The Region Of Abstract Thought


Various religious systems have been given to humanity at different times,

each suited to meet the spiritual needs of the people among whom it was

promulgated, and, coming from the same divine source:--God, all religions

exhibit similar fundamentals or first principles.



All systems teach that there was a time when darkness reigned supreme.

Everything which we now perceive was then non-existent. Earth, sky and the

heavenly bodies were uncreate, so were the multitudinous forms which live

and move upon the various planets.--All, all, was yet in a fluidic

condition and the Universal Spirit brooded quiescent in limitless Space

as the One Existence.



The Greeks called that condition of homogeneity Chaos, and the state of

orderly segregation which we now see; the marching orbs which illumine the

vaulted canopy of heaven, the stately procession of planets around a

central light, the majestic sun; the unbroken sequence of the seasons and

the unvarying alternation of tidal ebb and flow;--all this aggregate of

systematic order, was called Cosmos, and was supposed to have proceeded

from Chaos.



The Christian Mystic obtains a deeper comprehension when he opens his

Bible and ponders the first five verses of that brightest gem of all

spiritual lore: the Gospel of St. John.



As he reverently opens his aspiring heart to acquire understanding of

those sublime mystical teachings he transcends the form-side of nature,

comprising various realms of which we have been speaking, and finds

himself "in the spirit," as did the prophets in olden times. He is then in

the Region of abstract Thought and sees the eternal verities which also

Paul beheld in this, the third, heaven.



For those among us who are unable to obtain knowledge save by reasoning

upon the matter, however, it will be necessary to examine the fundamental

meaning of words used by St. John to clothe his wonderful teaching, which

was originally given in the Greek language, a much simpler matter than is

commonly supposed, for Greek words have been freely introduced into our

modern languages, particularly in scientific terms, and we shall show how

this ancient teaching is supported by the latest discoveries of modern

science.



The opening verse of the gospel of St. John is as follows: "In the

beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word

was God." We will examine the words: "beginning," "Word" and "God." We

may also note that in the Greek version the concluding sentence reads:

"and God was the Word," a difference which makes a great distinction.



It is an axiomatic truth that "out of nothing, nothing comes," and it has

often been asserted by scoffers that the Bible teaches generation "from

nothing." We readily agree that translations into the modern languages

promulgate this erroneous doctrine, but we have shown in The Rosicrucian

Cosmo Conception (chapter on "the Occult Analysis of Genesis"), that the

Hebrew text speaks of an ever-existing essence, as the basis whence all

forms, the earth and the heavenly lights included, were first created, and

John also gives the same teaching.



The Greek word arche, in the opening sentence of the gospel of St. John

has been translated the beginning, and it may be said to have that

meaning, but it also has other valid interpretations, vastly more

significant of the idea John wished to convey. It means:--an elementary

condition,--a chief source,--a first principle,--primordial matter.



There was a time when science insisted that the elements were immutable,

that is to say, that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron since the

earth was formed and would so remain to the end of time. The Alchemists

were sneered at as fanciful dreamers or madmen, but since Professor J. J.

Thomson's discovery of the electron, the atomic theory of matter, is no

longer tenable. The principle of radio-activity has later vindicated the

Alchemists. Science and the Bible agree in teaching, that all that is, has

been formed from one homogeneous substance.



It is that basic principle which John called arche:--primordial

matter,--and the dictionary defines Archeology as: "the science of the

origin (arche) of things." Masons style God the "Grand Architect," for

the Greek word tektos means builder, and God is the Chief Builder

(tektos) of arche: the primordial virgin matter which is also the

chief source of all things.



Thus we see that when the opening sentence of St. John's gospel is

properly translated, our Christian Religion teaches that once a virgin

substance enfolded the divine Thinker:--God.



That is the identical condition which the earlier Greeks called Chaos. A

little thought will make it evident that we are not arbitrary in finding

fault with the translation of the gospel, for it is self-evident that a

word cannot be the beginning, a thought must precede the word, and a

thinker must originate thought before it can be expressed as a word.



When properly translated the teaching of John fully embodies that idea,

for the Greek term logos means both the reasonable thought,--(we also say

Logic),--and the word which expresses this (logical) thought.





1) In the primordial substance was thought, and the thought was

with God And God was the word,



2) THAT, [The Word], also was with God in the primal state.





Later the divine WORD; the Creative Fiat, reverberates through space and

segregates the homogeneous virgin substance into separate forms.





3) Every thing has come into existence because of that prime

fact, [The Word of God], and no thing exists apart from that

fact.



4) In that was Life.





In the alphabet we have a few elementary sounds from which words may be

constructed. They are basic elements of expression, as bricks, iron and

lumber are raw materials of architecture, or as a few notes are component

parts of music.



