THINKING AND DESTINY

Harold W. Percival

CHAPTER XII

THE POINT OR CIRCLE

Section 1

Creation of a thought. Method of thinking by building within a point. Human thinking. Thinking done by Intelligences. Thinking which does not create thoughts, or destiny.

THE point is the infinitesimally small circle; the circle is the point fully expressed. The point is no thing; the circle is everything. The point is the unmanifested; the circle is the unmanifested and the manifested.

A point is the beginning of everything. It is the beginning of a perception by the senses, of a feeling, of a desire, of thinking and of a thought. Where thinking ends, knowledge begins, in a point. When a thought is issued it is issued as a point. A point is the departure from the unmanifested and is the beginning of manifestation. Within a point is the unmanifested. A point is an opening from the unmanifested into the manifested. A point has no existence, but it is that from which existence comes. A point has no dimension, but it is that from which dimensions come.

A circle is completion and completeness. It is the one, the whole, the all, the all in one. The circle is made up of twelve parts and is one through all of them. It is the perfect extension of the point. The extension is made by point, by line, by angle, by surface and by completing curve.

The physical universe with its chemical elements, colors of the sunrise, sounds, waters and solid bodies, is built up of phenomena, the realities behind which are points and the lines, angles, surfaces and curves which are built from them. This universe is so built out because it follows the structures within the thoughts, of which it is the exteriorization. Thinking builds within a point by point, by line, by angle, by surface and by curve, until the structure in the thought is completed. After the thought is issued, elementals, nature units, obeying the structural lines within the thought, build them out. On the intelligent-side the doer builds within a point and on the nature-side elementals follow the pattern and build it from the point.

The principle of extending the point towards the circle has three applications that relate to the law of thought. The first application relates to the creation of the thought, the aim, object, design and structure in it, and the thinking of the ones that do the thinking. According to this principle thinking works from the intelligent-side with nature-matter and thereby ripens into a thought. Then the thought is exteriorized on the nature-side according to this principle, (Fig. IV-A). Lastly, all nature-matter has to act according to this principle, because the units which produce the phenomena of nature must first have been in human bodies where they were affected by the thinking as they passed through.

Thinking works by the method of point, line, angle, surface and completing curve. Thinking begins with a point because the Conscious Light when turned on matter acts thus. When Light is directed upon nature-matter the matter is developed or built from points into lines, angles, surfaces and completing curves.

The object perceived is perceived as a surface. On the physical plane, when the four senses perceive an object, it is seen in the radiant state as a point, heard in the airy state as a line, tasted in the fluid state as an angle and smelled in the solid state as a surface. Every object is perceived by means of coordinated acting of the four senses. The sense through which the object is immediately perceived is the dominant one. In the case of coal gas smelled in the dark, sight, hearing and taste act coordinately with smelling, which is however the dominant sense. The dominant sense takes the lead in introducing the object for perception to the feeling of the doer in the body. So a carriage is perceived by the sense of sight acting as the dominant sense, while hearing, tasting and smelling act coordinately. By the sense an impression is made on the breath-form. The breath-form, as the physical breath, resolves the surface to a point which is matter of the physical plane of the physical world.

The point represents the whole surface as which the outside object is perceived. The breath-form transfers the point to feeling. Feeling is inclined towards or averted from the impression. Accordingly the passive side of the psychic breath breathes the point to desire and desire wants the carriage and does not want the coal gas. A special desire, the one affected by the point, breathes to rightness and impresses it with the thing desired or disliked. The impression which was received in the point of physical matter and then transferred into the psychic atmosphere, is now transferred to the mental atmosphere. This impression is still a point of matter of the physical plane. Desire then compels action by the desire-mind to turn Light of the Intelligence on that desire. The Light turned on the desire unites with it. This is the conception of a thought. Now begins the process of building within the point which is within the thought. The thought is on the intelligent-side, and the point within it, which is nature-matter, is on the nature-side. The conception will be developed through gestation when the amount of Light turned and held steadily on the point by the thinking is sufficient. The desire and the Light become the thought, which is always on the intelligent-side, and the point becomes the structure within the thought; this structure is of nature-matter and will remain on the nature-side.

