Troward’s Teachings In Condensed Form
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1. First of all Judge Troward teaches that there are higher and deeper defini-tions of Spirit and so-called matter. Life’s intelligence and life’s living-ness are one. Spirit’s essential quality is thought, and form is the quality of “matter.”
2. The form we see extends in space, and its borders are of a limited nature. Thought, on the other hand, is not limited by boundaries and is every-where, or to quote Troward, “at every point of space simultaneously.” Spi-rit is thought and equally present everywhere.
3. As we increase our perception and awareness, this higher development controls lesser-developed intelligence.
4. The distinction between Universal Intelligence and individual intelligence concerns the will of the individual. The work of New Thought is to learn to know the relations of our will to the Universal Will.
5. Developing the power of abstract reasoning, we grow to see the truth of the principle of evolution. This is now reaching the higher stage of evolution, which Troward describes as “intelligent, individual evolution.” Up to this time we have evolved unconsciously. Now we become interested and par-ticipate in evolution from this time forward.
6. Though from the standpoint of the five physical senses there seems to be a definite line of separation between things, there is always a fundamental unity. The basic principle of the New Thought is that there is just One Power.
7. It is possible for us to use our intelligence and volition to condense Spirit into any point, anywhere, any time, and individualize or specialize it as we desire.
8. Troward, like Hudson, taught the control of the subjective by the objective mind. Today we would express this modern vocabulary by saying The control of the subconscious mind by the power of the conscious mind. The subjective mind has remarkable psychic powers, telepathy, or thought-reading; clairvoyance, or clear-seeing, independent of time and space.
9. The subjective mind knows infinitely more about the conditions under which disease develops, and can accurately diagnose, and excel the most intelligent and skillful doctors, and reveal the true and perfect remedy.
10. The subjective mind is the chemist and the builder of the body. Because of its amenability to thought patterns, it will manufacture the desired chemistry and build the personality that we learn to impress upon it.
11. Before this knowledge has fully developed in the mind and secured ade-quate realization, wisely selected medicine will serve a good purpose. On the other hand, when we have trained our minds and learned to coordi-nate these spheres of the One Mind, we will have discovered the true fountain of everlasting life. We must think of the mind as such a fountain of perpetual livingness and health.
12. Judge Troward taught that the individual subjective mind (or subcons-cious mind) is our share of the Universal Mind.
13. As Universal Mind, this Cosmic Mind does not, in itself, work on the in-dividual plane, but when we are working for some definite purpose, we are using the power of the Universal Mind to do so.
14. To control conditions, we must learn to control the relative by the Abso-lute.
15. The first step in making any attainment, or securing any good, is to con-struct a spiritual prototype, archetypal idea, or mental equivalent. This, if faithfully practiced, will come into the practical world of visible form and use.
16. These correspondences or prototypes must be good and constructive, for the Law will work out for the manifestation of the undesirable as well as the desirable. Each seed will bring forth “after its kind.”
17. The desirable thoughts of health and healing, or success and prosperity, can be aided by the trained power of imagination and visualization.
18. Judge Troward carefully explained how the Universal Mind does not have a self-recognition of personality in itself, yet must have the quality of personalness, or we could not be centers of personal intelligence. He made a distinction between personality and individuality.
19. “The Infinite, Underlying, All-producing Mind is ready immediately to respond to all who realize their true relation to it.” Troward emphasizes the wonderful power of deep, heart-felt feeling.
20. The whole position, summed up, is that we do not want to run the whole Universe, but draw particular results of a happy nature, spiritual, mental, physical, social. In regard to your own individual requirements, face the Universal Subjective Power, and “make up its mind for it.” When its mind is thus made up, it continues to exercise its creative power, and sets to work to carry out the purpose for which you have concentrated it.
21. Carefully distinguish between the Universal First Cause, on the one hand, and secondary causes on the other. The understanding and use of this Power is the whole object of Mental Science. A condition, whether posi-tive or negative, is never primary cause, and the primary cause of any se-ries can never be negative, for negation is the condition which arises from the absence of active causation. It will be seen that all error or inharmony is typified by darkness. You do not have to turn out the darkness. You simply turn on the light, for where there is light, there is no darkness.
22. Secondary causes are mere reflections. Image the desired idea, in the realm of the absolute, and you can cheerfully await the desired results.
23. As Spirit operates independently of space and time, the work cannot be formed in the future. It must be accomplished here and now.
