process of developing within itself the function of reason, by putting forth individual expressions of itself and giving them the power of observing and reasoning. No two of these individual forms observe exactly alike, and no two reason exactly alike; so, there are differences of opinion, errors of reasoning, and the development of mental attitudes in conflict with the creative wisdom of the Universal Mind.  

The "Natural State" of the Universal Mind  

In the beginning the Universal Mind sent forth only mental images of things in their "natural" state. For instance, it created a mental picture of this world charged with powerful forces and teeming with life; but the mountains, valleys, oceans and forests were in their "natural- state, as distinguished from any "artificial" states into which any of them might later fall. It had no hands with which to quarry stones from the mountains and build them into a beautiful and useful structure, nor did it have any brain with which to make plans of the structure or to direct the hands in building it. It had power to create by its creative mental images, but was without the hands, brains and inductive reasoning necessary for the planning and building of an aircraft to fly through the sky. And so on through all the countless things that have been done by Man to change things from their "natural" state into an "artificial" state. 

The development of the constructive power of reason has been a slow process if measured by the standard of time employed in the affairs of this world, and has involved much experimenting and clashes between individualised expressions of the one Universal Mind. The latter has been lavish in the creation of individual life and shameless in its destruction. It creates hosts of vegetable-eating forms, and other hosts of flesh-eating forms to prey upon them, so picking up mineral substances by vegetable growth and passing them along into higher forms of life. Lavishness and meanness, however, are of no consequence to the Universal Creative Mind, for it has limitless power to reproduce life. Nor is it in any hurry, for it has all the time there is. And so, it moves leisurely forward in the working out of its plans. 

You will remember that all the things I have said about the Universal Creative Mind are said about you, for you are actually that Mind in an individualised form of itself. You are also one with every other human being in the world, and your welfare and happiness are closely tied up with theirs. Your envy of any particular human being is futile and foolish, because that apparently more fortunate human being is but a form of the Universal Mind like yourself. When you deliberately pass by on the other side of the street from some loathsome and unfortunate human being, you are passing by yourself in another form; and the condition of that unfortunate human being is a hindrance to your progress, slowing you down in the attainment of the ideal of individual happiness for which you are striving.  

The Danger of Fixed Mental Attitudes  

I hope that you will have grasped the idea that the Source behind your Subconscious Mind is infinite in its creative wisdom and power, but in your body and affairs is hampered and limited by the fixed attitudes and habits of your Objective Mind. These fixed mental attitudes and habits darken the windows of your life and shut out the clear sunlight of the Universal Creative Mind. Or, if we return to our comparison of the brain and nervous system to a radio receiving set, you have within your Objective Mind much local interference with the universal broadcast, so that your body and affairs are not a perfect reproduction of the plan and purpose of the Universal Mind. We will now consider some of these hurtful and interfering attitudes of mind.  

Negative and Destructive Mental Attitudes  

Anger is one of the commonest and most hurtful of these hindering mental attitudes. Some people pride themselves on the fact that they have enough aggression to cause them angrily to resent any wrong done them. They regard this aggression and proneness to anger as a virtue, but, as a matter of fact, it is a serious and destructive vice - a grave violation of one of the natural laws of morality. A condition of anger is a mental attitude which is discordant to the Universal Creative Mind. It is a local interference with the universal broadcast, and is always coarsening and injurious to the brain and nervous system, so making them less responsive to the phase of the Universal Mind which tends to keep the body well and perfect.  

Anger is an explosive kind of human passion, of a high voltage of nervous energy, and sparks across from the parts of the brain and nervous system used by the Objective Mind on to the parts used by the Subconscious Mind, so interfering with the work of keeping the body alive and well. One simple illustration will suffice. You cannot sit down calmly and cause your heart to beat faster by merely willing it to, because the beating of the heart is controlled by a section of the brain and nervous system over which the Objective Mind has no control. If you become violently angry, however, your heart immediately begins a strong, rapid beating, sending an excessive supply of blood to the surface of your body, which is revealed by a flushing of your skin, including the skin of your face. The anger also causes the suprarenal glands to pour into your blood an excessive amount of adrenalin, causes your liver to pour into your blood an excessive supply of sugar, and causes your lungs to work faster than normal so as to provide extra oxygen for burning the excessive sugar and converting it into energy for violent physical action.  

When the Subconscious Mind is not interfered with, it directs the beating of the heart, the breathing of the lungs and the release of sugar and adrenalin, so as to supply the necessary bodily warmth and energy and keep the arteries in good condition. The ordinary thoughts of the Objective Mind have no influence upon these processes, because they are controlled by a part of the brain and nervous system over which the Objective Mind has no control. When there is a sudden flare of anger, however, the nervous energy from the part of the brain controlled by the Objective Mind flashes over into the parts of the brain and nervous system used by the Subconscious, and from these flashes the Subconscious gets the general idea, "Prepare immediately for a fight!" Then it takes the action already outlined - it provides the extra energy and stimulation.  

When the flurry of anger is past, the body is loaded with many toxic substances for which it has no need, and which act as poisons to the delicate brain and nervous tissues, so disrupting the perfect harmonic of health constantly flowing in from the Universal Mind. Constant repetitions of these flurries of anger gradually lower the tone of the whole brain and nervous system, causing a chronic reduction in their ability to receive and carry out the instructions of the Universal Mind concerning the health and well-being of the body, and resulting in various kinds of chronic diseases.  