The Light that is held by thinking enters the point. Holding the Light extends a line of points within the point. That line is the horizontal or matter or the manifestation line. The point is thus extended within itself by the addition of other points. They are points of nature-matter, from the life plane of the physical world, with which the mental atmosphere is in contact through the physical breath. In each case there is a limit to which the horizontal line can be extended. The limit of the extension is determined by the nature of the thought that is being created. When the horizontal line has reached its limit it is stopped by the completing curve.

Then, as the Light is held, the initial point extends a line within itself. This line, called the aim line, is extended within the point beside, so to speak, and along the horizontal line, at an angle from it. The horizontal line, of which there is only one in each thought, is extended by the addition of points; it is made up of point matter; it is not a line but it is points. The aim line is built, not by point matter but by line matter from the life plane of the physical world. Each successive line is built at a greater angle from the matter line. So thinking builds lines within the point until they fill a standard angle, an angle of one-twelfth of the circle. The aim line extends until it comes to the completing curve. Then, while the Light is being held by thinking, line matter builds the next line and stops at the completing curve. The completing curve thus is the limit of the standard angle. The first standard angle is made up of line matter. The second standard angle is built while thinking continues to focus and hold Light, and it is built of angle matter of the life plane of the physical world. When the second standard angle, limited by the curve, is complete and the Light is held on the initial point, a further angle is built within the point. It is built of surface matter. The whole structure within the point is now three standard angles covering together ninety degrees. It is a right angle or square bounded by one-fourth of the circle.

By this process of building within the point towards the circle, human thinking, in the heart and the brain, makes a thought for issuance. When point matter, line matter, angle matter and surface matter are gathered into this structure within a thought, the thought is ready for issuance, (Fig. IV-A).

Thinking which creates a thought is the functioning of the body-mind by its producing and arranging of points, lines, angles and surfaces, and by its holding Light on a subject of thought. Real thinking is the proper functioning of one or more of the three minds in holding the Light of the Intelligence steadily on a subject of the thinking. Human thinking, even at its best and when it is active thinking, is an imperfect functioning of not more than these three minds, and is only the effort to focus the Light and hold it on a subject of thought. By far the greater part of human thinking is passive and is due to impressions received from objects of the four senses. Such thinking is done involuntarily and is an insufficient, incoordinate and unbalanced functioning of usually only one, the body-mind, and never more than three minds, that is, the body-mind, the feeling-mind and the desire-mind. Thinking that does not create a thought is a thinking where the mind works according to rightness and free from the control of desire for attachment for the thing thought of.

In all instances where any definite thing is to be done, thinking goes on by the method of point, line, angle, surface and completing curve. This is the process of human thinking. But it is not the process of the thinking that does not create a thought. Desire urges it, but the minds do not mix desire with Light of the Intelligence. The minds work on the subject of thought without being attached to it. In such thinking the desire is not attached to the object which is the subject of thought. Nor is it for self-interest. It must be a desire to serve, to learn, to know, to free the doer.

In human thinking the combining of points, lines, angles and surfaces into the structure is uneven, unequal, disproportionate, irregular and overlapping and so the structure is malformed, though it is approximately a fourth of a circle. This is due to focusing improperly, to holding the Light by spasms and not steadily, and to the untrained and unskilled working of the mind. Moreover, the mind is not free from the domination of desire, but is compelled, held back and obstructed by innumerable conflicting desires. Nevertheless, thinking goes on and results in the building up of thoughts, because the Light of the Intelligence, when turned on the point, which is the subject of thought, develops it from points into lines, angles and surfaces limited by completing curves.

When the structure within the thought is thus built and the thought is ready for issue, the balancing factor comprises the manifested and the unmanifested parts of the thought, that is, the whole circle of which the structure in the thought is only one-fourth or ninety degrees. The balancing factor being both center and circumference, is also the point.

The balancing factor is conscience. Conscience, which is the amount of knowledge on a given subject, puts its mark upon the subject of thought, the point of nature-matter brought in by the senses. This mark is made by conscience from selfness and is impressed on the point at the moment when desire compels thinking. Knowledge is of the knower, is the unmanifested side of the thought, and will be the unmanifested side of the structure in the thought.

