Step Six:
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Was entirely ready to take responsibility for my own transformation and accept my place as a co-creator with Spirit—and never to expect Spirit to do for me what it can only do through me.
I, as an independent creative center of Spirit, have the power to actuate my own transformation, in accord with Spirit. I, as this individual, can create nothing without Spirit, but it is I, through my own consciousness, who has the power to align myself with Spirit, and to direct the infinite power of Spirit in a way that is positive and beneficial for me. It is Spirit who creates everything but I, through the power of my own consciousness (which is one with the consciousness of Spirit) which can (and always does) direct Spirit—and the highest I can wish for or imagine for myself, that is exactly what Spirit most ardently wishes for me.
I know that I am both human and divine; that even though I may open my life to the influx of Infinite Spirit (which is the creative power of the universe) I still must, as a human being, learn, and grow, and take steps to bring about my own personal transformation. I must work with Spirit, co-create the wonder of my own life with Spirit. As such, I cannot have Spirit do for me what it can only do through me.
Discussion 1:
Once you understand the nature of Spirit, and your own creative oneness with Spirit, it then becomes your responsibility to use your own power correctly and in a way that brings benefit to your life. The correct use of your own creative power (or consciousness) is the only thing that can actuate a positive change in your life, restore you to wholeness (meaning that the whole of you, both your psychological integrity and your essential self are present), and bring about a conscious unity with Spirit. There is no divine intervention, no redeeming Power, as such, which can bring about a change in you (unless you allow it). The change which takes place (in your inner and outer world) corresponds to the change you actuate in your own consciousness. Divine intervention is afforded through you, through your own consciousness—through what you are able to allow. The influx of Spirit, of redeeming power, of Grace, is always dispensed in measure to what you allow, with what you are able to accept for yourself.
As an individual, with creative power, you are in the position of choice with respect to how you want to use that power. That power is directed through what you belief, what you hold to be true, what is natural to you, and what you conceive to be possible for yourself.
Power comes in two ways: a) by using one’s own consciousness in accord with Spirit, and b) by remaining open to the influx of Spirit. The first way might be called ‘active-active’ while the second way might be called ‘active-passive.” Both ways requires a conscious movement on the part of the individual. In neither case are we talking about doing nothing (and letting Spirit do everything), nor the sheer exertion of one’s personal will (doing everything by your own human power), but taking steps to align your personal self with Universal Spirit. At the beginning a person may strive to reach this level of alignment (like trying to get one’s boat into a river) but once the river is reached, everything becomes effortless (just as a boat moves along a river). However, one’s presence is always required (as the boat must be steered, even when moving along a river) but we need not generate the boat-moving power ourselves.
Remaining open to Spirit is a dynamic position; it is not mere passivity, or akin to “doing nothing.” If an individual does nothing, if he simply lives his life on a gross level (the way everyone else is living his life—without any conscious awareness of his true self) he will evolve at a slow pace; his growth will come through the necessary yet painful lessons of life. In other words, his “doing nothing” means that he is not consciously working in accord with Spirit, nor gaining any appreciable benefit from his union with Spirit, nor is he participating in his own growth. As such, he will develop slowly and painfully, in accord with the generic growth rate, and afforded t standards, set by the mass-conditioning of his race. He will evolve in accordance with the general evolution of his race, and no faster. In this position of “doing nothing”—where there is no conscious intervention on the part of the individual—the individual effectively gives up his creative power and his power of choice; he accepts the race-level standard and denies his own place in the cosmic order (which is to help direct creation in accord with his highest ideals and aspirations). In sum, by doing nothing, the individual uses his own creative power to stall his own development (and his fullest expression of life) rather than promoting it. He fails to use the creative power he has been given.
Quotes
We must do our share in the work, and not expect God to do for us what He can only do through us. We are to use our common sense and natural faculties in working upon the conditions now present. We must make use of them, as far as they go, but we must not try and go further than the present things require; we must not try to force things, but allow them to grow naturally, knowing that they are doing so under the guidance of the All-Creating Wisdom.
(Thomas Troward, Doré Lectures, Chapter 2)
We often do not sufficiently recognize the truth of Walt Whitman’s pithy saying, “I am not all contained between my hat and my boots,” and forget the two-fold nature of the “I AM,” that it is at once both the manifested and the unmanifested, the universal and the individual. By losing sight of this truth we surround ourselves with [i.e., we unwittingly impose upon ourselves] limitations; we see only part of the self, and then we are surprised that the part fails to accommodate us as would the whole. Conditions arise on which we had not reckoned, and we wonder where they come from; we do not understand that they necessarily arise from that great unity in which we are all included. This [the arising conditions] can be seen as the grand intelligence and livingness of Universal Spirit continually pressing forward to manifest Itself in a glorious humanity. [And when we mistake ourselves to be a part, and do not recognize our whole self (and our oneness with Spirit) then we are not able to recognize this; we become alienated from that which we truly are and the glory of Spirit’s Creation].
This [i.e., the recognition of the fullness of one’s being, and a person’s sense of oneness with Spirit] must be effected by each individual’s recognition of his power to co-operate with the Supreme Principle through an intelligent conception of its purpose and of the natural laws by which that purpose is accomplished—a recognition which can proceed only from the realization that he himself is none other than the same Universal Principle in particular manifestation.
(Troward, The Hidden Power, p. 59)