Millions of men and women who are sick, unsuccessful, disgruntled, bad-tempered, lonely and unhappy, would be well, successful, happy, respected and loved, if only they had not tried to make vice a virtue by taking pride in their ability to become angry. And anger is worse than useless! Angry men and women are always under a serious handicap in any situation. They always do and say foolish and useless things, which they realise and for which they are sorry after their anger has cooled.

Anger is never justified. It never does any good, and always does harm. It is a hangover from the prehistoric and savage stages of human evolution, and is a handicap to any intelligent man or woman in this enlightened age. If you think that someone has done you a wrong, and that from the redress of the wrong you can get any real permanent benefit, then proceed calmly and dispassionately to seek redress in such a way as your better judgment will approve. Whatever else you do, don't get angry!  

Avoid Anger and Hate  

Hate is another destructive attitude of mind, and is closely akin to anger. It is anger which has crystallised into a permanent form. It is a lingering, malicious anger against someone on account of some real or imagined wrong he or she has done to the one entertaining the hate. It is a hideous sort of emotion, and if nursed long and encouraged it can even cause people to commit murder. It is as destructive as that! It is, in fact, a serious and permanent obstruction to the operation of the Universal Mind in the body and affairs of the one who harbours it, and it leads downhill to sickness of both body and mind and to disappointment, loneliness and failure.  

Fear is the principal handicap of the human race, and takes a number of forms. Intense and downright fear is usually of short duration, but while it lasts it wreaks havoc with both body and mind. It has the same power as anger to flash over on to the parts of the brain and nervous system occupied by the Subconscious Mind, except that the message the Subconscious Mind gets from it may be, "Prepare for fast running" instead of, "Prepare for a fight". It has the same destructive effects on the body and mind as has anger. 

Worry, Worry, Worry! 

Fear is more treacherous than anger, because it assumes so many disguises. Worry, anxiety, dread and apprehension are some of its common variations. Worry is a kind of chronic fear, just as hate is a chronic form of anger. Many people who are in fair health worry about the possibility of getting ill. Some who have good businesses worry about the possibility that the businesses will decline. Some who have good positions worry about losing them. And so on through the whole list of  things that human beings are interested in. Worry, worry, worry! Worry is an attitude of mind which "detunes" the individual, so that he no longer properly receives and responds to the sustaining and constructive power of the Universal Mind. Anxiety, dread and apprehension are all just so many different shades of worry, and worry is just one form of fear.  

The tragedy of it is that the things that are feared and worried about have a habit of coming to pass. When you constantly fear that a certain thing will happen to you, you not only put yourself out of harmony with the sustaining and protecting force of the universe, but you also fall into the habit of saying and doing the very things that will make it happen. If you constantly fear that your business will dwindle and fail, you will soon find business dropping off and your income declining. If you are constantly afraid of losing your job, you may actually lose it. Many people have died of the disease they most feared. All of which means that the thing which is confidently expected usually happens - in the life and affairs of those who expect it. Many others besides Job have had occasion to cry out: The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me!" (Job iii. 25).  

Jealousy is another immoral and destructive mental attitude. It is composed of fear that somebody else is depriving you of something that belongs to you, and anger against that person. So that it is a combination of two destructive attitudes of mind, and, as everyone knows, is swiftly destructive of everything that is lovely or desirable in human nature.  

Selfishness is another immoral and destructive mental attitude. It is a part of the great plan of things that human beings shall strive together for the common good. When you become so intent on your own welfare and so mentally fixed on your own rights that you forget the welfare and rights of others, you partly detune yourself out of harmony with the Universal Mind, and fall back on the evolutionary way into unhappiness and ultimate failure. No enduring fortune can be accumulated by hoarding. If you want to build and keep real wealth, you must perform some service that will give satisfaction to your employer, or engage in some business that will give employment to other people; you must always realise that you are a mere trustee charged with the responsibility of doing the greatest good to the largest possible number of people. All other plans of accumulation will ultimately fail, because they are based upon selfishness, which is immoral and destructive.  

Tune Yourself into the Creative Intelligence  

We are now digging away some of the rubbish from the door of the Temple of Light. We are soon to take up consideration of the definite ways, means and methods by which you may put yourself into perfect tune with the universal broadcast of the Creative Intelligence; but these ways, means and methods will be of little or no value unless you first clear your mind of the hindering obstructions that have been considered here. In Part B of Lesson Nine other immoral attitudes of mind will be considered, and the remedy for all immoral and destructive attitudes will be described. For the present, however, I suggest that you probe into your mentality for such of the destructive attitudes given above as you may find lurking there.  

The first-aid treatment for any or all of these destructive mental attitudes is the cultivation of a deep-seated realisation that you are not simply a creature of the Universal Creative Intelligence, but that you are actually that Intelligence in one of its many forms, and that in everything but flesh you are part and parcel of every other human being in the world. Having come to these two realisations, you will immediately see that the fleshly part of your make-up is but a temporary and fleeting shadow of the real "I" showing through your flesh, so that in the last analysis you are one and the same as all other human beings. If you are angry with another, you are angry with yourself. If you hate another, you hate yourself. If you are afraid of another, you are afraid of yourself. If you are jealous of another, you are jealous of yourself. If you are selfish towards another, you are merely slighting yourself. When you come to these realisations you can no longer be angry, hateful, afraid, jealous or selfish, because you then understand that you are the absolute master of your own destiny, that you are bigger than anything that can befall you, and that you have the wisdom and power necessary to meet any situation and solve any problem which you may face.