Section 9 - Part B: The Throne-Room of the great king

 The Throne-Room of the Great King  

We are now coming to a more detailed discussion of the human form of the creative phase of the Universal Creative Intelligence, and of the ways and means of using that intelligence for getting the things and conditions we desire. 

At the risk of being criticised for repeating myself, I would like to call your attention to the all-important fact that this phase of mind is not a separate creation. It seems to live in each human being, but as a matter of fact it exists throughout the whole universe, and the appearance of it in you is merely the reflection of a part of the Universal Intelligence by your brain and nervous system. If the Universal Creative Mind were to stop its pulsations through the universe for even a moment, the creative mind in everyone would stop working and the whole human race would die. If there were many fluoroscopes in the X-ray laboratory, they would all shine with their pale blue light as long as the X-ray tube was turned on, but if the X-ray tube was switched off, all the fluoroscopes would become dark. 

What seems to be your Subconscious Mind is in fact only a fluoroscopic response to the broadcast of the Universal Creative Mind. The fluoroscope in the X-ray laboratory is composed of materials that will glow when the invisible X-rays are beamed upon it. If in the making of the fluoroscope the manufacturers should use the wrong materials, it would be an imperfect instrument and would give only a partial and imperfect reflection of the X-rays. We have already noted in Lesson Eight of this Course that the mental states of anger, hate, fear, jealousy and selfishness are wrong materials to be included in the fluoroscope of your expression of mind, for they cause your body and affairs imperfectly to reflect the perfect plan in the Universal Creative Mind. In the perfect plan of the Universal Mind there is no sickness nor other bodily imperfections; nor is there any poverty, nor loneliness, nor failure, nor heartache, nor sorrow. In that perfect plan all is health, peace, friendship, love, and an abundance of all the things that go to make up the sum-total of a happy existence. But that perfect plan pulsates through imperfection, and so is shadowed and warped by imperfections.  

Just as there are attitudes of mind which hide and distort the perfect plan, so, too, there are other attitudes of mind which clear up the obscurity and distortion and allow you to enjoy the beauty and happiness of the perfect plan. An important step for you in seeking more abundant life and happiness is to get these hindering materials out of your mental fluoroscope, and put into it the materials that will cause it to function more perfectly. To give these methods and formulae to those whose Objective Minds are darkened with anger, hate, fear, jealousy and selfishness, would be like pouring liniment on their feet to ease the pain caused by a car riding over them. The car should first be removed, so as to give the liniment a chance. We will now proceed to a discussion of those mental attitudes that will help you to clear up the fluoroscope of your Objective Mind, so that the perfect plan may show itself in your body and affairs. 

Love is the Perfect Antidote to Anger and Hate 

We have seen that anger is coarsening and destructive, and that hate is really a chronic state of anger. The perfect antidote for anger and hatred is Love. I realise that the great majority of people who now hate others think it is impossible to love them; but that is a barrier lying right across the road to the higher and more abundantly happy and successful life you are now seeking. So, you might as well have it out with yourself here and now. You can never go forward as you wish until you can comply with the great commandment: 'Love your enemies, and pray for them which despitefully use you - (Matt. v. 44; Luke vi. 27-28). This means purely and simply that you must not become angry when you are badly treated, and that you will love those who have persisted in wronging and mistreating you. Impossible? Well, let's see.  

To begin with, your enemies are merely other versions of yourself, and when you are angry with them it is like one member of the body being angry with other members - like the eye being angry with the ear, or the hand being angry with the head. Nor can you escape them. As long as they live, they will be a part of you, and their faults and shortcomings will be your faults and shortcomings. As long as your brain and nervous system are tuned to anger and hate, your anger and hate will injure you and hold you back from the better life you are seeking.  

What is more, if you understand and apply the truth, no action will make you angry. All human beings are today just what heredity and environment have made them, and all are striving for happiness to the best of their abilities and in the light of their best knowledge. Millions of people are failing in the search for happiness, but if everybody knew how to find it everybody would be happy, for no one would deliberately turn away from the thing he or she most desires.  