But a heap of bricks, iron and lumber, is not a house, neither is a

jumbled mass of notes music, nor can we call a haphazard arrangement of

alphabetical sounds a word.



These raw materials are prime necessities in construction of architecture,

music, literature or poetry, but the contour of the finished product and

the purpose it will serve depends upon the arrangement of the raw

materials, which is subject to the constructor's design. Building

materials may be formed to prison or palace; notes may be arranged as

fanfare or funeral dirge; words may be indited to inspire passion or

peace, all according to the will of the designer. So also the majestic

rhythm of the Word of God has wrought the primal substance: arche, into

the multitudinous forms which comprise the phenomenal world, according to

His will.



Did the reader ever stop to consider the wonderful power of a human word.

Coming to us in the sweet accents of love, it may lure us from paths of

rectitude to shameful ignominy and wreck our life with sorrow and remorse,

or it may spur us on in noblest efforts to acquire glory and honor, here

or hereafter. According to the inflection of the voice a word may strike

terror into the bravest heart or lull a timid child to peaceful slumber.

The word of an agitator may rouse the passions of a mob and impel it to

awful bloodshed, as in the French Revolution, where dictatorial mandates

of mob-rule killed and exiled at pleasure, or, the strain of "Home, Sweet

Home" may cement the setting of a family-circle beyond possibility of

rupture.



Right words are true and therefore free, they are never bound or fettered

by time or space, they go to the farthest corners of the earth, and when

the lips that spoke them first have long since mouldered in the grave,

other voices take up with unwearying enthusiasm their message of life and

love, as for instance the mystical "Come unto me" which has sounded from

unnumbered tongues and brought oceans of balm to troubled hearts.



Words of Peace have been victorious, where war would have meant defeat,

and no talent is more to be desired than ability to always say the right

word at the auspicious time.



Considering thus the immense power and potency of the human word, we may

perhaps dimly apprehend the potential magnitude of the Word of God, the

Creative Fiat, when as a mighty dynamic force it first reverberated

through space and commenced to form primordial matter into worlds, as

sound from a violin bow moulds sand into geometrical figures. Moreover,

the Word of God still sounds to sustain the marching orbs and impel them

onwards in their circle paths, the Creative Word continues to produce

forms of gradually increasing efficiency, as media expressing life and

consciousness. The harmonious enunciation of consecutive syllables in the

Divine Creative Word mark successive stages in evolution of the world and

man. When the last syllable has been spoken and the complete word has

sounded, we shall have reached perfection as human beings. Then Time will

be at an end, and with the last vibration of the Word of God, the worlds

will be resolved into their original elements. Our life will then be "hid

with Christ in God," till the Cosmic Night:--Chaos,--is over, and we wake to

do "greater things" in a "new heaven and a new earth."



According to the general idea Chaos and Cosmos are superlative antitheses

of each other. Chaos being regarded as a past condition of confusion and

disorder which has long since been entirely superseded by cosmic order

which now prevails.



As a matter of fact, Chaos is the seed-ground of Cosmos, the basis of all

progress, for thence come all IDEAS which later materialize as Railways,

Steamboats, Telephones, etc.



We speak of "thoughts as being conceived by the mind," but as both father

and mother are necessary in the generation of a child, so also there must

be both idea and mind before a thought can be conceived. As semen

germinated in the positive male organ is projected into the negative

uterus at conception, so ideas are generated by a positive Human Ego in

the spirit-substance of the Region of abstract Thought. This idea is

projected upon the receptive mind, and a conception takes place. Then, as

the spermatozoic nucleus draws upon the maternal body for material to

shape a body appropriate to its individual expression, so does each idea

clothe itself in a peculiar form of mindstuff. It is then a thought, as

visible to the inner vision of composite man, as a child is to its parent.



Thus we see that ideas are embryonic thoughts, nuclei of spirit-substance

from the Region of abstract Thought. Improperly conceived in a diseased

mind they become vagaries and delusions, but when gestated in a sound mind

and formed into rational thoughts they are the basis of all material,

moral and mental progress, and the closer our touch with Chaos, the better

will be our Cosmos, for in that realm of abstract realities truth is not

obscured by matter, it is self-evident.



Pilate was asked "what is Truth," but no answer is recorded. We are

incapable of cognizing truth in the abstract while we live in the

phenomenal world, for the inherent nature of matter is illusion and

delusion, and we are constantly making allowances and corrections whether

we are conscious of the fact or not. The sunbeam which proceeds for 90

millions of miles in a straight line, is refracted or bent as soon as it

strikes our dense atmosphere, and according to the angle of its

refraction, it appears to have one color or another. The straightest

stick appears crooked when partly immersed in water, and the truths which

are so self-evident in the Higher worlds are likewise obscured, refracted

or twisted out of all semblance under the illusory conditions of this

material world.



