The idea that there is a universal genesis of spirit through matter (the idea, in other words, of a spiritual power of matter) arises from that vast experience of mankind which, in the course of a century, has given a completely new picture of the world: the discovery of universal time and evolution.
Through all the channels of thought and experience there entered into us the consciousness that the ‘universe around us’ was still functioning as a vast reservoir of vital potentialities. It used to be believed that matter was wither stabilized or spent; and it was found to be inexhaustibly rich in new psychological energies. It used to be thought that nothing essential was still left to be discovered; and now we realize that everything is still waiting to be found.
Once we have properly understood and, most important of all, have known by experience, the meaning of the words ‘spiritual power of matter’, the first thing we see is the disappearance, in an initial phase, of the classic distinction between holiness of body and holiness of spirit. Material creation no longer stretches between man and God like a fog or a barrier. It develops like an elevating, enriching ambience; and it is important not to try to escape from this or release oneself from it, but to accept its reality and make our way through it.
There are no sacred or profane things, no pure or impure: there is only a good direction and a bad direction—the direction of ascent, of amplifying unity, of greatest spiritual effort; and the direction of descent, of constricting egoism, of materializing enjoyment.
I am suspicious of a doctrine which compares our heart to a glass of water which is emptied when shared.
Purity is often pictured to us as a fragile crystal which will tarnish or be shattered if it is not protected from rough handling and the light. In fact, it is more like the flame which assimilates everything and brings it up to the standard of its own incandescence. ‘Omnia munda mundis’, ‘To the pure all things are pure.’
The depths we attribute to matter are no more than the reflection of the peaks of spirit.
No force, and no idea, has ever been conquered by repression—to do so you have to harness it.
Regard the world as a movement of universal convergence, within which the plurality of matter is consummated in spirit.
What paralyses life is lack of faith and lack of audacity. The difficulty lies not in solving problems but in expressing them. And so we cannot avoid this conclusion: it is biologically evident that to gain control of passion and so make it serve spirit must be a condition of progress.
The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.