The point is the center and the circumference between which all lines and angles are equal. When the thought is issued, the structure in it is only an angle of ninety degrees; when the thought is balanced, the structure will be a straight angle, or one hundred and eighty degrees, (Fig. IV-A).

This is an ideal, a potential state, and making that actual and real is balancing the thought. The balancing factor extends through every point, line, angle and surface of the structure in the thought. The structure when the thought is exteriorized is of three standard angles, and the balancing factor compels further exteriorizations until three other standard angles are added, so that the structure in the balanced thought is a straight line or angle of one hundred and eighty degrees. Then the manifested side of the thought and its unmanifested side make the circle of three hundred and sixty degrees, which is the balancing factor and again the point fully expressed.

The aim as a line has two points, one connecting it with the object which is usually in the visible world, the other being the balancing factor itself. The aim reaches away from the balancing factor, but it is as if the balancing factor said: You cannot get away. Your center point is myself.

The generation or the entertainment of a thought and its issuance may be aided, accelerated and strengthened, or may be impeded, delayed and weakened. The subject of thought is a point, the point brought in by one or all four senses. Thinking, with point matter from the life plane of the physical world, builds this point into a line of points, and with line matter from that plane continues the aim line until the first standard angle is built, then builds with angle matter from the same plane the second standard angle, and with surface matter from this plane the third standard angle or surface. By building this structure within the point, which is in the thought, the thought is made ready for issuance.

All this takes place with lightning speed. By thinking with the same aim of the same subject, the same or some of the same lines and angles are worked over by the mind and so the structure is strengthened.

If before the thought is issued the aim is changed, the structure in the thought will be changed. The thinking breaks down and replaces parts of the line, angle and surface structure. The units which are broken down go back into the life plane of the physical world. The substituted parts may not be fitted to the general intent of what remains of the original structure. The thought is then weak. If the aim is contrary to the original aim, the whole structure will be undone and the thought will be revoked.

Generally the aim remains, because it is the result of desire and of a lack of knowledge. Aims mark the degrees of the understanding and indicate the amount of knowledge accessible to the present human being of the doer. Aim is a name for a condition of a doer portion expressed in the mental atmosphere as part of a thought. Thus aims, being doer conditions, are not easily changed.

Fear, anticipated failure, lack of confidence or other inhibitions may be present to influence the thinking, but the aim remains. Whenever an impression which is in accord with the aim is made on feeling, the structure in the thought is strengthened, and the structure ultimately becomes so strong that no inhibitions can stop it from becoming surface matter and being exteriorized.

Unless the feeling of an impression is somewhat in accord with the aim, there is no temptation to build out a thought. If there is any temptation it indicates the presence of the aim. Thoughts with the same aim will come back to be entertained. Because the aim is there, thoughts will be worked over by the same kind of line and angle matter until there is an exteriorization.

In the structure in the thought the aim is a line, beginning at the center and pointing towards the object. To attain the object, the aim, that is, the line, is built out into a design, that is, into the standard angle, with angle matter. Upon the aim depend the means to the end. The means are the design. The angle matter depends upon the line matter. The surface matter depends upon the angle matter. The design tends towards exteriorization and so the surface is built on three standard angles with surface matter until the structure within the point is complete and the thought is ready to be issued.

The point in the structure is the subject of thought which is the condensed impression of the object of the senses. The matter line, which is made of points, of point matter or fire units, is the beginning of the manifestation of the thought; the aim line represents the aim and is line matter or air units; the angle is the design and is made of angle matter or water units; and the surface, made of earth units, represents the exteriorization of the design. When the design is exteriorized from surface matter into an act, object or event, the balancing factor becomes actual and drives towards a balance of the thought. Its range and field of action is the physical universe.

When a thought becomes a surface on the physical plane and it is only a quarter of a circle, it is not balanced. The balancing factor is not satisfied until the structure is completed so as to have three more standard angles and be an angle of one hundred and eighty degrees. When the manifested is equal to the unmanifested and the structure in the thought is resolved into the initial point and disappears, the thought ceases to exist and the desire and the Light in it are released.