"The truth shall set you free," said Christ, and the more we turn our

aspirations from material acquisitiveness and seek to lay up treasure

above, the more we aim to rise, the oftener we "get in the spirit," the

more readily we "shall know truth" and reach liberation from the fetter of

flesh which binds us to a limited environment, and attain to a sphere of

greater usefulness.



Study of philosophy and science has a tendency to further perception of

truth, and as science has progressed it has gradually receded from its

erstwhile crude materialism. The day is not far off when it will be more

reverently religious than the church itself. Mathematics is said to be

"dry," for it doesn't stir the emotions. When it is taught that "the sum

of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees," the dictum is at once

accepted, because its truth is self-evident and no feeling is involved in

the matter. But when a doctrine such as the Immaculate Conception is

promulgated and our emotions are stirred, bloody war, or heated argument,

may result, and still leave the matter in doubt. Pythagoras demanded that

his pupils study mathematics, because he knew the elevating effect of

raising their minds above the sphere of feeling, where it is subject to

delusion, and elevating it towards the Region of abstract Thought which is

the prime reality.



In this place we are dealing with worlds in particular, and will therefore

defer comment upon the remainder of the first 5 verses of St. John's

gospel:





"And Life became Light in man,

5) and Light shines in Darkness."





We have now seen that the earth is composed of three worlds which

interpenetrate one another so that it is perfectly true when Christ said

that "heaven is within you" or, the translation should rather have been

among you. We have also seen that of these three realms two are

subdivided. It has also been explained that each division serves a great

purpose in the unfoldment of various forms of life which dwell in each of

these worlds, and we may note in conclusion, that the lower regions of the

Desire World constitute what the Catholic religion calls Purgatory, a

place where the evil of a past life is transmuted to good, usable by the

spirit as conscience in later lives. The higher regions of the Desire

World are the first Heaven where all the good a man has done is

assimilated by the spirit as soul power. The Region of concrete Thought

is the second Heaven, where, as already said, the spirit prepares its

future environment on earth, and the Region of abstract Thought is the

third Heaven, but as Paul said, it is scarcely lawful to speak about

that.



Some will ask: is there then no hell?--No! The mercy of God tends as

greatly towards the principle of GOOD as "the inhumanity of man" towards

cruelty, so that he would consign his brother men to flames of hell during

eternity for the puerile mistakes committed during a few years, or perhaps

for a slight difference in belief. The writer has heard of a minister who

wished to impress his "flock" with the reality of an eternity of hell

flames, and to demonstrate the fallacy of a heretical notion entertained

by some of his parishioners that when sinners come to hell they burn to

ashes and that is the end.



He took with him an alcohol lamp and some asbestos into the pulpit and

told his audience that God would turn their souls into a substance

resembling asbestos. He showed them that though the asbestos were heated

red hot it did not decompose into ashes. Fortunately the day of the hell

preacher has gone by, and if we believe the Bible which says that "in God

we live and move and have our being," we can readily understand that a

lost soul would be an impossibility, for were one single soul lost, then

logically a part of God Himself would be lost. No matter what our color,

our race or our creed, we are all equally the children of God and in our

various ways we shall obtain satisfaction. Let us therefore rather look to

Christ and forget Creed.





Creed or Christ?



No man loves God who hates his kind,

Who tramples on his Brother's heart and soul.

Who seeks to shackle, cloud or fog the mind

By fears of Hell has not perceived our goal.



God-sent are all religions blest;

And Christ, the Way, the Truth and Life,

To give the heavy-laden rest,

And peace from Sorrow, Sin and Strife.



At his request the Universal Spirit came

To all the churches, not to one alone.

On Pentecostal morn a tongue of flame

Round each apostle as a halo shone.



Since then, as vultures ravenous with greed,

We oft have battled for an empty name,

And sought by Dogma, Edict, Creed,

To send each other to the flame.



Is Christ then divided? Was Cephas or Paul

Nailed to the deathly tree?

If not--then why these divisions at all?

Christ's love doth embrace you and me.



His pure sweet love is not confined

By creeds which segregate and raise a wall;

His love enfolds, embraces Humankind

No matter what ourselves or Him we call.



Then why not take Him at His word?

Why hold to creeds which tear apart?

But one thing matters, be it heard,

That brother-love fill every heart.



There is but one thing that the world has need to know;

There is but one balm for all our human woe

There is but one way that leads to heaven above;

That way is human sympathy and love.



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