24. There should be no fearful, anxious thought about the conditions to be re-placed with the desirable. You must work, but take no anxious thought. “We must not fly in the face of the Law by expecting it to do for us what it can only do through us; and we must therefore use our intelligence with the knowledge that it is acting as the instrument of a greater intel-ligence . . . Anxiety and ‘toilsome labor’ will be replaced by states that are a permanent source of all that is good.”
25. Intuitive power, by which we perceive Truth, is the right path to travel in. For this, we have to be trained in the right way. It is very important to have a real understanding of intuition and to distinguish real intuition from groundless fears and distorted imagination. Before the conscious or objective mind starts to argue or object, the mind is like the waters of a still lake. With fear, the image is blurred as when a stone is thrown into the lake.
26. The basic principle of all New Thought, and mental and spiritual healing, is a change of belief—from falsity to faith in Truth. “The wrong belief which externalizes as sickness is the belief that some secondary cause, which is really only a condition, is a primary cause.”
27. The healer tells the patient to take a receptive attitude. The healer also re-laxes, but for the purpose of “flowing out”: and the patient relaxes to permit a “flowing in.”
28. Realize the importance of the will. While imagination is of a creative na-ture, the will does the work of keeping it to a given path or center. The will guides your faculty of imagination rightly.
29. The power of concentration is not a strenuous proceeding. The law of force is not to be used. “From this standpoint we see that all is Life, and all is Good. Nature is one vast storehouse of Life and Good entirely de-voted to our individual use. We have the key to all her treasures. . . . Realizing this, we shall draw from it streams of vital energy which will make the very sensation of livingness a joy.”
30. To get into a state of attunement with the Universal Mind, we should think of ourselves as pure Being. We are spiritual beings in a spiritual universe, here and now. We are expressions of the Infinite Mind, sons of God. We must make a proper identification of ourselves.
31. The conscious mind reasons by all methods of reasoning, but not always correctly. The subconscious reasons deductively only, and its deductions are perfect. That is, they are true to the major premise laid down by the conscious mind.
32. The master teacher, Jesus, has given rules which, rightly interpreted and applied, solve all our problems, whether they are business, health, love, marriage, or abilities.
33. The old Elizabethan poet says, “The soul is form and doth the body make.” The body must be included in complete integration. Only so can we have wholeness of personality.
34. The evolution of the individual wholly depends on the Universal Mind working on the plane of the individual. The Supreme All-originating Spi-rit is essentially creative, in the Eternal Now. The Life Spirit seeks ex-pression of its perfect and everlasting livingness. Beauty is eternally in the Divine Mind. We are here to give it expression.
35. “Principle is not bound by precedent.” The future is in no way limited by the past and the present. The multitudes know that certain good things are utterly impossible, but fortunately someone is always born who does not know they are impossible, so this one goes ahead and does them.
36. There is always a new order in which things can be arranged. This is fa-miliar to us, but what is now known is that the Personal Factor can be in-troduced. We can always make something better. Our manifest life is a process of becoming, and we can move on to new excellence.
37. “We have now got at some reason why concrete material form is a neces-sity of the Creative Process. Without it the perfect Self-recognition of Spirit from the individual standpoint, which we shall presently find is the means by which the Creative Process is to be carried forward, would be impossible. . . . Here we find the initial polarity of Universal Spirit and Universal Substance, each being the complementary of the other. . . . Spirit supplies Selection and Motion. Substance supplies something from which selection can be made and to which Motion can be imparted, so it is a sine qua non for the Expression of Spirit.”
38. “Spirit wants to enjoy the reality of its own life—not merely to vegetate. This Spirit does by Self-contemplation. . . . Thinking of itself as having the enjoyment it wishes gives it Reality.” When we contemplate the Spi-rit doing this, we have more and more joy in our lives. Think of the All-originating mind as the Great Artist creating through us.
39. Let your mind dwell on the relationship between the Universal Manifest-ing Principle and its individual manifestation. This is the essence of the matter. We may contemplate Spirit and re-orient ourselves in true crea-tive fashion. The Creative Power is the Spirit of the Affirmative. The Di-vine Ideal is that of individuality which recognizes its Source. We are to become channels of its inexhaustible supply of life, love, wisdom, joy, youth, and beauty.
40. We should not be so interested in transferring ourselves to other planets. There is infinitely more life and goodness in this planet than anyone has ever discovered. Understanding this, old age can be prevented, even cured. Life can be made perpetual.
