Ad vanced A Monthly Journal of The New Thought, Practical Psychology, Yogi Philosophy, Constructive Occultism, Metaphysical Healing, Etc, WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON, Editor ARTHUR GOULD, Business Manager Vol. II. MAY, 1917 No. 3 CONTENTS Chips from the Old Block . William Walker Atkinson The Perplexity of Arjuna . Ramacharaka . Symbolism in Mystic Expression Carolyn Woodsworth . Mental-Physical Exercise . Frederick Vollrath. Higher Phases of Mind-Reading Theron Q. Dumont . Interpretation of Sensation . William Walker Atkinson Letters and Numbers . Clifford W. Cheasley . The Flight of the Soul .... Arthur Gould .... HEART-TO-HEART TALKS (By the Editor) Into the Open Once More.................. 126 “That Man Shelton”.................. 130 Straightening It Out........................... 134 My Contribution.........................134 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (Conducted by the Editor) Several Points of Distinction............. 135 Auto-Suggestion ........................137 Mysticism vs. Practicalism ................ 137 Coaxing the Subconscious..........139 Stay On Your Own Plane.................... 140 An Interesting Report................ 141 “R aym ond” .....................................................142 “Love” ..........................................144 Course of Reading................................ 144 The Cardinal Sin....................... 145 Mutual Help........................... 145 The Wounded Heart.................. 145 Fetich Words ................. 147 Genius ..........................................148 MISCELLANY, QUOTATIONS, ETC. The Creative Spirit.............................. 112 The Eternal Flame..................... 122 New Thought in the Trenches......... 149 Statement of Ownership........... 149 Subscription Rates, Etc, Single Copies, Ten Cents. Yearly Subscription (12 issues) 31.10 (In United States, Alaska, Cuba, Porto Rieo, Mexico, Hawaii aad Phillipinei) In Canada, 31.35 a year. Jn Foreign Countries, 31.50 a year (Copyright 1917, by Advanced Thought Publishing Co.) Entered as Second-clasi matter, July 17, 1916, at the poatoflce at Chi­ cago, Illinois, under the Act ef March f, 1879. Address all Subscriptions, or other communications to Advanced Thought Publishing Co, 166 N. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois Paiile-|$gimt of tfye JtepoMfc By Julia Ward Howe Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on. I have seen him in the watch-fires o£ a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel: “As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal”; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on. v He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God goes marching on. ADVANCED THOUGHT if/1' A Monthly Journal of The New Thought, Practical Psychology, Yogi Philosophy, Constructive Occultism, Metaphysical Healing, Etc. WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON. Editor Vol. II. MAY, 1017 No. 3 Chips From the Old Block By William Walker Atkinson You do not need to “join” anything in order to receive and manifest the truths of New Thought. New Thought does not need to be “organized” or “institutionalized” in order to be made effective. On the material plane of life, organization is often very desirable, for it affords that co-operation and team-work which is necessary in order to accom­ plish the desired work or task. It would be folly to deny the advantage of organization for such work, on that plane. But on the spiritual plane of life organization is not necessary—in fact, it is contrary to true spirituality. When it is attempted on this plane of life, it always results in crystallization, petrification, atrophy and spiritual death. Organized and institutionalized spirituality always degenerates into materiality, formalism, and loss of its original essence and substance. You cannot organize Spirit. You cannot institutionalize Spirit. Spirit, to remain Spirit must be free and unrestricted. You can organize only separated things, by making an aggregate, collection, or crowd of them.