THE MASTERY OF BEING. William Walker Atkinson
constitutes Mastery.
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In this book you are invited to pursue the inquiry in detail, both in the examination and investigation of the Axioms of REALITY, the consideration of the Nature of REALITY, the Process of Manifestation, and the Facts of Immanence, Identity, and Mastery.
THE MEANING OF TERMS.
Before proceeding to the Axioms of REALITY the student is asked and advised to acquaint himself or herself with the definition of the principal terms employed in our inquiry. It is impossible for one to intelligently study the Axioms unless he or she be fully acquainted with and informed regarding the terms employed. A term is a peg upon which a thought is suspended. The association of each thought with its own particular term is needed in order that one may reason clearly. The clear and correct understanding of terms is the first requisite of logical thought and reasoning. Therefore, we say to the student: Master the definitions before you proceed further, and then as you proceed frequently refer to them.
FUNDAMENTAL DEFINITIONS.
ULTIMATE: Extreme, final; incapable of further analysis, division, separation, resolution, refinement, purification, or simplification.
INFINITE: Without limits, bounds, or measurements; ultimate capacity and possibility of expression and manifestation in time, space, quantity, quality, and variety.
ETERNAL: Without beginning or ending of existence; always existing; existence without intermission; ceaseless; constant; everlasting; perpetual.
PRINCIPLE: The source or origin from which anything proceeds; ultimate element or essence; the original inherent essence of a thing, and its final and ultimate essential nature.
ESSENCE: That which is the very and actual nature of anything.
NATURE: The inherent and essential "thingness" of the being of anything.
SUBSTANCE: That which underlies all outward manifestations; that which constitutes anything what it is; real and existing essence, nature, or being; that which constitutes the Thing-in-Itself, as distinguished from its appearances or outward manifestations.
Chapter III.
Axioms of Reality
YOU ARE now invited to acquaint yourselves with the Axioms of REALITY. An axiom is a self-evident and necessary truth—a proposition based on reason, which it is necessary to take for granted in subsequent thought; or a proposition which is so evident that when presented to the reasoning mind it requires no further demonstration but commends itself at once to the acceptance of everyone capable of thinking.
The science of logic, like that of higher mathematics, is based upon axioms. An axiom, being based upon the general and invariable report of reason of the race, is not subjected to the demand for repeated proof upon each occasion of its frequent employment as a basis for demonstration and argument. To dispute the evidence of the axioms of rational thought is akin to disputing the validity of human thought itself. In the latter case, however, even the validity of the disputation would be attacked at the same time that the axiom was attacked, for the disputation itself is a manifestation of human thought. The axioms hold ever, unless we deny the validity of reason.
In the Axioms of REALITY herein given will be found the fundamental and elementary reports of the reason regarding the Ultimate Principle of REALITY, which we have stated as the subject of our inquiry. These axioms should be carefully studied, considered, and committed to memory. They will be found to furnish an infallible touchstone with which to test the soundness of any philosophical or metaphysical doctrine, dogma, or teaching. They are the report of the highest philosophical thought of the ages directed to the subject. They represent the essence of the thought of the illumined of the race upon the subject of REALITY. With the Axioms of REALITY the student has at hand the master key with which to open the many doors of the temple of knowledge. Rightly used they will disclose the Truth-of-Truths.
We beg of the student to tarry awhile with the axioms, to dwell with them awhile before passing on. The mind that is saturated with the Truth embodied in the axioms cannot go far astray on the path of philosophical knowledge. They will serve as a constant series of infallible guideposts, pointing ever to the Truth. Do not pass them by as dull, dry, tedious, or technical, for in them you will find all the interest that is imaginable. In their few words is to be found the essence of all philosophy and metaphysics. Make them your own, treat them well, and in the hour of mental stress and trial they will be found by your side, whispering the word of Truth in your ear, clearing away all doubts, and brushing aside all conflicting and contradictory arguments. Hold fast to the axioms,—this is our first and last advice to the student,—hold fast to the axioms!
AXIOM OF ACTUAL EXISTENCE.
First Axiom of REALITY: REALITY is existent in truth, in verity, and in fact as the essence, nature, substance, and principle of All-that-is.
This axiom announces the actual existence of REALITY; not the imaginary existence, but the real, veritable, truthful, and in-fact existence; not the temporary or temporal shadow of existence, but the fixed, unalterable, eternal existence, which alone constitutes Real existence; not the existence of the fleeting form, but the existence of the eternal essence. This actual existence is the "REALITY" of philosophy. Only that which exists and remains unchanged, invariable, and permanent may be said to be REALITY in the strict philosophical sense of the term.
On every side, and in everything, we perceive the manifestation of constant change of form, shape, and activity; everlasting and ever-manifest transmutation of substance from one phase to another; impermanence in everything; nothing stable; nothing constant; nothing persisting; everything in constant motion; everything in a state of flux; everything flowing on like a river, never the same for two consecutive moments; everything the ever-changing particles of a huge cosmic flame; nothing permanently "being"; everything constantly "becoming" or passing from one state to another; action and reaction; cycles and rhythms; the beginningless and endless sequence of events; the constant operation of cause and effect; the Law of Change ever modifying and altering the shape, form, activity, state, and condition of everything, even from the very moment of its creation or birth.
BEING'S CEASELESS TIDE.
We are constantly aware of the chameleon-like nature and character of what Gautama the Buddha called
"Being's ceaseless tide,
Which, ever-changing, runs, linked like a river
By ripples following ripples, fast or slow,—
The same, yet not the same,—from far-off fountain
To where its waters flow
"Into the seas. These, steaming to the sun,
Give the lost wavelets back in cloudy fleece
To trickle down the hills and glide again,
Having no pause or peace.
"This is enough to know, the phantasms are;
The Heavens, Earths, Worlds, and changes changing them
A mighty whirling wheel of strife and stress
Which none can stay or stem."
THE QUEST FOR PRINCIPLE.
Turning in despair from this contemplation, thinking men and women have sought for a fundamental principle of REALITY underlying, supporting, and sustaining the universe of finite, transitory, changing shapes, forms, activities, states, and conditions,—that "unconditioned and absolute ground for all that exists conditionally," which Plato asserted to be the real subject-matter of the inquiry of philosophy.
The wise have ever refused to accept the changing, impermanent, phenomenal universe as the ultimate verity, truth, and fact of REALITY. They have always insisted upon looking behind and under the world of manifestation for the essence which they believed must lie back of it; for the infinite essence underlying the finite; for