41. Unless we get the good results, we have introduced interferences by our thought. We have brought in the negative element of wrong thinking.
42. “Spirit creates by Self-contemplation; therefore, what it contemplates it-self as being, that it becomes. You are individualized Spirit: therefore, what you contemplate as the Law of your being becomes the Law of your being. Hence contemplate a law of death,” and you die. . . . “Con-template a Law of Life as inherent in the very Being of the Spirit. . . . [and you are] building up a healthier and happier personality in mind, body, and circumstances.” Express this by Initiative and Selection. There s an eternal principle, as active as ever. It is available now. Like God, we must express the pure Affirmative Spirit.
43. We are to evolve from the necessary race thought to individually prac-ticed initiative. Race thought would let us become ill, grow aged, and die. We must saturate ourselves with the Spirit and really, truly live.
44. When we are open to the Spirit, vivifying thoughts, ideas, and feelings will flow in.
45. There will be eternal progress through more highly developed form of expression in man. People read and interpret the Bible imperfectly and imagine it teaches inevitable death. This arises through careless reading. “These are good, well-meaning people with a limited idea which they read into the Bible. Man possesses a joyous and immortal Life-perm-eating spirit, soul, and body.” Life is a gay adventure and God is on our side!
46. Regeneration can be accomplished here and now. We are to keep a free, full circulation between us and God. Creation is produced by the action of Divine will upon Nature. “Death will sometime cease to be for the simple reason that Life alone can be the enduring principle.” True wor-ship is communion with the Supreme Life of the Universe. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” We, too, must learn to say it, and mean it.
47. The Divine Power is the “I am.” This is the Word which we read of in the Gospel of St. John which is also the Light. “And the Word was with God and was God.” “The Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” The light (the Word) that was with God and was God is our di-vine light.
48. Knowing, then, that the Divine Word within us is God Himself, we will speak our words with divine authority, knowing that these words are conceived and spoken by the God in us. “Life and Death are in the power of the tongue.”
49. Although the Law is Immutable, and we cannot change it, we can intro-duce the personal factor. By changing our word, we can change our rela-tionship to the Law. “The Law itself never changes, but we can special-ize it by realizing the principle involved.” “The Law cannot be changed, and the Word can.”
50. From the Law and the Word we should secure: (1) Freedom frGranted that these two conditions be fulfilled, I think we should all be well pleased to go on living ad infinitum.
51. The way to fulfill these two conditions is to use the Word with confi-dence, constructiveness, and in perfect harmony. Be sure it is the right word in harmony with the principle of Unity. This will give freedom from anxiety. Then if we always have a succession of new ideals, we will have a continual interest in life. New vision is new life.
52. The promises of the Bible comprise all sorts of desirable things: health of body, peace of mind, earthly prosperity, prolongation of life, and finally even the conquest of death itself; but always on one condition: perfect confidence in the power of the All-originating Spirit in response to our reliance on the Word.” There must be true quality of faith.
53. “We must always bear in mind that the Law is set in motion by the Word. The Word does not make the Law, but it gives it something to work on.” This is true of the negative as well as the positive, so we have the power of choice.
54. “Death and taxes” are typical expressions of the race mind, but it is not true that they are inevitable, certainly not in the eternal plan of things.
55. “How can I know that I am not speaking my own Word instead of that of the Creative Spirit? The Word of the Spirit is always based on the idea of Becoming. The word of the smaller personality is always based on the idea of possessing. ... If we base our speaking of the Word on the Prom-ise of Spirit, we may be sure that we are on the right track.”
56. The true interpretation of the Bible is within us. The True Word will make us free, the quality of that freedom being the “Liberty of the Sons and Daughters of God.
57. “The great Truth concerning Man is that he is the image and likeness of God. Man is at first ignorant of this Truth, and this ignorance is his Fall. Man at last comes to the perfect knowledge of this Truth, and this know-ledge is his Rising-again, and these principles will expand until they bring us to the Life that is in us all.”
58. Distinguish between the personal name of Jesus and the Christ. The Chr-ist is within all men. The word Man means the Measurer. Consciousness is the cup which measures the degree of love, wisdom, joy, power, life, and peace we pour out for ourselves. om worry and anxiety, (2) “Something to look forward to and feel an interest in.”
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Thomas Troward the Teacher and the Man, Chapter 13
Written by Harry Gaze
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