If you challenge the correctness of the statement that all human beings are today just what heredity and environment have made them, then approach the matter from this angle: think of the most "undesirable" person you can call to mind. Then imagine yourself as having been born of the same parents, at the same time, and under the same circumstances. Think of yourself as having the same body and brain structure, with the same peculiarities and defects, and think of yourself as having received exactly the same treatment that he or she has received, as having experienced exactly the same things and learned

exactly the same things. Then what would you be today? You would not only be like that undesirable person - you would actually be him or her, and not what you are today.  

Love your Enemies 

If you saw a flower of a kind that is ordinarily beautiful, but which sprang from an imperfect seed, grew in poor and poisoned soil, and developed into a dwarfed and unlovely thing, would you be angry with it? Would you hate it because its unlovely form displeased your sense of sight? Then why be angry with mentally distorted and imperfect human beings who are just as much the product of their breeding and environment as is the flower? Be sorry for them, of course, and ready and willing to do any reasonable thing to make them nobler, better and happier; but do not be angry with them, nor hate them.  

Anger and hate have no place in the mind of modern man. Those people who have fiery tempers and who harbour hatred stand self-convicted, and will inevitably bring into their lives a harvest of sickness, disappointment, failure and sorrow. This is not an appeal to you to exercise self-control. You are not asked to try to control your temper.  

That would do no good. If you are quick to anger, you can, by a mighty effort, hold yourself in control for a while; but then on some sudden provocation you will let go all your accumulated feelings and so do yourself more harm than if you had taken your anger in small doses. The remedy must go deeper than self-control. Anger and hate are the products of ignorance, and knowledge is the only remedy for ignorance. The truth frees you from the vices of anger and hate, just as it frees you from all other hurtful and hindering things.  

When you come into a fun realisation of who you are and what you are, and of your oneness with all other human beings, you have no cause to worry about the wrongs done to you by other people, because this knowledge of your real nature and being constitutes an armour of protection behind which you and your rights are secure. It is true that an "enemy" may do something to deprive you of some profit, thing or advantage on which you have set your mind. But when you come into the liberating realisation of your inseparable oneness with all other human beings, you also come to know that you can never be deprived of anything because it is not really yours. You are simply exercising stewardship over it for as long as you have it in your possession. If something you cherish is taken from you, it merely goes out of your life to make room for something bigger, better and happier.  

Know Your Rights  

You don't have so many "rights" after all. The right to live, to be free, and to pursue happiness in your own way without conflicting with the happiness of other people - these are the sum-total of absolute rights. If you add other things, you sooner or later come into conflict with other human beings who may contest your right to some or all of these things. Hindu ascetics reduce this matter to very simple terms: that the way to be happy is to free oneself from the tyranny of desire.  

Of course, I am not commending Hindu asceticism. In fact, I approve the keen desire for more and better things. Modern civilisation is built on the want of ever more and better things and a determined scramble to get them. The Universal Creative Intelligence is constantly striving for more and better things - for more beauty, more love, more happiness, and for more of the things that make life more worth living. Through its individualised human forms, it is constantly extending the objective phase of itself for the discovery of new materials and new forces with which to build and operate the artificial things which it cannot create by thought alone - homes, public buildings and cities, railways and airports, telephones, televisions and radios, cars, aircraft and boats, literature, music and art - and so on through a long list of the things for which the Universal Mind individualised itself, developed reasoning brains, created hands and evolved tools and machinery. It wishes this improvement and greater and better possessions, and that desire crops up in every normal human being.  

To reduce yourself to a state in which you have no desire for anything may save a lot of disappointment, heartache and sorrow. But such a life is the haven of "dodgers" - of people who have silenced the craving of the Universal Mind within them. If the whole human race had been reduced to this status in the age of the cave-dweller, men and women would still be clothed with loin-cloths and animal skins and squatting or crouching in caves and dug-outs. To desire keenly, to will intently, and to be up and doing something - that is the formula for progress and the example of the Universal Mind, which is the real "I" standing behind every human being.  

You cannot sit down in your home or office and change your anger and hatred into love by simple will-power alone. You should first come to a full, deep and abiding realisation that you are one with all other human beings, and that the ONE is the Universal Creative Mind. Then when you mentally look around at the weaknesses, imperfections and vices of other human beings, you will realise that they are your own weaknesses, imperfections and vices. From this higher and better point of view you will pity rather than blame, forgive rather than retaliate.

