The Washington herald., 1914-05-31

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4 WANT ADS
Reason may sometimes challenge the Or
lders OF the Will but II f1nds itself com,
tpeIled to Yield, and there 8 In the WI
isome strange energy welIing out from tne
livery founf OF being which enthrones II
"A monarch over the realm OF mind Later
jborn, II vet ASSERTS its pre-eminence. and
All elee bows down under its sceptre
! Bur being yet in it's childhood. 1t shows
1 but little Of its true majesty; only we can
Irecoxnixe in 1t the spontaneity OF the
Parent VIII. the viii that rules the
worlds- ~
r renetrates Iife's Center.
II re betake ourselves to Interrogation,
4 the will 10 the faculty which most resista
our snaiysis. We cannot reach its root;
which seems to pierce deeply into our
llife,s center. 1t appears to arise IN
treKion veilsd from our waking conscious-
ness; to call all else TO account but 20
render account to none. We see that II
Ii moving in chains, yet sense Aeneetn
those chains living energy; the chaiqs
are not the generation OF that living
lforce;s the, determining causes are not tne
generator of the will.
So far. then. we see In VIII the direct
live energy which ,afises above or beyond
the mind rather than IN. H.: appearing Al
Ia late stage of human evolution. and be-
Ping in its. essence Identical with that ma
| 3estic divine and seif-moved win which
guides TIE universe.
So far We find ourselves coming to the
tconclusion that the Will. In its essential
nature, is free, being. an offshoot in each
man Of the universal will How then has
| ii come to be bound, and how are its
chains forged? To these Questions rein
icarnation and karma supply the answer.
| It is not necessary here to deal with
lreincarnation In its details. 1t will suf-
fioe US to regard man as an evolving tn
dividual. in whose .Iife-career births and
deaths are recurring incidents. Birth is
not the beginning Of a life. nor is death
its ending; birth and death begin and
end only single chapter in the life
story; the story runs through many chap
tiers and the plot is continuous through
out. As a man lives through q day, falls
asleep for a night and wakes again the
next morning for a day. so does the
evolving Individual experience again the
morning of birth and the night-time OF
death, remaining the same continuing life,
passing in unbroken continuity, through
births and deaths.
Night Pays No Debts.
If today incur a debt. and sleep un-
conscious of it, my debt faces me in the
morning of my awakening. 1t is not
cancelled by the passing of the night.
Many days may pass, and the remem-
brance of the debt may fade away from
my mind. but the day of reckoning ar
rives, and the creditor presents himself
for payment. his claim being rendered
none the less valid for my lapse Of mem
DRY. Such debts are contracted by each
evolving individual. and they are rigidly
collected when the payment falls due.
Inexorable destiny Is at our door, and we
cannot evade his claims. When we come
to consider these debts of the past we
find that we come into the world with
the greater part of our destiny already
fixed. We are born with a mentality and a
desire-nature that have been built by US
In the past. formed by the activities of the
same individual who must inhabit his
own past building in the present Our
character. our powers and our limitations.
our faculties and our deficiencies, our
virtues and our vices, these are the most
potent factors in our destiny. and they
the whole Of our present life.
The same kind of life cannot be led by
a man of narrow intelligence and vicious
born in a miserable envir-
onment, and by a man of broad intelli-
gence and virtuous inclinations, born
amid the happiest surroundings Each Is
compelled by necessity; the same output
cannot fairly be demanded from each,
nor can the one be blamed for being ut-
terly inferior to the other. Necessity i'm
poses lines of thinking, lines of acting,
a nd the dayal0ninr will ie hor -
these at every turn. We area compelled
by our past, by our thinkings and long
ings and desires in the lives that lie be-
hind US, and only a very small part Of
our present is fashioned by our present
will. Just as We may make a habit and
that habit become a compelling force SO
that We follow ii unconsciously and have
to exert much energy to change II, so
are We pushed into thoughts and actions
by the habits we have formed in the
past and brought with us into our present
We call this heritage Of the past our
karma, and ii is the determining force
In our lives. I think in certain ways,
because I have made a habit Of thus
act in certain ways because
my thoughts have dug the channel along
which my energies run. On every side
necessity compels me. my will moves IN
self-forged chains.
Where Is Freedom.
Where then is freedom? Within the
limits of these self-drawn obligations the
captive will moves wearily; but still IL is
The living force, with its power Of spon-
taneity, OF initiative. He who made the |
present in his past is still here in the |
midst Of his makings. no puppet, but a |
living soul; he can change and modify |
that which of yore he formed: he can file |
the chains which he riveted on himself |
ong ago. The products of past thoughts
are there, but he is still the thinker, and |
even within the narrowest OF limits he |
an stif1 work. and widen, and modify.
and break. The evolving God is there, |
albeit encased in the web woven by ig-
1orance; he is still in the center and |
here is free, while constrained without |
'y the results Of past follies and mis-
axes. just in proportion as he grows. |
Ind by effort breaks his chains. will his |
reedom extend until at last his past is |
'utworn and he reaches divine liberty.
In ourselves. as in external nature, |
of law means power 10 |
'chieve. The ignorant man is driven |
iither and thither by the laws Of nature.
/ helpless piece of drift-wood on the |
'tream of life. But the learned man, sub
ect to the same laws, exercises his Sc |
ective power. balances one against an /
'ther and obtains his chosen object: he |
works by fixed laws. but he throws his
lie force with the law forces that helm |
lis purpose. and neutralizes those that 1
intagonize him by the activity of other
,nerg1es, In every part of nature we Iiye !