How To Live Life And Love It
	Is Desire A Divine Impulse? <  Previous Contents Next  >

MASTER: Is desire a Divine Impulse? One hears this question asked in as many different forms, it seems, as there are humans. So frequently is it propounded and discussed it seems to me that it will be helpful to answer it from Troward's standpoint; after you have studied and meditated upon it from his views you will arrive at your own satisfactory conclusion.

PUPIL: I am glad that you have brought this up for us. I have often wished I knew just what God wanted me to do when I have been undecided about some move, perhaps a momentous decision.

MASTER: The only way anyone can fully understand Life's law of attraction is through seeing what it does under certain given conditions. In a tree it is growth; in an animal it is development; in all of nature it is evolution. From the lowest to the highest forms all growth is prompted by the organized creature pushing forth in its own accomplishment. One can not do otherwise than believe in the law of unfoldment which is the hallowed desire of the All-Originating Life to see ITSELF more and more fully manifested. Since we as humans are branches of the one and only tree of Life this fact is also true of us.

PUPIL: May I ask a question, please?

MASTER: Certainly, any time.

PUPIL: Do you mean that all growth is a result of a DESIRE for self-expression, that all evolution is within the great Creative Mind?

MASTER: Just so; and each of us is a direct result of that desire. Therefore we should learn to TRUST OUR DESIRES! There is but the ONE GREAT DESIRE and practically all of our individual desires are reflections of that one. Man's desire, his REAL desire, is for GOOD. No rational person would desire anything else for himself or another.

PUPIL: But many philosophies teach that we must conquer, must overcome, must rise above all desire in order to be perfected. How do you answer this?

MASTER: I stand fast in what has already been said herein. I hold fast to the firm conviction that our desires ARE DIVINE IMPULSES which stimulate us to GROWTH and CONSTANT DEVELOPMENT. Without desires we should be mere automatons, should have no wish to progress and grow. It is impossible for one to crush out all desires without RUINING self, spirituality, physically, morally and mentally. The desires, the longings, we have are STIMULI, are URGES for EXPRESSION, from the holy citadel of God within ourselves!

PUPIL: Is it true then that if we would draw into us any particular benefit we have only to impress the desire for it firmly upon the subconscious phase of mind and hold it unwaveringly? Should we do this just as an impression of sound is made upon a phonograph disk before being reproduced? Should we do this knowing that said desire is instantly transmitted into the One Great Creative Energy which is always responsive, and that is sure to be manifested in our own physical world?

MASTER: That is just what I mean. Let me give you another illustration. I know a very fine and very wise lady in Los Angles who after returning from marketing found that she had misplaced her car keys; and she had an urgent appointment awaiting her downtown within a little while. She had taken her groceries from the car into the kitchen. After looking around for the keys in every place that she could logically think of she had still failed to find them. So she told herself (her subconscious phase of mind); "I want those car keys. I must have them. Now where are they? YOU KNOW!" Almost immediately she had the desire to empty the bag of potatoes into the kitchen sink. But she ridiculed that idea, and repeated her desire to find the keys. She did this two or three times, meanwhile keeping up her search for the keys; and every time she received back the feeling that she should empty the potato-bag. It was her habit to let her maid empty the bags and put the purchases away; and the idea of emptying the potato-bag seemed foolish anyway. But the impulse remained urgently with her although she could not see how her car keys could possibly be in the potato-bag. So she did empty the bag into the sink and almost instantly she heard a metallic sound. She looked and, behold, there were the missing keys!

PUPIL: Her deep desire to find the keys brought her the answer? It seems very simple.

MASTER: And it IS very simple once you know the responsiveness of the law of subjective mind. This lady knew that law.

PUPIL: If she really knew the law why did she not recognize the answer to her desires the very first time she was impressed to empty the potato-bag?

MASTER: The lady to whom I refer is a very highly-educated woman, a keen student of logic. While she truly does believe in the intuitive power of the mind to capture an idea from the Infinite the old race-habit of giving REASON first place had not been entirely uprooted from her consciousness. When intuition told her plainly to empty the bag reason set up an argument and told her that the impulse was foolish. The controversy between reason and intuition continued within her for several minutes. Then because of her study of Truth, and her application of it, she was reminded that INTUITION, and not logic, IS THE TRUE KEY OF LIFE! So she was impelled to do as she was bidden. When she did so her desire had fulfillment as its correlative. Always DESIRE and FULFILLMENT are bound together as CAUSE and EFFECT through the universal law of attraction!