When you realise that all the poverty, loneliness, heartache and sorrow in the world are the results of these same weaknesses, imperfections and vices, and that all human beings are seeking happiness in what seems to them the best way, your pity and forgiveness will gradually become understanding, love and a desire to help. You will then feel the need to give loving personal service, which is the beginning of real life, real success, real happiness.  

The Happiest Day of Your Life  

Many people say: "If I were only rich, what a wonderful lot of good I would do!" You do not have to be rich in order to do a wonderful lot of good. If you want to experience the happiest day of your life, here is the formula: make up your mind that tomorrow you will do your level best to leave all people happier than you found them. Then tomorrow begin, as soon as you get up, to speak cheerily and pleasantly to everyone in your household. Pay each one a little compliment about his appearance or dress, or about some personal characteristic. "I am glad to see you looking so well this morning!" or, "Oh, that is a lovely dress!" or, "I hope you have a good day today." These are little greetings that cost nothing, and they will make the whole day brighter and happier for the person you are speaking to. If you live with your own family, the greeting may be a little more personal and tender. The husband may say to the wife, for instance: "Darling, I love you more each day. "Or the wife may put her arms around the husband and say: "I was just thinking last night of what a wonderful husband you are, and you don't know how much I appreciate all the things you have done for me." Or the father may say to the young daughter: "My! But you do look sweet and fresh this morning! You are getting to be such a beautiful girl." Or the mother may kiss the boy and say: "You are growing so strong and good, and I love you very much!" 

These are just a few examples of the ways of beginning the happy day. Out in the street, in the factory, shop, office, or at the social function, the same line should be followed - cheerfulness, happy greetings, appreciative comments, all with a desire to scatter sunshine and make the day brighter and better for your having been there. In business contacts and conferences the same rules of talk and action should prevail, always with the idea that business, apart from being a means of making a living, is a privilege to serve and to make life brighter, happier and better for all the men, women and children who come within the zone of your influence.  

Rich Rewards Will be Yours  

If it seems that I am recommending a lot of "clap-trap", just remember that the "clap-trap" will come back to you in the form of rich rewards. The world has plenty to spare of everything except cheer, kindness and appreciation. It is always short of these precious things, and pays for them at any price it has to offer. What is more, if you think and act along the lines I have suggested, the men, women and children to whom these kindnesses and compliments are given will soon begin to show the very same qualities themselves. All men, women and children are vastly better, sweeter and nobler than is generally known or believed, and they respond to the kind of treatment suggested here as a wilted flower responds to the rain. Day by day they will gradually become the pleasant and noble people they are told they are, and rise nearer and nearer to the high standards contained in the compliments paid to them.

However imperfect they may be, all the good and beautiful things one can say about them are still true. The goodness may be buried by the badness; but the goodness is there, and under this line of treatment it will be brought out and shine.  

Understand Soul of Humanity  

When you get to know people as they really are, it will need no effort to love them - love will come spontaneously into your soul when you understand the soul of humanity.

One of the wonderful things that will happen to you when you know and apply the truth is that people and conditions have a habit of becoming what you say they are. Your power and influence is intuitively recognised by others; and your spoken words carry creative and regenerative energy. You are conscious of your oneness with the Universal Mind, and consciously create and evolve conditions according to your own wishes.  

This same cultivation of the love and confidence of people actually results in increased income, respect, love and advancement to the higher levels of life and happiness. Every human desire must be fulfilled, if at all, by one or more other human beings, with the possible exception of some cases of a desire for the healing of disease. Money, love, honour, friendship, power - all these things must come to us from other people; and unless we have the confidence and respect of other people, they will not give these things to us. Those who can't sell themselves along with their products or services will never achieve any marked measure of success. On the other hand, men and women pour out their patronage and favours to the man or woman who understands, appreciates and loves them.  

These practical and rather commonplace advantages that come to you by understanding, helping, loving and appreciating other people are merely incidental to the principal benefits - you destroy anger and hatred and put Love in their place. You clarify your mental fluoroscope, so that it makes a better response to the pulsating power of the Universal Mind. The perfect plan of a healthy body and a happy and successful life is then allowed to show itself more freely and fully in your body and affairs. Your health improves, your affairs begin to come into order, and things begin to come your way. You begin to rise to higher levels of life and to a greater abundance of the things that make life worth living.  

