Chapter 14 - All in One

THE world -- yes, even the universe, is dovetailed together in every direction and detail. The essential interrelation of all things is mainly a recent inspiration. Throughout the ages, only an occasional soul of unusually clear perception has discovered this great truth which is now fundamental in the New Thought. Pope was such a one, as shown by his familiar lines :-- "Not chaos-like together crush'd and bruis'd, But as the world, harmoniously confus'd, Where order in variety we see, And where, though all things differ, all agree.''

The negative conditions which so widely prevail in our consciousness, and which almost enslave, are mostly due to our failure to observe a universal, mutual relationship. To see things in their completeness they must be studied as a whole as well as in detail. The New Thought emphasizes wholeness in its widest definition. The prevailing view has been only partial, so that things have been disconnected. Incompleteness produces a condition of soul hunger. Life has been incomplete, health has been incomplete, religion, ethics, and sociology have been incomplete. But more disastrous than all else -- to the false sense of the world -- God has been incomplete.

Admitting that manifestation in all directions is but partial, it is of·the greatest importance that our ideal of things should be fully rounded. The sense of a potential completeness and perfection has a wonderful healing and transforming power upon our shattered view of ourselves and surroundings, which always comes through our sense-consciousness. It is as though we were looking into a broken or warped mirror.

Perhaps no other modern seer has emphasized the full-orbed vision so strongly as Emerson. In his brief but graphic poem, "Each and All," the vital breath of harmony and oneness sweeps through like a spicy breeze from over a field of wild flowers and fragrant shrubs. The two closing lines which form its climax interpret the prevailing tone, -- "Beauty through my senses stole; I yielded myself to a perfect whole."

And again, this modern prophet in his wonderful essay on "Compensation," elaborates the same inspired truth in a form which will render it evermore a classic. If one occasionally is overcome by a very partial view of life, or, in common parlance, gets "a fit of the blues," nothing can be more remedial than a perusal of this prose poem. A deep draught of such clear and wholesome optimism is a balm that no one can afford to miss. It amounts to a veritable "treatment."

The law of mutuality is written everywhere. The trunk, branch, twig, leaf, and blossom of a tree are not connected more nearly than are people, things, and events. Each member of the human body works unceasingly, more for its neighbor than itself. Nothing in mind or matter need be lonely unless it live with closed eyes.

Even the omnipresent, divine life and presence has been made incomplete through tradition and literalism, and God practically has been divided. There has been another power, almost His equal, warring against Him, and to prevailing consciousness the outcome often has seemed uncertain.

One life courses through all veins, and its unitary rhythmic energy throbs even to all extremes and ultimates. All through the ages, nature and Spirit not only have been severed, but rated as unfriendly. The perverted human consciousness is now in a process of rectification, and the natural and spiritual are being blended and unified. There is but one.

The sense of separateness gives rise to ever present difference and diversity. It is diversity in diversity, and not diversity in unity. Instead of opening its vision upon a fundamental oneness, the body politic is severed into fragments, and, each thinks its interest opposed to all the others.

One will persuade himself that he believes in co-operation, but his definition of the term is limited to his own nation, state, sect, union, profession, trade, or family. He fences his good off from the general good, and his rise would be promoted by another's fall. That all are factors in a larger unit, and all dependent and inter-dependent, is a lesson not easily learned.

For the lack of the sense of a larger organic connection, the world struggles and suffers. Each one views his own life as a thing by itself, and thus he closes himself to the influx of the Universal. Like a little pool left in some hollow by the high tide, he thus stagnates and loses vitality. His idea of God is hardly more complete than that of himself, only built upon a more colossal scale. He lives in a state of chronic leanness. His health, wealth, power, knowledge -- everything, is not only incomplete in manifestation, but in ideal.

One may look through and beyond superficial appearances upon the Eternal Wholeness. It has been said that God is the centre everywhere, and that circumference is nowhere. So long as man believes in different centres of gravity, he is rent by their opposing forces.

The essence of the New Thought is found not only in the good of all things but in their oneness. Polar opposites only complement each other: it takes light and darkness to make a complete day, and action and reaction unite to form active accomplishment. Supply and demand meet and satisfy each other and become one.

Every surplus breeds a deficiency, and every lack fruits in excess. The Moral Order is a gigantic pair of balances where every man is weighed, and his value will not remain forever in question.

We must have a larger ideal of the riches of the soul. Universal forces are focused and individuated in man waiting for his appropriation. Brush away superficialities, and each soul is a miniature of the "Oversoul." It has been said that "the greatest study of mankind is man," and it is true, if his divinity be included.

"The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation." Looking beneath the surging waves of the ocean of life we explore the deeps, and behold, "a great calm." As the morning sun dispels the fogs and shadows of night, so the larger consciousness of truth will dissolve the negations of evil. From the standpoint of the Real, the fulness of life is seen bursting all seeming limitations. With the growing sense of completeness, science and religion coalesce, and the natural and supernatural melt into each other in perfect proportion. All in one, and one in all.