When a thought is not balanced at the first exteriorization, the second right angle is not built out. The structure in the first right angle remains until the second or balancing angle is built out. The initial point has been exteriorized in the act, object or event, by the design, but the whole thought has not been exteriorized. From the act, object or event the senses take in another impression which becomes a point, is carried through feeling and desire to reason, where thinking builds from that point for another exteriorization. As the structure in the thought remains, thinking holds the Light of the Intelligence on it. This causes matter from the life plane to go over the structure to revivify and possibly to change it. The same aim and aim line are there, but the design or angle matter may be different.

At first the design followed the aim; now it may vary from it. Formerly the man was conscious of his design; now he may not be, and usually is not, conscious of it, because the design is not necessarily the same. Thinking makes it now as before. But before, it acted under the impulse of a known desire, now it acts under the impulse of a different desire, which is influenced by the balancing factor as conscience. The new design which is being built out may be exteriorized to the man in an anticipated or unanticipated event, happy or dreaded. His former actions return to him as events and as conditions under which he lives. The events and conditions through which he lives are just as much exteriorizations of his aim as was the first exteriorization. But he does not know or even suspect it. It may be and it usually is the fact that his thinking fails to build out an aim line and design angle that will build out the missing quarter circle. So the exteriorizations go on until the matter line becomes a straight angle or an angle of one hundred and eighty degrees. When feeling and desire are satisfied, that is, when they are no longer attached to a thing if it is pleasant, or repelled by it if it is unpleasant, and when rightness and reason are satisfied with this unattachment of feeling and desire, three more angles are added to the structure in the thought. When these three are completed the balancing factor is satisfied. This relates to the structure within the thought.

Human beings cannot now think without creating thoughts. Though their passive thinking does not create thoughts, it eventually compels active thinking, which creates thoughts, and these are not balanced.

Thinking that does not create thoughts and thinking that creates balanced thoughts is the kind of thinking done by Intelligences and complete Triune Selves in governing the visible world, and in arranging the sequence and the coincidence of the events in it. While such thinking deals with objects of the physical world, these are not the primary objects of their desires. Their desire is for regulating, for a continuance and sequence of exteriorizations of human thoughts under the laws of nature, so that the exteriorizations will tend to satisfy the balancing factor and be events from which the human beings can learn to become conscious as doers. The Intelligences through their Triune Selves do not think with minds such as the doer uses. They think with their seven faculties to bring about an adjustment of mundane affairs in time, form and solid matter. They are detached from the acts, objects and events upon which they shed Light and which they cause to be brought about.

Usually the Intelligences and Triune Selves think without producing thoughts. Their thinking is the ordering of nature, through their doers or through upper elementals which cause the four kinds of lower elementals and their four classes of units to bring about the changes of the world and in human affairs. This thinking of the Intelligences with their Triune Selves arranges fate or destiny. It aids or impedes human thinking and the exteriorization of human thoughts, if this is required for the protection of humanity, by helping in the timely and preventing the untimely discovery or use of natural forces; by aiding or defeating the perpetration of plots, crimes, uprisings and revolutions; by causing the little events upon which depend the winning or losing of battles and wars; by aiding in or preventing the finding of historical records; by bringing on or retarding periods of general darkness or enlightenment, local or general crop failures and depressions or abundance, and cataclysmal destruction of the earth crust. Generally they do not interfere with thinking, but through their Triune Selves they cause only the exteriorizations of human thoughts to be marshalled. They may interfere where individual thinkers would produce unseasonable events, or where the indifference of the masses or the corruption of officials would stifle a movement for real progress. Hence come some of the “accidents” of which history is full.

The Intelligences sometimes create a thought. They do this through their Triune Selves when they want to create something in the physical world, so as to assist human beings in their progress. They then order the lower elementals directly, without calling upon the upper elementals. The object created may be anything from veins in the earth or from the changing of the course of a river to the founding of an institution of learning. These, however, are not thoughts for themselves, and their thoughts differ vastly from human thoughts in that the preceding thinking is done with understanding and accuracy. Such a thought does not go through a slow and laborious gestation. It is created and issued instantly. Elementals may build it out according to the slow processes of nature or instantly by an immediate precipitation, when it is spoken into being. In these thoughts the aim is unerring, the exteriorization is sure and the balancing factor is satisfied at once. The thoughts of Intelligences resemble human thoughts in that they, too, build from a point, by lines, angles and surfaces.