Fear – The Shadow of Ignorance  

Fear is the shadow of ignorance, and when the light of knowledge comes the shadow disappears. The fear I am talking about here is not the same as fright, which comes at the appearance of some sudden peril. Even fright is harmful, sometimes resulting in illness and death; but it can be prevented only by long cultivation of a calm attitude which has more disadvantages than advantages. When your mentality is tuned to the Universal Mind, you are intuitively guided away from sudden peril; and even if you were confronted by sudden peril, your inner calm would do much to prevent a panic of fright.  

This fear is a lingering state of mind, and usually takes the forms of dread and worry. Both dread and worry are highly destructive to the delicate organs of the body, and are densely darkening to the mental fluoroscope. As pointed out in Lesson Eight of this Course, different people worry about nearly everything in the world, and dread just about every calamity and misfortune that can possibly happen to a human being. The tragedy of it is that the mighty God of all creation should so fear and dread petty calamities. It seems strange that He who created the suns and planets on a scale of such lavish grandeur should, in individual form, be afraid of losing some small store of things. Why should He who is the timeless and deathless Fountain of Life be afraid of death when in human form? Yet the God in man is sometimes so ignorant or forgetful of who he is that he is afraid and worried about these things and about countless other things. It is by the operation of a great law of the Universal Mind that mental images conjured up by these fears and worries have a tendency to materialise into the very things that are feared and worried about. 

Many people know the harmful effects of fear and worry, and yet they continue to fear and worry - they just can't help it. It does no good to tell them to stop it. The only remedy is to make them realise the truth that there is nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. Then the dread and worry will disappear.  

If you are one of the unfortunate victims of fear and worry, let me ask you and answer for you a few questions. Are you afraid of losing your job? Well, suppose you should lose it, what then? Well, if you are worthy of your job, and should lose it, you would soon find a better job. If you are not worthy of your job, then you are a false pretender; and I respectfully suggest that you begin immediately to make yourself worthy of it.  

Are you afraid your business will fail? Well, suppose it should fail, what would happen then? If you are a competent business man or woman, the failing of the present business would simply mean that you would go into another business in which you would be more successful. If you are incompetent, then the sooner your business fails the sooner will you be relieved of worrying about it, and get out and find a job with somebody who is not incompetent. Are you afraid of dying? Well, if you should die, the one to whom you are married would have a chance of a new love and hopefully another happy marriage; and in some way your children would carry on, possibly growing up into stronger and more self-reliant men and women than if you had lived.  

It is not my purpose to reconcile you to any of these sordid thoughts. I am trying to drag you down among your fears and worries, so that you can value them at close range, in preparation for getting a new viewpoint and a fresh start. The truth of the matter is that you are not going to lose anything which is really yours, for it is not bringing you any happiness, and you never will be happy until it is gone. 

The one perfect antidote for fear and worry is the mental attitude which comes to you who realise what and who you are. That mental attitude is not easy to describe. It has been called an attitude of "indifferent assurance" - a kind of nonchalant meeting of life's problems and prospects with an attitude of "I've got my fingers crossed, and you can't touch me." It is a miracle-working attitude, and one who possesses it constantly moves forward into more abundant life and living. You never go backward. You never lose. 

A Formula for Conquering Fear  

Here is a formula for cultivating this winning and fear-killing attitude of mind: first, mentally claim for yourself the things you want. Realise that you are a part of God, with full power to be what you want to be, to get the things you desire, and to accomplish the things you wish to accomplish, provided that these things are not contrary to any natural law. Then mentally say at least 20 times: "I have the power to overcome any difficulty I may encounter and to make my life what I want it to be." Repeat these words, slowly, deliberately, and with a full understanding of their meaning. No matter whether or not you believe you have such power, just keep on repeating the words. If you have no other available time, then use a part of the time between retiring and going to sleep.  

In the meantime, continue to clear your mental fluoroscope of anger, hate, fear, jealousy and selfishness, and to put love, knowledge of the truth, service, cheerfulness, Kindliness and appreciation in their place, by the manner of life and action I have described. By these means you will move still further towards the things and conditions you desire.