his tasks. His sturdy body, legs, and arms had found an equally strong pair of eyes, and a brain capable of functioning efficiently. And so, as has been said, the pair traveled far, and fared well.
The wise ancient Oriental teachers concluded their relation of the fable by the recitation of its moral and application, as follows:
“Here you have the story of Nature and of Man. Nature in her earlier years was like the blindgiant—filled with power and with longing to act, but unable to see its way before it. It stumbled and groped, often traveling around in circles and retracing its steps. Blind Nature, though strong of Will, was unable to perform its desired tasks as it wished to do; it made mistakes, it failed, it went ’round and ’round, ever trying to find a way—often proceeding into the ‘blind alleys’ of the forest, only to be forced to retrace its steps. It could not see; it often acted like a sleepwalker, with a strong purpose but lacking definite direction. Only when it evolved its Ideative powers and coordinated these with its blind Will, was it able to proceed with intelligence and in definite directions. This is the story of Nature, my sons. Thus does it work; thus does it proceed; thus does it create and accomplish.”
Then the sages continued: “And like unto it, is the story of Man. In each man there is the blindgiant of Will, full of energy and vigor, filled with the burning desire and urge to express and to manifest its powers of action; yet of itself capable merely of stumbling and blundering, groping and feeling its way, and usually traveling in circles. Likewise, in every man there is found the crippled and paralyzed Thought, keeneyed and keenwitted, resourceful, observing, discerning; planning, inventing; but of itself incapable of moving about and of performing efficient work. Only when human Thought mounts the shoulder of human Will, and points out the way, the road, and the direction; and only when human Will permits and submits itself to this direction and guidance, and consents to use its strong body, strong legs, and strong arms to pursue the path, and to perform the work so pointed out to it by human Thought; only when this cooperative partnership is formed in the mind of Man, and proceeds to manifest and express its combined and co-ordinated powers—only then do the united pair, the ‘twoinone’, become efficient, useful, and capable of effective and efficient expression and manifestation. This is the story of Man, my sons. Thus does he work; thus does he proceed; thus does he create and accomplish.”
Postponing for the moment the application of this principle to the Personal Power of Man, we would say that many of the brightest minds of philosophy have arrived at a similar conclusion concerning the character of Nature’s activities. But alas! many of them saw only one side of the story, and ignored the other. Some, like Schopenhauer, saw only the Will aspect, and sought to explain Thought as an evolution of WILL—a product of the activities of blindWill in Nature. Others, certain of the great Idealists, saw only the Thought aspect, and sought to explain Will as a product of evolved Thought.
Each of these schools of philosophy explained matters quite satisfactorily up to a certain point—but each failed to perceive the dualaspect of Nature’s activities the respective aspects of Will and Thought—the twinmanifestations, combined and co-ordinated as equal partners, each impotent without the other. Later philosophers, however, have seen the truth embodied in the ancient Oriental fable, and have sought to build systems of philosophy upon it—and the tendency is now in that direction. And this is well—for it is “the only way”
Schopenhauer postulated a Cosmic Blind Will as the Ultimate Principle of POWER, and explained the universe in its terms. Others followed him along these lines, with various modifications. Schopenhauer said: “Will is the innermost essence, the kernel of every living thing, and of the Totality of Existence”. Others held similarly, defining Will as “Desire with the Power to act; or Power with the Desire to act.” Wundt said: The Universe, as perceived by us, is the outer wrapper or sheath behind which is hidden a spiritual, creative activity—a striving, feeling sensing, like that which we experience in ourselves; the active principle of which is Conation, or impulse, tendency, desire, and Will.” In this connection you will recall the statement of Nicholas Murray Butler (previously quoted in this book), in which he says “The dominant tendency in philosophy, powerfully supported by the results of scientific knowing, is that which sees Totality as Energy, which is Will”
On the other hand, we find the Idealists, holding that the Ultimate Principle is Ideation, or Ideative Power; the universe being a purely ideative creation, a drama, a mental picture, a story, or perhaps even a daydream or actual dream of a Universal Ideative Power. The Idealists hold that the universe, and everything in it, is but an Idea, or series of Ideas, in the Ideative Mind of a Supreme Ideator. Idealism (in this sense) is defined in the reference books as: “The philosophical doctrine which holds that the World is an Idea; and which teaches that material objects have no real existence, and that we have no rational grounds for believing in the reality of anything in the Cosmos but Ideas and their relations.” A variation of this philosophy is that which holds that Ideal Forms, existing eternally, constitute Reality; these have the power and ability to manifest and express outward semblances of themselves, which, however, usually appear more or less distorted or imperfect.
Von Hartmann came quite near to the combination of Volition and Ideation, in some portions of his “Philosophy of the Unconscious”. He said: “No one can will, without willing this and that. Only through a definite direction does the Will obtain the possibility of expression.” So in his philosophy he combined Cosmic Will and Cosmic Idea, the two combined forming his Cosmic Principle. He compared the two aspects of his Cosmic Principle to the color and the fragrance of the rose, neither of which contradict or oppose each other; or, again, with the two poles of the magnet, with opposite qualities, on whose relation and correlation the Cosmic activities depend. A modern psychologist says: “Will is called out by Ideas; it goes out only in response to ideas,” and, “An idea which is the object of Will, is transformed into a motive of voluntary action.” So, you see, the conception of the dualaspect, or twinmanifestation, is coming into prominence, as it was bound to do in time.
If you will observe the processes and activities of Nature, you will see everywhere the evidences of Volition and Ideation—the blind Will moving into activity under the direction and impulse of Thought. The Idea is the Form or Pattern, which the Will is always endeavoring to manifest and express into objective and material existence. If you wish a “working philosophy” of the ways and manner in which Nature proceeds, and by which her creative activities seem to be accomplished, you can do no better than to employ, at least tentatively, the general idea of those philosophies which include the conception of the co-ordination and correlation of Will and Thought—of Volition and Ideation—as illustrated in the ancient Oriental fable.
By this, however, we do not mean to indicate that we believe that POWER, the Cosmic Ultimate Principle, IS, in itself, merely Volition and Ideation. On the contrary, we rest on our previous statement that all we can say of the essential nature of POWER is, simply, that it IS—and must be Eternal, Uncaused, and Self-Existent. All that we mean to imply concerning Cosmic Volition and Cosmic Ideation, is that these appear to constitute the TwinManifestation of POWER in the Cosmos, and seem to be the special and particular instruments or machinery by means of which POWER accomplishes its creative expression and manifestation in the Cosmos. Be sure that you understand us correctly in this distinction—for the differentiation is an important one. It is as illogical to identify POWER with its instruments and machinery, as it is to identify the “I AM I” or Master Self with its own particular instruments and machinery.
Personal Power, in Man, being a part of the general manifestation and expression of POWER in the Cosmos (for there is no other Power of which it may be the expression and manifestation) must come under the general rule of the expression and manifestation of POWER in the Cosmos. That is to say, it must be governed by the TwinManifestation along the lines of Volition and Ideation—of Will and Thought. Investigation and observation, aided by actual experiment, prove this to be the case, as might be expected.
The “I AM I” or Master Self, being a focalized