The Intelligences order the elementals by thinking or by thoughts according to geometrical figures which elementals have to obey. Such figures are points, lines, angles and surfaces related to certain points of the circle, which are related to the places, things and events to be connected with the exteriorization. Such figures are few, but with them are produced complicated events, as with the four strings of a violin can be produced innumerable melodies, discords and harmonies. The Intelligences think of the points, lines, angles and surfaces, and then matter of the world, plane and state with which the thinking is connected, forms itself ultimately into the act, object or event. Sometimes the thinking is done through a human being who, however, does not know of the figure he is making and of its consequences, though he must be a willing instrument.

Such a figure affects elementals by means of the matter of which the figure is made. Matter, units, and elementals are almost synonymous terms, used to indicate different phases of the thing. The matter or elementals of which the figure is made acts on other matter or elementals by a compelling power coming from the form of the figure, and organizing them into the work to be done. The figure has in it point, line, angle and surface matter, that is, different kinds of elementals, units, which can act on similar matter in the mass of the elements.

Human thoughts that are to be exteriorized are drawn into the figure and fit themselves to it. Not all thoughts are ready to be exteriorized at all times. It is by the knowledge of the Triune Selves that thoughts which can be exteriorized are selected. Elementals print on the breath-form a copy of the points, lines, angles and surfaces of the thoughts selected for exteriorization. Sometimes thoughts are exteriorized to prepare a political, religious or physical condition in the world under which the doers of generations yet unborn will live when embodied. The fact that the world has been going on uninterruptedly is the best evidence of the knowledge of these Intelligences and of their Triune Selves.

The figures thought by the Triune Selves only guide the exteriorizations. The figures make designs in which many thoughts are blended into one and thereby they are exteriorized as one. The human thoughts in the figure are the power that compels elementals to exteriorize it. They are the power that acts through the form of the figure on the elementals in the mass of the element. When the thoughts are exteriorized in acts, objects or events, the persons whose thoughts are involved will invariably be at the juncture of time, condition and place, brought there in an orderly, natural manner. In obedience to lines of the figures, which are also copied on the breath-forms of the persons affected and transferred into brain and nerve cells built in by the breath-forms, elementals make certain impressions through the senses. These produce incentive to action or inaction, which will result in an action by or a happening to the person, a part of whose thought is thereby exteriorized.

Another kind of thinking is done by the Great Triune Self of the worlds and by the beings of the form, life and light worlds. They do not think with faculties nor do they think in the manner of human beings. The thinking of the Great Triune Self of the worlds is at once feeling, thinking and knowing. This thinking is used to coordinate the embodied portions of all the doers on earth. It is done on the principle of the point, line, angle, surface and circle. The beings of the form, life and light worlds work with individuals or sets of humans, under the direction of the Intelligences. Their thinking usually is done from knowing, not from feeling, and it proceeds on the principle of all thinking, which is the extension of the point to the circle.

While it is now usually impossible for human beings to keep on thinking without creating thoughts, they must all learn to do so eventually. The thinking that frees is a thinking which does not by attachment create angles and surfaces. Men must learn to think without conceiving a thought about the things of nature on which they think. The conceiving of a thought binds them to the object from which the thought was conceived. This object is a point in the conception and is developed into a structure within the thought. Thinking without conceiving a thought proceeds also by the method of point, line, angle and surface, but the structure developed by the thinking is not in a thought because there is no thought. It is in nature and acts at once in nature by starting elementals, if the thinking is on the nature-side, that is, is on a subject of nature. If it is on the intelligent-side, on a subject of the Triune Self or the Intelligence, no structure is developed, other than one of angles and lines leading to a point; the matter is not nature-matter; it is matter of the Triune Self. The terms angles and lines are metaphorical, abstract. When the abstract point is reached it is a point of Light and with that at once a circle. This is thinking on the Triune Self or the Intelligence without creating anything from the thinking. But the result is illumination on the subject of the thinking and consequent knowledge.

The second application of the principle of the point working towards the circle may be seen in the development by which a thought, once it is issued, becomes exteriorized.

