XXIV. What is Higher Thought?

The Hidden Power, by Thomas Troward [1921], at sacred-texts.com

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XXIV

WHAT IS HIGHER THOUGHT?

Resolution passed October, 1902, by the Kensington Higher Thought Centre.

"That the Centre stands for the definite teaching of absolute Oneness of Creator and Creation--Cause and Effect--and that nothing which may contradict or be in opposition to the above principles be admitted to the 'Higher Thought' Centre Platform.

"By Oneness of Cause and Effect is meant, that Effect (man) does consist only of what Cause is; but a part (individual personality) is not therefore co-extensive with the whole."

THIS Resolution is of the greatest importance. Once admit that there is any Power outside yourself, however beneficent you may conceive it to be, and you have sown the seed which must sooner or later bear the fruit of "Fear" which is the entire ruin of Life, Love and Liberty. There is no via media. Say we are only reflections, however accurate, of The Life, and in the admission we have given away our Birthright. However small or plausible may be the germ of thought which admits that we are anything less in principle than, The

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[paragraph continues] Life Itself, it must spring up to the ultimate ruin of the Life-Principle itself. We are It itself. The difference is only that between the generic and the specific of the same thing. We must contend earnestly, both within ourselves and outwardly, for the one great foundation and never, now on to all eternity, admit for a single instant any thought which is opposed to this, the Basic Truth of Being.

The leading ideas connected with Higher Thought are (I) That Man controls circumstances, instead of being controlled by them, and (II) as a consequence of the foregoing, that whatever teaches us to rely on power borrowed from a source outside ourselves is not Higher Thought; and that whatever explains to us the Infinite source of our own inherent power and the consequent limitless nature of that power is Higher Thought. This avoids the use of terms which may only puzzle those not accustomed to abstract phraseology, and is substantially the same as the resolution of October, 1902.