* Spirit, being ONE, cannot be built into a crowd, a collection, an aggregate. You cannot put a fence around Spirit. For Spirit is All-There-IS in Truth, and you cannot separate it into “inside the fence” and “outside the fence.” Imagine putting a fence around the Infinite! Imagine defining the Infinite! Imagine embodying the Infinite in a Creed! New Thought consists in the recognition, realization of the Divine Pres­ ence-Power within yourself, and its manifestation in effective activity in your World of Experience. That’s the Whole Thing of New Thought in a nut-shell. You do not have to have a Creed in order to express this Truth. You do not have to have an Organization or an Institution in order to demonstrate this Truth. k ^ Leave the Organization and the Institution to Old Thought—let New Thought remain true to its original intuition of Individualism, if it would live. Churchify New Thought—Creedify New Thought—and you KILL New Thought! \ i 1 The Perplexity of Arjuna Yogi Ramacharaka I have received through the publishers of this magazine a number of letters from their subscribers asking me to give them the teachings of the Yogi Philosophy regarding the question of War. They seem to wish to know what is their duty in case their nation is involved in war: whether to obey the call of duty, or else to refuse to participate in what they believe to be a mighty evil. In this article I shall attempt to briefly give to them what seems to me to be the spirit of the Yogi Philosophy concerning this question. In the first place, I would say that the advanced Yogis look upon War as a horrifying incident of undeveloped understanding and con­ sciousness. They believe that the race will some day look back with wonder and horror upon such things which will then have been passed and left behind in the progress of evolution. But, nevertheless, they see clearly that, until the sheath of the lower and undeveloped life has been entirely discarded, the individual of the race must face conditions as they now exist, rather than to seek to evade them by vain denial. And, in the meantime, they hold that it is the Dharma, or Duty, of the individual to perform his part in the community, and the nation, ac­ cording to the best in him. If the Path of Duty leads to War—then to War he should go: if to the Grave, then even there he must go. But wheresoever he may go, let him go with the right understanding. In that wonderful portion of the great Hindu epic known as the i i Mahabharata”—th8 episode known as the 1 ‘ Bhaguvad Gita we find this very question considered; and we find it answered in a way that is as true today as it was when it was written many centuries ago. I feel that I can answer the inquiries, above referred to, in no better way than by*giving a brief outline of that portion of the Dialogue of Arjuna and Krishna which deals with the particular question before so many today. The scene of the epic is laid in ancient India, in that portion of the land known as “the Plain of the Kurus.” A great civil war has be­ gun between the two rival factions or clans—the Kurus and the Pandus. Arjuna, one of the five Pandu royal princes, was present at the battle, his war-chariot being driven by Krishna, the humble incarnation of the Divine Being, whose real identity was at first unknown to Arjuna. The fight begins, and the air is thick with the flying arrows. Arjuna bids Krishna, his charioteer, to drive him to a position where he may witness the sight of the two contending armies facing each other. From this position he surveys the two opposing armies. He THE PERPLEXITY OF ARJUNA 103 becomes sick with horror at the sight of his blood-relatives and friends opposing each other in cruel civil war. He sees loved ones on each side, seeking to shed each other’s blood. He is overcome with emo­ tion, and throws down his weapons, declaring that he, himself, would better perish without defending himself, rather than to be the cause of the death of any of his kinsmen or friends on the other side of the fray. Krishna, the charioteer, then advises and 1 instructs Arjuna regarding his Dharma, or Duty. Arjuna, overcome with gloom, pity, and sadness, turned sorrow­ fully to Krishna, who stood by his side in the chariot, saying: * * 0, Krishna, now that I behold the faces and forms of my kindred and loved ones, thus arrayed against each other and chafing for the fight, my heart fails me. I am overcome with confusion and inde­ cision. I desire not the glory of victory; such things seem undesir­ able to me when obtained through the life and blood of my kinsmen. Tutors; sons and fathers; grandsires and grandsons; uncles and nephews; cousins; kindred all; and friends, comrades, and com­ panions stand before me, inviting my arrows. Even though these may desire to kill me; nay, may actually destroy me; still do I wish not to slay them. Were I to kill these, my kinsmen, remorse would be my companion and indweller. It is no excuse for us, who see these things as we do, to say that these others have minds so depraved and bloodthirsty that they can see no evil in the shedding of the blood of their kinsmen and friends.