Step Two:
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Came to believe that the conscious power within myself, and my intelligent use of that power, is the very thing that could restore me to wholeness.
The conscious power within myself is one (in essence and in nature) with the Infinite Power of Spirit; all transformation in my life results from the depth to which I can consciously access my own power, understanding it to be the Infinite Power of Spirit in individual expression. There is no power outside of my own consciousness (or of some nature other than my own consciousness) that can actuate a change in my life and restore me to wholeness—for my own consciousness is the perfect wholeness I seek.
‘Restoring me to wholeness’ means coming to live a life where every part of my nature is present; where both my true human qualities, and my conscious self, are present. Such a life becomes a true expression and embodiment of my own nature, and a life where my true qualities—such as love, joy, fullness, freedom, beauty, etc.—are fully experienced as true, human expressions of my infinite, one-with-Spirit nature.
Came to believe that my life could be restored (and made whole) through conscious inner work, intelligent use of my creative power, and abidance in my presence.
Discussion 1:
Spirit and Creation
Spirit is always creating; thus, being one with Spirit, the individual is always expressing this self-same creative power. Thus, every thought and feeling a person has is creative—and directs Spirit to bring something correlative to this thought into manifestation. Doing nothing, or avoiding any kind of participation (where a person leaves everything to be as it is), does not thwart one’s creative power—which is taking place continually through the individual’s consciousness—it merely transfers the creative process to the individual’s subconscious mind (and out of his conscious control). Then, without any conscious or intelligent intervention, putting into place a new cause, the past (and one’s old beliefs and concepts) simply repeat themselves and perpetuate one’s conditions. One thing to know about the subconscious mind is that it can only repeat existing patterns and perpetuate the past. It cannot create anything new. It cannot bring about new development or transformation for the individual. Only the individual’s conscious intervention in the creative process can create a new order for himself—and this intervention, to be truly creative, must be in accord with Spirit; it must always allow room for Spirit, and the unimaginable, to enter.
The Individual has the Power to direct Spirit
Spirit is the Creative and Manifesting Power; the individual, being of the same nature as Spirit, is able to direct that Creative Power in accordance with his own consciousness. Spirit is always, and fully, manifesting that which is in accord with a person’s consciousness. Thus, whatever a person holds to be true in his heart is brought into manifestation by Spirit; the Creative Power, being infinitely reception, cannot not manifest in accordance with the consciousness and directive of the individual.
You, as an individual, are one with Spirit but you are not Infinite Spirit—you are Spirit in individual manifestation (just as a ray of the sun is one, in all respects, with the sun but not the sun itself). Your creative function, as an individual is to direct Spirit (through your own consciousness); it is Spirit’s function (which it carries out with perfection) to manifest whatever you direct into creation—limited only in that your creation is harmonized with all other individual creations. Spirit allows you to create whatever your will; it puts no limitations on you; it is dedicated to manifesting, for you, whatever you conceive. Thus you are in creative partnership with Spirit. The Infinite Power of Spirit is yours to direct and use in whichever way you chose, in whichever way you can conceive. (And remember, Spirit moves to bring everything you think and feel into manifestation. This includes both your conscious and subconscious thoughts. For virtually everyone, the subconscious is more deeply conditioned, and less amenable to change, and, for the most part, it determines a person’s conditions. However, a person, through the constant direction of his conscious mind, has the power to alter his underlying thoughts and bring about a higher conditioning to the subconscious mind—a conditioning in line with his highest ideals and aspirations (and not based upon the old limitations).
Doing Nothing
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 afforded to the standards set by mass-conditioning. 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 mass-level standard and denies his own place in the cosmic order (which is to help direct creation in accord with what he wants, with his highest 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 power he has been given. He puts his progress, and his fate, out of his own hands and makes himself subject to the generic movement of nature.
Power
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, nor the sheer exertion of one’s personal will, but a natural repose and alignment with Spirit. At the beginning a person may strive to reach this level of repose (like trying to get his boat into a river) but once the repose 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 he need not generate the power himself.
Transformation comes through the Positive
The intelligent use of your own power is founded upon the principle that all transformation takes place through the positive or the affirmative. All advancement and growth takes place through the power of Life (and not death). All upliftment takes place through the power of love (and not hate or fear). All illumination takes place through the realization of one’s oneness with Infinite Spirit.
Creative Actuality of Thought
One of the great axioms in the new order of ideas, of which I have spoken [in 1909], is that our Thought possesses creative power . . .
But if our thought possesses this creative power, why are we hampered by adverse conditions? The answer is, because hitherto we have used our power invertedly. We have taken the starting point of our thought from external facts and consequently created a repetition of facts of a similar nature, and so long as we do this we must needs go on perpetuating the old circle of limitation. And, owing to the sensitiveness of the subconscious mind to suggestion we are subject to a very powerful negative influence from those who are unacquainted with affirmative principles, and thus race-beliefs and the thought-currents of our more immediate environment tend to consolidate our own inverted thinking. It is therefore not surprising that the creative power of our thought, thus used in a wrong direction, has produced the limitations of which we complain. The remedy, then, is by reversing our method of thinking, and instead of taking external facts as our starting point, taking the inherent nature of mental power as our starting point.
Thus the great creative work of Thought in each of us is to make us consciously “sons and daughters of the Almighty,” realizing that by our divine origin we can never be really separated from the Parent Mind which is continually seeking expression through us, and that any apparent separation is due to our own misconception of the true nature of the inherent relation between the Universal and the Individual.
(Troward, Doré Lectures, Chapter 6)
The leading ideas connected with New Thought are that a human being [through the conscious use of his own creative power of thought] is able to control [or determine] circumstances instead of being controlled by them. And, in light of this truth, that whatever teaches us to rely upon power borrowed [or obtained] from a source outside ourselves is not New Thought. Whatever explains to us the Infinite source of our own inherent power and, thus, the limitless nature of that power is New Thought.
(Troward, The Hidden Power, p. 214)
Ourselves
We cannot think into manifestation a different sort of life to that which we realize in ourselves [i.e., a life that feels natural to us, a life that feels like our own]. As Horace says, Nemo dat quod non habet, we cannot give what we have not got. And, on the other hand, we can never cease creating forms of some sort by our mental activity, thinking life into them.
Therefore, think [and feel] Life, illumination, harmony, prosperity, happiness—think [and feel] these qualities [in their pure, universal state] rather than [how they manifest, or] this or that condition of them. And then, by the sure operation of the Universal Law, these things will form themselves into the shapes best suited to your particular case; they will enter your life as active, living forces, which will never depart from you because you know them to be part and parcel [integral qualities] of your own being.
(Troward, The Hidden Power, p. 64, 66)
In [conceiving of and] forming the individual human being the Creative Principle, therefore, must have produced a perfect work; and our conception of ourselves as imperfect can only be the result of our own ignorance of what we really are. Our advance [or spiritual development], therefore, does not consist in having something new added to us [or in obtaining something outside ourselves, which we do not now possess] but in learning to bring into action those powers which already exist in us. We have never tried to use (and, therefore, have not developed) our own power simply because we have always taken it for granted that we are, by nature, defective [and limited] and that the power which is our own [and integral to our own being] resides somewhere else, in some entity outside ourselves.
If we wish to attain to this great power, the question is, where are we to seek it? And the answer is, in ourselves. That is the great secret. We must not go outside ourselves to look for power. As soon as we do so we find, not power, but weakness. To seek strength from any outside source is to make an affirmation of our weakness [and lack of power], and we all know what the eventual result of such an affirmation must be.
(Troward, The Hidden Power, p. 75-76)
