The Library
Philosophy offers as a first truth the affirmation that we live in a universe of purpose and not one of caprice
16.26.1.2Listen We live in an orderly universe, not an accidental one. Its movements are measured, its events are plotted, and its creatures develop towards a well-defined objective. All this could not be possible unless the universe were ruled by immutable laws.
16.26.1.3Listen The great worlds which move so marvellously and rhythmically through our sky, however, must leave the more reflective minds with a wondering sense of the sublime intelligence which has patterned the universe.
16.26.1.12Listen There is enough evidence in Nature and in humanity for the existence of a Higher Power. Those who say they cannot find it have looked through the coloured spectacles of preconceived notions or else in too limited an area. There is plenty of it for those who look aright, and who widen their horizon; it will then be conclusive.
16.26.1.14Listen The cosmos exists in a great harmony for it obeys laws which are divinely perfect.
16.26.1.16Listen Can we rightly say it is mere chance that our earth rotates around the sun, and does so in a certain precise measured rhythm? Is there not evidence of intelligence here?
16.26.1.20Listen If the universe were obviously based on mere chance, if it were in a state of complete disorder, if the moon, the sun, and the earth wandered about at their individual will, and if no sign of organization appeared anywhere in it, then we might justly assert that there was no Mind behind it. But because we see the very contrary of these things all around us … we can definitely assert that a World-Mind must exist.
16.26.1.28,Listen Events may seem to happen at random, but it is not really so. They are connected with our own thinking and doing, with the pattern of the World-Idea and with the activity of the World-Mind.
16.26.1.29Listen Everything around us and every event that happens to us is an expression of God's will.
16.26.1.30Listen The order which has been established throughout the cosmos is a perfect one. If the human mind fails to see this fact, it is partly because human feelings, prejudices, aversions, and attractions sway it and partly because the World-Idea unveils itself only to those who are ready.
16.26.1.36Listen The universe is perfect because God is perfect. But it is for each man to find and see this perfection for himself, otherwise the trouble and tragedy in life may obstruct his vision and obscure his path.
16.26.1.37Listen Just as we find strife, violence, and evil on the surface of human existence but divinity, harmony, and peace at its core, so we find cruelty, suffering, and malevolence on the surface of the world’s existence but intelligent beneficent purpose at its core. It is ultimately an expression of God’s wisdom, power, and love.
16.26.1.43Listen Pain and suffering belong only to this physical world and its shadow-spheres. There is a higher world, where joy and happiness alone are man's experience.
16.26.1.50Listen Because there is a Divine Mind back of the universe, there are Divine Wisdom and Goodness in the universe.
16.26.1.52Listen Whatever we call it, most people feel--whether vaguely or strongly--that there must be a God and that there must be something which God has in view in letting the universe come into existence. This purpose I call the World-Idea, because to me God is the World's Mind. This is a thrilling conception. It was an ancient revelation which came to the first cultures, the first civilizations, of any importance, as it has come to all others which have appeared, and it is still coming today to our own. With this knowledge, deeply absorbed and properly applied, man comes into harmonious alignment with his Source.
16.26.1.64Listen Whatever we call it, most people feel—whether vaguely or strongly—that there must be a God and that there must be something which God has in view in letting the universe come into existence. This purpose I call the World-Idea, because to me God is the World’s Mind … With this knowledge, deeply absorbed and properly applied, man comes into harmonious alignment with his Source.
16.26.1.64,Listen The World-Idea holds within itself the laws which rule the world, the supreme intention which dominates it, and the invisible pattern which forms it.
16.26.1.67Listen The World-Idea holds within itself the laws which rule the world, the supreme intention which dominates it, and the invisible pattern which forms it.
16.26.1.67Listen There is an infinite number of possibilities in the evolution of man and the universe. If only certain ones out of them are actually realized, this is because both follow a pattern--the World-Idea.
16.26.1.68Listen Just as the World-Idea is both the expression of the World-Mind and one with it, so the Word (Logos) mentioned in the Bible as being with God is another way of saying the same thing. The world with its form and history is the embodiment of the Word and the Word is the World-Idea.
16.26.1.71Listen There is a universal order, a way which Nature (God) has of arranging things. This is why what we see around us as the world expresses all-pervading meaning, intelligence, and purpose. But we catch only a mere hint of these veiled qualities--the mystery which recedes from them is immeasurably greater.
