Present Absolute
Being, because no external points exist from which to measure extension
either in time or space. Hence we must eliminate the ideas of time and
space from our conception of Spirit's _initial_ Self-contemplation.
This being so, Spirit's primary contemplation of itself as simply Being
necessarily makes its presence universal and eternal, and consequently,
paradoxical as it may seem, its independence of Time and Space makes it
present throughout all Time and Space. It is the old esoteric maxim that
the point expands to infinitude and that infinitude is concentrated in the
point. We start, then, with Spirit contemplating itself simply as Being.
But to realize your being you must have consciousness, and consciousness
can only come by the recognition of your relation to something else. The
something else may be an external fact or a mental image; but even in the
latter case to conceive the image at all you must mentally stand back from
it and look at it--something like the man who was run in by the police at
Gravesend for walking behind himself to see how his new coat fitted. It
stands thus: if you are not conscious of something you are conscious of
nothing, and if you are conscious of nothing, then you are unconscious, so
that to be conscious at all you must have something to be conscious of.
This may seem like an extract from "Paddy's Philosophy," but it makes it
clear that consciousness can only be attained by the recognition of
something which is not the recognizing _ego_ itself--in other words
consciousness is the realization of some particular sort of _relation_
between the cognizing subject and the cognized object; but I want to get
away from academical terms into the speech of human beings, so let us take
the illustration of a broom and its handle--the two together make a broom;
that is one sort of relation; but take the same stick and put a rake-iron
at the end of it and you have an altogether different implement. The stick
remains the same, but the difference of what is put at the end of it makes
the whole thing a broom or a rake. Now the thinking and feeling power is
the stick, and the conception which it forms is the thing at the end of the
stick, so that the quality of its consciousness will be determined by the
ideas which it projects; but to be conscious at all it must project ideas
of some sort.
Now of one thing we may be quite sure, that the Spirit of Life must _feel
alive_. Then to feel alive it must be conscious, and to be conscious it
must have something to be conscious of; therefore the contemplation of
itself as standing related to something which is not its own originating
self _in propria persona_ is a necessity of the case; and consequently the
Self-contemplation of Spirit can only proceed by its viewing itself as
related to something standing out from itself, just as we must stand at a
proper distance to see a picture--in fact the very word "existence" means
"standing out." Thus things are called into existence or "outstandingness"
by a power which itself does not stand out, and whose presence is therefore
indicated by the word "subsistence."
The next thing is that since in the beginning there is nothing except
Spirit, its primary feeling of aliveness must be that of being alive _all
over_; and to establish such a consciousness of its own universal
livingness there must be the recognition of a corresponding _relation_
equally extensive in character; and the only possible correspondence to
fulfil this condition is therefore that of a universally distributed and
plastic medium whose particles are all in perfect equilibrium, which is
exactly the description of the Primary Substance or ether. We are thus
philosophically led to the conclusion that Universal Substance must be
projected by Universal Spirit as a necessary consequence of Spirit's own
inherent feeling of Aliveness; and in this way we find that the great
Primary Polarity of Being becomes established.
From this point onward we shall find the principle of Polarity in universal
activity. It is that relation between opposites without which no external
Motion would be possible, because there would be nowhere to move from, and
nowhere to move to; and without which external Form would be impossible
because there would be nothing to limit the diffusion of substance and
bring it into shape. Polarity, or the interaction of Active and Passive, is
therefore the basis of all _Evolution_.
This is a great fundamental truth when we get it in its right order; but
all through the ages it has been a prolific source of error by getting it
in its wrong order. And the wrong order consists in making Polarity the
originating point of the Creative Process. What this misconception leads to
we shall see later on; but since it is very widely accepted under various
guises even at the present day it is well to be on our guard against it.
Therefore I wish the student to see clearly that there is something which
comes
