The Creative Process in the IndividualTroward, T. (Thomas)
Religion
The Creative Process in the Individual
Troward, T. (Thomas)
New Thought
The evolution of the Personal Factor is therefore the point with which we
are most concerned. As a matter of fact, whatever theories we may hold to
the contrary, we do all realize the same cosmic environment in the same
way; that is to say, our minds all act according to certain generic laws
which underlie all our individual diversities of thought and feeling. This
is so because we are made that way and cannot help it. But with the
Personal Factor the case is different. A standard is no less necessary, but
we are not so made as to conform to it automatically. The very conception
of automatic conformity to a _personal_ standard is self-contradictory, for
it does away with the very thing that constitutes personality, namely
freedom of volition, the use of the powers of Initiative and Selection. For
this reason conformity to the Standard of Personality must be a matter of
choice, which amounts to the same thing as saying that it rests with each
individual to form his own conception of a standard of Personality; but
which liberty, however, carries with it the inevitable result that we shall
bring into manifestation the _conditions_ corresponding to the sort of
personality we accept as our normal standard.
I would draw attention to the words "Normal Standard." What we shall
eventually attain is, not what we merely wish, but what we regard as
normal. The reason is that since we sub-consciously know ourselves to be
based upon the inherent Law of the Universal Mind we feel, whether we can
reason it out or not, that we cannot force the All-producing Mind to work
contrary to its own inherent qualities, and therefore we intuitively
recognize that we cannot transcend the sort of personality which is normal
according to the Law of Universal Mind. This thought is always at the back
of our mind and we cannot get away from it for the simple reason that it is
inherent in our mental constitution, because our mind is itself a product
of the Creative Process; and to suppose ourselves transcending the
possibilities contained in the Originating Mind would involve the absurdity
of supposing that we can get the greater out of the less.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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