16.26.1.82Listen Immanuel Kant referred to "the hidden plan of Nature." Thus, without benefit of any mystical revelation but with that of acutely concentrated deep thinking to guide him, he sensed the presence of the World-Idea.
16.26.1.85Listen The World-Idea contains the pattern, intention, direction, and purpose of the cosmos in a single unified thought of the World-Mind. Human understanding is too cramped and too finite to comprehend how this miraculous simultaneity is possible.
16.26.1.87Listen The World-Idea not only includes everything existent but also everything which is yet to exist.
16.26.1.91Listen There is a mathematical order in the cosmos, a divine intelligence behind life, an Idea for human, animal, plant, and mineral existences.
16.26.1.104Listen The World-Idea contains within itself, like a seed, all the elements and all the properties of a universe which subsequently appear. In this sense they are predestined to recur eternally even when they dissolve and vanish…
16.26.1.114,Listen The World-Idea is what is ordained for the universe, its divine prescription.
16.26.1.124Listen But if the universe has no internal purpose for the World-Mind, it has one for every living entity within it and especially for every self-conscious entity such as man…
16.26.1.159,Listen It is not possible to answer the question “What is the purpose of creation?” But this will not deter the practical person and genuine seeker from continuing his attempt to fulfil the immediate purpose which confronts all human beings--that of awakening to the consciousness of the divine soul.
16.26.1.161Listen The universe was never created for the first time for it has always and incessantly appeared and disappeared, activated and rested, come forth, evolved, and retreated into latency.
16.26.1.171Listen The universe has never had a beginning, and cannot have an end, but its forms and states may change and therefore must have a beginning and end.
16.26.1.176Listen The cosmos is neither a phantom to be disdained nor an illusion to be dismissed. It is a remote expression in time and space and individuality of that which is timeless spaceless and infinite. If it is not the Reality in its ultimate sense, it is an emanation of the Reality. Hence it shares in some way the life of its source. To find that point of sharing is the true object of incarnation for all creatures within the cosmos.
16.26.1.179Listen Our world is but a fleeting symbol, yet we may not disdain it. For it is the arched entrance under which we must pass through to the infinite life.
16.26.1.188Listen What is the universe but a gigantic symbol of God? Its infinite variety hints at the infinite endlessness of the Absolute itself.
16.26.1.190Listen Everything in the universe testifies to a super-intelligent power being behind it.
16.26.1.211Listen At the centre of each man, each animal, each plant, each cell, and each atom, there is a complete stillness. A seemingly empty stillness, yet it holds the divine energies and the divine Idea for that thing.
16.26.1.213Listen The smallest one-celled creature is alive with an energy which comes from the universal energy that is the expression of the World-Mind.
16.26.1.216Listen There is no moment when the unseen divine activity is not present in the universe. Everything is being carried on by the divine Power and divine Wisdom.
16.26.1.218Listen ... The World-Mind is hidden deep within our individual minds. The World-Idea begets all our knowledge. Whoever seeks aright finds the sacred stillness inside and the sacred activity in the universe.
16.26.1.220,Listen He comes to see the whole cosmos as a manifestation of the Supreme Being. It follows that involuntarily, spontaneously, he brings himself--mind and body, heart and will--into harmony with this view.
16.26.1.222Listen The number of objects and creatures, stars and suns is by a natural necessity infinite. Infinite being can only express itself infinitely. The worlds cannot be counted; the space which contains them cannot be measured.
16.26.1.230Listen We live in a universe which is only one amid an infinity of other universes whose patterns, as we find with individual living things, show infinite differences of detail while sharing certain basic general forms.
16.26.1.231Listen Each universe, however vast, is finite. But the possible number of universes is not. The Infinite Being, by some strange necessity (from the human standpoint, contemplating a fathomless mystery), forever sponsors fresh universes as old ones decay and disappear. In this way It seems (again from the human standpoint), by giving expression to an infinite number of universes, to be expressing Its own infinite nature.
16.26.1.240Listen When we gaze observantly and reflectively around an object--whether it be a microscope-revealed cell or a telescope-revealed star--it inescapably imposes upon us the comprehension that an infinite intelligence rules this wonderful cosmos. The purposive way in which the universe is organized betrays, if it be anything at all, the working of a Mind which understands.
16.26.1.1207Listen
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