A human thought is issued from the frontal sinuses, on the light plane of the light world, but goes directly to the life plane of the light world. Within the thought is, at that stage, the point of matter of the physical plane of the physical world. It is the same point which the breath-form received from the four senses, passed on to feeling, which gave it to desire, where thinking developed a structure within the point by holding Light of the Intelligence on it. The point is still only a point within the thought, but has within it an approximate, not a perfect, structure made up of the three standard angles of point matter, line matter, angle matter and surface matter. This matter is from the life plane of the physical world. The thought itself has no structure. It is psychic matter and mental matter, matter of the Triune Self. The force or active side of the thought comes from the embodied portion of the doer, drives the thought on and attracts to it nature-matter so that the point within the thought develops from itself outward into a surface, whereas it formerly had developed within itself.

The point attracts a point to itself to which other points attach themselves. This makes the horizontal or matter line of points; it is points, not a line. The matter extends until a certain limit is reached which is preconditioned by the point. Then a line is extended from the initial point, beside and along the matter line. This is a line, the aim line, and it is extended to a limit. The limit is a curve, the completing curve. The aim line makes with the matter line, an angle. It moves gradually away from the matter line and other lines take its place until a standard angle of thirty degrees is reached by the aim line and is built out from the horizontal line. The horizontal line is built with point matter, the first standard angle is built with line matter. Then another standard angle is built into the first from the point, with angle matter. The angle matter is increased until the second standard angle is completed. It is limited by the completing curve. To the second standard angle the third is added by the compacting of surface matter. There are now developed from the point outward three standard angles, making a figure of one-fourth of a circle, (Fig. IV-A).

The horizontal line, made up of point matter, is in the fiery state, the aim line made up of line matter is in the airy state, the angle made of angle matter is in the fluid state, and the surface, made up of surface matter, is in the solid state of the life plane of the light world. Thus a point of matter of the physical plane of the physical world, having within it a structure of matter of the life plane of the physical world, by virtue of the power of desire and the Light of the Intelligence, compels matter on the life plane of the light world to build out the structure of the figure which is in the point.

When the point has become a surface on the life plane, the surface builds from its lowest point, which is ninety degrees from the horizontal line, another and similar structure. The surface builds from its lowest point by point matter, line matter, angle matter and surface matter, a surface in the solid state of the form plane of the light world. And that surface builds from its lowest point, by a similar structure, a surface on the physical plane of the light world.

That surface builds from its lowest point, by a similar structure, a surface on the life plane of the life world. So surface after surface is built from the lowest point of the preceding surface until the structure is built through the form plane and the physical plane of the life world and through the life, form and physical planes of the form world and through the life, form and physical planes of the physical world.

On the form plane of the physical world the structure is a surface in the solid state of matter of that plane. When the structure in the thought is developed outward to this extent the thought waits there until it can be exteriorized into an act, an object or an event on the physical plane.

This description of the structure is like a physician’s prescription, an architect’s plan, a chemist’s formula; but if anyone can feel it, understand it, he will see from it the relation of the different states of matter on the planes and in the worlds and how they are connected, blended, linked, geared and work with each other. Point matter is present throughout every line, line matter is through every angle, angle matter is in every surface, and surface matter is on every solid.

The structure in the thought is exteriorized from the lowest point of the form plane. It starts radiant matter to build out toward the circle. It does this in the brain of the one through whom the thought will be exteriorized. The point becomes a surface of radiant matter in the brain. From a point in that is built a surface of airy matter which is breathing. From a point in that a surface of fluid matter, that is, of blood in circulation, is produced. From a point in that surface is produced the act, object or event through the action of the physical body.

Every act that is done, every event that happens, every object that is produced by human effort is called forth in this manner. In this way a thought is built outwardly in conformity with the structure which is in it. Thoughts clothe themselves with matter according to the pattern of the structure in them.

Thinking begins at a point, because the Light of the Intelligence goes in or goes out from a point. When thinking directs the Light to a point the Light opens the point inward or outward. It opens the point inward when the thinking is directed towards the higher planes of nature or towards the Triune Self. But human thinking is directed outwardly, towards the physical plane. The purpose of the thinking is outside and so it builds first within a point by point, line, angle, surface and completing curve, and then elementals give existence to thinking when they body it forth into nature, by building out from the point.