Transcendentalism : Part 1

Freedom Talks No. II
by Julia Seton, M.D.

(Page 3 of 13)

Transcendentalism is today the one subject which is demanding the greatest attention. The race mind is beginning to think in words of transcendental language rather than in the old law of science and philosophy, and all the light of modern investigation centres round the one who declares himself a transcendentalist.

We may say that a man is a scientist, a philosopher or a materialist, and the world will know at once what we mean, but if we say that he is a transcendentalist we leave an open doorway for investigation; there is something yet to be learned about him, something that no one knows about but himself.

Anyone can easily define a scientist, a philosopher and a psychologist, but they halt in more or less indecision when they are asked to define a transcendentalist, and it is only when we understand that a transcendentalist is one who has extended his normal consciousness into relationship with the deeper laws of the universe, so that he uses naturally these laws and is perfectly familiar and at home in states of consciousness which the rest of the world call supernatural, and with which they are entirely unfamiliar, that we can come to a true definition of the transcendentalist.

Transcendentalism has been a part of race unfolding since time began, and will continue to be throughout all race evolution.

In the old civilization we studied the transcendentalist and transcendentalism from an entirely different view-point than we do today.

Transcendentalism is a state of consciousness and man evolves into it out of the natural states of his own mind. No one is to blame that he is, or is not, a transcendentalist. He becomes one not alone because he wills to become, but also because he is one with the divine law of creation and the God-consciousness within him pushes him on through one state of unfoldment to another.

There are two expressions of universal and finite mind, one is the objective, the revealed, the apparent, and one is the subjective, the concealed, the absolute.

The objective side of mind belongs to the surface consciousness of man, and is in itself a distinct state of existence, it is bounded on every side by its own laws, and commands its own obedience. The subjective side of life belongs to the inner side of mind and is also a distinct state of existence bounded by itself and the laws of its own kingdom, and without a deep knowledge of universal law, man has little power of connecting these two strong zones of consciousness.

Studying life in the light of our modern understanding, we find that man passes by natural law through the objective, the surface zone, then on to the subjective or inner zone, and then to a centralized position between both zones where he lives, moves and has being in both zones, uniting the laws of the two kingdoms into a new zone of consciousness, then using the laws of both, he passes at will to the very edge of matter, and back to the very center of the cosmic mind; standing here in life's master position, he is lord of both zones. This middle zone of power and mastery is the path of the modern transcendentalist, and the one who walks it and lives in unification with its laws is the modern transcendentalist of the new civilization. It has been written -

"For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat" because

"Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads unto Life."

We know today that this is true, for on the broad path of the objective life man must pass through the law of change which destroys, that it may create again and through which he is crowded on to seek the narrow path of subjective senses which are built on the law of verities.

Man's first lessons are in the objective zone of mind, and he remains positive in this zone until he masters its laws and the lessons which they bring.

In this objective zone of mind we find the mass man of the old civilization, he is in the broad way of the surface consciousness, and in his midst there dwells the specialized individuals who are approaching the central zones of mind; they are called the scientist, the physicist, the materialist, the agnostic, the mentalist, the reasoner, and the atheist, all true and perfect for their type but all more or less unconscious of the latent states of mind within themselves and the universe to which they must some day respond.

As human consciousness intensifies through use, man finds himself passing on through his surface zones to the concealed states of mind within himself, "the narrow way," and slowly, almost unconsciously at first, he begins manifesting the law of these zones. In these states of mind we find the philosopher, the idealist, the emotionalist, the doctors, the sensitive, the intuitionist, the revelator, the transcendentalist and the seer.

Watching race evolution we see that the day of surface consciousness and its power is waning only as it is controlled and manipulated through the subjective states of man's mind. The hour for subjective research and subjective introspection is at hand, - men have mastered the external world and its laws, and are now following the cosmic urge which is pushing them toward the center and away from the apparent to the absolute laws of life.

The external evolution of form is complete for this hour; men go down into the bowels of the earth, they sail the seas, they mount the air on wings, and the external world has seen "the son of man coming in clouds of glory" and now the eternal man must have his hour, and come in "trailing robes of power and brightness," to pour new revelation through the external world and its laws.

Books, paintings, pictures, science, music have all had their day in external exaltation, and now the attention of man is mounting higher and turning inward; the study of the surface and sub-consciousness has been transferred, and while part of the world's eyes are yet peering through the microscope at the sub-life and plenty are looking at the laws of life around them, the transcendentalist with these truths locked fast in his mind, is turning to the undiscovered states within himself, and is everywhere launching out into the unfathomed states of the supra-mind of man.

Man has evolved like a planet through the stone age of mind and today with the planet in the vibratory zone of water and air he has risen with it into the transcendent states of his own being.