PUPIL: It still seems to me that a true student of Truth should have thoughts, feelings and desires so trained in the right direction that logic could not go wrong in its conclusions.

MASTER: One does not change life-long habits of reasoning overnight. Like everything else, complete change is a matter of growth. The fact that she did obey the still small voice within, and that thus was her problem solved, are all that really mattered. In time this lady, like all of us, will learn to instantly recognize the voice of intuition when it speaks and will no longer question, nor reason, will ONLY OBEY. When we all reach that point, as we can and shall through faithful study and practice, there will be NO PROBLEM IN ALL OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE THAT WILL FAIL TO YIELD ITS ANSWER! There is a lot of truth in the old saying: "Take care of the heart and the head will take care of itself."

PUPIL: But is not the road to the attainment of true wisdom a long, hard one?

MASTER: It is long alright, being Infinite in scope; but it is NOT hard. It is like the story of the two men who are walking to Rome. One asked the other why he had chosen a road that was so full of stones. His companion replied that he had not been aware of any stones in the road, and suggested that they sit down by the roadside and take off their shoes. This they did; and the one who had been complaining found a PEBBLE IN HIS SHOE. But there was nothing wrong with the road itself.

PUPIL: The road is then what each one makes of it for himself? Is that your idea?

MASTER: That is right. The broad highway of Truth is in fact, to me at least, the most interesting road in all of life. It takes times and interesting, happy effort to establish an unbroken consciousness of the PERFECT RECIPROCAL ACTION between the desire for expression as it exists in the Creative Energy and in the individual mind. It is true that by RIGHTLY ESTABLISHING our relation to the Great Parent Mind we can gradually grow into any condition that we may desire, provided of course that we first make of ourselves, through our habitual mental attitude, the PERSON WHO CORRESPONDS to those conditions. One can never get away from the Law of Correspondences. This SCIENCE of Correspondence, or of CAUSE and EFFECT, is as infallible as is mathematics; and as in mathematics its principles must be mastered before one can habitual feel: "My Father and I are ONE!" Yes, our DESIRES are our own IMMORTAL SELVES SEEKING FULLER EXPRESSION; and one may soon prove to the doubting, bewildered self that one CAN ABSOLUTELY TRUST THE DESIRES.

PUPIL: Somehow it is still a little difficult for me to accept the feeling that my desires are Divine impulses, or the Divine Nature Itself seeking expression through me. It seems to me that desire is selfish and often wrong, even bad for one.

MASTER: Did not Jesus say; "Seek and ye shall find!" Just why would anybody seek a thing?

PUPIL: Because he wanted that for which he was seeking.

MASTER: Very good. Are not wants and DESIRES the same? Jesus also said: "ASK believing that you have and ye shall have!" Why would one ask for a thing?

PUPIL: Because he desires it and feels it would be good for him.

MASTER: Correct. Yet again the Master said: "Except ye become as a little child ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." If one desires to grow into the NEW LIFE OF LIBERTY and JOY, indeed one must become as a little child.

PUPIL: And just what did Jesus mean by that?

MASTER: Just what He said. Observe a child, any child, rich or poor. Its very impulse is desire, is to want something. All children are simply one continual incarnation of "gimme" and "want to." Naturally the child's wants are but the forerunner of the man and his wants; and in the adult desires are as natural as in the child.

PUPIL: This desire idea is truly a new one to me. But I like it.

MASTER: You will learn to love and trust your desires as your spiritual understanding expands. Vitality, which is Life, is born of desire, is the child of Love. You will be amazed at the rapid progress you will make once you have really made up your own mind to trust your desires. The more you learn to trust your wants the greater will be your flow of faith.

PUPIL: But must there not be a check somewhere on desires? A sorting of the good and the bad? All desires are not holy, are they?

MASTER: One must be rational, of course. Troward writes in his "Edinburgh Lectures" that "there is nothing wrong with the evidences of a HEALTHY MIND in a HEALTHY BODY." This study presupposes that a sincere student of Truth will not harbor evil desires, that his or her mentality is normal, the behavior normal. This being so the desires of such a one should also be only natural, rational, good; and if this is so then the desires of that one are Divine impulses. Let me suggest that you read the personal letter that Troward wrote to me, an exact copy of which is found in my book, "Attaining Your Desires". Then you will see yet more clearly why you should TRUST YOUR DESIRES, recognizing as you do that DESIRES ARE DIVINE IMPULSES!