June 2017 – “The Birth of the Universe” – The Wisdom of the Overself
The Appendix in the new edition of The Wisdom, published by North Atlantic Books in 2015, includes paras from The Notebooks which specifically refer to material in the text of The Wisdom. The 16Wisdom chapters are listed with relevant paras from The Notebooks in addition to further references designed to enhance study. These paras, written by PB many years later, have a clarity which is evident. The following is an example of one of the writings in the Appendix. The parenthetical references give the volume number of The Notebooks, the Category number, the chapter number, and the para number.
On Chapter Three, “The Birth of the Universe”
Whatever we call it, most people feel—whether vaguely or strongly—that there must be a God and that there must be something which God has in view in letting the universe come into existence. This purpose I call the World Idea, because to me God is the World’s Mind. This is a thrilling conception. It was an ancient revelation which came to the first cultures, the first civilizations, of any importance, as it has come to all the others which have appeared, and it is still coming today to our own. With this knowledge, deeply absorbed and properly applied, man comes into harmonious alignment with his Source. (v.16:26-1-64)
The cosmic order is divine intelligence expressed, equilibrium sought through contrasts and complementaries, the One Base multiplying itself in countless forms, the Supreme will established according to higher laws. The World Mind is hidden deep within our individual minds. The World-Idea begets all our knowledge. Whoever seeks aright finds the sacred stillness inside and the sacred activity in the universe. (v.16: 26-1-220)
The act of creative meditation which brings the universe into being is performed by the World-Mind. We, insofar as we experience the world, are participating in this act unconsciously. It is a thought-world and we are thought-beings. (v.16: 27-3-19)
The individual mind presents the world image to itself through and in its own consciousness. If this were all the truth then it would be quite proper to call the experience a private one. But because the individual mind is rooted in and inseparable from the universal mind, it is only a part of the truth. Man’s world-thought is held within and enclosed by God’s thought. (v.13: 21-3-70)
The ideas in a man’s mind are hidden and secret until he expresses them through actions or as speech, or as the visible creations and productions of his hand, or in behavior generally. Those ideas are neither lost nor destroyed. They are a permanent part of the man’s memory and character and consciousness and sub-consciousness, where they have been recorded as automatically and as durably as a master phonograph disc records music. Just as a wax copy may be burnt but the music will still live on in the master disc, so the cosmos may be annihilated or disintegrate completely but the creative idea of it will still live on in the World Mind. More, in the same way a man’s body may die and disintegrate but the creative idea of him will still live on in the World Mind. It will not die. It’s his real Self, his perfect Self. It is the true Idea of him which is forever calling to be realized. It is the unmanifest image of God in which man is made and which he has yet to bring into manifestation in his everyday consciousness. (v.16:26-4-63)
See also: Category 9 (v.6) “From Birth to Rebirth,” chapter 3; Category 19 (v.13): “The Reign of Relativity,” chapters 1 and 4; Category 26 (v.16): “World Idea;” and Category 27 (v.16): “World Mind,” chapters 2 and 3.